Mark Herlong��is a tour guide for��WalkingTown DC and an expert on D.C.’s rougher, raunchier history. The things he knows aren’t found in most history books. He took me on an abbreviated tour of Blagden Alley, Naylor Court and the streets around the alleys. In terms of the area’s dirty secrets, Herlong is��an open book. He read me an excerpt of a Washington Post article from the 1890s that warns against partaking in the types of activities going on in alleys like Blagden and Naylor Court.

“If you have the curiosity to know how the lower class of Washington lives, stifle it. But if you cannot you will go slumming,” he said.��“But don’t go alone if you value your life, for there are dens of vice in this beautiful city where murder lurks, and where thieves are always on the watch for victims.”

What an introduction. As Herlong explained at the beginning of the tour, the neighborhood has changed a lot in the past five years.

“It kind of skipped from being pretty scuzzy and bohemian to being very expensive without a phase in between,” he said.

At the beginning, Herlong��said the alleys were mostly uninhabited. In the 1840s, they started to populate. The alleys became home to the city’s domestic servants and laborers, mostly African American. By 1880, there were 42 households in Blagden Alley and 22 in Naylor Court. By the 1890s, he says, 11 percent of the city’s population lived in alley dwellings.

While dwellings may seem like kind of a harsh term for someone’s home, these houses were often , built of wood or brick, and built without heating, running water and sewage drains. What’s more, people were still living in some original structures up until the 1950s. Most of the alleys were razed and rebuilt, but a few were protected by the historic preservation movement, including Naylor Court and Blagden Alley.

The remaining dwellings were refurbished and updated with things like plumbing, heat and other essentials as people began to move back into the alley��in the early 2000s. Blagden Alley is now home to several coffee shops, bars, restaurants and businesses, as well as apartments and houses.

Fun fact about Herlong: He’s been hanging out in the alley since way before La Colombe got there. He frequented , an “underground skateboarding/rock-and-roll/art mecca” in an abandoned��warehouse in Blagden Alley.

Fight Club isn’t there anymore, but it’s part of the long history of the alley. Take a look around the next time you’re strolling through. They might not be as awe-inspiring as the monuments, but the Blagden Alley dwellings are a hidden piece of D.C. history worth checking out.

To request a WalkingTown D.C. tour, .

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The family of��31-year-old Nicole Mittendorff also said they believe the remains found��not far from the trailhead are Mittendorff’s.

The female remains were found at about 2 p.m. by a search team more than a mile from the Whiteoak Canyon Trail parking area, where��her car��was located last weekend. Mittendorff was reported missing April 15.

Corinne Geller, with the Virginia State Police, said��that they found a note, but no cause of death has been determined so far.��“The physical and digital evidence collected during the course of this investigation – to include a note recovered from her car – leads us to believe there was no foul play involved in her death,” Geller said.

The note was found in the car, which was discovered April 16. Geller says police chose not to disclose��that fact��while still searching for Mittendorff.

The park service and the Virginia State Police said that the search for Mittendorff has been suspended��and the scene where the remains were found was being processed for evidence. They say no positive identification has been made, but the body has been transported for an autopsy.��However,��Mittendorff’s family has posted on the Facebook page to help find Nicole.

Mittendorff’s sister, Jennifer Clardy Chalmers, issued the following statement to ������Ƶapp:

Our hearts are broken. We believe that Nicole has been found and is finally coming home, however not in the way we anticipated. This is not the positive outcome that we continued to hope and pray for over the past week. It has been a challenging time for everyone and we learned that there is an amazing community spanning the entire globe, full of love and support. It was this community that helped sustain us. We heard from and received assistance from dear old friends, strangers and everyone in between. Thank you to those who took time away from their own families to let us be with ours.

We wish to especially thank the Virginia State Police, National Park Service and the numerous agencies that used every resource at their disposal during our search for Nicole.
We thank everyone for their time, dedication and support in our search to find Nicole and ask that you keep our family in your prayers in the challenging days ahead.

Fairfax County Fire Chief Richard Bowers said in a statement Thursday night��that he and his department are “profoundly saddened” by the news.

“I, along with the men and women of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, are profoundly saddened to learn that the body found earlier today in the Shenandoah National Park is thought to be that of Firefighter-Paramedic Nicole Mittendorff. As we wait for further information, we continue to extend our thoughts and prayers to��Nicole’s friends and family.”

Investigators were reviewing Mittendorff’s cellphone records, hoping to learn where she was and what she was doing before her disappearance. Mittendorff called in sick for work last week Wednesday, the last day her family heard from her. She sent a text message to her father at 10:50 a.m. that day.

The remains were located about 330 yards off the trail in what the park service��described as “treacherous rocky terrain.”

The remote area of the park where the search has focused is more than 70 miles from Mittendorff’s Woodbridge home.

Multiple trails and areas of the park have been closed as teams of search crews combed the park by land and air during the past few days. Multiple agencies have been involved in the search, including Fairfax County Fire & Rescue. Mittendorff works for the county agency and is based at a fire station in Burke.

Stay with ������Ƶapp for updates on this developing story.

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“As residents, we know where the dirt is in our neighborhood,” she said. “We walk by the trash cans that are overflowing, or the alleys that are always cluttered.”

So, is organizing��its first just in time for Earth Day. From 10 a.m. to noon��on Saturday, volunteers will comb two designated cleanup areas for trash. At 12 p.m., the Columbia Heights Initiative is holding a cookout for volunteers, both as a thank you and as a way to get to know the people in the neighborhood. You don’t have to be a Columbia Heights resident, just someone who wants to give back.

In addition to the cleanup and cookout, there’s on Wednesday, April 20, at The Coupe, a local bar and coffee shop. There will be an eco-friendly art project for the kids, and��a local artist will be installing an art display made from recycled materials.

“Trash art,” Dornbush said. “It’s really cool.”

Dornbush said the event is just one of a number of events aimed at getting residents to mix and mingle.

“Columbia Heights is one of the most diverse, densely populated neighborhoods in the city,” she said. “There are over 32,000 people that live just in this neighborhood. How do we create opportunities for multicultural, multiethnic, multigenerational interactions?”

The grandfather of community events in the neighborhood, Columbia Heights Day, is in its 11th��year. The wild success of the festival has inspired many others.

Harriet Tubman Elementary School plays host to families throughout the summer during their Friday night “Movies on the Green.” Dornbush said the Easter egg hunt last month had over 4,000 eggs, and the December tree lighting always draws a crowd.

Dornbush sees the��Columbia Heights Initiative as a type of pilot program, and she hopes to expand the program to other neighborhoods.

“A lot of times people feel pretty isolated in a big city where there’s always something going on,” she said. “The whole goal of these events is to help connect people to their community.”

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The 2016 Spring Meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund will close the following streets from 5:30 p.m. on Friday, April 15, to 10 p.m. on Sunday, April 17.

• 19th Street, NW, from Pennsylvania Avenue to G Street.
• H Street, NW, from 20th Street to Pennsylvania Avenue.

The 2016 Emancipation Day parade will close the following streets for several events on Saturday, April 16:

Truck Touch and Rock Vote Festival, concert and fireworks display (7:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.)

• E Street, NW, from 14th Street to 13th Street.
• Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, from 14th Street to 12th Street.
• 13th Street, NW, from E Street to Pennsylvania Avenue.

Parade set up ( 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.)

• Indiana Avenue, NW, from 7th Street to 3rd Street.
• 6th Street, NW, from D Street to C Street.

The parade (12 p.m. to 2 p.m.)

• Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, from 14th Street to 4th Street.
• All streets crossing Pennsylvania Avenue from 14th Street to 4th Street will be closed between E Street and Constitution Avenue, NW.

Scheduled Street Closures: Cherry Blossom Parade

The following��street closures will be in affect for Saturday’s ��Parade, which ��will form on the National Mall and proceed westbound on Constitution Avenue, NW from 7th Street to 20^th Street NW:

Early closure 3:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

• 7^th Street between Constitution Ave NW and Independence Ave SW

Closures from 10:00 a.m.�� to 1:00 p.m.

• 9^th Street between Pennsylvania Ave. NW and Constitution Ave. NW
• 10^th Street between Pennsylvania Ave. NW and Constitution Ave. W
• 12^th Street between Pennsylvania Ave. NW and Independence Ave SW
• Access to 12^th Street Tunnel from I395 ramp SW
• 14^th Street between Pennsylvania Ave. NW to Independence Ave. SW
• 14^th Street Bridge SW (inbound) all traffic diverted East onto I395 freeway
• 15^th Street between “E” Street to Constitution Ave. NW
• 17^th Street between New York Ave NW to Independence Ave. SW
• 19^th Street between “E” Street to Constitution Ave. NW
• Virginia Ave between 20^th Street to Constitution Ave. NW

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Lindsay Larner, a marketing manager by day and a no-bake baker by night, has five regular flavors for sale as well as a “flavor of the month.” If you live within the , you can get dough delivered to your door like a pizza. If you’re not that fortunate, she’s got pickup and shipping options as well.

“I haven’t been baking and cooking since I was five years old, and my story isn’t one of a lifelong dream to be in the kitchen and have a food business,” Larner said. “I really just wanted to do something creative and manage my own project.”

The idea for raw dough came after her original idea, cookie mixes in Mason jars, didn’t quite match the appeal of ready-to-eat foods.

“I started thinking, how can I still stay in the world of cookies but do something that’s ready to eat?” Larner said.

Actually baking cookies wasn’t an option for her since, as she says, “Everyone bakes cookies.”

Memories of sneaking cookie dough out of the fridge in her college sorority house led her to consider raw dough as an option.

“The more I talked to people, the more I realized that the majority of people have a memory of their parents telling them not to eat the raw cookie dough, then trying to sneak some dough from the bowl,” she said. “This is a freedom that you may not have experienced in your childhood.”

So go ahead, take a whole spoonful.

The Cookie Jar DC has only been around since Feb. 1, so Larner considers the business to still be in the development stage. Before she began distributing the dough, Larner spent a long time perfecting the recipe she created from scratch.

“I did a lot of research on the chemistry of making cookies and learning about what each ingredient contributed, so that I could have the information to create my own recipe,” she said. “I could have gone online and used someone else’s recipe and no one would ever know, but I wanted to build a business on my own recipes, something I could honestly and proudly call my intellectual property.”

Some of you may be wondering, can you bake it too? All the cookie chemistry comes in handy when Larner answers that question.

“I wouldn’t serve it at a dinner party, but nothing bad will happen. It’ll just be a very crumbly cookie,” she said.

She says the egg she leaves out not only helps the cookie rise, it binds all the ingredients together. Her doughs are missing baking powder and baking soda as well, which she says are important leavening agents.

But, bakeable cookie dough isn’t out of the question for the future.

“I’m working on expanding the options,” Larner said.��“One day there will be a recipe that has an egg in it that you can bake. I want to have more flavors. I want to offer vegan and gluten-free options. I want to make something that’s accessible to everyone.”

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That’s the question a poetry organization��is working to answer on Friday, April 15, when it plans to “love bomb” a D.C. neighborhood.��Participants will read poems of love and welcome to passers-by during their morning commute through��Farragut.

Some may grumble at this, understandably, as they think about the interruption of their routines. But,��says the organization’s co-founder, it might brighten your day.

“We are moved through our hearts first, and then through our heads,” said Sarah Browning, the co-founder and executive director of “A poem, a song, a film or a story might move us first before a PowerPoint or lecture.”

The “love bomb” is��just one event in this weekend’s celebration, open to poets, poetry lovers and anyone who wants to join in. The organization behind the festival,��Split This Rock, is working to bring poetry back into social justice movements, among other things. For a smaller��group, it has a far reach.

Beginning Wednesday, April 13, and ending on Sunday, April 17, D.C. will play host to the Every two years, poets from across the country will gather to read their works to eager��crowds. It began in 2008, out of protests against the Iraq War, and has continued to inspire and elevate people ever since, says Browning.

“Poetry helps us remember our humanity,” she said. “It’s critically important in thinking about social issues. There are always human beings with real lives, real mothers, real hands, that are impacted by policies.”

Browning gives the example of Eric Garner, who died after he was put in a chokehold by police in New York City. What a lot of people don’t know, she says, is that he worked for the New York Parks and Recreation Horticultural Department.

Ross Gay, a poet featured at the Split This Rock festival, wrote a poem in reaction to that, called “A Small Needful Fact.”

Gay’s poem gets to the heart of what Split This Rock is about, says Browning.

“We wanted to help both bring poets into movements for social justice, but also to infuse those movements with the rich and imaginative language of poetry,” she said.

It’s not just for grown-ups, either.

“I’ve seen teenagers, PHDs, formerly incarcerated folks, all together in the same room, and when a feeling of trust gets established, you get remarkable writing from each of them,” Browning said.

“Poetry allows us to get access to our deepest selves, the selves that we censor and that others censor. That’s where the electricity is, when you get access to that.”

Browning says that even if you’ve never been to a poetry reading, or you don’t consider yourself an activist, there’s still an open seat for you this weekend.

“Poetry is a welcome, it’s a handshake. We find ourselves in others, we learn about others, and it helps us feel less alone. It speaks for another way of being in the world, one that notices the smallest details about our earth, and about each other,” she said.

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Three locals in the wedding industry share their experiences with wallet-friendly weddings.

Maggie Winters Gaudaen,

Maggie Winters Gaudaen, the co-founder of elopement and pop-up wedding company , says most of her clients are more focused on the actual marriage rather than the party.

“They want it to be an amazing experience but they want it to be amazing in a non-stressful, affordable way,” she says. “A lot of couples don’t want to spend a year planning it and spend what could be the down payment for a new house on a wedding.”

Gaudaen’s husband, Steven Gaudaen, is the other half of Pop! Wed Co., as the paperwork guy and the wedding officiant. She��plans the ceremony and takes the photos. Pop! Wed Co. weddings usually take place in less traditional settings, such as beer breweries, vintage stores and the occasional local landmark. But, you won’t find them at the monuments. To them, D.C. has a lot more to offer.

Sometimes, part of the fun is having life continue as usual around the pop-up ceremony. Gaudaen says they never ask venues to close for a wedding, since it’s part of the experience.

“We did a wedding at , [a vintage furniture and home goods store] and we didn’t realize there were a lot of people shopping in the store, and watching, but as soon as Steven pronounced them married, the whole store erupted in cheers.”

Most, but not all, of the Gaudaens’ clients are on the younger side. They’re not just from D.C. either. Gaudaen��recently on tiny-wedding planning after responding to the volume of emails from around the world got to be too much. Rather than just lay out the process point-by-point, she says she tried to reframe the way we think about weddings.

“For a lot of people in their 20s��and 30s, growing up it was always about the pretty princess wedding dress, the ballgown, the huge wedding, thinking about what your wedding invites are going to look like, all from a young age. It’s a part of our culture.”

What she’s finding now is that a lot of people don’t want that kind of wedding anymore.

In her book, she counsels couples on how to build upward from the minimum viable wedding. Start with the essentials and customize it the way you want. It’s a good way to keep an eye on your budget while still personalizing your experience.

Bree Ryback,

A pop-up wedding, which usually has no more than 25 guests, may be a bit smaller than you’re looking for. No problem, says writer Bree Ryback. The wedding coordinator and blogger says she helps couples cut costs in other ways besides venue costs.

Capitol Romance is a D.C.-based wedding blog that Ryback started in 2011, citing her passion for supporting local businesses and helping all different kinds of couples in , and ��plan the wedding they want to have. A lot of couples, Ryback finds, just aren’t interested in the hotel ballroom-style reception.

Instead of renting an indoor space, check out local parks and other free, public options as a ceremony location. An example Ryback gives of a laid-back, small wedding without any expensive rentals is one that took place in the couple’s own neighborhood. The couple got married at a park near their house and had a brunch reception in their backyard.

If you’re looking to invite more than 40 to 50 people to your wedding, this may not be feasible for you, but if your living space allows, it can be a great way to stay on budget — as long as you don’t mind doing the dishes.

Some couples who can’t host their own receptions opt for a dinner at a local restaurant, then hit the bars for their reception. Instead of hiring a shuttle company for you and your guests, opt for ride-sharing apps such as Lyft or Uber. And just because a wedding blog tells you that gold-plated flatware is absolutely essential for your perfect day, doesn’t mean you have to believe it. The fun of a small wedding is that it fits your personality and your budget.

For Ryback’s own wedding, she chose to “DIY” a few aspects of the big day. Her mother made the bride and bridesmaids bouquets out of Christmas ornaments and tulle. She also made Ryback’s wedding dress by hand. Ryback also used recycled paper, more Christmas ornaments, and funfetti cupcakes instead of a wedding cake to personalize her wedding day. If you’re curious, you can see photos of her big day .

Ryback cautions that DIY doesn’t always mean cost-cutting, and you need to be prepared for a lot of late nights working on your projects, but she says the end result is worth it.

“We wanted to DIY because it gives the whole thing a more personal touch,” she says. “We felt more connected to it.”

Bil Malbon,

Bil Malbon, an ordained minister in Richmond, Virginia, says he sees all types of wedding parties come through the doors of his .

One couple he married had a gothic wedding, he says, and then they went to the Edgar Allan Poe Museum afterward as part of their honeymoon.�� Another couple requested that he bring the chapel to a spot along the bank of the James River in Richmond so they could celebrate in their favorite place. The farthest he’s taken his chapel on wheels is to Chicago for an on-the-spot marriage on the Steve Harvey Show.

Having a tiny wedding doesn’t mean giving up the joy of celebrating a marriage, Malbon says.

“You can still make it very nice, elegant and intimate. You don’t need to have a large wedding to have people celebrate with you.”

An added benefit of a tiny wedding, he says, is being able to save the money you’d spend on a large-scale reception and put it toward long-lasting memories.

“Instead of spending thousands of dollars on an event that lasts a few hours, you can spend that money on a trip to Europe, to the Caribbean, or a cross-country trip. Do something that will give you years’ worth of memories.”

“I tell couples all the time, it makes the beginning of the relationship a lot more exciting when you’re not worried about paying off that one day,” Malbon says. “Be married to each other, not married to debt.”

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Update -NB I270, 1 adult trauma, EMS evaluated >12 patients & transporting at least 7, incl several children ALL NLT

— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO)

Montgomery County Fire Department spokesman Pete Piringer says one person had to be rescued from inside one of the five or six��vehicles involved in the crash. The person who was trapped has serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

At least 12 others, including six children, were also injured. Piringer says no one has life-threatening injuries. Eight people, four children and four adults, have been taken to the hospital.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more details become��available.

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• Both the 5K and the 10 mile run are still on, but the Kids’ Run has been cancelled.
• There won’t be any overhead signage like banners and posters, as well as split-time clocks and other on-course signage.
• The tents on the Washington Monument grounds will be taken down, with the exception of the bag check tent and the main medical tent.
• There will be no pre-race warm up or post-race awards ceremony.
• After completing the race, runners will be given heat blankets and water, and encouraged to head home .

Find more information about the day’s events on the .

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Police on Sunday��charged a former boyfriend, Darrick Lee Lewis, 30, of Middleburg, Va., with killing Christina Fisher, 34,�� at her residence at Nansemond Street Southeast.

Police said��they have two children together and that the initial 911 call about a verbal domestic dispute had come from a child in the home at about 6:15 p.m.

Fisher had taken out a protective order against Davis, police said.

Once police arrived, they found Fisher suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. She��was flown by AirCare to a local hospital,��where she later died.

Police say��Lewis was later arrested at his home����in Middleburg. He��was ��taken into custody by deputies with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.

Sunday morning, Lewis was charged with murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and violation of a protective order. He was ordered held in the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center without bail.

Court records did not indicate whether he had an attorney.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and supporting local artists, kicks off on Thursday, March 31, and ends it with the WPA auction on April 9. In between, the organization offers talks and exhibits open to the public.

The WPA has been around for 40 years, and according to Jeremy Flick, the membership director, nearly every major visual artist in the district between 1975 and present day has had some type of connection to the organization.

To support the program and the artists it benefits, the WPA has an annual auction gala that showcases the work of current WPA members. It’s the best way to see the most local art in one place.

This year, nearly 150 pieces of art from 116 artists will be on display from March 31 to April 9. Each piece in the showcase was selected by a local independent or museum curator.

Sheldon Scott, one of the artists with artwork in the showcase, says the auction gala was instrumental in giving his work a push forward.

“For me, as an emerging artist, it was a very important time in my career. It was an opportunity to show a body of work as someone who was unrepresented at the time,” Scott says.

“The WPA still does what it was designed to do, which is to create opportunities where opportunities don’t exist, and to broaden the idea that D.C. has artists who produce work of great importance.”

The founder of the WPA, Alice Denney, made it her mission to create an audience for the emerging artists in the city. It’s still a major part of the organization’s purpose.

, whose piece “Pink Bathroom” is in the auction, says that the D.C. art community is bigger than people realize. The WPA, through the wide range of events and programming, manages to bring people together. And that, she says, is essential.

“It’s so important for catalyzing the community, connecting artists with other artists,” she says. “That leads to different collaborations and projects and to a richer community across the city.”

Bringing artists together isn’t new to the WPA, or to Alice Denney. Before she founded the WPA, Denney to get art-world celebrities Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Olga Adorno all in the same room at a party for the opening exhibit at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art. While the art gallery didn’t last long, the WPA is still carrying the torch, 40 years later.

To , an artist in the organization, the WPA is an institution, but it’s constantly adapting to the changing scene, allowing it to stay relevant.

“The way that I see the WPA is as this historically-rooted organization in the cultural fabric of D.C. and also flexible enough to be really progressive, to be working with emerging artists on rebellious projects, and to continue the history of the projects of its founder,” he says.

You can buy tickets to the auction gala .

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Spread out among the many workstations in the building, the people behind your favorite food trucks, pop-ups and locally-produced��products��are hard at work. The second of Union Kitchen’s facilities, the Ivy City location brings the food incubator’s total square footage to 23,000. Inside the multistory warehouse, Union Kitchen members have access to everything from a finance team and��a marketing and branding team, to a distribution company also run by Union Kitchen. There’s a co-working space next to one of the kitchens where members hold meetings with potential customers and investors. Inside one building, entrepreneurial locals can build a business.

Brian Mitchell, the founder of , says he had an idea, but nowhere to turn. After finding out about Union Kitchen, he prepared an elevator pitch and headed to the NoMa location.

“I came over, knocked on the door of the facility, and they answered the door ready to listen to me talk about my product and my plan,” says Mitchell. “It turned into a meeting with the entire crew at Union Kitchen.”

Mitchell says the process for becoming a member was easy. “You don’t find that often,” he says. “Normally when you approach a buyer at a grocery store, it takes a lot of legwork and salesmanship.”

After he became a member, Mitchell began distributing his smoothie shakers to local small groceries. Now, Whole Foods puts Bright Greens on the shelves of all 50 of their mid-atlantic stores, he says.

Kori Hill Wallace, one half of the team, had a similar experience.

“I attribute a lot of our ability to get off the ground to Union Kitchen. They really lower the barrier to entry and they guide you through a space that is really confusing,” says Wallace. “I don’t know if it’s just D.C. but I think that a lot of these regulatory industries can really hinder your passion and your success.”

Union Kitchen will help you navigate the difficult world of licensing and registration, food safety inspections and permits, but carving out your own space inside the warehouse is up to you.��Full-time members are given 24-hour access to the kitchens, and with that comes half of a prep table and storage space.

“I was concerned about sharing a space in the beginning,” says Mitchell, “but what you discover is that there’s really much more room in a shared space than you would think. People are willing to be fluid and move to make room for whoever comes into the kitchen that day.”

For Wallace, it has its ups and downs.

“The community and the collaboration are wonderful. You meet so many really inspirational people that energize you and your business,” she says. “And then of course there are times when you come into the kitchen and it’s super-crowded and it’s the last place you want to be. It’s give and take, like anything else.”

A full list of Union Kitchen’s members can be found .

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