Even if the Employment Non-Discrimination Act will move forward without the transgender segment of the LGBT community, the District’s transgender residents did score a victory yesterday. D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier issued a department general order on how transgender citizens should be treated by MPD officers when placed under arrest. In June, the DC Trans Coalition organized a forum to discuss changes needed from D.C.’s police, fire and emergency medical services with regards to the…

In the case of Marion Barry vs. “The Enemies of the People,” Barry, it seems, always comes out on top. The “Mayor for Life” has been cleared of the last of his traffic charges after the D.C. attorney general’s office filed court papers electing not to go forward. The Ward 8 Council member was pulled over by U.S. Park Police for driving too slowly on Dec. 16. In June, Barry was acquitted of driving under…

In case you missed the update in the post from earlier today, Roy Pearson has this afternoon filed paperwork to the D.C. Court of Appeals indicating he intends to appeal the judge’s decision in his $54 million civil lawsuit against Custom Cleaners. In June, D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled in favor of the defendants, the Chung family, owners of Custom Cleaners, finding that “nothing in the law supports (the) position” that Pearson, an…

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. He’ll be on vacation for the next two weeks; this column will return on August 19th. It’s been a hard summer for many loved and local businesses, some of which have been a part of the city’s life for decades. This week, long lines trailed down New York Avenue as customers waited to get a last meal at A.V. Ristorante. In June,…

District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff summarily denied Judge Roy Pearson’s motion to reconsider her June ruling against him in his $54 million law suit against Custom Cleaners. In an order filed Monday, Bartnoff said that the the plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration reargues matters that already were presented at trial, so since he makes no new argument, Pearson’s request was denied. The Chung family and their attorney, Chris Manning, have said they expect…

After Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) issued a statement of apology for using her escort service Monday night, and with the potential for more high profile names to be revealed from her phone list, so-called D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey is finally making the sort of splash Washington, D.C. had been dreading (or desperately praying for, depending on your point of view). While we all patiently wait for the 46 lb. phone list to live up…

OK, one more time, can someone explain to us the shrewd scheduling of the Super Bowl for Sunday night every year? We wake up on Monday, still stuffed with unhealthy amounts of sausage and seven layer dip, and more than a little bit hungover. How are we expected to work under these conditions? So we’re making this proposal to The Man, right here, right now: make the day after the Super Bowl a holiday….

You’d think we’d all have learned our lesson by now: if you say something even mildly embarrassing on the web, more people than your originally intended audience are eventually going to read it. Yet every week we find the wrong people saying the wrong things in the wrong places. This time, it’s the Velvet Lounge, being perhaps a little over-zealous in policing its video policies. In June, local musician Lauren Heckman posted to YouTube a…

It’s the final week of the season for the Nats. Just six games remain in the next six days, so we thought we’d give you that many reasons to head over to RFK one last time. 1. Fonsi’s Career Year When Bowden and Co. went out and traded for Alfonso Soriano last year, we celebrated the bold move. In June, we made the case for keeping him, in the face of relentless pressure (some of…

You may recall a little fun we had back in March with a campaign to name the song “Come to Washington” by Lincoln Ross the city’s unofficial anthem. To jog your memory a bit, we here repeat the song’s first verse: Washington, D.C. A really great place to be, So if you’re into having fun, Come to Washington. Awesome. After telling you all about this, we solicited nominations for other potential anthems and then voted…