Category: Washington D.C. News

WASHINGTON – Natasha Smith is exactly the kind of woman the District of Columbia Department of Health’s Healthy Start Program was designed for when it was established 20 years ago. Smith is 19, single, living with her grandmother in the Trinidad neighborhood of Washington and six months pregnant with her first child. Her initial reaction […]

In the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death, security has been heightened around transportation systems in major metropolitans, including Washington, D.C. Agencies have been warning the public of potential vengeful acts from bin Laden’s followers. Those fears were magnified since during the attack on the al-Qaeda leader’ hideout, Navy SEALs confiscated papers that revealed a […]

(America’s Wire) — Since the housing market collapsed, mortgage lending to African Americans and Hispanics has plunged precipitously – by more than 60 percent, according to a new study of loan information that banks submit to the federal government. Together, African Americans and Hispanics were able to borrow 62 percent less to buy or refinance […]

Local organizations say they are already feeling the effects of a move to end government funding for abortions in the District of Columbia. The DC Abortion Fund has seen an outpouring of financial support since H.R. 3, No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, was introduced. The House passed the GOP-backed legislation May 5 and it […]

Mayor Vincent C. Gray and DC Council Chairman Kwame Brown have hit a snag on increased taxes as one way to close the budget deficit. Gray proposes an increase in income and property taxes to add $35 million to the revenue stream. Brown opposes it without any apparent plans on the table as a substitute. […]

D.C. school officials say about 660 teachers and other school employees have been told that their jobs will be eliminated next month because of budget concerns and shifting enrollment within the school system. The process known as “excessing” allows for a redistribution of jobs. Schools with budget or other changes often lose jobs, which then […]

Dozens of public schools in the District were roped off with yellow tape on May 5, as FBI agents and fire officials investigated suspicious letters that contained white, powdery substances. The FBI’s National Capital Response Squad, along with the D.C. Fire Department, the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service responded to repeated […]

Racial threats were hurled at one of the District’s most prestigious Black churches after a visit from President Barack Obama on Easter Sunday. Shiloh Baptist Church, in northwest Washington, became the target of criticism after a member of the FOX Nation, a national organization of White conservatives, linked statements made by the church’s pastor on […]

In the third wave of D.C. Council hearings investigating hiring missteps made in Mayor Vincent Gray’s initial administration on April 29, Sulaimon Brown and Cherita Whiting were no-shows, again. Brown was among several employees caught in a dragnet initiated by the local press, which questioned the hiring practices—including allegations of nepotism, cronyism, excessive salaries and […]

The news came just a little before midnight on March 1: Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the devastating terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was dead. After a decade of eluding capture by America’s and its allies’ forces, the al-Qaeda leader was killed in a U.S. special forces attack on his compound in Abbottabad, […]