It’s time to break out the ice thermometer to gauge how chilly things are with the Washington Examiner‘s gossip columnist Nikki Schwab.

You’ll remember the ice thermometer FBDC implemented over White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend as a result of Schwab’s unrelenting cold shoulder toward us. It looks like we’re not the only ones. In a tweet yesterday Schwab threw some shade at DCCelebrity (aka Marky Mark), calling the local paparazzo “rotund.”

Some background: Schwab reported in yesterday’s Examiner that rapper Drake had “stopped by Sprinkles cupcake store in Georgetown on Tuesday but went unnoticed by staff.” The report was based on tweets from people who claimed to have seen Drake around town. But DCCelebrity and fellow paparazzo Colin Drummond had followed Drake around all day and told us he never actually went to Sprinkles. Stephen Smith, editor of the Examiner, told us a correction would be printed (you can see it here).

DCCelebrity tweeted our writeup on the matter. “DC EXAMINERS @NikkiSchwab got it wrong AGAIN – DRAKE did not stop by Sprinkles, he walked by it to get to the Sports Zone, CHECK YOUR FACTS!,” he wrote. That’s when Schwab shot back: “My mistake. There was a rotund photographer blocking my view.”

@NikiLuv73 @dccelebrity My mistake. There was a rotund photographer blocking my view.

— Nikki Schwab (@NikkiSchwab) June 20, 2012

Ouch!

“I know I’m fat, but ROTUND? sheeesh,” DCCelebrity remarked to us.

For taking criticism like a champ, we award Schwab 10 cubes (to keep her heart at the appropriate sub-zero).

Yeas & Nays, the Washington Examiner‘s gossip column, reports today that they “hear” rapper Drake “stopped by Sprinkles cupcakes in Georgetown on Tuesday but went unnoticed by staff.”

That’s odd. Local paparazzo DCCelebrity (who casually goes by “Marky Mark” on Twitter) snapped a photo of Drake and his entourage of body guards that followed him around the D.C. area. Is it really possible these bulky guys with their stretched out size “mini” T-shirts went “unnoticed”… in a cupcake store?

No, it’s not. And that’s because Drake was never there. “He didn’t go there,” confirms DCCelebrity, who says he spent the entire day following Drake along with fellow paparazzo Colin Drummond.

Drummond seconded that Drake was “running around town the two HUGE bodyguards who were actually more scary when you see them up close.”  He says Drake hit up the Ralph Lauren store in Georgetown, Sports Zone, and then topped it
off by exiting the Gucci Store in Tyson’s with four enormous bags.

Washington Examiner Editor Stephen Smith explained the mishap to FBDC:

“Our reporter saw people tweeting about Drake stopping in at Sprinkles on Twitter.She wanted to confirm this, so she reached out to Sprinkles’ publicist. The publicist called back to say that none of the employees recognized Drake, but they had gathered he was in the store because the customers were buzzing about it. It was a leap from assumption to fact that we shouldn’t have made. We’ll be writing a correction.”

 

The Washington Examiner has hired Sean Higgens away from Investor’s Business Daily as an editorial writer. Watch out, Higgens may be “mild mannered” but he knows Krav Maga, an Israeli military defense technique. So if you disagree with him you may not want to mess with him. Meanwhile, Emily Babay, who has been on the Crime & Punishment beat, has been promoted to Digital News Editor. Aubrey Whelan, who covers Alexandria, Fairfax and and Arlington, will be replacing Babay on the crime beat alongside Scott McCabe.

Noteworthy: An Occupier apparently hit on Whelan a few weeks ago. Love is in the air? No, no, no, she firmly turned him down.

Read the memo from Editor Stephen Smith. Pretty creative and thorough for an office memo…

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Contrary to what this photo suggests, the Washington Examiner‘s Paul Bedard is not in prison, so don’t try to “free” him.

But when we passed this Examiner news rack at the corner of 17th and Corcoran, we wondered if a promise of heavy publicity was part of the contract when Bedard signed with the paper in January. After all, that’s a big-ass promo for Bedard. And when the Examiner‘s website got a makeover in February the homepage featured two separate links playing up his “Washington Secrets” column. Bedard didn’t get this kind of boost for his old “Washington Whispers” column at U.S News and World Report.

Examiner Executive Editor Stephen Smith tells FBDC there was no such promise.

“We never discussed any kind of promotion when we approached Paul about coming to the Washington Examiner,” he told us in an email. “We just felt his work was so good that it was worth bringing it to the attention of readers with rack cards.”

The Washington Examiner is losing its editorial cartoonist Nate Beeler, who is leaving Washington to go to work for his hometown newspaper, The Columbus Dispatch.

The reason he gave for leaving was to be with his mother and father who live in Columbus.

An excerpt from the notably gracious internal memo by Editor Stephen Smith:

“Only 31, Nate is a fine draftsman, a natural wit, and a first-rate journalist. And while each of his cartoons has a distinct point of view, he is no ideologue. We may have endorsed Romney for the Republican nomination, but Nate subsequently drew him as Frankenstein, proving emphatically that he is no slave to editorial policy.”

See the full memo…

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Well that was fast.

Last week the Washington Examiner announced the departure of Yeas & Nays columnist Katy Adams. Yesterday they announced the hire of Jenny Rogers of the distinguished TBD. In her Twitter avatar, she’s inexplicably dressed up as Cinderella. Nothing everything weird about that. She joins Nikki Schwab on the gossip desk.

Though Rogers’ new boss, Stephen Smith, introduced her with an ominous mistake in her internal memo, we’d like to think of it as a premonition of good things to come. He wrote that Jenny graduated from Rhodes College in Florida. That would be Memphis. Smith quickly issued a correction, lamenting that he’d lost street cred in the newsroom. “Rhodes College is in Memphis, not Florida,” he wrote. “Editors can’t get their facts right.” We can only hope this whisper of self-deprecating humor means the column will pick up.

As a culture writer, she learned absolutely nothing a tremendous amount at TBD. In her bio she writes, “As TBD’s most tech-challenged reporter, I’m proud to announce my conversion to Twitter. I hope to understand how to use my smart phone by 2011.” To get an idea of what we might expect from Jenny, we checked out her recent exposé on cupcakes. The headline: “Cupcakes will never go away.” She refers to the cupcakes as “little guys” and brashly tells those who are down on cupcakes to f&@k off: “Well tough cookies, haters. The cupcake trend is no trend.”

Jenny’s tastes vacillate between “The Wire” and “The Bachelor.” She draws, paints and is apparently a pretty mean ping pong player. We’ve already encountered the sharp-tongued Jenny when she bashed FishbowlDC’s Peter Ogburn over a certain Daily Caller reporter’s skimpy TV attire. See the warfare here.

See the internal memo…

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After about a year and a half at The Washington Examiner Katy Adams is calling it quits. She joined the newspaper in August of 2010 as a writer for its “Yeas and Nays” gossip column. Before that she worked as a producer at Fox 5.

We received the tip that Adams was leaving the Examiner on Tuesday, but a rumor about her departure has been circling for a couple months. She was seen less and less around town at events that she would otherwise typically cover for Yeas and Nays. We heard she might be looking into grad school or a career change altogether.

We emailed Adams for comment on her departure. Here’s what she said:

“I have thoroughly enjoyed the last year and a half as a Yeas & Nays columnist for The Washington Examiner. I’ve compiled a rather diverse resume, hitting multiple angles, levels and viewpoints within the industry. I’m leveraging that work experience and relationships to pursue other opportunities.”

Editor Stephen Smith told FBDC, “Sad to say, Katy is leaving. She has some other things she wants to pursue that made it impossible for her to stay as a Yeas & Nays reporter, which is a full-time job and then some. She’s done a fabulous job for us, so I really regret her departure. The job is easy to fill, but awfully hard to fill well. We’ve got a couple people we’re considering, but please alert us if you know anyone with good Washington sources and a feel for the high life here.”

Meanwhile, Tim Wong is leaving WBJ as its Design Editor for a new position at WaPo. He’ll be joining the digital design team to work on its mobile products.

“The position seemed like a unique opportunity that would give me more exposure to the digital side of the industry,” Wong told FBDC. “This was the right thing to do for my career as a visual journalist. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the job evolves and grows.”

Wong said his last day at WBJ is Jan. 27.

Congratulations to both.

DISCLOSURE: I got got my start in D.C news media as an intern at “Yeas and Nays” under Adams and her co-columnist Nikki Schwab.

The goose is cooked. In a move that should surprise no one, U.S. News & World Report’s Paul Bedard is going to work for the Washington Examiner. For one thing, Bedard has loved showering praise on the publication. For another, his new boss, Stephen Smith, is also his former colleague.

But who knew he was a goose hunter?

See Smith’s glowing memo…

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Don’t be surprised if you can’t reach your contacts at the DC Examiner today.  We suspect that Stephen Smith and most of his staff have chosen to celebrate this most sacred of holidays at home with close friends and family.  It is after all Matt Drudge‘s birthday.

Yes indeed, the man responsible for funneling millions of readers to Washington news sites each and every day is celebrating his 45th this rainy Thursday morn.  Drudge shares his b-day with Kelly Osbourne, Marla Maples, and Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone.

Thanks for the memories.  Thanks for the links.  Hats…er, fedoras off to you!

Kevin Glass and the Washington Examiner broke up last week. He says it was amicable.

“I did leave the Examiner last week,” Glass said in an email to FishbowlDC. “Not for political reasons or cultural reasons or vision reasons – it just wasn’t the job for me, didn’t particularly fit my skill set, and I’m moving on to other opportunities. Management and I parted on amiable terms. Right now I’m doing a bit of freelancing and trying to determine what’s out there.”

Editor Stephen Smith, who wrote a playful, effusive memo on Glass back in July when he was hired for a newly created position of Online Asst. Managing Editor, agreed the split was friendly. “Perfectly amicable,” he wrote. “He just didn’t feel it was the right job for him.” Before the Examiner, Glass worked at Townhall.com for four years.

We’re especially glad to hear that Glass doesn’t have vision problems.