The Social Security Administration recently placed an order for 174,000 bullets for use by its law-enforcement division. Some people freaked out.

The Post shares some newly released data from the Census Department. Apparently Washington area residents retire later than all other Americans — even after controlling for members of the U.S. Senate. The article lays out two separate likely causes why our older workers continue to work, one far less the sunny than the other. The area’s high number of white-collar jobs accounts for at least part of its residents slower transition to bird-watching and writing…

This weekend’s weather hinted at what is yet to come in the Washington region in the months ahead — heat and humidity. And given that this Wednesday marks the official start of summer, the change in weather has come right on time. Look for high temperatures and afternoon thunderstorms through Sunday. Laptop with District Employee Info Stolen: Note to self — don’t take laptop from work home, especially if it has sensitive information about city…

Looks like Butterstick has some competition right around the corner — formerly confined to the indoors, today the National Zoo will unleash their four-and-a-half month old sloth bear cub into natural sunlight, according to WTOP. We see some joint merchandising opportunities arising, like Butterstick and Baby Sloth Bear visors, water bottles, and stuffed animals. Network of Animal Hospitals to Help Detect Bioterrorism: How will you know if a bioterrorism attack is occurring? Look for…

We’ve always somewhat hearted WTOP Investigative Reporter Mark Segraves. He’s the guy who recently broke the story that District resources are used to cover the costs of the many motorcades that pass through the city — $1.5 million last year alone, $10 million since 2000, and 40 D.C. police officers and 40 cruisers each time. Today he’s back with more interesting investigative pieces. Voting and Identity Theft in the District: According to a WTOP investigation,…

MONDAY “Hey. What’s up. My name is Malcolm Lawrence. I couldn’t help noticing that you’ve been sitting outside the Hefner Auditorium here at the Keese School for Continuing Education—located, as I’m sure you know, at 417 Russell Avenue in Gaithersburg—for quite some time. Just waiting for something exciting to happen? Yeah. I don’t blame you. Well, I’ll tell you what, if you’ve got two bucks and can wait until say, 7:30 this evening, I’ve got…

Photo of the National Gallery of Art tunnel taken by Digital Obscura, posted in DCist Photos Thank our lucky stars, it’s Friday. And all this weekend, we’ll be in for a spectacular sky show. Venus, Mercury and Saturn will be closely aligned that’ll make it look like they’re forming a new constellation. Then Mercury comes into the picture on Monday night. The “separation of Mercury and Venus by one-tenth of one degree — or…

This DCist thinks the National Building Museum is unsung. It is the most amazing space in this fair city (in the gigantic red-brick Montgomery Meigs-built old Pensions Building) and the exhibits are not run of the mill. Who knew concrete could be interesting? The museum’s latest show, “Jewish Washington: Scrapbook of an American Community,” is really a classic immigrant story: Jews get persecuted in other countries, come to the U.S. and D.C. for a…

— If you haven’t had enough fun playing around with the Los Angeles Times’ wiki-enabled interactive editorial, take a look at John Daniszewski’s dispactch from Tehran about charges of official manipulation in the recent elections … and saying that “[n]ew doubts and divisions have come into view” regarding the Iraq war, Paul Richter tracks conservative North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones Jr. and his shifting stance on Iraq and how that’s playing back home ……

In a relatively startling revelation that may recast the debate over illegal immigration across the country, The New York Times reported today that the country’s estimated 7 million illegal immigrants may be providing a $7 billion subsidy to Social Security — roughly 10 percent of last year’s surplus. Most illegal immigrants, the article notes, manage to acquire fraudulent residency and work documents so as to land jobs subject to payroll taxes, yet will likely never…