That was the big scoop from tonight’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting. Metropolitan Police Department Sergeant Hackley said during the crime report that the bull’s head, which was stolen a little over a week ago from Halcyon House on Prospect St., had made its way back to the House and owner John Dreyfuss. The statue’s valued at $25,000.

No word yet on the identity of the Brazen Bull Bandits or what punishment they might face, but Commissioner Bill Starrels said that as soon as he heard about the theft he got in touch with Georgetown’s Ray Danieli and set up a meeting between Dreyfuss, school officials, and MPD, so it looks the Bandits are students.

Photo from Flickr user Big Grey Mare used under a Creative Commons license

So, unfortunately there’s no actual money involved in winning Hoya Blue’s t-shirt slogan contest, but at least your season tickets will be free (they’ll set you back $125 otherwise.) Email your catchphrases to hoyablue@georgetown.edu.

When Georgetown housing doesn’t have enough on-campus residences available, they hold an eligibility lottery for students who don’t want to brave the wilds of off-campus leases.

When American University’s housing department doesn’t have enough rooms, they pay for their students to live in the Georgetown Holiday Inn, plus free shuttle service. I was feeling good about getting off the waitlist and into a Nevils apartment, but now I’m just jealous.

Via DCist,the first (and best) rap about DC voting rights. It’s got Eleanor Holmes Norton crossing her arms, all sorts of DC residents asking for their rights, and a heartbreaking intro.Best of all, around 2:00 rapper Joe L. Da Vessel complains to Shadow Senator Michael Brown: “Now I know this is delicate, but I could go to war and all I get is shadow delegate?” Brown just shrugs and looks abashed, it’s priceless.

Creative Loafing, the national chain of alt-weeklies which purchased the Chicago Reader and the Washington City Paper in July 2007, is filing for bankruptcy.  CP editor Erik Wemple announced the news on City Desk, the City Paper’s news blog, this morning.

A corporate memo released this morning captured the rationale for the move: “The term ‘bankruptcy’ conjures up all kinds of images and demons but it is essentially a legal proceeding designed to give an over-leveraged company the time, process and a safe harbor for which to reorganize its finances. Chapter 11 was the natural place for the Company to go to accomplish an orderly reorganization of our finances.”

…

“This filing has little to do with the acquisition and everyone should feel very proud of what we’ve accomplished,” reads the company memo. “It hasn’t been easy but it has been successful. The assumptions we made have not turned out to be so successful. The print business has been under siege from all quarters with the exception of the one place that counts; audience.”

I’m not sure how the acquisition itself can be successful while the assumptions Creative Loafing made—presumably upon which the acquisition was based—were not.  I also don’t really buy the “print is dying” argument as a rationale for Creative Loafing’s troubles.  Even though print revenue has been declining, the City Paper and the Reader are still profitable newspapers, as they have been since the ’80’s.  Considering that web advertising now only makes up roughly 5% of the City Paper’s overall revenue, it seems to me like Eason may have jumped the gun by switching to a “web-first” model so soon.

On the bright side, at least the editorial cuts mentioned in the Voice’s feature on the City Paper last week are going to be put off for a while.

Looks like the problem of ICC computers not loading Gmail is mostly resolved. I got an email this morning from UIS saying all the computers have been “reimaged” and are now able to log in, except for one on the second floor that still won’t.

The problem seems to have been as commenter Matthew Smith said: the computers’ clocks were going crazy, and that messed with Gmail somehow. So now you can check your Gmail and get the correct time.

Everyone’s got Van Slyke fever, and the only cure is more handguns. GW now has a task force looking into whether to give its police force handguns, and the kids don’t like it.

Now’s a good time to point out that, thus far, no one’s been hurt from DPS pepper spray and batons. Watch this space, though.

The first paragraph from a story on the possibility of D.C. legalizing gay marriage which appeared in the September 17 Washington Blade (emphasis mine):

If Democrats expand their majority in Congress and California voters uphold same-sex marriage, a gay marriage bill is likely to be approved by the D.C. City Council as early as April 2009, according to activists and City Hall insiders.

The lede from a similar story in The Hoya by Anna Salinas which appeared on September 23:

Same-sex marriage could be legalized in D.C. as early as this coming spring if Democrats gain more Congressional seats in November, according to activists and insiders at City Hall.

Looks a little fishy to me.  “If Democrats expand their majority in Congress” = “if Democrats gain more Congressional seats”, “as early as April 2009″ = “as early as this coming spring”, and “according to activists and City Hall insiders” = “according to activists and insiders at City Hall.” If it weren’t for that last phrase, I wouldn’t have noticed about the similarities—it’s not uncommon for two stories on the same topic to have similar ledes.  I kind of doubt that The Hoya’s writer has inside sources at City Hall, though.

Salinas’s article cites the Blade’s article on mayoral and council support for the bill, so she definitely read it. Hoya editor-in-chief Bailey Heaps declined to comment when I asked him about the similarities.

Update Sept. 29 8:36 pm:  Bailey Heaps responds:

After investigating this matter, it appears that during the editing process, we subconsciously co-opted a phrase from the Washington Blade story into our lead.  This underscores the need to always be as thorough and critical as we possibly can be throughout the editing process.  It was an unnecessary mistake and readers deserve much better.  We regret the error

He added, “This error should not be attributed to Anna, a very capable new writer.”

Meanwhile, at ResLife

While working on her column about how awful floor funds are, Voice features editor Kate Mays got this email from Patrick Killilee, the Associate Director of ResLife (emphasis mine):

Students are asked to contribute to residence hall and apartment programming efforts through floor funds. This is a voluntary program. These funds are used by RAs, Community Councils and Neighborhood Councils to sponsor events for resident students. Last year there were over 1,800 programs in the residence halls and apartments, with over 13,000 students attending these events.

Hopefully you’ve managed to avoid paying so far and can use this post to keep your money. Not that you should throw away a chance to legally bribe your RA without thinking about it.

I’ve heard of people keeping their options open, and one of my best guy friends tells me it’s important to always have a “list,” but I thought the key to such a plan was being fairly discreet about it. Not so for one of this week’s Date Lab daters, who says she’s involved in a “monogamous” relationship but is “exploring having deep friendships with members of the opposite sex that may or may not evolve.” I wonder how her boyfriend feels about that.

Even setting aside her non-singlehood, these two seem like a peculiar pair: he mentioned yoga three times in his pre-date questionnaire, while she says her best date ever was “hiking in a state park, followed by a meal in a brew pub and some good lovin’ afterward.” Well, then.

Luckily, his yogic mindset comes in handy when she drops the bomb about being taken: “They teach you to keep a neutral mind in yoga.”

Predictably, she chooses not the leave the guy she’s seeing for the DL yogi, and things pretty much end there. According to the Post’s follow-up, two week’s after the date she still hadn’t mentioned it to her boyfriend, and since he lives out of town he might never know about it. Except for, you know, the internet. I seriously hope there’s a follow-follow-up when he finds out.

Rating: 2. The girl is unlikable for leading him on, but the guy’s nothing special to read about either. Overall, pretty lame.

Chances of Success: 1. Even if she ends it with the other guy, it’s unlikely he’d trust her after being tricked in a national newspaper.