A Washington Nationals prospect at their training academy in the Dominican Republic died of meningitis that was overlooked by the team’s staff, Mother Jones reports.

One more update on Firetruckgate from the Examiner’s Michael Neibauer to end out the week. D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles is now defending the mysterious donation of an older D.C. government firetruck and ambulance to a resort town in the Dominican Republic, saying that the vehicles were properly declared surplus by the Office of Contracting and Procurement and lawfully donated to non-profit Peaceaholics, the group that arranged the donation. Even so, both vehicles have since…

Photo by Ouij When it comes to urban politics, there’s bound to be a scandal here or there. They’re usually pretty predictable, though — corruption, influence-peddling, never paying your taxes even though you’re an elected official, traveling to far-off destinations on foreign money and acting like it’s not something the public should know, etc. But no one seems to have expected the quasi-scandal that’s now gripping the Wilson Building, involving a firetruck and a…

It’s no secret that this Thursday and Friday afternoon thousands of area employees will “run errands,” sneak off to the office TV lounge, or otherwise alt-tab their way through the day as NCAA conference tournament play blesses us all with daytime television that doesn’t suck. March Madness isn’t the only productivity killer available this week, however. The World Baseball Classic, which began last week with Pool A games featuring China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, comes…

One of the joys of Spring Training is supposed to be taking a break from the icy darkness of wherever you’re from to head south and dream of the warm summer nights that must be around the corner if baseball’s begun. This winter, of course, we’ve all been able to keep our tans, and the kids never had to quit their stickballing in the alley, but it’s still pretty exciting to think that it’s nearly…

February’s theater scene brings a month of insomnia and exorcisms, dames and deaths. But before we outline the month’s offerings, allow us to say thanks to DCist reader Jeffrey, who reminded us that tickets for the Monty Python spectacular, Spamalot, coming to the National Theater in June, go on sale Februrary 26. They’ll be gone faster than you can say “shrubbery,” so mark your calendars. In the meantime, how far would you go to protect…