Yesterday we threw together a list of the people in the District we considered influential, taking after a similar annual list put together by GQ that compiles the movers and shakers on the federal side of the city. One of our nominees was Dorothy Brizill, a well-known civic activist and political gadfly who runs DC Watch, the closest thing we have to a citizens’ inspector general. And as we expected, last night she offered us…

David Beckham made his long-awaited MLS debut last night at RFK stadium, entering the game in the 72nd minute but unable to help his Los Angeles Galaxy overcome a 1-0 defeat to D.C. United. We will have a full post on the game later this morning, but in the meantime, how was your evening commute affected by the 46,686 soccer match attendees crowding into Metro? Police Move Not Really Canceled?: So says the Washington…

You heard it here first: The bloom is officially off the rose of the Fenty administration. On Monday, the Mayor held an opening ceremony for the District’s public swimming pools, at which he failed to fulfill our simple request that he make sure somebody did a cannonball. The Examiner was there yesterday afternoon to witness the pitiful display of showmanship where Fenty opened the city’s pools, not with a dive, but with a whistle. While…

Since 1983, Loose Lips, the City Paper’s weekly local politics column, has been the place to get quirky news and commentary on the District’s political figures. But today, James Jones, Loose Lips columnist for the last two years, bids farewell to the paper. Jones came to the City Paper after a stint at WAMU, and his first column was published on March 11, 2005. According to the folks at the City Paper, Jones has taken…

Ever since he took office after eight years of Mayor Anthony Williams’ tenure, the question has burned in our minds: Will D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty continue Williams’ tradition by opening the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation’s public swimming pools with a cannonball dive? He’s been asked the question a number of times already, but always with a different answer. First Fenty said maybe his twin sons, Matthew and Andrew, would do the honors. Then…

Fans of DCist’s resident municipal politics expert Martin Austermuhle will want to tune in to the D.C. Politics Hour with Kojo and Jonetta today at noon. Martin will be a guest on today’s show along with Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham and Vincent Schiraldi, head of the D.C. Dept. of Youth Rehabilitation Services. Kojo and guest host Tom Sherwood of NBC4 plan on discussing a wide range of topics, including the school takeover plan…

Damn alarms. We’re a little late on flipping through our newspaper this morning, so stay tuned as we live-blog the news. 9:29 a.m.: Since Adrian Fenty doesn’t already have enough to do, he’ll be fielding questions in an online chat over at the Post at 11 a.m. We’d like to know how he can spend the time keeping his head so nicely shorn when we’re still trying to balance sleep, work, and shaving once…

It’s just over a month until the September 12 primary, and the endorsements are starting to roll in. Non-governmental organizations, newspapers, and big-name individuals are throwing their weight behind specific candidates, hoping to given them the final boost they need before election day. In the first big mayoral endorsement of the campaign season, the Current newspaper group — which publishes the Georgetown Current, the Dupont Current, the Foggy Bottom Current, and the Northwest Current –…

There is something reassuring about seeing police officers on the streets. And the more of them a city has, the more they can deploy themselves and make their presence known, or so goes the logic. But how many police officers is too many? At what point do we start seeing diminishing returns for every new officer brought on to the force? Does the District, now in the midst of a violent summer, have too many…

It may have been the shortest State of Emergency declaration the District has ever seen — imposed on Tuesday night in response to two days of heavy rainfall, only to be quietly rescinded on Wednesday. But as the city dries off, residents are starting to wonder whether the declaration was needed at all. More importantly, concerns are being raised over what the response to heavy rain says about the city’s ability to deal with a…