Cash Rules Everything Around Me: The lesson the White House appears to have learned from this month's elections is that voters think people here make too much money. There's not a much better explanation for President Obama's decision to freeze pay for federal workers, since the difference it'll make in the deficit is miniscule. But every little bit of sacrifice counts, especially when the people doing the sacrificing live in the District, Maryland, and Virginia, not some Republican freshman's House district. -2

Bay Bucks: Sure, we all like the environment, and no one wants to eat polluted crabs. But fixing up the Chesapeake could also mean jobs for the region, a new report says. Which probably means someone will find a way to keep it from happening. +1

Protect Your Neck: Add a new alarming concern to your list of worries while riding Metro—that a fellow passenger might stab you in the neck as you exit the system. That's what happened to a man Sunday afternoon at the Georgia Avenue/Petworth stop on the Yellow and Green lines. Little information has been released about the incident; apparently, the whole region owes the Tea Party an apology. -1

Snow?: It's getting colder and colder out, which means it's almost time to panic about OHMYGODSNOWSNOWSNOWSNOW. Okay, sure, there's only a 20-30 percent chance on Sunday. Still! Go buy milk and toilet paper, just in case. +1

Put the Bandwagon Away: And just like that, the playoff talk (which shouldn't ever have started) is over. The Redskins lose to the Vikings, at home, 17-13. The good news: Next year's NFL draft isn't that far off. The bad news: The Redskins will probably trade away their picks in exchange for the rights to sign Jerry Rice. -2

Wednesday's Needle rating: 52 Today's score: -3 Today's Needle rating: 49

It's a "scary" bridge!

Did you hear the big news? The esteemed folks at Travel & Leisure magazine named Maryland's Bay Bridge one of the most scary in all the world! It's No. 9 on the list!

Today, the scary bridge news was mentioned by NBCWashington ("bloodcurdling"), DCist, and The Washington Post's Lori's AM Buzz.

Both WBAL-TV and The Baltimore Sun mentioned the scary bridge on Tuesday. (While Lori's A.M. Buzz linked to the WBAL story today, the Post's breaking news blog linked to the WBAL story on early Wednesday evening. City Desk also mentioned the scary bridge news in yesterday's edition of The Needle.)

TBD linked to the Travel & Leisure slideshow at 7:48 a.m. today, pictured at left.

Just about everyone is writing, linking or talking about that scary bridge to and from the Eastern Shore!

Obviously, the origins of scary bridge meme are in the page-view generating slideshow from Travel & Leisure, but it appears that the scary bridge news is actually sort of stale to warrant such full-court press by local news sources. According to a Google News search, it appears that the first local mention of the scary No. 9 ranking came on Oct. 4 from WBOC-TV, "Delmarva's News Leader," with an updated story on Oct. 5. (There are now seven pages of comments, including some gems: "Anyone willingly calling themselves a Democrat is scarier than the Bay Bridge." "Christine O'Donnell is scarier.")

Over at ABC2 News in Baltimore, it appears that when it mentioned the scary bridge stat, the station had came across the Travel & Leisure slideshow independently. So writes traffic reporter Kim Brown:

While surfing travelandleisure.com, sipping Earl Gray tea with my pinky finger up, I happened upon a list of the world's scariest bridges and lookey there! Maryland's own William Preston Lane Memorial Bridge (better known as the Bay Bridge) ranks 9th scariest.

The CBS affiliate in Baltimore, WJZ-TV, investigated the bridge fears, too, reminding viewers of some of the scary accidents on the bridge. Thankfully, WJZ reminds viewers that the Travel & Leisure scary bridge rankings are not scientific and does not constitute "an engineering study and draws no conclusions about the structural soundness of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge." Phew!

Photo of Chesapeake Bay Bridge by Flickr user delgaudm under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Heavier rainfall, more scorching hot summer days, shorter winters, and spreading dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay – these are a few of the local impacts of global warming, according to a report released today by the Obama Administration.

The gist: Global warming is already here and only going to get worse.

Among the scarier scenarios for the D.C.-area: Heavy rains, like the ones we’ve had recently, will lead to more flooding and waterborne diseases. D.C. is particularly vulnerable because we have an antique  “combined sewer system” that carries storm water and sewerage in the same pipes. When the system gets swamped, sewerage overflows into rivers, drinking water supplies and swimming holes. Not a pretty picture and one that will increasingly expose District residents to waterborne parasites that cause diarrhea-like ailments with exotic names such as Cryptosporidium and Giardiasis.

For the full report, click here. For news from the press conference, check out this AP story. Meanwhile, the Guardian, says the report is part of the Obama Administration's "carefully crafted strategy" to push through the climate change bill currently before Congress.