WASHINGTON, D.C. – A Secret Service investigation is underway near the White House after officials say a van drove through a barricade early Wednesday morning.

What we know:

The Metropolitan police and Secret Service responded to the vicinity of the White House around 6:30 a.m. after a van drove through a barricade at Connecticut Avenue and H Street.

The driver of the van was apprehended and is being questioned, according to police. No injuries have been reported.

As a result of the investigation, multiple streets in the immediate area have been closed to traffic, including 15th Street and E Street Northwest and H Street Northwest between 15th and 17th Streets.

What you can do:

Drivers are advised to avoid the area and seek alternate routes. Commuters traveling through downtown Washington should expect delays. 

What we don’t know:

Officials have yet to release further details. This is a developing story. Check back for updates,

Lime, the company behind those bright green scooters and bikes you may often see zooming around D.C. or lying on the sidewalk, is updating its monthly subscription service, aimed at making rides more affordable for its frequent users.

In a news release Tuesday, Lime said its monthly subscription that starts at $5.99/month for D.C. riders will also introduce flat-rate pricing of $2.50 for rides up to 20 minutes and $1.25 for rides under five minutes.

Every ride will be subject to a flat rate, instead of a per-minute cost. Subscribed members also get unlimited free unlocking and discounted flat-rate pricing for trips under five minutes.

Devin Rote, the global integrated marketing lead at Lime, told WTOP the goal with the update is “to make the choice to utilize micro-mobility and more sustainable travel options easier for users across the D.C. region.”

Rote said as we enter the spring season, Lime sees an increase in trips as the city also sees a rise in tourism.

“Especially through cherry blossom season, Nationals baseball season, and everything that a great, warm weather season brings here in the D.C. region. For us, really, this is the start of busy season,” he said.

There are over 7,000 of the dockless e-bikes and scooters around D.C. They go up to 18 mph — down from 20 mph in November — and users must be at least 18 to ride.

WTOP’s John Wordock contributed to this report.

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A Virginia boater is suing a Washington water utility for negligence in the collapse of a pipe that leaked millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River.

The class action lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, comes weeks after a January sewage pipe collapse, shooting wastewater out of the ground and into the river in an area just north of Washington, D.C. The spill is seen as a serious environmental blight and became the focus of political bickering between President Donald Trump and Democratic-led Maryland, where the leak occurred.

Dr. Nicholas Lailas, M.D., the plaintiff, is a Virginia resident and recreational boat user on the Potomac who is seeking compensation for people “whose property interests in and use and enjoyment of the Potomac River … have been impaired by Defendant’s conduct.”

The lawsuit alleges that it was DC Water’s responsibility as the owner and operator of the ruptured pipe, known as the Potomac Interceptor, to maintain it in a “reasonably safe condition and to prevent foreseeable harm to persons and property.”

The lawsuit said that preliminary data indicate that there are thousands of people who own property or vessels in the affected parts of the Potomac.

Andrew Levetown, an attorney for the plaintiff, said in an interview Monday that it will take time to get the full breadth of the class, with business owners, property owners and recreational users all having interest in the potential damages caused by the Jan. 19 collapse and leak.

“You’re going to have businesses who lose business because instead of sitting next to the Potomac, their clients are sitting next to the open sewer,” he said.

The suit did not specify a damage amount. DC Water spokesperson John Lisle said in a statement that the collapse of the Potomac Interceptor was “a serious and unexpected event, and our teams remain focused on the response, environmental protection, and restoration efforts. Because this matter is currently subject to ongoing litigation, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further at this time.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared an emergency Feb. 18 and requested that President Donald Trump provide federal resources to help the city fight the leak that dumped 250 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River in its early stages. The president approved the emergency assistance days later to help the city address the emergency.

DC Water gave its most detailed assessment yet of why the Potomac River sewage spill occurred and what it will take to fix it. News4’s Mark Segraves reports.

DC Water said it knew the pipe, first installed in the 1960s, was deteriorating, and rehabilitation work on a section about a quarter-mile (400 meters) from the break began in September and was recently completed. The pipe that ruptured was scheduled for repair this summer.

DC Water’s updates say the emergency repairs are beyond the halfway point and there are no flows into the river.

At a public briefing last week, officials with the utility said they were assessing the cause of the rupture, including whether the way the pipeline was initially constructed contributed to the emergency. David Gadis, the CEO of DC Water, said at that briefing that while it was too early to say definitively, “we are seeing indication that this incident may have been highly unusual.”

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