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

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Good morning from Washington City Paper! It’s Friday. Today’s the two-year anniversary of the District’s first same-sex marriages.

LEADING THE MORNING NEWS: Metro has known about shoddy brakes on its rail cars for years. [Post] 60 DCPS classrooms to be examined for possible cheating. [Examiner] Obama dines with contest winners on H Street. [MyFoxDC] 227,000 new jobs added to the economy. [WJLA] No more free (illegal) parking in one federally-owned lot. [WTOP] D.C. Council considers solar panel legislation. [WAMU]

YOUR DAILY QUALITY-OF-LIFE MEASUREMENT: Yesterday, City Paper‘s Needle ticked up five points. The bad news: A $70,000 pile of polos. The good news: Baby kiwis hatched at the National Zoo. Take a look here.

SIX CITY PAPER STORIES FROM THE LAST 24 HOURS TO HELP YOU MAKE SENSE OF YOUR DAY:

Max “Hollywood” Skolnik Winning Non-Voting Celebrity Support: Loose Lips Alan Suderman reports that famous people who don’t live in D.C. really want Max Skolnik to win his race against Ward 4 incumbent Muriel Bowser: “Last night, Skolnik got a Twitter boost from Tom Colicchio, the firm but fairTop Chef judge who, you know, actually knows how to cook food. ‘Proud of my friend @maxskolnik fighting to get corporate $ out of politics. Learn more or donate to his campaign,’ Colicchio wrote, with a link to Skolnik’s website.”

Pieces of Harriet: Housing Complex’s Lydia DePillis took the cover this week with a profile of D.C.’s director of planning, Harriet Tregoning. On the blog, she shares a few tidbits that didn’t make it into the lengthy cover, including an exchange between Tregoning and Deputy Mayor Victor Hoskins over historic preservation.

Do The Fight Thing: Now that he’s seen the full thing, contributor Chris Klimek follows up a feature he wrote about  Studio Theatre’s Sucker Punch, a play about race and boxing: “From reading Goldstein’s piece, you’d get the impression that none of Sucker Punch‘s fights are “realistic”; from mine, you might infer that the majority of them are. Neither of us got the complete story, and thus Studio, whether by luck or by design, was able to gin up audience interest while holding something back for them — and for me—to discover.”

What Does Mintwood Place Mean for Adams Morgan Dining? Is Adams Morgan finally becoming a destination dining spot (as opposed to a drunk-at-three-a.m-and-you-really-need-a-jumbo-slice dining spot)? Chris Shott writes about the impact of Mintwood Place, the latest fancyish restaurant in the neighborhood: “If this trend toward more legitimate eats continues, maybe one day, some stunning dish will eventually topple the jumbo slice as Adams Morgan’s most widely recognized culinary treasure. But at this particular point in the area’s overall culinary development, I feel pretty confident in saying that the escargot hush puppy is not the savior.”

JBG Moves On U Street Hotel, Atlantic Plumbing Sites: DePillis takes note of some new development projects: “As foreshadowed by their buying spree last year, the full-service real estate company has five large projects between 14th and S Street and 7th and Florida Avenue NW. A few quick updates gleaned from last night’s U Street Neighborhood Association meeting.”

MPD Dismisses Ticket For Cyclist Hit In Crash: After improperly ticketing an adult cyclist for not wearing a helmet, MPD has walked it back. Advocates are taking it as a good sign that MPD is working to better apply bike laws.

CUTE DRESS PHOTO OF THE DAY: Woman on Street Light

BE THERE OR BE SQUARE: City Paper will be sponsoring a series of D.C. Council candidate debates this month.

At-Large: Tuesday, March 20, 8:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. at the Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW (guest moderator: NBC4’s Tom Sherwood)

Ward 8: Wednesday, March 14, 7 p.m.-9 p.m. at Georgena’s (formerly Players Lounge), 2737 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave SE (guest moderator: Channel 7’s Sam Ford)

Ward 4: Tuesday, March 13, 8 p.m.-10 p.m. at Domku, 821 Upshur St. NW (guest moderator: WPFW’s Gloria Minott)

Ward 7: Wednesday, March 21, location and moderator TBD.

LOOSE LIPS DAILY POLITICS LINKS, by Alan Suderman (tips? lips@washingtoncitypaper.com)

• D.C. Council offices recently fitted with panic buttons. [ABC7]
• Hanafi hostage siege, 35 years later (with B-roll of Marion Barry in the hospital after being shot). [WUSA9NBC4]
• Post edit board sort of endorses anti-corporate donations initiative in wake of Jeff Thompson raid. [Post]
• DC Vote heads to Arizona to call Republican Rep. Trent Franks a “wiener.” [Post]
• More Tregoning. [HC]
• Fire Chief Ken Ellerbe says if he’s looked at women’s chests before, it was only to read their name tags. [Fox5]
• More on those $70,000 unused fire department shirts. [STATter 911]
• Only 5 of 30 DYRS social workers have legally required license. [Times]
• DYRS boss Neil Stanley still under a microscope. [Times]
• 60 public school classrooms to be investigated for possible cheating. [Examiner]
• Plenty of open spots on D.C.’s boards and commissions. [Examiner]

REAL ESTATE AND DEVELOPMENT LINKS, by Housing Complex blogger Lydia DePillis (tips? housingcomplex@washingtoncitypaper.com)

• Bikes = Hope & change. [Streetsblog]
• D.C. could end up with an office glut. [WBJ]
• Putting Klingle in perspective. [DCist]
• What exactly is the holdup on Poplar point? [WBJ]
• House shuffles agencies around. [WBJ]
• Only one billionaire has a house in D.C. [DCist]
• Rent breaks for startups! [WBJ]
• Another food truck goes brick and mortar. [Post]
• New middle schools for Ward 5. [Examiner]
• Umpteenth piece on Popularise. [AtlanticCities]
• Ghosts of streetcars past in Ledroit. [Left4Ledroit]
• The Hilton brothers’ designs on old HR-57 space. [Urbanturf]
• What’s going on with Convention Center retail spaces? [CCCA]
• “Major underground obstacles” beneath Canal Park. [JDLand]
• Today on the market: Au pair bed and bath.

ARTS LINKS, by Alex Baca (tips? artsdesk@washingtoncitypaper.com)

• A water main broke exploded fantastically outside the Uptown Theater. [Twitter, DCist]
• Artist Matthew Picton makes maps, then burns them; D.C. is one city that’s gotten toasted. [The Style Blog]
• More on the visa problems that have forced Synetic Theatre to cancel scheduled runs of Tantehorse Theatre Company’s Light in the Darkness and The Voice of Anne Frank. [DC Theater Scene]
• The Blade’s take on LUMEN8Anacostia. [Washington Blade]

FOOD LINKS, by Young & Hungry columnist Chris Shott (tips? hungry@washingtoncitypaper.com)

• Breakfast with José Andrés [Bon Appetit]
• The D.C.-area’s Top 7 most overpriced dishes. [Washingtonian]
• Single-barrel bourbon is now on tap at Jack Rose. [Urban Daddy]
• Bibiana recovers from a suspicious package scare. [NBC Washington]
• The ChurchKey crew will name its new brewery/restaurant next week. [Eater via Twitter]
• Brunch at Ben’s Next Door doesn’t suck. [Bitches Who Brunch]
• An admittedly biased argument for passing new food truck regulations. [Prince of Petworth]
• Best totally unscientific case for converting to veganism yet. [PETA]