John W. Hinckley, Jr. has been in a psychiatric hospital fore more than three decades.

Al Freeman, Jr. passed away at 78 years old, Reuters reported last night. He portrayed the Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad in Spike Lee’s 1992 film Malcolm X, as well as taught acting at Howard University.

Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. (D-Ward 5) will reportedly introduce emergency legislation limiting the number of cultivation centers that can end up in his ward.

Mayor Vince Gray, who has been historically prickly regarding media requests for comment on the Harry Thomas, Jr. scandal, unsurprisingly refused to call for Thomas to step down today.

There’s little more American than the freedom of speech, and at yesterday’s Fourth of July Palisades Parade, plenty of participants took advantage of the place and moment to practice it.

Chinese sculptor Lei Yi Xin, the chief sculptor of the soon-to-be-unveiled Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, has now finished his work on the piece, located near the Tidal Basin. Oh, did we mention that Lei sculpted the 28-foot memorial from memory?

Due to allegations that he diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars in city funds to his Team Thomas organization, Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. has stepped down as chairman of the D.C. Council’s influential committee on economic development. Thomas stepped down in a letter sent to Council Chair Kwame Brown; Brown announced the around 6:30 p.m. this evening via email.

The reaction to the lawsuit filed by the District against Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. has been swift and damning — of course, that’s what will happen when you show up to a press conference in the very car the Attorney General claims you improperly spent nearly $60,000 in city money on.

According to CNN’s politicalticker blog, President Obama will meet this week with Officer James Crowley and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. over a beer to discuss the false home invasion arrest fiasco in Boston from last week. The beers chosen by each man? Budweiser for Obama, Blue Moon for Crowley, and undetermined for Gates (Gates may not even drink beer, as it turns out). Maybe Bud is Obama’s beer of choice, but being the president,…

Martin made the case yesterday that playing up the racial divisions within our city when it comes to same-sex marriage was misleading, especially when considering how the Ward 8 Democrats recently voted to support marriage equality legislation, despite opposition from their D.C. Council member. Well it looks like things got a little more heated at last night’s Ward 5 Democrats meeting. The D.C. Democratic Party released some video of the discussion/near-shouting match that led…