>> An early morning fire struck some vacant buildings located at 14th & Maryland. [Frozen Tropics] >> Could potential supporters of the D.C. Voting Rights bill in the Senate, such as Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, end up being out campaigning and miss the vote, thus leaving it open to a filibuster threat? [Free Ride] >> The D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs is trying revoke the business…

The office of Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) has released an alert to the news media on this slow August Wednesday afternoon, and that means it’s going to get a lot more coverage than it probably deserves. For our part, we wanted to mention it also as an excuse to post the funniest video our staff could find of someone destroying a television. The winner is above. For her part, Cheh is concerned…

Mayor Adrian Fenty held a press conference this morning to announce a slew of new cabinet-level nominations for his administration. Topping the list was his decision to go with current interim director of DCRA, Linda Argo, as his nominee to run the department. Argo was previously deputy director of DCRA, responsible for the agency’s public service enhancements. It’s a somewhat uncharacteristic move from Fenty, who has tended to focus his hiring efforts on bringing in…

We do hope you had a pleasant, relaxing, not too horribly hot weekend, Washington. Even if you didn’t, chances are your Monday morning is shaping up to be less of a hassle than it is for the staff of Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA). Webb finally admitted over the weekend that he owns the gun that his aide, Phillip Thompson, was arrested for carrying into the Capitol in March. What kept him from clearing up…

Soooooo. We threw a little concert last night. And it was, to put in the simplest terms, teh awesome. But you know. Maybe a little toooooo awesome. Woke up late with a pounding headache kind of awesome. Ahem. Here’s your half-assed roundup. From the WaPo: Hey, didja know it was still cold and icy and miserable out there? Oh OK, you did. Well then, how about the fact that five District schools have tested positive…

Many residents in eastern Capitol Hill have been kept awake the last couple nights. A pulsating collision noise, followed by a loud metallic echo, has been ringing throughout the neighborhood at all hours of the day and night. We heard the sound going strong on Saturday night; others reported it stopped in the wee hours of the morning, only to start again at around 4:30 a.m., continuing more or less uninterrupted until 11 p.m. Bright…

Our snack prayers have been answered. After studying vending operations in New York, Chicago and other cities, D.C.’s Department of Consumer & Regulatory Affairs is ready to give our street carts another go. Intimidation tactics–mob-style, we imagine–led to the 1998 moratorium on licenses, which finally ended Oct. 15. Under the city’s phase-in program, currently licensed vendors get first dibs so they can keep their current locations. New applicants can apply for spots within the Downtown…

The Examiner has the goods today on D.C.’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, the agency responsible for most contstruction permits and business licenses in the city. According to the Office of the Inspector General, it appears the department lacks the resources to collect on more than 22,000 infractions still unpaid, which total a whopping $8.825 million in fines. The department has no system for collecting outstanding fines and penalties, infrequently imposes liens and may…

For nearly a year, DCist has been following the conflict developing in Shaw between proprietors of new restaurants and bars and neighborhood churches, which oppose the opening of new establishments that allow drinking. Area churches have relied, so far, upon a provision in the law which grandfathers existing liquor stores and taverns, but which does not allow new establishments, “within 400 feet of a public, private, or parochial primary, elementary, or high school; college or…

The city hasn’t forgotten about the October 2004 death of Georgetown student Daniel Rigby. WTOP reports today that owners of residences in the neighborhood where Rigby’s apartment caught on fire are in the “midst of a crackdown,” with D.C. Consumer and Regulatory Affairs officials nearly a third of the way through 91 houses targeted for possible housing code violations. Initial reports concluded that Rigby’s basement apartment contained faulty wiring, which provoked calls for inspections for…