News Bullets, "ultimate authority" Thursday;

Generally I'm not a big "gossip" fan, though there was a period of time where I watched Gossip Girl, but that's neither here nor there. BUT, I couldn't pass this one up. I'm sure this will be all over the blag-o-sphere this morning, but the Salahis are hosting a party at Pure Nightclub. (Hat tip to Danielle for pointing me to the article on Gawker.)

Gawker bills the event as the first must-crash party of 2010, though the mere existence of the event is a train wreck enough, further crashing may be unnecessary.

If the Salahis need a party promoter for this, perhaps they should hook up with Carlos Allen, a fellow alleged party crasher.

And yes, sadly, I recognize that I am only continuing to make the Salahis mildly relevant.

Amanda Mahnke sues Metro for $30 million. If you recall, Mahnke was struck by a Metrobus in Dupont last September. The accident occurred at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Florida Avenue. Mahnke was jogging, and had a walk signal when she was struck by a Metrobus traveling East on Florida Ave. The bus driver, 43 year-old Carla Proctor, had a record of several previous accidents. Proctor was later fired by WMATA, but Mahnke's lawyers say it was too little, too late. They are asking $10 million in actual damages and $20 million in punitive damages. Honestly, I hope she gets every penny. According to the Fox5 piece, Mahnke had a "fractured skull, epidural hematoma, broken clavicle, fractured ribs, collapsed lung, pelvis fracture, traumatic brain injury..." Many of these are permanent injuries that will have lasting effects.

Independent observers nearly struck by Metro train. Looks like I'll still have plenty of material to keep the Price of Safety project going. A team of observers from the Tri-State Oversight Committee, the independent agency tasked with safety oversight of Metro, were nearly struck by a train near the Braddock Road station. This incident is merely but one of a number of safety violations identified by the TOC. Here's what I find interesting:

Metro officials acknowledged in a statement released Wednesday night that the train that nearly hit the inspectors was traveling too fast.

"The policy is that the train operators are to slow the trains as they approach a work zone," Michael Taborn, Metro's chief safety officer, said in the statement. "That policy was violated and an investigation was launched immediately."

Metro officials said the agency has increased training and oversight of workers and plans to set up a safety task force and establish new worker safety rules.

I feel like I'll need scientific notation to keep track of how many times we've heard this. We heard this after a track worker was struck in 2005. We heard this after track workers were struck again and again in 2006. We heard this after track workers were struck in 2009. Every single "metro official" who has been involved with anything from 2004-Present needs to go. The Metro board fired Richard White amid all sorts of "allegations of mismanagement" and the fact that a lot of escalators were broken. Of course, there were likely all sorts of other political reasons to that firing, but good God.

Fire, body found near Rock Creek Parkway. DC Fire and EMS responded to a fire early this morning in Rock Creek Park. While responding, crews also located a body. According to DC F&EMS the body did not appear to be connected to the fire. The fire was due to electrical conduit work inside the Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge over the Rock Creek Parkway. The body was located at the foot of the bridge. Sadly I imagine the body may be that of a homeless person who was living under the bridge. The whole thing has snarled traffic in Georgetown, so expect people to be pissed off about a body being recovered during rush hour.

As usual, Members of Congress are asshats. Two Senators and 37 House Members are siding with Bishop Harry Jackson to bring gay marriage in the District to the ballot. This argument has been heard over and over again, and it seems unlikely that the courts will overrule the DC Board of Elections, the DC Council and the Mayor.

"As members of the District's ultimate legislative body, {We} are concerned about the extent of the District's delegated legislative authority, the preservation of Congress's constitutional authority, and the interpretation of home rule. {We} also support the right of the District electors to directly participate in the legislative process."

Remember folks, be sure to direct all complaints about potholes, trash, parking tickets, DMV issues--ALL OF IT to these Members of Congress. Yes, the workload will end up on some poor interns desk, but hey, maybe it means the coffee for an legislative assistant gets cold. However, since they are our "ultimate legislative body" they should know about all these problems.