Photo by David Roberts

Good morning, Washington. Scary start to the day after an Acura SUV was stolen while a five-month-old baby was in the backseat in Southeast D.C. The car was found after a search that enlisted many police vehicles, including air support. The infant was found to be in good health.

Volunteers Needed: A school in Northeast D.C. that has long struggled with high truancy rates and low reading and math scores is adopting a system first used in Baltimore that recruits volunteers to serve as a kind of “second shift of adults,” WAMU’s Kavitha Cardoza reports. The program, “Diplomas Now,” is the brainchild of Johns Hopkins University researcher Robert Balfanz and was first deployed at a high school in Baltimore that with the help of volunteers from groups like City Year was able to vastly improve its graduation rates.

Orange You Glad We Said Problem?: The Post’s editorial board keeps up its reporting on the irregularities in Councilmember Vincent Orange’s (D-At Large) campaign finance reports. And now Orange says he is on the case, too. “My examination of the money orders leads me to believe that they are suspicious and questionable as to who actually paid for the money orders,” Orange wrote in a statement to the board. But this only raises more questions: “Why Mr. Orange, who is both an accountant and lawyer, didn’t realize earlier that there might be a problem is one of the questions that should be asked,” an editorial in today’s edition says.

Concrete Nightmare: Upgrades to 18th Street NW is supposed to be finished sometime this summer, but after such a long period of various patches of streetscape work, Adams Morgan merchants are seeing losses they attribute to the decline in foot traffic brought on by the construction, the Post reports. “It’s very difficult,” says the owner of Peruvian art gallery Toro Mata. Of the $6.5 million project that began a year ago. Bardia Ferdowski, owner of New Orleans Cafe, says Mardi Gras was a “rare good night.”

Briefly Noted: Long allergy season ahead … Marbury Plaza apartments still affordable, for now … Virginia is really screwing it up on the budget … Centreville man killed after driving car through garage door … D.C. Council weighs bill requiring residents to report suspected child abuse … Arrests made in Tide laundry detergent theft ring

This Day in DCist: In 2011, Verizon announced it was killing a time-and-temperature hotline, and it was Girl Scout Cookie season. In 2010, a nasty Metrobus crash in Southeast D.C., and a wonderful Metrorail missed connection on Craigslist.