Yes, Actually, It Is Hot Enough For Me: Leave town. Now. That's the only reasonable advice for how to deal with the early heat wave that's suffocating the region today—it is, after all, still only spring. The high temperature at National Airport was 102 degrees, tying a record first set in 1874, and combined with last summer's ridiculous heat, makes this the first back-to-back years with three-digit temperatures in June since 1933-34. We had a joke to make here, but we went outside a few hours ago, and our brains are still recovering. -4

We Don't Need No Water: No matter how well the city trains its firefighters, no matter how quickly they respond to calls, and no matter how well people in a burning building remember their "stop, drop, and roll" elementary school-era instructions, there's one essential component to dealing with any fire: water. This year, unlike in past years, there should be enough of it if it's needed. Fire hydrants and underground pipes like the ones that failed in blazes at the Georgetown Library in 2007 and Peggy Cafritz Cooper's house in 2009 are now in good shape, officials say. The city set a goal of having not more than 1 percent of hydrants out of service at any one time; as of June 1, the total was .41 percent. Which is good news for everyone except the people who live on whatever block the hydrant's busted on. +2

Crimefighters-R-Us: Constituent service is the lifeblood of local politics. Here in the District, Yvette Alexander really means it, apparently. The Ward 7 D.C. Council member helped catch a guy who'd stolen a Kindle near Freedom Plaza Wednesday, then yelled at the unlucky thief as Fox 5's cameras rolled. Phil Mendelson, who chairs the public safety committee, better watch out; Alexander has hands-on experience now. +2

Two If By Sea: Driving during rush hour is bad for blood pressure; taking Metro means unexplained delays and rising fares. How about getting to work by boat? Evidently, that won't work either; American River Taxi, which launched a Southwest waterfront-to-Georgetown route in April, has shut its morning service down. The ride was $8, and took 30 minutes, making it both more expensive and slower than other, non-riparian forms of public transit. Then again, maybe it'd be worth it to be able to respond to emails on the way to work with a simple, "I'm on a boat." -1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 57 Today's score: -1 Today's Needle rating: 56

Continue to Be Afraid Until Further Notice: By now, Osama bin Laden's body lies somewhere near the bottom of the Arabian Sea, having been deposited there off the U.S.S. Carl Vinson after he was killed by Navy SEALs yesterday. But anyone who thought that would mean the elaborate, and expensive, security apparatus set up around D.C. and the nation since Sept. 11, 2001, hasn't been paying enough attention. District officials went out of their way to warn of heightened danger from attacks even now that the al-Qaida boss is dead. On Metro, which seems only to have been the target of a would-be terrorist the FBI recruited for a fictional plot, police patrols and other security measures were increased. Years from now, will anyone even remember that bin Laden was the original reason for all this stuff? -3

Bin LadenShare: There's an answer to one question about the cheering hordes that materialized outside the White House last night—how did they get there? By Capital Bikeshare. The service reported a big spike between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. last night, with 558 rentals—far more than you'd expect for the middle of a Sunday night. That leaves the answers to other questions—questions like, where did they get all the flags and beer?—still unknown. +2

Water Back to Normal: Switching on the faucet should no longer evoke strong memories of childhood swim meets; D.C. Water has stopped using chlorine as a disinfectant and gone back to the odorless chloramine the agency uses for all but a few weeks each year. (Feel free to make your own jokes about lead here.) +2

Maps R Us: Been dreaming about a map of the building shapes in the District? How about land height in the city? Or commercial vs. residential zoning? All of these can now be yours, thanks to the geographic information system data D.C. officials make available. The real magic, of course, would be to combine some obscure piece of city data with a text-based map of D.C. +1

Friday's Needle rating: 63 Today's score: +2 Today's Needle rating: 65

For the Birds, III: Last week in Brookland, it was hummingbirds. This week, the neighborhood email list is chattering about robins—and, more specifically, how to kindly relocate them, without displacing them entirely. (Perhaps a metaphor for D.C.'s demographic growing pains can be found amongst its fauna.) Writes one member, "So, we had two robin families nest in our yard last year. They were a joy to watch. This year, they have decided to nest directly outside our french doors going onto the deck on top of flood lights. It's just a lousy place for them and I fear that they will get quite edgy once the eggs are there with all the in and out from the door. I've already pulled the hay down once, but it's back again. Any nice way to make that spot not so attractive to them? Would hate for them to go away completely, but it's just the worst spot for them and us." Insofar, neighbors only have words of support: "We had a similar siuation with birds nesting in our porch at the tops of brick columns. 'Cute' was our initial reaction, too, until the poop started dripping down the columns... : ( It was really hard to clean off, too."

All Clear for Capitalism: JDLand reports that the Historic Preservation Review Board has recommended that the Market Deli in Near Southeast not be designated historic by the board, or by the National Register of Historic Places. The nomination of the building, aided by ANC 6D07 commissioner David Garber, was not favorably received by the neighborhood, and commenters have cheered the HPRB's decision. One snarks, "So....anyone have any guesses or rumors as to which 'landmark' will be next in line to try and be saved? Will it be the former theater (taxi repair shop on Half St) or the transfer station/stacks?" More congratulatory is another, who says, "Well this is a pleasant surprise. I thought there was a good chance that HPRB was going to support the designation based on some past decisions (ie the old, dilapidated wood shack in perpetual existence at 12th & E SE – sorry I mean 'shotgun' house). Thank goodness the Capitol Hill Restoration Society has no interest in our neighborhood." And, finally: "I fully support the destruction of the Market Deli to advance the bottom line of real estate and surrounding property value."

Beware the Umbrellas: A thread on the Palisades email list is rife with warnings of a potential door-to-door scam. Writes one member, "I had 2 young women soliciting saying they were from UVA doing a communications gig and turns out it is magazines they are selling. Very pushy. They don't want you to buy magazines for them but for wounded soldiers at Walter Reed. Very suspect." Another describes potential tactics of the alleged scammers, adding, "Same here – the two guys who came to my door claimed they'd send the magazines to Veterans' hospitals and gave me a grimy list of hospitals. Set off my suspicions too. They also asked for an umbrella – the police officer who attended later said he'd seen around five people gathered together nearby, whom he thought responsible for the door knocking, all already had umbrellas – he thought the request for an umbrella was simply to get the front door open further to check out the place."

Cleveland Park Problems: Writes one member of the Cleveland Park email list, "Our water has had a smell like burning plastic since yesterday. It is removed by our Brita filter, but still worrisome. Is anyone else experiencing this?" Another adds, "Yes, we smell it too. Our showers stink." No answer to this mystery has been established.

Doors Closing: Anyone who's ridden Metro in the last decade or so knows there's some urgent need for more regular maintenance on the system. Now it turns out there's approximately $850 million of it needed. That's how much transit officials say they want to spend next year—not on adding new service or expanding existing lines, but on refurbishing and replacing the broken pieces of the system. Which makes the promised $150 million for capital improvements Congress no longer wants to send Metro's way even more important; if you spot any lawmakers riding the subway, tell 'em to pony up. -1

Jobs R Us: In today's batch of fodder for conspiracy theorists certain the White House is going red, a new survey shows college kids want to work for the federal government. According to research by Universum, a consulting firm, six of the top ten most favorable jobs for liberal arts grads are federal agencies (the State Department comes in highest, at #2). Even among business students, the Treasury Department ranks in the top 20, which probably says more about the administration's embrace of Wall Street than about its embrace of Marx. The good news: More potential D.C. residents for the 2020 Census to count! The bad news: More 22-year-olds. +2

What's That Smell?: Yes, your water smells (and maybe tastes) kind of funny. No, it doesn't mean you're dying. Every spring, the powers-that-be responsible for ensuring you get enough lead in your drinking water—er, rather, maintaining D.C.'s water supply—switch the disinfectant used from chloramine to chlorine. The chlorine rinse will last until May 2. If things still seem weird after that, then, yes, you may be dying. -1

Choose Your Own Budget Adventure: Got suggestions for how to write the District's next budget? No need to keep them to yourself—go fill out D.C.'s new survey on budget priorities, and you can share them directly with Mayor Vince Gray (or at least with whichever underling is in charge of culling the responses from the Google Docs spreadsheet they're collected in). The main focus of the survey seems to be whether or not the city should raise taxes. We suggest you tell Gray to raise taxes on anyone making more money than you do. +1

Friday's Needle rating: 66 Today's score: +1 Today's Needle rating: 67

This is a snow melter. Its purpose, you might guess, is to melt snow. Earlier this month, the District saw much snow. This snow melter melted none of it. Rather, it sat, not melting snow, on a city lot.

All this was revealed by WRC-TV's Tom Sherwood, who reports that the city purchased the contraption in 2003 to handle the city's last huge snowfall. "The $120,000 snowbot could take 10 dump truck loads at a time and was pretty efficient, even though it broke down at least once during operation," reads his item. So what gives?

City officials declined a request for an on-camera interview, saying in a statement the snow melter needed parts, was difficult to operate and wasn't worth using again. So it sits on the city's public works lot.

Why isn't it worth it? Using the melter would have had environmental benefits, since the runoff could be piped into sewers and treated at Blue Plains, rather than melting directly into the Anacostia River, which is what the snow trucked out of downtown this month is doing.

And if that still isn't worth it, why not sell it/give it away to some municipality that could fix it and use it? (Probably not in the Dominican Republic, but you get the idea.)

Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham plans to explore the snow-melter issue at upcoming oversight hearings.

Photo courtesy of Tom Sherwood

"You don’t deal with the general public the way you would deal with yourself."

—Jerry N. Johnson, WASA general manager, Feb. 10

The biggest story of 2004 made a second splashdown in 2009, when a public health study determined that waterborne lead discovered in city pipes five years ago may have been much more dangerous than anyone warned at the time. Johnson, who ran the Water and Sewer Authority then, was dragged before the D.C. Council, where overseer Jim Graham asked Johnson whether he'd allow his own child to drink potentially dangerous water. Johnson, never known for his PR acumen, took issue with the question, responding with the above retort. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty proceeded with a behind-the-scenes campaign to oust Johnson from his management post; he finally succeeded in September. Replacing Johnson was one of Fenty's best cabinet appointees: George Hawkins of the city environmental department. Johnson’s now out in the ‘burbs, running the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.

More from LL's Quotes of 2009

"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?