Photo by cerotio

Good morning, Washington, and welcome to Gay Marriage Tuesday, the big day when At-large D.C. Council member David Catania will co-introduce with nine of his colleagues a bill to legalize same-sex marriages in the District. The John A. Wilson Building may well be jumping this morning, though a hearing date for the bill has yet to be announced, and the Council won’t make a final vote on it until the end of the year. In the Post, Tim Craig writes that even though passage through the Council is all but assured and it does appear that this Congress will most likely let it become law, “even if same-sex couples start marrying next year, the long-term survival of the practice would be in doubt for years, depending on the makeup of the House and Senate, congressional officials said.”

Metrobus Driver Strikes Pedestrian on Mt. Olivet Rd. NE A Metrobus driver struck a woman as she was exiting another bus in the Trinidad area at about 6:30 p.m. on Monday evening. The woman had just exited a D8 Metrobus on Mt. Olivet Road NE between Trinidad and Montello Avenues, and it appears she was attempting to cross the street in front of that bus when the driver of a second bus heading in the same direction struck her down. D.C. Fire/EMS say the woman was taken to Washington Hospital Center with life-threatening injuries. And as the Post writes, there were witnesses: ‘Two men who said they witnessed the incident told television stations that the woman was thrown a distance down the street, and appeared to be unconscious after being struck. One of the men said that after the woman was hit, the driver of one of the buses “got down” and prayed.’ This comes on the heels of a similar accident at Connecticut and Florida Avenues a month ago, when jogger Amanda Mahnke was struck and seriously injured by a Metrobus driver, who has since been fired. The driver in Monday’s incident has been placed on leave pending an investigation and routine drug and alcohol testing.

Graham Keeps Taxicab Oversight: D.C. Council Chair Vince Gray said on Monday that Jim Graham will remain in his spot as the chairman of the public works and transportation committee, which oversees all taxicab-related legislation, Michael Neibauer reports in the Examiner. “Graham is neither a target nor a person of interest in the investigation, Gray said.” There’s also this morsel at the bottom of the story: Graham, Tommy Wells, Kwame Brown and Phil Mendelson have all apparently returned $400 campaign contributions they received from United Fleet Management’s Causton Toney, the former D.C. Taxicab Commission chairman who was one of those indicted in the federal bribery probe. Related, the Post also covers the taxicab defendants’ day in court on Monday.

Briefly Noted: Fatal shooting on Benning Rd. NE … District files to take over two homes for the mentally disabled … Marion Barry comes down hard on Michelle Rhee, asks for probe into DCPS layoffs … Roads reopen after hydrogen fueling station leak.

This Day in DCist: In 2006, we looked at Metro’s rules for how and when a customer is allowed to use one of its station bathrooms.