The Issue: The "humpification" of Chevy Chase. The advisory neighborhood commission is upset about three speed humps recently constructed in the 3700 block of Morrison Street. The installation was approved by neighborhood residents in June, but the ANC is miffed about their size—too big!—and wants them removed unless the Department of Transportation provides a speed analysis.

Speed Up: ANC Commissioner David Engel says, "The humps are massive, and a huge traffic diversion. You can't go more than five miles an hour." He is also irked that an invited DDOT official shunned a recent ANC meeting at which the issue came up. He maintains that it's mainly the "rich and powerful on the block" that want the speed bumps, rather than the whole community. "Certain people want their own urban village," he says.

Slow Down: John Lisle, spokesman for DDOT, says that speed humps must be approved by 75 percent of the block—and that happened—but the process has been streamlined and no longer requires a traffic report. In terms of construction, he said, "ANC approval is not required." Also, it is unclear whether the ANC provided opposition early enough in the process.

Next Step: In that recent meeting, the ANC requested the speed humps be removed pending the collection of data; it also wants an oversight hearing on the entire process.

Smokey

Princess

Mike and Ginny Spevak, the well-known Friendship Heights couple murdered in their home last November, left behind a daughter and son, their spouses, a grandson, siblings---a loving family. They also left behind three cats they adored. Two of them now need homes.

Read More "Murdered Couple’s Cats Need Homes" »

Paying out-of-pocket for medical procedures like an MRI sucks. Paying for them in, say, Chevy Chase, Md., sucks even more. According to a release put out today by the Angie's list of medicine, Healthcarebluebook.com, the disparity between what you'd be charged for an MRI of the cervical spine (no contrast) at a Rockville imaging center vs. a Chevy Chase center is more than $1,000 (it's $1,056 vs. $2,710 and a geographical difference of about 14 miles). Add this to the travesty that both places charge well over what the consumer-oriented site says is a fair price for the procedure: $628.

"There's no rhyme or reason to it," says Aimee Stern, who handles PR for the site and is based in D.C. "It struck us because people in Washington are talking about healthcare reform, but no one is talking about this enormous disparity."

Stern, however, is also not talking about certain topics that could be helpful to consumers. When I asked her which centers in Chevy Chase and Rockville her release referred to, she said, "I wouldn't feel comfortable" getting specific and that calling out over-chargers on Healthcarebluebook.com would take tracking them over time.

Read More "How to Get a Better Deal in D.C. Healthcare" »

Nora Greer, a 55-year-old woman who lives in Barnaby Woods, posted a message to the Cleveland Park Listserv in the hope of finding a kidney donor. It reads:

SOS. Next year I'll need a transplant as I slip closer to acute renal failure. I haven't been able to find a compatible match from family or friends. I'm seeking a healthy person with TYPE O blood willing to consider the donation of a kidney. I know it's a huge gift and can only come from a very special person. I'm desperately trying to avoid dialysis. The official waiting time for a cadaver kidney in DC is four to seven years. All donor expenses will be covered by the recipient.

She also posted to the Chevy Chase board and plans to put a message out on the Listserv for Tenley Circle. So far, she says, she's received well wishes, but no takers. She remains encouraged. Another woman who lives in Scarsdale, N.Y., Beth Abramowitz, received a kidney from a donor who read a plea on Facebook. The plea was posted by an old high school boyfriend and was read by a mother in Tallahassee, Fla., who agreed to give up an organ to a stranger. Abramowitz found out about Greer's appeal and got in touch to tell her to keep trying.

Greer's kidneys are 21 percent functional. As that number dips lower, she'll be forced to go on dialysis. Her doctor told her last summer she'll need a new kidney in 2009 and that she should start asking people she knows. It's a prospect that doesn't thrill her.

"Some of us have trouble asking for rides," she says. "It's a huge thing....Some people I know have come forward, but they're the wrong blood type, or they have physical limitations, or they're the wrong age."

This is a huge problem nationally---and in D.C., where Greer says there are more than 1,000 people in need of kidneys. "There are not enough cadavers, not enough people want to donate their organs."

Greer, a freelance editor and writer, came to D.C. from her native Chicago in 1977. She's married and does not have kids, in part because of the damage to her body caused by lithium treatments administered before she moved here. (She is diagnosed with bipolar disorder; her family, she says, has a history with the disease.) The lithium, widely administered after gaining FDA approval in 1970, also scarred her kidneys, she says.  A study published by the National Institutes of Health states that renal damage is a known side effect and that "although this effect of lithium is probably functional and reversible early in treatment, it may become structural and irreversible over time."

Greer's ideal donor is between 20 and 60 years old, is Type O or Type-O compatible, and has no health problems. For her part, Greer plans to continue to pursue whatever legal means to find a kidney. "But it's scary to me. I'd probably be more of an expert on how to do this at this point, but I put it away some days. Sometimes I don't want to accept this is happening."

At a news conference last night on Belt Road NW, Chief of Police Cathy Lanier announced that Peiro E. Fuentes Hernandez of Capitol Heights had been arrested and charged with the murders of Michael and Virginia Spevak.

The Post has more details on the Spevak case, and NBC is reporting a connection between Hernandez and 622 Ingraham.

Police are calling it a targeted robbery.  Further bulletins as events warrant.

In conjunction with the investigation into the murder of Michael and Virginia Spevak, ABC 7 reports that D.C. Police discovered a safe and computer during yesterday's search of the backyard and alley behind 622 Ingraham St. NW.

A neighbor also found a charred ID belonging to Dr. Spevak in the alley.

Inspector Rodney Parks, addressing the press yesterday at the scene of the investigation, refused to confirm or deny the discovery of a computer. "Items were taken," he told us, "and burglary appears to be the motive. But we haven’t ruled out anything else."

NBC is also reporting the discovery of a safe.

Photograph above: D.C. Police package evidence in the Ingraham alley on 11/24/08

Police are mounting a full-scale investigation after the brutal murder last night of an elderly couple in Chevy Chase, D.C.

The victims, identified as Dr. Michael Spevak and Virginia Spevak, had been bound and brutalized after an apparent break-in. Their car—a 2005 blue Toyota Scion—was discovered this morning around 5 a.m. in the 500 block of Ingraham Street, NW, swathed in flames.

More below the jump, including photos, updates, and the official police statement.

Read More "Double Homicide in 5300 Block of Belt Road, NW; Victims’ Car Torched in Petworth" »