Take Your Banana Peels to the Shoreham: Ah, composting. That great pastime of hippies, gardeners, and…one of D.C.’s most luxurious hotels! The Washington Business Journal reports that the Omni Shoreham has agreed to pay the city $15,000 as a penalty for violating air quality regulations. The fine could have topped $200,000, but the hotel instead agreed to compost its meat, bones, dairy, fish, poultry, vegetable products, breads, grains and pastas at an off-site facility for the next year. And, according to the consent decree filed with D.C. Superior Court, the hotel can’t use its involuntary green behavior to woo customers, either: Any promotional material touting the initiative must mention that it’s been undertaken as part of a settlement. +2

Sunday in the Library with Martin: People who show up for D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells‘ rally to protest the end of Sunday hours at the MLK library might find themselves getting shushed by a librarian: Mayor Vince Gray announced today that the closure, a result of city budget cuts, had been rescinded. Gray and Wells will be on hand to greet patrons when the library opens at 1:00. Word to the wise: Don’t linger too long with the politicos, because library hours are over at 5:00, a scant four hours later. +2

Closed Skies: It seems D.C.’s not really a business class kinda town after all: Open Skies, the all-business class boutique airline that flies between North America and Paris, is dropping Washington from its route map. Luckily, we can still travel by Bolt Bus to New York, which the luxury airline still serves. -1

Real Wannabes Wanted: Attention, telegenic and irritating twentysomethings! Anyone interested in sharing a house with a dozen or so of your most telegenic irritating cogenerationists, and being filmed while you’re at it, please show up at Adams Morgan’s Town Tavern this weekend: MTV’s venerable The Real World is staging a casting call. The granddaddy of reality shows still hasn’t announced where its next season will transpire, but given the historically miserable performance of reality TV that’s set in Washington, we’re assuming it’ll be somewhere else. Possibly somewhere else very, very far away! -1

Yesterday’s Needle rating: 65 Today’s score: +2 Friday Bonus Points: +2 Today’s Needle rating: 69