Opinion

A fever broke out across the District earlier this week. It was unrelated to COVID-19 or any of its associated variants; it seemed to have affected some public housing leaders, their advocates and so-called progressive political…

Former DC Mayor Marion Barry often extolled the collective and generous forgiving nature of District residents. He said that helped fuel his post-prison comeback, which included elections as the Ward 8 DC Council member, a fourth term as…

There’s currently no guarantee that school librarians will be funded in future DC Public Schools budgets, despite general support for school librarians from both the DC State Board of Education and members of the DC Council. We can fix…

After winning her historic third term as mayor of the nation’s capital and chief executive officer of the DC government, Muriel Bowser started throwing around terms like “transformation.” She is supposed to have a “big ideas” summit Dec. 3…

If you are a DC resident going up for parole — or if you’ve violated parole — your fate is decided by the U.S. Parole Commission. This body is currently staffed by only two commissioners: one from Maryland, and the other from Kentucky. The…

Whew! Raise your hand if, like me, you are happy to see the end of DC’s 2022 election season. Don’t get too comfortable, though. There still are unresolved government management and structural issues as well as political battles — not…

A few weeks ago, before I received an email from DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson with the subject line “My Vision for D.C.’s Future,” I had conversations with several DC residents during which they lamented the fact that neither Mayor…

What makes a great public school, where students can truly thrive, teachers want to teach, and parents want to send their kids? As parents of students who have attended three schools operated by DC Public Schools (DCPS), we have a pretty…

When it comes to economic mobility for young people, their neighborhood and the education it affords are important, but not as important as their social network. A new study from economist Raj Chetty shows who one interacts with while…

DC residents, especially those who are either Medicaid recipients or DC Health Care Alliance members, should be elated that the seemingly endless managed care procurement finally ended this week. In a 10-2 vote, the DC Council approved…

Don’t expect me to mince words here. The DC government and, thus, the entire city, particularly low-income residents, have been drowning in high-cost mediocrity and breathtaking incompetence for decades. Some of the adverse consequences of…

DC voters began receiving their ballots for the November general election this week. The contests for mayor, DC Council chair and council seats in wards 1, 3, 5 and 6 are mostly sleepers; the winners of the June Democratic primary are…

“he highway was lined with yellow wildflowers that danced from their roots every time a car drove by. Smoke seeped up into the sky from the refineries in the distance. Birds that had flown south from an unpredictable winter rose and fell…

A movie scene keeps coming to mind: Someone is operating a metal detector, hoping to get rich quick by discovering gold. The device makes a sound and just beneath the surface is a coin that looks like the real thing — but is it? Unsure,…

Ward 3 DC Council member Mary Cheh stood in front of the Days Inn at 4400 Connecticut Ave. NW on Jan. 27 waiting to begin a community meeting and press briefing. Earlier that morning five people had been shot in one of the rooms inside the…

Late again. DC Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Wayne Turnage and Chief Procurement Officer George Schutter failed to meet the noon July 28 deadline set by the DC Council to address its questions and concerns about why Mayor…

That’s the question Patrice Sulton has been asking herself. Actually, a whole bunch of us have posed a similar query but for different reasons — mostly related to the seemingly unrelenting rise in community violence. The founder and…

“There is a difference between talking loudly and having warm and fuzzy relationships with the press and somebody who gets you-know-what done,” outgoing Ward 5 DC Council member Kenyan McDuffie told me last week during an extended…

Mayor Muriel Bowser and members of her team, including Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Wayne Turnage, appear to be misdirecting the city’s procurement process — yet again. Equally troubling, they are preparing to squeeze the DC…

“It is easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends,” Joan Didion wrote in her 1967 essay, “Goodbye to All That.” She’s right, of course. It may be harder still, however, to see the beginning of the end, which…