Go Home Already: Shouts and Murmurs
Man Stops Traffic at 17th and K to Demand $200 Million
Compromise Uncertain on Same-Sex Marriage Law
Morning Roundup: Second Helpings Edition
Fire at 17th and L NW Forces Evacuations
Good morning, Washington. Well, we're now seven days away from the inauguration. Hopefully you weren't planning on reading stories about other topics between now and then, because judging by last night's local news telecasts, you won't be seeing many. The latest excitement: could it snow on Inauguration Day? The experts warn that "we won't have a good idea until the end of the week," but emphasize that this doesn't mean anyone should refrain from entering a state of excited panic.
Cleveland Park Metro/Connecticut Ave Closed: If there's one thing this week already had plenty of, it's road closures — but what the heck, let's throw on one more. WTOP is reporting that the Cleveland Park Metro station and a nearby stretch of Connecticut Avenue have been closed due to two suspicious construction vehicles. Trains are passing through the station, but no one is being allowed to exit or board there. UPDATE: The station has now reopened and traffic is beginning to move along Connecticut.
Parade Crowds to be Capped at 300k: The Post brings more details about how things will work next Tuesday. Apparently the folks working the checkpoints will be counting the people they admit into the parade route and will stop letting anyone in after the first 300,000 or so. Officials aren't sure when that will happen, but say it could be well before the parade's mid-afternoon start time.
More Misallocated Money: Yesterday's news of Montgomery County's mathematical mistake — which led to the county receiving $31 million less than it should have — is less unique than it first sounded. Today the Post reports that Fairfax has discovered that the local Target store, while paying its taxes in full, had filled out some paperwork in such a way that $1 million accidentally ended up in Alexandria's coffers instead of Fairfax's. It seems there's nothing like an economic downturn to make local governments aware of where there money is (or is not) coming from.
Briefly Noted: MARC tickets for Inauguration Day sold out; VRE selling fast... WASA proposes 10% rate hike... An attempted rape occurred in National Airport on Saturday... Released papers tie another death to Centreville heroin ring... P.G. County reports drop in crime... Teen shot in hand in Columbia Heights...
Image posted to DCist Photos by Flickr user chip py the photo guy
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hoo boy! can't wait to see the reaction of the guy standing in line behind the last person they let through the checkpoints. that's going to be tough to watch.
I've often wondered why the AlertDC text alerts don't work so well, and the latest message I've received confirms that they've placed retarded people in charge of not only the delivery of these messages, but composition, as well. Here's a snippet...
Whew! Good thing I didn't decide to take Connecticut Avenue across town today!Are they also going to be counting the people who leave the parade area? Because for me to get to the Mall for the swearing in, I'll have to go through the security checkpoint, cross Pennsylvania Ave, and then leave the security area. It's not a roach motel, is what I'm saying.
Looks like you will be able to cross over at certain points.
Info from Secret Service
"Individuals attending the Inaugural parade may enter at any of the designated entry points on the north or south side of Pennsylvania Avenue. Between 7 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., the following intersections will be open to the general public as crossover points:
- 3rd Street between Constitution Ave and Pennsylvania Ave
- Pennsylvania Ave between 6th Street NW and 7th Street NW
- Pennsylvania Ave between 11th Street NW and 12th Street NW"
Wow that moon rover is huge!
Carjackings were down from 768 in 2005 to 316 last year, a drop of nearly 59 percent. Auto thefts were down from 15,188 to 8,673, a drop of 45 percent. Violent crime was down 32 percent from 2005, and total crime dropped 25 percent.
Only 316 carjackings? WTF? When did P.G. County turn into Switzerland? Probly all that fondue they've been eating. There's you're smoking gun. At last we have clinical proof correlating cheese intake with a steep decline in violent crime. So next time you double-dose your 7-11 nachos in hot cheese, you're doing your part to keep P.G. County safe. Violent explosive diarrhea is a small price to pay to end the bloodshed.
Is it just me, or are most of your recent comments involving bowel movements of some type or another? And not of the general, satisfying kind, but of the Achtung, Schnell variety.
I'm confused. Are you trying to ask me for a date? Don't get fresh with me, young man. Or I'll hit you with my purse while screaming, "Masher!"
Also, why do they call the cereal "FiberOne®"? Seems to me they ought call it "FiberNumberTwos."
Nah, FiberOne is actually known as "SuperMegaColonBlow".
Still, I really like this Ano-Weet, it really unclogs me. I mean a lot of others say they unclog you, but I never had a single bowel movement with them 'Recto-Puffs'. No, the stuff I liked was that stuff they gave us before the war, what was it? Wilkinson's Number 8 Laxative Cereal. Phew! That one went through you like a bloody Ferrari.
The Cleveland Park Metro station and a nearby stretch of Connecticut Avenue have been closed due to two suspicious construction vehicles.
Are we talking about terrorists posed as construction workers? Because that's straight out of a poorly conceptualized political thriller.
Agreed. This plot was lifted verbatim from Robert Ludlum's posthumous thriller, "The Adjective Noun." In it, Jason Bourne must stop a crack team of rogue window washers from squeegeeing the President's limo, this while running away from a fireball.
Are we talking about terrorists posed as construction workers?
There have also been reports of terrorists posing as a cop, a leatherman/biker, and an Indian chief. If you see something, say something.
Macho, macho man! I've got to be...A MACHO MAN!
[JUNKPUNCH]
RE: More Misallocated Money
I think you mean "County" not "Country"
Whoops -- right you are. I've fixed the typo. Thanks for the heads-up.
I live to serve.
That's some quality HDR there, Chippy The Photo Guy :-)
i sincerely hope you're joking. this looks like vomit on a stick.
Aargh, the road and Metro closure in Cleveland Park is yet another instance of over-the-top security overkill. I really hope that over time, as the Obama administration gets settled, and more rational minds are appointed to head the various agencies, a reduction in all the security hype will occur. First thing to go, hopefully, will be the idiotic color-coding threat alert chart.
Not likely -- "security" is a one-way ratchet after all. The only glimmer of hope we had (and of Eleanor's few non-pork-related accomplishments) was the short-lived re-opening of E St between 15th and 17th, but that ended on Sept. 11th.
i really hope you're wrong, ledroitist, though i'm not optimistic. reopening E street should be a big city priority. the congestion that would cease to exist because of that reopening would be huge downtown...
Ever hear of "induced demand?" Any improvement in gridlock around the White House would quickly be negated by the increased volume of traffic. Driving around there sucked before the closure, it sucks about the same now. Anyway, DC's better off with more pedestrians in that neighborhood, not cars.
About a year ago, I got yelled at by some donut-huffing Park Police goon for riding my bicycle around the Ellipse. E Street re-opening? Not a chance.
So apparently in the last few days Metro has implemented a new policy, at least on the Red Line, that requires all trains - 6 and 8 cars - to pull all the way to the end of the platform when stopping at a station. One of the train operators was complaining about it to me this morning, after I saw three trains pull in that way. The last two cars of every train were jam packed because of course Metro didn't tell the passengers of this new policy. So those of us who usually get on the last two cars were waiting in our usual spots thinking that's where the train would stop. Nice.
Yup - meanwhile, the first car of every train that came through was empty.
"For two days next week, half of all Metrorail trains will be 8-cars long on each of its five rail lines and all trains will stop at the end of each station platform as a test of its ongoing power, system, track and rail car enhancements leading up to Inauguration Weekend."
That was from a WMATA press release last week.
They have been announcing it today. I heard it several times. My train driver talked about it last week and said it was in preparation for the inauguration, as they are going to use 8 car trains on all lines.
Then maybe I'm just not in the stations at the right time. I've heard zero announcements and didn't see anything on the electronic signs in the stations each time I've been on Metro over the past few days. But if it's prep for the inauguration, that makes sense. The train operator I talked to this morning didn't mention that part and made it sound like it was a new longer term change.
Yep, I've noticed the same thing and haven't heard any announcements about it.
I didn't hear announcements about the eight-car change but I was on a train that had a delay from overshooting the Metro stop, so that's how I learned about it. Can't wait until Tuesday!
This page is linked from Google News. Are we going to get an influx of new commentors now?
I only hope they're as incoherent as the Obama birth certificate protestors. Reading their rants is like arguing with Granpa Simpson. One trick is to tell them stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I took the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe so I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them! "Give me five bees for a quarter," you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.
No, monkey. I think you're confusing that with the Great Irish Onion Famine of the 1800s. (Or was the great green onion famine? Ho Ho Ho, green giant!)
I'm always a little suspicious of people who laugh out loud while they're alone in their cube. I mean really, can't you keep that chuckle to yourself? But, Monkey, your Grandpa Simpson story made me a hypocrite.
What kind of system requires train drivers to PRACTICE stopping at the end of the platform because the size of the trains vary?? Are these professionals, or infants?