Capitol

A violent thunderstorm swept through the area on Sunday afternoon, resulting in the death of a cyclist on the C&O tow path in Washington, causing power outages and prompting police to clear the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol, where the National Symphony Orchestra was preparing to hold a public rehearsal of its Independence Day concert. Police confirmed that a middle-aged man was killed when a tree apparently fell along the tow path and knocked him off his bicycle. And BGE reported that about 16,000 people were left without power after the storm, mostly in Baltimore City and others in Howard, Arundel and Prince George's counties.

The direct sale of music over the Internet -- until now mainly the province of garage bands and independent record labels -- will be hitting the mainstream under separate deals involving Capitol Records Inc. and America Online Inc.Beginning today, fans of Duran Duran will be able to buy and download onto their home computers two versions of the band's new single a month before the Capitol album reaches stores.Also this week, America Online is expected to announce plans to sell downloadable music through the Hub, its popular music and entertainment site, according to a person involved in the deal.

WASHINGTON -- Getting an American flag that once flew over the Capitol -- if only for a few seconds -- is one of the most enduring traditions of this federal city.For decades, people have snapped them up by the millions -- Boy Scout troops and veterans groups have placed big orders. Constituents love them flown on birthdays, an anniversary or the Fourth of July. Rep. James P. Moran Jr., D-Va., had one raised on June 8, the day that Air Force pilot Scott O'Grady was rescued from Bosnia, and gave it to the family.

WASHINGTON -- Set in niches along the ornate hallways and vast chambers of the U.S. Senate are white marble busts of the vice presidents -- from John Adams to Walter F. Mondale.Everyone except Spiro T. Agnew.Mr. Agnew, who resigned in disgrace in 1973 after pleading no contest to tax evasion, is the only former vice president missing from the gallery of carved figures, representing the men who toiled a heartbeat away from the chief executive. Even the bust of the most recent former vice president -- George Bush -- waits in storage for its pedestal.

WASHINGTON -- Criticizing what she called his "plantation mentality," Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski yesterday demanded the resignation of the man who supervises the 285-acre Capitol Hill complex, which includes the Capitol, congressional office buildings and the Supreme Court.Ms. Mikulski wrote to George M. White, the architect of the Capitol, that a report by the investigative arm of Congress "describes a lack of management principles and employee protections in your office that is outrageous and intolerable."

A MADMAN's shots shattered the peace in the U.S. Capitol on Friday, killing two police officers, injuring a young woman and depriving the nation of its already tenuous sense of security.Washington is America's most fortresslike city. Both the White House and Capitol sit like medieval castles surrounded by artificial moats of cement and metal. Virtually every government building and many private buildings feature metal detectors, surveillance cameras and armed guards posted at their entrances.

WASHINGTON -- In giving the two police officers slain in the U.S. Capitol shooting spree the honor of a rotunda tribute usually reserved for the highest government officials, Congress is reflecting the grief that has blanketed Capitol Hill over the episode.But at the same time, the legislators as a group are demonstrating once again their hypocrisy toward the issue that the incident has laid at their doorstep, this time in starker terms than in recent years.That is Congress' unwillingness to take on the matter of the mindlessly widespread availability of guns in our society, and to take even the most modest steps to inhibit their use by individuals rendered dangerous by mental disorder or irrationality or by children.

Washington -- The day of radio talk, talk, talk from two rooms in the bowels of the Capitol is not quite three hours old as gab master Doug Stephan reads a live commercial for a "hypo-allergenic" air purifying machine. Too bad he didn't bring a demonstration model.They could have used one yesterday in the basement on the House side, where nine talk-show hosts from around the country set up a bunker of blab below the Capitol's back steps. The hyperbole flies from before dawn until nearly midnight as the hosts mark the end of 40 years of Democratic rule in Congress.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. John A. Boehner, with his ever-present cigarette, seems like a throwback to the days of Capitol Hill's smoke-filled rooms. He is hip-deep in political contributions from an industry he oversees. He was once scolded for passing out campaign checks from tobacco interests on the House floor. He was booted from a leadership post eight years ago. But with his election yesterday as the new House majority leader, the Ohio Republican has emerged as his party's agent of change in the post-Tom DeLay era. With the GOP eager to put a spate of corruption scandals behind it, the mantle of reform might seem to rest awkwardly on Boehner's shoulders.

WASHINGTON -- What most impresses clients about health care lobbyist Frederick H. Graefe is that you can't walk three feet with him through the Capitol before running into somebody he knows.There's the congressman who wants him to go skeet-shooting. The senator who's trying to get Mr. Graefe's witness on a public-hearing list. The House freshman chiding him about his absence from a campaign fund-raiser. The Capitol Hill police who let him double-park his Jeep while he's walking around earning $300 an hour doing business from a beeper and a cellular phone.