>> Payday lending reform legislation passes in the D.C. Council, Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry’s bizarre change of heart on the matter notwithstanding. [City Desk] >> It’s likely that the Texas State Bar is probing the professional conduct of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. [Huffington Post] >> A water main break at Third Street and Constitution Avenue NW this morning caused U.S. District and D.C. Superior courts to be shut down all day, but…

Today tens of thousands of District children return to school, leaving behind the late-morning starts, extended curfews and breaks at the public swimming pool that summer afforded them. And though the year will proceed as it usually does, they will be part of a school system that has seen drastic changes over the last few months. Now under mayoral control and led by new chancellor Michelle Rhee, the District’s public schools have entered a new…

The nation is still transfixed on the latest coming out of Blacksburg, especially the startling images and words that have come out of the package Cho Seung-Hui apparently sent to NBC News between his two shooting sprees. It’s also of course talking about the day’s two biggest stories coming out of Washington: The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the so-called partial-birth abortion ban, and the start of Congressional testimony by embattled Attorney General Alberto…

OK, so there isn’t a specific D.C. angle other than it takes place here, but this is pretty monumental news in the larger scheme of things. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, today announced her resignation, the first in over 10 years and one likely to set up what is sure to be a long and brutal battle between conservative factions looking to reign in “judicial activism”…