Washington Area News Briefs

The length of a suspension will be based on the number of violations; those with five or more violations will have service cut off for four weeks.

MetroAccess is the transit agency's most expensive service. The average trip costs Metro about $38, and the base fare is $2.50 a ride. Ridership jumped about 20 percent last year. Since July, an average of 14 percent of all scheduled trips were no-shows or late cancellations. In March, there were 26,110 no-shows or late cancellations.

Under the old policy, service was suspended for two weeks for customers who had three no-shows or six late cancellations in a 30-day period.

Notice of the change in policy was sent to more than 22,000 customers, officials said.

-- Lena H. Sun

ENVIRONMENT

Bad News on Air Pollution

The American Lung Association's annual "State of the Air" report, which evaluates air pollution nationwide, gives most Washington area jurisdictions a grade of F for smog.

The report, released yesterday, ranked the Washington-Baltimore region as the 14th worst in the nation for smog, which is linked to ground-level ozone, and for short-term pollution by soot.

Those pollutants can be traced to automobiles, power plants and even small sources such as lawn mowers. They can irritate the lungs and -- on the worst days -- pose a health threat, especially for the very young and very old.

-- David A. Fahrenthold