Photo from Wikimedia, Creative Commons license

This morning, a bureaucrat from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control , the nation's preeminent public health agency, was summoned to Capitol Hill, where she was, in all likelihood, reamed out by members of a House subcommittee.

And with good reason, according to congressional investigators, who say CDC officials knowingly mislead District residents about the dangers of drinking the tap water in 2004, when it became public that several neighborhoods around the city were experiencing record-breaking lead levels.

CDC officials rushed to release a soothing report insisting that the amount of lead in the water did not pose a health threat, though they knew the findings were based on misleadingly incomplete data, according to WaPo's reporting on the investigation in today's paper. The Centers also failed to publicize a more comprehensive analysis that later showed children in the effected neighborhoods were more than twice as likely than other kids to have dangerous amounts of lead in their blood.

Since House officials haven't posted a podcast and it would have taken way to much effort to venture over to the Rayburn House Office Building, one can only imagine the grilling received by Dr. Robin M. Ikeda, who testified for the CDC at this morning's hearing of a House Science and Technology subcommittee. A quick perusal of her written testimony shows Ikeda defended her agency’s response to the lead controversy, saying: "CDC’s initial reports did not understate the magnitude of the problem."

Also in attendance was Marc Edwards, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University professor, whose study of the lead in the D.C. water supply provided the fodder for the Post’s reporting and the subsequent uproar. He had a pretty different take on the Centers' performance: He called it “a monumental public health fiasco” that affected tens of thousands of D.C. homes.

Exposure to lead can literally make children dumber: According to the EPA, scientists have linked the effects of lead on the brain with lowered IQ in children, among other things.

Besides wondering how many IQ points D.C. youths lost forever, the episode raises questions about the believability of the CDC, the agency that leads the federal government's analysis and response to a wide range of public health threats – everything from combating swine flu and biological weapons to suggesting guidelines on pH levels in public swimming pools.

This hit to the CDC’s credibility – its performance after Hurricane Katrina was also discussed at today’s hearing – comes during a week filled with bad news on the public health front, much of it the kind that suggests our lifestyle is slowly killing us.

Diane Sawyer kicked off a week of gloomy headlines with hand-wringing on ABC World News Monday night over a study linking ADHD to pesticides found on strawberries, peaches and other produce. According to the researchers, children who test positive for the chemicals are twice as likely to have ADHD symptoms.

And, that's only one of the scary side effects linked to pesticides; Let's not forget about the Potomac River's inter-sex fish problem.

Researchers in Germany, meanwhile, announced that people living in cities tend to have higher blood pressure.

Another bummer: Cologne may lower men's sperm count. So the very same toilet water meant to signal a man's virility might actually be stripping him of it.

In other news to be filed under "counterproductive," suntan lotion is contributing to the death of coral reefs. So all those snorkelers who lather on the lotion before taking a dip are helping to kill off a main attraction to going into the water. Sheesh!

Did you go to Washington City Paper's first-ever Tweetup last night? I didn't. But I hear it was the #besttweetupever. It had to be because @MikeRiggs, formerly of "Freedom Friday" roundup fame, was there, and he was giving out hugs. Did you get one?

A couple of newsworthy things going on: Barack Obama has accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for waging a good war, Harry Reid has likened opponents of the Democrats' health care reform bill to supporters of slavery, and—now for the big one— GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS HAS BECOME THE NEW DIANE SAWYER! He's going to be whipping up souffles as the new co-anchor of Good Morning America! Good morning, America, indeed!

Now, I'm really excited about this (not true), even though I don't watch Good Morning America (true) or the show he's leaving, This Week (also true). But frankly, I'm a little concerned for George (very, very true). Yes, he's served as top political strategist to a president of the United States and, yes, he's interviewed secretaries of state and foreign dignitaries. But can he handle sitting on the couch with a mystery man who donated sperm three times while he was dating the future mother of octuplets who might secretly be those octuplets' father?

Good Morning America viewers seem to think not. The story on GMA's Web site about Stephanopoulos' appointment prompted some 477 comments as of this morning, 476 of which said some version of the following:

-Has the management of ABC lost their minds. G.S. is a liberal prick moron and brings nothing to the show. What a termible mix and burden to place on Robin Roberts. Anyone looking for a reason to change channels just got it

-BIG MISTAKE TO NAME STEPHANO to this position. He snitched on Clinton and he just doesn't cut it. If they wanted more toughness, they should have named anyone other than him.

-George- really???? You're just kidding right????!!!! Ugghhhhhh......

-I have watched GMA since the days of Charlie Gibson, there have been alot of ups and downs with the anchors over the past 20 + years........now I will stop watching because of GS.......didn't like him in the White House and I certainly don't want him in my home every morning.

-Any way to get Joan Lunden back?

-Hey, they should have had Tiger with kate and 8....!!!!

-Please Please leave George in DC.

My prediction: Once he puts on that apron, everyone's gonna love him!

A final note on this chilly morning: Did you know the average American consumes 34 GB of data, via some 100,000 words, a day (only slightly less than the number of calories the average American consumes a day)? This roundup counts toward that total, even if you didn't read all the way to the end.

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This, to me, is an awkward exchange. First, politicians need to stop making jokes about hair-plugs, even if they've got a few. Second, give me a good belly-laugh any day over the halting, drawn-out, don't-know-whether-he's-laughing-or-crying chuckle that consumes Biden for nearly a minute.

Don't get me wrong: I would take a bullet for Joe Biden. But it sure would be nice to see a politician laugh with the joyful abandon of Bill Clinton back in (say) 1995:

According to Dep. Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, Yeltsin was visibly impaired by a serious cognac buzz at the time of the press conference. Clinton, of course, took the situation in stride, later mollifying a vexed Talbott with, er, a stiff highball of truth:

We can't ever forget that Yeltsin drunk is better than most of the alternatives sober.

Now that's what I call straight talk!

In related non-news, a hard-hitting trend-piece published yesterday in the New York Times heralds the umpteenth resurgence of political humor.