Applications are now open for 2026 NYCHA Resident Climate Action Grants, which fund sustainability projects in the city’s public housing developments. Past winners scored money for community gardens, composting programs and environmentally-focused art workshops.

Past winners scored money for community gardens, composting programs and environmentally-focused art workshops. (Photo by Public Housing Community Fund and The New York Climate Exchange)

Got a climate-friendly idea for NYCHA?

The New York Climate Exchange and the Public Housing Community Fund are now accepting applications to fund resident-led projects that advance climate solutions in the city’s public housing—part of an annual initiative, now in its fourth year, to support things like public gardens and composting.

Residents have until Feb. 12 to submit their ideas for the first step for this year’s NYCHA Resident Climate Action Grants. Approved applicants will then be invited to apply for one of three tiers of funding, ranging from $1,500 or less for one-time or first-time initiatives, to as much as $15,000 for existing projects or organizations that have already made an impact.

The funding has previously been used for things like recycling education and outreach, environmentally-focused art workshops and to expand community gardens. In 2025, grants were awarded to 17 projects across the city, including a campaign to tackle dog waste at the Gowanus Houses, the installation of solar-powered lights and upgrades to public spaces at the Manhattanville Houses, and for cooking and planting classes at the Stapleton Houses.

“Residents have a deep understanding of their communities, and this program empowers them to turn their innovative ideas for sustainability into reality,” NYCHA CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt said in a statement last week.

Find more information and apply here.

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The post Got a Climate-Friendly Idea for NYCHA? This Grant Could Help Fund It appeared first on City Limits.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he won’t tear down the Kennedy Center but said it needs to be closed for about two years for work that cannot be done with patrons coming and going for shows and other performances.

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Trump’s comments, though, suggested that the interior of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will be gutted as part of the process.

“I’m not ripping it down,” the Republican president told reporters following an unrelated announcement in the Oval Office. “I’ll be using the steel. So we’re using the structure.”

Such a project would mark Trump’s latest effort to put his stamp on a cultural institution that Congress designated as a living memorial to President Kennedy, a Democrat, in addition to attempting to leave his mark on Washington through other projects, the most prominent of which is adding a ballroom to the White House.

Trump announced Sunday on social media that he intends to close the performing arts venue on July 4 for about two years, subject to approval by a board led by many of his allies. Trump is also the board’s chairman.

The announcement followed a wave of cancellations by leading performers, musicians and groups since the president ousted the previous leadership and his name was added to the building.

Recalling his past career in construction and real estate, Trump said, “you want to sit with something for a little while before you decide on what you want to do.”

Speaking of the Kennedy Center, he said: “We sat with it. We ran it. It’s in very bad shape,” asserting that the building is “run down,” “dilapidated” and “sort of dangerous.”

“You can’t do any work because people are coming in and out.”

He pegged the cost at about $200 million, including the use of “the highest-grade marbles, the highest-grade everything.”

“We’re fully financed and so we’re going to close it and we’re going to make it unbelievable, far better than it ever was, and we’ll be able to do it properly,” Trump said.

He had said last October, also on social media, that the venue would remain open during construction. But on Monday he said that plan was not feasible.

Tarps are installed in front of the sign on the Kennedy Center on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

“I was thinking maybe there’s a way of doing it simultaneously but there really isn’t, and we’re going to have something that when it opens it’s going to be brand new, beautiful,” Trump said.

“The steel will all be checked out because it’ll be fully exposed,” he said. “It’s been up for a long time, but as anybody knows it was in very bad shape. Wasn’t kept well, before I got there,” he said. “So we’re going to make it, I think there won’t be anything like it in the country.”

Trump promised brand new heating and air conditioning systems as part of his latest construction projects. Since he returned to the presidency, the Kennedy Center is one of many Washington landmarks that he has sought to overhaul in his second term.

He demolished the East Wing of the White House and launched a massive $400 million ballroom project, is actively pursuing building a triumphal arch on the other side the Arlington Bridge from the Lincoln Memorial, and has plans for Washington Dulles International Airport.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services on Monday announced a new push to scrutinize providers in state-run Medicaid programs at high risk for fraud, including a significant expansion of unannounced site visits.

Human Services’ plan to significantly expand on-site validations comes as federal officials threaten to cut off Medicaid funding amid accusations of significant, widespread fraud in programs administered by the agency.

The state is currently appealing a January decision by the administration of President Donald Trump to withhold more than $2 billion in Medicaid funding from 14 high-risk programs. Funding remains in place as the appeals process continues.

Visits to provider in all 87 counties

Starting this week, Human Services is making a call out to Minnesota’s tens of thousands of state employees seeking individuals to fill 168 new positions to visit providers in all 87 counties, according to state Medicaid Director John Connolly.

Officials said the agency currently has “nowhere near” that number of staff for direct site visits, which typically happen every few years to verify that businesses claiming reimbursement from the state are indeed operating where they say they are. Training of new site inspectors is set to begin this month.

“We’ve never done anything on this scale before with provider revalidations, but the people of Minnesota deserve this level of effort so they can be confident in the programming that we offer,” Connolly told reporters on a call announcing the change.

Between now and May, Human Services plans to revalidate more than 5,800 Medicaid providers, including verification of ownership, credentials, background checks and locations. Providers fall under the 13 high-risk programs that are still running but not accepting new licenses.

Federal scrutiny

Changes are part of efforts to engage with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has ramped up threats against the state due to accusations of fraud.

While the exact numbers remain in dispute, former assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson estimated that at least half of the $18 billion in payments in “high-risk” state-run Medicaid programs since 2018 could have been lost to fraud.

State officials, including Gov. Tim Walz, have called that number speculative, and Human Services said available evidence suggested a figure in the hundreds of millions in the same timeframe.

Programs affected by fraud include Housing Stabilization Services — which Human Services moved to shutter in August 2025 after a federal fraud investigation came to light and autism support services.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services head Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Trump appointee, threatened federal funding to Minnesota in December and demanded that state officials put together a “corrective action plan” on fraud.

State appeal may drag on for months

What followed was a series of changes by Human Services — including cutting off new licenses and provider enrollments in more than a dozen programs at high risk for fraud. But federal officials ultimately found the changes unsatisfactory and moved to cut off funding in January.

Connolly said he was disappointed by federal officials’ rejection of their draft action plan, and in a Jan 9 response letter, disputed the legality and legitimacy of Oz’s announcement that he would cut off funding.

The appeal likely will drag out for months. There is no hearing set for Minnesota’s appeal of Oz’s decision, but state officials expect a hearing officer to get the case sometime in mid-March. Once that happens, the officer will set a date.

Meanwhile, the state continues to revise its fraud action plan, Connolly said.

High risk programs

Programs deemed high risk by Minnesota include: Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention Services for Autism; Integrated Community Supports; Nonemergency Medical Transportation; Peer Recovery Services; Adult Rehabilitative Mental Health Services; Adult Day Services; Personal Care Assistance/Community First Services and Supports; Recuperative Care; Individualized

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Home Supports; Adult Companion Services; Night Supervision; Assertive Community Treatment; Intensive Residential Treatment Services; and Housing Stabilization Services.

One of the 14 programs, Housing Stabilization Services, is no longer operating. Human Services ended the program in October after learning of a federal investigation into allegations of significant fraud.