While most of the recent headlines in the rental market have revolved around the exorbitant amounts people are hoping to charge tourists attending January’s Inauguration, the story bubbling under the surface is the District’s hounding of some of the area’s more notorious slumlords. And as the Post reports this morning, D.C. leaders are having an impact — even if there’s much more to be done. The laundry list of violations — which often number in the hundreds at the buildings Attorney General Peter Nickles is targeting — include units without heat, broken appliances, buckling ceilings, and even raw sewage festering with dead animals and bugs. Yuck. Property owners named in Nickles’ suit who remain negligent could face massive fines and even be held in contempt. In concord with the AG’s efforts, coucilmembers Jim Graham and Mary Cheh have introduced a new piece of legislation which would make it easier for tenants under such awful conditions to sue their negligent landlords for restitution. The law will be taken up when the Council reconvenes next month.

In other news this morning:

>> D.C.’s unemployment rate projects at 9.8 percent at this time next year; it is likely that the District could see a double-digit unemployment rate for the first time since the early 80s if trends continue.

>> Interested in the details of the District’s newly-found $127 million budget shortfall? D.C. Wire has the correspondence outlining the deficit from CFO Natwar Gandhi.

>> The EagleBank Bowl, the first college bowl game ever held in our fair city, will kickoff today at 11 a.m. Organizers are expecting at least 30,000 people to make the trip to RFK for the game between Navy and Wake Forest.

Photo by Kevin H..