Robert Devaney

It seemed serendipitous, even if it was not, to see developer Anthony Lanier and restaurant owner Britt Swansitting near each ...

More than the usual number of Metropolitan Police Department squad cars and Georgetown University police have been traveling around 35th & Prospect streets as well as parked there, neighbors report. Here are a few crime notes:

The Georgetown Senior Center, founded by the late Virginia Luce Allen almost 30 years ago and located in the Parish hall of St. John’s Church on O Street, will close on Nov. 24.

John E. Olsson, founder of the beloved and once-famous Olsson’s Books and Records, died Oct. 28 at the age of 78 in Silver Spring. He started his stores in Dupont Circle, eventually controlling a chain of nine shops, the best of which was on Wisconsin Avenue at Prospect Street (near the site of the Apple Computer store).

A Burleith neighborhood group is checking properties for illegal rentals. It has reported what it believes are 134 illegal basement rentals to the DC Department of Consumer & Regulatory Affairs. Property owners without a proper occupation license may face a fine.

Advisory neighborhood commissioner Bill Starrels seems to be a verb, according to a Nov. 11 Georgetown Voice headline. In an editorial, the student newspaper cited the eagle eye of Bill Starrels, who challenged student voters’ eligibility at American University. The newest phrase to enter our lexicon is “Starrelled Down.” Hey, if Sarah Palin can get listed in the Oxford English Dictionary for “refudiate,” why not our own Bill Starrels? “Starrelled Down” just might catch on, but we’re not sure if something like “Solomoned Up” would.

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts became a "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock" annex, Tuesday, Nov. 9, as ...

If you had been standing at the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and R Street in April 2007, staring at the Georgetown Public Library up in flames, with its roof collapsing as firefighters rushed to connect working hydrants and librarians threw damaged documents onto the sidewalk, you had a right to feel depressed. It’s a damn shame to see a library on fire. How and when would we fix this?

Raise a glass, Washingtonians, to Richard McCooey, who celebrates 50 years in the business world this year, and his 80th birthday on October 14th. You likely have dined at his first classics in Georgetown: 1789 Restaurant or The Tombs, now owned by Clyde’s Restaurant Group.

Las Vegas, Nevada, is a blessing and a bet. Once a simple railroad stop with its underground springs and “meadows,” as its name means, the city sits at the intersection of America’s great deserts and west of one of this nation’s greatest natural wonders: the Grand Canyon. During the Great Depression and the construction of the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas decided to allow and profit from gambling and other sins. And it has not looked back much since . . . until now.

The first Americans called it Tohoga – “sweet land of sassafras.” This settlement may have changed its trails and huts, but Georgetown remains the meeting place for the District and its nation.

News unfolds regarding the robbery that occurred Sept. 30 outside the BB&T Bank on Wisconsin.