Good morning, Washington! The weather gods have decided to mix it up a little bit today, blessing us with a little less humidity than normal. Don't worry about big meteorological shake ups, though—temperatures will still be in the familiar mid-90s range.

The Washington Times continues its reporting on the sketchy D.C. lottery contract with the news that the two councilmembers who most vocally supported the deal, Marion Barry and Chair Vincent Gray, also had personal connections to Emmanuel S. Bailey, one of the principals of Veterans Services Corp., the local firm awarded the majority stake of the contract. Both Barry and Gray also urged the Greek gambling company Intralot to partner with a local firm.

Federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested a Maryland man suspected of committing for two mother-daughter murders in Largo, Md. last year. This won't be the first serious criminal charge for the 27-year-old UPS employee (whose name is being withheld because he has not yet been formally charged); he already has gun, burglary and child porn charges on his record, according to the Examiner.

On the other end of the Maryland justice system, Charles County Circuit Judge Robert Nalley will be suspended without pay for five days for deflating a cleaning woman's car tire.

With its first payday out of the way, the beleaguered D.C. Summer Youth Employment Program has had fewer payroll problems this year than it did in previous years, the Post reports.

Some sad news for local animal lovers: six guinea pigs were found in a trash can in Southeast; the three surviving rodents are being cared for by the Washington Humane Society. Also, illegal rat poison has been found in Georgetown. Jane Huelle, who runs The Dog Shop on Wisconsin Ave., says she knows of three dogs who have died from rat poisoning in Northwest this year.

Photo by Flickr user Lisa Brewster, used under a Creative Commons license.

Roughly 12 years ago, City Paper wrote a story about "Frances and the Working Girls," a radio show starring a buxom woman (that would be Frances above) and mostly lady correspondents. It was sort of like the Daily Show, but on AM radio and with boobs. Sadly (I think?) it went off the air about two years later. Its home, WRC-AM 980, is also no longer with us (neither, it would seem, is the story in our somewhat lacking digital archives for 1996). Recently, I caught up with one of the correspondents from the show, Jane Hautanen, who also goes by Jane Doe (that's her behind Frances).

Hautanen, who lives between Woodley and Cleveland Parks, still works in radio (part-time with the "True Oldies" show on WMAL and with another station), and supplements a lack of lucrative radio jobs by being a licensed massage therapist. She's also a prolific blogger. She's also really into guinea pigs.

Jane Doe's Pigs is one of her blogs. With it, she provides helpful tips and links regarding guinea pig care. For those who have not considered guinea pigs as pets, Hautanen is spreading the news that they are among the few apartment-sized caged critters that do not smell.

Pigs came into her life after fish. The D.C. water killed them off, she says. Most other pets wouldn't do. Her condo building doesn't allow dogs and her place has a "bad layout for a cat. I'd have to step over the cat box every time I went to the bathroom," she explains.

She considered mice (male mice smell, female mice don't, but they die off too quickly). Rats were a possibility "but I still wanted people to visit me." Rabbits "chew through things and smell." Ferrets "smell and they bite."

Thus: the guinea pig. "They're so incredibly sweet and they have so much personality. They're not disposable pets, like a hamster," she says.

She started off with Lightning. Now she has Pandora and Perpetua.

And although Hautanen may be the only Jane Doe radio correspondent with a blog about guinea pigs, she is not the only one in D.C. promoting the cause. "Jennifer" who Hautanen says also lives in Cleveland Park, runs the pig adoption site DCguineapigs, where you can find out how to bring home your own little Fur Ball (or Kipling or Wonka or Tate).