WEEK IN REVIEW
March 30-April 5

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Nationals Park Opens With a WinTeam Officials Pledge to Fix Concessions Glitches

President Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch as the Washington Nationals opened the baseball season in a new ballpark filled with more than 41,000 fans. The night ended with a ninth-inning home run that sealed a Nationals' victory over the Atlanta Braves.

Despite fears of a traffic nightmare, officials said the evening went smoothly. One exception: Lines at concessions stands were long, and some ran out of popular items. The Nationals said they will make improvements before the next home game, on Monday.

City Sues to Get Buildings RepairedCouncil Also Takes Action Against Landlords

The District is suing 23 landlords whose 70 residential buildings have a history of "egregious" code violations and has asked a court to place 13 of the buildings into receivership to ensure that they are promptly repaired.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and other city officials described the lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court as an unprecedented crackdown against problem landlords who, they said, have failed to bring properties up to code despite years of fines and demands.

Also, the D.C. Council approved emergency legislation to immediately repeal a law that gave property owners an exemption from the city's strong tenants' rights laws if their buildings were vacant. The exemption had allowed property owners to avoid paying costly fees and getting the approval of tenants to turn rent-controlled apartments into condominiums.

Housing, Services Offered to HomelessFenty Hopes to Help 2,500 People by 2014

In an effort to end chronic homelessness in the District, city officials announced plans to move 400 of the "most vulnerable" people into apartments by Oct. 1.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said the residents, many of them having lived on the streets during the day and in shelters at night for more than a decade, will receive permanent housing with extensive social services, including medical care, mental health counseling and drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Under the plan, such issues as mental illness and substance abuse will not bar the chronically homeless from being placed in permanent housing, officials said. The effort is the first major step in Fenty's pledge to provide 2,500 such placements by 2014.

Child Agency Described as In CrisisCases Said to Have Quadrupled Since January

The District's Child and Family Services Agency is awash in backlogged cases and is in crisis after thousands of new reports flooded the agency in recent months, a children's rights lawyer said.

Since Banita Jacks was arrested in January after her four daughters were found dead inside her Southeast Washington home, the child welfare agency has been bombarded with reports of neglect or abuse. Calls to the agency have increased 600 percent, and active cases jumped 400 percent, an agency spokeswoman said.

Door-to-Door Gun Searches Called OffPolice Scale Back Plans After Complaints

D.C. police have scaled back a plan to go door-to-door asking residents in high-crime neighborhoods for permission to search their homes for guns as part of a new amnesty program aimed at getting weapons off the streets.

The Safe Homes program, criticized by some who view it as a high-pressure tactic, will instead be offered by appointment only at residents' request, said Chief Cathy L. Lanier. The program was supposed to begin last month, but the new start date is mid-June, which Lanier said would give time to train officers to conduct the searches and gather input from citizens.

Across the RegionConferees Fall Ill in Md.; Va. Executions Halted

· As many as 65 people became sick after attending a medical conference at the new Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill. Prince George's County health officials said the sickened had been exposed to the norovirus.

· Executions scheduled in Virginia will be put on hold until the Supreme Court rules on whether lethal injection violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment, according to an announcement by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D).