Man Stops Traffic at 17th and K to Demand $200 Million
Morning Roundup: Goodbye, Abe Edition
Judge Throws Out WTU Suit Over Teacher Layoffs
Vegetate to Close at the End of the Month
Morning Roundup: Rain Won't Go Away Edition
Good morning, Washington. If our Twitter inboxes are any indication, most everyone in town was woken up by the powerful thunder and lightning that visited our fair city this morning. Keep that in mind as you deal with your fellow commuters and co-workers today. Apply coffee and gentle understanding as needed.
D.C. Handled Inauguration Well, Report Says: We touched on the news yesterday that the District is getting fully reimbursed for all of its Inauguration-related expenses this year, and now the Post has a rundown of a D.C. Homeland and Emergency Management Agency report that touts the city's handling of the massive, historic event. "As a result of the District's robust planning and operational support to the Inauguration, the emergency preparedness community has gained valuable insight into special event planning," the report says. Not really addressed in the report? The Purple Tunnel of Doom.
Primary Voting in Virginia: It's election day in Virginia today, with Democratic voters heading to the primary polls to select among a field of three gubernatorial hopefuls. Turnout is expected to be rather low, despite a recent rash of TV spots from the candidates.
Briefly Noted: Man shot and killed in police-involved shooting in Trinidad, prompting angry neighborhood reaction ... Two youths injured in Southeast crowd shooting ... Man's body found on National Mall ... West Nile virus found across Fairfax County ... Capitol Visitor Center briefly evacuated yesterday due to suspicious package.
This Day in DCist: In 2008, and Orange Line train derailed between Rosslyn and Courthouse.
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I was awoken at around 6:15 this morning by the lightening. After trying to ignore it (unsuccessfully), I got out of bed, took a shower, made some coffee and got to work writing THIS MORNING'S MORNING ROUNDUP!
Oh wait, that's clearly a fantasy. It's 9:40.
Hundreds of neighborhood residents demanding answers poured into the streets shortly after the shooting
I'll field this one: people who walk around DC with something that looks like a gun in their hands have a nasty tendency to get themselves shot.
Also, if someone pointing a gun at you tells you to do something, you should probably do it.
Obviously the third grade curriculum needs refinement.
It just seems to me there are certain things you just don't do. You don't walk outside your house without clothes on, right? You don't $h!t where you eat. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger, and you don't walk around Trinidad with something that looks like a gun in your hand. Why is this so difficult for people to understand? Is Trinidad some kinda Bizarro Swampoodle where you can just walk around with a friggin gun in your hand and not expect to be shot?
Wait, people actually now tweet "OMG,it just thundered!!"?
It has truly jumped the shark
OMG jst thndrd!!
Tweeters hate vowels like Southerners hate 'g's
I noticed on my morning commute that the new spiffy-looking bus shelter at 20th and Mass Ave near Dupont Circle has a glaring spelling mistake on it; it spells the street as "Massachusettes". Good quality control there.
Spelling error my ass! This is clear evidence of WMATA's plot to segregate public transport by gender.
Please God, don't let a crook like Terry McAuliffe win...
Please God, don't let a crook like Terry McAuliffe win...
The only problem with the fact that he's a crook also means he'd be able to out-fundraise McDonnell by leaps and bounds. He's got the Clinton machine behind him.
But considering he bungled the Democratic party during Bush's first term so badly and he's got such a bad record with controversies, I can't see him being an effective governor.
Honestly, can someone tell me ... what is the big deal if the Morning Round up is posted at 6, 7, 8, or even 10am? With all due respect, and as much as I like DCist, it's not like they're going to "scoop" the rest of the news agencies! So if you need the news at that specific moment that *YOU* want it, go somewhere else. Hell, I even sometimes read the "go home" edition until the day after! Just a thought !
I think it's just that some of us here are jealous that we still don't get invited to the infamous dcist ether huffing parties. Why do you think these posts don't hit until 10am? There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than an editor in the depths of an ether binge, and I know we'll get into that rotten stuff pretty soon.
Well DCist can just keep it's goddamned ether. These aren't the times for some candyassed vapor. This city, with its CHUDS, cannibals, and lycracidal maniacs, demands a stronger, bolder fix. That's why I'm an ibogaine man. Ibogaine: good enough for Muskie, good enough for me!
A thought to which you are entitled! This is D.C., and not the People's Republic of China/Virginia, so freedom of expression abounds. You're clearly obviously unequivocally misguided, though. I want my scoops early and often. FEED THE BEAST!
I'm sure that the People's Pubic of Vagina are just as appreciative of early stimulation, as well as often.
My but the Briefly Noted section is awfully cheery this morning. ;-P
Well, some of us weren't awakened by the thunder - we were already awake. Although to be fair, I woke up at 6, saw the yellow sky, and decided to just lie in bed and watch the storm come it. It was pretty spectacular. And then I went back to sleep, so despite my best intentions I was once again late for work. Oops.
All of the traffic lights around Dupont Circle were flashing red this morning due to the storm. Not surprisingly, traffic was moving much better than usual...
I agree - if you treat the lights on Dupont Circle as suggestions, traffic flows better.
Maybe that's because it's an effin' traffic circle! It's supposed to be yield to traffic on the circle. Period. That's it. Not the abomination of light-controlled merging nightmares that cause unnecessary backups with no one is actually driving IN the circle. Can you tell I'm upset?
You'd think Washington Circle by GW would be better because it has fewer lights, but no. The fact that different circle entranes have different rules, and when you rely on traffic lights to tell you when to go you ignore other things like hard to see pedestrian crosswalks on the pavement, means that it's a nightmare for both cars and pedestrians. Open up the circles and let nature take its course!!
I've had this thought many times, but the answer is that without the signals, people would just drive right over any pedestrians trying to cross (just try and walk into Chevy Chase Circle some day).
You'd still get a better result by having all traffic stop at the same time to let pedestrians cross anywhere they wanted, like they used to do on F Street, and then the walk signs would go off and normal traffic circle rules of survival of the fittest would apply.
I've always thought the lights on Dupont Circle just make things worse, but I agree about the pedestrian issue. I was on the bus this morning (and most cars yield to a Metrobus nosing into traffic), but I saw some very frustrated pedestrians waiting on the side for someone to actually stop at a crosswalk for them. Frankly, if the drivers were actually following the lights (flashing red = stop sign) it would have been annoying for traffic flow, but at least peds would have had a chance to cross.
I was already in the office when the storm struck. I will say for many years I was self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rain-storms and did my duty faithfully.
... Man's body found on National Mall ...
Maybe he was waiting for a Pedicab?
" Constitution Gardens is located between the Reflecting Pool and the World War II Memorial. "
Constitution Gardens must be pretty small.
Luckily I was underground with Chinatown CHUD Mama Sue and the lightning was like liquid Viagra. The groundhog dens were flooded. The Caverns below Dupont Circle was flooded with CHUD Musk. Now I'm back above ground with you hairless monkeys.
I second the comments about traffic flowing exceedingly well through Dupont Circle. I drove through at 9:20 a.m.; I've never gotten through the circle in under a minute before.
All this rain is making it easy for the snakehead fish to invade dry land. The only way to get back at them is for one of those high frigging falootin chefs to come up with a dish to fry those suckers out of existence. Like a catfish fry....a snakehead fry will become a DC institution that will replace the infatuation with Ben's Chili Bowl.
At least everyone involved in the innauguration and the Purple Subterranean Goatse of the Damned can pat themselves on the back for a blowjob well done.