Why won't Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., leave our gun laws alone?

Good morning, Washington. It’s that same old feeling outside today: hot and humid with a chance of showers and t-storms in the evening. Perhaps the weather is to blame for the District’s sluggish job growth.

The Examiner reports D.C. speed cameras are hauling in a record amount of money from careless drivers. And it just so happens that the District's hefty budget shortfalls are running in the hundreds of millions of dollars. So we may be skeptical to hear that the $25 million generated by speeding tickets is “[not] for revenue, but to modify dangerous driving behavior,” according to police chief Cathy Lanier. With 12 new speed cameras slated for installation at new points around the city, we may need to ask whether cameras are really supposed to discipline some of the country’s worst drivers.

D.C. activist and shadow representative Mike Panetta is pissed off at Montanans for meddling in D.C. affairs. Panetta is head of the Free and Equal D.C. Fund, which challenges members of Congress who oppose D.C. home rule. And Jon Tester, a Democratic senator from Montana, is next on the hit list. Along with Mississippi Rep. Travis Childers, Tester is sponsoring a bill that would eliminate any locally enacted firearms regulations in the District. Panetta's organization began running a radio ad in Montana, accusing Tester, in essence, of brazenly messing with District affairs while ignoring problems in his home state.

In other news, a Metrobus manager was suspended for 13 days after making crude and lewd remarks at a graduation ceremony for Metrobus operators. WMATA found the manager’s comments about elderly people, young black men and Asians to be “inappropriate and offensive.” A Los Angles bound plane from D.C. ran into heavy turbulence last night, injuring more than 20 people and forcing the plane to land in Denver. And traffic chaos is predicted to get worse as the military plans to move 18,000 jobs from the Crystal City/Pentagon area to Alexandria, VA.

The Logan Circle Community Association will be hosting a straw poll for mayoral-hopefuls Vince Gray and Adrian Fenty tonight at 7 p.m. at the Washington Plaza Hotel.

That’s it, folks. Keep it real today.

Photo from Tester's Senate office

There was a quick-draw showdown on the dusty streets of the Senate Finance Committee yesterday, and Montana Senator Max Baucus came out swinging. Both Democratic proposals to create a government-run insurance plan were shot down by the committee, leaving saloon shutters flapping and the road wide open for Baucus to ride in with his plan by the end of the week.

And how does the committee chairman want to run this town? Like any good sheriff, he vies for the middle of the road: that is to say, nonprofit insurance cooperatives over the public option, and as an alternative to private companies. After all, no cowboy worth his salt will trust those private vigilantes...but neither will he tame the wild west.

And over in Foggy Bottom, the metro stop, in addition to a couple blocks of 23^rd street, was closed for several hours due to a “suspicious package.” As one GWU student put it, “[the package] was bouncing.”

If bouncy packages weren’t enough to worry about, the robbers have decided to take on the guise of D.C. businessmen—a mugger alert went out Monday on 16^th and K Street for a man wearing a black suit, black hat, white shirt, and carrying a briefcase. Maybe he had an interview later?

And finally, ABC7 reported that at the concert last night at the FedEx Field, “U2 fans” were concerned about the traffic, and a lot of “U2 fans” couldn’t get off work early. Sadly, the author didn’t realize that the 80,000 concertgoers were rushing to see the far superior unmentioned act, Muse. Any of these mythical U2 fans out there want to give a shout-out?

That's it for today—I think the swine got me, and there's no vaccine until the first week of October....

Photo by Freeparking, Creative Commons Attribution License