• Yesterday afternoon, City Desk posted the latest WaPo article about the Metro crash, which basically announced that circuits on four of the five lines have failed to detect the presence of trains.  The 6 pm newscasts featured commentary from a variety of concerned commuters and so to quell their concerns, Metro GM John Catoe and Councilman Jim Graham held a press conference announcing that the Post got the story wrong.  The system is safe, says Catoe, and the article is a gross misstatement of facts.  Watch WUSA's interview with Catoe - he could be a dreidel with the way he's spinning this new information.

Swine flu, social networks, and the Secret Service after the jump.  Plus, a new alternative to saving the Nats!

• Swine flu isn't going anywhere soon.  Yet another group of local students from the District and Maryland are quarantined in Beijing after testing positive for H1N1.  Although it sucks that their trip is on hiatus, at least they have access to their Facebook accounts.
• Speaking of social networks, Facebook and Twitter are now too accessible to the general public, so Congress had to make its own. 3121, named after the extension of the Capitol Hill switchboard, will premiere in September and hopes to make communication among staffers more efficient.  Really, it's just a more localized version of any other site, so that you can stalk the hottie in Rep. Whatever's office and make awkward eye contact with your new "friends."
• President Obama granted Dick Cheney's request for a six-month extension of his Secret Service protection.  Apparently he has been concerned with his security and privacy in recent years, and plans on asking for another extension when this one expires.  Because when the federal government is hemorrhaging money, cashing in on a former Vice President's security detail is really an investment in the future.
• And finally, the Nationals might seem like a better team if they had better media coverage.  And who better to help them with their image than Ari Fleisher of Ari Fleisher Sports Communications!  Yep, Bush 2's first press secretary has launched a business to train athletes and teams on how to deal with the media.  He's currently busy promoting the Olympics but maybe he can help our fledgling batters in the future.

Johnnie Cochran's awesome law outfit The Cochran Firm have announced that they're going to be playing a huge part in the post metro-crash litigation. The OJ, and noted civil rights lawyer may have passed away in 2005, but as we all know from the awesome local TV ads---his firm lives on.

Now, the Cochran firm is taking a piece of the metro crash business. Interview with Cochran attorney after the jump.

Carolyn B. Jenkins, the mother of Veronica DuBose, who died in the crash, has filed on a wrongful death lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court against WMATA as well as Alstom Signaling, Inc. According to the press release, Alstom "provides computerized train traffic control." DuBose was 29 and the mother of two children--Ava Sarai Katurah DuBose, 20 months old, and Raja Otis Lee Williams, seven years old.

The firm filed the suit on June 29.

City Desk spoke to Cochran firm attorney David E. Haynes this evening:

"We were contacted by the family along with another law firm. We had been monitoring the situation closely," Haynes explains. "The family was interested to prosecute the case quickly. There hasn't been much information that has been shared directly with the family. We expect that through our own investigation with the other law firms in the case that we will be able to uncover the practices going on with Metro."

"There's no need to wait until the investigation is totally completed," Haynes says. It appears clear that this was an accident that was preventable and avoidable." Indeed, the Post reported to day that repair work caused huge problems safeguarding passengers against crashes.

"I think they need to get the 1000 series off the track," Haynes says. "I think they need to have a complete review of the computer systems that are involved along with any other companies or vendors involved in that process...Obviously the appropriate testing and precautions had not been taken."

Haynes says WMATA has a history of ignoring passenger complaints and injury claims: "The litigation process is necessary to put WMATA to task. They are known not to pay claims unless they are in litigation. Lawsuits need to be filed for the complete truth to come out and for full justice."

The lawsuit is seeking $25 million.

*photo by Darrow Montgomery.

Olga Bryant, who works at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, was on the rammed train this afternoon. She said that the train had been stopped for around 10 minutes and that the operator had reported that they were having some electrical difficulty. She says that the train's lights and the power were on prior to the accident. Bryant was in the second car of the rammed train, and thus fairly well removed from the impact. She stayed on the train for about 20 minutes after the crash.

She was traveling with Garrett Dorsey, another Walter Reed employee. Dorsey said that despite the crash, he'd get on another train "tomorrow."

Bryant said, "I'd have to get on it."