Briefly noted, Friday;

Metro doesn't open doors. Yesterday members of the WMATA Board of Directors held a conference call to discuss the closing of three stations over the weekend. Reporters from the Washington Examiner and the Washington Post were denied access to listen to the call. The Examiner has a write-up, and experts are saying such a meeting would be a no-no under federal and state laws. WMATA says not so fast, they are accountable to no one.

"None of the federal, Maryland, Virginia or D.C. laws apply to us," said Metro Vice Chairman Peter Benjamin. "That's the way it is."

That's a winning attitude, Mr. Benjamin. And you wonder why people lose faith in Metro's promise of openness and transparency. Even if technically the letter of the law doesn't cover WMATA's conference calls, why not open it up to reporters? I guess I forgot the first rule of WMATA, you don't talk about WMATA.

Pedestrian hit by Metrobus identified as Amanda Mahnke, a House staffer. The Post has a good write up about the woman who was struck by the Metrobus yesterday. Still no more details about the accident itself. It seems the story has been settled on the fact that the bus was heading eastbound on Florida Avenue when it stuck Mahnke. The Post declines to speculate whether she was in a crosswalk or not, or who had the right of way. It'll be interesting to compare the actual report to all of the initial speculation. At this point it's too early to blame WMATA, even though we'd all love to.

Mt. Pleasant beginning large-scale solar panel deployment. Uh, you'd think a project of this scale in a neighborhood with residents who are politically active would have been publicized a bit better. I hadn't heard anything about this until seeing a piece in the Washington Business Journal this morning. Forty-eight homes in Mt. Pleasant will have solar panels installed, reducing energy consumption and pollution. I'm surprised this hasn't been all over the blagosphere.

There might be widescale cheating in DC Public Schools. Anomalies have come up in standardized testing at many DC public schools. A probe found students' incorrect answers had been erased and replaced with correct answers, resulting in much higher test scores. Twenty-six public and charter schools may be involved, and a study was conducted by the test's publisher to determine if cheating was involved. District officials call the study's results "ultimately inconclusive," but refuse to release the report. The Post had requested the report under the Freedom of Information Act. DC Attorney General Peter Nickels claims the full report will be released. We'll see.

That's it folks, have a good holiday weekend.