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HAY-ADAMS TAKES LUXURY TO A NEW HEIGHT
After 82 years in service, the Hay Adams Hotel on Lafayette Square is reportedly nearly ready to add another floor to accommodate a restaurant. If plans are approved, the Hay Adams will offer what would easily be the best dining views over the White House, giving neighboring W a run for its money. The hotel already boasts an impressive view over the White House and onto the Mall from its position on the northern end of Lafayette Park.
The 145-room Hay Adams was purchased by BF Saul in 2006 for a reported $690,000 per room, and received a great PR boost when President-Elect Obama and family took up residence there in the weeks prior to inauguration. (DC Mud)
NTSB METRO CRASH HEARING BEGINS TOMORROW
Transit experts and officials are expected to gather this week for a federal hearing on the fatal June Metro train crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board will hear from investigators and Metro leaders during a three-day public hearing that begins Tuesday. The NTSB has headed a review into the cause of the crash in which a moving train slammed into another train stopped on the tracks between the Fort Totten and Takoma stations. (WTOP)
DC'S NATIONAL MERIT WINNERS AREN'T ALL FROM DC
Poor Washington D.C. Not only does it not have full representation in Congress but, it turns out, its residents don’t get full representation in the National Merit Scholarship Program either.
The academic scholarship program offers cash awards to high achieving students who are initially screened by their scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which is usually taken in the junior year of high school.
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Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which administers the program, says that the country’s top students win, though the test scores that make a student eligible are not the same in each state. (Washington Post)
POLE DANCING IN THE OLYMPICS?
For Japan's Mai Sato, watching all those gold medals being handed out in Vancouver is a bittersweet experience.
Sato knows the demands of being the best. In her world, blisters are the rule, bruises a way of life. And the training — five hours a day, five days a week.
The world champion in her sport, Sato is as athletic, dedicated and competitive as the Olympians representing their nations. And she thinks it's high time her discipline, too, got some real recognition. (MSNBC)
