Photo by solupine

Good morning, Washington. The city woke up to very cold temperatures this morning after Monday’s snow storm—DCist’s weather widget reads 17 degrees as we type—which means those of you who didn’t shovel your walks are in league with the Devil. It’s all ice on the unshoveled sidewalks and gross, dirty slush in the gutters today. If your trash pickup was scheduled for today, know that DPW Director William Howland, Jr. sais in a statement yesterday that the city is “making every effort to collect this week’s trash and recycling,” but that trucks are slipping in alleys and some collections might be missed. DCist can report that trash was successfully collected from DCist HQ this morning.

D.C. Gets First AAA Bond Rating: A lone positive local economic indicator in a sea of bad news? Standard and Poor’s gave a AAA bond rating for the District of Columbia for the first time yesterday, making it eligible for lower interest rates. This is good news for the $652 million in bonds the D.C. Council is planning to vote to sell today to pay for various capital improvement projects.

Barry Back on the Job: Score one for modern medicine. Ward 8 D.C. Council member Marion Barry is planning on attending today’s legislative session (and pushing his UDC tuition hike reversal bill), only 10 days after kidney transplant surgery. Doesn’t look likely Barry’s fellow Council members will cut him much post-op slack and throw him their votes on his bill, though.

Briefly Noted: Prince George’s County officers suspended after videtaped beating … Catania will urge Council to ditch Deloitte & Touche … Michelle Obama to visit Arlington Cemetery … Five people rescued from apartment fire in Wheaton.