"For a few hours there it actually looked like Bobby Pittman (a well known local gadfly) might be able to stop the Festival through last minute bureaucratic tie ups (NB, [nothing] is wrong with checking signatures, but this was a dirty Bobby move at the last minute). In the end Bobby did not get his way, and the Mayor's office allowed the Festival to proceed. But I'd like to send out a personal Evil Eye to Bobby on this one.  If you really hate seeing all this great stuff on H Street, maybe you should just move dude. Bobby, you have gone on some Don Quixotesque crusade of harassing local businesses (including, but not even close to limited to: Rock and Roll Hotel, the Pug, and the Atlas Performing Arts Center [!]). Aside from the one time I saw you planting flowers on H Street, acting as the PSA 102 Coordinator, and a few other very isolated incidents, I've yet to see you do anything to positively contribute to life on the H Street Corridor, or on Linden. It's one thing to want the laws enforced, and to want good neighbors (both admirable qualities and pursuits). But what you are doing is unacceptable in my opinion, and I hope that others who agree will tell you so to your face. I certainly intend to do so the next time I see you. Until then, Evil Eye to you Pittman."

Barry Farm (Re)mixed expects water rates to go up starting October 1.

Greater Greater Washington has the three finalists up for a public art installation in Adams Morgan.

The Georgetown Metropolitan is urging a Save the Circulator campaign:

"GM was informed that Jack Evans has stepped in to give it another chance and try to convince the Mayor to keep the Wisconsin branch of the Circulator. But now it really is up to us. Please, if you have just one minute, email the Mayor at Adrian.Fenty@DC.gov and let him know that Georgetown has suffered more than enough cuts in its bus service, cutting the Circulator in half would be unfair and short-sighted."

The New Teacher On The Block reports on cutbacks in teacher aides in their classroom:

"However, DCPS is bent on not being able to do anything right, and, as such, they made a decision today that immediately negatively effected my classroom. DCPS has decided to discontinue contracts employment agencies held to supply aides to DCPS classrooms.

These contracts came about in the summer of 2008, when the requirements for assistants changed and many aides were fired for not meeting the requirements. It is my understanding that DCPS was scrambling to find qualified people in a short period of time, and therefore turned to these contract agencies to find aides for the classrooms. All of my classroom aides last year were contractors and 3 of my 4 this year are contractors. However, for whatever reason (probably money) DCPS has decided mid-stream to discontinue this relationship and they want the contractors out. Thus, they are moving them to the most high-need schools in an effort to cover until they hire more people, and then they're getting rid of them. Not sure how this makes sense...but whatever. It's DCPS- who the crap knows?"

Yesterday's massive water main break in Adams Morgan stressed out Monique Lecomte and Joseph Currie. They reside at 1748 V Street NW. Today, they are dealing with contractors assessing the damage to their basement dining room and kitchen. Industrial dehumidifiers are at full blast. A contractor rips at the bottom of the walls in the dining room. But perhaps nothing hurt Currie more than what the Washington Post did to him with its story on the great flood of '09. There are some things more painful than wall mold.

Like being misquoted about the great flood of '09. Currie says he was a victim of a reporter's bad shorthand. The Post quoted Currie saying: "When I opened up the front door, all of the water rushed inside."

That is not what happened, Currie insists today. The water did not rush inside. Hopefully, historians won't make that mistake in their retelling of yesterday's dramatic narrative.

Imagine waking up at some godawful hour by a fireman or cop thumping on your basement door telling you that your home is flooding? Imagine then having to spend serious time a) worrying about the water; b) worrying if that water was going to seep into your 1919 Chickering piano; c) attempting to clear the small drain outside your door because it was starting to clog; and d) worrying about why water was seeping through the walls. Now imagine spending your entire day dealing with the minor water damage, the insurance people and their contractors. And then waking up to seeing your name in lights attached to a misquote?

Currie says water did not rush into his home. It seeped. And it pooled around the drain outside his front door. But it did not "rush inside" when he opened the door for the firemen or police. Now he must deal with the damage.

"I can't think of what we could have done," Currie says. I would like to say he was talking about the Post. But that would be taking his quote out of context. He's hurting enough.

Currie is actually talking about the physical problems the flood left in its wake.

In his dining room, the damage was minimal. Water corroded one wall or part of one wall--it had to be ripped up. The 1919 Chickering survived the great flood of '09, but it did not survive contractors attempts to move it. The move caused the legs to come off. The piano had to be propped up by an old trunk. He has two other pianos.

The kitchen floor was streaked with mud. An industrial dehumidifier hummed away. Mold was the real stress. It had been detected already in the walls. The mold particularly disturbed his housemate Lecomte. Lecomte purchased the row house 30 years ago from money she made teaching French to Peace Corps volunteers. She grew up in The Left Bank and followed a German lover to Washington. The relationship didn't take. But she stayed in the city and worked for various embassies before joining the Peace Corps. She now manages Curries career, occasionally getting him gigs in her native city and elsewhere.

The mold, and the prospect of more mold, bothered her. She also faces the prospect of losing her 15-year-old kitchen wallpaper. "What kind of bullshit is this," Lecomte says standing in her dining room.

Currie says he does not have PTSD. In fact, he does not know what PTSD stands for.

It might be a misquote to say Lecomte is suffering from a little post-traumatic stress. But we are sure she said this: "I want to go to France. I want to go home."

Photos by Darrow Montgomery

A father of twin boys filed a class-action lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court against WASA over the lead warning foul up, the Washington Post is reporting. John Parkhurst's two boys, the Post writes, "now 8, were toddlers when lead spiked to dangerous levels in the city's drinking water from 2001 to 2004. They now have learning and behavior problems that require therapy and medication that the lawsuit said costs between $30,000 and $40,000 a year." The Post had the scoop last week on the water issue.

The Post writes:

"The amount of lead in the District's drinking water had been rising from 2001 until 2004, and reached levels that were the highest ever measures in tapwater in the United States. A January 2004 Post article made public the severity of the problem, which WASA, the D.C. Department of Health and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had known about for at least the previous year."

The lawsuit leaves open the possibility that there will be other plaintiffs added to the case in the future. The number of plaintiffs seeking damages could be huge. DC Appleseed has been on the frontlines of this issue for some time. They've done tons of research that's worth checking out.

1. The problems on River Road appear to be on-going problems. There's still water. Maybe lots of it. And Officials still are only guessing at what caused the break. It was probably the extreme cold:

"River Road was closed to traffic between Seven Locks Road and Bradley Boulevard. Water was still covering the street as of 10:45 a.m., with some of it flowing off the road and one point and into a nearby creek, It was not immediately clear how the massive quantity of water would affect that woods and structures on either side of the roadway.

There was no immediate information on why the large pipe might have ruptured, but age and extreme weather are often factors in such breaks."

2. The water main break could have been avoided. Officials, the Post reports, had warned for years that many of the pipes were more than decades old and had been worn away by "acidic soil" and "ground water." The Post writes:

"In 2007, the system reported a record 2,129 pipe breaks, which generally result in cut-offs in service and road flooding.

The sanitary commission on average replaces about 25 miles of pipe a year. But last February, the representatives from Montgomery and Prince George's County who make up the sanitary commission opted not to assess an additional fee of $20 per month that had been proposed to fund a more widespread pipe replacement."

1. Isn't Anyone Bothered by the Lara Logan Sex Scandal Coverage? by Angela Valdez

2. WaPo Weighs New Politics Site by Erik Wemple

3. Blogger Shot in Adams Morgan by Angela Valdez

4. Bench Warrants Issued For Absent Jurors by Jason Cherkis

5. 311 Gets Sassy by Amanda Hess

6. Update: SIX Flagging by Dave McKenna

7. How's the Water in Washington? by Brianne Downing

8. Brian Beutler Update by Angela Valdez

9. Weekend Would-Be Jumper on the Ellington Bridge by Jule Banville

10. Bus Operator Lobbies Against SW Depot by Erik Wemple

Photo of D.C.'s frequent-bead-thrower mayor by wharman

I never felt comfortable drinking water straight from the tap in my house in Seattle. Early on in my two-year stay in that house off campus, I filled a glass from the kitchen faucet and was dismayed and a bit disgusted to find swirling gray water almost touching my lips. From then on, I used botted water, even to cook.

My parents' house in eastern Washington (the state) has great water, but I think that's because we have well water.

When I visited friends in New Jersey and New York City earlier this year, I heard all about how great tap water is in the city, and yes, I definitely agree. The water in NYC is pretty darn swell. NYC is so big and still has awesome water, it would be logical to thing that D.C. water filtration systems would be of high quality as well.

What do you think? Should I buy a water filter on my way home from work tonight? Is tap water in D.C. rivaling NYC in water taste, purity and clarity? Are Brita filters so common in the District that it's unheard of to drink straight from the tap? Does everyone know something that I, mere "newbie," haven't discovered yet? Or are filters for the health-conscious Seattleites and other West-Coasters who move east and fear for the worst?