Good morning, Washington. Welcome to day two of Pope Fever! Not just one, but three Washington Post reporters got up very early this morning to document the more than 46,000 people heading down to Nationals Park for the papal mass. While the people we saw yesterday lined up along the popemobile routes, with their flags, signs and T-shirts, could certainly be described as looking like “fans,” we’re curious about what our Catholic readers think about the Post’s headline here. Are you comfortable with being called “Pope Fans”, or is that a little, I don’t know, disrespectful of your religious tradition?

Buses Could Ride on Shoulders: Metro area transportation officials have proposed allowing public buses to drive on the shoulders of busy highways and other major roads. The idea is being touted as a cheap way to improve traffic congestion. Exactly which roads have shoulders that could be used in such a manner remains to be determined. Like all new transit ideas for the D.C. metro area, getting Virginia, Maryland and D.C. all to agree to a plan will be the main hurdle.

D.C. 4th in U.S. in Incarceration: A new report from the Justice Policy Institute ranks the District as having the fourth-highest incarceration rate in the country. Right now, 3,214 inmates are in custody in the D.C. jail and other facilities, which adds up to 553 people per 100,000 residents. Only the city of Philadelphia and two Tennessee counties have more of their residents currently behind bars.

Briefly Noted: Two men wounded in unrelated shootings overnight … Tension in Hill East neighborhood over the direction of redevelopment … Rhee plans to hire six nonprofits to help run ten high schools … Two killings last week in ‘Triangle’ appear to be related … More than 70 dead animal carcasses found in Frederick County … Couple gives $25 million to Children’s National Medical Center.

This Day in DCist: In 2007 we shared some of our photos from that year’s voting rights march, and in 2006 we noted that D.C. police had started enforcing the smoking ban before they were supposed to.

Photo by Jeremy.Hancock