Photo by shbaker99

Good morning, Washington, and happy New Year’s Eve! The D.C. area is greeting the day before the start of 2010 with a slushy, icy mess out on our roads and sidewalks. It’s not a lot of accumulation (less than an inch inside the city, by our unscientific measurements), but just in case you were still wondering, yes, the federal government is open today (albeit with liberal leave in effect). Surely we’re flinty enough to get through this little storm, which looks like it has already moved out of the area for the most part. But be especially careful on bridges and ramps out there. There’s a lot of ice-related accidents being reported.

D.C. Inmates Helped Shovel Snow: Remember how yesterday the Examiner was focusing on the $41 million that D.C. area jurisdictions have already spent on snow removal this season? Well today the story goes micro: the $7.50 per hour the District paid about 20 inmates from local halfway houses to get out and help shovel the stuff during this month’s big storm. The $15,000 total spent on hiring non-violent offenders to shovel is a mere drop in the bucket out of the $4 million the city shelled out on SnOMG ’09, but the real outrage is this: D.C.’s minimum wage went up to $8.25 last summer. Shouldn’t these inmates be earning at least that much?

Charities Still Need Your Donations Today: It’s Dec. 31, and we’re betting at least some of you are still contemplating your end of the year giving for 2009. Susan Kinzie writes in the Washington Post that the recession has a lot of local charities keeping their fingers crossed that enough last-minute donations will roll in to keep them afloat. So if you’ve still got any cash to give out this tax year, call up your favorite non-profit this morning and ask how best to get them some money by the end of the day. Need some ideas? Some of DCist’s favorite local groups include SOME, Street Sense, Martha’s Table, Miriam’s Kitchen, Bread for the City, House of Ruth, Calvary Women’s Services, and WEAVE. Add your suggestions in the comments.

Briefly Noted: Outgoing Va. Gov. Tim Kaine says he doubts he will run for office again … Incoming Va. Gov. Bob McDonnell already working on trying to get rid of that pesky single-term nonsense … District unveils new rules for monitoring tax-funded grants … Fatal shooting on Georgia Ave. Wednesday night.

This Day in DCist: Last year we were dealing with widespread electricity outages, and the year before that, believe it or not, the Redskins made the playoffs.