>> D.C. police will spend $3 million in the 3rd Police District on an anti-gang initiative. [WaPo] >> Montgomery County Del. Jane Lawton, 63, died of an apparent heart attack this morning, collapsing after giving a speech in downtown Washington. Lawton also served as a four-term mayor of Chevy Chase. [Md. Moment] >> If you have an elderly relative living at either Carolyn Boone Lewis Health Care Center in D.C. or Ruxton Health of…

Good morning, Washington. It looks like California’s still on fire, and likely to remain so. Most versions of the aforelinked AP story include the phrase “firefighters all but concede defeat,” and the Post is calling the resulting evacuation the largest in modern history. It all sounds pretty grim. Good luck, West Coast. Yet More Stadium Parking Controversy: The Post reports on the latest in a seemingly neverending series of deliberations over parking at the…

Better late than never? When it comes to a new name for RFK Stadium, that’s what some city officials seem to think. According to a WTOP report yesterday, D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission Chairman Matthew Cutts has floated the idea of re-naming RFK. Again. When the Nats announced they’d take up residence in the four-decade-old stadium in 2005, city officials scrambled to find a corporate sponsor willing to shell out upwards of $2 million a…

>> Is the Rock and Roll Hotel haunted? While John Edward (not Edwards) or a similarly qualified expert has yet to confirm it, the staff says they’ve seen and heard a few eerie things. The owner explains that the club stands on the site of an old funeral home. Maybe they couldn’t get prime Indian burial ground real estate. [via Wonkette] >> The D.C. Sports & Entertainment Commission hosts a community meeting tonight to discuss…

How do you like that wind, D.C.? And the still pretty cold temperatures? Well this nonsense is here to stay through the weekend, with the possibility of some wintry mix on Sunday. Lovely. We feel sure, however, that spring is still just around the corner. It has to be! So let’s try our best to keep on the sunny side of life until it gets here, current temperatures be damned. For instance, instead of focusing…

>> Soon-to-be Mayor Fenty has named Brian K. Lee as interim fire chief and attorney Matthew Cutts to chair the Sports and Entertainment Commission, as well as three mayoral appointments to the D.C. Board of Education: Laura McGiffert Slover, Tonya Vidal Kinlow, and Herb Scott. [WaPo] >> The Yellow Line extension is Coming! The Yellow Line is extension is coming! On Sunday. [AP via WTOP] >> Eric Schaeffer of Signature Theater reveals the wild partying…

Ahhh, the stadium parking saga would be hilarious were it not so maddening. WTOP is reporting that the city may finally have found a solution to what is sure to be a lack of parking at the new stadium — RFK. No, seriously. RFK. The old stadium. Where the Nats are playing now, and where you park NOW. Read for yourself: City and team officials are looking at alternatives for parking at the new stadium….

My, that was fast. After Adrian Fenty overwhelmingly won the Democratic mayoral primary, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, who had long endorsed Cropp and actively warned of the dangers of a Fenty victory, seemed to accept the defeat gracefully. He promised Fenty the necessary funds for a transition team, appeared alongside Fenty at a Capitol Hill hearing on D.C. voting rights, and even submitted legislation giving Fenty a hefty raise. But today WTOP reports that the…

It’s rainy, it’s windy, and every day it gets colder. But it could be worse, Washington — you could be Anthony Mereos. The Silver Spring man is facing a $80,000 fee for illegally clearing trees from land he purchased for $65,000 (he denies cutting the trees down). Mereos had intended to use the land to build a home for his family. But wait! It gets worse: [Mereos’ laywer Shawn] Whittaker said the county is using…

If you’re looking for a change of pace and need an industry that is sure to remain in business for years to come, consider escalator repair. Taking after DeVry and ITT Tech, Metro has kicked off a $1.5 million training lab for escalator repair, writes the Post. The lab will train the next generation of escalator repairmen, who, as we all know from experience, will have no shortage of work anytime soon — on…