Starbuck Naked? Feeling the call of nature after too many venti lattes? If you’re at the Starbucks at 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, you might consider holding it: A Norfolk family has filed suit after discovering a video camera in one of the store’s unisex bathrooms. The camera was propped under a sink, aiming straight at the toilet. Their attorneys say the coffee chain was negligent. -1
No More MLK Sundays: The city’s money woes have claimed another casualty: D.C.’s central library branch, the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, will close on Sundays starting next month as the city library system absorbs an $800,000 budget cut. The good news, according to an official statement: You’ll still be able to download electronic books seven days a week! -2
Ann Taylor to the Rescue: Washingtonians love their interview suits. And now there will be even more to love: Ann Taylor will open up one of its new “concept stores” at 600 13th Street NW this November, reports the Washington Business Journal. The new-look retail outlet will feature touches like “runway-style mannequins and spacious fitting rooms.” +1
Baltimore Out-Surveils D.C.: All those Washingtonians who felt superior when they watched Bodie break the surveillance camera early in The Wire should think again: It turns out that Baltimore—the city whose crime woes were fictionalized by the legendary HBO show—is vastly suprior to D.C. when it comes to using cameras to stop crooks. A new study by the Urban Institute says Charm City, as well as Chicago, outperform the District because, it seems, the District sometimes fails to actually monitor what’s being recorded by the cameras. -2
Friday’s Needle rating: 68. Today’s score: -4. Today’s Needle rating: 64.