Photo by caroline.angelo

Good morning, Washington. Was your commute this morning hellish and confusing? Chances are, the intense security measures in place all over Shaw, Mt. Vernon Square and Chinatown are to blame. President Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit, to which he’s invited the leaders of 47 countries, is getting underway at the Washington Convention Center today, and the barricades, road closures, flood lights, military humvees and Secret Service checkpoints in place since Sunday night are causing havoc on traffic conditions. Thirteen Metrobus routes (the 42, 63, 64, 70, 71, 79, 80, D4, G8, P6, S2, S4, and X2) are detoured around the area, and the Mt. Vernon Square/7th St-Convention Center Metro Station closed at 9 p.m. last night, not to reopen until 5 a.m. on Wednesday.

There are so many intimidating security forces rolling through the streets of Shaw that the authors of the Convention Center Community Association blog have gone so far as to come up with a clever, psuedo-anagram: S*H*A*W = M*A*S*H. OK, so maybe the neighborhood doesn’t actually resemble a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, but you get the idea. There’s an awful lot of dudes in camo out there today. Not to mention the variable, temporary disruptions caused by the dozens of escorted motorcades making their way to the convention center this morning. We’ll be keeping an eye on conditions on the ground as the summit gets underway. In the meantime, the best advice we can offer is to avoid this entire area until Wednesday.

This Year’s Tourists Literally Good for Nothing: D.C. residents love to complain about clueless tourists who clog up Metro escalators or crowd downtown sidewalks. But generally, we also accept that these seasonal visitors are crucial to our local economy. So what are we to make of news in the Washington Post this morning that this year’s tourists, despite turning out in record numbers, aren’t spending very much money? “Many are day-trippers who go home after taking in the sights or stay with relatives, instead of booking hotel rooms. And those who are using hotels are generating less money because the room rates have been reduced to draw more guests.” Ugh. Perhaps elbowing anyone with a fanny pack is the order of the day.

Searching for 4th Suspect in S. Capitol Shooting: D.C. Police hope to have a fourth suspect in custody soon for the March 30 mass shooting on South Capitol Street SE, Bill Myers reports in the Sunday Examiner. “The 21-year-old is already wanted on a bench warrant after he missed a hearing for an unrelated marijuana and alcohol case, a police source said and court records confirmed. Detectives have quietly asked street officers to pick him up on the marijuana warrant and to hand him over to the homicide unit for questioning, a source with knowledge of the investigation said.”

Briefly Noted: Woman found dead in a parking lot in the 3000 block of 30th Street SE … Fenty opens his campaign headquarters … Stabbing on GWU campus … Georgetown student assaulted in her dorm.

This Day in DCist: In 2007, we noted an increase in cell phone bans at local coffee shops, and in 2006, rising gas prices were the talk of the town.