Washington Post Editorial Board: The D.C. school system has made enormous progress. These bills…
IT SEEMS it is time for another reminder of what the District of Columbia public school system was like before mayoral control. School didn’t start on time each fall because buildings weren’t ready. Textbooks stayed stacked in warehouses…
WAMU: D.C.’s Sales And Cigarette Taxes Are Going Up, While Tampons Will Now Be Sold Tax-Free
A number of taxes are increasing in D.C. on Monday, the first day of the 2019 fiscal year. The general sales tax is increasing by a quarter of a percentage point to 6 percent, and the tax charged on beer, malt liquor and wine sold at stores…
WAMU: D.C. Council Members Push For Last-Minute Compromise On Initiative 77
As D.C. lawmakers appear poised to overturn Initiative 77, some Council members are making a last-ditch effort to strike a compromise. Council member Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) says she’s working with Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) on a bill that…
Washington Post: ‘The end of our journey’: A historic black church closes its doors in a changing…
One last time the faithful rose, mounting the steps and flocking into the pews of Lincoln Congregational Temple United Church of Christ, one of Washington’s most historically significant African American churches. They broke bread one last…
New chair of DC Democrats turns focus to boosting turnout, drafting action plan
With at-large DC Council member Anita Bonds having decided to depart the DC Democratic State Committee after 12 years as chair, party members elected fresh leaders Sept. 20 to head the group.
The task before new party officers is tall.…
Washington Post: When it comes to reversing the ridership slide, Metro’s leaders don’t have a plan
Metro’s ridership keeps falling, and the system’s leaders are at a loss for how to fix it. Once comfortably the nation’s second-busiest subway, Metro has lost 125,000 average daily trips over the past decade, plunging it into a quarterly…
Washington Post: Universal preschool boosts presence of D.C. moms in the workforce, study finds
Yolanda Corbett knows she would have to remain at home with her youngest child if he was not enrolled in preschool. She would lose her job as an administrative assistant at a nonprofit and would have to scramble in the evenings to find…
Washington Times: D.C. judge rejects key part of lawsuit challenging Bowser’s chancellor…
A D.C. Superior Court judge dealt what could be a mortal blow to a lawsuit against Mayor Muriel Bowser’s advisory panel on the search for a new school chancellor. On Friday, D.C. Superior Court Judge Anthony C. Epstein declined to award a…
The InTowner: Naming Names: Washington’s Neighborhoods
There’s a kind of sport in identifying the neighborhood name for any particular spot in Washington — a sport played by realtors, developers, and planning geeks. Sadly (or happily), it’s all for naught; there are no official neighborhoods in…
Theresa Vargas in The Post: ‘I need this’: She lost a baby, then her sister. And now, all she wants…
Cyhneil Smith was tempted to stay home. She was supposed to attend a class at a vocational school that morning, but it was raining, and she didn’t have a babysitter. Her son’s father couldn’t take him because he had a job interview. Her…
Washington Post Editorial Board: D.C. should avoid taking a hacksaw to its short-term rental…
FOR MANY people who want to visit Washington, particularly families attracted by the free museums and other highlights of the nation’s capital, the cost of a hotel room can be off-putting. Some stay away or limit their visit; others look…
Washington Post: Aged gibbon, seeker of attention, keeper favorite, dies at National Zoo
She was a distant cousin to all of us, but she was old, perhaps the oldest of her kind in America, and on Friday, the National Zoo’s white-cheeked gibbon was euthanized. Named Muneca, she was born in Cambodia, came to the zoo in 1999, and…
District Dig: Did Mayor Bowser’s “Big Deal” team listen to the court in the McMillan case? Or did…
The skies were clear and blue in the winter sunlight in early December 2016, as Mayor Muriel Bowser plunged a gleaming shovel into a pile of sand and declared the ground broken at McMillan Sand Filtration Facility. It was a perfect day for…
City Paper: Councilmember Elissa Silverman to Introduce Initiative 77 Compromise Tuesday
Councilmember Elissa Silverman was one of the last three councilmembers standing during the 16-hour hearing on the bill repealing Initiative 77, and now we know why. She's been working on replacement legislation that offers a compromise…
Washington Post: Showdown looming at D.C. Council to overturn Initiative 77, the tipped wage hike
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said Friday that he has secured enough votes and is moving ahead to overturn a voter-approved minimum wage increase for servers, bartenders and other tipped workers in the nation’s capital.
Bisnow: Apple Leases D.C. Office Space Across From New Carnegie Library Flagship
Trillion-dollar technology giant Apple is establishing an office presence across the street from the new flagship D.C. store it is preparing to open in the historic Carnegie Library. Apple signed a lease for a full floor, roughly 23K SF, at…
Washington Business Journal: WeDC Fest is in the books: What worked and what didn’t in the…
The inaugural WeDC Fest didn't draw the crowds that organizers expected, but it may be a good down payment for a festival that could eventually evolve into an event reminiscent of Austin's megapopular South by Southwest.
StateScoop: D.C. targets transportation, environment in latest civic app challenge
The District of Columbia announced Friday that it is sponsoring a competition focused on the development of civic-minded computer applications that run on the next generation of broadband and wireless technology. The Gigabit DC Challenge,…
Anthony Williams in The Post: Rethinking D.C.’s ballot initiative process
A strange thing happened this summer. Initiative 77, which, in its most simplistic characterization, increased the minimum wage for tipped workers, was approved in a primary election in June. At first glance and in such a progressive city,…
Brittany Alston of DC Fiscal Policy Institute: Repeal Is Not The Answer. DC Tipped Workers Need A…
Early next week, the fate of Initiative 77 will be decided, when legislation to fully repeal it will be considered. Taking away a pay raise from 29,000 workers—leaving them to make ends meet on $5 an hour plus tips—would be unfortunate,…