By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has nominated Lt. Gen. Christopher LaNeve to serve as the Army’s second-highest-ranking officer, according to congressional records.

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Gen. James Mingus is currently vice chief of staff and has not publicly said he plans to step aside. He has been in the job less than two years, and it is typically a tenure that lasts at least three years.

The move, which was posted in congressional records Monday, is the latest in a series of surprise and unexplained firings, reassignments and promotions that have been transforming the senior ranks of the military under Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Officials in the Army and Hegseth’s office would not offer any details on Mingus’ apparent ouster and the effort to promote LaNeve, who is now Hegseth’s top military aide.

Maj. Peter Sulzona, a spokesman for Mingus, told The Associated Press by email that he would not comment on pending nominations but that Mingus “will continue to execute the duties & responsibilities of his position, focusing on warfighting and the wellbeing of our Soldiers.”

Before taking up the vice chief post last year, Mingus was at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, starting in 2020 under then-Chairman Gen. Mark Milley. Milley, though appointed by Trump in his first term, would later anger the president and become a target for significant criticism in his second term.

The nomination and replacement come less than a week after Adm. Alvin Holsey, the Navy admiral who is overseeing military operations against alleged drug boats off Venezuela, announced a surprise, early retirement in December.

About a month ago, Gen. Thomas Bussiere, head of the Air Force’s Global Strike Command, also suddenly announced his retirement, citing “personal and family reasons.” That came a little over a month after the head of the Air Force, Gen. David Alvin, also announced a surprise early retirement.

Those retirements come after a spate of unexplained firings in August that included Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, then the head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency; Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, chief of the Navy Reserve; and Rear Adm. Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversaw Naval Special Warfare Command.

Kruse’s agency produced an initial intelligence assessment of U.S. damage to Iranian nuclear sites that leaked to the press and contradicted claims from the Trump administration.

In April, Hegseth also abruptly fired Air Force Gen. Tim Haugh, who was leading the National Security Agency and an admiral who held a top NATO post.

Early in the administration’s time in power, Trump also fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as the Navy’s top officer, the Air Force’s second-highest-ranking officer, and the top lawyers for three military service branches.

NEW YORK — On Sunday night, Minnesota Wild rookie forward Danila Yurov dined with his agent, who also represents a few of the other Russians of note in the NHL. At some point, Yurov said he would get his first NHL goal versus fellow countryman Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers.

Roughly 24 hours later, Yurov made good on that promise, shoveling a loose puck over the goal line for the eventual game-winner as the Wild beat the Rangers 3-1 at Madison Square Garden.

Known among his teammates for having a perpetual smile, Yurov, 21, beamed in the postgame locker room, describing the play and the euphoria of scoring his first goal on one of the biggest stages in hockey.

Then the smile faded, and he got serious, his voice almost cracking at one point as he told reporters, in his still-improving English, that the feat made him think of his parents, his sister, his girlfriend and all of the support he has gotten on his journey to the NHL.

“It’s good for him. I know it’s a pretty good feeling when you score your first goal,” said Wild teammate Kirill Kaprizov, who sealed the win with a late empty-net goal. “We’re happy for him, and it was a big goal for us.”

Kaprizov was a plug-and-play star when he got to the NHL, and some Wild fans likely expected a similar immediate impact from Yurov, a first round pick in 2022. He signed with the Wild in May and had a good training camp, but also showed some growing pains as he adjusted to the style and pace of the NHL

He was a healthy scratch in the Wild’s season-opening win at St. Louis, but he has been a regular since then.

“He’s just a player that continues to get experience and continues to grow his game,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “He’s a smart player, he’s a good player. It’s just (about) getting more and more comfortable and more experience, and it was great to see him get his first goal tonight.”

Teammates said they are seeing Yurov emerge from his shell a little bit off the ice as he learns the language and the ways of life in North America. Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson, who came over from Sweden, noted that sharing what you’re feeling when you don’t speak English well can be a challenge for newcomers to NHL hockey.

“It’s very hard to get personal and express what you think, how you feel and everything around you,” Gustavsson said. “It feels like he’s trying a lot to speak English to us guys, and it gets easier to be around him and make him part of the group, too.”

Scoring goals, of course, is understood in any language.

Briefly

— Ahead of the Wild’s lone regular-season visit to New Jersey on Wednesday, they placed defenseman Zach Bogosian on injured reserve with a lower body ailment and recalled center Hunter Haight from Iowa. Haight has played in two NHL games this season. His call-up was likely intended to give the Wild some forward depth with center Marco Rossi missing time this week.

— Wild prospect Adam Benak was named player of the week in the Ontario Hockey League after an offensive outburst for the Brantford Bulldogs, six total points in a pair of wins. Benak, 18, was picked in the fourth round by the Wild in last summer’s NHL draft. He is the OHL’s leading scorer with 19 points in his first eight games.

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PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has filed a lawsuit that seeks to get Democrat Adelita Grijalva sworn in as the state’s newest member of Congress after U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to seat her a month since winning the post.

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The Democratic attorney general filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Washington on behalf of Grijalva. It asks a judge to let other people, such as federal judges, who are authorized to administer the oath swear in Grijalva if Johnson has not done so. Mayes has said previously that the delay in giving Grijalva, the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress, the oath of office leaves over 800,000 people in the southern Arizona district without representation.

Grijalva, a former school board member and member of a county governing board in the Tucson area, easily won a Sept. 23 special election to fill the post previously held by her father, progressive Democrat Raúl Grijalva, who died in March after serving in Congress for more than two decades. She said the delay has left people in her district without the constituent services that are normally provided by congressional offices.

Johnson has said Adelita Grijalva will be sworn in when the House returns to session, blamed the government shutdown for the delay and accused Mayes of seeking publicity when she threatened to file the lawsuit.

Once she is sworn in, Grijalva would narrow the margins and give Democrats more power to confront Trump and the GOP agenda.

Democrats have accused Johnson of delaying Grijalva’s swearing-in because it improves their chances of forcing a vote for the release of the Justice Department files on the sex trafficking investigation into the late Jeffrey Epstein. Johnson has rejected the accusation. Grijalva has pledged to back the effort to release the Epstein investigation documents and would be the last signature needed for a petition to force that vote.

In an interview Tuesday hours before the suit was filed, Grijalva said the delay means she is unable to sign a lease on office space within her district to response to constituent requests. “I don’t have constituents until I’m sworn in,” Grijalva said.

Johnson said Grijalva was elected the week after the House had already gone out of legislative session following its vote on a short-term spending bill to fund the federal government.

“So I will administer the oath to her, I hope, on the first day we come back into legislative session,” Johnson said Monday. “I’m willing and anxious to do that.”

Lawmakers who win special elections generally take the oath of office on days in which legislative business is conducted, and they are welcomed with warm applause from members on both sides of the aisle. They give a short speech as family and friends watch from the galleries.

There is precedent for doing it differently. On April 2, Johnson swore in Republican Reps. Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine, both of Florida, less than 24 hours after they won their special elections, during a pro forma session.

Johnson has said the circumstances were unique because the House had unexpectedly gone out of session that day. Patronis and Fine had already arranged for their families, friends and supporters to be in Washington.

But Johnson also said there is precedent for not yet administering her the oath of office. He noted that Rep. Julia Letlow, a Republican from Louisiana, waited 25 days before her 2021 swearing-in ceremony, filling the seat her late husband was elected to but never filled after dying of COVID-19. At the time, Democrats controlled the House.

“Education around lead, and especially lead paint hazards, is something that still is really necessary,” said housing advocate Brandon Kielbasa. “People think of it as something that’s been dealt with already, [but] there’s still about 5,000 kids a year who are poisoned in New York City.”

Peeling paint can be a source of lead exposure in homes. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

It’s been more than six decades since New York City banned the use of lead paint in residential buildings—one of the first cities in the nation to do so, recognizing the health risks it posed, particularly for children.

But the age of the city’s housing stock means lead paint is still a presence: last year, 4,655 New York City children under the age of 6 tested positive for elevated lead levels in their blood, according to public data.

As part of Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, which runs Oct. 18-25, city officials and housing advocates are looking to get the word out about the hazards of lead exposure—and what tenants and property owners can do to mitigate their risks.

“Education around lead, and especially lead paint hazards, is something that still is really necessary,” said Brandon Kielbasa, director of policy and organizing at the Cooper Square Committee.

“People think of it as something that’s been dealt with already, [but] there’s still about 5,000 kids a year who are poisoned in New York City,” he said. “And we’re finding out more and more every day about how it’s bad for adult health, and that’s not really being tracked, honestly.”

Cooper Square Committee, along with the Lead Dust Free NYC coalition and BetaNYC, recently launched a new online mapping tool that lets people enter their address to see when their building was constructed—what can be a helpful indicator for the presence of lead paint.

New York City buildings constructed before 1960, when the city passed its ban, are presumed to contain lead paint. But even properties built later than that can pose a risk, since New York State didn’t prohibit its use in homes until 1970, and a nationwide ban didn’t take effect until 1978.

“The kind of rule of thumb that we use as advocates is: the older the building, the more there is typically,” said Kielbasa. While only proper testing can confirm the presence of lead paint, he said the map is intended to serve as a “starting point” for tenants and building owners to investigate further.

Under a city law passed in 2020, landlords of properties constructed before 1960 were required to test apartments and common areas for the presence of lead paint by Aug. 9, 2025. If those tests determine there is no lead paint—or if the owner successfully abates it—they can apply with the city’s Department of Housing, Preservation and Development for an exemption from other lead paint requirements.

That includes providing annual notices to tenants about lead-based paint hazards, as well as conducting yearly inspections of apartments where a child under 6 resides and to correct any issues they identify, such as chipped or peeling paint.

In the most recent fiscal year that ended in June, HPD issued 20,380 violations and collected $90,000 in civil penalties for lead-based paint hazards and record-keeping violations, officials say.

A lead paint testing tool. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Of particular concern are window and doors frames—known as “friction surfaces” because their use can wear the paint down and expose older layers underneath, creating microscopic dust.

Building construction and renovations is another source of exposure, Kielbasa said, with tenants in low-income communities and communities of color disproportionately impacted.

“It’s almost like this double whammy that can hit gentrifying communities, where they live with dilapidated building conditions and the neighborhood isn’t as attractive,” he said. “And then as soon as it becomes attractive, it attracts the type of investor who wants to get work done as fast and cheap as possible, and they’re the same type of investor and landlord that might cut corners on controlling the dust.”

Throughout this week, the city is hosting a series of public events and informational workshops about lead poisoning; you can find a full schedule here.

Officials also offered the following tips for tenants:

Immediately report peeling or damaged paint to your building’s owner or managing agent. Call 311 to report it if your landlord fails to act.

Frequently wash your floors, windowsills, hands, and children’s toys.

Remove your shoes before entering your house. If someone in your household works in construction, wash their clothes separately.

Avoid using products from other countries that may contain lead. For more information, visit nyc.gov/hazardousproducts. 

In addition to paint, the pipes that carry water into homes, known as service lines, can also contain lead. You should let the water run for at least 30 seconds before using it, and use only cold tap water when drinking, cooking, and preparing baby formula. The city offers free drinking water test kits, which you can request by calling 311.

To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org. Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post It’s Lead Poisoning Prevention Week. Here’s What NYC Tenants Should Know appeared first on City Limits.