Photo by Marcellina.

Good morning, Washington. We’re glad to see most of you weren’t physically carried away by yesterday’s high winds, which at a minimum caused a number of power outages throughout the metro area. By early this morning, though, those winds had all but vanished, leaving us to determine which way the wind is blowing … solely by scanning the day’s headlines!

Hawk One Security Guards Missing Paychecks: Former employees of the now defunct Hawk One security company, which up until last week provided security guards for D.C. Public Schools, say their most recent paychecks have bounced and they are still owed more money on top of that. D.C. Wire speaks to one former guard who, like so many of us these days, is living paycheck to paycheck and can’t afford to be missing two weeks worth of her salary. The guards are asking the D.C. Council for help since the city still has to pay Hawk One before Hawk One can pay its employees, but AG Peter Nickles seems to think nothing can be done until a judge sorts out all the complicated legal issues at hand, as News Channel 8 reports.

In the Past Year, Eight Metrobus Drivers Failed Drug & Alcohol Tests After Crashes: In the wake of two recent Metrobus v. pedestrian collisions, the Examiner’s Kytja Weir looks at WMATA’s crash records and finds that eight drivers in the last year failed their routine drug and alcohol tests after accidents. Weir writes that “it is not clear what happened to the drivers who flunked the tests,” but notes in a separate story that official WMATA policy on drug and alcohol use is actually less strict than its revised cell phone use policy. Metro now employs a zero-tolerance policy on cell phone use while operating a vehicle, but alcohol or drug violations “do not automatically translate to firing.”

Briefly Noted: Eleven Ballou High School students arrested in gang feud … Judge rules Fenty Administration must allow D.C.’s auditor full access to development records … District suspends referrals to non-profit Individual Development Inc.’s group homes … Reston man charged in Herndon rape case.

This Day in DCist: Last year we chatted with Tyler Cowen about his Ethnic Dining Guide, and the year before that we said goodbye to WAMU’s Red Shipley.