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.

The city of St. Paul has joined Minneapolis, Ramsey County, Chicago, Denver, Boston and four other jurisdictions in a lawsuit against the Trump administration for allegedly placing “unlawful and unrelated conditions” on more than $100 million in public safety and disaster grants.

Led by the city of Chicago and filed in federal court in Illinois, Chicago vs. Noem centers on grants administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency for fire department staffing, port and transit security, flood prevention and counter-terrorism measures.

St. Paul alone is at risk of losing $4 million in pending or awarded funds, including funding covering about half the staffing in the city’s Emergency Management department.

“St. Paul families and businesses pay billions in federal taxes,” said St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, in a written statement. “We deserve support in a crisis, not a government that weaponizes government aid.”

Administration demands cities abandon DEI initiatives

To qualify for grant dollars, the Trump administration has demanded that local governments abandon diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and comply with all executive orders related to grant funding.

The lawsuit, according to a written statement from the city, asks the court to stop DHS and FEMA from “using these life-saving funds as leverage for unrelated political agendas.” The plaintiffs maintain that the conditions are unconstitutional and exceed the executive’s authority, falling outside of parameters authorized by Congress.

“Congress has made federal funding of state and local governments’ emergency-management operations an essential linchpin in the systems that secure the nation,” reads the lawsuit. “Without that funding, people across the country will face greater risk of suffering and death from disasters.”

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include St. Paul, Minneapolis, Ramsey County, Baltimore, Boston, the city and county of Denver, Colo., New York City and New Haven, Conn.

Lawsuit: ‘Force multiplier’ at risk

The lawsuit notes that through mutual aid agreements, the recipient agencies sometimes support surrounding cities and jurisdictions, a “force multiplier” at risk of being eroded.

St. Paul expends approximately $2.5 million annually in funds from DHS to provide firefighting equipment and training, emergency response, paramedic training and terrorism prevention. The city’s Emergency Management department currently has a cumulative award of $2.7 million in active grants from DHS, with another $804,000 pending finalization of grant agreements.

The city has applied for another $3.09 million, and anticipates applying for $2.3 million within the next year, according to a written statement. Federal grant dollars cover five of the nine city employees in the Emergency Management department, as well as their equipment and training for emergency response, according to a spokesperson for the mayor’s office.

“These resources are life-saving investments,” said Rick Schute, the city’s director of Emergency Management, in the written statement. “We cannot afford to compromise our ability to respond swiftly and effectively to emergencies.”

Disaster relief funds

The city received about $1.03 million in FEMA-level disaster relief funds for the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and $1.25 million in flood relief for Hidden Falls in 2019, according to Grants Director Lindsay Bacher. Downtown river flooding in 2023 and 2024 did not meet the threshold for FEMA relief.

The legal fight over FEMA and DHS grants is the latest in a series of court battles involving the Trump administration and individual cities, counties or states over access to longstanding federal funding.

In September, a federal judge based in Rhode Island blocked the Trump administration from making disaster aid to states contingent on their cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.

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By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

Netflix missed the earnings target set by stock market analysts during the video streamer’s latest quarter, a letdown that the company blamed on a tax dispute in Brazil.

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The results announced Tuesday broke Netflix’s six-quarter streak of posting a profit that eclipsed analysts’ projections.

The Los Gatos, California, cited an unexpected $619 million expense tied to the Brazilian tax dispute for the earnings shortfall while hailing its lineup of distinctive TV series and films for keeping its audience engaged and delivering a mix of subscriber fees and increased ad sales that helped it deliver revenue that matched analyst forecasts.

Investors, though, weren’t placated by the explanation as Netflix’s shares still fell by about 6% in extended trading after the numbers came out.

Analysts varied in their interpretation of the third-quarter report.

Investing.com analyst Thomas Monteiro worries Netflix is using the Brazilian tax hit as a way to mask signs of a slowdown in subscriber growth and advertising amid economy uncertainty. “The truth is that the company failed to deliver the kind of growth we’ve grown used to over the past couple of years,” he said.

But Zacks analyst Jeremy Mullin said he sees little reason for concern, asserting Netflix’s “underlying story remains solid.”

Netflix earned $2.5 billion, or $5.87 per share, in its July-September quarter, an 8% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 17% from last year to $11.5 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had predicted the Los Gatos, California, company to earn $6.96 per share on revenue of $11.5 billion.

Delivering solid financial growth has become more important than ever for Netflix as management has steered investors from fixating on how many subscribers its service gains from one quarter to the next. As part of that process, Netflix stopped disclosing its subscribers at the end of last year.

The shift has paid off so far, with Netflix’s stock price rising about 40% so far this year, although the downturn in extended trading signaled some of those gains are about to evaporate.

Although Netflix no longer reveals the specific, this year’s revenue growth signals that its worldwide subscriber count has increased from the roughly 302 million it had at the end of last year – by far the most among video streamers, even as rivals with deeper pockets such as Amazon and Apple expand their programming selections.

In the company’s quarterly conference call, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the streaming service’s total worldwide audience — including multiple people living in the same subscriber household — is approaching 1 billion.

“We have a better understanding of the streaming business than any of our competitors,” Greg Peters, Netflix’s other co-CEO, boasted during the call.

Netflix has maintained its lead by adding more live sports and video games to supplement its wide array of scripted programming – a diversification effort that will expand into video podcasts from Spotify next year.

And now Netflix may have another opportunity to add even more compelling programming with Warner Bros. Discovery announcing it may sell all or part of its holdings, which include HBO, DC Studios and CNN. Analysts are already speculating that Netflix may join the bidders looking to grab a piece of Warner Bros. Discovery.

In response to a question about Netflix’s acquisition strategy, Sarandos noted that the company traditionally has been “more builders than buyers” without ruling out a potential bid for some of Warner Bros. Discovery’s properties other than cable TV networks like CNN and TBS. “We can be and will be choosey,” Sarandos said.

The company has also mining a new vein of revenue by selling commercials as part of a low-priced option of its service it introduced three years ago.

Although the advertising business still isn’t large enough to require the company to disclose its sales, management expects its revenue to more than double from last year. A recent analyst by S & P forecast $1.1 billion in ad sales for Netflix this year — a figure that would represent about 2% of its projected total revenue.

It’s getting to the point that Netflix may be in danger of trying to juggle too many ball at once, said Forrester Research analyst Mike Proulx. “If the company goes too broad to become all things entertainment, it risks diluting its core.”