It’s pretty garbagey out there today. Fog this morning, thunderstorms later. Our last day above 60°F for a while. Enjoy it while you can.

Housing Market in Recovery?

The Examiner thinks that housing market is stabilizing, maybe even recovering, at least in NoVA and DC. The median sale for a house in December was $425,000, up 4% over November, but we’re still down 2% year-over-year. So, relax just a bit, home-owners, it may be okay, after all. No need to freak.

Bank Robbery Turns Into Major Mystery

This is really pretty bizarre. Usually, when a bank’s robbed, they know right away. However, yesterday’s heist at the Wachovia near the FBI HQ took place at 9:30am, but wasn’t noticed until after 3:00pm. A man dressed as a Brinks security guard walked right into the vault, packed up $370,000, and walked right up. Proof that when you look like you belong, you can get away with, well, $370,000. They figured it out when the real guard showed up that afternoon.

Oops.

New Metro Cars? Maybe…

Metro’s looking at a brand new design for their rail cars, a drastic change from their current design. So much of a break, even, that the new cars wouldn’t link up with the older cars. It’s likely that these cars won’t go into service until 2013 at the earliest, and would likely run along the Orange Line extension out toward Dulles Airport. Metro is waiting to hear about how the Federal funding for the extension will work, but will then be ordering 128 new cars across the two phases, if things work out monetarily.

Two Healthcare Bits

The Whitman-Walker Clinic will be expanding services in the DC area, as well as doing a major overhaul on its social service programs. It will also be launching a public awareness campaign to the socio-economic groups hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The former chief pharmacist for St. Elizabeth’s somehow managed to steal $95,000 in drugs from the hospital. The husband/wife thief team sold about $236,000 worth of stolen medication in combination form St. Elizabeth’s and Kaiser Permanente. Interestingly enough, his wife was sentences to six months in prison, while he faces generally between 24 and 30 months. No idea why the sentences are so different.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs