Good morning, Washington. So did Sarah “Internet Sensation” Palin’s speech accepting the Republican nomination for Vice President electrify you, too? It certainly burned a hole in our Twitter feeds, with more back and forth snarking over a single political speech than we’ve seen all year. The general consensus seems to be that Palin managed to come across as rather appealing to a large swath of independent voters. The San Francisco Chronicle even went so far as to say Palin may be upstaging McCain completely. What did you think?

Cops Involved in Fatal Shooting of Teen Back at Work: The two D.C. police officers involved in the fatal shooting of 14-year-old DeOnte Rawlings have been ordered back on the job, reports the Examiner. Rawlings was killed about a year ago during a confrontation with Officers James Haskel and Anthony Clay, who were both off-duty at the time, over a stolen mini-bike. Both men were cleared of criminal wrongdoing. The Rawlings family is suing the city and the MPD for $100 million.

About the 18th Street Evacuation Last Night: Lots of you wrote in to ask what happened on 18th Street in Adams Morgan last night. Readers reported being evacuated out of every business on 18th Street between Kalorama and Columbia Rd. just after 9:30 p.m. We even heard patrons kicked out of the The Diner were told they didn’t need to pay their bills — just get out. Naturally, it was a suspicious package situation, and the whole thing appeared to have been cleared up within about 45 minutes.

Briefly Noted: Baby killed, father injured in Suitland shooting … Mom gives birth in HOV lane … Judge says District has failed to meet special education deadlines.

This Day in DCist: In 2007 we mourned the end of The Common Share and the end of regular Bluegrass programming on WAMU.

Photo by marc.benton