Good morning, Washington. Have you finally succumbed to presidential primary fever? With just about a week left to go until Super Tuesday, and only a week more than that until D.C., Virginia and Maryland all head to the polls on the same day, the Washington Post is hyping our region’s primaries as actually mattering this year in terms of making a big impact on who the nominees will be. What does that mean for you? The candidates will now be swinging through the metro area for more than just casting an occasional Senate vote (Obama is having a rally at American University today, for example), and you can bet we’ll start being subjected to the same TV spots our brethren in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina already have. Um. Can we still go back to no one caring about our votes?
Nickles Ordered Stop to Bank Lawsuit: The Post also brings word that Peter Nickles, then Fenty’s general counsel and current acting attorney general, ordered former attorney general Linda Singer’s office to drop its plans to sue Bank of America for its role in cashing the bogus checks that were part of the Office of Tax and Revenue scandal. A former assistant branch manager at a Bank of America branch in Baltimore is one of the 10 people arrested in the case. Nickles said he stopped Singer from pursuing a suit because he didn’t want to jeopardize Bank of America’s assistance in providing records to federal prosecutors. Singer resigned less than two weeks after Nickles ordered a halt to the suit, leaking word of “interference” from the general counsel’s office — this story helps paint a better picture of exactly what that interference entailed.
OMG Dulles Rail is Totally Effed!!1!: Well, probably. Actually, there don’t seem to be many more details to have come out about the potential demise of Dulles rail since Friday, but nearly every local news outlet has a follow-up this morning about the madness that’s taken place over the weekend among the project’s supporters. WTOP says that politicians are “scrambling” to save the project, the Post looks at the potential for private funding should federal involvement no longer be an option, and the Examiner tells us who is blaming who for this whole debacle. Oh, and a lot of people are blaming Metro. Va. Gov. Tim Kaine promised to respond to the FTA’s major concerns over the project by today.
Briefly Noted: Four-alarm fire in NW apartment building Friday night … Man shot to death in Southeast … Water boil alert issued for Walkersville, Md. … Two-alarm fire in Southeast.
Photo by sintixerr
