Registered voters in Wards 1 and 2 received a postcard in the mail a few weeks back announcing the special election scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 21 — but in the off chance you quickly tossed in the garbage, allow us to fill you in: In April, D.C. Board of Education member Jeff Smith resigned his seat in protest immediately after the D.C. Council gave preliminary approval to Mayor Adrian Fenty’s school takeover plan, so now…

It was an awfully busy day for the D.C. Council Tuesday, so we thought we’d give you a quick glance at everything that went down in yesterday’s session. >> As expected after a 9-2 committee vote earlier in the day, the Council voted by the same margin to approve Mayor Fenty’s takeover plan for D.C. Public Schools yesterday. The council will need to give final approval in a second vote, and Congress is of course…

The fourth annual SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival came to a close Sunday, with top honors going to Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Jesus Camp, a fascinating look behind the scenes of an Evangelical Christian movement which molds young children into soldiers for Christ. Ewing and Grady now add a Sterling Feature Grand Jury Award to their previous SILVERDOCS Audience Award, for 2005’s Boys of Baraka. Other award winners include: an Honorable Mention for Chairman…