- A Continental Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing at Dulles this morning after hitting some birds after takeoff at National. The birds apparently caused one of the plane’s engines to fail, creating a bit of a panic on the ground; ARLnow reports that planes hitting birds after leaving National happens with disturbing regularity.
- 75 people opposed to the closure of the National Zoo’s Kids’ Farm and Giant Pizza Playground due to budget issues staged a “pet-in” on Saturday.
- Loose Lips reports that Kwame Brown settled a $21,743 bill with personal creditors for $9,500. That, combined with another settlement, has cleared himself of all his personal debt-related court cases. Something tells us that working that kind of magic on the District’s $600 million budget deficit might prove a bit harder.
- Dave Jamieson presents this bang-up longform story about the D.C. area, suspicious packages and the people who deal with them: “If they seem like a hassle to commuters and federal workers, imagine having to chase after hundreds or even thousands of them a year. There are entire teams in Washington who spend day after day scrambling to debunk what are mostly our own anxieties. After all, who wants to be the guy — or the agency — that ignored what turned out to be the real bomb?”
- The Examiner has added the White House beat to a couple of its Montgomery County reporters’ slates. Rockville to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? That’s one rough commute.
- In the market for real estate? The Washington Business Journal says that you should be cautious with property built in “1900” — apparently that’s the default date given to any structure built prior to 1877.
- “It is entirely possible in the next few months Dan Snyder will be the laughingstock of not only a small alternative weekly paper in his hometown, but Second Circuit case law as well.”
- Harris Teeter’s comin’ to Old Town. (But not until 2014.)
- NPR’s Frank James says that last week was “one of the worst weeks ever in the annals of city government.” City Paper editor Michael Schaffer says that it’s not such an absurd notion.
- The Dalai Lama’s coming to the District this July, and he’s bringing 20,000 of his closest friends with him to the Verizon Center.
- There was another abrupt stop on the Dupont Circle escalators this morning.
- George Washington becomes the third university, joining American and Maryland, to sell SmarTrip cards on campus. Enjoy it until the cards run out in 2012, Colonials!
- The guy behind the @MayorEmanuel Twitter account was the same guy who started Punk Planet, which is pretty great.
Photo by ep_jhu.
