Photo by philliefan99

Good morning, Washington. Freedom Plaza may be a little crowded this morning as antiwar and anti-Wall Street protesters make room for Mayor Vince Gray to kick off the D.C. Full Democracy Freedom Rally and March, planned to coincide with this weekend’s official dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial. The protest began at 9:30 am, and at 11:00 am, indefatigable D.C. rights activists will join Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown, Ralph Nader and a group of D.C. leaders and civil rights advocates in a march toward the Sylvan Theater where they’ll merge with Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network March for Jobs and Justice and hoof it toward the King Memorial.

“Dr. King himself called for Congress to bring full democracy to the residents of the District of Columbia,” Gray said at a press conference this week. “This rally and march will continue his fight for justice.” Both marches were originally planned to dovetail with the King Memorial’s August unveiling, but the dedication was postponed because of Tropical Storm Irene.

>> Saturday will start off crisp and warm up in the afternoon. Today’s marchers and tomorrow’s spectators will have to tolerate gusty winds but should see quite a bit of sunshine.

>> We’re not off the hook yet. While Metro will suspend track work for Sunday’s dedication, track work is still planned for today, causing delays on four lines. On the Red Line, trains will share a single track between Shady Grove and Twinbrook. Blue and Orange line trains will be single tracking between Eastern Market and Stadium Armory. Orange line trains will share a track between Vienna and West Falls Church. Blue and Yellow lines will be down to one track between Braddock Road and Reagan National Airport.

>> At Atlantic Cities, Sommer Mathis explains why the castration of @dcfireems and the encryption of police department radio signals are an egregious assault on transparency in D.C. In related news, now that Peter Pringer is no longer D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services spokesman — and no longer live tweeting @dcfirearms — the D.C. Fire Fighters Association is stepping up their game, issuing 10 tweets Friday on emergency operations.

>> There’s an intense search underway for the missing 11-year-old son of a Germantown woman who was allegedly murdered by her ex-husband, but Montgomery County detectives have been unable to track his movements for nearly two weeks. The boy’s mother, Jane McQuain, 51, was found dead in her apartment Wednesday, though it appears she had died several days earlier. Curtis M. Lopez, McQuain’s estranged husband charged in her death, is offering no help in finding his stepson, William McQuain. Police are trying to determine why it took almost two weeks for anyone to report the boy or his mother missing. William had just started the sixth grade at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Germantown.

>>The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple uses Occupy Wall Street to take aim at his employer’s typographical discrimination against the tea party.

>> Wonkblog questions what the implications are for the health care reform law now that the Obama administration has pulled the plug on one of its major programs — a long-term care insurance plan known as the Community Living Assistance Services and Support Act.

>> WAMU reports that since 2000, Amtrak ridership is up nearly 44 percent, making it one of the most traveled lines in the system. More than 7 million people rode between Washington and Boston in the past year — the highest ridership since Amtrak started in 1971. Amtrak took home nearly $2 billion in sales in FY11.

>> Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman and Susan Collins are recommending a third year of pay freezes for federal employees and reorganizing of their retirement benefits to help pay down the federal deficit.

>> What do U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli have in common?

>> The Occupy Wall Street protests have gone global.

>> Here’s a celebrity divorce that may actually surprise you.

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