Sloane Airey

If you love City Paper, get it every day in our newsletter.
A slew of reforms to D.C.’s troubled crime lab have cleared a key legislative hurdle, winning Mayor Muriel Bowser’s passive approval despite her worries over losing direct control of the agency.
The city’s Department of Forensic Sciences is now on the cusp of becoming a fully independent agency and seeing a thorough restructuring of its operations, after Bowser let reform legislation become law without her signature Thursday. The Cou...

If you love City Paper, get it every day in our newsletter.
Prosecutors disregarded D.C. law and “undermined the independence” of D.C.’s crime lab by ordering up investigations into its evidence testing methods, according to a highly critical new report from D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson’s office.
The auditor’s conclusions in a report issued Thursday closely reflect the findings of City Paper’s previous investigation of D.C.’s Department of Forensic Sciences, and Patterson echoes the opinions ...

No prosecutor likes to lose. But for Michael Ambrosino, one adverse ruling in September 2019 probably stung more than most.
If you love City Paper, get it every day in our newsletter.
Back then, Ambrosino had a leading role at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C, where he managed the prosecution of cases involving DNA and other forensic evidence. And some of that evidence was a key part of the government’s case against Marquette Tibbs, who federal prosecutors believed had shot and killed a bus...

D.C. is now home to its first transitional drug treatment program for women.
Nestled in between Adams Morgan and Lanier Heights, the three-story Tudor building opened its wrought iron door in November to half a dozen women seeking sobriety who are homeless or at-risk. The D.C. Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) awarded Samaritan Inns a two-year, $1.4 million grant to support the project in 2021 and 2022 as part of the District’s push to curb homelessness.
The six-month treatment program si...

An Arlington County policy on how defense attorneys access the materials they need to prepare their cases has become a hot topic in the already heated commonwealth’s attorney race.
Since Parisa Dehghani-Tafti launched her campaign to unseat Theo Stamos in the June 11 Democratic primary, discussions over the county’s discovery policy have featured in a candidate debate, a public endorsement, and a public letter opposing Stamos.
A discovery policy dictates which case files a prosecutor is requi...

Long-standing maintenance issues and purchasing shortages means the department no longer has a reserve fleet of ladder trucks to replace those going out of service for repairs.
After years of mechanical problems plaguing the District’s emergency response vehicles, the D.C. Council is moving to fund $65 million in fixes.
The Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety wants the District to replace old and broken down ambulances, fire engines, and ladder trucks with the funds, as wel...

Skilled nursing facility surveys have skyrocketed over the past year, with some worrying that surveyors have also grown more aggressive.
Federal data indicates that the number of surveys conducted nationwide has risen 132% percent since 2020, leaving some wondering how fairly standards are being applied when COVID-19 is already forcing facilities to contend with staff shortages, aging infrastructure, profit loss, and increased scrutiny over everything from infection protocols to federal loans...

Short-term nursing facilities across the country continue to wrestle with vaccine hesitant staff even as residents line up for the vaccination.
Thanks to new federal guidance, visitors and residents in some states can now socialize without masks if both can produce vaccine cards. But even as facility managers celebrate this, they are still working to convince staff it’s worth getting vaccinated at all.
“It’s not patients coming in, it’s staff not being vaccinated that’s the biggest challenge,...

As a three-alarm fire ripped through a D.C. seniors facility in September, firefighters discovered that the ladders on Trucks 13 and 16 didn’t work and needed to be replaced with a reserve truck.
But there was no reserve, so they were forced to pull a truck — Tower 3 — that was being repaired in the maintenance facility.
Meanwhile, the ladder on Truck 7 became stuck and was in danger of catching fire while 10 firefighters battled the blaze on the roof of the Arthur Capper Senior Public Housin...

(Updated at 3:25 p.m.) Arlington County is planning to start forwarding public records requests about Amazon to the company, despite not yet having finalized the agreement to do, officials say.
Arlington County agreed to alert the tech and retail giant whenever someone files a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for public records involving the company. Both Arlington County and the Commonwealth of Virginia have agreed to the deal, which has been criticized by open government advocates ...

(Updated 3/28/19) Drag shows in Arlington are now taking their first high-heeled step outside the gay bar scene, but members of the scene say it hasn’t lost its roots.
For decades now, the only way to catch a drag show in Arlington, or Northern Virginia, was to head to Crystal City and line up at Freddie’s Beach Bar (555 23rd St S.)
But earlier this month, one bar in Clarendon began offering drag bingo nights as gay business leaders say growing demand for the glittery entertainment is opening...

(Updated at 5 p.m.) Some Arlington Transit (ART) riders are out of luck as transportation officials tell ARLnow that maintenance issues are cutting service.
The bus service shared today that ART routes 43, 45, 53, 87 would operate on “reduced service” and that at least three other lines (45 to S. Dinwiddie Street, 61 to N. Veitch Street, and 75 to N. Monroe Street) “will not operate.” The disruptions are due to a “mechanical issue,” according to social media posts.
Numerous delays and cancell...

Last night, reform candidate Parisa Dehghani-Tafti was elected the next top prosecutor for Arlington and Falls Church, leaving questions about how her campaign promises could affect the area’s political and legal landscape.
Throughout her unusually contentious — and expensive — campaign, Tafti promised to stop prosecuting some marijuana possession cases, eliminate some cash bail requirements, and make it easier for defense attorneys to access case files, among other reforms.
Tafti declined to...

Arlington may soon be making electric scooters a more or less permanent fixture of the county’s streets and sidewalks.
The County Board will vote on an ordinance change during its meeting this Saturday, November 16 to allow e-scooter companies to operate in Arlington — provided companies fulfill the requirements of a new permitting system starting next year.
The code change would make the pilot program for “micro-mobility devices” a permanent part of Arlington’s transit system after officials...

(Updated at 2 p.m.) Arlington’s culinary school La Cocina is planning to add a cafe and a business incubator — as well as triple the number of students it teaches.
The bilingual non-profit donates healthy meals and trains Hispanic immigrants for culinary jobs. But now La Cocina is planning to move from the basement of a church near Ballston to a 5,000-square-foot space in the affordable Gilliam Place housing development at 3507 Columbia Pike, where the organization’s CEO and Founder Patricia ...