Good morning, Washington! I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all the guest bloggers and editors who graciously filled in for me last week while I was away: Amanda Mattos, Heather Goss, Martin Austermuhle, Kriston Capps, Jason Linkins, Tom Lee and Ian Buckwalter all went above and beyond to make sure DCist kept chugging along while I was busy sipping piña coladas in sunny Puerto Rico. Thanks so much to all of them, the rest of the DCist staff, and to all you readers for making the guest bloggers feel welcome. As much as I may have harbored a few fantasies about conveniently “missing” my flight, finding a little beach shack to rent and starting up San Juanist, I am glad to be back. And why wouldn’t I be, with feel-good headlines to greet me this drizzly Monday morning such as that Pepco is going to raise rates for D.C. customers again in June and that the nation’s terrifying credit crisis looks poised to cripple our local governments? It’s good to be home, indeed.

Dr. King’s Death, Riots Remembered: The Post has been running a series of articles over the weekend and continuing this morning to mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the ensuing riots that tore this city apart in April, 1968. For many of us who are too young to remember the full extent of the rioting and how devastating their legacy has been to our community, it’s illuminating to read some of the reader recollections the paper has put together, as well as a story about the effect the riots had on business development.

Council Hearing to Look at Potential New Lottery Contract: The Post reports that the D.C. Council is set to examine a new lottery contract being pushed by CFO Natwar Gandhi and Mayor Adrian Fenty. The administration hopes to award a contract worth more than $120 million to W2I Venture to take over management of the District’s lottery games. Some Council members are questioning the proposed deal because the founder of W2Tech, Warren C. Williams Jr., is an accused slumlord and the former owner of the infamous Club U, which was shuttered by the city in 2005 after a patron was fatally stabbed.

Briefly Noted: Formal charges against Banita Jacks could come soon … Two people found dead in a hotel bathtub in Prince George’s County … Jury selection for D.C. Madam case to begin Tuesday … MPD plans to link crime cameras, ShotSpotter.

Photo by izik