What ho, D.C.! And, er, Happy Lent.  Here’s what’s new:

*The Hill: Obama speaks before congress; gets a big treatment from the Washington Post and a weird, semi-positive lede graf from the Washington Times.

*Crime: WUSA9 reports that D.C. Police are searching for Alice Raffner, a 56-year-old white female who is “5’2″ tall, weighing approximately 140 pounds, with blue eyes and blonde hair.”

*Traffic: Petworth News features a chilling FlipCam movie about the perils of motoring around Grant Circle.

*Science: ABC7 reports that the National Zoo’s whistling orangutans may just help us unlock the mysteries of human speech.  And they have video!  But I bet they didn’t capture a multigenerational gorilla prizefight. [Via Borderstan.]

*Burris: Via WaPo: “Sen. Burris Helps D.C. Celebrate Voting Rights.” And boy does he look cheerful.

*The Arts: PoP psychologizes the statue of Francis Asbury’s horse!

…did they have to capture the horse biting his knee or shooing a fly or something….. I can just imagine the horse thinking: “Man I stood still for 4 hours for the artist, I have one moment of weakness, and that’s the pose I’m immortalized in? Horseshit!”

Photo courtesy of Charis Tsvevis.