jonetta rose barras: Breaking federal tax breaks for DC residents and businesses
Last year, during the city’s annual budget deliberations, Ward 5 DC Councilmember Zachary Parker was on the hunt…
Poor air quality may have more impact on the health of vulnerable communities
By Courtney Curtis, Marymanita Mensah, Johnathan Morales, Daniel Oloju, Shaunavahn Reid, Janae Wilson and Anthony Yang
Global warming is a worldwide problem, but it is felt more acutely in some places than others.
Maranda Ward says…
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After monthslong fight between mayor and council, emergency rental assistance gets more funding
Thousands more District residents who are behind on rent will get help this year than previously expected.
DC will put an extra $20.6 million into the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) in 2024, the Department of Human…
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Council looks to Europe’s social housing as a new solution to DC’s affordability crisis
It’s no secret that it’s expensive to rent in DC, especially for people who make below the city’s median income of $152,000 for a family of four. Despite DC investing hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in building and preserving…
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Community pantries step in with solutions to more than just hunger
By Winnie Chan, Michelle Collins, Shane Gomez and Emily Hawkins
On a brisk spring morning, more than a hundred people snake their way around a group of semitrailers in the shabby parking lot at Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg, Maryland.…
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Within days, DC’s rental assistance program maxes out during first application window
The need for rental assistance in the city is high. DC's Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) reopened on Oct. 1 after closing in March due to the volume of applications. But by Oct. 10, the program closed again, due to high demand,…
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District Links
District Links: Senate Dems blast $1.65 million daily cost of National Guard deployment in DC; Lewis George outlines child care plan; and more
Democrats on a key Senate committee yesterday released a report blasting the Trump administration's deployment of National Guard troops in DC as wasteful, costing nearly $1.65 million a day with little demonstrated effect on violent crime.…
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District Links: Council votes to step up battle with mayor over access to agency budget requests; House backs disapproval resolution; and more
DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson this week overcame objections from several councilmembers and gained renewed support in a long-running dispute with Mayor Muriel Bowser and her administration over the legislature's access to agency budget…
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District Links: Washington Post cuts a third of its staff though widespread layoffs; Senate panel advances disapproval resolution; and more
The Washington Post's local desk was hit hard by today's broad layoffs, which will also mean the elimination of the newspaper's sports department and a considerable reduction in the number of journalists it deploys overseas.
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Still Broken: DC's Child Welfare System
Still Broken: DC’s Child Welfare System
Over the summer, the DC government announced it had reached a settlement in the 32-year class-action lawsuit that…
Children at risk: 32 years and billions of dollars later, DC fails to protect thousands from abuse and neglect
Outside the three-story, red brick apartment building at 935 Division Ave. NE, it must have seemed like an ordinary…
Children at risk: Abuse and neglect investigations are opened too late and closed too soon
One day in April 2020, a person renting a room from Diamond Taylor and Tyvez Jackson in their apartment at 2812…
Children at risk: City’s child fatality reviews don’t prevent future deaths as intended
Gabriel Eason’s name appeared in broadcast media and newspapers for a few weeks following his death in April 2020…
Children at risk: Foster care in DC is no safe haven
The child who arrived at the home of Magdalena and Gabriel Acevedo entered the city’s foster care system, managed…
Children at risk: As DC’s child welfare system trends toward destruction and death, will city leaders embrace transformational change?
“I'm going to make you two promises in this trial,” DC defense attorney Jonathan Zucker told the jury in his…
jonetta rose barras: Breaking federal tax breaks for DC residents and businesses
Last year, during the city’s annual budget deliberations, Ward 5 DC Councilmember Zachary Parker was on the hunt for money to fund a local child tax credit; undoubtedly, he hoped it would be the signature legislation for his first term,…
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jonetta rose barras: Another cloaked and messy week in the DC government
Even before at-large DC Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie announced his resignation last month, everyone inside the John A. Wilson Building knew it was coming, especially his staff. But what did the general public — the taxpayers who fund the…
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jonetta rose barras: Corrupting ethics and transparency in the DC government
When it comes to ethics, the DC Council appears to be going from bad to worse: Last year, it trashed local open meeting laws. After unanimously voting in February 2025 to expel Ward 8’s Trayon White Sr., the legislature permitted his…
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jonetta rose barras: Should the term of DC’s CFO be extended amid this political change?
On Christmas Eve, DC Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton announced she had reintroduced legislation to allow the DC mayor and council to determine the salary of the city’s chief financial officer. “Giving the District the ability to raise the pay…
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Meet RenRiot: A band reshaping DC’s rock landscape one riff at a time
On a recent Friday night, passionate rebellious screams, high-energy drumming and raw guitar riffs echoed outside of O'Shaughnessy's Pub in Alexandria. It was the bar’s Band Nite, themed “Punk in the Alley,” and inside the small, intimate…
The Keegan Theatre’s ‘An Irish Carol’ is good craic and a holiday tradition worth keeping
With the holiday season in full swing, there’s truly no better way to hold onto the Christmas spirit while also supporting local theater in DC than by attending a performance of An Irish Carol at The Keegan Theatre. This beloved production…
Art as a call to action: William Gropper’s bold critique resonates post-election
Did William Gropper leap into the future, or have we been pulled back into the past? Are we truly progressing as a society, or merely cycling through the same struggles in new forms? Seeing William Gropper: Artist of the People, a recently…
Quicksilver resumes some in-person arts activities for seniors after months of physical isolation
At a time when the world has been preoccupied with the health of seniors, dancer and choreographer Nancy Havlik has continued teaching an unlikely approach to the physical and mental well-being of people over the age of 65 — dance.
…
Teenage spirit: High school sophomore’s desire to help people in need starts close to home
Local Templeton Academy sophomore Miguel Coppedge started a fundraiser last year to benefit children in foster care and families experiencing homelessness. His charity donations are destined for St. Ann’s Center for Youth, Children and…
For one little girl, sexual assaults changed her life until she took control. Now she’s a successful public defender.
“On the day my grandmother caught him fondling me, I was wearing my favorite pink cotton dress. Now pink is a trigger for me.”Roz Overstreet-Gonzalez
Growing up, Roz Overstreet-Gonzalez lived a typical life in San Bernardino,…
What We're Reading: DC Headlines
Washington Post: Two in five D.C. students were chronically absent last year, data show
High schools suffered the most, with 60 percent of older students missing weeks of school
DCist: Chronic Absenteeism Remains Stubbornly High In D.C. Schools
Chronic absenteeism and truancy rates improved slightly in D.C. schools, but is still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to new data on the 2022-2023 school year.
Washington Post: First-time home buyers banked on D.C. aid. Then the city changed the rules.
Six years ago, as Alfred Swailes was entering retirement, he started to think: Would he ever be able to own a home in the city where he spent his whole life?
DCist: Capital One Arena Forever Changed Chinatown. Can It Reverse Downtown’s Post-Pandemic Slump?
On December 2, 1997, 26 years ago this week, the MCI Center opened at the corner of F and 6th Streets Northwest in the District’s Chinatown neighborhood. City officials celebrated, hoping the arena…
Axios: D.C. traffic deaths hit 16-year high
D.C. traffic deaths are up more than 60% this year from the same time in 2022, reaching the highest total in 16 years.
DCist: D.C. Attorney General Warns Retailers Not To Discriminate Against Residents Who Use SNAP Benefits
D.C.’s Office of the Attorney General is warning retailers such as grocery stores and convenience stores to not discriminate against residents who are paying for food with Supplemental Nutrition…
Washington Post: D.C. residents weigh in on Bowser’s bill to address crime trends
Dozens of D.C. residents, business owners and activists on Wednesday sounded off at a hearing on a crime and policing bill introduced last month by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), offering mixed opinions…
Washington Post: In downtown D.C., a long-vacant historic building could pose opportunity
In its past life, the Webster School in downtown Washington had been many things: a segregated school for White children built in 1882, an “Americanization” school for assimilating immigrants after…
DCist: New Bill Would Reduce Responsibilities Of D.C.’s Embattled 911 Agency
A new D.C. Council bill would transfer some 911 dispatching responsibilities away from the troubled Office of Unified Communications and back to the D.C. fire department. The bill, which Ward 1…
City Paper: Litigious Dupont Lawyer Ed Hanlon Claims Brooke Pinto Repeatedly Violated Campaign Finance Law
Hanlon believes Pinto improperly mixed Council and campaign business, filing complaints just as her reelection bid heats up.