‘Metro #291’
courtesy of ‘andertho’
According to WTOP’s Adam Tuss, a 10-car train was deployed on Metro’s Green Line this morning. The longest train that can fit into a station is 8 cars. The train went into service at Branch Avenue, and the mistake was not noticed until the train reached the Waterfront station. As Tuss points out, this means the extra-long train passed through eight stations before being stopped and taken out of service. Of course, the extra two cars were not accessible to passengers.

The Tri-State Oversight Committee has been notified of the incident, and 5 Metro employees are off-duty as part of the safety investigation.

Back in March, Metro accidentally deployed a 14-car train, when a six car was coupled to an eight car. That mistake was caught when the train pulled into the first station to be serviced.

‘DSC_5693’
courtesy of ‘photopete’

While I have to admit I’ve never been too good at haiku writing, the option of having one run on the DC Sports Bog in honor of Stephen Strasburg’s debut tomorrow is a darn good selling point to get me to try and write one.

I’ll spare you all my horrid attempts at turning this baseball moment into poetry gold, but I urge you to get involved and join in the fun!

The Post’s Dan Steinberg announced the haiku contest this morning and hopes you’ll all get involved in Strasburg-mania.

First place gets “the best bit of memorbilia [Dan Steinberg] can muster on Tuesday night, which probably means a slightly wrinkled game-day program and Nats Park quote sheets.” Runners-up will receive “the maximum fame and admiration that anonymous Post commenters can provide.”

For more information, visit the DC Sports Bog.

‘Is this a Transformer?’
courtesy of ‘voteprime’

Dreamworks and Paramount Pictures were hoping to spend two weeks filming in Washington this fall, as they get ready to make Transformers 3, but it seems the Park Service isn’t eager to turn the Mall into a studio. According to the Post, the Park Service says that Dreamworks “have asked to do some things that simply are not done on the National Mall.” That includes staging a car race on the gravel paths and lighting it up during the middle of the night.

Given the condition of the Mall, generally speaking, I would have been more surprised if they had agreed to host a car race on the pathways, but as much money as this could bring to the District, it’s difficult to hear “No” being used more than “Maybe” or “No, but maybe we could talk about this instead?”

‘Marion Barry and Mr. Grumpy Pants’
courtesy of ‘ricepeter’

Back in March, Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry (D) was stripped of his position as chair of the Council’s housing committee. This was, of course, due to his questionable awarding of contracts to a girlfriend, among other allegations of ethics violations. At the same time, he was removed from the Committee on Finance and Revenue, a move that seemed a long time coming given his guilty plea to failure to pay income tax.

It’s June now, and both candidates for Council chair are talking about giving Barry a committee chairmanship in 2011. Yup, that’s right, Barry could potentially get his power back in less than a year, and there’s nothing voters can do about it. Both Kwame Brown and Vincent Orange have not ruled out restoring Barry’s position. In fact, current At-Large Councilmember Brown has said it only makes sense, and that as chair all Councilmembers would head a committee. This was also the policy of current chair Vincent Gray, prior to Barry’s censure.

Mike DeBonis over at the WaPo has a good round-up of the issue, which is seemingly beyond understanding.

“You shouldn’t sit on the council, make that much money part-time and not be accountable for trying to move this city forward,” Brown said. “It’s the responsible thing to do.”

Vincent Orange, the former Councilmember and Pepco employee was a little more wishy-washy than Brown on the matter. Orange, at least, admitted that more information was needed to decide, considering that federal prosecutors are reviewing Barry’s case.

With neither of the Council chair candidates taking a hard stand on Barry’s ethics problems, it almost makes you want to write-in Vincent Gray for chair this November.

Photo By Ian Koski, Nationals Daily News

Sunday’s Nats-Reds game can’t be summed up into a few words. Trying to would only lead to a confusing mess of a laundry list outlining who did what and when and why. Continue reading →

Photo By Max Cook

Luis Atilano’s career high seven innings pitched and six strikeouts in Saturday’s game versus the Cincinatti Reds was not enough to secure a victory for the Washington Nationals.

Reds starter Mike Leake held the Nationals scoreless through four innings and continued to outplay both the Nats and his own team while owning a 1.55 ERA in his last eight starts and driving in run support for himself.  The rookie is hitting .417 after tonight’s game where he hit two singles and scored a run. Continue reading →

‘Nationals vs Mets 12’
courtesy of ‘maxedaperture’

It was a tough road trip for the Nationals, losing 7 of 10 and playing errorful ball, and that weighs on a club and their locker room.  The Nationals, though, with Strasmas on the very near horizon, weren’t interested in playing the dog on Friday night, and brought their business socks to the park. Their opponent: the first place Cincinnati Reds and pitchers Aaron Harang.

It was a sultry night at Nationals Park, with temperatures at gametime well above 90°F, and with humidity making the evening into a heavy, wet mess, it wasn’t surprising that the game would take on a snail’s pace.  No one wanted to move too quickly, and the result was a long and slow game that took nearly four hours to play.  Aaron Harang struggled in the heat, and in his four innings pitched, he would throw over 95 pitches as the Nats fought him at every turn. ¡Livan! Hernandez would go six full, but throw 100 pitches in a two-run effort. It took everything both teams had to make it to the seventh inning in the damp wet Washington evening in front of a crowd of over 33,000. That’s when the sparks flew.

Continue reading →

‘on the campaign trail’
courtesy of ‘mofo’

Well, that didn’t take long. What started last night at the campaign forum up in Ward 3, has overflowed today to Twitter, with Gray’s campaign posting a link to video of Fenty using a Blackberry to quote statistics during the debate, and then an accusation of getting them wrong.

The statistic in question? Low-income Housing. Fenty claimed that 11,000 units were “built” during his administration, which isn’t quite correct. 5,000 units were created from scratch under Mayor Fenty, and 6,000 more preserved, which is where the 11,000 figure came from.

If these are the kind of petty squabbles that are leading news cycles? We’re in for a long summer, folks, especially if we start seeing tit for tat throughout the social media space.

UPDATE: Union Station officially re-opened.

Our own Dave Stroup is over at Union Station and is passing on reports that there’s been a shooting on a red line train, resulting in the closing of the Union Station metro. He’s been told it’s two gangs fighting on the train and at the moment the outside escalator entrance is being cordoned off.

Dave sees transit police, capitol police and DCFD conferring inside the mezzanine. He’s not seeing any EMS response. A bystander claims there’s at least one wounded individual.

1:43p: The DCFireEMS twitter account confirms the injured person, singular. WMATA’s release indicates that the shooting was in the station itself, says trains are continuing to pass through – single tracking – but not stopping.

1:45p: Dave says the station has re-opened. DCFireEMS twitter says they are transporting a single teenage male, aprox 16-17, in serious condition to the nearest trauma center.

1:49p: Dave repeats that the station has been re-opened. Reports have shifted to a large group of people fighting, not a shooting. The fight originated on the train, transit police contacted capitol police for backup.

1:52p: Witness report guns were visible but transit police say that no shots were fired. Dr. Gridlock’s update still repeats an MPD claim that shots were fired.  It’s unclear where this reporting disconnect is coming from or which side is accurate. No weapon has been recovered in a station search.

1:55p: The group was reportedly teenagers, over 30 who borded at Ft Totten and began fighting shortly thereafter. A passenger says it was difficult to get out of the way. At least one witness has stated a fear of going on camera.

1:58p: The fighting continued on the train as it progressed from Ft Totten to Union Station, happening right over seated passengers. One witness says she didn’t see a weapon but heard claims (boasts? threats?) of one, states her co-worker did see a handgun.

1:59p: Dave says Union Station officials are telling NBC4 they can’t film at Metro. They’re asking security to remove NBC4 from outside the station.

2:06p: Security apparently knows the law/rules better than the Union Station person demanding NBC4 be removed; an angry facilities person employed by Union Station is complaining about their refusal to remove them. NBC4 and ABC7 continued filming.

‘Metro Map’
courtesy of ‘Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com’

Metro’s iconic map, probably my second favorite transit map in the world, is the result of designer Massimo Vignelli, who will speak at Metro’s HQ this weekend on the map, as well as on the work he did with the chief architect of the Metro stations, Harry Weese. The event is at the Metro HQ, and runs from 3:30 to 5 on Saturday afternoon.

‘Strasburg Railroad’
courtesy of ‘jpmueller99’

There’s been a whole lot of talk in this town about welcoming the prodigal son to his baseball kingdom. As much as I love the hustle and bustle of DC getting caught up in the great commotion that is Major League Baseball, I have to say that all the hype over Stephen Strasburg is getting to be a bit much.

We know he’s good. He’s got the numbers. He’s been called up. He’ll start on Tuesday (pending weather, etc.).

With that said, while I’m just as excited as the next DC-area resident to watch a young’n breathe life back into District baseball, I must say the Virginia attempt to re-name Strasburg, Va. in honor of the Nationals’ pitcher is quite an admirable stunt.

The “Rename Strasburg” campaign launched by Virginia residents Justin Ritenour and ESPN Page 2 writer Shane Igoe was mentioned via Twitter by the Sports Bog earlier today. What exactly are they campaigning for?

“1. On June 8, 2010 the town of Strasburg, VA plans honor Stephen with a “Pride of Strasburg Recognition” Award
2. The Strasburg town council will also draft a resolution to rename the town “Stephen Strasburg, Virgina” should Mr. Strasburg decide to visit the town situated less than 90 miles away sometime this year
3. Upon which the newly named town would welcome Stephen into town on the back of a firetruck and honor him with a welcoming parade and police escort
4. We also invite Mr. Strasburg to throw out the first pitch to our new traveling little league team which would henceforth be known as the “Stephen” Strasburgs”

I sure do hope someone asks Stephen what his thoughts on all this are after his first outting on Tuesday. Inquiring minds (mine in particular) would like to know.

‘Metropolitan Branch Trail-13’
courtesy of ‘TrailVoice’

There’s been a good deal of controversy on some community listserves over the 900 block of Rhode Island Ave NE, which has played host to some interesting developments over the last few years.  An older grove of trees was bulldozed this week to begin the development of a new condo property by Bozzuto right opposite the Metro station there.  In addition, some residents are objecting, in cases both anonymously and strenuously, to the presence of the Metropolis Club, an AA program, as well as the DC Superior Court Center (and its one jail cell), and the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for DC.

It seems to me that a lot of their concerns are largely bullshit nimbyism at its finest. An AA club provides a valuable service, and when placed near to the parole agency, it can become a resource for them to use with prisoners with alcohol issues. It can become an extension of the support network, which all of the community benefits from. Since AA also meets in churches, should we ban churches from hosting AA meetings near schools?

It seems that the large police presence just a few blocks up off Rhode Island would adequately handle any policing issues near the parole office or superior court facility (and its single jail cell) and that the AA club isn’t about to be a source of violent crime.  What do you think? NIMBYism or legitimate concern?