Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning, Washington. No time for pithy introductions today; there’s just far too much news to get to. Let’s go!

Update on Last Night’s Horrific Car Crash: Information on the scene was sparse last night, but we now know this morning that the driver of a white Dodge Caliber that hit two pedestrians and destroyed the front of Keren Restaurant in Adams Morgan has been charged with driving while intoxicated. The driver, a 23-year-old woman from Mitchellville, Maryland, was taken into custody at the scene. Both women who were hit by the car are still hospitalized.

The Post Examines Gray’s DHS Tenure, Challenger Gets Big Labor Support: The Washington Post dropped its huge, triple-bylined story on mayoral challenger Vincent Gray’s tenure at the District Department of Human Services. Mayor Adrian Fenty has repeatedly used Gray’s supposed failures at the agency — mismanagement of funds, failure to provide services — as one of the main talking points of his campaign. But the Post finds that Gray was hardly to blame for the failure of the agency, which they dubbed a “sprawling agency that was widely viewed as lacking the structure, discipline and funds to fulfill its responsibilities.” Despite not making “significant, lasting changes,” the Post notes that blaming the failures of DHS in that timeframe on any one person would be foolish. On the contrary, in its interviews, the Post found that Gray “delivered incremental progress” and was “a hands-on manager” during his stint at DHS. In other Gray news, Freeman Klopott reports that D.C.’s labor unions are pushing hard on get-out-the-vote efforts, a very good sign for the challenger, who the unions overwhelmingly favor.

Is Mayor Fenty Buying Votes?: Reaction is swirling this morning to the news that the Fenty campaign is actively recruiting young voters. Reportedly, Fenty representatives offer the kids $100 per day for a ten-day span early this month. The catch? They first have to vote for the Mayor at early voting stations. ABC 7 reports out the accusations. The Fenty campaign denied engaging in such behavior. In August, we reported that the Fenty campaign had spent large amounts of money on “salary/stipend” payments to canvassers.

City Paper Drops Its Endorsements: With the succinct reasoning of “He’s a jerk. But he’s your jerk,” the City Paper endorsed Mayor Fenty for reelection today. Of course, the real question is if the City Paper endorsement — in addition to ones that Fenty has recieved from the Washington Post and the Examiner — actually do anything to improve his chances or not. The City Paper also made some interesting endorsement choices in down-ballot races: Vincent Orange for Council Chair, Bryan Weaver in Ward 1 and Kenyan McDuffie in Ward 5.

Briefly Noted: Fantastic read this morning from Dave McKenna about whether Fenty betrayed D.C. United stadium supporters…AG Peter Nickles turns over Peaceaholics contract documents to Councilmember Yvette Alexander for audit…Defense lines up expert on jailhouse informant sociology to testify in Chandra Levy case…WMATA gets $2.76 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help defray December 2009, February 2010 snow removal costs…Results of damning Virginia Department of Transportation audit to be released soon…Bus fires reported in Silver Spring last night, on Interstate 495 in Virginia this morning.

This Day in DCist: Last year, we got a new logo. In 2008, we wondered if anyone was voting in that year’s midterm primary, then rounded up the results at night’s end.