• A Metrobus stand-off occurred when a driver refused to let a woman and her service animal board, because the driver didn't think the dog was a real service animal.
• Metro Transit Police is increasing their presence in the District's "trouble spots."
• Metro's taken to hiring a consultant to create a "business case" on its goal to provide mass transit.
• The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating three Metrorail accidents.
• If the government shuts down, Metro will keep running. But a shutdown could cost WMATA a "quarter million dollars" per day.
• Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell circumvented the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, getting Virginia's legislature to vote him powers to appoint a seat on the Metro Board of Directors.

In Metro Mixed News, Dulles Airport's Metro station will be underground after all. That saves pedestrians about 500 feet from the elevated station proposal, but adds $330 million to construction costs.

In Metro Good News, Yonathan Elias found himself on an empty Metro car, and videotaped himself "going crazy." As with all good YouTube videos, there is an auto-tuned remix. If that's not enough Metro music for you, Jason Mendelson is writing a song about each Metro station. If you're more of a movie person, you'll soon be able to rent a DVD at some Metro stations.

Weaver still probably has a long way to go. Yes, the D.C. Chamber of Commerce decided not to back Graham, either—but they went with Jeff Smith, another challenger. Still, the video's worth watching again, no matter who winds up winning the election:

Tune in to hear McKenna, whose column last week took note of Redskins GM Bruce Allen's newest role—season ticket pitchman. (Update: This post originally said you could see McKenna, but as he's advised in the comments, MASN has opted—perhaps wisely?—to take an audio feed only from him. You'll have to keep waiting for McKenna video.)

Metro Deputy Police Chief Mark Olson says reports of violence and disorderly conduct on the transit system are actually down this year. But trouble spots remain. Olson lists the District's most unruly transit hubs as Tenleytown/AU, Minnesota Avenue, Anacostia, Brookland-CUA and Fort Totten.

In related news: The Examiner reports that Metro's recent fare hike isn't doing enough to cover the rail system's budget shortfall:

The reason why Metro is in such straits is because it fell short of its ridership estimates in each of the first nine months in the current fiscal year, for a 9 percent ridership drop below expectations...

Perhaps they should start charging riders extra to watch all these "Metro Gladiators" in action.

Footage of the incident, released yesterday by McKenna's attorney, has now found its way onto YouTube, along with additional footage showing more revelery turned to chaos that night:

Ms. Cusick's employment suddenly became a problem after she allegedly flipped out at Rubin during a one-on-one meeting. Rubin goes so far as to say that she might have sexually harassed him. "I needed relief from this," Rubin said at one point and called the meeting "horrifying" and stated that "I was overwhelmed."  What was the sexual harassment? Cusick demanded to be involved in executive meetings and used the word "cocksucker." Cusick had problems with fire department managers and referred to them as cocksuckers and other bad words. Rubin did not investigate her charges, saying: "Well you know, I don't know how you'd investigate whether they're cocksuckers or not....I guess I could ask them if they suck dicks or not." Instead, he had Cusick removed from the department.

Second clip after the jump!

The Washington Mystics have been rotten throughout Johnson's run as team president, having finished in the bottom half of the WNBA's Eastern Conference all five seasons under her, and not winning even a single playoff game.

But Johnson has gotten a pretty free ride through all the on-court suckitude. She's hailed by the gay community for not pretending the grandstands ain't laden with lesbians, and, not coincidentally, she brought the Mystics back to the top of the league in attendance.

Perhaps the lack of criticism in the face of such lousiness let Johnson feel empowered to mock Creigh Deeds, the Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, as a stutterer during a fundraising appearance for Republican opponent Bob McDonnell. But she's finding out she's not bulletproof after all.

The incident was weeks ago, but she's still being compared all over to George Allen when he called that kid "Macaca" during a Senatorial campaign a few years ago, even though stutterers don't have enough advocates to make the noise that followed the Allen slur. The Washington Post wrote about it today.

Surely the legs of the story have something to do with the novelty of Johnson, a black Democrat, supporting a white Republican, McDonnell, in one of only two gubernatorial races in the country this year.

But there's also the youtube clip of Johnson's fake stutter, and that shows her to be every bit the naive, heartless jerk that Allen looked like. It's the kind of moment that ain't really worth apologizing for, unless you can come up with a way to apologize for being a naive, heartless jerk.

But Johnson, who hangs out with the Virginia horsey set, has now given one of those non-apology apologies, issuing a statement that she's sorry only "for any offense he, or others, may have taken.” That's a tack Allen, and countless naive, heartless jerks before him, already tried. It never works. So now the Mystics management, like the management of a lot of local teams in recent years, is gonna be hard to root for.

Watch (agog) as Bridges explains his emergency back-up plan to his 3-year-old daughter Rosie: "Sweetie, papa has a brilliant idea. He's going to save his theater company by inviting Barack Obama to come see his next play, called Am I Black Enough Yet? Isn't that brilliant?"

Viz:

Choice moment: an "outtake," toward the end, where Bridges tries to get wee Rosie to pimp the Charter website. She's so over it that she won't even wave bye-bye when he finally gives up.

Backstory: Charter lost one of the cast members for Quartet — a play that was already "a tough sell," according to Stezin. (It's not a comedy. It's "a low-key, thoughtful piece," and its musically-inspired structure is anything but orthodox.)

"Bad mojo started to pile up," Stezin says, and with every theater in town having trouble putting butts in seats, a postponement seemed the best thing for Quartet.

And as the company's leadership talked about replacements, they realized that Am I Black Enough Yet?, a 2007 hit, "wasn't just our best selling show last season — but our best-selling show ever," Stezin says.

And so, a revival. And, coming down the pipe: More episodes of Charter's serialized YouTube drama. And with any luck, a newly elected special guest and his family in the good seats.

"You can always dream," Stezin says. "We'd love to get the attention of somebody on the Obama campaign."

I kid, Don, I kid!