If you're a barber in the District, you have to be licensed and regulated by a city board. But if you're a tattoo artist or piercer, you're in the clear -- currently, the District remains one of the last places in the country in which tattooing and piercing are wholly unregulated. That looks like it will soon change, but how dramatic the change will be is yet to be determined. more ›

While the majority of the District's likely medical marijuana cultivation centers are clustered in Ward 5, the 17 applicants for licenses to run the five dispensaries that will provide marijuana to qualifying patients are spread all over town -- so much so that only Ward 7 missed out on a location. more ›

WTOP's Adam Tuss was up in Montgomery County this morning, tweeting up a storm about a hearing on the proposed Purple Line, the light rail line which would connect Bethesda and New Carrolton by linking existing Metro infrastructure. There were some interesting revelations (not the least of which that the project's projected cost has now ballooned to $1.6 billion), but we were dismayed at the news that a section of the line near Rosemary Hills Elementary School in Silver Spring would have to be shifted. Why? According to Tuss, five pieces of property in that section of the line would have "their front yards shaved off," but, of course, no one from the Maryland Transit Administration had bothered to inform the owners of those homes about it yet. Whoops. more ›

The downtown location of Gifford's Ice Cream (555 11th Street NW) hopes to reopen in about a week, following a temporary closure ordered by the D.C. Dept. of Health. more ›

The Safeway on Rhode Island Ave. NE reopened late Thursday, after a follow-up health department inspection deemed the store in compliance and all issues related to its vermin infestation corrected. The store had been temporarily shuttered on Wednesday evening after a routine inspection discovered evidence of rodents. more ›

View Safeway closed due to vermin in a larger map more ›

The wait is finally over for healthy adults aged 25-64: you too will now be able to receive an H1N1 vaccine in the District of Columbia, regardless of whether you have a preexisting condition. The D.C. Department of Health announced today that this final expansion of eligibility goes into effect on Monday, December 13. more ›

The D.C. Department of Health announced Thursday that it is reducing the hours and frequency of its free H1N1 vaccine clinics in order to be able to send more doses to doctor's offices and community health centers. DOH says that over 11,000 people have been served in D.C.'s clinics in the past two weeks. more ›

Inside Edition's "Rat Patrol" returned to the District this week, taking aim, perhaps predictably, at the various D.C. fast food joints recently frequented by the Obamas. The television program confirmed that two of the eateries featured in the upcoming episode were Five Guys restaurants, including the Dupont Circle location where Michelle Obama took members of her staff for lunch back in February. Indeed, the Five Guys located at 1645 Connecticut Ave NW is shuttered this morning, with a sign on the door explaining that the fast food restaurant is "closed until further notice." more ›

>> D.C.'s Rat Czar puts the city's war on rodents in perspective. Gerard Brown, program manager of the DOH's Rodent and Vector Control Division, tells the Examiner, "Rats are genius. They are going to be here after we leave." Is Stephen Hawking available for a little vermin abatement brainstorming? [Washington Examiner] >> Check out these simple steps to making politics funny. We'll see if President Bush can pull it off at tomorrow's White House... more ›

Last week we checked out that hotbed of hard news, Inside Edition, as they visited our fair city and shined the bright light of truth on the District's rat problem. Today the Examiner reports from the front lines of the war on rodents and concludes that we're losing. From all four quadrants the perennial urban menaces -- sometimes the size of small dogs -- are scurrying about, causing various levels of disgust and panic. How... more ›