We’ve gotten reports (including some from our own David K) that there’s a bombscare on the western side of the White House (no, it wasn’t the ducks) which has Pennsylvania and 17th Street turned into a real mess. If you can avoid that area for a few hours while they figure out it’s a box of napkins, or something like that, you’d probably be doing yourself a favor.

I just got the most interesting email from VW of America, offering me 4 free tickets to a DC United Game this week. Four seats, and it ended up they were in Section 104, so it looks like they’re giving out some pretty darned good seats. If you are a VW owner with a vwcredit.com account (how they found me…) then you should’ve gotten the email today. Check to see if it got caught by your spam filter.

Otherwise, if you prove you own a VW, call up VW of America over in Herndon at 1-800-822-8987 and see if they’ll hook you up.

Also, parking for the game is free for VW owners, but get there early, I suspect there’s a limit on the number of spaces.

This is all part of the new promotional agreement between DC United and Volkswagen of America which gives the car company logo rights to the jerseys and to promotional space at RFK. The new United jersey will feature a VW logo dead center on the new jersey.

So, VW owners, get your free tickets!

I just got this from the Arlington Alert email system:

The USGS has confirmed a magnitude 1.8 “micro” earthquake occurred near Annandale, VA at 1:30pm.  There have been no reports of damage or injuries.

Anybody feel this? Any news to report from it?

I’ve been on Twitter for over a year now, and it never fails to amuse me, but today it did something new: it impressed me. In 30 minutes, a number of tweets from various people cropped up wondering what the explosion was, wondering where it was, how many it had affected, and generally spreading the news of the event. See this twitter search:

Click for larger

A number of people were immediately concerned, trying to find out information, trying to see what happened. People raised the alarm, and then just as quickly, found out what it was.

How awesome is that?

Sure, it’s still dependent on outlets that employ fulltime reporters like WTOP, and the various other mainstream news outlets, but that people could raise a number of individuals who are free and able to search for events like this, and report facts regarding them, it’s nothing short of outstanding and amazing. Thank you, intertubes, and thank you especially, Twitter.

Oh, the Explosion? Part of construction at Fort Belvoir, related to the new National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

[Update] Or maybe not! Via DCist:

I just wanted to let you know we at Fort Belvoir received a call from the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center indicating an earthquake had occurred about 1:30 p.m. today. Media reports circulating that Belvoir officials had confirmed blasting here caused the reported rumbles are inaccurate. No one from this office had any information to indicate that was the case. Our scheduled subterranean blasts were set for 4:30 p.m. today. There was no unscheduled blasting at the site.
Hope that helps.
Don Dees
Fort Belvoir Public Affairs

Huh! Earthquakes! In DC! What’s next?

I love AlertDC. The idea is so simple: send you text messages when something’s up.

Today’s something is six major water mains (8″ to 16″ in diameter) in Southeast DC being broken. Yeah. Five. Check out the map that shows where they are. Thanks to WASA for the service call information for each that’s in the google maps locations. Five of the Six are listed as “High” impact, which probably means there’s a lot of places that don’t have water right now.

Meanwhile, the other link on their front page? An 8.5% Rate Increased Proposed for Next Year. Looks like they might need one…

[Update] WASA is having a press conference at 12:30pm at 14th & B Sts SE. Sadly I can’t get there (damn you, work!) but I should hopefully have another update by 1:30 or 2pm.

Phew, another week in DC! Things never seem to get boring around here do they?

• We’ve got the Wizards pulling off a stunner against Cleveland to survive one more day in the NBA playoffs. Good luck tonight fellas. Let’s hope that Queen James doesn’t decide to open up a can of whoopass and dunk on your heads. Here are some tips for winning: play some aggressive D, drive to the hole, make your foul shots, and rebound for Rodman’s sake!
• Deborah Jeanne Palfrey, the ‘DC Madam’, hung herself with some rope in a shed down in Florida. While suicide is not exactly the best way to solve your problems, I don’t feel sad for Deborah like a lot of people do. She got herself into her mess and then came up with a way to get herself out of it. Now if somehow we find out that there was foul play involved…that’s entirely different.
• Taxis started installing meters. And by ‘taxis’, I mean about six of them. Cabbies are dragging their feet when it comes to installing them, claiming their income will be drastically reduced. And that’s my problem how? I’m sure they’ll figure out a way to trick the system, like taking the long way around town or by choosing streets that are known for traffic jams.
• People lined up like starving wolves for free ice cream cones at Ben & Jerry’s. Baskin Robbins tried to follow that up by selling $0.31 scoops, but don’t they understand that nothing is better than free, and that people don’t want four pennies in change?
• There was a shootout at a school in NE DC. None of the victims died thankfully, but did this make the national news? It’s shame that people are so immune to hearing about shootings in DC. If this had happened in some place like, I dunno, Taos, CNN would have been on the scene faster than Wolf Blitzer’s beard grows.

What did I miss? You know, when some of us move out of DC to some place like, I dunno, Taos…life is going to be pretty boring in comparison. I can’t wait to see what happens next week! Hopefully less shooting and more free ice cream.

Photo by rsplatpc

In case you missed it Tuesday, the NHL nominated Ovechkin and two other guys for the Hart Trophy. The Capitals’ captain and centerman is up against Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin and Calgary’s Jarome Iginla.

Honestly, I’m pretty sure they only added Malkin and Iginla because they had to have three nominees.

Yes, yes, I’m solidly in favor of Ovechkin snagging this trophy, despite being a solid Penguins supporter. But I also acknowledge talent; Ovechkin personifies the essence of the Hart and he deservedly should win it.

It’s indeed fortunate that Washington made it to the playoffs - I highly doubt Ovie would’ve been nominated otherwise, though that travesty would’ve been unforgivable, I think.

We’ll find out for sure on June 12 in Toronto, when the 2008 NHL awards are doled out. And if you didn’t know, Nicklas Backstrom is up for the Calder Trophy for top rookie, too - but he’s going to lose that to Chicago’s Jonathan Toews.

Another Capitals member is an awards finalist - Bruce Boudreau was tagged today as a Jack Adams finalist, which goes to the coach who has “contributed the most to his team’s success.” Boudreau replaced Glen Hanlon in late November last year, where the Caps lay belly-up in the Southeast cellar at 6-14-1. Since then, he led the Caps to a 37-17-7 regular season mark (with seven straight wins at the end of the season) and three hard-fought playoff wins before succumbing to the Flyers in Game Seven. He was also the fastest coach to 20 victories (34 games) in Caps history.

Ovie’s already snapped up the titles for most goals (65) and points (112) on the season. The sole reason the Caps even made it into the playoffs by a hair was because Ovechkin carried them on his back. If Ovie wasn’t playing, the Caps would deservedly be in the dregs of the league along with Tampa and L.A.

Ignila makes sense as a nominee - second career 50+ goal season, 98 points total, and spearheading the Flames’ own run into the playoffs. But he didn’t electrify his team or the home crowds like Ovechkin did.

The sole player at a shot of sneaking away with the Hart is the Penguins’ Malkin. And really, despite locking in 106 points with 47 goals - 46 points and 20 goals during a 28 game stretch that kept the Penguins on playoff afterburners when Crosby went down - the only real reason he could skate away with it is if the Penguins win the Cup.

But even I don’t think that’s likely to happen. I foresee quite the Caps ’sweep’ of the awards in June.

So my heartfelt congratulations to Alex Ovechkin and the rest of the Caps for an electrifying season. I truly hope you all keep that fire lit for next year; it’ll make some awesome match ups for me and my Penguin friends to look forward to.

Julia’s Empanadas opened a branch in Columbia Heights last month. I missed the news then, but hearing about it today, decided to go there for lunch. Julia’s is one of the better healthy alternatives in town, though I wish the vegetarian empanadas would always include beans, not just sometimes.

Columbia Heights was absolutely buzzing with energy at 2pm on a Tuesday. What surprised me most of all was the ubiquitous construction, which I’d wrongly assumed had ended when the big DC USA complex opened. The neighborhood is still in the process of reinventing itself, with buildings-in-progress stretching north towards 16th Street Heights. But the central area, around where Park Rd. meets 14th Street, is pretty much done. It’s pretty great, too, with a semicircle of restaurants and cafes and even ice cream shops surrounding an open area. I know, I know–gentrification, prices, displacement, etc. Still, an area of the city that didn’t feel super welcoming in the past has opened up to more District residents.

Anyway, some things aren’t too different. Not everyone in the area has somewhere to go, or a way to get there. A really nice guy stopped me as I left Julia’s, asking for $.85 to get across town so that he could show up for his bimonthly urine test. I gave it to him, and he thanked me, saying he’d pray for me that night.

…a suspicious package has been found at the White House, but no further details are available at this time. Thanks very much to a new Twitter-based News Service for breaking the news, and suggesting that you might not want to drive down 14th or 15th tonight near the White House if you can avoid it.

Chances are it’s some laundry, or maybe Cindy Sheehan’s latest missive, and totally unrelated to reality, but it is going to screw up your drive home. Metro, trust me.

Update: The package, as we suspected, is totally safe. It still fucked up rush hour though.

In what is some shocking news, a Senate committee was informed on Tuesday that should a 10 kiloton nuclear bomb explode at the White House, a lot of damage would occur to our fine state city. They were also briefed on the lack of readiness by our government for such an attack. And here all along I thought we were completely safe since 9/11 due to our “war on the axil of evil”, the spiffy color coded terror alert system, and the addition of a few air marshals on our airplanes. No?

According to the article:

Dr. Cham Dallas, a public health expert at the University of Georgia, presented a map of downtown Washington, D.C., showing that there would be 100,000 deaths within just a few square miles of the White House.

Casualties would extend from the Washington Monument through Georgetown and north toward the Washington Zoo. There would be massive debris from damaged buildings, including shattered glass.

In Chicago or New York City, which have more concentrated populations, the damage could be four to eight times as bad.

I have to wonder, is this something we can really prepare for? A catostrophic disaster such as this, especially in our nation’s capital, would cause such a panic around the country and around the world, 9/11 would pale in comparison.

What do you think, DC? How safe and prepared do you think we really are? Or is it best not to even worry about it because if a nuke goes off we’ll be instantly burnt into crispy critters? I’m just glad I live nice and close to the White House.