Happy Thursday. D.C. received over 5,000 complaints about rats last year, and the city official charged with controlling them thinks they’re “genius.”

LEADING THE MORNING NEWS:

  • New numbers from the Department of Health indicate that the city’s efforts to significantly reduce new diagnoses of HIV have stalled. While Mayor Muriel Bowser has set a goal of halving new diagnoses to about 200 per year by 2020, 368 D.C. residents were diagnosed with HIV in 2017, just one fewer than the 369 diagnoses in 2016. Sexually transmitted disease cases, meanwhile, have spiked.

  • In the wake of a series of DC Public Schools scandals, Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Chehcame forward with an idea: an independent research collaborative that would conduct studies on the city’s public schools, including charters. This collaborative would have an advisory board comprised of 16 education stakeholders who would drive the research agenda. “I call the information that we get from our education agencies ‘PR,’” At-Large Councilmember Robert White told City Paper. “It can be very difficult to get hold of unbiased data.”

  • Following the lead of competitor Ofo, dockless bike company Mobike says it will cease operations in D.C. Like Ofo, the company’s top brass has said that D.C. over-regulates the market, and that capping its fleet at 400 bikes prevents the company from turning a profit. Five companies that participated in the city’s dockless bike pilot program remain.

  • In less than two weeks, over 260 people have been hospitalized after overdosing on K2, a synthetic cannabinoid with powerful hallucinogenic effects. Officials are coordinating their response to the spike in overdoses with the assumption that many of those affected are homeless. “Our assumption is that our population is at risk,” Carter Hewgley, a Department of Human Services adviser, told City Paper.

THE BULLETIN:

  • Missed Archives connection: “We’ve locked eyes at both locations. You’re pretty dang cute, let’s grab a drink.” [craigslist]

LOOSE LIPS LINKS, by Morgan Baskin (tips? mbaskin@washingtoncitypaper.com)

  • A win for D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine in his joint emoluments lawsuit against Donald Trump. [Twitter]

  • Eleanor Holmes Norton comes out swinging against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. [Twitter]

  • ICE confirms it arrested over 130 residents of the DMV. [WCP]

ARTS LINKS, by Matt Cohen (tips? mcohen@washingtoncitypaper.com)

  • Bad Moves shares new music video, announces debut LP and tour dates. [Stereogum]

  • H Street gets a new bookstore in Solid State Books. [AFRO]

  • Take in the Renwick’s popular Burning Man exhibition, in virtual reality (if, for whatever reason, you can’t make it to the museum or you’re opposed to seeing art IRL). [DCist]

  • Though the art collective the Washington Women’s Arts Center only operated in the mid-’70s to late ’80s, its legacy lives on. [WAMU]

  • A former MPD officer and Capital Fringe veteran gets personal in Spook. [WCP]

YOUNG & HUNGRY LINKS, by Laura Hayes (tips? lhayes@washingtoncitypaper.com)

  • Sizzling Japanese barbecue restaurant Gyu-Kaku lands in Clarendon. [WCP]

  • Slapfish will bring lobster breakfast burritos to M Street NW. [WCP]

  • A pizza and pasta place is opening near two pizza and pasta places. [Washingtonian]

  • Tom Sietsema gives new Mexican restaurant Poca Madre 2.5 stars. [Post]

  • The science behind the brick oven that makes pizza so perfect. [NPR]

HOUSING COMPLEX LINKS, by Morgan Baskin (tips? mbaskin@washingtoncitypaper.com)

  • A Friendship Heights home that sold well above its asking price. [Urban Turf]

  • Ivy City residents and Crummell School advocates ask Bowser to join them on a walking tour of the neighborhood ahead of her birthday party at Ivy City Smokehouse. [Twitter]

SPORTS LINKS, by Kelyn Soong(tips? ksoong@washingtoncitypaper.com)

  • In just its fourth-season of existence, the Mamie Johnson Little League team made history as the first all-African American team to win the D.C. Little League Championship and has qualified to compete in the Little League regional tournament next month. [WUSA9]

  • There’s a competition taking place within the Citi Open tennis tournament, and it’s not between the professional players. A behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to be a Citi Open ballperson. [WCP]

  • The National Park Service is withdrawing “its proposal to restrict organized recreational sports on the National Mall and increase permitting fees,” City Paper contributing writer Tom Sherwood tweeted. [E&E News]

  • It was a fitting homecoming of sorts for Venus Williams, who was the hero in the Kastles’ 21-20 supertiebreaker victory over the San Diego Aviators on Wednesday night. “When I’m here it’s like home,” she told the home crowd. Williams’ sister and niece both live in the D.C. area and she will play again tonight at George Washington’s Smith Center. [Twitter]

HAPPENING TODAY

  • Electronic pop duo Sylvan Esso perform at The Anthem. 8 p.m. at 901 Wharf St. SW. $40–$60.

  • Deaf singer-songwriter Mandy Harvey celebrates the Americans with Disabilities Act and VSA anniversaries at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage.6 p.m. at 2700 F St. NW. Free.

  • Writer Glynnis MacNicol talks about her memoir about finding new ways to define her life as a single, childless woman in her 40s, No One Tells You This, at Politics and Prose. 7 p.m. at 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free.

  • ANC 8D meets tonight at 7:00 p.m. 4601 Martin Luther King Jr Ave. SW.

  • ANC 3E meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. 4300 Nebraska Ave. NW.

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