DISTRICT BRIEFING

Friday, March 21, 2008

METRO

Nationals SmarTrip Cards Go on Sale Today

Metro will start selling its commemorative Washington Nationals SmarTrip cards today. They will be available online, at http://www.wmata.com/nationals; at Metro sales offices at the Metro Center and Pentagon stations; Metro headquarters; the Northern, Western, Landover, Royal Street and Four Mile Run Metrobus divisions; and regional transit stores.

There are two designs: a red card with the "W" Nationals logo, and one that depicts the new stadium. The cards cost $5, and riders must add value to pay for services.

Metro employees will also sell the cards at the Navy Yard rail station at 11 a.m. March 28 and before Nationals games March 29 and 30 and April 7, 9, 12 and 13.

-- Lena H. Sun

MOUNT PLEASANT

Fire Reignites at Church Damaged in Blaze

Smoke began wafting from the rubble inside Meridian Hill Baptist Church yesterday, a week after a fire at an apartment building next door spread to the church in the city's first five-alarm blaze in nearly three decades.

The fire rekindled briefly, said Alan Etter, spokesman for D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services. Crews quickly extinguished it.

The fire March 13 displaced about 200 people who were living at 3145 Mount Pleasant St. NW. The cause has not been determined.

-- Petula Dvorak

PURIM

Parade, Party, Carnival to Mark Jewish Holiday

The District is marking the Jewish holiday of Purim with a parade today, a masquerade party tomorrow and a carnival Sunday.

On Purim, which is today, Jews are commanded to read the biblical Book of Esther, which tells the story of the Jews' triumph in ancient Persia over an enemy who plotted their destruction more than 2,000 years ago.

Ohev Sholom, an Orthodox synagogue in Northwest Washington, is organizing the parade, which starts at 1 p.m. on Bataan Street NW. Tomorrow night, the Kurlander Program for Gay & Lesbian Outreach and Engagement will hold a "masquerade and mischief" party for those 21 and older at the D.C. Jewish Community Center from 9 p.m. until midnight. On Sunday, the Sixth & I synagogue in Chinatown will hold "Esther Sunday" from 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Participants can make hamantaschen, the traditional Purim cookies, listen to songwriter Lisa Baydush and play carnival games.

-- Michelle Boorstein

FIRE DEPARTMENT

Emergency Worker Hurt by Hit-and-Run Driver

A worker with D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services was injured yesterday after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in Georgetown, authorities said.

The emergency worker was clipped by a blue Chrysler minivan in the 3300 block of Q Street about 2:30 p.m., police and fire officials said. The medic, who was not identified by authorities, was injured in the hip and leg and was taken to Washington Hospital Center, said Alan Etter, a fire department spokesman.

The worker was responding to a call at a home and had returned to the medic unit when the accident occurred, Etter said. Witnesses told authorities that the driver briefly stopped and then sped away, he said.

-- Clarence Williams