News

WAMU 88.5

Large Sinkhole On 14th Street NW Could Snarl Traffic For Days

A huge sinkhole has forced D.C. to shut down a stretch of 14th Street NW between Pennsylvania and New York Avenues, leaving motorists in this congested part of the city to find alternate routes.

WAMU 88.5

House Approves Move Of Frederick Douglass Statue To U.S. Capitol

The statue of the famed abolitionist, who spent his last years in Anacostia, would be D.C.'s first in the U.S. Capitol.

WAMU 88.5

D.C. Leads Nation In Student Debt—But Pays It Back Quickly

D.C. residents might carry more student debt than anyone else, but their delinquency rates are lower than anywhere else in the country.

WAMU 88.5

Million-Dollar Properties, $1 Deals

Parcels of city land—often valued at millions of dollars—have been awarded to politically connected developers, some for pennies on the dollar. Since 2008, D.C. lawmakers have approved 20 of these land deals, at a loss of more than $200 million in city assets.

Politics

NPR

Senate To Debate Immigration Overhaul

After weeks of debate, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday to send a massive immigration overhaul bill on to the full Senate. Dozens of changes were made to the legislation drawn up by a bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of Eight. But the bill's basic compromises remained intact after the withdrawal of a sharply divisive measure granting equal immigration rights for same-sex married couples.
NPR

IRS Official In Charge Of Nonprofits Declines To Testify

Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division dealing with nonprofits seeking tax-exempt status, will not testify on Wednesday despite a congressional subpoena, her attorney says. She is accused of closely scrutinizing conservative groups that sought tax-exempt status.
NPR

Oklahoma's GOP Senators Find Themselves In Tornado Aid Bind

Sens. Tom Coburn and James Inhofe have become the faces of pushback on federal emergency spending. Now the deadly and devastating tornado in their home state has put them in an awkward position.
NPR

Fox News Reporter James Rosen Caught Up In Federal Probe

There is word of another controversial leak investigation by the Department of Justice. The target is Fox News reporter James Rosen, who was monitored by the department after breaking a story about North Korea's nuclear weapons program in 2009.

Arts

WAMU 88.5

Art Beat With Lauren Landau, May 22

Tonight you can see an award-winning play about love and marriage, or check out a concert that blends rock with orchestral music.
WAMU 88.5

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Reimagines Chekhov's The Seagull

Anton Chekhov's classic play, The Seagull, is getting an irreverent and unexpected new treatment in a world-premiere play at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.

Environment

WAMU 88.5

Virginia Mennonite Farmers Work To Protect Chesapeake Bay

Mennonite farmers in Virginia have stopped using chicken waste on their fields, a process that leads to phosphorous-rich runoff that ends up in the Chesapeake Bay—where it can kill fish.

NPR

The Enemy Inside: Rhino's Protectors Sometimes Aid Poachers

The defenders of Africa's rhinos are battling a well-financed and well-informed enemy. Poachers clear up to $60,000 on the Asian market for a single rhino horn. They have cash for the latest weaponry and to pay for inside information from some of the very people whose job it is to protect the rhinos.