Good morning, Washington. For those of you with an extended holiday weekend, it’s going to be a beautiful three days. For those of us looking at no more than our perfunctory time-off, relish Saturday and Sunday’s sunshine. Monday’s certain to arrive sooner than we’d like.
>> Robert O. “Bobby” Muller, a well-known peace advocate and a founder of Vietnam Veterans of America, is accused of trying to ship a package with more than a pound of marijuana from a Fed Ex Kinko’s in D.C. to a fellow veteran in Vermont. Store employees called the police after getting a potent whiff of the bundle. Muller appeared in court this week and was released on personal recognizance.
>> Nearly 20 transgender men and women are graduating from a month-long D.C. jobs training program as part of Project Empowerment, which is run by the D.C. government and helps ex-convicts, past drug addicts and others find jobs. Studies have shown that people who identify as transgender “routinely endure discrimination, struggle with unemployment, and turn in disproportionate numbers to drug dealing and prostitution to earn money.” Only 15 states and the District of Columbia have laws that ban workplace discrimination based on gender identity.
>> A dorm at George Washington University was evacuated Friday night after high levels of carbon monoxide were detected at Aston Hall in the 1100 block of New Hampshire Ave NW.
>> The National Aquarium unveiled the Albino American Alligators on Oct. 7, as part of their “Secrets of the Swamp” exhibit. There are only a hundred of these rare alligators in existence, and their inability to blend in means they’re unable to survive in the wild. General admission is $10 and children pay $5. The exhibit runs from October to February 2012. Feeding begins at 2 p.m. on Fridays.
>> The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that an outbreak of listeria in Colorado cantaloupes is now responsible for 21 deaths, and the number may continue to grow. At least one person has died in Maryland.
>> “The reality is that organizing a protest in the middle of a weekday prevents a lot of people from participating. It particularly shuts out the working poor who, regardless of race, cannot afford to take a day off from work — even if it’s to protest against a system they feel has by-and-large failed them.”
>> D.C. Public Schools will soon begin negotiations on a new contract with its teachers union. The last negotiation took almost three years to complete.
>> Was Steve Jobs too busy for charity? Or was he an inconspicuous philanthropist?
>> A pill a day keeps the gray away.
