Good morning, Washington. You know, it’s easy to get discouraged. Our nation’s economy is unraveling, our presidential race has largely devolved into trivialities, and our city remains plagued with violence and poverty. But take heart! You still live in a city, country and universe where a headline like “MySpace Helps to Capture Monkey Thief” can exist. Alright, “headline” might be pushing it — it’s just the text on the Metro page that teases the story. Still, that’s pretty solid.

Area Governments Confront Budget Crunches: They may not be much of a surprise, but that doesn’t make the revenue shortfalls facing Virginia, Maryland the the District any less daunting. The Post reports on the damage: Virginia is as much as $3 billion in the hole, Maryland’s missing up to $1 billion, and D.C. is short $131 million. In all cases the culprit is reduced tax revenue born of the nationwide economic downturn. It’s too early to say exactly how each will deal with the budget problems, but the District, at least, is signaling that tax increases are a possibility.

Shooting, Chase Shuts Down Part of 395: Last night we received a text message from a friend that read: “WTF? The most cop cars I’ve ever seen – 14th street bridge, shotguns out.” Well, this morning there’s an explanation — Fox 5 has video and the Post has a written account. During a traffic stop in Arlington (begun in Alexandria), a police officer was shot in the chest by the driver of the stopped car, who then got back into his silver Lexus and fled the scene. The suspect ultimately crashed on 395N and then apparently committed suicide. Two lanes of Northbound traffic on 395 were shut down for several hours as the investigation proceeded. The officer is expected to make a full recovery — he was wearing a protective vest, which probably saved his life.

Briefly Noted: Biden speaks in Northern Virginia… Maryland declares crab disaster in order to qualify for federal aid… P.G. County emergency responders raise safety concerns about county’s forced furlough plan… Report assesses D.C.’s HIV/AIDS programs, finds them wanting… Apparent inter-car gun battle in Prince George’s… Gilmore fails to gain on Warner in Polls…

Image posted to DCist Photos by Flickr user Toshio