An advisory from DDOT is out today about off-peak lane closures at the Douglass Bridge over the next few months: "The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) throughout the coming two months will continue its highly publicized repair and restoration of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge (also known as the South Capitol Street Bridge) and the adjoining South Capitol Street corridor. [...] The next phase of construction work includes railing installations, touch-up painting of railings, bolt torqueing, steel repairs and sidewalk repairs."

On Dec. 6 at 11 am, the city council will be having a hearing on a bill first created way back in January: the "Taxation Without Representation Federal Tax Pay-Out Message Board Installation Act of 2007" (Bill 17-0028), co-introduced by council members Barry, Brown, and Schwartz. This bill would "provide for the installation of LED Message Boards on the outside front wall of [t]he John A. Wilson Building and the new baseball stadium to display the dollar amount of federal taxes paid by District of Columbia residents." At both locations, the bill says, the sign "shall be large enough for the public to easily read, and should be designed and placed in a location so as not to deter from the architectural beauty of the exterior." I can't wait to hear the debate over this one, though perhaps the lengthy delay in getting it before the committee of the whole is telling.

The Examiner today has a piece on the planned cleanup of contaminants at 23 I Street--and we can take a moment to ponder where the story idea might have come from (I say as I point you to my "Environmental Cleanup at 23 I Street" post from a few days ago--someday newspapers will stop treating blogs as freebie no-credit tip lines). The story headline is "Ballpark May Be Contaminated", which doesn't actually have anything to do with the story because even the story itself says that the ballpark already had its environmental cleanup, to the tune of $14 million. And the photo accompanying the story is of 70/100 I, not the 23 I Street site (which still has a Wendy's and a towing company on it).