Okay, okay — we know, this is a Nats town now. But it’d be churlish not to congratulate Cal Ripken Jr. on his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Many Washingtonians regularly made the trek to Camden Yards during his streak, and to them Cal felt as much like a hometown hero as any athlete. So it’s good (if unsurprising) to see Ripken receive the nod. And he did it in style: Ripken’s name appeared on 98.5% of the ballots cast, giving him the third-highest percentage of any inductee to date.
Derailment Investigation Continues: The Post updates us on WMATA’s inquiries into Sunday’s Metro derailment at the Mount Vernon Square station. The investigation continues to focus on the 5000 series car, which was apparently in the shop as recently as Friday. We’re a bit puzzled not to hear more about the track itself, however. As our own Ryan Avent has noted (and others have confirmed), there seemed to be a problem with the track in that area in the hours leading up to the derailment.
Ex-Cons Out Of Luck: Marion Barry had hoped to resurrect legislation prohibiting discimination against ex-convicts — legislation that had been vetoed by Tony Williams. WUSA reports that the councilman is probably not going to have much luck: his colleagues on the council don’t appear disposed to overriding the veto.
City Council Mulls Mandating Cancer Vaccine: Legislation has been introduced in the D.C. City Council that would require girls in the city school system to get the new HPV vaccine, as the Post reports. Although the vaccine prevents some types of cervical cancer, it has faced opposition from conservative factions concerned that it might encourage promiscuity among teens. That doesn’t seem to be the problem here: the skeptics interviewed by the Post mostly expressed concerns about the vaccine’s newness and the appropriateness of the city making health decisions that would usually be left to parents.
Briefly Noted: Montgomery County gets new sex-ed curriculum… United to offer nonstop route from Dulles to Beijing… Jim Gilmore establishes exploratory presidential campaign committee… Suspect arrested in yesterday’s Alexandria murder… Student falls to his death on GMU campus…
This Day In DCist: One year ago we were talking to some area hackers and watching Marion Barry get into trouble. Two years ago we started looking into Borf and gave away some Arcade Fire tickets.
Photo by Flickr user wallyg, used under a Creative Commons By-Attribution license
