By Katie
‘A silver train on the blue line’
courtesy of ‘karthikkito’
NBC Washington reports that a second man has been struck and killed by a Metro train this week, this time early Sunday morning.
NBC Washington: “The accident happened on the Orange Line at 1:54 a.m. The train was going to New Carrollton; Metro was single tracking from Vienna to East Falls Church at the time.”
The death earlier this week occurred at McPherson Square.
By Tom Bridge
‘Hidden Past’
courtesy of photorat.photography’
Two lanes of Westbound US-50 are closed at Glebe Road because of falling debris from the sidewalk of the Glebe Road overcrossing. Traffic is significantly impacted, according to commenter TheDenverite, who passed through there this morning. VDOT is on the scene and will be doing an inspection shortly to determine the course of action. Staggering closures are expected while they investigate.
By Tom Bridge
‘Washington Nationals Executive Offices’
courtesy of ‘afagen’
The long nightmare of Jim Bowden may finally be over for Nats fans. Baseball Prospectus is reporting that the Nats are close to firing Bowden, and replacing him with Tony LaCava from Toronto Blue Jays’ front office. Bowden’s currently under FBI investigation for involvement in a bonus-skimming scandal that has been going on since the mid 1990s. Bowden’s right hand for scouting in Latin America, Jose Rijo, is about to be fired for his part in the Esmailyn Gonzalez scandal.
Most interesting in all of this, is that Bud Selig has reportedly issued the Nats an exemption from the “Rooney rule” which would require them to interview at least one minority candidate in the process. While I’m generally for diversity, this seems to be a special exemption due to the fact that our GM could be about to be fired for cause. This close to the start of the season, it would be rather unfortunate to have to spend a lot of time interviewing candidates.
By Tom Bridge
‘beam me up, Scotty!’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’
Thanks to every who tweeted us to let us know that the Metro is a bit of a disaster this morning due to emergency track maintenance between Foggy Bottom and Clarendon, which means both the Orange and Blue lines are single tracking trains through these packed stations. Delays are listed as more than 40 minutes after one of the maintenance vehicles in the tunnel derailed. The incident hit this morning about 4:30am, and Metro’s hard at work at fixing it, but this one’s going to leave a mark.
By Tom Bridge
‘Ken Griffey and Adam Dunn’
courtesy of ‘SD Dirk’
The Nats have finally given us all here in DC something to cheer about, with the signing of Adam Dunn this afternoon to a 2-year deal for an unspecified amount of money. Dunn, traditionally an outfielder, will probably play some at first during Spring Training, or possibly as part of a platoon in the outfield. Dunn brings a nice powerful bat to the Nats, who’ve traditionally lacked for anything resembling a power hitter. With 206 homers in the last five seasons, Dunn represents a major power punch to the Nats Lineup.
Look for a bit more detail in Monday’s Sports Fix column on Dunn’s arrival in DC, plus the reporting of Pitchers and Catchers on Saturday (3 days til Spring Training! Woohoo!)
By Amélie
Yes boys and girls, it’s the annual start of the conference season for hackers, geeks, nerds and security people (and those are not mutually exclusive titles). ShmooCon, in it’s fifth year, has grown to 1500 attendees in an effort to spread the gospel about information and physical security and other novel topics that you’d be surprised to see any any con. While last years’ con had interesting neighbors (a CosPlay convention), the sheer size of this years has people scrambling to see how to make a homebrew UAV (members of HacDC), how the Srizbi BotNet was taken down (aka “The Day The Spam Stopped“), how your local Home Depot is selling you insecurity (“How To Defeat the Kwikset SmartKey“) and the keynote speaker, Matt Blaze, more famously known for helping defeat the use of the Clipper Chip and open up the government’s attempt at putting encryption backdoors into almost everything. There are some great talks planned for Saturday, which we’ll cover on “Day Two”, but if you’re in the Woodley Park area and see a lot of black t-shirted individuals crossing the street, trust me, they won’t hurt you…they just want your base. (If you want to view past conferences, the videos are located here – c’mon learn a little bit!)
By Tom Bridge
‘Washington Library of Congress Madison gebouw’
courtesy of ‘DymphieH’
Living in the District blogger Farrelly has just tweeted that there’s a fire at the Madison Building at the Library of Congress. We’re trying to track down information, but if you know anything please let us know in the comments?
Update: Many Thanks to Sam Masten at LOC for his update: “The Madison Building has been evacuated because there was a fire in a trash can on the Ground floor which may have been set. Because of the weather outside people are going to be directed to come into the Jefferson and Adams so be prepared.”
By Tom Bridge
Metro Platform
Originally uploaded by tbridge
Before last week, the best day on Metro came this past Summer, with 854,000 riders. Yesterday smashed that record. Metro has now released the numbers for yesterday’s totals and they’re astronomical. 1.12M riders on the Metro. Another 423,000 rode Metrobus yesterday, leading to a total public transit ridership of 1.54M people.
While it’s safe to say that most of them were headed to the Mall for the Inauguration, not all of them were, which means the crowd estimates around 1.4 million are sounding more and more credible for me.
I’m going to come right out and say it: I don’t think this record will fall in the next 5-10 years. While growth has been strong for metro with gas prices on the rise, I can’t see 1.12M riders in a day being topped without some sort of massive event in DC that will bring people from all around. The broad appeal of the Obama Inauguration is going to be hard to beat.
Maybe another Tibetan-Freedom-style concert down on the Mall with some monster names would do it, but even then, I can’t fathom them breaking the record.
By Tom Bridge
‘Ambulancia’
courtesy of ‘Daquella manera’
CNN is reporting that Senators Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Teddy Kennedy (D-MA) were both taken from the Luncheon at the Capitol (see, Kaspar, got that one right.) after suffering medical emergencies. CNN suggests that Senator Kennedy was having a seizure, and that it was unclear the extent of the medical difficulties that Sen. Byrd was experiencing.
By Amélie
Spiderman Obama issue from Marvel
It was announced last week, and for industry insiders, it may have been a bit longer, that Marvel Comics, purveyors of The Hulk, Fantastic Four, and “Geek-in-Chief” Barack Obama’s favorite, Spiderman were issuing a special edition of the latter for the inauguration. This 5-page story was to center around an impostor taking the oath of office this coming Tuesday and Peter Parker, while covering it for the Daily Bugle, helped Spiderman save the day and democracy as a whole. However, unless you’re a subscriber at a local comic book store, you may be out of luck to catch a first printing in D.C.. Fantom Comics in Union Station and Tenleytown were somewhat caught unawares and only had acquired 9 copies total to split between the two stores. However, there is a second printing, albeit with a different cover, coming this Wednesday the 21st.
By Don
Start the Economic Recovery while President Bush is Out of Town
courtesy of Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
If you’re at your computer to read this, then odds are you’ve already seen that Fortune magazine has put us as number ten in the 10 Worst Real-estate Markets of 2009. What you probably haven’t seen is anything resembling some informed analysis – everyone is just bandying about that “experts say.” What experts? Based on what? What the hell does that mean, anyway?
Let’s try to take a slightly more detailed look, shall we? Continue reading
By Amélie
Virginia Tech Logo
[UPDATE] 3:00pm EST
From VT.edu : NO THREAT – Pritchard Hall has been reopened. Police have concluded their search and found no evidence of gunfire. Further details on Virginia Tech News website.
[UPDATE] 2:56pm EST
An e-mail sent from VT Alerts to students stated that, “During the course of the investigation, eyewitnesses reported seeing people, possibly students exploding firecrackers or something else in or near a dumpster near Pritchard. Police have found no evidence of gunfire from within or outside the building and believe the noises likely came from something other than gunfire.”
[Original Post]
Virginia Tech’s current web page notes that Pritchard Hall (student dormitory) is on lockdown after shots are supposedly heard around 1pm EST. Virginia Tech spokeswoman says police are searching room by room; currently unknown if there were injuries. No access in or out of the dorm.
CollegiateTimes.com currently has a live blogger covering the events, WTOP has similar details. AP reports that the sounds may be from a nearby construction site, the campus police are still investigating. We’ll update you as more becomes available.
WSET-TV Reports: “An alert on the university’s website says police are conducting a room by room search in Pritchard Hall on the Blacksburg, Va., campus. “Police have walked the halls and report NO residual smell of gunpowder.”
XM Sirius, photo by maxedaperture
I certainly wouldn’t call any XM Sirius a “monopoly” when it has to compete with free terrestrial radio, not to mention my iPod and CD changer, but I’m still not at all sure how I feel about the latest development in the XM Sirius merger. Subscribers to each individual service woke up today to new channel lineups that, theoretically, maintain the best of both services. The new XM lineup replaces my beloved Ethel, Fred, and Lucy with similarly-formatted Sirius channels (though it sounds like some of the XM deejays were retained). The new Sirius lineup replaces the Sirius decade channels with the XM equivalents (though after the XM program directors for those channels were laid off, I’m not sure if the quality is going to stay the same).
Having only had limited time to listen to my XM subscription, I’m not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, “Ethel” as a station name has way more character than the prosaic “Alt Nation,” and the deejay during my commute this morning was just awful- I’ll particularly miss the local flavor of the DC-based Ethel deejays. On the other hand, all my preset buttons seemed to give me the same types of music as they did yesterday, so it’s possible I won’t even notice that much. And I’m actually kind of excited about having BBC Radio One where I previously had U-POP. (Yes, I’m a closet Europop junkie. Sorry.)
There do seem to be some weird programming choices- I’m not sure why the “Latino/World” category needs TWO stations for Canadian pop, only one for “Latin/Tropical,” and apparently no channels for music from outside the Western Hemisphere. Wasn’t satellite radio supposed to bring us lots of interesting and quirky little niche programming instead of just more channels of homogenized crap? Do we really need an all-Springsteen, all-the-time channel in any universe?
So what do you think, DC satellite listeners? Are you keeping your sat radio subscriptions? Cancelling to protest the loss of DC-based jobs? Adding new programming from the other network to your subscription? throwing up your hands and going back to free FM?
By Tom Bridge
Traffic Jam
Originally uploaded by winged photography
There’s “Police activity” according to WTOP traffic on I Street between 20th and 21st that has the whole block shutdown. BreakingNewsOn is reporting a Bomb Scare at 2099 Penn, which means rush hour in the downtown core is going to double suck tonight. So, if you’re still in the office, go for a snack and a drink before you head home, you’ll be happier.
If you’ve got details about the scare/closure, drop them in the comments!
By brownpau
Washington Post tells us that teams of Metro Transit Police with dogs will be conducting random bag searches on trains and buses at times when “heightened vigilance” is required. Passengers will be taken aside at random intervals before boarding buses or entering rail stations to be screened; those who do not comply will not be detained or have their bags confiscated, but they will be denied entry.
Update: Official press release from WMATA with pictures and video.
By brownpau
Strike one: Calling 911 to complain about I-95 traffic. Strike two: Cursing out the operator when he asks why you’re calling 911 to complain about traffic. Strike three: Voice mail greeting saying you’re working on a “very important family political project.” Joe The McCain, you’re out.
By brownpau
A fire has destroyed Ristorante Piccolo on 31st St NW in Georgetown. The call came in at 5:16 AM and DCFD has extinguished the fire by now, but the report is that the restaurant is totalled, crews are still on scene, and traffic in the area of Wisconsin and M St NW area is a mess.
By brownpau
Washington Post reports that an unidentified male has fallen on to the Metro tracks at Friendship Heights Station. WJLA says he is “unresponsive” with “minor injuries,” and that he has been removed from the rails. WMATA Service Disruption alerts still have delays on the Red Line in both directions due to the incident, as well as an earlier switch malfunction problem. WTOP says Metro has turned off power to the third rail at the station and are single-tracking trains between Cleveland Park and Bethesda.
By Tom Bridge
Since it looks like rain tomorrow, you might want to eschew the various outdoor Oktoberfests and head instead to Sterling to check out the DC Rollergirls as they take on the Charm City All-stars in a pre-season match. DC-based matches at the DC Armory start up on the 4th of October.
Good luck Rollergirls, give those Bal’mer girls something to say “hon” about.
By brownpau
Good morning, DC! Tropical Storm Hanna is in town, and we’re looking to get some pretty heavy wind and rain as it passes through. We haven’t had weather action like this since Isabel, and while Hanna isn’t quite as notable, us weather geeks are still on the beat. Through the day we’ll be watching radar, NOAA reports, local news, weather cams, weblogs, and Twitter to bring you storm updates. Reload this entry for new info as Hanna passes by, and if you’ve got storm news, Leave a comment.
11:30 PM Hanna is history, a Capital Weather Gang postmortem. I’ve switched the radar hotlink at the top of this entry to a time lapse video of the storm, taken with some help from WJLA skycam and curl. So how’d the storm treat you?
6:45 PM Well, the roads downtown are drying off, the wind hasn’t picked up any further, and the weather radar looks relatively clear. I think we can close the book on Hanna as its last precipitation leaves the region. Flooding continues in some areas, so be careful.
5:25 PM (Photo of muddy flood water in Falls Church, VA by larrygol.) Rain’s all gone from downtown, and some blue is starting to appear in the sky. Capital Weather says wind is still gusting, and don’t forget that flash flood risks still remain.
Meanwhile, Hanna continues northeast, now dumping its rain on Philly and NYC.
3:52 PM FAA airport status info for DCA still has general gate hold, taxi, and arrival delays at around 15 minutes, but Hanna is causing delays of 1 to 4 hours for flights heading north to JFK, EWR, and PHL.
3:35 PM News 8 weather people are starting to call it a wrap, saying the worst of the storm has passed. Hurricanes and tropical storms often have strong winds going well after the rain bands have passed, but the weathermen are saying this wasn’t a big wind maker, though still a record-setting soaker. Here’s some earlier video of the rain and water accumulation from BabyBlue in NoVA:
2:53 PM (Photo by philliefan99 from the WeLoveDC group.) The center of storm rotation — not quite an “eye” as this isn’t a hurricane — is now passing just east of the District. Moderate to heavy rain is back downtown, and Manassas, VA rainfall now measures 10.6″.
2:29 PM News 8 has 9.46″ rainfall at Manassas, VA. This storm is a definite soaker.
2:10 PM Wow, radar showing some really, really serious rain in the Clarendon/Ballston area right now. Just a light shower downtown though. Huntington evacuations involved 30 homes in a community called Arlington Terrace.
2:00 PM On Metro, a service disruption on the Blue and Yellow Lines: No train service between Braddock Road and National Airport due to a track circuit malfunction and flood conditions outside Braddock Road station. Shuttle bus service has been requested. Delays in both directions. News 8 is saying this storm is a big rain maker, with not so much in the way of wind.
1:49 PM From @yvonneadams, “Annandale Falls,” a sidewalk turned stream. Reports on News Channel 8 of evacuation in Huntington, Alexandria. Manassas, VA is leading the rainfall totals with over 7 inches so far. Rain downtown has lightened again, and is projected to tone down to a drizzle as the afternoon goes on, but flash flood warnings remain.
1:20 PM Power outage maps by zip code from PEPCO and SMECO. From out by the Chesapeake, penguinsix is broadcasting live video of whitecaps on the Bay. Lovely.
1:14 PM This is a very fast-moving tropical storm, which will be a factor in keeping rainfall totals down. Still, expect totals of up to 8 inches in the area; currently almost 3″ at DCA. WaPo storm blog reports on the first storm-related death, a man whose car skidded off I-95 in PG County. He was killed but an infant child in the car survived.
12:30 PM Interestingly enough, the rain has weakened considerably downtown, but the wind is starting to pick up. My lower-floor apartment is shielded by buildings all around, but Wunderground has wind at DCA measuring 12 mph from ENE with gusts to 20 mph. “Addled” on Tumblr just tried going out into the storm to sign a form, and came back soaked with sandals waterlogged.
12:00 noon Now it is pouring buckets out! Still no noticeable wind, however; the flags atop buildings still hang limp. Flash Flood Watch for the District. High tide along the Potomac River will be at 1:45 PM, and a 2-4 foot storm surge may occur.
11:20 AM Raining outside, but not much wind yet. Capitalweather has the center of the storm over Norfolk, VA, with rain totals over 1″. This tweet would indicate planes are still landing at local airports, and FAA has National Airport delays at 15 minutes for takeoff and landing — expect that to get worse as the day marches on.
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