Photo by specimenlife.

Good morning, Washington. Life at the Washington City Paper goes on post-Snyder lawsuit (more on that shortly): Rend Smith delivers a dandy of a cover story this week, investigating a question that has been somewhat obscured over the last few months: who was Ali Ahmed Mohammed? Mohammed, who died near the DC9 nightclub last October amid a whirlwind of circumstances, apparently “was in an especially good mood” on the night of the incident, among other interesting revelations Smith was able to uncover. But one particularly interesting aspect of Smith’s report is that looking into Mohammed’s death requires an examination into D.C.’s large Ethiopian community, which is a fascinating exercise in and of itself.

Paying While The Power’s Out: Recent extended power outages in Maryland were bad enough, but the cherry on top is that households who were affected may have been actually paying Pepco for electricity while the lights were out. The Maryland Public Service Commission has launched an investigation into whether customers on Pepco’s rate stabilization plan might have been paying for power while it was out, eliminating Pepco’s “critical incentive to restore service quickly.” More from the Post.

Metro Budgeting For Higher Salaries: The Examiner Kytja Weir reports that Metro is budgeting to spend $45 million more on payroll in fiscal year 2012. Half the budget for increases, however, has been set aside for a three percent increase for some union workers, which Metro is currently fighting in court. The transit agency also recently announced it would be adding 263 new jobs to its payroll in the coming year, including several in information technology and financial services. The budgeted increases would increase the average salary of a Metro employee — of which there will be 11,237 in FY2012 — to $73,991 per year.

Briefly Noted: Kwame Brown tells the Times that he won’t be “rubber stamp” for Gray; the new Council Chair’s campaign, meanwhile, is $14,000 in the red…Former priest charged with sexually abusing students while teaching at Georgetown Prep…D.C. police finalizing plans to install more traffic cameras around town…Dulles ninth most expensive airport for domestic flights, DCA 25th, BWI 84th…Ingmar Guandique’s lawyers request new trial.

This Day in DCist: Last year, we were preparing for 12 to 20 inches of snow, and it was the public’s last chance to see Butterstick at the Zoo.