It’s shaping up to be a beautiful day here in Washington, with a high around 70 degrees and mostly sunny skies. Here’s hoping the great weather can brighten the days of Montgomery County election officials, who are reporting that they won’t have a final count of all provisional ballots in the county until sometime next week, thanks to mistakes which forced many early morning voters to cast the paper ballots. We know the idea that one of our country’s wealthiest counties runs their elections about on par with a small town in Kyrgyzstan is definitely going to add a little spring to our collective step this morning.
Fenty & Ramsey Play Friendly Game of Risk: We wonder which one of them starts with Australia? The Democratic Mayoral nominee and the police chief put on friendly faces for the press yesterday, despite what can be guessed to have been a somewhat tense meeting between the two men. Fenty has been a vocal critic of the Chief during his campaign, but said he would put off making a final decision about Ramsey’s future until after the November election, which he is all but assured to win. The Post notes that last week “Fenty also predicted that under no circumstances would Ramsey remain for a full four-year Fenty term.” So really, the question seems to be more when, instead of if, Fenty will ask Ramsey to concede defeat of the Asian continent and fade into history.
Tourists Not So Bad After All: Sure, they’re annoying, but The Associated Press reports that tourists and business travelers spent 5 percent more in D.C. in 2005 than the previous year, contributing a total of $5.05 billion to the local economy. We guess we can admit it, we can probably deal with the unruly spring and summertime hordes if it means local restaurants and other services are doing a healthy amount of business, and we’re potentially not having our taxes increased as much as we might. We can still complain to each other about their rude Metro behavior though, right? Even as we show them big toothy grins and hold signs that say “Welcome to D.C., Your Money is Welcome Here”?
Bomb Squad Called To NE Rec Center: Police were called to the Kenilworth Parkside Recreation Center Tuesday afternoon after crews digging on the property found an unexploded 75-mm shell. When the Army Corps of Engineers arrived they assured officials that it was not live and said it probably dated to the early 1900s. The site was reportedly never used as a military installation, so the Army isn’t sure how the shell got there. Let’s just hope Kenilworth doesn’t get a taste of Spring Valley’s 26-year ordnance ordeal. (Lindsay Gibson)
Briefly Noted:
Fujifilm Giant Panda Habitat to open Oct. 17 … Man electrocued at closed elementary school … UVa student graduates in one year … George Allen proud of Jewish heritage … Redskins sued by deaf advocates to provide closed captioning.
This Day in DCist: Last year we sang sad Irish songs a shed a few tears for the death of Beer Pong at Dr. Dremo’s and looked deep into the heart of Supreme Court Justice Scalia only to find a wine bottle. In 2004 we first started hearing about the demise of Visions theater and gave some love to our favorite local music web sites.
Photo snapped by Flickr user amishah.
