DCentric

Good morning, DCentric readers! While you were watching Top Chef DC (and tweeting your anguished reactions), we were finding tasty links for you to enjoy!

Can the LGBT vote rescue Mendelson? “A Washington Post poll showing that the largely unknown D.C. shadow senator, Michael D. Brown, is leading incumbent Council member Phil Mendelson by 17 points in the at-large City Council race has shocked the city’s political establishment and raised the question of whether LGBT voters could save Mendelson from defeat.” (ashingtonblade.com)

Twitter breaks story on Discovery Channel gunman “…for raw speed and real-time eyewitness accounts, it’s now virtually impossible for the mainstream media to keep pace with the likes of Twitter. The service enables anyone equipped with a smartphone to tell the world what he or she sees in 140-character bursts. Twitpic (as well as similar sites) can let them see it.” (The Washington Post)

Resident to Launch First of Three Health-Conscious Restaurants “By the end of the year she expects to open her first restaurant in downtown D.C., and her later plans call for opening another in Chevy Chase as well as a Centric Kitchen in Georgetown…“Everything’s steamed, baked, grilled or broiled, and it’s all whole grain,” Finley said. “Nothing is fried and everything’s made to order right on the spot,” she continued. “There is meat, but it’s chicken, bison and ostrich – things that are low in fat.”” (afro.com)
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Good Morning, Washington, D.C. Let’s wish Wednesday (and September!) a warm welcome by toasting it with some links!

Washington Post suspends columnist for Twitter hoax “Wise wrote on Twitter after the incident that he’s “an idiot” and offered “apologies to all involved.” But the columnist still didn’t appear to grasp just why Twitter users (including other journalists) assume respected journalists are publishing accurate information on the medium. “I was right about nobody checking facts or sourcing,” he added along with Monday’s apology.” (Yahoo News)

Gallery Place Installs Anti-Loitering Device (it’s called the “Mosquito”) “…the Mosquito will dissuade loiterers but will not hamper shoppers, diners and those seeking entertainment. Gallery Place called for new legislation prohibiting loitering — a rule that the District of Columbia, unlike every other major U.S. city, has failed to put on its books.” (NBC Washington)

Lead Contamination Closes Columbia Heights Playground “According to DC’s Department of the Environment, the contamination came from a nearby construction site. The park is located at the corner of 11th and Monroe Streets in Columbia Heights.” (WUSA Washington, DC)

On my shopping list – Isabel Wilkerson’s Sweeping book, ‘Warmth of Other Suns’ “In a book that, quite amazingly, is her first, Ms. Wilkerson…has pulled off an all but impossible feat. She has documented the sweeping 55-year-long migration of black Americans across their own country…this work of living history boils down to the tenderly told stories of three rural Southerners who immigrated to big cities from their hometowns.” (The New York Times)

Oval Office makeover has comfy, more modern feel “”The room seems very American…And it looks like such a mix of classic and contemporary, with a laid-back elegance. Those sofas are plush, but not fancy, not fussy. It looks like a lot of work gets done in there. It’s elegant, and it’s also appropriate. It feels humanized.”" (WTOP News)

How Cadavers Made Your Car Safer “It’s not just cars that benefit. Researchers have drawn on Wayne State’s cadaver work to design helmets that might prevent concussions in NFL players. NASA has used cadavers to test vehicle crashworthiness, and the Defense Department backs studies using cadavers to better understand traumatic brain injuries. And as good as computer models are, they still can’t capture the exact essence of how human tissue reacts…” (ired.com)