Photo by lorigoldberg

Good morning, Washington. We’re very excited, because today is the first of two opening receptions for the Sixth Annual DCist Exposed Photography Show! If you’ve never been, these are the basics—the wonderful cast of photographers that fill our Flickr pool with beautiful images of our fair city get to show off and sell some of their best work, and we get to enjoy it. This year we’ve also gone local with our beer selections, so a ticket will get you access to the show and free beer from DC Brau and Churchkey. If you haven’t already, you have until 11 a.m. today to get your tickets for today, or you can pay $15 at the door if any are left. The same goes for tomorrow. Hope to see you there!

National Cathedral to Reopen Tower This Weekend: The National Cathedral will open a tower this weekend that has been closed since the August 2011 earthquake, writes WAMU. The tower, which has been deemed structurally sound, will be opened for the annual 333-stair climb to the top on Saturday. Repair work still continues on the cathedral’s spires; the work is estimated to cost $20 million, and the cathedral has only raised $2 million towards that goal so far.

New D.C. Law Sets High Education Expectations: A law that was approved by the D.C. Council yesterday would require all D.C. public high school students to take the SAT or ACT and apply to college, reports the Examiner. The law, which was sponsored by D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown, would also offer teachers a $10,000 bonus to move to struggling schools and create five community schools. Not everyone is happy with the ambitious law, though—public charter school advocates say that Brown is overreaching, while others argue that such matters should be left to the State Board of Education. The law also faces a more pressing challenge—its $2.8 million tab through 2015 hasn’t yet been covered.

Crime in D.C. Drops: After a surge in the number of robberies in the first two months of 2012, the city’s crime rate seems to be dropping, writes The Washington Times. D.C. police say that from March 1 through this week, violent crime is down 11 percent and robberies have decreased 16 percent relative to the same period last year. Police have focused their efforts on tamping down on robberies by reassigning 200 officers to the beat and cracking down on the sale of stolen electronic gadgets. Still, not all the news is good—violent crime for the year is 24 percent higher than at the same point in 2011.

Briefly Noted: Bank robber that threatened tellers with claim of nuclear bomb caught … MoCo proposes increasing parking and bus fees … Even with Gov. Bob McDonnell on ticket, Mitt Romney wouldn’t win Virginia … No surprise here: D.C. regulators knew of campaign finance violations dating back close to a decade … Maryland woman gets jailed for jaywalking.

This Day in DCist: On this day in 2011, the Washington Times returned from the dead and restarted home delivery and Mayor Vince Gray asked for feedback on the budget. In 2010, a mass same-sex wedding ending up being not so massive.