Lead testing faces criticism
Experts testified Friday that tests to determine whether lead is present in city-supplied water could be flawed.

In recent months, water in thousands of District homes has tested positive for high levels of lead, which, if ingested, can cause death in young children and pregnant women.

Federal officials said they follow guidelines that assume older houses are more likely to have water with a high lead content. But recent testing has indicated that newer homes may have lead contamination problems of nearly the same magnitude, The Washington Post reported.

A spokesman for the federal Environmental Protection Agency said the agency is currently examining lead testing standards to determine whether modifications need to be made.

Bank robbery nets almost $100,000
In a daring daylight robbery, three armed men fled from a Riggs Bank Thursday morning with nearly $100,000.

After holding up the bank’s Georgia Avenue branch in Northwest D.C., the assailants jumped into a getaway car, then abandoned the vehicle and set it on fire, The Washington Post reported.

Metropolitan Police officials said Thursday’s heist was similar to one carried out in a Bank of America Jan. 22 when assailants got away with $140,000. The FBI are determining whether the same suspects carried out both robberies.

At 10:15 a.m. Thursday, three men entered the bank, located on the 7600 block of Georgia Avenue, and ordered all bank employees and customers to lay down on the floor. Less than two minutes after entering the bank, the men left with nearly $100,000.

“That’s scary. That could be anybody’s neighbor going into the bank,” D.C. City Council member Adrian Fenty told The Post. “You never know when something’s going to go wrong.”

-Michael Barnett and Bryn Lansdowne