DCist Flickr photo pool contributor Karon spotted this interesting looking advertisement inside the Court House Metro station recently. “The WMATA “see something, say something” ads are getting strange,” Karon noted.

Yesterday afternoon, a D.C. Fire and EMS hazmat team was called to the 300 block of I Street SW to investigate a white powder near a tree — authorities described the substance as “chalk-like” and taped off the area to investigate. Was it some kind of drug? Perhaps an explosive compound? Uh, not quite.

Independence Avenue SW has been shut down to traffic between 4th and 7th Streets, as federal authorities investigate a suspicious vehicle. Twitter tipster @shawnredern has posted this photo from the scene at the intersection of 6th Street and Maryland Avenue, where vehicles have blocked off access. The real question: what kind of effect, if any, is this having on geographically-challenged newspaper hawkers up the street?

D.C. Fire and EMS reports that an investigation of a suspicious package near the intersection of 4th and I Streets SW forced the precautionary evacuation of nearby Amidon-Bowen Elementary School. The scene has now been cleared. Police, along with hazmat and special operations teams, were investigating some unattended bags near the intersection.

UPDATE (10:56 a.m.): The package was deemed non-hazardous and roads around the area should be opening back up soon. D.C. Fire and EMS’ hazardous materials team is currently investigating a suspicious package located at the intersection of Connecticut Avenue and N Street NW. A DCist tipster on the scene tells us that the package appears to be located near the Starbucks whose storefront touches Connecticut Avenue and N and 18th Streets. Traffic issues in the…

UPDATE: The package has been deemed non-hazardous by the Metropolitan Police Department.

Earlier this afternoon, a suspicious package at a U.S. Post Office at 3300 V Street NE ignited into flames — now there are some additional details on that story. Authorities have admitted that there were two suspicious packages which were discovered at the D.C. post office this afternoon — neither package was opened, but one was thrown into a bin and caught on fire. The packages reportedly resemble the two packages which were addressed to Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and flared up inside Maryland state buildings yesterday.

If there was one trend which showed no signs of slowing throughout the entirety of 2010, it was the never-ending stream of breaking alerts which, to the untrained eye, would indicate that this whole damn city was downright falling apart.

If you were trying to get anywhere on the Blue and Yellow Lines this morning, you probably got caught in the middle of a situation involving a suspicious package at the Pentagon. The FBI was called in, the station shut down and thousands of passengers routed around the area. Of course, when the suspicious package in question turned out to be a “battery-operated Christmas ornament,” well, there’s just no way we couldn’t have some fun with that. We flipped through our Flickr pool and found that there were several examples of Christmas orna-threats all over this city. Consider it DCist’s contribution to the “see something, say something” campaign.