Washington Ranked America’s Sixth Hottest City, DC Fails to Meet Sex Offender Registry Deadline: Morning Links

Billboard Likes 9:30 Club: Billboard recently ranked DC's 9:30 club second on its list of 25 hottest nightclubs in North America. The rankings were based on box-office data.

DC Fails to Meet Sex Offender Registry Deadline: DC doesn't plan to meet a July 27 deadline for a controversial national sex offender registry law, Freeman Klopott reports for the Washington Examiner. The law requires a 25-year tracking of youths as young as 14 who commit violent rapes, among other requirements. Only seven states are in compliance with the law, even though not meeting the deadline means missing out on $250,000 in federal grant money for crime prevention.

Washington Is Sixth Hottest City: The Weather Channel listed Washington as the country's sixth hottest city in America. The average summer temperature here is 86.2 degrees, with 37 days a year on average climbing above 90, WTOP reports. The hottest city was Yuma, Arizona, with an average summer temperature of 104.3 degrees.

Washington Has Highest-Performing Housing Market in the Country: A new market survey shows that the Washington area ranks number one in rising housing prices. Average real estate prices rose 4.4 percent in the first half of this year, says NBC4. Nationally, housing prices sank by 3.2 percent.

Report Finds Corruption in Maryland Transit Department: High-level transportation officials in Maryland have been found both accepting money from companies they awarded lucrative highway contracts to, as well as later accepted positions with companies contracts went to. An audit found that one official arranged a $16 million contract, then retired and got a job with the company 12 days later. The report has been turned over to the state's attorney general, Brian Hughes at the Examiner reports, and the former employees implicated could face criminal charges.

Briefly Noted: A Starbucks in Falls Church removed seating that had become a gathering place for local immigrants. . . . The Wah Luck House in Chinatown buses residents to the suburbs for ethnic foods they can't find in the city.

Kay Steiger