Opinion

District voters may be trying to decide whether to mark yes or no for Initiative 83, a general election ballot measure that could partially open political party primaries to non-members and install a candidate selection system known as…

When I was growing up in a five-generation household in New Orleans, the elders passed around wives’ tales, family lore, adages and ethics lessons as frequently as they did crawfish bisque or jambalaya. My grandmother often warned that,…

I saw her multiple times from the window of the Number 33 bus as we drove past Tenley Circle NW: an older white woman seated on the bench fronted by stacks of black containers, her luggage inside a large cart. It didn’t matter the weather…

On April 3, members of the DC Council took turns questioning Mayor Muriel Bowser about her proposed fiscal year 2025 budget, which she contextualized as an exercise in shared sacrifice. Most of the legislators dismissed that…

Washington, DC, has a violence problem. Earlier this year, federal crime statistics published by the FBI revealed that the nation’s big cities saw murder and violence plummet in 2023. Nationwide decreases were 13% and 6%,…

Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White Sr., who was recently indicted and arraigned on a federal felony charge that includes a claim that he accepted a $20,000 bribe in 2020 from the head of a nonprofit organization that had held a government…

As someone with more than 20 years of experience in youth development in DC, I have witnessed firsthand the importance of collective action in driving positive student outcomes, especially for our most vulnerable populations. As students…

The challenge in Ward 8 right now is comparable, in my mind, to the one confronting millions of mostly rural citizens nationally, who have consistently supported former President Donald J. Trump, believing that, somehow, he will deliver on…

DC Councilmember Trayon White Sr. is a danger to all DC residents — not just those in Ward 8. That’s the only conclusion, in my opinion, anyone can reach after reading the affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Matthew Gano in…

The recent deaths of three individuals in the DC jail bring to light the dire medical care and unsafe conditions that have led to numerous lawsuits. These are not new issues; the jail facilities have been criticized for decades over…

For a group of homeowners in Ward 8’s historic Anacostia neighborhood, the answer to that title question is a resounding “Yes.” They recently filed a housing discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban…

A couple of hours before the DC Council completed the final step in its budget process, approving unanimously by voice vote the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Support Act — with amendments — one member sighed, “We made it through.” No one in…

Initially, I thought about letting it slide. I had already written three columns about the District’s fiscal crisis before the DC Council’s final vote on the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget and Financial Plan. I explained in depth why I was…

In 1954, my father was one of the first Black students to integrate McKinley Technical High School in DC. There, he received an education of a far higher quality than he ever would have had otherwise, enabling him to become the first…

Black, white or brown, across all eight wards, we all want a District that works for and keeps everyone safe, not just the privileged few. Back in March, Mayor Muriel Bowser sent a fiscal year 2025 budget proposal to the DC Council that…

“I’m waiting to see the day when we’ll be at home and pull up the computer and start voting right from there,” Rip Preston told me Tuesday as he worked the polls for at-large Councilmember Robert White outside Turkey Thicket Recreation…

Despite their repeated public commitments to address the housing crisis that has left many without shelter in DC, the Biden administration and Mayor Muriel Bowser have evicted nearly 90 homeless individuals from their communities in Foggy…

The DC Council gave preliminary approval this week to a $21 billion Fiscal Year 2025 Budget and Financial Plan that included dozens of significant adjustments to the proposal submitted in April by Mayor Muriel Bowser. Legislators roundly…

A recent straw poll by the DC Ward 8 Democrats received so much attention on social media, a casual reader may have thought it was a full-on endorsement of candidates running in the June 4 Democratic primary. However, the results meant…

For some Ward 7 residents and political observers the general answer to that question appears to be yes. After all, there is a batch of young politicians who might remind some of that Nina Simone song: “To be young, gifted and Black / Is…