Good morning, Washington. Today is proving to be an even more epically awful day for drivers than we had initially thought. Not only will the city be swarming with protestors, but escape to the North will be impossible, too, due to yesterday’s shutdown of a stretch of I-95 in Philadelphia. All we can say is good luck.

Strong Charity Response To Mt. Pleasant Fire: WJLA reports that Neighbors’ Consejo, one of the organizations helping those affected by last week’s Mount Pleasant fire, has been overwhelmed by donations. In fact they’ve received so much food and clothing that they can’t currently accept any more. They are still looking for money and volunteer help, though, so if you’d like to contribute you should still get in touch.

Council Votes To Expand Pre-K, Accept Lease: An initiative aimed at enrolling more of the District’s children in early childhood education programs made progress yesterday, according to the Post. There are still lingering questions over teacher certifications and the tradeoff between charter school flexibility and more stringent curriculum requirements, but the bill won approval from a panel composed (somewhat confusingly) of all 13 council members, making its prospects for eventual passage look promising.

Also reported in the Post article: the council voted to approve the nearly-quadrupled lease rate for the city’s police evidence warehouse that we mentioned yesterday.

Briefly Noted: Off-duty MPD officer shoots teen during robbery attempt… Metro donates four high-emission buses to biodiesel charity… Md. bill that would collect DNA from accused attracts controversy… Have some extra dog blood lying around? Why not put it to good use… Yesterday’s lousy rush hour was partly due to three suspicious packages… Maryland might pass texting-while driving ban after all…

This Day In DCist: One year ago the Post was dropping some dead weight from its comics pages and Ringling Bros. was running a different sort of march on Washington.

Image posted to DCist Photos by Flickr user furcafe