Good morning, Washington. Did you happen to feel like someone was watching you while you walked down the street today? That might just be because there have been 5,200 city-owned cameras trained on D.C. citizens since June. The Examiner reports this morning that the VIPS camera network, which was consolidated into a unified system on an emergency basis for only 120 days over the summer, is still operating today under murky standards. To clear up those questions, the Fenty administration is now proposing new official regulations for the cameras that would take effect before the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration. The video-only network would be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but could not be used “for the purpose of infringing upon First Amendment rights.” Seems a little murky still to us, but since Fenty pretty much already won this battle months ago, it’s unlikely the network is going away anytime soon.

Metro Seeks Protection From Bank Action: Today’s the big day in court for Metro, where it will ask a federal judge to temporarily bar a Belgian bank from collecting $43 million from the agency. Metro’s money problems stem from the recent credit downgrading of insurance company AIG, which had guaranteed a long-term financing agreement between the bank and the transit agency.

Graham Proposes Parking Meter Rate Hike: Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham is proposing increasing the amount D.C. parking meters charge. Graham’s proposal would increase the fee from $1 per hour to $1.50, which he says would generate $8.5 million and, hopefully, encourage more people to use transit instead of drive. Sounds like a good plan, and in fact is maybe a little timid – why not go ahead and make it $2 per hour, especially downtown?

Briefly Noted: Fire at FBI Building Tuesday evening forces evacuation … Assistant police chief named to head academy … Woman attacked and beaten in Southwest, tells NBC4 she believes the teens attacked her for fun.

This Day in DCist: One year ago, the Washington Post’s classical music critic was placed on leave after insulting Marion Barry.

Photo by jng03