The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C. has been planning to inflate a bubble from its central plaza for the past few years. And now it's been announced that the temporary pavilion will be called the Bloomberg Bubble, after a major benefactor. more ›

While Occupy Wall Street in New York (and in many other cities) have been facing trouble with the police the Occupy DC movement has been left in relative peace. Last night, to show solidarity with their siblings up north, its protesters took to the streets and decided to briefly occupy a building owned by Brookfield Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park here. more ›

It appears that those teenagers running D.C. have continued to avoid making real decisions and blared their Hoobastank a little too loudly for Mayor Bloomberg's taste, so Hizzoner gave a speech at the Center For American Progress this morning to straighten things out. "For too long, Washington has operated on the 'something for nothing' principal," Bloomberg said. "Spending money we don't have seems to be about the only thing the two parties can agree on." His solution for the Budget Supercommittee? Let the Bush tax cuts expire for everyone, close tax loopholes for the financial industry, and end farm and energy subsidies. more ›

Over the years the fast-casual chain Chipotle has gained quite a following (1,131 stores and counting nationwide, 29 of them here in NYC) but it hasn't quite been able to replicate its "watch us prepare your food" style beyond burritos. An attempt this summer to turn America's Next Great Restaurant-winner Jamawn Woods' soul food concept into a hit failed miserably. But maybe their latest foray—ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen—will do better? They've just opened their very first outpost down in DC and our siblings at DCist went in for a taste test. It doesn't sound awful! more ›

A San Francisco-bound United flight at Dulles Airport outside DC was evacuated around 12:41 p.m. today after experiencing engine problems. "The emergency chutes were deployed," an airport spokesperson told the Washington Post, and everyone—including passenger and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—slid down to safety. Will Ginsburg now have to recuse herself from Slip 'N Slide v. Jetliner Puffy Slides, Inc.? more ›

Mayor Bloomberg was probably thinking he could discuss his praiseworthy Hurricane Irene preparations during his weekly radio show today. Instead, he cancelled his appearance over the controversy of how former Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith resigned his position: While the Mayor's office said that Goldsmith was pursuing "private-sector opportunities in infrastructure finance," Goldsmith actually resigned because he had been arrested for domestic violence in Washington D.C. more ›

Now that your mind and your monthly Metrocard has been blown by the MTA's closure at noon, you'll have to settle for a taxi. But the impending hurricane has transformed the meter into a mysterious "zone" system (no relation to the evacuation zones), full of cryptic "letters." However, the changes aren't nearly as byzantine as DC's old zone system, and the new regulations will even force livery cabs to charge the same as the yellow ones. Strange times, indeed. more ›

Now that we've all got a soothing cup of coffee in hand, let's take a closer look at the 5.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked the East Coast yesterday. Beginning at 1:51 p.m., the quake lasted between 20 and 30 seconds. The USGS reported two aftershocks of magnitude 2.8 and 2.2 within 90 minutes of the initial quake. People felt the quake from Ontario all the way down to Alabama, because "it was a shallow earthquake, and geological conditions in the eastern U.S." make for a widely shared experience. Why? "Western rock is relatively young" ("impudent," lets say?) and absorbs the violent shaking near the epicenter, while eastern rock is "far older, and so earthquakes can have a much larger and more widespread impact." more ›

Today, the NY Post has an "exclusive" on how Rep. Joseph Crowley, who represents Queens (and part of the Bronx) and is also the Queens Democratic party boss, spends most of his time in D.C. to the point that his wife and children live in Arlington, Virginia: "The Crowleys live in an expansive home in the leafy Washington suburb of Arlington, Va., where his three kids attend the community's nationally renowned public schools -- shunning New York City's educational system, property records show." more ›

DC Comics, the 70+ year old comic book company, has been trying everything it can to make itself more inviting to potential younger comic fans; in recent days, they've announced that they will release all of their superhero comic book titles digitally the same day as in print. And even more drastically, they've announced that as of August 31st, they will be resetting all 52 of their comics book titles back to #1. more ›

It's almost time to kiss those de-magnetizing flimsy excuses for transit currency goodbye. The MTA is planning on phasing out MetroCards and replacing them with sturdier, microchip-implanted "MTA Cards," says the Daily News. On Tuesday, the agency will release a "140 page roadmap" of the future to technology-related companies in the hopes that one of them will create what the MTA's CFO calls "E-ZPass for transit." more ›

Rep. Anthony Weiner, who recently showed off his social media skills by chatting with people on Daily Kos, Reddit, Twitter and Facebook, hates bike lanes (kinda). But do you know what else he hates? Paying his parking tickets on time! Roll Call found that the Weiner owed $2,180 in unpaid Washington DC parking tickets from March 2007 through early this month. Luckily for DC coffers, Weiner wants to run for NYC mayor in 2013 so he paid them after he was contacted by Roll Call! more ›

Black Panthers' "field marshal" and "arms expert" Donald L. Cox died last month in France, the NY Times reports today. Cox had been living in exile since the early '70s after he fled the U.S. to evade a warrant for his arrest; he'd been charged as a conspirator in the murder of a Black Panther member who had been a police informer in Baltimore. But before he was indicted, Cox was a guest at a fundraiser for the Black Panthers at Leonard Bernstein's apartment in the Dakota in 1970. This party was made famous by Tom Wolfe's New York magazine feature "Radical Chic," in which Wolfe recalls Cox's speech to the posh people in attendance: more ›

Puzzled as to why so many subway escalators are out of service? So is the MTA. Chairman Jay Walder admitted at yesterday's board meeting that the agency has failed to maintain the city's network of 169 escalators, noting that "I don't believe we're providing the service." Despite his honesty, this is old news given that one out of every eleven of the city's escalators are out of service. more ›

A small update on the pit bull puppy that was discovered tied to the Williamsburg Bridge during a snowstorm last week... she's with her new family (in D.C.) and looks happy as can be. Her new humans named her Penelope, and Nick at Scouting NY (who helped save and deliver her to her new home) reports that "when she arrived at her new home, she was timid at first, and even refused to go anywhere near the bed due to some sort of past training. They quickly broke her of this, and she spent the night cuddled up with them until late the next morning." more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] In case you hadn't heard, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are hosting some big rally in Washington, D.C. today, and it looks like a lot of New Yorkers were making the southward schlep to see what it's all about. At 5:30 a.m., folks lined up outside CitiField to hop on buses provided by the Huffington Post, and according to Late Night Done Right the meet up wasn't a total clusterfuck. Though there were 20 different lines for buses, everyone got on in a calm and orderly fashion, and they were D.C. bound by 6 a.m. How sane and reasonable! more ›

The man accused of plotting to bomb the Washington D.C. Metro is the second terrorist suspect to emerge from the fertile loins of Staten Island this week. Farooque Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, currently claims residence in Northern Virginia, but he lived on Staten Island for many years, and studied for two years at the College of Staten Island (ultimately graduating from the City University of New York). He also took his oath of allegiance (HA!) in New York. more ›

Yesterday, numerous organizations, including the NAACP, SEIU, and UAW, gathered in Washington D.C. for the One Nation rally about progressive causes. One of the organizers, radio and MSNBC talk show host Ed Schulz, told the crowd, "We are together. This march is about the power to the people. It is about the people standing up to the corporations. Are you ready to fight back?" He also faulted the Republicans to sending jobs overseas, vowing to "take back America, "and adding, "This is a defining moment in America. Are you American? This is no time to back down. This is time to fight for America." more ›

For the University's first "Study Away" site—where students get to study somewhere else without that pesky business of getting a passport—NYU has broken ground on the Constance Milstein and Family Academic Center in DC, where students can study Congress full time! But Marty Lipton, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of NYU, insists the site still fits in with his vision of a "global network university." He said at the groundbreaking, “At first we thought ‘global’ was the most important of the three words…but we came to realize that the real word is university." "Network" never gets no respect. more ›

Update, 5:15 p.m.: DCist reports that Lee was shot. Here's what Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger said, "He took three people hostage, near the lobby area of the entrance to the building. Over the past several hours, we've been in negotiations with the man. Approximately ten minutes ago, the suspect was shot by police officers. A device appeared to go off, we haven't confirmed that as of this time, we saw some smoke, may have heard a pop, haven't confirmed all that as of yet. There were three hostages, all of the hostages are safe and out of the building." more ›

For all our muttered complaints, New York City's public transportation system is still one of the oldest and most extensive in the world. Dating back to 1910, the subway is today one of four in the U.S. to at least partially serve 24/7, 365 days a year, and is ranked fourth in the world for annual ridership, just under Tokyo, Moscow, and Seoul. But as in all other walks of life, though size matters, so does price. Following the horrifying news last month that the MTA greenlit a 7.5 percent fare hike for January, riders have been in an uproar. more ›

On Sunday, D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee had some suggestions for NYC's school system, mainly that we should adopt a teachers' union contract like her's, which she calls "groundbreaking in many ways." NYC public school teachers can make up to $100,000, but Rhee wrote in a Daily News op-ed, "The best teachers, in my opinion, should be paid a lot more." She suggests firing "ineffective" teachers and basing those layoffs on performance, not tenure. The DOE already proposed a bill tying teacher performance to test scores. DC Schools Insider notes that Rhee was once Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's protege; a commenter grouses, "Rhee is already the poster child of the pushy, smug, opinionated 'N'Yawker' caricature, so full of certitude and so lacking in humility." more ›

A recent nationwide round-up of metropolitan commutes placed NYC's sort of near the top of the list, at sixth place. But of the area's highways and byways, the Cross Bronx Expressway is a standout for congestion, reported the Daily Beast. “There’s an old phrase that we used to have: too many cars and not enough roadway, and that fits the Cross Bronx to a T,” said Tom Kaminski, traffic reporter for WCBS 880. “There’s no room to expand, there’s no way to throw in an additional lane or an additional shoulder—people have started changing their driving habits whenever they can.” more ›

After vowing to use every procedural roadblock at their disposal to delay a final vote on the health care overhaul bill, Senate Republicans finally gave up and headed home for Christmas, hopefully in time to beat the blizzard spanking middle America. With Vice President Joe Biden presiding over the Senate, the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (read it here) passed with a 60-39 vote along party lines this morning. Beginning at 7:05 a.m., Senators began casting their aye or nay votes, and when Biden came to ailing Robert Byrd, the 92-year-old Democrat from West Virginia, he said, "Mr. President, this is for my friend Ted Kennedy. Aye!" more ›

At 1 a.m. this morning, with D.C. still digging out from an historic blizzard, the Senate voted 60-40 along party lines to cut off debate on an expansive health care legislation. After securing the vote of Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, on Saturday, the Senate appears on track to pass the bill by Christmas Eve. At this point, Senate Republicans are fighting the bill with parliamentary tactics, demanding the full 30 hours of debate allowed under the rules after each filibuster is broken by a vote of 60 senators. Because the storm had severly delayed Amtrak, a government plane was sent to retrieve New Jersey Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez. more ›

The Obama administration will attempt to give the federal government control over safety regulations for the nation's subway and light-rail systems. You know who else controlled an entire nation's transit system? Mussolini. But he made the trains run on time! (Or did he?) At any rate, Obama's plan would expand the U.S DOT's control over airlines and Amtrak to every subway and light-rail system in the country, including the MTA. The proposal will be presented to Congress by the end of the year. more ›

NYC had a government plane flying too close to Lower Manhattan buildings oops-y in April, and today, Washington D.C. had reports of a U.S. Coast Guard boat firing at another vessel on the Potomac River. Of course, the Coast Guard now says it was a training exercise and that no shots were actually fired, but it is September 11 when the nation is worried about terrible stuff happening so the incident caused the media to freak out, especially since, the Washington Post reports, "The incident occurred near the Memorial Bridge, at approximately the same time that President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were laying a wreath at the Pentagon memorial, a short distance away." more ›

If you were one of the 150,000 New Yorkers who tried and failed to nab one of the golden tickets to the Obama Inauguration distributed by Senator Chuck Schumer, consider yourself lucky. Schumer is now calling for an investigation into last Tuesday's utterly predictable clusterfuck, which left thousands languishing in lines far from the area where President Obama took his mangled oath of office. (Some were reduced to calling family at home and listening to Obama's address on TV via cell phone!) The Daily News obtained an e-mail sent to Schumer from one bitter ticket winner named Cathy Shannon, who writes, "I'm sorry I was a winner, as now I am a big loser. After waiting on line for 3-1/2 hours... I actually got to miss the event. It was disgraceful... The most disorganized event I ever attended in my life. Schumer says he "feels terrible" and promises he'll make it up to everyone in 2012! more ›