The annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund begin on Friday, and the city will see a number of changes in traffic patterns and road closures this weekend as a result. Here’s what you should plan around: Streets closed to vehicles: Beginning at 8 p.m. on Friday, October 19, until 2 a.m. on Sunday, October 21 * Pennsylvania Avenue, NW between 17th Street and 20th Street, NW * 19th Street, NW…

>> A federal administrative appeals court has struck down the District’s drug-pricing control law, saying it violates federal patent law. The ruling is considered a major win for the pharmaceutical industry. [WaPo] >> The city has agreed on a settlement of $1 million to about 120 protesters who were improperly detained by police during demonstrations in D.C. against the invasion of Iraq, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 2002. [AP via…

It was in April 2000 that tens of thousands of anti-globalization protestors marched the streets of the District, protesting the secretive meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and the policies that emerged from them. Police presence was heavy, given a nervous sense that Washington could go the route of Seattle, which just months prior had been the scene of an epic battle between protestors and police that had provoked an imposition of…

DCist is excited to welcome back our founding editor, Michael Grass, who comes to us this Sunday with a special Opinionist. One of the most frustrating things about living in Washington, D.C., for me is walking along Eye Street up and around the corner from the International Monetary Fund. Between 20th and 21st streets NW sits Kinkead’s, one of the city’s long-standing respected restaurants. Kinkead’s sits in the house where my late grandfather and my…

As you may be well aware, protesters are descending on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund campus near the White House this weekend to protest the meetings of the Group of Seven. According to Reuters, economic officials are focusing on two things: high oil prices (and how they may be here for the long-run) and China’s stubbornness to revalue the yuan. And U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow is expected to be pressured “to cut…

Good Morning, Washington. Throughout the day, we’ll have complete coverage of all the Nationals opening day action from inside and outside RFK. So stay tuned. In the meantime, the weather will be spring-like, says Capital Weather. With “[c]risp, clear nights and mild, sunny afternoons … [t]hese are the qualities that give spring a wonderful reputation.” So enjoy the slowly warming weather, which is pretty much perfect for some rowing on the Potomac, as pictured in…

In more protest news, seven of the 400+ protesters unlawfully arrested in Pershing Park during the September 2002 protests against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank reached a settlement with the District of Columbia today in federal court. The seven plantiffs, including Adam Eidinger, his wife Alexis Baden-Mayer and her father Joe Mayer, will receive $48,000 each and a letter of apology from Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Charles Ramsey. (The photo is…

Terror Threat Lowered: We aren’t in an orange mood any more. The Department of Homeland Security has lowered the terror threat to financial institutions in Washington, New York and northern New Jersey. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the terror threat has gone away, the Department of Homeland Security reminds us. That move has let the Capitol Police to dismantle security checkpoints on roadways leading to Capitol Hill. Also, the AP, via WTOP, reports that…

The annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have drawn once again protestors opposed to radical neoliberal economic globalization to D.C. In what one Indymedia writer termed the “World Bank/IMF season opener” a group led a picket of the U.S. Treasury at noon today, posting some photos on Indymedia. (Including the photo to the right) It seems likely the protests tomorrow will be small, if the discussion thread on a post…

With a good number of Republicans in New York this week for the GOP convention and nothing of political consequence going on around D.C., there are eight days left of official Washington’s summer season. After Labor Day, national politics will dominate town and the city will be abuzz with campaign chatter and election speculation. Minds will ponder how the social and professional landscape of the city could change with a Kerry presidency, a Bush second-term,…