DC Mayor May Have Violated Campaign Finance Law; I-95/I-395 Improvements Slashed: Morning Links

Happy Wednesday, Washingtonians. We're well into the Dome of Heat, as some news outlets are calling it. Temperatures have gotten so high that the DC DMV is shifting car inspection hours to avoid having employees out during peak heat times of the day. Stay hydrated.

DC Mayor May Have Violated Campaign Limits: Washington Post reporter Nikita Stewart reviewed the campaign finance records of DC Mayor Vince Gray and found he may have accepted cash contributions that exceeded legal limits. DC law says that individual cash contributions cannot exceed $25, but the Post's investigation finds that Gray's campaign may have illegally exchanged cash for money orders, which carry a higher donation limit. Gray's campaign collected more than $56,000 in money order donations, largely from the city's taxi driver industry.

I-95/I-395 Transit Development Slashed: Kytja Weir at the Washington Examiner has some bad news for Virginia commuters. Officials decided to cut plans that would have added four bus rapid transit stations, new bus routes, and upgrades to Metro and the Virginia Railway Express. The plan also cut a revenue-generating high occupancy lane. Some officials say the plans were scaled back thanks to a lawsuit filed by Arlington County.

DC Wants Quieter Skies: The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority hired ITT Corporation, which recently moved its headquarters to Fairfax County, to help with making the city's skies quieter. NBC4 reports that the company will implement policies at Dulles and Reagan National airports.

Man Shot in Columbia Heights: Yesterday emergency services responded to a shooting on the corner of 15th and Columbia Streets, Northwest, just before 7 PM. Early reports indicate the shooting victim's wounds were not life threatening.

Area Borders Stores Close: The national bookseller Borders plans to close its remaining stores and liquidate its assets as it calls quits. "We were all working hard towards a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, eReader revolution, and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now," Borders Group president Mike Edwards said in a statement, the Washington Business Journal reports.

Tree Falls on Several People in Garfield Park: DC's Fire and EMS service tweeted yesterday that it responded to an emergency call involving a tree branch falling on several people yesterday afternoon in Capitol Hill's Garfield park. A spokesperson for DC emergency services said the tree branch injured "a 51-year-old man, a 17-year-old boy, and three children," all of whom were attending vacation Bible camp.

Briefly Noted: Greater Greater Washington offers up a unique take on Metro's map. . . . PG County wants to shut down dance venues, which have been linked to 61 homicides since 2005. . . . Apparently Tommy Wells is making good on his threat to repeal DC's online gambling law. . . . Loudoun County voted to move forward with the Dulles Rail proposal.

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Kay Steiger