Today’s crime roundup includes a murder-suicide, glass for diamonds, a nude tase, and a young father facing a 30-year sentence in the death of his infant son.

It’s like a lot of Thursday night happy hours: Workaday folk enjoying the final school night of the week, gather to imbibe and hang with friends. Except this one involves a lot of barking, the occasional canine scuffle, and the wholesale sniffing of butts. Even though this DCist doesn’t care for dogs, or, frankly, any domesticated animal, she enjoys basking in the friendly weirdness of the time-honored tradition of Doggie Happy Hour, held in the…

Don’t forget to check out the music picks for this weekend; they include Clem Snide, Secret Machines, Lou Barlow, and Ambulance Ltd. Otherwise, read on! FRIDAY: >> The D.C. Independent Film Festival continues tonight at the City Museum with themes including “Cinema of the Surreal” and “Scary Movies.” Discussion with the filmmakers take place after the screenings. We posted more information about the festival last week. SATURDAY: >> Into old things? Then boy, oh boy…

Paris Hilton, who was in Washington before Thanksgiving, brought her “film crew and entourage” to SomaFit on Wisconsin Avenue and “commandeered” the “posh” gym, according to MSNBC’s Jeannette Walls. It was apparently for a reality television show, Paris had a pedicure and Walls’ source says that the hotel heiress has big feet. Since Ms. Hilton was filmed sans “Simple Life” co-star Nicole Richie, perhaps Paris has a new reality show in the works. DCist speculates that…

Thousands of hotel employees at 14 major D.C. hotels will go on strike at 11:59 p.m. tonight unless a last-minute deal is negotiated between the hotels and their union. UNITE HERE Local 25 joined that union’s other locals in five other cities when they voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if negotiations with the Hotel Association of Washington D.C. failed to yield a contract. (See the potential strike covered by the AP/WTOP, Post, W. Times.)…

From DCist contributor Rebecca Walters: D.C. is mostly a pet-friendly city, specifically a dog-friendly city. In 2003, Purina ranked Washington, D.C., sixth in the Top 50 Pet Healthiest Cities. The city and its suburbs eek out space for dog parks in the midst of burgeoning development to attract pet-lovers looking for a home that offers space for Fido to run. Area residents and their canine friends can be found in the parks, the circles, the…