Officer Joel Witriol Though some bloggers have shrugged off Monday's allegedly rough arrest of a woman who was carrying her pug through the subway as "breathtakingly minor," the incident's certainly major enough to have gotten the attention of New York's top cop. Or, at least a reporter was able to ask NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly whether officer Joel Witriol used excessive force and made sexist remarks while arresting Chrissie Brodigan, who was trying to carry her sick pug out of the subway station. Brodigan says Witriol told her, "'If you're going to act like a woman I'm going to...

       

As the city celebrated Canada Day yesterday, a small group of Christie Pits neighbourhood residents—disgruntled by the City's policy of using parks as temporary dump sites during the city workers' strike—took their grievance to City Hall in a protest organized by Friends of Christie Pits. Residents' groups around the city have been confronting people coming to drop off their garbage at park sites. The protesters brought bags of trash to drop at the front door of City Hall, but, in keeping with the family-friendly feel of the protest, the bags were full of fake garbage—some containing nothing but air—and none...

NYC transplants decry LA's apparent lack of hardcore Italian delis. That is, until a clued-up Angeleno points that Negative Nancy to Bay Cities Deli and Bakery. If New York were a sovereign nation (it's not,) its local embassy would be this Santa Monica hotspot. ...

       

As we noted in Go Home Already, the cast members of the Real World house officially made their way to their new Dupont Circle home today. And I was not the only "reporter" waiting for them on the corner of 20th and S Streets NW. There was videoblogger elizabethany and her friend, along with self-proclaimed soon-to-be blogger Martin, who was keeping us informed of all the latest RWDC news (presumably via tweets from #RealWorldDCNEWZ), and a couple of other random stalkers. They brought me up to speed on what I'd missed a couple of hours earlier, principally that six cast...

Has the world gone mad? Gwyneth Paltrow, who once loved NYC (but lately has soured on America), is calling Spain her second home. In a recent interview she said, "Here in the United States an old building is about 17 (years old), and over there it's from 500 B.C. It's incredible." Celebs do tend to be anti-development. She also noted that people enjoy life more there, as opposed to New Yorkers, who run around too much punching the keys on their BlackBerries. Meanwhile, Miss Manhattan herself, Sarah Jessica Parker might be moving to Brooklyn! Rumor has it that her...

Photo by el swifterino Good morning, Washington. As we reported yesterday, it turns out that the train control system track circuit that appears to have played a role in last week's fatal Red Line Crash was actually replaced by WMATA maintenance staff only five days before the accident. Not just that, but data also showed that the track circuit periodically lost its ability to detect trains in the period between when it was replaced, on June 17, and the crash on June 22. Well now WJLA says it has two anonymous sources who say that Metro technicians knew that...

Photo by Albert Huynh on Flickr We admit that headline may be a little sensational... but Steven T. Jones, writing one of several inter-related pieces on the politics of parking in this week's SFBG, argues that the city is only now starting to put its money where its mouth is with regard to the "transit first" policy adopted decades ago. In short, the SFMTA is rolling out a new pilot program in the fall called SF Park which will take 6,000 parking spaces -- both on-street and in lots -- and monitor their use in order to adjust pricing...

Never since Tony Soprano prowled his NJ kitchen has a big bear wanted Italian cold cuts so much! The Star-Ledger reports that Vernon resident Henry Rouwendal's "Italian hoagie, loaded with salami and other meats, lettuce, onions and tomatoes" was so tempting that a black bear knocked him down: "Rouwendal said was knocked, face-first to the ground. When he rolled over, the bear was standing over him and then grabbed the sandwich." The 52-year-old electrical engineer said, "I kicked him three times in the snout and one time in the throat. I think the one in the throat got him."...

    

Written by DCist contributor Eric Axelson Is it wrong to expect an innovative brewery to have equally forward thinking alehouses? Because heading to the Dogfish Head Alehouse in Gaithersburg, MD, I was trying to think what kind of otherworldly experience it would be, coming from folks who turn out great beer like the 60-Minute IPA as well as interesting mixes like the Midas Touch. Would the menu continue fusions where the beer left off? Would the atmosphere push together styles that have never met? If you’ve had Dogfish Head beer, you know that they don’t mess around. As the slogan...

credit: Jim Herd (SF Citizen) Why, here's a shot from this afternoon's PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) protest against McDonald's, over on the 600 block of Van Ness. Not nearly as erotic as we had anticipated, but effective. Yes? No? Eater has more. Also, yes, please, McDonald's, stop scaling chickens. Ouch....