Good morning, Washington. After the markets closed Friday, history was made. Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time, lowering it a notch from AAA to AA+. According to S&P, “the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened.” The deficit reduction deal reached this week did not meet the agency’s expectations.
Some would argue the S&P is not the best judge of fiscal policy. Read past the first few paragraphs of the New York Times story and you’ll learn that the Treasury found a serious mathematical error in S&P’s draft of the downgrade announcement (provided to the government in the afternoon) that significantly overstated the debt. About an hour later, S&P conceded it had made an error, and a few hours after that issued a revised press release with new numbers but the same conclusion.
WTOP looks at what this could mean for the D.C. area.
>> Our first August Saturday will be mostly cloudy in the mid-to-high 80’s with showers likely. We may also see some heavy rain tonight.
>> The Washington Post Co. on Friday reported a 50 percent drop in second-quarter earnings. Revenue for their Kaplan Higher Education unit continued to fall and both the online and print operations of the Washington Post experienced declines in advertising revenue. Circulation for the print edition declined more than 4 percent in the first six months of 2011.
>> The head of New York City’s subway system is leaving. Metro’s General Manager Richard Sarles was approached last week about the position, but declined.
>> The Washington Nationals beat the Colorado Rockies 5-3 Friday night. Rockies pitcher Juan Nicasio was taken to a local hospital after being hit in the head by Ian Desmond’s line drive. A Rockies spokesman said Nicasio is resting comfortably and undergoing tests.
>> D.C. is changing its D.C. One Card to make it easier for students from kindergarten through 12th grade to use discounted fare cards on Metro’s buses and trains. Students previously had to get an application from their school, take it to a division of the Department of Transportation, and then go to a Metro sales office. With the change, they’ll be able to enroll for fare cards online and renew their passes at a Metro station.
>> The National Park Service has launched a National Mall app. The free app features a map with labels for more than 70 featured sites, walkways and a GPS function to tell users where they are on the Mall. The app also comes with preloaded tour suggestions and allows visitors to customize tours.
>> An apparent computer programming error may have caused as many as 10,000 Arlington voters to receive voter registration cards with incorrect polling place information on them. New cards will be sent out.
>> On Friday, Maryland’s departments of health and mental hygiene, environment, and natural resources warned the public about high concentrations of blue-green algae in the Potomac River in Prince George’s and Charles counties, advising people to avoid contact with the water in those areas.
>> Find your zen. There are going to be major Metro delays this weekend.
>> If you want to know what Clinton Yates did during spring break in 1994, check out his Twitter timeline around noon on Friday.
>> Welcome to the “District of DeBonis.”
>> “[J]oints, ivory, dirt, live crabs, caches of Iranian jewelry, leopard skins, all manner of sausages.”
>> Sixty-six years ago today.
>> This one’s for the “weed-loving treehuggers.”
>> Why it’s so easy to jump the fence.
>> Brilliant.
>> Ouch.
