Good morning, Washington. Recent increases in gun-related crime in the city seems to be today’s main topic of news, just as the Supreme Court may announce today whether it intends to take another look at D.C.’s handgun ban. D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty has scheduled a press conference this morning to address the District’s position on its gun safety law, but in the meantime the Washington Post is questioning the law’s effectiveness and just last night neighbors in Columbia Heights and Park View got together with police to address their most recent violent crime wave.
Potomac River Gets Low Marks: A Silver Spring environmental group has given the Potomac River a grade of D+ in its first “State of the Nation’s River” report — hardly a ringing endorsement, but certainly not surprising given that scientists have recently reported even more of those “intersex” fish in the river. The Potomac Conservancy blames agricultural pollution and suburban sprawl for the recent backslide in the environmental health of the river, which improved greatly since the 1960s.
D.C. Schools Lost Track of 1,300 Special Ed Students: The Examiner reports that DCPS officials let the federally mandated education plans of nearly 1,300 special education students expire, exposing the school system to more potential litigation. Their source also says that less than 55 percent of D.C. special education cases have been entered in the DCPS computer system in the last three years.
Briefly Noted: Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine cuts off abstinence-only funding … One more teen driver dies, this time in Montgomery County … Armed prisoner escapes from Laurel Regional Hospital … Two people shot at Shady Grove metro.
This Day in DCist: In 2004 we took the time to point out that Vice President Dick Cheney wasn’t actually dead, and in 2006 we wondered if it wasn’t time to declare a Metro Crime Emergency.
Photo by quemino of the world
