Updated: Dec. 13, 2011 at 4:14 PM

2011 Washington Photos of the Year (91 images)

It was a busy year around Washington, D.C., with the presidential election heating up, budgetary talks threatening to shut down the government, accusations and insults hurled in all directions and every now and then, something that didn't revolve around politics.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Please note: a classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured. UPI/Pete Souza/White House

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Marine One arrives on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington as President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama leave for Tucson, Arizona for a memorial event for the victims of last Saturday's shooting, January 12, 2011. UPI/Kevin Dietsch

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Bikers salute USMC SSgt. Tim Chambers who stands in the middle of the street as motorcycles roar past during the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally XXIV, on Memorial Day weekend, May 29, 2011, in Washington,D.C. Hundreds of thousands of bikers annually converge on Washington for the rally to remember America's military veterans, POWs and MIAs. UPI/Mike Theiler

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Protesters hold signs as Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf testifies before a Joint Deficit Reduction Committee hearing titled "The History and Drivers of Our Nation's Debt and Its Threats" in Washington on September 13, 2011. UPI/Kevin Dietsch

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