Photo by Kevin H.

Good morning, Washington. If the federal government can’t get its finances in order and shuts down, how will that affect D.C.? Mayor Vince Gray admitted yesterday that the city was “susceptible” to a shutdown — which would rob the city of its federal appropriations — but neither Gray nor his staff have yet outlined what precisely would happen around D.C. if a shutdown occurred. Mike DeBonis, on the other hand, takes a crack at predicting how D.C. city services would operate under a shutdown. During the government shutdown in 1995 and 1996, DeBonis notes, police, fire, schools, courts and hospitals all remained open; then-mayor Marion Barry deemed two-thirds of its workforce “essential,” including revenue collectors like lottery workers and parking enforcement. Such a shutdown would, of course, again highlight the contradiction that the District, despite raising a large majority of its revenue from non-federal sources, still sits firmly under the thumb of Congress.

Conflicts in Transition: Some boffo reporting from Alan Suderman at City Paper this morning — Loose Lips tackles Cell Bernardino and Tom Downs, two former Barry administration members who now co-chair Mayor Vince Gray’s transition committee on transportation and penned a recent report (PDF) blasting the city’s Department of Transportation. Thing is, both Bernardino and Downs — the latter also sits on the WMATA board — both appear to have used their position on the transition board to bolster their day jobs as a developer and a transportation company exec with interests inside the District, respectively. While producing the report, both men contacted city officials with emails pressing for information on issues that directly affect their financial interests — Bernardino about the “hold up” on the review of a site where he has a planned development, Downs on contract information for Circulator service, which his firm Veolia unsuccessfully bid on in 2009 — and Gabe Klein, the former director of DDOT, tells Suderman that it made people uncomfortable. On the transition reports, Klein also added: “It’s not really about accountability; it’s about power and control, egos and ultimately money. And it’s just sad that we’re going back to that.”

Bus Drivers Involved In Several Assaults: The Metro crime onion just keeps peeling back one smelly layer after another. First, it was an uptick in electronic thefts. Then it was a five-year high in all serious crime. Today, Ann Tyson Scott reports that the crime which saw the largest spike between 2009 and 2010, aggravated assault, involved Metro bus drivers a third of the time — including some drivers who had “confrontations” with passengers over the payment of fares. You can read the damning security report featuring all these revelations, which will be presented to the Metro board of directors today, here.

Briefly Noted: Pedestrians hit by cars at 7th and G Streets NW, on 2600 block of Bowen Road…Big Department of Homeland Security office complex heading to Poplar Point?…N Street under 11th Street Bridge closes today…Maryland semen attacker to be sentenced.

This Day in DCist: Last year, the National Transportation Safety Board was in day two of hearings on the fatal Red Line crash, and documents revealed that a work order had been issued for the exact spot where the crash occurred just days before the crash; in 2009, we liveblogged the Senate’s procedural vote on voting rights legislation.