Good morning, Washington. It looks like California’s still on fire, and likely to remain so. Most versions of the aforelinked AP story include the phrase “firefighters all but concede defeat,” and the Post is calling the resulting evacuation the largest in modern history. It all sounds pretty grim. Good luck, West Coast. Yet More Stadium Parking Controversy: The Post reports on the latest in a seemingly neverending series of deliberations over parking at the…

LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff’s Department made some games of their own such…

Allez Cuisine! From Jack Abramoff’s Signatures to his own restaurant, Farrah Olivia, Morou Ouattara plans to step into a new venue. His eye is on Kitchen Stadium as he competes for the title of the Next Iron Chef. The first episode airs Sunday, 9 p.m. on the Food Network. Eight chefs with the help of Lufthansa Airlines (yay product placement!) will be traveling through Europe and competing against each other to join Mario Batali, Cat…

Although the DCist Food and Drink team would prefer to associate the word “turnover” exclusively with “apple,” we also recognize that staff “turnover” is an inevitable fact of the blogging world. Two writers recently left us for print publications, and three others retired from service. In short, we’ve run low on qualified Food and Drink writers. When we need to restock, it’s not as simple as heading to the local Whole Foods for wild-caught salmon…

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the Best Best of the -ists ever. We’re exhausted just thinking about it. First up, SFist, who saw their little ‘ole site be the center of what was a nice little scandal (even getting their editor on TV) only to find their scandal dwarfed by the even bigger scandal caused by their Mayor boffing one of his aides’ wife. We’re not…

Last week, Top Chef returned to the Bravo network for a second season, complete with a new host and a fresh-faced group of hungry culinary hopefuls. And one of this season’s contestants on the excellent cooking competition — which pits aspiring cooks against one another in immunity and elimination battles to win $100,000 in prize money, a feature in Food & Wine magazine, an appearance at the Aspen Food & Wine Classic, Kenmore PRO appliances,…

There’s a whole wide world out there, and here’s the proof: DCist revels in The University of Maryland’s basketball triumphs, marvels at Metro’s security strategy, and applauds DC local Katie Couric’s new gig. Phillyist is all about the Philadelphia Film Festival. OK, not all about — they still have time for loitering, underage sex, and random wacky news. LAist would have to send a camera around the world to get shots as bizarre as Katie’s…

Montmartre, Vous Êtes Mon Petit Napoleon It seems that the battle is on. Weeks after the closing of La Colline and the simultaneous news that Dupont Circle’s Johnny’s Half Shell would be taking over, another Hill business is moving in to secure the soon-to-be empty Half Shell space. Montmartre, the fantastic French bistro by Eastern Market, is expanding its territory. We’d like to think that it’s a win for the Hill and a slap in…