D.C. Public Schools students for the first time are being asked for citizenship information to enroll in after-school programs. (Marvin Joseph - THE WASHINGTON POST) An odd news release issued today by Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s office highlighted concerns about new questions the D.C. Public Schools are asking about the citizenship of those enrolling in after-school programs.

The release came just before noon from the D.C. Office on Latino Affairs and was titled “Citizenship Requirements for DCPS Afterschool Programs.” It suggested the impeding reversal of a new requirement that parents must present proof of citizenship to enroll in this year’s after-school programs. That, as anyone familiar with immigration politics in the District knows, is a politically hazardous suggestion.

But there were some red flags in the release. It had factual errors, such as referring to State Superintendent of Education Hosanna Mahaley as “DCPS superintendent,” and DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson as “Chancellor for Office of the State Superintendent of Education.” The language in a statement attributed to Latino Affairs Director Roxana Olivas was, to be charitable, less than coherent. (“These requirements possess a president danger for public offices,” it started.)

Bay State regulators backed off their anti-Uber stance Wednesday. (Linda Davidson - THE WASHINGTON POST) Back on Friday, I shared news that Uber, the high-tech luxe car dispatch service, had run into a spot of trouble with Massachusetts regulators. Bay State authorities questioned whether Uber’s smartphone-based GPS metering system met the state’s standards of commerce.

On Tuesday, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick alerted the company’s Boston-area patrons to the issue, saying it was the company’s “strong belief that the technology and service we offer does not violate existing law and regulations.” That was followed by a flurry of angry tweets and e-mails to important people up that way, and lo and behold, the Commonwealth changed its tune on Wednesday.

A statement from Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration announced that because GPS metering devices are in fact currently being evaluated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Uber’s system is “currently not out of compliance with state law and free to continue operating.”

Advocates say more buried lines would prevent mass outages after big storms. (Gary Cameron - Reuters) Mayor Vincent C. Gray made it official today: A blue-ribbon committee will examine whether more power lines in the city should be buried.

The Gray administration said last month that such a committee was coming, and a mayoral order dated today establishes the Mayor’s Power Line Undergrounding Task Force.

Gray (D) spoke out early and often after the June derecho storm saying Pepco and the city should consider more widespread burial as a “game-changer” to prevent the inconvenience and economic losses caused by widespread power outages. Buried power lines are less susceptible to weather-related damage than overhead lines, but they are more costly to install and can be more difficult to fix when they do fail.

The panel is being co-chaired by City Administrator Allen Y. Lew and Pepco Holdings CEO Joseph M. Rigby and is composed of various high-level city officials, the chairwoman of the D.C. Public Service Commission, representatives of other utilities with overhead lines, two city residents and the people’s counsel — a public attorney who represents ratepayer interests in utility regulation matters.

The scene on G Street NW after Wednesday morning’s shooting. (Jonathan Newton - WASHINGTON POST) D.C. experienced a rare and bizarre act of what appears to be politically motivated violence Wednesday. Authorities say Floyd Lee Corkins II, a 28-year-old Herndon resident, “walked into the Washington headquarters of the Family Research Council and shot a security guard before the wounded guard and others wrestled him to the floor and subdued him until police arrived,” the Post reports. The FRC is outspoken on social conservative issues, and Corkins reportedly made comments critical of its agenda. Officials also said he “entered the lobby carrying a satchel, with a bag from a Chick-fil-A restaurant inside.” Other details are scarce, but Corkins was known to volunteer at a gay-and-lesbian community center in the city and have a deep interest in Friedrich Nietzsche.

In other news:

Linda Cropp has no regrets on how she handled the baseball stadium deal (WAMU-FM)

Help keep Homicide Watch from going dark for a year (Kickstarter, WJLA-TV, DCist)

Basis D.C., charter school “with a distinctive brand of academic rigor,” opens its doors this month (Post)

Activists lament “deplorable living conditions” at D.C. jail (Informer)

Which outsider will be D.C.’s mayoral savior this time? (Loose Lips)

Massachusetts has nixed Uber’s use of a GPS-based metering system. (Linda Davidson - The Washington Post) UPDATED 8/16

Since Uber came into D.C. in December and quickly butted heads with taxi regulators, the upscale app-based car service has protested that the District’s aggressive treatment is an anomaly. Aside from some brief troubles in California, they’ve argued, Uber has largely avoided regulatory scrutiny in the more than a dozen other cities it serves.

But now Uber’s run into a new spot of regulatory trouble, up the Eastern seaboard. Six months after the D.C. Taxicab Commission ticketed an Uber driver in a sting operation, the city of Cambridge, Mass., did the same, and a state agency has since ruled its metering system illegal, threatening Uber’s operations in the greater Boston area.

In late May, Cambridge officials took an Uber ride, then afterward ticketed the driver for operating an unlicensed livery service and using a unlicensed measuring device.

Uber appealed the latter charge to the Massachusetts Division of Standards, arguing that Uber’s GPS-based metering system is sufficiently accurate. Last week, however, the agency rejected Uber’s appeal.