News Bullets, no man is an island, Wednesday;

Good morning. Could be another festering mess of gross outside today, we'll see.

Working on a new series, I can't promise it'll be daily, but it might be. Since I've pushed a lot of the news analysis and such over to the other site, I can use this space for other things, such as personal peeves and lest we forget, cursing. Anyhow, I'm going to start compiling a list of all of the various things that people hate about DC with a bit of a blurb about if it's warranted or not. Essentially a watered down version of the "Eye on" series I tried to start, but realized I don't have enough time to do properly.

Anyways, look for the first post later today, time permitting. Onwards and upwards to the news of the day.

Metro cannot multitask, delays awesome Smartrip changes. By awesome, I mean features that should have been implemented from the beginning. Think about how nice it would be to have bus and rail passes on your Smartrip. Think about the ability to have it refill automatically, or to add funds over the Internet. Well, those features were supposed to arrive in 2005, but were pushed back. Metro insisted they would be ready by the end of this year, but they've been pushed back to the end of 2010. Instead, Metro insists they have had to focus on changes urged by the federal government.

Progress on outsourced Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. The National Capital Planning Commission has approved a new security plan around the site of the to be constructed Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial. That's nice, but what I had forgotten about this was that the statute of King is being made in China. There was a big hubub about this a few years ago when the decision was made. Perhaps we can ship China a memorial to the Tiananmen Square tank guy.

More people eligible for H1N1 vaccines. If you have an underlying health problem (this is vague, ask your doctor for details), you can probably get the swine flu vaccine in DC. Likely expect long lines and panicked people. Not responsible for any zombification or other potential side effects as a result of vaccination. In all seriousness it's probably a good idea.

DC full of single, depressed assholes says U.S. Census. The Post has word that the number of single households in the District has accelerated greatly. Demographers are pointing to various causes for this, ranging from DC's attraction of young, selfish rich yuppies who don't care to live with others, and society's growing acceptance of young, selfish, rich yuppies who choose to live alone. Given the recession it's actually a bit surprising to see this, I'd figure there would be more "my accountant told us we should shack up" scenarios, and a whole lot more people turning to group houses. However, for most of the people who would be able to, or would consider living alone, there is still a wealth of jobs available.

DCHA gave contracts to friends of Fenty, including Keith Lomax. Remember earlier in the year when Fenty was in hot water for letting his friend Keith Lomax drive his city-owned SUV? Well, lo and behold Lomax also received part of those $82 million in under-the-table contracts. If you're a bit confused by the whole contracts matter, you aren't alone. I've got a big summary here, though there are still many unanswered questions. One question I do have an answer to, where Fenty went to undergrad. The answer: Oberlin. Yeah, I know, right?

Finally, my favorite Tweet of the day. @dcfireems: update - 5201 Conn Av NW - around midnite - 'bug bomb' explosion - no fire no injury (except displaced bugs) - damage $25K DC F&EMS clear 2a