Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

The next global crisis could come from the sun. We should prepare now.

The crisis Biden and Trump don’t want to deal with

Russia is using toxic chemical weapons, wrecking a ban it helped create

The right’s enthusiasm for hyperbole is doing Trump no legal favors

Middle East conflict live updates: IDF takes control of Rafah border crossing; Biden denounces Hamas, antisemitism in address

Indiana primary election 2024: Latest updates on governor, House races

Baseball can crush rookies. Why hasn’t it crushed Trey Lipscomb?

Eddie Rosario and Co. lead the Nats to an MLB-best 12th comeback win

CJ Abrams keeps getting better. It’s time to think about an extension.

Triumphal Putin is inaugurated for fifth term as Russian president 

Ukraine arrests two colonels in protective service in plot to kill Zelensky

Miss Manners: Greeting a non-parent on Mother’s or Father’s Day 

Ask Amy: I’ve lied about being a Vietnam War veteran for 50 years

Carolyn Hax: Husband admits to one-night stand, wants spouse to ‘let it go’

France tries to shed its rude reputation ahead of the Olympics

Don’t be a jerk at the airport: A guide for headphones

The new cure-all for vacation excess: the IV drip 

Book excerpt: The admiral who had a mental breakdown over Fat Leonard

Under Putin, a militarized new Russia rises to challenge U.S. and the West 

A guide to the 2024 Alexandria Democratic primary election 

Lily James shows off train at Met Gala

Boeing Starliner space launch delayed at least until Friday

Substack courts TikTokers with new ‘creators’ program

Postal worker finds WWII-era letters, drives 5 hours to deliver them

Strangers help Sesame Street puppeteer after heirloom necklace was stolen

Teen grabs wheel when driver passes out and school bus veers into traffic

President Biden Campains In Wisconsin

District officials failed to spend $3 million in federal lead remediation grants, rendering the city ineligible for additional money and forcing D.C. to shut down a program to protect poor children from lead poisoning.

City officials blamed the federal government for imposing too many restrictions on how they could spend the money, including requirements that apartments be occupied by children under the age of six.

But dozens of cities received lead remediation grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development without similar issues, and federal officials say the District is among the few that became ineligible because of poor performance.

The mismanagement of lead remediation dollars, first reported by the <a href="https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/housing-complex/article/21048191/dc-chronically-failed-to-spend-federal-funds-to-remediate-lead-paint" >Washington City Paper</a>, was a focus of D.C. Council members at an oversight hearing Friday.

“I can’t express enough my disappointment that this didn’t work,” Polly Donaldson, the director of the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development, said in an interview. “What we want to do is implement a program that works and have the ability then to look at future opportunities to continue to serve residents with their lead paint hazards.”

Caught in the middle of the bureaucratic squabble, advocates say, are children in the nation’s capital who are living in old buildings and risk lead poisoning.

<i>[Many children have been poisoned by lead in homes approved by D.C.]</i>


“There’s no shortage of need here for remediation money, and the fact they don’t have it is a tragedy,” said Anne Cunningham, an attorney with the Children’s Law Center who has been closely tracking the issue. “We’ve seen hundreds of kids who are being poisoned in their homes every year. The consequences on both an individual and family level, as well as societally, are profound.”

Lead is a neurotoxin that has been linked to diminished cognitive function, among other symptoms. It commonly ends up in children’s bloodstreams when they swallow lead paint flakes or breathe in lead-tainted dust in homes built before 1978, when the federal government banned lead from household paint.

The District has a variety of programs to eliminate lead dangers, including for homeowners, public housing tenants and building owners. The Lead Safe Washington program, financed by the HUD grants, targeted low-income renters in apartment buildings until it shut down last summer.

From the beginning, the program struggled to take off.

In 2015, the federal agency warned the city that it was failing to spend enough money and placed a $3.7 million grant on high-risk status.

The city proposed fixing 225 units with that money.

But quarter after quarter, the District fell far below its targets and ended up rehabilitating just 41 units, according to documents provided under a records request.

In reports to federal officials, District officials insisted that they were trying to fix units but that many buildings couldn’t qualify because they were tax delinquent and suggested the residents who lived in units with lead paint may not understand the dangers.

<i>[Lawmakers ask Bowser to halt demolition at D.C. General after lead]</i>


In fiscal year 2018, the city received 21 applications through Lead Safe Washington but started work on few of them within the six-month target, according to budget documents. City officials said the applicants had a hard time pulling together the necessary paperwork to demonstrate eligibility.

In interviews, city housing officials questioned whether there really was an unmet need for lead remediation because of the lack of applications, even after they notified local nonprofits and went door-to-door in Ward 8, the poorest part of the city.

“We were doing extensive outreach . . . and the demand did not appear to be there,” Donaldson said.

But the city also told HUD last summer that 121 units in multifamily buildings were awaiting lead remediation, after the federal grant expired.

A HUD spokesman says federal officials tried to help the city put the dollars to use.

“Although HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes provided ongoing technical assistance to address performance barriers identified throughout the grant, the grantee was not able to meet their grant program goals and benchmarks,” spokesman Brian Sullivan said in a statement. “We look forward to the District applying for future funding when they are eligible again” in 2020.

But the city’s past failures would be considered if it applies again, and the top housing official wouldn’t commit to doing so.

“We are going to assess the program needs and what the needs are of the residents and what are the best resources to address that,” said Donaldson, who was appointed by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) in 2015.

Going forward, Donaldson said she would have the various lead remediation programs report to one manager and tap money from the city’s fund to preserve and expand affordable housing. She didn’t say if the city would commit more local dollars, which would be detailed in the budget proposal released by the mayor later this month.

Council member Elissa Silverman (I-At Large), a housing committee member, met with Donaldson on Thursday to discuss the matter. Silverman said she believed the housing chief’s explanation that she inherited a troubled program, which the lawmaker sees as part of a broader problem of a lead response bogged down in red tape.

“The concern for me is we have a child who is at real health risk, and there’s no immediate action that happens,” Silverman said. “It’s a very bureaucratic handoff to different agencies that doesn’t actually lead to any kind of mandatory remediation.”

<email>fenit.nirappil@washpost.com</email>


District will see almost no revenue growth because of shutdown


District ousts manager of homeless shelter four months after opening


Council member Jack Evans is subject of federal grand jury subpoena 


Local newsletters: Local headlines (8 a.m.) | <a href="https://subscribe.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/#/bundle/buzz"  title="subscribe.washingtonpost.com">Afternoon Buzz (4 p.m.)</a>


Like PostLocal on Facebook | <a href="https://twitter.com/postlocal"  title="twitter.com">Follow @postlocal on Twitter</a> | <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/"  title="www.washingtonpost.com">Latest local news</a>


Northwestern University, BS in journalism and political science. 

American University, MSJ in journalism. 

Fenit Nirappil is a reporter for the Health & Science team who covers public health, infectious diseases and LGBTQ issues. He previously covered local politics. 

Fenit Nirappil

The Washington Post

FILE PHOTO: A home at Fort Benning undergoes lead paint removal as the U.S. Army mobilizes to protect residents against lead poisoning hazards in Fort Benning, Georgia

Reuters

Local news

Maryland politics

Virginia politics

D.C. Politics

iptc-media/politics/government

iptc-media/politics/government_policy/interior_policy/housing_and_urban_planning_policy

iptc-media/crime_law_and_justice/law/civil_law

iptc-media/crime_law_and_justice/law/civil_law/regulation

iptc-media/economy_business_and_finance

iptc-media/crime_law_and_justice/law

iptc-media/politics

iptc-media/health

iptc-media/crime_law_and_justice

iptc-media/politics/government_policy/interior_policy

iptc-media/politics/government_policy

iptc-media/society

iptc-media/science_and_technology

iptc-media/economy_business_and_finance/economy

client-blocklists/Client List: Morgan Stanley KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Amazon KWs - EXCLUDE ALL 

client-blocklists/Client List: Becton Dickinson KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/CLIENT LIST: Nomura KWs 2021 - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Boeing KWs 2021- INCLUDE ANY

client-blocklists/ Geico KWs - EXCLUDES ALL_4.29.21

client-blocklists/Bed Bath & Beyond KWs - INCLUDE ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Exxon Mobil  - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: T. Rowe Price KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Microsoft KWs 2 - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/T. Rowe Price KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Ford/Lincoln KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/HBO KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/ExxonMobil 03312021 KWs - INCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Bank of America KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/WaPo: Combined Disaster Keyword List - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Optum KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

advertising/Blackrock - Finance and Investing Content

client-blocklists/Client List: Navy Federal Credit Union NFCU KWs 2 - EXCLUDES ALL - 12.23.20

advertising/B2_Community Service_legacyaux_h1s

client-blocklists/Client List: Eli Lily KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Corporate Responsibility_legacyaux_FTM

client-blocklists/Client List: IBM KWs ALTERNATE Watson - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Purina KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

advertising/Citrix Mindfulness

advertising/Client Keywords: On Running

client-blocklists/BP KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/ CLIENT LIST: AT&T KWs 2021 - EXCLUDES ALL

advertising/B2_Positive News_legacyaux_hlt

advertising/B2_Retailers_legacyaux_7ui

client-blocklists/Client List: GEICO KWs

client-blocklists/Client List: Fidelity Investments KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: KPMG KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Navy Federal Credit Union NFCU KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/WaPo: Human Disaster

client-blocklists/Client List: Verizon KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Novo Nordisk KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Siemens KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Cisco KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Capital Concerts KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T ALT KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Mercedes KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/FX Excludes All Disney

client-blocklists/Client List: Inpixon KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Boeing KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Aetna KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Google KWs - INCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Philip Morris KWs - INCLUDES ANY 

client-blocklists/Dupixent neg kws - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Capital One KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY - 1.4.21

client-blocklists/Bank of America Merrill Lynch KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/CME KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: IBM KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Google PG KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Chase KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Office Depot KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: ETrade KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

prism://prism.query/site,/local/dc/dc-politics&limit=20

The Washington Post is your source for in-depth coverage of Washington, D.C., politics. View recent D.C. political news headlines including D.C. voting rights, D.C. schools, and the D.C. Mayor's Cabinet.

D.C., Md. & Va.

The Washington Post offers breaking local news, weather and traffic information for the DC, Maryland and Virginia metro areas, plus information about school districts, crime, government, religion, the lottery,restaurant reviews and obituaries.