Good morning, Washington. For those of you who were inconvenienced by yesterday afternoon’s Red line mishap, we’re sure you’ll be glad to hear that the suspect who Montgomery County police chased into the tunnel got away. The whole incident started just after 2 p.m. when officers, acting on a suspicious-person call, spotted Michael J. Brown, a man known by area police and who is wanted in Baltimore for several charges of theft. After a chase…

When Thomas P. Jacobus, general manager of the aqueduct that provides water to the District, Arlington and Falls Church commented to the Post today, “Perhaps sometimes we don’t do the best job we could of communicating,” he summed up in a few words the main problem that has plagued the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority — which delivers water from the Washington Aqueduct to customers — over the last few years. And while it remains…

According to word we have just received, the flat tax that Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) is hoping to force upon the District is receiving a second round of debate and consideration today. The District of Columbia Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which he chairs, has scheduled a hearing today to dicuss his flat tax proposal, and it will be receiving testimony from District CFO Natwar Gandhi, Brookings Institution scholar Alice Rivlin, and Terence Golden…

Last week brought rosy predictions as to how much revenue the new Washington Nationals stadium would attract. According to a study commissioned by District CFO Natwar Gandhi, the team stood to rake in $203 million in its first year and $190 million a year thereafter, making it the third highest grossing team in baseball. In fact, the predictions were so high that even baseball officials were left to express doubts: The projections greatly exceeded the…

We’re always one to celebrate when the District is good at something. But today’s news is bittersweet. We’re really good, it seems, at having really bad air, or so reports the Washington Times. According to an updated EPA report, air quality in the District is the fourth worst in the country, ranking behind New York, California and Oregon based on tests for 177 air toxins, including lead and benzene. We can try and take solace…

News today has it that the U.S. Capitol Police seemed to have forgotten about the First Amendment on Tuesday night, when they arrested anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and Beverly Young, the wife of a Republican representative, at the State of the Union address for wearing “expressive t-shirts.” Ironically, Young’s shirt was pro-military: “Support the Troops — Defending Our Freedom.” Capitol Police Terrance Gainer issued an apology and dropped the charges against the two. District Claims…

District political types and local journalists long waited for today — the day the D.C. City Council would finally vote on the contentious stadium lease, the day on which D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams was to prove once and for all if he could round up key votes at key moments. Alas, it was not to be. As we reported late yesterday afternoon, Williams asked Council-chair Linda Cropp to postpone the vote on the stadium lease…

“Slowly but surely,” D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams must be telling himself, “slowly but surely.” That’s the pace the new stadium has proceeded at since it was first voted on last December by the City Council on a 7-6 vote, having since seen furious debate over rent payments, bond financing, land and infrastructure costs, and design. But this afternoon the city is one step closer to the stadium. WJLA is now reporting that city officials and…

In a long-awaited decision that may boost the fortunes of the troubled new baseball stadium for the Washington Nationals in Southeast, the Supreme Court today ruled that local governments may expropriate homes and businesses to accommodate private development. Stemming from a case in which the local government of the city of New London, Conn., exercised their power of eminent domain over an economically-depressed area and replaced homes with a riverfront hotel and office buildings aimed…

You may be sick of stadium stuff, but there’s big news. As in a billion dollars big. Facing pointed questions last Friday at a D.C. City Council hearing convened by Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), District CFO Natwar Gandhi admitted that the total cost of building a new stadium for the Nationals could well top $1 billion. According to The Common Denominator, Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), who supports building a new stadium adjacent to RFK…