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>> After days of very public criticism, it appears Pepco used July 4 to step up its game. As of this morning, the number of customers in the District without power is down to about 1,000, according to the company’s outage map. Still, the utility is continuing to work on restoring power to 19,000 more customers whose lights went out in last Friday’s derecho. The Post reports that 11,000 Dominion Virginia Power customers in Northern Virginia are still in the dark.

>> And good thing the repair work is nearly done, because today’s going to be another brutally hot day, with a forecasted high of 100 degrees and a heat index that will make it feel as if it is 105. Yuck. The National Weather Service has issued another excessive heat warning for today.

>> Yvonne Miller, the first black woman to be elected to Virginia’s state legislature, died this week at age 77, WAMU reports.

>> City Paper has a list of people who should be in charge of D.C, but really, it boils down to these four words: Marion Barry, Vampire Hunter.

Briefly Noted: Metrorail passengers “self-evacuated” from idled Green Line train Tuesday night … Heat wave could create less nuanced but way more boozy wine … Montgomery County Police shoot and kill man outside restaurant after he brandishes a gun … After beating the San Francisco Giants 9-4 in a game that started at 11:05 a.m., the Nationals own the best record in the National League … D.C. government, Westeros-style (Disclosure: I worked on this).

This Day in DCist: Last year, D.C. police scored a major bust of illegal fireworks. In 2010, the Silver Spring time capsule turned out to be a $12 bummer.