Washington, D.C
Washington, DC, voters cast ballots in crucial primaries as Trump reshapes the capital – MyNorthwest.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters in the nation’s capital head to the polls on Tuesday to select party candidates for mayor and the district’s delegate to Congress, an election taking place as Washington undergoes major change under President Donald Trump’s administration.
The primary marks the first time in a generation that D.C. residents will vote for a new mayor and delegate in the same election. And in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, that party’s winner is expected to come out on top in the general election in November.
The most prominent race is for mayor after Muriel Bowser, who was first elected in 2014, decided not to seek a fourth term. Democratic front-runners Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie are hoping to replace her.
The district’s long-serving congressional delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is also stepping down, with top candidates council member Brooke Pinto and at-large council member Robert White Jr. vying for the role. Republican Denise Rosado, an immigration lawyer, is running unopposed.
The primary will include rank choice voting for the first time, which D.C. election officials have warned could delay results for days.
Central to all the campaigns has been the city’s fraught relationship with the Trump administration and the federal government. The city has limited autonomy and federal leaders retain significant control over local affairs, including the approval of the budget and laws passed by the D.C. Council.
That autonomy has been further squeezed under Trump, who launched a federal law enforcement surge last summer and sent in the National Guard for an ongoing, open-ended deployment. Trump’s efforts to downsize the federal government also roiled the capital region, costing thousands of people their jobs. He has also been reshaping the city by removing or renovating storied landmarks and putting his name or image on buildings.
Trump just last week threatened a new federal takeover of Washington, when asked about his response to a potential victory by Lewis George, a democratic socialist.
“Maybe we’d take back Washington, run it on the federal basis,” he said.
Bowser found herself walking a fine line between staying in Trump’s good graces and responding to the concerns of constituents, many of whom said she didn’t push back hard enough on Trump’s actions.
Republicans in Congress meanwhile have used their oversight authority to challenge the local government’s limited autonomy.
“We are the capital of the United States, and it’s an incredibly symbolic place, this city,” said Amanda Huron, a professor at the University of the District of Columbia who teaches courses on D.C. history and politics.
She said it’s important to remind the public that what the federal government does to its capital city is a harbinger of “how it’s going to treat the rest of the country as well.”
Lewis George, in responding to questions sent by The Associated Press, said her top priority is addressing “the affordability crisis here in DC, which the Trump administration has only made worse by unjustly firing federal employees en masse and militarizing our streets.”
McDuffie said his top priority is public safety. He would add 1,000 police officers over four years and take a public health approach to violence reduction that would include a focus on mental health.
Other candidates for mayor include former council member Vincent Orange and Hope Solomon, a former federal contractor who lost her job because of cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency.
Some residents have expressed concern on how Trump will react to pushback. Pat Wheeler, who lives in Washington, said candidates must be realistic. Trump still has enormous power over the Republican Congress and could easily order members to take steps against the city’s home rule authority, she said.
Five people are seeking to replace Norton, who is finishing her 18th term representing D.C. in Congress. Norton, 89, faced heavy pressure to stand down by critics, including her former chief of staff, who said she was diminished and not capable of mounting the defense the moment called for against Trump.
Pinto and White both say their top priority for the city is self-governance along with affordability for middle and working class residents.
Other candidates seeking the Democratic spot on the ticket include Trent Holbrook, a former Norton staffer; Kenney Zalesne, the former Deputy National Finance Chair of the Democratic National Committee; and Gregory Jaczko, former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Washington, D.C
Celebration to suffocation: Washington’s air turns world’s worst after July 4 fireworks extravaganza
WASHINGTON: A massive July 4th fireworks display left Washington, DC, briefly recording the worst air quality among major cities worldwide on Sunday, according to global air quality monitoring platform IQAir. The massive 40-minute fireworks display was held as part of America’s 250th Independence Day celebrations.The US capital dropped to 26th place on IQAir’s global air quality rankings by Sunday evening as pollution levels gradually improved.Code Red air quality alert issuedAs the city officials declared a ‘Code Red’ air quality alert, authorities urged residents to avoid prolonged outdoor exposure and warned that the air was “unhealthy for seniors, children and people with medical conditions,” adding that even healthy individuals could experience adverse health effects due to elevated pollution levels.Ahead of the celebrations, Kisha Davis warned that the combination of extreme heat and fireworks-related pollution could pose serious health risks. “The air quality today is like running a marathon while smoking a cigarette,” she told CNN, adding that the fireworks would further worsen pollution.Hundreds needed medical assistanceEmergency responders treated hundreds of people during the Independence Day celebrations.The DC Fire and EMS Department reported 96 patient contacts and 40 hospital transports, while George Washington University Hospital recorded 289 patient contacts. The US Department of Health and Human Services also reported 314 patient contacts, although authorities have not confirmed how many cases were linked to the heat or poor air quality.The fireworks display, organised by Freedom 250, featured around 850,000 fireworks launched from 10 locations across the National Mall, Potomac River barges and West Potomac Park. The event was expected to challenge the Guinness World Records mark for the world’s largest fireworks display, although no official confirmation had been issued by Sunday.
Washington, D.C
Trump’s administration won’t seek new bids to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
The Trump administration will not seek new bids to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Sunday as he faced new questions about the troubled project and the taxpayer money involved.
Like President Donald Trump, Burgum said he was 100% sure that vandals caused the damage to the century-old Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. Trump has charged that a 350-foot gash was cut into the pool’s liner in the midst of recent renovations, while Burgum described it as multiple cuts adding up to that figure. He also said the pool would have to be at least partially drained in the coming week to finish the repairs.
The repairs will not be opened up to new contractors, he said.
“We’ll use the same company, because they did a fantastic job,” Burgum told CNN’s “State of the Union.” ”Thankfully, the vandalism was small. It was bad. I mean, it could cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair, so then it could fall into a felony … just like damaging any other government property could. But the job that was done to fix the Reflecting Pool was done extremely well.”
Trump this spring pledged to beautify the Reflecting Pool before the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations on July Fourth. Water was drained and the Republican president directed that the bottom be painted a color he called “American flag blue.” But after the site was restored, the water was plagued by an algae bloom for more than a week, and pieces of the new coating have appeared to be peeling off the bottom.
The pool was closed for the Independence Day celebration, but Burgum said that was due to a safety issue related to the fireworks.
The evolving debate over the Reflecting Pool has inflamed the broader fight over Trump’s aggressive push to overhaul Washington landmarks, including the White House, nearly two years into his final term in office.
Authorities have arrested more than a half dozen people related in relation to Reflecting Pool damage, including former Olympian David Hearn, who was indicted last week on a felony of property destruction.
The top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, said Hearn ripped up recently installed sealant on the pool in “a deliberate act” that caused more than $1,000 in damage. She accused him of “forcefully and violently” pulling up the bottom liner “with both hands” and acting belligerently toward an employee who told him to stop.
Hearn’s lawyers, Democracy Defenders Fund co-founder Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann, said the charges were “outrageous and should be alarming to every American.” Eisen and Dohrmann construed the case as representative of “the misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen based on a concocted narrative.”
Burgum was asked and did not answer directly whether there was photographic evidence of vandals cutting the pool’s liner. He was also asked whether Hearn should face a 10-year prison sentence, which is the maximum legal penalty for his charge.
“Just because you were a former something doesn’t exclude you from the law today,” Burgum told CNN. “The courts will decide.”
Meanwhile, questions loom over the no-bid contracts for the project that were awarded to vendors with prior ties to Trump.
Ohio-based Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services, was given a $1.7 million contract to install a water-purification system in the Reflecting Pool, while Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded $14.7 million to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor.
About 10 Democratic senators and House members are investigating the pool project.
“Taxpayers deserve a full explanation of how these failures occurred and who will be held accountable for correcting them,″ said a letter signed last month by six senators.
Burgum also appeared on ABC’s “This Week.”
Thousands of people gathered in the US capital to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday in a day that was marked by extreme weather, delays, and a huge display of fireworks.
The celebration, which included a flyover, a concert, as well as a speech by US President Donald Trump, was delayed by a thunderstorm that forced an evacuation of the National Mall in the early evening.
The night ended with the skies being lit up by the reputed largest fireworks display ever in the US.
The 4 July federal holiday commemorates the 13 US colonies signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776 to end British rule.
BBC correspondent Richard Preston attended the celebrations.
More on this story here.
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