Back in the day, people would gather to lobby, write letters and protest for a cause. These days, all it takes is access to a computer and a creative approach to using online tools. And while the fight for District voting rights has involved a good amount of old-school tactics, online activists have more resources at their disposal than ever before. Newly-elected Shadow Representative Mike Panetta has been leading this fight in recent years, employing…

As Mother Nature seems to have finally relinquished her icy stranglehold on our fair city, DCist figured it was high time to go in search of a restaurant that featured cuisine of a decidedly warm-weather bent. Away with the heavy stews and roasts; we were looking for spice, for fruit, for delicate seafood and tropical drinks. Luckily, Chef Howsoon Cham runs such an establishment. We settled in for some of his down-home Caribbean cooking at…

Hey Washington, are you suddenly feeling cheerier than usual this morning, without knowing for sure why? Well check it out: Congressional Democrats have gone ahead and returned to a rules change that allows nonstate representatives to vote on amendments. The nonstates included in the rule, which was also in place from 1993-1995, are American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Now it’s on to getting full voting rights!…

May 4 may well be remembered as the happiest day in D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams’ political career. It is today, at 10 a.m., that Williams and new Nationals owner Ted Lerner will come together to break ground on the new $611 million stadium in Southeast. The Nats may have come back to Washington in September 2004, but their longevity in the city was consistently tested by bruising battles over stadium financing and team ownership,…

There are a lot of creative ways to advocate for District voting rights. Of those, our friend Mike Panetta has been behind many. As you may recall, Panetta was one of the minds behind a recent online effort to allow District residents to ask Supreme Court justice nominee Samuel Alito questions, and, prior to that, to rename RFK “Taxation Without Representation Stadium.” Now Panetta has hatched a new scheme to promote voting rights — having…

In “What’s the Worst that Could Happen,” Donald E. Westlake has an out-of-town character ask who the Whitehurst Freeway was named for, and lets the local guide answer simply, “President after Grover.” But that raises the question, who *was* the Whitehurst Freeway named for? An engineer? An officeholder? Who? Who knew this answer would be so difficult to track down? DCist thought eh, we are good at internet research, 20 minutes. Or maybe we could…

Name Games in the Wilson Building: Former Mayor Marion Barry will remain Mayor Barry to Mayor Williams but Linda Cropp isn’t playing. Confused? The Post reports that Ward 8’s new councilman, former Mayor Marion Barry wants to retain his old title for the sake of protocol. Officially, Barry wants to be known as “Mayor-Councilman Barry,” which is naturally shortened to “Mayor” as under traditions of protocol, Barry’s highest title would be the defacto title. While…

You may want to reconsider your Outer Banks Labor Day beach weekend. Don’t cancel them just yet, but watch out. It appears that the region could be under threat next weekend from a powerful tropical system currently to the northeast of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Hurricane Frances is a powerful storm with winds of 120 mph, and the storm is likely to increase in strength. Capital Weather thinks it could increase to a…