Click To Play The 911 phone call placed by At-large Council member David Catania last week — the one during which he claims he received “badgering treatment,” but the 911 office said he was frantic and unintelligible — has been released by WTOP. Take a listen to the audio. The recording is slightly warbled and Catania was clearly upset, but we can’t help but side slightly more with the operator on this one. Responding to…

All of the DCist editors get hundreds of press releases every week, but Music Editor Amanda Mattos and I probably get more than most. We’re always happy to receive information from publicists about events or stories affecting the D.C. metro area — they often make our jobs easier, in fact. But fairly often, we receive press releases that, to put it lightly, cause us to question the mental faculties of certain publicists. For months now,…

You may have already heard about the small group of ANSWER Coaltion members who staged a lunchtime event Thursday to protest the District’s attempts to get them to stop gluing posters on to utility boxes. Two demonstrators, one an Iraq war veteran and the other the mother of another veteran, were arrested on charges of defacing public property. DCist Tom stumbled on to the scene and snapped these images with his phone — it’s…

After only two days since the official start of the school year, the police have already been called to Southeast D.C.’s Ballou Senior High School. WUSA reports that a fight broke out in the school’s cafeteria on Tuesday. No one was seriously injured, but the incident resulted in five arrests. It’s just the latest problem for one of D.C.’s most chaotic schools. Back in 2003, you’ll remember that Ballou was closed for more than…

In case you’re working downtown and wondering what the heck is going on with all those ambulances, turns out firefighters were rescuing a man who had a medical emergency while operating the crane pictured at right at about 150 feet in the air. It’s unclear what kind of emergency the man was having, but according to eyes on the ground, at just after 12:30 p.m. rescuers finally had the man down from the crane and…

Last Chance for A.V. Sad, we know. Get it before it becomes a half-empty office building. Restaurant Week Starts August 6 There are a few good things about Washington in August. First, it’s so damned hot and soupy that there are about 100 times fewer tourists. Second, Congress leaves town and tons of governmental types take vacation, so town slows down considerably, leaving rush hour slightly less enraging. Third, it’s when the summer version of…

Starting today, the funnies page in the Washington Post will be looking a little different: Mary Worth, Cathy and Broom Hilda have been given the boot to make room for Agnes, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! and Brevity. Who could have foreseen that America’s appetite for comics about stupid, nosy and/or shrew-like women would ever subside? We guess that Cathy’s audience eventually found reading the strip to be a little too self-deprecating. There’ll be a…

Because nothing says “fun times” like terrifying giant panda-costumed folks traveling in a motorcade and handing out single-use cameras across the metropolitan area, we just had to alert you folks to the zoo’s newest promotional event. Starting Friday, October 13th, in order to celebrate the grand opening of the Fujifilm Giant Panda Habitat and Asia Trail, the fine folks at the Zoo and FONZ will be taking the panda show on the road. Apparently, the…

If you do, or just enjoy hearing them, you may want to attend the Roast of Anthony Williams on October 18th at the Marriott Wardman Park. The event is part of a Southeastern University gala, and for the low price of $250, will feature jokesters like Adrian Fenty, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Councilmembers David Catania and Jack Evans, GWU President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and Broadway actor and D.C. native…

Tonight is the night — we’ll be celebrating Butterstick’s one-year of cuteness at Chief Ike’s Mambo Room in Adams Morgan, 1725 Columbia Road, NW. And in his honor, we’ve gotten some good drink specials lined up — $5 Captain Morgan drinks, $4 Paulaner Hefeweizen’s, and $3 Pabst drafts. From what the zoo folks tell us, Butterstick loves his Pabst. There will also be some good music on both floors. And yes, we do have a…