Metro briefs

DISTRICT

Museum shooter’s care cost $55,000

Medical care for the 89-year-old man accused in June’s fatal shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has cost the D.C. Department of Corrections just over $55,000.

James von Brunn, a white supremacist, was shot once behind the right ear by a museum guard after Mr. von Brunn entered the museum and allegedly shot another guard. Mr. Von Brunn did not appear in court for months because of his injuries.

The cost of his medical care, $55,050, was released by the department in response to a Freedom of Information request by the Associated Press.

Mr. von Brunn is currently undergoing testing at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, N.C., to determine whether he is competent to stand trial.

Metro system testing new, brighter lighting

Metro is spending $38,000 on a pilot program to address a common complaint among its rail passengers: It’s stations are too dark.

The transit agency is testing a new bank of lights on the mezzanine level at one entrance of the Judiciary Square station. Officials said they chose that location because it’s one of the darker mezzanines in the rail system.

The new light fixtures were chosen for energy efficiency and ease of maintenance. Metro may soon install them at the Dupont Circle, Metro Center and Foggy Bottom stations.

When Metro was built, architects designed soft, indirect lighting to show off the stations’ vaulted arches. But riders have long complained that it is too dark to read in the stations and sometimes hard to see where to go.

VIRGINIA

STAUNTON

Kaine to attend groundbreaking

Gov. Tim Kaine will be on hand for the groundbreaking Tuesday of a new psychiatric hospital that continues a long Virginia tradition.

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