Photo by Mylar Bono

Good morning, Washington. Had it been a normal week, Wednesday’s D.C. Taxicab Commission meeting likely wouldn’t have generated any news. But a rash decision to arrest two reporters for recording the proceedings of a public meeting has turned a non-story into two full days of prying questions and angry recriminations against the commission and, by extension, Mayor Vince Gray. Today, Gray’s cabinet will spend the day learning how to deal with the media, and this week’s events should certainly be instructive. First, don’t arrest the press or public for doing what any normal person would assume is okay at a public meeting — keeping record of it. Second, if you do, apologize, and if you’re the boss, make it clear that it’s not cool that it’s happening on your watch. Both the commission and Gray failed on both fronts. Yesterday, Gray’s office put out a statement from the commission’s Interim Chairwoman Dena Reed justifying the arrest, before putting out a second statement from Gray late in the afternoon saying that the mayor would look into what happened. Gray also said that he remains “fully supportive of the District’s Open Meetings Act both in letter and in spirit.” As we reported yesterday, Wednesday’s actions showed adherence to the law in letter, but certainly not in spirit. That’s the problem. For more on the arrest, read Harry Jaffe in the Examiner and the Post’s editorial.

How the Heck Did Charlie Sheen Get that Police Escort?: From all of the conflicting statements made at a D.C. Council hearing on the controversial police escort the troubled actor and comedian got when he performed in D.C., it’s not really clear. What is clear, though, is that the escort Sheen got, along with those granted to a number of other celebrities and even a Thanksgiving turkey that was set to be pardoned by the president, has caused rifts within the police department’s highest ranks. According to the Post, the head of the Special Operations Division, which handles the escorts, appeared at yesterday’s hearing as a private citizen and essentially placed the blame on Police Chief Cathy Lanier, who herself had overseen a number of escorts of this sort when she headed the division. According to the Examiner, Lanier also dodged responsibility by blaming the media for confusions over what department policy on the escorts is. The only thing that everyone seemed to agree on is that while Sheen may have merited an escort, he sure shouldn’t have gotten the full lights and siren treatment. The turkey, though, well…yeah.

Lululemon Re-Opens Today: More than three months after the brutal murder of Jayna Murray allegedly committed by her co-worker, Brittany Norwood, the Lululemon store in Bethesda is set to re-open today at 10 a.m., writes WJLA. The store will embrace the theme of love for its re-opening, with a new stained glass window bearing the word gracing the storefront as a memorial of sorts to Murray.

Briefly Noted: C’mon baby panda! … Metro passes budget with no cuts to service … Metro wants workers to work less … House hearing on Metro safety today, General Manager Richard Sarles to testify.

This Day in DCist: On this day in 2010, we had baby red pandas at the zoo and Founding Farmers was found to have the best breakfast in the city (go ahead, debate amongst yourselves). In 2009, the mayor’s Conservation Corps did a whole lot of littering and WTOP’s Mark Plotkin kept pushing the White House to put a proper D.C. license plate on President Obama’s limo.