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The Trump administration released an "action plan" Wednesday against devastating childhood exposure to lead, but critics said it held little new to protect millions of American children living with high levels of the metal. Children in at least 4 million American households are exposed to high levels of lead, including through old, chipped lead-based paint, or contaminated dust and soil, water and air, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A half-million children ages 5 or younger have blood-borne lead at levels that should trigger public-health intervention, the CDC said. (Knickmeyer, 12/19)

The results landed on Nikolai Vitti’s desk on a late summer afternoon, days before Detroit’s nearly 50,000 public school students would return to class. The findings were definitive and disturbing: In initial tests, two-thirds of schools showed alarming levels of lead in the water. It was the latest in a growing list of crises for Detroit’s new schools superintendent, barely a year into his job. (Dennis, 12/19)