Photo by Gerald L. Campbell

Good morning, Washington. As is tradition on the Friday before a long holiday, traffic here at DCist is down while it dramatically jumps on area roadways as pretty much everyone tries to get out of town. For those of you staying around, remember that tomorrow is the day that D.C. pools open to the public, and Mayor Adrian Fenty will be on hand to swim, shake hands and prod little kids into whining until their parents promise to vote for him. His chief rival Vince Gray would be out, but he’s got some home repairs to take care of (more on that below).

Metro Raises Fares: You’ll soon be paying a lot more for Metro, courtesy of the fare hikes needed to close the transit system’s large budget gap. We had all the details last night — take a look here.

Gray Told to Lower or Move Fence: D.C. Council Chair and mayoral contender Vince Gray has been ordered by a city committee to either lower or move the fence around his Hillcrest home, reports the Post. According to the committee, there was no justification for Gray’s fence — which stands at 5 feet 7 inches tall — to exceed height limits for fences built on public right of ways. For as long as this brouhaha has gone on, it really does rank as one of the lamest political controversies in District history. No sex, no drugs, no fights, and not even any frat brothers getting multi-million dollar contracts. Might this be the last word on it?

D.C. Drivers Worst in Region: The Examiner brings news that not only are District drivers amongst the worst in the country, but they’re also significantly worse than their counterparts in Maryland and Virginia. According to a survey done by GMAC Insurance that tested drivers on the basic rules of the road, District drivers were only slightly more knowledgeable than drivers from New York and New Jersey, and stood far behind drivers in Maryland (20th) and Virginia (28th). Drivers in Kansas ranked highest nationwide.

Cavaliers vs. The Cooch, Rd. 1: The Post reports that the University of Virginia is going to court to fight subpoenas from Virginia Attorney General Ken “The Cooch” Cuccinelli for documents related to research done by a prominent climate scientist. Cuccinelli claims that Michael Mann, a professor now at Penn State, falsified information on climate change when applying for grants in Virginia to conduct his research. The university and most of academia argues that the controversial attorney general is going after Mann for political reasons. (Not The Cooch! He wouldn’t do that!) Either way, most observers recognize that it’ll at least be interesting to watch — it isn’t often that a state-owned university takes its chief lawyer to court.

Briefly Noted: MoCo cuts budget by $203 million … D.C. roads to close for Rolling Thunder … Gov. Martin O’Malley’s daughter treated at Baltimore hospital … Man stabbed in NW D.C.

This Day in DCist: On this day in 2009, D.C. offered to take Gitmo detainees and the rate of ticket dismissals in the District remained high. In 2008, D.C. residents were asked to vote for the design of their commemorative quarter and we wrote what should be mandatory reading for all summertime D.C. transplants — How Not to be That Intern.