Sign up for our free newsletter

A morning roundup of news, opinion, and links from Washington City Paper and around the District. Send tips and ideas to citydesk@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Sign up: To get District Line Daily—or any of our other email newsletters—sent straight to your mailbox, click here.

Woe unto the Wizards: The sometimes up, mostly down hometown team has ended up traded player Jordan Crawford for a deal the team says is the best it could get.

LEADING THE MORNING NEWS:

  • Ex-nonprofit head Millicent West to face tax fraud charges at hearing this morning. [Loose Lips]
  • Bring-your-gun-to-Starbucks Day in Virginia. [Post]
  • Caps hamstrung by penalties. [Post]
  • Wintry mix ahead today. [WJLA]
  • Man found guilty in killing two over illegal craps game. [Examiner]
  • Too weird not to include: the U.S. plan to airdrop dead mice over Guam. [WTOP]

RECENT CITY PAPER STORIES TO HELP YOU MAKE SENSE OF YOUR DAY:

Photos of the Day: Club Lip-Sync.

An Offer He Can Refuse: Daily Dish proprietor and former Adams Morgan resident Andrew Sullivan has been having a bad time in New York, so why doesn’t he just move back to D.C.?

Porking for It: Red Apron Butcher’s pork takes days to make.

Over Board: Jim Graham is taking a D.C. ethics board to court over its claim that he violated city conduct laws.

LOOSE LIPS, by Loose Lips columnist Alan Suderman. (tips? lips@washingtoncitypaper.com)

  • Jim Graham is going to fight this thing to the end, has Marion Barry on his side. [Post]
  • Critics say Graham needs a harsher proposed punishment. [Examiner]
  • Vince Gray headed to Florida to throw out first pitch at Nats spring training. [Post]
  • D.C. Vote starts campaigning for budget autonomy referendum. [Post]
  • Editor complains about MPD’s stonewalling. (MPD once tried to tell LL that a cop’s hire date was confidential, which it most certainly is not.) [Times]
  • Ethics board hiring open government honcho. [Examiner]
  • Gray forms yet another task force, this one to make D.C. the the “most business-friendly” city in the world. [WBJ]

HOUSING COMPLEX, by Aaron Wiener (tips? awiener@washingtoncitypaper.com)

  • An FBI move to Poplar Point could benefit alleged shadow campaign financier Jeff Thompson. [Loose Lips]
  • Suitland’s a better location anyway. [GGW]
  • MoCo tries to get sexy. [Post]
  • Mapping bikers in D.C. [MV Jantzen]
  • Two proposals for increasing service on the 16th Street NW bus line. [GGW]
  • More roads could get dedicated space for buses and bikes. [DCist]
  • A novel basis for a property assessment appeal: mustard gas. [WBJ]
  • Today on the market: Dupont Victorian

ARTS LINKS, by Ally Schweitzer (tips? artsdesk@washingtoncitypaper.com)

  • The Dutch-born D.C. area producer Martyn on today’s popular electronic music: “I think the sound of dubstep and electro-house took hold of the U.S. and it didn’t evolve into club music. It evolved into stadium music. It sounds more like nu-metal.” [Post]
  • CulturalDC announces a new public-art project at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library [Art 202]
  • D.C. band Paperhaus launches a Kickstarter campaign to help it pay for tour [D.C. Music Download]
  • D.C. cab driver makes a film that imagines what his life would be like if he became a mob cabbie [WAMU]
  • Depending on your definition of “respond,” you could say Vice magazine has responded to Chris Richards‘ recent WaPo piece about D.C. musicians who relocate to other cities [Vice]
  • Potomac Video: still going strong, its owner reports [WAMU]
  • Benoit & Sergio are forced to remember their worst tour experiences [XLR8R]
  • Ugly Purple Sweater <3s jumbo slice and Target [WAMU]
  • Roger Gastman and Mark Andersen talk 1980s D.C. [Express]
  • The author of Hollywood on the Potomac talks about how film directors depict D.C. (usually incorrectly) [WAMU]
  • Washington Post staffer/City Paper contributor Ryan Little writes Jonathan Richman a letter, receives a handwritten poem in return [Post]
  • Local historian Garrett Peck traces the history of the Smithsonian Castle’s relationship with the Seneca Quarry [Huffington Post D.C.]
  • Here’s a photo of The Evens on the cover of Ghettoblaster [Facebook]
  • ICYMI: Call Wale not famous, and you’ll hear some words [Post]

FOOD LINKS, by Jessica Sidman (tips? hungry@washingtoncitypaper.com)

  • Where to eat gourmet breakfast for dinner [Express]
  • The best dishes at the best restaurants [Washingtonian]
  • Study finds a third of seafood is mislabeled. [Post]
  • Diners attempt to bribe Toki Underground staff for seats on an almost daily basis [Eater]
  • T-minus one week until Beau Thai‘s opening in Mount Pleasant [PoPville]
  • Movie-themed cocktails for your Oscar-watching party [Borderstan]