April 14, 2008

US & CANADA | US | WASHINGTON D.C.

Once Upon a Crime

By Nicole Cotroneo

Breaking the law was never this much fun.

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There’s only one place in America where you can commit a crime and surely get away with it — incidentally, it’s right underneath the president’s nose. Next month, Washington D.C.’s newest attraction, The National Museum of Crime & Punishment, invites you to hack a secured computer, crack a bank vault and wage a quick-draw showdown in a series of interactive displays chronicling the history of crime and the evolution of justice. After browsing a medieval torture chamber, a guillotine and an electric chair (not, we hope, interactive exhibits), you can take in a live taping of America’s Most Wanted. The three-story museum houses a dedicated studio, plus AMW hotline headquarters where operators screen tips on real fugitives’ whereabouts.

When you’ve got a handle on what makes headlines, learn how to write them two blocks over at the just opened Newseum. The $450-million, seven-story shrine to five centuries of journalism makes its mission clear: the First Amendment is etched right across the building’s façade. Inside, 14 state-of-the-art galleries showcase sections of the Berlin Wall (one of the largest assemblages outside Germany, pictured), the twisted broadcast antenna once atop the World Trade Center, a collection of Pulitzer-Prize winning photographs, and a series of 80 international front pages.

If you think you’ve got a nose for news, you can even test your chops in a broadcast studio. But all good reporters have to first find The Source — that’s Wolfgang Puck’s in-house, split-level, haute-Asian restaurant and lounge. After all, what’s a journalist to do without a deadline bar?