Photo by brianmka

Good morning, Washington. As expected, Bob McDonnell thoroughly defeated Creigh Deeds in yesterday’s race for the Virginia governor’s office. Conservatives’ efforts did well nationwide in general, in fact, with the exception of the tumultuous NY-23 race. Experts will be quick to tell you that election results during an off-year shouldn’t be used to draw any broad conclusions… before wondering aloud whether there are any broad conclusions that they can draw from the results.

Metro Computer Systems Down: A power failure at a WMATA computer center has left a variety of Metro systems inoperative this morning, according to the Post. Bus fareboxes, MetroAccess booking, call centers, alert systems, and debit card purchases at farecard machines are all inoperative. On the bright side, the PA system in stations is also broken, so riders will at least be spared the constant inane messages demanding that they ask each other about their bags.

D.C. Sniper Asks Supreme Court To Delay Execution: John Allen Muhammad, the convicted D.C. sniper, is scheduled to die in just under a week. Now the Examiner reports that his lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to delay the execution while they consider whether Muhammad was adequately represented at his trial. Muhammad also has a request for clemency filed with Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, based upon the claim that he suffers from a variety of serious psychological and neurological problems.

Montgomery County Mulls Helicopters’ Cost Versus Awesomeness: The Examiner reports on a dilemma facing Montgomery County: should anti-drug funds be used to fight dealers and treat addicts, or to start a helicopter program that could probably fight drugs but mostly involve having totally sweet helicopters. To be fair, the county already has the helicopters lined up, a donation from the military. On the other hand, the county is facing cuts to its police department, which critics point to as an argument against starting an expensive new program.

Briefly Noted: EHN pushing for D.C. attorney general district attorney… Monday’s gym shooting may have been drug-related… Teens dead from apparent suicide pact… Former NSO director has heart attack while conducting orchestra… Montgomery County firefighters will start using foam to extinguish blazes…

This Day In DCist: One year ago Shaw got a dog park and Google Street View debuted in D.C..