Good morning, Washington. George Carlin died this morning, so you can bet I’ll be listening to What Am I Doing in New Jersey? later today. In honor of George, here’s a story we think he’d enjoy: the Montgomery County school board is considering forcing school children to walk farther than they do now to cut down on school bus trips in the face of skyrocketing fuel costs. Should the plan go forward, there’s no doubt parents will raise quite a stink over this proposal, and we’ll have to mention this story again. Luckily, George left behind ample material to respond.

Small Riot at D.C. Jail: NBC4 reports on a disturbance at the D.C. Jail early this morning. A smaller fight had apparently delayed the evening meal last night, which led a group of about 25 inmates to refuse to return to their cells as a way of protesting that when their dinner had finally arrived, the food was cold. Eventually, tear gas, pepper spray and dogs were brought in to control the inmates.

City Can’t Pay Gas Bills On Time: The Examiner continues to peck away at city government waste and mismanagement, finding a stack of overdue Washington Gas bills the city hasn’t been able to pay on time so consistently that it’s cost taxpayers $700,000 annually in late fees for many years. But before you get too huffy about the District not keeping up with simple tasks like paying their bills, it turns out Washington Gas’s billing practices may be to blame — they’re actually billing the city on a 20-day cycle per gas meter, meaning it’s just become impossible to keep up with the thousands of gas bills constantly being generated. The late fees have now been waived while the utility figures out a way to send the city a simplified bill for all of its gas usage.

Briefly Noted: Contract dispute stalls construction of senior center in Northwest … Two more motorcyclists killed over the weekend … Police find man who had been fatally shot in Petworth … Man fatally shot in Southeast … Fire destroys Riggs Park Baptist Church in Northeast.

Photo by starrienight