Mayor Adrian Fenty hasn’t had what you would call a stellar week, so arguing in an interview with the Post that District residents should accept a voting seat in the House even if it means allowing Congress to gut the city’s gun laws isn’t likely to earn him good headlines. At least not from me, I suppose. Fenty’s comments have irked D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and several members of the D.C. Council too, primarily because they seem to undercut efforts currently underway to remove the gun amendment from the voting rights legislation. Says Norton in the article, “Perhaps the mayor has not had time to read the bill, but I have repeatedly emphasized…that the bill usurps entirely all D.C. mayoral and council jurisdiction over D.C. gun legislation in the future and gives the District’s jurisdiction over guns exclusively to the Congress of the United States, where the [National Rifle Association] has had no trouble maintaining a majority.” She seems frustrated, and rightfully so.

Nationals Park Worth Close to $1 Billion: The Examiner reports that the new baseball stadium is now the most valuable property in the District, coming in just dollars shy of $1 billion. Assessed at $511 million for the land and $489 million for the building, the stadium’s value exceeds that of the White House, U.S. Capitol, Library of Congress and Verizon Center. Now if only the stadium were privately owned and taxable, the District would take in $18.5 million per year.

Need a Job? Move to Maryland: While unemployment has risen nationally, Montgomery County and Frederick County in Maryland seem to be doing pretty well for themselves, writes the Post. The two counties enjoy unemployment rates of 4.8 percent, lower than the national average of 8.5 percent. The rest of the region is doing too badly either, with an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent. So why are we seemingly insulated from the economic downturn? Government and government-related jobs.

Briefly Noted: Maryland debatesdenying driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants … Metro revising stimulus spending plans … Richard Dreyfuss fights to protect Civil War battlefields … Fairfax school board votes down proposal to let high school start an hour later.

This Day in DCist: On this day in 2008, our own cute little panda cub went all sorts of crazy and tried to eat a zookeeper. No, really. He did. We also saw taxicab drivers try to head off meters and got a sneak peak of the newly expanded Navy Yard Metro station. In 2007, then President George W. Bush threatened to veto legislation granting the District a voting seat in the House.

Picture snapped by KimberlyFaye