UPDATE: Ward 6 D.C. Councilmember and WMATA board member Tommy Wells refutes O'Malley, stating that the board has "yet to officially make its GM pick." Wells then added that it was "Nice of O'Malley to announce [the selection] based on a courtesy [meeting]." WMATA has not confirmed anything regarding the general manager decision at this time. Meanwhile, WTOP reporter Adam Tuss claims that O'Malley's words -- you can listen here -- were taken out of context; Tuss contends that O'Malley did not intend to announce the decision, but simply meant that the decision to name Sarles was the board's choice. more ›

Richard Sarles, a man who once said that he hoped his legacy at Metro would be "that I came here for a relatively brief period of time, and was able to help stabilize" the system, is reportedly close to being named the agency's new permanent general manager. Reports by both Kytja Weir in the Examiner and Adam Tuss at WTOP cite several sources who claim that the decision to appoint Sarles to the job full time has already been made. The decision could be made public at a January 27 meeting of the WMATA board of directors. more ›

That's the word from WTOP's Adam Tuss, who reports that Metro's search for a new general manager is coming down to the wire. WMATA's board has narrowed its search down to three unnamed finalists. Tuss reports that all three candidates will be interviewed a week from Saturday. more ›

Some baseball news to whet your appetite before today's postseason doubleheader: the Washington Nationals have announced that Mike Rizzo, the team's general manager who successfully signed phenoms Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper, has been signed to a five-year contract extension. Rizzo was also given a promotion to "Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations," and he will reportedly be assuming some of the duties left by former team president Stan Kasten, who resigned in September. more ›

Richard Sarles may be in charge of WMATA for the interim, but the transit agency still needs to find a permanent replacement for John Catoe. On Thursday, Metro's board gave approval to hiring executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles to help them with the task. It's going to cost the cash-strapped agency $150,000 to hire the firm for a roughly six-month search. Heidrick & Struggles has previously conducted searches for chief executives to lead the American Red Cross and Howard University. Metro says the firm will look both nationally and internationally, within the transit industry and beyond for candidates for a new general manager. more ›

Don't expect a lot of revolutionary changes at Metro while Richard Sarles is sitting in the general manager's chair. WMATA's new interim leader only plans to be in the job for about six months, maybe a bit longer, but just until the board can hire a permanent replacement for John Catoe. In the meantime, Sarles is setting goals that fit in with that brief time frame. Ask the veteran transit leader a question about what's in store for the future of WMATA, and he'll circle right back around to the cornerstones of his short-term strategy: safety, reliability, and financial stability. more ›

Jack Requa will take over as Assistant General Manager of Bus Services for WMATA, the transit agency announced today. The hiring marks the first position to be filled from the December management shake up that saw several top managers resign. Requa, 63, replaces Milo Victoria as the top Metrobus official at WMATA. He's one of the most experienced officials at Metro, having previously served as Acting General Manager for several months in late 2006 before John Catoe was hired, as well as Chief Operating Officer of Metrobus and Assistant General Manager of Operations Services. WTOP recently reported that Requa turned down again serving as Acting General Manager once Catoe leaves in April. more ›

Can't say we're surprised, but WTOP's Adam Tuss has the story: WMATA is having a difficult time finding anyone to take on the job of interim general manager. Tuss writes that "at least two internal candidates have been offered the top spot at Metro, but they have declined." Some external candidates have reportedly turned down the job, too. more ›

Metro board members Peter Benjamin, Jim Graham and Chris Zimmerman appeared on WTOP today and told reporter Mark Segraves they expect a search for a new General Manager will take six to nine months. John Catoe announced his sudden resignation last week, and the board admitted that they were taken by surprise. more ›

At the end of November, Metro's new rail chief, Dave Kubicek, decided to switch off-peak trains running during the winter months to the shorter, 4-car only versions as a cost-saving maneuver. Ridership is down in the winter, he reasoned, so Metro can get away with fewer cars. This morning Metro decided to scrap the entire plan and bring back 6-car trains immediately. Metro General Manager John Catoe told the Post he decided to restore service... more ›

Good morning, Washington, and welcome back to what will be a rather short work week for most of us. While airports and train stations are sure to be jammed with holiday travelers this week, the city's roads and metro system should be a little less crowded than normal as folks head out of town early to celebrate Thanksgiving. Less congestion may not make much of a difference in road safety, however, if a new survey... more ›

From DCist Contributor Oscar Bunoan It's often said that bad luck comes in threes. In Vietnam, for example, a photo of three people represents bad luck. However, Vietnam is a restless, 22-hour flight away and Greg Cahill (owner of the successful Whitlow’s on Wilson) and Jonathan Williams (Whitlow’s general manager) are not superstitious men who rest their beliefs in ancient folklore. No self-respecting restaurateur, especially these two locally respected entrepreneurs, would conceive their restaurant on... more ›

The Examiner reports on a new DMV program that would install SmarTrip chips into every new D.C. driver's license and identification card beginning in October, 2008. The program is a combined effort by the agency and WMATA, the latter of which has made no secret of its intention to make universal conversion to SmarTrip a priority. Recently Metro General Manager John Catoe made SmarTrip cards available for sale at more Giant Food stores and announced... more ›

Via WTOP's Adam Tuss, looks like Metro General Manager John Catoe is worrying about more than just budget shortfalls. Catoe says he's about to launch a new initiative to crack down on eating, drinking and chewing gum on Metro trains. "I have noticed (myself) and have received calls and letters that there has been an increase," says Metro General Manager John Catoe. "We are going to have a focused campaign from the standpoint of... more ›

Marc Fisher lets us know that longtime D.C. radio fixture Red Shipley, the host of WAMU's Stained Glass Bluegrass program for 25 years, died over the weekend from cancer in Charlottesville. Shipley introduced two generations of Washington area music fans to legendary and contemporary bluegrass music, up until last month, when WAMU took all of its bluegrass programming off the air and put it on HD Radio. "Radio lost one of its own legends last... more ›

You know what they say -- better one scandal too late than never at all. We've received word from the office of Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) that tomorrow afternoon he'll be hosting a public roundtable on the Water and Sewer Agency, which has had something of a rough year so far. Reads an email from Graham: I will be holding a public roundtable on the status of the public water main system in... more ›

Good morning, D.C. With much of the hot political action this week taking place at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, it's our job to pull your focus away from trivial issues the mainstream media seem obsessed with, like global climate change, and bring it back down to what's really important at the local level, like complaining about how gasoline could be about to get really, really expensive in Maryland. What's that you... more ›

We've arrived at another Friday, Washington, so welcome to it. Some sad news to note off the bat, however, as the Post brings word that the last movie theater left in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, the AMC Loews Dupont 5, will go the way of Visions and the Janus 3 before it and close its doors forever in January. We can certainly attest that the last few times we went to see a film... more ›

UPDATE: The Metro Board has put the proposed fare hikes on hold, saying they would like more details about the proposals before they would approve public hearings. They voted to hold a special informational committee meeting on Sept. 27. More than a year ago, then interim Metro Chief Dan Tangherlini began uttering those two little words no transit rider likes to hear: fare increase. At the time though, our favorite transit official was reassuring... more ›

Good morning, D.C. Yesterday was just about the most beautiful day, weather-wise, that the city has seen in a long time, and today we're expecting more of the same. So is there anything on God's green Earth that could cause us to lose the attendant sunny dispositions we all naturally have as a result? Oh, drat. It's Thursday. Metro General Manager John Catoe will appear before Metro's Board of Directors today and recommend raising minimum... more ›

Welcome back to work, Washington. We don't know about you, but we spent an awfully long time in the sun this weekend consuming too much food at various street festivals, so forgive us if we're still groggily pondering Saturday's news in WaPo that the fare change about to be proposed by Metro General Manager John Catoe is an "average increase" of 45 cents. That kind of increase would theoretically raise the base fare of a... more ›

>> ABC 7 reporter Kris Van Cleave is interested in your trash. [City Desk] >> D.C. paramedics treated 12 city employees who were overcome by exhaust fumes this morning. [WaPo] >> An ornate gold medal depicting an eagle, commissioned by George Washington and later presented to the Marquis de Lafayette, is to be sold at auction later this year. [AP] >> Metro General Manager John Catoe: ""The amount of the (fare) increase is something... more ›

Good morning, Washington. For those of you who were inconvenienced by yesterday afternoon's Red line mishap, we're sure you'll be glad to hear that the suspect who Montgomery County police chased into the tunnel got away. The whole incident started just after 2 p.m. when officers, acting on a suspicious-person call, spotted Michael J. Brown, a man known by area police and who is wanted in Baltimore for several charges of theft. After a chase... more ›

WTOP says that Metro General Manager John Catoe will announce the details of his plan for a proposed fare hike at a meeting next week. We've been expecting this announcement for some time now, though specific details of the increase, which is expected to be put into effect in January 2008, possibly tied to inflation or the consumer price index and increased accordingly every January thereafter, have been scant. How much will the first hike... more ›

Metro General Manager John Catoe is considering replacing late night weekend trains with buses -- both as a way to save money and to create more time to complete track and station maintenance tasks. This is very bad news. No one could argue that Metro needs to rethink how it accomplishes maintenance tasks -- the number of weekend track work delays, regular elevator and escalator outages, and out of service trains that need repairs has... more ›

In news that will make hard luck single guys everywhere feel better about themselves, Wizards forward Andray Blatche was arrested yesterday for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer in Thomas Circle. This isn't the first run in with trouble for Blatche since joining the Wizards: he was carjacked and shot in the chest during his rookie year. Compounding the issue for Blatche is the fact that he currently has a 5-year, $12.5 million... more ›

If you missed this story in Saturday's Washington Post, do make sure you check it out, for your own personal safety if nothing else. It seems the enormous popularity of the ugliest shoes on the planet, Crocs, has led to an alarming increase in the number of escalator mishaps on Metro this summer, as the shoes' soft resin soles can easily be grabbed by the metal teeth of the moving steps. Once trapped, the Crocs,... more ›

When Thomas P. Jacobus, general manager of the aqueduct that provides water to the District, Arlington and Falls Church commented to the Post today, "Perhaps sometimes we don't do the best job we could of communicating," he summed up in a few words the main problem that has plagued the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority -- which delivers water from the Washington Aqueduct to customers -- over the last few years. And while it remains... more ›

Last week we reported that the Capitals signed unrestricted free agent center Michael Nylander to a four year contract worth $19.5 million (U.S.). One day earlier, an Alberta radio station reported that the Edmonton Oilers signed unrestricted free agent center Michael Nylander to a four year contract worth $22 million (U.S.). Reportedly Nylander's agent had emailed acceptance to Edmonton, but Nylander's wife then exercised veto power over the prospect of life in the Canadian prairie.... more ›

Welcome back to work, Washington. We know many of our regular readers are off celebrating Independence Day already, taking vacation time for a few days to make this upcoming middle-of-the-week holiday less of an inconvenience. For those of you still at your desks, we salute your dedication to the American work ethic. For those of you who'll be heading to the airport some time this week, we were going to beg to be stuffed in... more ›