For walkers, this week was bad luck
While crossing the street, two were struck
Sure, fate is capricious
But why not delicious?
Heck yes, I'd get hit by this truck

It sure seems that Metro's bemoaning
The change that had riders all groaning
With kiosks outmoded
Make fares auto-loaded
Not yet, though, 'cause Catoe's postponing

I'm sad to see Cephas depart
For with him, that man takes my heart
He's clearly an ass
But lovably crass
In my book, bad taste is an art

When casting your vote in the booth
Just think of Graham's bowtie (so couth!)
Whatever you ponder
Don't let your mind wander
To thoughts of cabs, bribes, or that youth

As poet, I feel obligated
To highlight things classic (or dated?)
And yet, here's my screed:
Screw biking in tweed
That whole thing seemed way overrated...

Today we introduce Hannah Neprash of districtlimerick.com, who will write regularly on D.C. news and politics—in limerick form.

Election week left some aghast
From last year, the difference was vast
A bell-weather? nope
Creigh Deeds had no hope
Before the first ballot was cast

The hearing for marriage rights raged
The witnesses—they got engaged
To make Council swoon
Could be a real boon
Who cares if it felt a bit staged

One couple created; one mourned
When death came to two who were horned
She overexerted
And life, it deserted
If you are an oryx, be warned

Cate took a brief break from Desire
To shop at the Target empire
Lord knows after shows
Her feet need repose
An ottoman, she did admire

This story still has me distracted
Because of how Allen reacted
The guy's old as dirt
But still brings the hurt
Click here for the fight reenacted

We all think commuting's a bitch
Made nothing but worse by the glitch
From phones and PAs
To online displays
The Metro has hit quite a hitch

This lim'rick has come to a close
And now you are doomed to read prose
But have no concern
The rhymes will return
To dole out more witty low-blows

Penn Quarter Living debuts a new column called High Rise Life. The first one is on elevator etiquette. It's not so much a column as bad comment bait of which I am sometimes guilty of. Here's a sampling from PQL's rookie effort on sharing an elevator: "Fob in and offer to push buttons or don’t offer and make sure others belong in the building? Remind neighbors that bicycles and their owners usually ride the freight elevator or zip it? Heel your dog or let him/her sniff around and be friendly? What is good neighborly elevator etiquette?" Fascinating.

Frozen Tropics reports on the breaking news last night concerning the pedestrian hit by a Metrobus in Trinidad. The Post is reporting that the woman has suffered life threatening injuries:

"In Monday's incident, the woman had just gotten off the D-8 Metrobus on Mount Olivet Avenue NE, between Trinidad and Montello avenues. She apparently crossed in front of that bus and then was struck about 6:30 p.m. by another Metrobus traveling in the same direction, Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said.

Two men who said they witnessed the incident told television stations that the woman was thrown a distance down the street, and appeared to be unconscious after being struck. One of the men said that after the woman was hit, the driver of one of the buses 'got down' and prayed."

The Georgetown Metropolitan answers the question: Just what are Georgetown's boundaries?

Do you want to see pictures of people buying records? Someone posted a bunch of pictures from the DC Record Fair held this past Sunday. We wish we could have been there. Meanwhile....Fair sponsor The Vinyl District is giving away tickets to this week's Gossip show at the 9:30 Club.

The New Teacher On the Block offers their take on the hundreds of teachers laid off last week. In the Rhee vs. Gray fight, the blogger sides with Gray:

"Now, of course, this has resulted in finger-pointing, name calling, and a complete lack of transparency on many people's parts (Standard Operating Procedure for DCPS, really). Rhee blames the City Council for not providing the money required to allow all of these teachers to keep their jobs. City Council member Vincent Gray the DC City Council fired back with a press release accusing Rhee of using the council as a scapegoat in executing her master plan of getting rid of large numbers of DCPS teachers.

In this case, I'm in Gray's corner. The numbers just don't lie. It's just another example of the lack of transparency Rhee feels she is entitled to. When I came here, I thought I liked her: I am among the legions of teachers she's supposedly replacing the entire DC teaching force with and I support a lot of the ideas she proposes. But both her behavior and her attitude are counterproductive and arrogant; since I have been here, she has done nothing but alienate, obfuscate, and out and out lie."

*WMATA begins installing wireless service in "20 of Metro's busiest underground stations." Project slated for completion by October 16. All the better to tweet when you see a Metro employee asleep at the wheel, dear! Meanwhile, as the Baltimore Sun observes, Metro's "summer of horrors" continues.

*This week in Cal Thomas: The over-syndicated enfant vieillard terrible compares Britain's coverage of the health care debate to the War of 1812.

*The Washington Independent's Dave Weigel files one of the more readable eulogies for Robert Novak, in which he recalls the columnist's abundant disdain for blogs:

[Novak] was wrong in diagnosing blogs as a source of rot in journalism; the real problems with political reporting are reliance on spoon-feeding and spin, deference to powerful people even when they’re wrong or lying, and the elevation of experts who don’t know anything beyond what their sponsors tell them. At his worst, on cable news, Novak enabled that. At his best, Novak cut through all of that and did real reporting that exposed what powerful people were thinking when the cameras were off. We need more of that.

*Tonight's City Lights pick: Alex Cox's Sid and Nancy at AFI. All about Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten. Beaujon sez go! (Sort of.)

*And who doesn't miss Mr. T in DC? A little bird tells me you're more likely to find him on Twitter than on LiveJournal.

*Remember LiveJournal?

Photograph by Flickr user vitalyzator, Creative Commons Attribution License.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Jack Evans Says He Still Supports Peter Nickles," "Councilmember Alexander Raises Concerns Over AG Nickles."

Morning all. Last night may have been National Night Out but for Mayor Fenty, it's Greek Week. WaPo breaks the stunning news that the District government actually paid the $37,000 tab for his Kappa Alpha Psi's welcoming party. The bash was held on Monday night and featured an open bar, crab cakes, red velvet cupcakes, and jazz bands tooting on two floors. The Post makes no mention of beer bongs and togas. The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development had put out the dough via a grant. AG Peter Nickles apparently has forced Fenty and Co. to reimburse the city for the shindig. But Nickles swears Fenty knew nothing about the city's involvement. Key graphs:

"Attorney General Peter J. Nickles said he looked into the matter Tuesday morning at the request of the mayor. 'I concluded immediately that this was not proper,' said Nickles, who said the society reimbursed the money that morning.

Although the mayor attended the affair and was on stage as fraternity members thanked him for paying for the event, 'he didn't put two and two together that this was money that had come from the city,' Nickles said."

SEX ED NEWS: The District plans to expand its STD testing program into all public high schools. WaPo has the full story on this progressive move. There are plenty of reasons to do this. Key graphs: "The program conducted last year at eight high schools found that 13 percent of about 3,000 students tested positive for an STD, mostly gonorrhea or chlamydia, according to the D.C. Department of Health. The expansion places D.C. public schools in the vanguard of a growing number of urban school districts that test adolescents for STDs. About 12,000 students attend public high schools in the District." The news came within hours of DC Appleseed releasing its report card on how the District is dealing with the HIV/AIDS crisis (for public education, the District received a C+). WaPo covers the DC Appleseed's findings noting the overall positive scores: "But the report took Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to task for failing to give the disease more visibility. 'While Mayor Fenty and his administration deserve recognition for the continued support of . . . numerous HAA initiatives, his public appearances and statements about the epidemic have fallen short of his enthusiasm for action inside the government,' it said."

THE NEW YORK TIMES IS ON OUR SIDE: The paper's editorial board comes down hard against Congress and its attempts to meddle in our needle exchange program. The editorial dubbed the meddling an "outrage."

NATIONAL NIGHT OUT: As we mentioned above, National Night Out happened. This meant another All-Hands-On-Deck effort from the D.C. Police Department. Police visibility was high! But News Channel 8 reports that the District still endured at least one violent incident. Three people were injured during a shooting in Southeast shortly after 10 p.m. News Channel 8 reports: "Fire officials say two 38-year-old women and a 17-year-old boy have each been shot in the leg."

AFTER THE JUMP: A power outage, more Metro news, Harry Jaffe pens a quick profile of the judge in the Pershing Park case, and much, much more.

Fox5 covers a power outage that left one Northeast neighborhood without electricity for most of yesterday. Three utility poles had crashed to the ground. Key graph: "The downed lines were a health hazard for some. One 7 month old who suffers from a heart condition was taken from his apartment complex, which had no electricity for hours."

METRO: Yesterday, Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. begged a Senate subcommittee for more money. WaPo reports: "Metro, the only major transit agency without a source of dedicated funding, says it needs more than $7 billion for capital projects over the next 10 years to offer safe and reliable service." Catoe stated that without additional funding, safety as well as service would decline. Bonus graph: "Catoe used a question from Menendez about what lessons he has learned from the crash to sharpen his request for more money. He noted that the oldest Series 1000 train cars are less crashworthy than the newer cars, which he said "did not cause the accident but had an impact on the amount of damage that can be done." All six of the cars on the train that struck the one ahead of it were from the old series."

FBI RAID: Yesterday, the feds raided a health clinic in SE as well as a medical supply company. The agents are looking into allegations of medicaid fraud. WUSA9 reported that a number of patients had to be turned away while the agents did their work.

STaTter 911 raises some good points over the on-going issues with the hydrants:

"Councilmember Jim Graham announced Friday he will hold a hearing on September 16 to determine what went wrong at the fire last Wednesday night at the Chain Bridge Road mansion of former DC Board of Education president Peggy Cooper Cafritz. The Ward 1 councilmember is trying to determine why it took the DC Fire & EMS Department almost two hours to establish a reliable water supply to combat the fire.

Mayor Adrian Fenty has asked the fire chief and the DC Water & Sewer Authority (WASA) for reports this week on what happened and how to correct the issues.

If this sounds familiar, it should. In late 2007, Councilmember Graham held a series of hearings looking at the serious water supply issues that became apparent during a four-alarm fire that destroyed an apartment building in Adams Morgan on October 1 of that year. The Fenty administration also ordered an investigative report into the problems that occurred during that fire.

So what happened to the report?"

YOU DON'T MESS WITH U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE EMMET SULLIVAN: That's the gist of Harry Jaffe's new column in the Examiner. Judge Sullivan is presiding over the controversial Pershing Park case and has called on the D.C. Council to investigate possible wrongdoing in which evidence has either been lost or destroyed or messed with. Key graph: "Three different presidents put Sullivan into three different judgeships: Ronald Reagan appointed him to Superior Court; George Bush (41) moved him up to the federal court of appeals; Bill Clinton nominated him to the federal district court in 1994. From the streets of his home town to the federal bench, friends and lawyers have learned one thing: 'Don't cross the dude.'"

FENTY'S SCHEDULE:

10:00 a.m.
Remarks Savoy Playground Installation Kick-off
Location: Savoy Elementary School
2400 Shannon Place, SE

3:45 pm Remarks
Appleseed HIV/AIDS Report Card Announcement
Location: J’s Barber Shop 3845 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Peter Nickles: I Will Not Call You Back," "Video: Is Cleveland Park Dead?" and "The Pershing Park Case: Did A District Official Commit Perjury?"

Morning all. A big thanks to the local politico reporters and Wilson Building staffers who a) Jokingly thought I had become LL; b) Wished me luck in compiling the must-read briefing on local politics; and c) failed to mention the "resident" controversy from yesterday. A few local heavyweights inquired about LL's bike ride to Dewey Beach and wondered if he had made it to the Rusty Rudder safely. I reached LL via e-mail. Here is what he wrote about his trek:

"Uh, well, we left gonzaga HS at 4:30 a.m. then took back roads to just across the severn river in annapolis where we were bused across the bay bridge to where 50 meets 404. it started out looking like it was going to be cloudy and rain all day, but by the time we crossed the bridge the clouds were gone and the sun was shining. so it was really hot. the route kinda sucked. its exactly the same as driving; we rode on the shoulder of these roads the whole time, trucks whizzing pasy, chickenshit in the air, no real scenery of note. but it was for a good cause--autism research--and it was pretty well run, lots of rest stops with powerbars and water and bananas and all that stuff. The first leg I did pretty fast, finishing 35 mi in about two and a half hours. the second leg was somewhat slower---five and a half hours to do 65 mi to Bethany Beach--but i was among the first half of finishers (at 2:15 p.m.) on my junky old bike. so yeah, it was good."

Now on to the news: Councilmember Phil Mendelson has joined colleague Councilmember Mary Cheh in calling for AG Peter Nickles to resign. Cheh spoke out to City Desk last Friday. So what has provoked the councilmembers? The OAG's conduct in a Pershing Park lawsuit in which police evidence has gone missing and/or has been destroyed, among other discovery problems. The U.S. District Court judge in the case has promised painful sanctions, has called on the D.C. Council to investigate the matter, and ordered Nickles to provide a sworn statement explaining his office's conduct. The Examiner's Bill Myers gets Mendo on the record calling for Nickles to go. Nickles offers his usual bulldog-with-rabies react: "It's politics at its worst. They have no idea what's going on." What's going on is available via transcript. News Channel 8's Bruce DePuyt has Cheh and Nickles on the Pershing Park issue. Nickles says he is "troubled" by the missing evidence, and will follow the law. Cheh stands by her comments and says D.C. needs a new attorney general.

LEAD TROUBLES: WaPo is reporting that House investigators have found many more children than previously reported had high levels of lead in their blood during the drinking water crisis from a few years ago. Key graphs: "Local officials could not say Monday whether some children with unsafe lead exposure have gone without intervention to reduce their health risks. The CDC and city health department had reported dangerously high lead levels in 193 children in 2003, the worst year for high concentrations of lead in city tap water. But lab data gathered by congressional investigators this year show that the actual number was 486 children."

AFTER THE JUMP: More public transpo issues, D.C. Police are getting some federal dough, Legal Seafood is fighting to stay inside National Reagan National Airport, WaPo stands up for press freedoms(!) and much, much more.

PUBLIC TRANSPO continues its stretch of bad press. Last night a man was stabbed at Union Station, News Channel 8 reports. It is unclear whether the man was stabbed on a train or on a platform. The man was taken to an area hospital. A female suspect was taken into custody. (Also reporting: WTOP). During rush hour, doors opened on a moving Metro train. Scary. WaPo reports that the incident occurred on an Orange Line train. No injuries were reported and the train was promptly taken out of service. Key graph: "A passenger, who requested anonymity because he is restricted from speaking to the media in his job as a House aide, said that the left panel in the middle door of a middle car came open and that the door closed as soon as the operator hit the brakes."

WJLA is reporting that 27 bus shelters have been busted recently. A DDOT source speculates that this appears to be the work of one person: "Metropolitan police will be handling the investigation. They say the damaged bus shelters are located across the city from Upper Northwest across the Potomac and into Southeast. Clear Channel, the company that began installing the shelters two years ago, said the first damage reports started coming in Sunday and then Monday the number of vandalized shelters passed the two dozen mark."

D.C. cops are getting a bit boost from the feds. Police coffers will see an increase of $12 million from a federal grant. The money will be used to hire an additional 50 officers. News Channel 8 reports this may not necessarily boost the rank and file's numbers: "At the same time the department is getting more officers, the D.C. Council passed a budget calling for a hiring freeze in the department. Over time, it will result in less officers all together. 'Whatever number we ended up at, we're now 50 more than that and that's great news,' said Fenty." NBC4 has a brief on the boost.

An Inspector General's audit has found that the District's financial office has failed to collect $750,000 in motor fuel taxes during the past couple years, the Examiner's Michael Neibauer reports. The news is kinda ironic: "The Office of the Inspector General 'identified uncollected motor fuel tax revenues of about $733,000 for six years,' said the audit, dated July 26. The District's Office of Tax and Revenue, auditors reported, 'has not been aggressively pursuing potential revenues,' as it never followed up with motor fuel importers who didn't pay. The audit was issued July 26, five days before the council voted to increase the gasoline tax from 20 cents to 23.5 cents per gallon."

WaPo is reporting that Legal Seafoods is seeking a court order to stop airport officials from kicking them out of Reagan National Airport's choice Terminal C locale. The chain says it's being pushed out to make way for a steakhouse. Nerdy highlight: "Owner Roger Berkowitz says the problems started last year during lease negotiations with officials from Westfield Concessions Management, the Los Angeles-based company that oversees retail stores and restaurants at National and at Dulles International Airport. He said Westfield encouraged the seafood chain to spend $2.3 million to expand, primarily by taking over the space of a bookstore next door. Berkowitz said he agreed to make the changes but insisted that the seafood chain pocket any construction savings. At the time, he said, construction costs were plummeting due to the weak economy." Of course, there's more.

Gov. Tim Kaine has told families of the Virgina Tech massacre victims that he will not reconvene his investigatory panel. The families had urged him to re-investigate the shootings in light of the shooter's mental health records being found. WaPo reports that more than 60 families and victims had signed a letter urging Kaine to bring the panel back. Key graphs:

"In an e-mail to families sent about noon Monday, Mark Rubin, the governor's counselor, ruled out reconvening the panel.

'While we would not rule out inviting willing members of the Panel to review proposed revisions to the report, we are sensitive that there are families who expressly do not want to reconvene the Panel,' he wrote. 'Our hope is that the current process for revisions will satisfy the need for a thorough report without upsetting families like your own any further.'

But Rubin added that Kaine will accept any factual corrections families wish to make to the report until Aug. 19."

PEGGY COOPER CAFRITZ---one of the District's most impressive politicos---talks about last week's fire that destroyed her home. She tells FOX5: "We'll always find the light, you know. We went through an exercise of looking through the plural of 'phoenix' and we found it, and it's 'phoenixes' and as I told others, that's exactly who my children and I are and will be." WUSA's Bruce Johnson had the exclusive first interview and some news on the fire: "Sources tell 9NEWS NOW that WASA had four reports of low water pressure in the area in the past year. At least two hydrants are clearly marked out of service." Let's hear it for "sources" whoever they are!

WaPo Editorial Board slams the D.C. Council's penchant for closed-door meetings. A must read for....fans of Sherwood, Segraves and any another local reporter who has pounded on those closed doors. Key graph: "THE D.C. COUNCIL was able to shut the public out of its recent budget deliberations because supposedly, it wasn't really taking action. Never mind that all the big decisions were being made behind those closed doors. That such an outrage could occur is the latest example of why the District is viewed as having one of the most worthless open-meetings laws in the country and why that law needs to be changed."

FENTY'S SCHEDULE:

10:45 a.m. Remarks
Demolition at Gage Eckington Elementary School
Location: Site of Former Gage Eckington Elementary School
2025 3rd Street, NW

4:00 p.m. Remarks
Petworth Recreation Center Ribbon Cutting
Location: 801 Taylor Street, NW

7:30 p.m. Remarks
79th Grand Chapter Meeting of Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc.
Location: Marriot Wardam Park Hotel
2660 Woodley Road, NW

The train control system designed to prevent Metro crashes is malfunctioning across the railroad, suggesting that a technological failure at the heart of last month's fatal crash may be widespread, according to officials and documents.

At least one-half dozen track circuits on four of the five lines of the transit system have failed to properly detect the presence of trains.

Six circuits have been shut down in addition to the one thought to have caused last month's Red Line crash. Some of them---including 'circuits at Greenbelt on the Green Line, Grosvenor on the Red Line and Foggy Bottom on the Orange/Blue line'---have been shut off, meaning trains can only pass through them one at a time, at 15 mph.

And double whoa:

[D]ocuments show that Metro technicians have detected malfunctions since at least July 11. Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. said publicly as recently as July 16 that the agency has inspected all 3,000 circuits and not noted any problems.

The renovations to the system will cost $177 million (only $80 million more than anticipated last summer!) and will take upwards of 4 years to complete, beginning in early 2010.  Among the important tasks of the renovation are:

• New escalators at the south entrance of Dupont Circle - Please, slow down this exit even more.  And give me an opportunity to walk up and down that ridiculously long escalator when it's not running.
• Upgrades to the air conditioning and ventilation - Does the Metro really need to be colder?  Maybe when the trains are filled to capacity, which will only worsen when the Red Line starts single-tracking to solve this issue.
• Rehabilitation of the Rockville and Shady Grove platforms - What does that even mean?  Re-grouting the tiles?  Adding a few benches?
• New staircases, escalators, and a canopy at Foggy Bottom - A canopy?  Really?  Get an umbrella.

The other planned maintenance seems more on track, if you'll forgive the pun.  Like an upgrade to the automatic train controls and track maintenance and fixing the tunnel ventilation and fire equipment.  Maybe those should be the primary focus.  Because it's always better to prevent train collisions than to prevent getting wet while entering the station.

In case you missed it: here's all you need to know about yesterday morning's federal court hearing on CFSA: In CFSA Case, Nickles Plays Defense; Judge Hogan Critical Of CFSA Director Selection Process.

Dee Does the District decides to not open up about getting terminated by DCPS. But this doesn't stop her from opening up about getting terminated by DCPS:

"I’ve decided to forego a big post in regards to my termination due to pending legal action and for my own personal privacy. Although I am deeply disappointed and incensed by the sweeping terminations, I feel relieved in a sense to be out of this broken system. I already have a number of upcoming interviews lined up at charters and in Northern Virginia and I’m looking forward to moving on to a school to values me and treats me like a human being."

The Heights Life raves about trivia night at Commonwealth: "You can expect the usual five rounds including a handout and an audio round - but to mix it up there are some rewards for speed and accuracy. And who knows - that might not be all he's got planned. This time those rounds seemed to go over particularly well, especially at my hyper-competitive table..."

And Now, Anacostia loves the Fenty Administration's crackdown on shady used car lots: "The slew of grimy / sketchy "used car lots" that weren't even legit businesses that lined many of the city's up-and-coming retail corridors. the administration heard the complaints that they weren't actually selling cars to the public, and in swoops the Fenty crackdown to get rid of them. Love it."

Runin DC pens not funny rap about Eastern Market. Is this now a trend---rapping about lame shit? Wait. This vid isn't supposed to be funny. I'm confused.

Greater Greater Washington has the most in-depth rundown of Metro's safety systems we've read. A must read not just for transportation nerds.

Pop Cesspool offers up a little MJ-related history lesson.

Young & Hungry gets Taylor Gourmet owner talking about picking a second location for his deli shop.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

WMATA goes on to state: "Trains are single-tracking, or taking turns sharing one track between the Forest Glen and Silver Spring Metrorail stations. Red Line Riders can expect significant delays along the line, especially in the area of the incident. Delays are expected to be 30 minutes or more."

4:52 Update: WMATA says via Twitter that the person struck has died. They were apparently on the tracks intentionally.

4:58 p.m. Update: Angela Gates, a Metro spokesperson tells City Desk of the incident: "[The pedestrian] died at the scene. I believe we have video in our control center. We are able to see what happens. Transit police are asking anyone who did witness it to call them at 202-962-1792. We still have emergency personnel out there. They still have to do an investigation, talk to witnesses that are still there."

Metro is single tracking around at and around that stop throughout rush hour. Expect 30 minute delays or more.

5:08 p.m. Update: Dust causes havoc on Metro! Just got this alert:

"FEMS is reports a small fire located at 4500 Central Avenue N.E. at the Benning Rd Metro Station. FEMS reports it is smoke coming from a pole that holds up the signs that gives information to Metro riders. Update Transit police confirmed it was only dust on the pole and no service has been disrupted."

"They have been getting hate-filled telephone messages about whether or not Fernandez, a mother of six, was a legal immigrant.

Her family gathered outside her Hyattsville apartment Wednesday. A crying woman who identified herself as Ana's sister said the accusations aren't true.

'Right now, the whole family is in pain. She was here legally, and all her children are legal. They were born here.'

She says she's grateful for the genuine expressions of sympathy, but has a message for the people who have been making the harassing calls.

'We all work, OK? And we're going to get through this.'"

WTOP reporter Kate Ryan writes in to Loose Lips with more details of the hate calls:

"Ana Fernandez' family tells me specifically that the calls accuse them of 'using the crash' to gain legal status for Ana. Again, the woman identifying herself as Ana's sister (and Ana's daughter Evelyn) tell me that not only was Ana legal, but that all six kids were born here."

Fernandez's family had been the focus of a lot of official sympathy. Yesterday, Councilmember Jim Graham, who is the chairman of the Metro Board, said he had her family in mind when he pushed for a $250,000 emergency relief fund.

(Via DCist)

The one thing you don't mess around with in a tragedy is the body count. But yesterday morning during a press conference on the metro crash, Mayor Adrian Fenty did just that. Even though Metro and the Fire Department had confirmed that nine passengers had died in the Red Line accident, Fenty overruled those officials and confused everyone. Fenty decided presumably on his own that in fact only seven were confirmed dead.

Shortly after the press conference, the body count rose back to nine.

City Desk tried to figure out the discrepency yesterday. Was it a matter of government sources getting ahead of themselves? Was it simply a matter of confusion at the crash scene? Today, the Washington Post published a story which reveals the source of the mix up: Fenty.

The Post reports:

"The confusion over the number of casualties -- even as Fenty stood with Metro officials at the news conference -- emerged as a particular sore spot. A Metro source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said officials were debating whether they should count those dead people who had not been pulled from the wreckage, and Fenty apparently decided that he should not.

'It indicates that we're not really on top of it if we can't count to nine,' said Tony Bullock, senior vice president of Washington-based Ogilvy Government Relations, who was press secretary to Anthony A. Williams (D) when Williams was mayor.

Fenty said in an interview that he was using 'an abundance of caution' in releasing information and that he might have overdone it. 'Obviously, there's always things that could have been done differently,' he said."

*photo by Darrow Montgomery.

Councilmember Jim Graham, who is chairman of the Metro Board, just called in to report a few things to City Desk regarding yesterday's Metro crash. Graham mentioned that the board's $250,000 relief fund for the Metro crash victims' families. He emphasized that this is not hush money.

"We wanted to have this immediately," Graham explains. "We know there are probably going to be significant legal actions."

Graham says that one of the inspirations for the relief fund came from the circumstances involving one of the victims---Ana Fernandez, who left behind six children. The Examiner notes that she lived in Hyattsville and had resided in the area for the past 10 years. She worked evenings as a part-time housekeeper. Graham says: "We don't know how many more are like that. Those needs came to my attention today....And now there's emergency relief."

Graham says that reps from El Salvador's embassy have reached out to the Fernandez family as has Mayor Adrian M. Fenty.

Graham says the issues with the aging train cars has been a longstanding issue. "We have talked about it repeatedly," he explains. "This is a significant number of cars. Within the next two days, we're going to be talking about more of our options. We also have a regular board meeting [on] Thursday."

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Confirms nine fatalities, the final count. "As a government and as a city" there are only four people whose identities have been confirmed.

Three of the four are residents of the District of Columbia. One lived in Hyattsville. Fenty contacted three of the four families personally. Says can't imagine the "horror and disbelief" of the families.

Fire department has completed its work as the lead agency. Debbie Hersman and the NTSB will now become the lead agency in this matter. Fenty thanks the feds for making all kinds of resources available.

Next up at the mic is D.C. fire Chief Dennis Rubin. He says that fire and EMS and various agencies have done an "absolutely incredible job" of doing their thing. Highlights---timeline begins at 5 pm, had units on location within six minutes. "Obvious this was going to be a major national event." Then they did coordination with inbound agencies. First injury person was transported 21 minutes later; last person was transported 6 hours and 51 minutes later.

Command was transferred at 1 pm. Fifty-one people that fire department treated.

"We've been busy," says Rubin, noting that there've been other fire events over this period.

Rubin, on an editorial comment here, handles himself pretty well in these moments. He has stumbled in a lot of ways since taking over the fire department but does well in front of the press.

Fenty back at the mic, saying that a grand total of eight of the nine fatalities have been identified. Two of them were David F. Wherley, Jr., former commanding general, Joint Force Headquarters, District of Columbia National Guard, and his wife Ann. Fenty said of David F. Wherley: "As fine a public servant, dedicated to the United States of America" as you'll ever find. Military is in "complete shock," says Fenty.

Now it's Metro General Manager John B. Catoe on the spot: He's saying mostly procedural stuff, talking about handing over all information to NTSB and thanking fire department for quick response. Not much here.

Now it's Jim Graham, talking about the 2 pm meeting today. He's saying there'll be another meeting Thursday. First specific action is that there's an amergency hardship relief fund and dedicated $250,000 to the kitty. It's for responding to immediate human needs. Graham says that it's not about a settlement. Will be "refining" this matter in the coming days. Also, statement: We are aggressively seeking to replace the 1000-series rail cars, which were purchased between 1974 and 1978. Also calling on the feds to make good on the commitment of $150 million per year for capital expenditures. Capital needs remain substantial, high hopes that in FY '10 budget the feds keep up funding.

Up now is Debbie Hersman, who has been easily the most interesting and informative speaker at these events. Hersman expresses condolences, sends out prayers to those who remain hospitalized. Nineteen NTSB personnel are on the case trying to determine what caused the accident.

Hersman now going into some thank-you moments for other instrumentalities that have been doing a "great job" and so on. Standard bureaucratic stuff here.

Teams have been out today collecting evidence. Summary of the work here: Track group, working closely with FBI, checking locations of the track, equipment, damage to the equipment. They're seeking an outline of what the crash looked like.

Hersman says the crash occurred on a curve, not a straightaway. It's a one-degree curve. Track speed limited to 59 mph. Feds are working to determine exact point of derailment. Once they're able to move the trains, they may be able to determine exact location of derailment.

Team is working to preserve records and collect perishable evidence. Majority of our team has been out on scene putting information together. Will need time to go through those records. Operation of the train---documentation of some of the control surfaces....now she's talking about stuff that I have no idea about, something about a dial, toggle switch in the on position. All relates to whether it was in automatic mode or manual mode---OK, I get that.

Toggle switch, dial and master controller confirm to NTSB that the train was in automatic mode. Hersman addresses braking issues---emergency mushroom was found in a depressed condition---it was pressed in. The "mushroom" she's talking about here must be the little switchy thing that hits the emergency brake.

Have conducted some interviews and Metro's ops center about the striking train's operator. The original hire date was January of '07. Was hired as a bus driver. She started training as a train operator in January '09 and started driving in March '09.

Hersman is going to be seeking all kinds of documents on the operator's employment history as well as the "72-hour history," to see whether the operator had sufficient rest-work balance. Will be looking for those records. Toxicology samples have been taken on the train operator and have been sent off for analysis.

Standing train---looking to see if there is usable data on the recorders. Pulling apart the married pair of the trains. WMATA is going to bring in a flatbed to pull stuff apart.

Striking train---Train 112---they're looking at the lead car, which sustained extensive damage. Fifty feet of the 75 feet in that car were lost to the accident. That is, two-thirds of the survivable space was gone because of the impact.

Cars and their age: Average age of Metro fleet is 19.3 years old. How compare to other transit operations: Metro ranks 6th among 15 transit agencies in terms of car age. 1000-series cars comprise 300 cars of Metro's 1115-car fleet.

Now she's going into all the other series, and I've totally lost her. 192, 50000, 2 million, whatever. We'll get those details later.

Accident sequence: There was a train at Ft. Totten. Were servicing the platform. The struck train was waiting on the tracks as a result. The striking train---there was a report that there was an announcement that there was a train ahead and then the striking train started again. Looking into that, says Hersman.

Know that the community is anxious to get service back. Track is safe.

Hersman appreciates support from city and other people too. Including Sal Army, which has helped with water and stuff. Also appreciates people in the neighborhood. Look forward to wrapping up this part of the investigation.

Now taking questions:

Question is about trains reported two months past due on brake service.

Hersman has seen reports to that effect and will review records. Interested in looking at those records, but interested in looking at all of those records. Just in first 24 hours of investigation.

Question: What implications of the aging of the fleet has to the rest of the system.

Hersman says agency has no position on that. Will work closely with WMATA if NTSB finds something that is an acute safety problem.

Question: Is the location of the fatalities and whether they were in the striking or struck car.

Hersman says it's premature to comment on that.

Question: NTSB's request for texting records and the like.

Hersman says hard to say. Not really sure exactly what the point is on this question, though Hersman is saying that operators of vehicles and the like should not be texting or talking on cell phones and the like.

Question: Missed it.

Hersman is responding to the question, but I don't know what the question was, so can't really figure out what to type here.

Question: What OCC might have seen displayed about the location and position of the trains in the system.

Hersman says hasn't gotten with her people on this just yet. Says they will provide additional factual information when it's available.

Fenty now back in front, celebrating the accomplishments of the first responders to this calamity. Talks about the "heroic job" of all these responders. Fenty is not so great in situations like this. Nor is he terrible. He just doesn't project the image of a feeling person. A bit robotic. He gets all the information out there, so that's good. He covers all the bases like a good mayor, including crediting the front-line workers and nodding to the feds and other agencies that have assisted.

HOWEVER: When it comes to shifting to a higher civic and emotional gear, Fenty just doesn't have the equipment to go there.

Burgess, on his way to U Street and planning to change trains at Fort Totten, describes climbing over the rubble in the smoke-filled car, seeing sky, losing his shoes, and trying to dislodge a teenager whose leg appeared to be broken. A roommate picked him up in a cab after the crash.

After all of it, Burgess says Metro's still the safest way to get around D.C. "but from now on I'll be sitting in the middle car of the train where, hopefully, this will never happen again."