It's Just Lunch: One man is at the crest of his political power, having just swept to office unchallenged except by a few write-in votes, a bugler, and the Socialist Workers Party. The other? Well, he's seen better days. Such will be the backdrop as Almost Mayor Vince Gray joins President Obama for lunch on Dec. 1. Strangely, Obama didn't see fit to mention the lunch date during his televised press conference this afternoon; Gray announced it at his own event in the morning. Where they'll get together hasn't been announced yet—perhaps in an effort to keep Still Mayor Adrian Fenty from crashing the date? +2

Heeeeeere's Jason!: The elections last night didn't just send Gray officially to the Wilson Building and give the United States its first-ever orange presumptive speaker of the House—they also left Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz in charge of our fair city, at least as far as the House of Representatives is concerned. The good news: City Paper will have no shortage of material over the next two years, as Chaffetz meddles with District affairs whenever things look awry to him from his cot in the Rayburn Building. The bad news: Everything else about Chaffetz taking over. -3

Who Needs a Diploma?: The Washington Wizards' new rookie guard, John Wall, is the one making headlines lately. But D.C. United midfielder Andy Najar—who dropped out of high school in northern Virginia to join the team this season after coming up in its academy—was named Major League Soccer's rookie of the year today. That's little consolation for United fans who suffered through one of the team's worst seasons ever (but it might make the autographed Najar cards sent out to anyone who renewed season tickets a little more of a prize), but hey, at least United isn't working out JaMarcus Russell. +1

Don't Drink the Water: A few years ago, the news that fish in the Potomac River were spontaneously changing genders made a bit of a splash, then faded away. Now male fish in the Susquehanna appear to have egg cells in their testes. Might there be some pollutant that's causing this alarming phenomenon? Might some sort of government agency want to look into it? (Our bet: Probably not.) -2

Yesterday's Needle rating: 47 Today's score: -2 Today's Needle rating: 45

• While President Clinton's trip was described as a private humanitarian mission before he left for Pyongyang, the Washington Post is reporting that both Clintons played an integral role in planning the trip.  The State Department was reportedly negotiating with the North Koreans for weeks and Bill only left the U.S. after repeated assurances that Laura Ling and Euna Lee would be released.  Regardless, it's good news for embedded journalists.

• In worse news for journalists, MSNBC is now admitting that they erred by not revealing that former Newsweek reporter Richard Wolffe is now working as a strategist for the public affairs firm Public Strategies, Inc. Since his book Renegade, detailing the rise of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, hit the best-seller lists, MSNBC has been showing off Wolffe like a prize, having him fill in for Keith Olbermann on Countdown as recently as last Friday. However, his close ties to the Obama administration (like those private meetings with David Axelrod) and his work at Public Strategies have resulted in major conflicts of interest.  Luckily, he's already got his next Obama book all lined up.
• DC Public Schools have announced that they will extend their STD testing program to all students in the upcoming school year.  Officials hope that by expanding their pilot program, they will be able to diagnose and treat students with STDs, especially since approximately half the cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea in the city are among adolescents.

• An extension of the Cash for Clunkers program is looking more and more definite. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have confirmed that the second round of funding will pass through the Senate before it recesses on Friday. The $2 billion extension is estimated to last through Labor Day.

• And finally, a new ad for the Child Nutrition Act has dragged Malia and Sasha Obama back into the spotlight. The new poster campaign, sponsored by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, shows eight-year-old Jasmine Messiah asking "President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don't I?" Messiah has also written an open letter to the first daughters asking for their support in reforming public school lunches.  Here's an answer to your question, young Jasmine – $30,000 a year in tuition at Sidwell will buy a lot of healthy vegetables. Public schools are struggling to keep their textbooks up to date. Be happy you've got lunch.

And that's the news.  Happy Hump Day!

These events have highly inconvenienced luncheoning workers in the neighborhood, at least one of whom had to go to Subway instead of So's Your Mom for a sandwich.

UPDATE, 3:10 P.M.: A Pepco spokesperson says one manhole started smoking around 1:15 p.m. No power outages have been reported, and there's no word yet on the cause.

When this blog was starting up, Erik Wemple put together a taxonomy of worthwhile blog posts. At the bottom was something along the lines of "What I had for breakfast" (I can't find the original e-mail.)

Since then, expectations have been lowered in many parts of this organization, so I feel comfortable blogging my awesome $5 lunch. Every Friday and Saturday at that little mini-park at the triangle between Champlain Street NW, Euclid Street NW, and Columbia Road NW, there's a food fair with vendors selling all kinds of great stuff; I like the taquitos (apparently not a 7-Eleven invention; who knew?) and empanadas from the vendor at the park's southeastern corner.

Price includes yucca, two kinds of salsa, and cheese. I may be blogging on the lowest rung of blogdom but I'm very, very happy.