Ciao, D.C.  Hope you’re staying warm & enjoying the recession!  Now, some “news”:

*Oh noez! Barista at the U & 16th Starbucks shoots self in leg, accidentally.

*More oh noez! Nathaniel R. Mines, Jr., a councilman in Fairmount Heights, stands accused of having impersonated a police officer. The Post reports:

…he was arrested outside a crowded dance early Saturday with a gun and bulletproof vest, police radio and several law enforcement badges.

Turns out he wasn’t just playing dress-up: Mines actually seems to think he’s the police commissioner. (His first arrest for impersonating an officer came in ’96.)

*Also in Prince George’s County: NBC Washington reports the release of a PG Police dashboard-cam video that “shows officers John Wynkoop and Scott Wilson beating and pepper-spraying a Latino driver last October. The officers can also be heard mocking the driver’s accent on the tape.” The officers are suspended and an investigation underway.

*14th & You examines the remaking of U Street’s intersections.

*Bummed that you missed West School’s Monday Family Reading Night & Pajama Party? Bum no more! The snow pushed it back to tomorrow night.

Photograph by ChrisB in SEA.