For the past two months, Bob and Sarah Steck have been preparing their 82-year-old Tudor-style home in the District’s Chevy Chase neighborhood for sale. Bob Steck, a writer and consultant, and Sarah Steck, a psychiatric social worker, have upgraded the home with fresh paint, new kitchen appliances and refinished oak floors. They converted their garage into an office and are marketing the backyard structure as a potential guesthouse, playroom and artist’s studio. For extra measure, they’ve also hired a staging firm to elevate the home’s image with artfully arranged furnishings. Read full article > >

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Even in D.C.’s hot market, sellers need to make their houses stand out

From syndication to Hallmark Channel and now to PBS, Martha Stewart continues her march across the TV landscape in search of a sustainable audience. Martha’s new weekly series, “Martha Stewart’s Cooking School,” will debut on PBS in the fall. Stewart’s Living Omnimedia company is producing the show with the District station WETA, which calls the show a “teaching series.” Read full article > >

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Martha Stewart hops to PBS with ‘Cooking School’ TV show

A frozen raw yellowfin tuna product from a California-based company likely is responsible for an outbreak of salmonella across 20 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia, the CDC says.

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Tuna tied to Salmonella outbreak

Updated at 9:09 p.m. Rep. Tim Johnson (R-Ill.) will not seek reelection this year, according to senior Republican aides. Johnson has decided against pressing forward with a general election campaign despite winning his party’s nomination for another term last month. Because the primary is completed, county GOP chairman in the district will be tasked with picking a replacement. Read full article > >

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Rep. Tim Johnson won’t seek reelection

Polls are open in Maryland, the District and Wisconsin, where Tuesday’s Republican primaries could move Mitt Romney closer to a nomination that has hovered just out of his reach. Romney is favored to win in all three jurisdictions: the closest race appears to be in Wisconsin, where recent polls have shown him with a single-digit lead over former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) Read full article > >

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Wisconsin, Maryland, D.C. primaries could move Romney closer to nomination

STEP BACK FROM the minutiae of stories about the District’s lottery contract, and here is what you see: a D.C. Council that first rejected the top-ranked bidder because it included a local partner disliked by some council members and then — after a rebidding — made clear that the top-ranked bidder would get the business only if it took on a local partner whom council members did like. Read full article > >

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Editorial Board: The D.C. lottery scandal: Is this any way to run a government?

With Gov. Martin O’Malley ’s signature Thursday, Maryland joined seven other states that, along with the District, have legalized gay marriage . A crowd of supporters descended on Annapolis for a scheduled 5 p.m. ceremony at the State House and erupted into sustained applause after O’Malley signed the bill. Read full article > >

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Md. becomes eighth state to legalize gay marriage

Nearly 90 District government employees were placed on leave Monday in a prelude to their potential firing and prosecution after officials determined they had received fraudulent unemployment benefits while holding their city jobs. Read full article > >

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D.C. workers face firing for unemployment fraud

Basildon District Council spent about £4.8m on clearing the Dale Farm travellers’ site in Essex, it is revealed.

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Council Dale Farm bill tops £4.8m

Unemployment levels in December continued to fall in the District and Maryland but remained steady in Virginia, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Tuesday. As government employment declined amid uncertainty over anticipated cuts in federal spending, the three jurisdictions showed sizable private-sector growth: Maryland and the District gained health-care positions, while Virginia added restaurant jobs. Read full article > >

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Maryland, D.C. unemployment levels dipped in December; Virginia remained steady

A new think tank launched in the District Monday with the goal of reducing the cost of health care through research and entrepreneurship. The West Health Policy Center is the latest project of Gary and Mary West, the two billionaire philanthropists behind the West Wireless Health Institute and the West Health Investment Fund, a pair of California-based organizations that develop and fund health technology products. Read full article > >

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New think tank wants government to see gold in health technology

The founder and president of a non-profit group that played a key role in allowing former D.C. Council member Harry Thomas to embezzle just over $300,000 in District funds was charged Thursday with a felony that accuses him of concealing and failing to report the theft. Read full article > >

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Marshall Banks is charged as part of Harry Thomas investigation

Police in the District and Montgomery County say they suspect that the same pair of armed men may be responsible for a spate of as many as 12 street robberies since late November in Upper Northwest and within blocks of the Bethesda-District line near Western Avenue. Read full article > >

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Two Md. home invasions linked to same suspect; woman assaulted in one incident

In the first year of Race to the Top, the Obama administration’s signature effort to reform education, Maryland met its obligations, but the District has fallen behind schedule because of leadership turnover within its school administration, according to a report card to be released Tuesday by federal officials. Read full article > >

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D.C. behind schedule in meeting Race to the Top promises

The rat population around the two Occupy D.C. camps at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza has “exploded”since protesters began their vigil in October, according to Mohammad N. Akhter, the director of the District’s Department of Health. Akhter said in an interview Monday that city health inspectors have seen rats running openly through both camps and spotted numerous new burrows and nests underneath hay-stuffed pallets occupiers are using for beds. Both campsites had working kitchens for weeks until last week, but protesters at McPherson Square voluntarily closed down theirs after health inspectors pointed out unsanitary conditions during an informal monitoring visit. Read full article > >

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City: Rat population has ‘exploded’ around Occupy D.C. camps