May 3, 2018 Oh hey there! It’s us, the Rachels. We’re back to work—settled in at WAMU HQ, with a sweet view of Rock Creek Park—and Extremely Excited to bring DCist back to life. We’re looking at the first few weeks in June for our glorious return to publishing. In the meantime, we’re working on hiring a staff writer, launching a Kickstarter, and reporting our first features for DCist 2.0. We could use your help! Meanwhile, if you're looking for some local news to peruse before we're officially back, may we recommend: a deep dive into life at the Watergate, the latest fallout at the Wilson Building, advice about bees, this outrageous story about the Washington football team's cheerleaders, and learning about local trash.

Kickstart our Kickstarter Attending DCist’s funeral in November sucked. But we did love hearing from our readers about what you loved and would miss about the site. Here’s a chance to tell us again, and have it put to good use: be in our Kickstarter video! Tweet a 10-15 second clip to @dcist (or slide into our DMs) answering any of the following: what was your reaction when you heard DCist was coming back? What did you miss while we were gone? What are you looking forward to most from DCist 2.0? Cell phone videos are fine, and bonus points for creative background locations. If you’re not on Twitter, feel free to email it to dcist@wamu.org.

Save the date After our early June launch, you better believe we're going to celebrate. Mark your calendars for a launch party on June 14.

Send us your tips We’re getting back to reporting for DCist, and any ideas, tips, weird stuff you saw on the neighborhood listserv, etc. are all extremely welcome. Send them our way.

And lob those story pitches our way As we get going with our own stories, we want yours, too. Interested in freelancing? Email us a little bit about yourself and what you want to write about, along with links to three clips.

Coming soon! Survey Results A huge thanks to the 1,669 of you who answered the call. We’re going through the data and all your thoughtful responses right now, and will share some of the most interesting tidbits with you all. Kickstarter Look out for it in two weeks time. Some sweet rewards are headed your way. Until next time!

Rachel Sadon and Rachel Kurzius