Good morning, Washington. Just one day after officials did their best to reassure metro area drivers that our bridges are safe to travel on, the Washington Post has pored over U.S. Department of Transportation statistics that show that a dozen bridges in the District, hundreds more in Maryland, and nearly 1,200 in Virginia are listed as “structurally deficient,” — the same rating as the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis Wednesday. Still, DDOT says that the bridges are safe to travel on, promising that if they were ever deemed not safe, they would be closed immediately.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has also ordered inspections of over 700 bridges across the U.S. with similar designs to the Minneapolis bridge — none of those bridges are in the District of Columbia, but 10 are in Maryland and 13 are in Virginia.
Schools Grants Executive Out of Job: In the midst of allegations of serious financial mismanagement of federal grant dollars for D.C. Schools, Victor Vyfhuis, the executive director of the schools’ federal grants office, was put on administrative leave yesterday. A recent audit found that D.C. schools broke federal law when they shifted grants around for other purposes, and are now in danger of losing federal funding.
Priorities for Terror Funding Include Upgrading Bomb Squads: State and local officials met this week to carve up a recent $61.6 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security, and announced that they plan to spend the money on upgrading bomb squads, hiring new intelligence analysts and purchasing new computer systems. The Post has all the details.
Briefly Noted: A D.C. Police detective shot and killed a man in Southeast … Police in PG County are searching for a man suspected of killing his wife and his children’s football coach … Day laborers rallied on Capitol Hill yesterday, calling for a moratorium on immigration raids … Annual Running of the Brides began at 8 a.m. at Filene’s Basement.
This Day in DCist: In 2006 Pepco was warning customers of possible power surges due to high usage in extreme heat, and in 2004 the National Zoo announced it was seeking to diversify its collection of animals.
Photo by Eye Captain
