The effort is designed to improve the health and wellness of Black communities during the pandemic and beyond, and to ease the financial burden on Black medical students.

Good Morning, Washington. In an apparent attempt to rule the D.C. media landscape through terror and intimidation, the Washington Post has published the scariest local news story we’ve ever read this morning: apparently, these disgusting-looking creatures called camel crickets are infesting area basements due to the lack of moisture in the ground thanks to the region’s rather serious drought. Described as “a mix between a spider and a cricket” and accompanied by disturbing photographic…

When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg sent undercover agents into Virginia gun shops to sniff out illegal sales earlier this year, he had one point to make — Virginia’s guns are ending up plenty of other places, where they have contributed to a number of killings. Predictably, Virginia officials were incensed at Bloomberg’s interstate investigation, issuing the equivalent of a cease-and-desist letter and pushing a local gun rights group to organize a “Bloomberg Gun…

Good morning, Washington. We’ve just been catching up on the rather scary looking but thankfully not terror-related explosion in Manhattan yesterday. Naturally, our parent site Gothamist has complete coverage of the steam explosion that occurred on East 41st and Lexington Avenue (41st between Lex and Third) just before 6 p.m. yesterday. Unsurprisingly, the explosion, which killed one person and injured 30, had New Yorkers worried for a while, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said…

The Post’s David Nakamura reports that Mayor Adrian Fenty plans to endorse Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. An official announcement has yet to come, but the actions of Fenty adviser Jim Hudson, who organized a fundraiser for Obama, suggest the mayor looks set to get behind the Illinois senator’s campaign. Hudson collected $600,000 and endorsements from some of the mayor’s more loyal D.C. Council members: Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7), Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4)…

Back in January we found ourselves a bit confused by a group of Virginian gun owners who were protesting New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s presence in D.C. Bloomberg was heading up a meeting of mayors working to fight illegal firearms, which seemed to us like a relatively benign cause. Nobody wants crooks to have guns, right? But after reading today and yesterday’s Post stories about Bloomberg’s latest anti-gun efforts, we can kind of understand…

UPDATE: WTOP is reporting that part of a building under construction in Rosslyn has collapsed, and that there are reported injuries, but at this point they don’t know how severe. The building is at the corner of North Lynn Street and 19th Street. We’ll update again when we learn more. MORE: “Arlington Police spokesman John Lisle says a slab of wet concrete partially collapsed on the 24th floor of the building on North Lynn Street.”…

And another good morning to you, D.C. Looks like it’s going to be a fine, bright, sunny day in the city, with temperatures in the lower to mid 50s. But don’t let our cheery outlook force you into being in a good mood too, especially if you were one of the unfortunate souls stuck in the 24-mile backup on the Outer Loop of the Beltway last night. Seriously, haven’t we all already learned that slowing…

Presumptive Mayor-to-be Adrian Fenty is in New York City today, reports the Post, in order to pow wow with Mayor Michael Bloomberg about how he went all authoritarian on New York’s public school system. Many aspects of what Bloomberg has done in an effort to turn things around for the city’s failing schools are intriguing, if not without controversy: What Bloomberg and Klein will describe to Fenty is a massive overhaul in which they rolled…

Though many of us have firmly sided in one camp or the other on whether D.C. should ban smoking in restaurants and bars, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams seems stymied by the pressure to decide. Poor Mayor Williams. We’ll be thinking about him over the weekend, as he confers with aide Gregory McCarthy, debating the pros and cons of the smoking ban before he shares his decision as to whether to sign legislation on Monday. DCist…