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Mayor and Agencies

DC sues the Ward 5 landlord who let an affordable building rot - no AC, no elevators, feces in the stairwells
Mayor and Agencies

DC sues the Ward 5 landlord who let an affordable building rot - no AC, no elevators, feces in the stairwells

Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed suit Tuesday against developer Buwa Binitie over conditions at Delta Pearl on Florida Avenue NE - 199 unresolved code violations at a building that received tens of millions in public financing just two years ago.

Sep 4, 2026 · 6 min read
Trump's East Potomac golf overhaul just hit its self-imposed deadline. D.C. residents still don't know what they're losing.
Mayor and Agencies

Trump's East Potomac golf overhaul just hit its self-imposed deadline. D.C. residents still don't know what they're losing.

The federal government started work on a century-old public course Tuesday without completing required approvals. A court hearing is set for Thursday, and the people who actually use the park are watching a familiar pattern play out.

Sep 2, 2026 · 6 min read
D.C.'s sales tax goes to 7% in 30 days. Here's what gets more expensive - and what doesn't.
Mayor and Agencies

D.C.'s sales tax goes to 7% in 30 days. Here's what gets more expensive - and what doesn't.

The District's general sales tax rate jumps from 6.5% to 7% on October 1, completing a two-year increase the Council locked in through the Budget Support Act. Groceries and prescriptions stay exempt. Everything else - clothes, services, dining, digital goods - costs more.

Sep 1, 2026 · 6 min read
D.C. spent $90.9 million rebuilding J.O. Wilson Elementary. Yesterday, its Pre-K kids finally walked in.
Mayor and Agencies

D.C. spent $90.9 million rebuilding J.O. Wilson Elementary. Yesterday, its Pre-K kids finally walked in.

The Ward 6 school at 660 K Street NE doubled in size in 18 months. Now comes the question every newly modernized D.C. school eventually faces: does the investment follow the students, or just the building?

Aug 28, 2026 · 4 min read
Bowser sent D.C.'s budget back unsigned - twice. Now Lewis George has to live with it.
Mayor and Agencies

Bowser sent D.C.'s budget back unsigned - twice. Now Lewis George has to live with it.

The outgoing mayor's double refusal to sign the FY2027 spending plan is a parting shot at the Council - and a fiscal warning aimed directly at her likely successor.

Aug 28, 2026 · 6 min read
D.C. is getting up to $129 million from Meta. Nobody's decided what to do with it yet.
Mayor and Agencies

D.C. is getting up to $129 million from Meta. Nobody's decided what to do with it yet.

Attorney General Brian Schwalb helped land the largest big-tech consumer-protection settlement in U.S. history. The money flows to D.C. over a decade - and the fight over how to spend it is just getting started.

Aug 27, 2026 · 5 min read
DC schools open with gains on paper and a 40% absenteeism problem waiting at the door
Mayor and Agencies

DC schools open with gains on paper and a 40% absenteeism problem waiting at the door

Test scores are up for the fourth straight year, but fewer than three in ten DC students are proficient in math - and the new interim chancellor says getting kids to show up is the biggest fight she faces.

Aug 27, 2026 · 5 min read
Congress is trying to kill D.C.'s motorcycle helmet law - as the city buries its sixth rider this year
Mayor and Agencies

Congress is trying to kill D.C.'s motorcycle helmet law - as the city buries its sixth rider this year

Two Republican lawmakers want to use the nation's capital as a proving ground for wiping out universal helmet requirements nationwide. D.C. leaders say residents will die for it.

Aug 25, 2026 · 6 min read
D.C. renamed a high school for John Thompson and spent $91 million expanding it. Now comes the harder part.
Mayor and Agencies

D.C. renamed a high school for John Thompson and spent $91 million expanding it. Now comes the harder part.

The ribbon fell this morning at 4530 MacArthur Blvd NW. But the school's debut under a new interim chancellor, a lame-duck mayor, and a district still fighting chronic absenteeism raises real questions about what comes after the ceremony.

Aug 24, 2026 · 6 min read
The race is over. The streets aren't back yet - and the city already wants to do it again.
Mayor and Agencies

The race is over. The streets aren't back yet - and the city already wants to do it again.

The Freedom 250 Grand Prix drew 150,000 spectators to the National Mall on Sunday. Today, downtown D.C. is still largely cut off, and Mayor Bowser is pushing to make the race an annual fixture - even though D.C. had no vote in creating it.

Aug 24, 2026 · 7 min read
Congress wants to kill D.C. congestion pricing before the new mayor even takes office
Mayor and Agencies

Congress wants to kill D.C. congestion pricing before the new mayor even takes office

The House Oversight Committee passed the DC ROADS Act 22-18 in May, permanently banning a toll the city hasn't even proposed yet. Now it sits waiting for a floor vote - and the mayor-elect who championed the idea is about to inherit the fight.

Aug 19, 2026 · 7 min read
Six MPD officers and a civilian charged with stealing $441,000 in overtime they never worked
Mayor and Agencies

Six MPD officers and a civilian charged with stealing $441,000 in overtime they never worked

A D.C. Superior Court judge signed arrest warrants Tuesday for five sworn members and one civilian assigned to the 5th District - the biggest single public-corruption filing against the police department in years, and a direct challenge to MPD's already-battered credibility on overtime.

Aug 18, 2026 · 5 min read
Congress is about to come back from recess - and D.C.'s power to set its own taxes is first on the chopping block
Mayor and Agencies

Congress is about to come back from recess - and D.C.'s power to set its own taxes is first on the chopping block

The D.C. Taxing Authority Review Act passed out of committee 23-18 last month. The House returns from recess this week. Here's what it would actually do to your city.

Aug 17, 2026 · 7 min read
A year in, nobody can tell you exactly who made D.C.'s 16,000 federal arrests
Mayor and Agencies

A year in, nobody can tell you exactly who made D.C.'s 16,000 federal arrests

The Trump administration's crime crackdown just hit its one-year mark. Crime is measurably down. But MPD can't - or won't - say who made how many of those arrests, and that accountability gap is about to land in Janeese Lewis George's lap.

Aug 16, 2026 · 7 min read
D.C.'s own watchdog just confirmed what critics suspected: MPD's crime data has been broken for a decade
Mayor and Agencies

D.C.'s own watchdog just confirmed what critics suspected: MPD's crime data has been broken for a decade

A 40-page Inspector General report found the Metropolitan Police Department spent years without the internal safeguards needed to produce reliable crime statistics - a mess that the city's next mayor will inherit by January.

Aug 16, 2026 · 7 min read
The $1.4 billion bill D.C. can't vote on, veto, or appeal
Mayor and Agencies

The $1.4 billion bill D.C. can't vote on, veto, or appeal

A new Pentagon estimate puts the cost of keeping National Guard troops in Washington through January 2029 at $1.43 billion more - on top of what's already spent. D.C. officials have no legal mechanism to stop it.

Aug 15, 2026 · 7 min read
Congress is trying to strip D.C.'s motorcycle helmet law - while D.C. riders are dying
Mayor and Agencies

Congress is trying to strip D.C.'s motorcycle helmet law - while D.C. riders are dying

Two Republican lawmakers want to use federal authority over the capital to gut a safety rule D.C. never asked them to touch. Six motorcyclists have already died in the city this year.

Aug 14, 2026 · 5 min read
D.C. paid nearly $220 million in public-safety overtime last year - and the auditor says a lot of it was avoidable
Mayor and Agencies

D.C. paid nearly $220 million in public-safety overtime last year - and the auditor says a lot of it was avoidable

A new report from the Office of the D.C. Auditor finds MPD, Fire & EMS, and 911 dispatchers burned through overtime at rates the auditor calls 'a costly and chronic phenomenon' - and much of the bill came from leave, not actual staff shortages.

Aug 14, 2026 · 6 min read