Good morning, Washington. With just a little more than two weeks left until the big day, the number of conservatives who are lining up to endorse Obama keeps growing. Over the weekend, perhaps the biggest GOP supporter Obama could hope for, Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, came out for the Democrat. When even prominent Republicans are too embarrassed by John McCain to vote for him and Obama is raising just insane amounts of cash, is it about time to go ahead and start making predictions about the outcome of this election? Not in the Washington Post newsroom, it seems, where the editors and reporters appear to still believe either candidate has an equal chance to end up in the White House and have a really difficult, depressing job ahead of them.

Big Fire in Georgetown: A two-alarm fire broke out at Ristorante Piccolo in Georgetown early this morning, destroying the restaurant and causing severe traffic problems all around M Street and Wisconsin Ave. The fire is now totally out, but the roads around the immediate area will be closed for the next few hours as crews clean up. WTOP suggests vehicles traveling over the Key Bridge should exit at Whitehurst Freeway.

Lerners Cough Up the Rent: Over the weekend the Washington Nationals and the D.C. government announced that they had finally settled their dispute over $3.5 million in unpaid stadium rent. Regular readers know the story by heart: the Lerners have claimed since opening day of the new stadium that it was never fully finished and have been refusing to pay rent since then; while the city has wondered how the team could have played an entire season of baseball if the stadium wasn’t finished. The deal as worked out is that the Nationals are wiring $3.5 million to the city today, while the city will go ahead and release almost $4 million it has been holding in an account for minor stadium improvements before the end of the year.

Briefly Noted: Nineteen-year-old killed near Howard University Friday night … Five-year-old Fairfax County boy feared abducted, then later found … Seventeen-year-old shot and killed late Sunday night in Trinidad … D.C. taxicab drivers still not allowed to have guns, thank goodness.

Photo by Jess J