Local Digest

-- Del Quentin Wilber

THE DISTRICT

Body found in park

D.C. police were called to Rock Creek Park near the parkway and Pennsylvania Avenue about 7:20 a.m. Thursday after Pepco crews working on an electrical fire discovered a man's body near the creek.

Officials were unable to offer much detail but said it did not look as though the body was connected to the fire. The man, said to be in his 30s, was found about 100 yards from the site of the fire, which was under the bridge at Pennsylvania and 26th Street NW, police said.

The body was taken to the D.C. medical examiner's office for an autopsy. Pepco officials said no customers were affected as the smoldering cables were replaced.

-- Keith L. Alexander

Bus victim sues

A congressional staffer who was hit and critically injured by a Metrobus near Dupont Circle in September is suing the transit agency for $30 million, alleging that Metro should have taken the driver off the road long before the crash.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Amanda Mahnke says Metro was negligent in allowing driver Carla A. Proctor, who had a history of accidents, to continue in her job.

Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said he could not comment on pending litigation.

Mahnke was walking east on Florida Avenue NW on Sept. 3 when she was struck. Proctor, whose bus was empty, had been involved in two other accidents on the job in recent years and received five traffic tickets last January, records show. She was fired in September. Metro investigators determined that both earlier accidents were preventable.

The lawsuit is asking for $10 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages.

-- Lisa Rein

VIRGINIA

Falls Church ruling

A Fairfax County Circuit Court judge has ordered that the City of Falls Church stop transferring surplus money from its water collection services to its general operating budget.

Circuit Court Judge R. Terrence Ney ruled Tuesday that Falls Church was violating its charter and Virginia's Constitution by transferring the money, which critics argued allowed Falls Church to unfairly subsidize low property tax rates for its homeowners by selling high-priced water. For decades, Falls Church has bought water from the Washington Aqueduct, operated by the Army Corps of Engineers, for sale beyond its boundaries, including areas such as Tysons Corner and Dunn Loring.

Falls Church officials have said that a series of federal laws controlling the aqueduct's water, and a 1959 agreement with the county, give the city exclusive rights to sell service in certain parts of Fairfax.

-- Derek Kravitz