Winning the Wedding: The owner of one of the Washington area’s newspapers is going to the royal wedding this week—and no, it’s not anyone from The Washington Post. (Or from Washington City Paper, but you already knew that.) Politico (and TBD) mogul Joe Allbritton and his wife Barby made the cut, apparently because—like Queen Elizabeth—they’re very rich and like horses. We look forward to subscribing to the paper’s new morning email, Palacebook. +1

Deep Throat, Realtor: During the Watergate era, when Bob Woodward wanted to meet with Deep Throat, his famous confidential source, he’d put a flag in the flower pot on the balcony of his apartment in Dupont Circle. That apartment is now for sale, which means that if you have $215,000 for a studio, you, too, can signal to FBI agents that you’d like to meet with them. Or you can do what Woodward does these days when he wants to meet with confidential sources, which is tell them he’s writing another book. +1

Fire Truck Run Amok: And now, time for yet another report that—had it been released during last year’s election—would have gotten a whole lot of attention. The D.C. Office of Inspector General says the administration of former Mayor Adrian Fenty violated several city procedures when officials donated a fire truck to Sousa, Dominican Republic, in 2009. But since these days, Fenty’s better known for a) losing an election and b) staying completely out of the news since he lost, chances are no one will care. Which is more or less the way most city residents greeted another report recently on Fenty’s contracting practices. Just goes to show: Losing cures all ills. -2

Summer in April: Just when dreary weather looked like it would be the official sponsor of D.C.’s spring, things took a turn for the better. The last few days have been warm and sunny; the next few are likely to bring more of the same. Which, besides all the other benefits of gorgeous sunny days, means we won’t hear anything from climate change deniers until it cools down again. +3

Friday’s Needle rating: 64 Today’s score: +3 Today’s Needle rating: 67