Photo by corporatemonkey
Good morning, Washington. It’s set to reach a relatively balmy 47 degrees today — but then will come the snow. Yes, more of it: a winter storm watch has been issued, and the forecasters are talking about as much as 5 inches of accumulation between this evening and Friday morning — the Capital Weather Gang is even going so far as to use the b-word.
Metro Hearing Reveals OH MY GOD RACCOONS: The Post reports on yesterday’s NTSB hearing, and it’s an excellent writeup that underscores and expands upon the understanding of Metro’s safety failures that has been emerging over the past year, and this is all important but you’ll have to forgive me for not focusing on it right now because Metro is keeping raccoons as pets. The Post has the scoop, including a damning picture of a maintenance worker feeding one of the critters. Confronted with this evidence, Metro says it plans to fix the hole through which the animals are being fed and to “encourage” its employees not to engage in this sort of behavior, but I feel obliged to note that we tried that with my raccoon-enabling uncle and he still feeds the damn things even after he got bit and had to get all those shots.
ICC Falling Behind Schedule: The Inter-County Connector has seen plenty of delays — the project navigated what seemed to be a never-ending series of planning hurdles. Now the Post says that the project is facing yet another challenge: this winter’s unusual weather. Officials aren’t putting a number on the extent of the delays, but it sounds like it could be several months. Contractors will be bearing the associated costs.
Briefly Noted: “For the first time in seven months, Nancy Cox’s home is vulture-free“… Virginia legislature still wrangling over who will get funds from pro-choice license plates… Mandated insurance coverage for autism treatment dies in Va. committee; mandate concerning in vitro fertility treatment passes in Maryland… McDonnell declines to rule out vice-presidential run… ACLU wins apology for Md. girl who sat during Pledge of Allegiance… Fairfax mulling cuts to schools, resumption of vehicle registration fee…
This Day In DCist: One year ago Mayor Fenty pledged to send his kids to DCPS and a local business planned a memorial for its owner.
