INTERVIEW – ROBERT MCCARTNEY – Senior Regional Correspondent for The Washington Post. McCartney is The Post’s senior regional correspondent, covering politics and policy in the greater Washington, D.C.

• Metro could shut down entire rail lines to do extended maintenance, board chair says. (By Robert McCartney/Washington Post) — Metro’s top officials warned Wednesday that the transit system is in such need of repair that they might shut down entire rail lines for as long as six months for maintenance, potentially snarling thousands of daily commutes and worsening congestion in the already traffic-clogged region. Board Chairman Jack Evans and General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld put rail riders on notice about possible extended closures at a high-level conference of local leaders. The discussion also revealed strong resistance to what Evans said was a “dire” need for more than $1 billion a year in additional funding for Metro.