News Bullets, no artificial exfoliants Thursday;

This is the best thing ever. The City Paper reenacted the brawl in the Washington Post newsroom, with hilarious results. Mike DeBonis is a natural in the role of Henry Allen. I firmly find myself in the camp of "Henry Allen should be made Executive Editor."



Metro urgently needs funds to repair their broken, poorly thought-out infrastructure. Yesterday's power failure has left Metro in a terrible position. According to the Post, the transit agency needs $14 million immediately to replace aging power units, including the one that failed yesterday. The unit that blew cannot be repaired, leaving the agency's headquarters with only one power unit to run everything, including rail operations. Metro officials were unable to explain why there is no backup system in place. It's extremely unclear why the entire rail system has one point of failure at their headquarters. Seems like extremely poor system design to me. Also, the fact that a power failure at the downtown office takes their website offline is just ridiculous. It's a must in the information age to have a backup off-site.

Barricade situation ends in arrest in Northeast. Daniel Higgs, 28, was arrested following a 2-hour stand-off in the 4600 block of Hunt Place, NE. The incident occurred around 10 AM when police attempted to serve an arrest warrant. WJLA-TV reports that the MPD SWAT team rescued a woman and a baby who were in the home at the time.

Mary Cheh wants to ban a whole bunch of chemicals. Can Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) run for mayor? I think that would provide a lot of much needed entertainment. I don't doubt that Cheh is an educated and capable person. Not for a second. I think she does an excellent job representing Ward 3, whose constituents can be concerned if artificial exfoliant beads are harming marine life. Cheh's bill would ban a number of chemicals proven to be harmful to humans or the environment. The Councilmember insists there are plenty of healthy alternatives available, and “they can be just as clean and have just as significant an exfoliant experience.” Sometimes it's difficult to believe that she serves on the same Council as Marion Barry. The disparate priorities in different parts of our (rather small) city can be jarring.

Sloth bear at the National Zoo dies. Merlin, a 27-year-old sloth bear died after a brief illness. This comes on the heels of the deaths of two rare ornx. Anyone else remember that spate of deaths at the zoo several years ago? Back when a half-dozen or so animals died in a few months. Ah, looks like that was in 2003.

U.S. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) wants an elected District Attorney for the District. Norton believes that D.C. residents should elect their prosecutor, as is the case in most large cities. In 2002 voters approved a referendum calling for a locally elected AG. Norton has introduced a bill in Congress to make the change.