The warm weather will continue today with highs around 60, and a 40 percent chance of showers towards the afternoon. The photograph above of the Smithsonian Castle was taken Saturday.
Thomas Circle Construction Begins: Traveling through or around Thomas Circle? Traffic patterns have been re-arranged to accommodate the start of a $5 million project to re-establish the park at the center of that circle. The W. Times also has a short write-up.
Tsunami Recovery Continues: As estimates of the death toll in the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster now creep towards 150,000 people, the disaster was a focus of attention at many religious services yesterday and at a special Catholic Mass. Still looking to give? Google’s list of organizations is a good place to start.
New D.C. Council Members Sworn In, Anacostia Plans Advance: The swearing in ceremony of the D.C. Council’s three newest members was yesterday, at an event covered by both the W. Times and the Post. Meanwhile, the Post reports the Council approved outgoing city planning director Andrew Altman as head of the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, the entity which will spearhead the ambitious redevelopment plan for that region of D.C. City officials hope to start construction on a new baseball stadium within a year, a project which will anchor much of the redevelopment plans.
Inauguration Preparations Continue: With metal fencing and bleachers appearing along Pennsylvania Avenue downtown recently, the Post takes time to discuss protestors’ evolving plans for Bush’s inauguration later this month. Some protestors are upset the Secret Service will be enforcing a ban in the area along the parade route on “puppets, papier-mache objects, coffins and signs more than three feet wide, 20 feet long and a quarter-inch thick.”
Briefly Noted: Some people out for a walk upriver from Georgetown came across a human skull … employees of the federal government receive a 3 percent raise, less than in recent years … the first baby in the area in 2005 is born in Alexandria … use of the holiday season SoberRide program up 20 percent … James F. at why.i.hate.dc welcomes the new year with the “Worst of 2004” …
