Everyone knows at least one person that works for a defense contractor. And chances are that they work in Northern Virginia. The Washington Independent has a report on the boon that the war on terror has been to defense contractors, especially those doing IT work, the great majority of which are located in Nothern Virginia counties. Reads the report: Northern Virginia’s economy has been buoyed by government contractors since the Department of Defense was created…

For all his success outside of it, David Mamet has done all right by Hollywood. More than all right, in fact: His screenplays for The Verdict and Wag the Dog were nominated for Oscars, and, like Woody Allen, he gets to direct his own scripts just the way he wants to because 1) he’s got such unassailable artistic cred that everybody wants to work with him, and 2) he never spends very much money….

The District is full of the powerful and political, people whose decisions have a national impact. It’s also full of the people pitching their causes and products to the powerful and political, any way they can. As we have discovered before, many a cause have used ads in Metrorail stations to catch the attention and, hopefully, good favor of passing riders whose jobs involve power or policy. Defense-related ads are concentrated heavily near the…

The weekly Ist wrap-up is written by Seattlest editor Dan Gonsiorowski. Torontoist throws down the gauntlet and challenges all comers: pillow fight, bitch. They also stand up for a fellow blogger taking heat from the TTC and welcome city-wide WiFi. SFist can finally admit it: It’s possible that Bary Bonds juiced. Is Bay Area artist (tempted to put quotes around that) Thomas Kinkaid “kinda crappy” or “explosively crappy” or does he just like marking territory?…