Tuesday at 10 a.m.: Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) and Washington Post reporter Nikita Stewart.

Ben Raby, a reporter with the Washington Capitals radio network, talked about the Caps' roller coaster season and what lies ahead for the team.

Our final guest, Sharon Bakersville of the DC Primary Care Association, told us about the new Unity Health Care Anacostia Center in Ward 8.

WATCH today's interviews here:

Tuesday at 10am: Capitals' head coach Dale Hunter's decision not to return to Washington

Friday at 10am: Conservative reaction to the President’s statement on gay unions. Also, DC Councilman Michael Brown.

In our second half hour, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton discussed the Trayvon Martin case and the threat of a government shutdown.

Watch Today's show here:

Then the park closed, and it's been that way ever since.

There were whispers, mere weeks after the Maloof Money Cup, that the park was going to be torn down. Dave McKenna addressed those rumors in City Paper; Teri Washington, a spokeswoman for Events DC, which controls RFK and its grounds, told him that "the skate park is being landscaped and then opening up to the public next month."

That was in October. So I emailed Washington several questions, and received this response:

The skate park is absolutely not being torn down. The park is scheduled to open this spring. Following the Maloof Money Cup, modifications to the grounds needed to be made before being opened for public use. As the date approaches, we will have announce when the park will be open.

In a follow-up conversation, she said that although the park itself was finished in time, the surrounding grounds weren't. And the landscaping to which she refers is not, say, planting bushes and trees, but rather leveling and paving the lot's surface. (D.C. is spending around $200,000 on site work, according to Washington, and also pays for maintenance. Maloof only funded the park itself, which, if the one they built in New York is any indication, cost around $1 million.)

Still, that site work probably shouldn't take five months — unless you consider that the work requires permits from D.C., which is rarely a speedy process. Now Events DC is hoping to open the park this spring, but Washington is cautious enough not to name a specific month.

Meanwhile, the skateboarding community waits. "We get skate kids all day, and they're always asking, 'When is it going to open?,'" says Tom Lim, co-manager of Palace 5ive, a skate shop on 14th Street NW. "They don’t understand.” Many of them are content to grind at the Shaw Skate Park, which was renovated last year, but others are doing what skaters have done since the '70s, when the Z-Boys sneaked into backyards and dropped into empty swimming pools.

"I know a lot of kids just break into it anyway," Lim says about the park at RFK. "They just hop the fence.”

UPDATE: Asked about the cost of building the skate park, Tim McFerran, president of the Maloof Money Cup, emailed me that "it was expensive and think when it’s all said and done with the grass and excavation it will cost about a million dollars." As for if or when Maloof is returning to D.C. — they signed a multi-year agreement last year — he said "future Maloof events will be announced next month."

We then previewed Super Bowl XLVI with former Giants and Jets LB John Booty and former Redskins lineman Ravin Caldwell. They also looked at the Redskins prospects for a turnaround next season and whether the team should go after Peyton Manning.

WATCH today’s interviews here:

Monday at 10am: Del. Heather Mizeur (D-Montgomery) and a recap of the Super Bowl

The title of this morning's post is innocent enough: "Thank you Wizards season ticket holders." It begins accordingly, thanking his team's nearly 8,000 season-ticket holders (a number that — is this possible? — places the Wizards "in the top 20 teams in the NBA") and his fans for their "nice comments" in a recent Post article, by J. Freedom du Lac, about season-ticket holders who "cling to optimism as [the] team loses and prices fall." It's worth noting that the comments in that article are overwhelmingly negative.

More thank-yous pour forth, and it becomes a bit of a love-fest — until Leonsis sets his crosshairs on the Post:

Rebuilding a team is hard enough without the local pixel maker piling on; but this is an annual rite of passage – all teams go through it here via the Washington Post. Its genesis is from a blog post – that then goes to the newspaper itself. I have to laugh in that the blog post column mentioned within is usually sponsored by a ticket reseller that allows you to go find out what the actual average ticket price of a ticket is on the resale market; but why let facts get in the way of a sensational story, right? And the negative comments within are mostly from scalpers? Scalping is illegal in our city; so they are now quoting about to be criminals to prove a point in a story [smiley-face emoticon]. That is ironic, no? The scalpers didn’t want their names to be used – that usually isn’t a good sign. I guess they didn’t want to be arrested! The Washington Post is harboring criminals now.

The "blog post column" to which Leonsis refers is a Sports Bog post about Luke Russert, the MSNBC correspondent and longtime season-ticket holder, ripping the Wizards on WJFK's “The Mike Wise Show with Holden Kushner." Turns out, according to Leonsis, Russert has been his guest in the owner's box dining room. "But Luke is a fan; he is passionate – his sells his point of view- he is an audio blogger now – it is quite fashionable to pile on," Leonsis writes. An "audio blogger"? Ouch. I've tweeted at Russert for a response, and will update when I hear back.

Meanwhile, Sports Bog's Dan Steinberg, who's clearly a faster writer than I am, has responded to Leonsis' allegations — not about the Post harboring criminals, unfortunately, but that the paper likes to pile on losing sports teams.

All I can tell him, and you, is that our Web traffic for Redskins content goes through the roof when the Redskins are winning. Same with the Caps. Same with Maryland basketball. Same with any local team. The Wizards’ multi-year swoon has been terrible for our Wizards Web traffic. Does anyone actually think the Wizards Insider blog does more traffic when the team is in last place than when it’s competing for playoff berths? Doomsday has not sold.

As long as the Wizards keep losing, Steinberg concludes, "we’ll all just spend our time writing mildly snarky blog posts about each other." So true, it hurts.

UPDATE: Luke Russert emailed me the following:

"I thank Mr. Leonsis for acknowledging my passionate support of the Wizards. I’ll continue to cheer no matter how bad we are on the court. I appreciated Mr. Leonsis’ kindness in giving me dinner in his private dining room on January 10th. It was a good deed, similar to when I promoted his book on my radio program in 2010. I have never publicly criticized ownership, from the late Mr. Pollin to Mr. Leonsis, the Wizards has been blessed with owners that care not only about the team but also about the DC community.

"The Wizards’ lack of effort under Flip Saunders was abysmal. Mr. Leonsis rectified the situation and allowed for the firing of Saunders. So far under Coach Wittman they’ve played better and more fundamental basketball. Hopefully they’ll continue on this path and contend for playoff spot next season."

WATCH our conversation here:

Friday at 10am: The top news stories of 2011

Fairfax County last year released a master plan proposing two athletic fields at Salona Park. The county's plan went back to the drawing board after complaints from residents.

Nearby residents said they oppose the soccer fields because they want to preserve the historic park, the open space and wooded areas. Salona Park was the home of Revolutionary War hero Henry Lee. In 1814, Dolley Madison fled here when British troops burned the White House, and during the Civil War, the park served as a campsite for the union army.

But many neighbors say they just don't want to deal with the extra traffic from soccer games or practices. Parents counter their children have to travel to Herndon and beyond for soccer practice.

“What we are facing in McLean, youth organizations as a whole, is the shrinking inventory of fields as a result of county construction projects,” said William Gray of McLean youth soccer.

“He has to go all over the place and we go wherever we can get a field,” said Peter Freire of McLean youth soccer. “So we have long commutse at night.”

The debate over the park's future even became a campaign issue for the local county supervisor. John Foust, Democrat on the Fairfax County board of supervisors, created a 9 member citizen task force to consider all the options.

“The community at large just wants to make sure we get the best plan for the use of Salona Park,” Foust said. “We have to have a master plan in process, we have to look at options. the community at large has a right to have a voice as to how you use a prop like this.”

The county bought 41 acres of the property for $16 million in 2005.

Within the next six months, Foust expects the task force will share its recommendations with the park authority board, which will then make a final decision.

Parents say they're hoping for compromise.

“I mean if we say we're never going to make changes that affect traffic, we're never going to improve the environment that affects our kids and I think supporting our kids playing all of these sports is a good thing for their development and the community,” said Peter Freire, vice chair of the youth soccer group.

Friday at 10am: Analysis of the week’s political and sports news.