Good morning, Washington. More than 4,000 volunteers turned out for Beautification Day Saturday to help freshen up District of Columbia public schools, making it the largest group since the annual spruce up event was established in 2005. Volunteers planted flower beds, cleared weeds, picked up trash, and painted buildings at over 100 schools throughout the city. Marshall Elementary School principal Sharon Wells humbly told the Washington Post, “I feel like I’ve been sprinkled with fairy dust.”
On Monday, public school kids will head back to the classroom, and in many cases to totally redone schools. This will be the first full school year for Chancellor Kaya Henderson and Mayor Vince Gray.
>> In sports, the Philadelphia Phillies earned a 5-0 victory over the Washington Nationals on Saturday night. The game at Nationals Park set a stadium record of 44,685.
>> The violent storm that tore through the Washington region late Friday left one man dead. Police have identified the man as 19 year-old Indy Robert Saunders of the 3500 block of Southern Avenue in D.C. Saunders was standing outside a liquor store along the 3200 block of Naylor Road when he was struck and killed by a falling pole and live power lines.
>> Striking Verizon employees will return to work Tuesday, despite the absence of a new labor agreement. “The major issues remain to be discussed, but overall, issues now are focused and narrowed,” the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers said in a statement.
>> At the summer conference of the Maryland Association of Counties, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said the state must be open to new taxes next year.
>> Washington’s new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial opens to the public this week, and the Washington Post takes a look at the man who led the fundraising effort to build it.
>> Sixty-five people were arrested outside the White House Saturday in a protest aimed at pressuring President Obama to deny a permit for a new oil pipeline.
>> City Paper’s Lydia Depillis and the Atlantic’s Megan McArdle exchange some words over the term NIMBY.
>> Retention issues I’m sympathetic to.
>> Timeless Cookie Monster.
