Good morning, Washington. You might remember that on Monday we linked to a story from The Hill reporting the indictment of Michael Gorbey, the man who was arrested in January for carrying a loaded shotgun and samurai sword near the Capitol. Gorbey was charged on Monday with 15 separate counts, including attempting to manufacture a bomb. Well this morning the Post has a follow-up story about how that bomb charge was related to an explosive device found in Gorbey’s truck that remained undetected by police for three weeks after he was apprehended. In other words, the U.S. Capitol Police missed the bomb in the car, even though they had Gorbey in custody on weapons charges. The Senate sergeant-at-arms told the Post the explosive device “could have caused serious injuries” if detonated. Gorbey had parked the truck about two blocks from the Capitol, though police moved it to a government parking lot after they seized it in January. Gorbey has pleaded not guilty, and plans to defend himself at his trial, set to begin April 21.

Metro Robberies Up in 2008: The Examiner’s been looking at Metro crime stats so far this year, and finds that there were 96 robberies reported to Metro Transit Police during January and February, almost twice as many as were reported in the same period the year before. Metro spokesperson Lisa Farbstein told the paper that the jump is due to an increase in the thefts of things like iPods and cell phones.

Briefly Noted: Howard University student newspaper has been shut down over $48,000 in debt … Grenade removed from Alexandria home … Woman dies after SUV crash in Takoma Park … D.C. defies home price drop.

This Day in DCist: In 2007 Mayor Fenty was lobbying White House officials to get behind the D.C. voting rights cause (you know how well that went), and readers were getting busted with jaywalking tickets downtown.

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