>> Authorities aren’t sure exactly what happened in Congress Heights early this morning. What is known: a young girl — who later died — was found with apparent stab wounds on the 3400 block of 11th Place SE. The woman that led police to her body was also injured, possibly in the same incident. On top of all that, the building in which the child was found had also caught on fire. Police and fire personnel are still on the scene. [WaPo]

>> Today was the first day of furloughs for thousands of Maryland state workers; the state is using the five-day break to try and chip into a sizable budget deficit. [AP via WTOP]

>> Bryan Weaver, Commissioner of ANC 1C-03, delivers an impassioned plea to the city to act more efficiently to prevent violent crime between young black men. Weaver was friends with Derrell Goins, who was shot and killed on December 10th near the Marie H. Reed Community Learning Center at Champlain and Kalorama, after gang members mistook him for a rival gang member. [Prometheus 6]

>> Sure, it’s not the most uplifting thing. But the Festivus pole isn’t meant to bring cheer, it’s meant to bring catharsis! [City Desk]

>> “The issue with Chinese food and DC isn’t that there’s no good stuff, it’s that there’s an extraordinary quantity of bad stuff.” [Yglesias]

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