Photo by drrrkim

Good Morning D.C. Is the city, and pretty much all the surrounding areas, feeling a little emptier than usual today? Earl was a bust. The weather is perfect. And there’s that three-day weekend. And aside from a few hurdles to traveling around the area, prepare for a swarm of sunbathers to blanket the major roads and beaches. Undoubtedly, this weekend will not be the last spout of impeccable weather this season, but now that we’re into the month of September, the chances are fewer and farther between.

>> The AP reports that the weather and ocean conditions from Hurricane Earl did not hurt the wild ponies living on Assateague Island. Although the puny humans closed the visitor’s center through Saturday, “the horses just hunker down and go about their business.” I always knew ponies were extreme.

>> 18 year-old Tkeisha Gilmer was charged Friday with the August killings of two women and two children in Riverdale, Maryland. According to the AP, Gilmer, along with previously charged Darrell Bellard, drove from Texas to Maryland to sell marijuana and killed the victims over a dispute over stolen drugs. Gilmer now faces four counts of first degree murder.

>> It’s Y2K all over again. In more unearthed travails stemming from the Virginia government computer outage, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles is asking more than 4,200 license/ID card applicants to return to the DMV for new photographs, reports WTOP. Photos taken on August 25th, the first day of the outage, could not be recovered and permanent identification could not be issued. On a happier note: how often do you get a second chance at your driver’s license photo?