The gala will be held Thursday, Oct. 23rd, from 6-10 pm at the Blackburn Center on campus. This first of a kind homecoming event, along with other major university changes, is part of an effort to support the university鈥檚 military-connected community, an effort spearheaded by Paris Adon, director of student services. 

Howard offers Army, Air Force, and Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs鈥攕tudents who participate train, study, and graduate to become officers in their respective military branches.  

The military-connected community, however, includes student veterans and military dependents using their benefits to attend school.  

Adon said, 鈥�80% of the students who use our services are dependents.鈥�  

Adon heads six university offices, including the Office of Military and Veteran Services (OMVS), Advocacy and Support, Student Accessibility, Bison Intervention, the Pantry, and the Office of Interpersonal Violence Prevention (IVPP). Since he came to the university, there have been several renovations, the most recent being the Veterans Resource Center.  

Armed with a grant from the Department of Education and significant investment from the university, Adon has overseen major changes. The grant allowed for renovations to create the Veterans Resource Center, and the university added staff to help support the military-connected population, which has grown to nearly 700 students since Adon arrived.  

The success of the VRC is in large part due to the community being built within the space, Adon said. He said he takes pride in the fact that it’s a popular destination, even with students who have off-campus housing. 

鈥淭he students come down here to enjoy themselves,鈥� Adon said. 鈥淭he SVA meetings are packed.鈥� 

The SVA is the Student Veterans of America, a student organization that uses the space for meetings and is made up of mainly military-connected students. Restarting the chapter was another win for Adon.  

Mentorship from the Ohio State University SVA chapter helped make the Gala possible. 

The Ohio State chapter suggested Adon pitch the idea to the school鈥檚 development office.

鈥淲hy don’t we do it during homecoming?鈥� the development office asked Adon. 

The gala will honor Brigadier General Ronald Sullivan, an Army judge advocate general (JAG), graduate of Howard鈥檚 ROTC program, and the School of Business. There will be additional awards for cadets and SVA members. 

鈥淎 lot of campus partners don鈥檛 realize how connected this community is,鈥� Adon said.  

For the students, the community is a huge draw.  

鈥淚f you come down here often enough, you鈥檒l know everybody,鈥� said Xavier Rodriguez, a junior.  鈥淚t’s a chill place where a lot can go on, and nothing can go on.鈥�  

Adon said he has tried to attend the commissioning ceremonies for the programs the university offers. His constant effort to make more connections across the campus is evident whenever he steps outside of his office.  

鈥淲e鈥檝e done so much under his leadership,鈥� said Senior Vice President of Student Affairs Cynthia Evers. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e doing amazing things, and now others call on them.鈥� 

Adon said he is most proud of what the students are doing with the space that he has helped create.  Not only is it a place for them to hang out, it’s a place for them to get answers, he added.  

鈥淎ny resource that Howard has, someone here knows about it,鈥� said Joshua Gaither, a sophomore.  

Armani Bostic is a third-year law student at Howard who visits the VRC often.  

Bostic said she completed a work study program with the Veterans Administration and has found both community, and mentorship opportunities.  

鈥淚 go to school on west campus,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his is a great way to interact with the main campus.鈥�

Adon said the staff he has built in and around the center is just as focused on creating those positive outcomes.

鈥淲e want to be the number one Student Veterans of America chapter,鈥� Adon said. 

Keshala Fluker, one of the VRC case managers said for her, it鈥檚 about helping the students when they鈥檙e navigating hard times.  

鈥淪ometimes you don’t know you need something until you experience it,鈥欌�� she said. 

She also said, there are more great things to come.

 鈥淚 think the more traction the VRC gets, the more positive outcomes we鈥檒l see,鈥� she said.  

Tickets for the event, which start at $100, are still available, and can be purchased online.

The post Red, White, and Bison Gala is another Howard military community win first appeared on 最新蜜桃影像.

鈥淚 tried to ask like, 鈥榗an you tell me why I wasn’t eligible for VSIP?鈥� she said of the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment. The response:听 鈥淐rickets.鈥�

DeLancey is just one of the 3,500 FDA employees on a rollercoaster ride since April 1, when the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, initiated mass layoffs.

Former federal employees have been plunged headfirst into a sea of unemployment and early retirement, some re-entering the DMV workforce for the first time in years.

As pile up, many employees remain in limbo on their job status. A few have been rehired, but not enough to replace the thousands who have left. Currently, former employees who have not retired early have been placed on administrative leave. Those leaves are set to expire on June 2.听

Former employees described the aftermath of mass layoffs as chaotic, with communication about their next steps being especially strained.听

DeLancey, for example, said she emailed the incentive payment program team seven times, and after weeks of cold emailing, she was officially denied the week of May 4.听

VSIP is a $25,000 payment available to all laid-off employees who meet its criteria, but it is offered as a stack-on to early retirement candidates.听

Applications for early retirement and VSIP were due shortly after the two exit strategies were announced.

That means DeLancey had 11 days to decide if she wanted to retire early from her 21-year career. Otherwise, she would鈥檝e been laid off.听 Ultimately, she digitally signed her early retirement slip, and her retirement date was set for April 19.听

For the FDA, DeLancey, of Union Bridge, Maryland, served as the senior advisor for strategic communications in the Center for Veterinary Medicine for the last seven years of her career at the Rockville, Maryland, campus. There, she led a team of health communication specialists who reported on vital health updates to the public.

鈥溾�夾 lot of people think that we’re just like puppies and kittens and happy, feel good stories,鈥� DeLancey said.听鈥淭here is a lot more to that that people don’t think about because we regulate what goes into the animals that become your food, and I felt like that perspective was often lost.鈥澨�

The work left behind

Before layoffs swept the work off DeLancey鈥檚 desk, her team had still been closely monitoring the bird flu 鈥攁 health threat that she said could potentially be worse than COVID if left unmonitored.

鈥溾�奧e have the potential of another epidemic, another worldwide epidemic at our doorstep, and you’re gonna fire the people who are working on it directly? That is the one that just really kills me,鈥� DeLancey said.

DeLancey outlined more risks attached to FDA firings in her opinion piece to Food Safety News on April 22. She said she鈥檇 been thinking about writing this article 鈥渁 long time before it ran.鈥�

鈥溾�奍 really wanted to write it after the first when my team got laid off but I was afraid that the administration would take revenge. I’ve never felt that way in any other position that I’ve been in,鈥� DeLancey said.

Currently, she is waiting to see if she鈥檒l receive her work performance award for top performers in 2024, which could be a small cash award of around $500 to $800.

鈥淭hose awards are usually made around this time [of year] and no one knows if we will actually get them,鈥� she said in a text message.

DMV economy strained; institutional knowledge wiped

While the economic impact of federal layoffs continues to unfold, some experts believe that layoffs, combined with current unemployment, are a double-edged sword. In other words: loss of fundamental work, loss of knowledge.

The public is generally aware of the layoffs. But to others, the situation is more personal. Celeste Davis thinks about its impact on her community.听

鈥淚鈥檓 worried about the red dye and food, but I’m also worried about if my neighbors can actually afford food, too,鈥� Davis said in a Zoom interview.听

Davis is an American University health studies professor. Though her work does not directly overlap with the FDA, she thinks about her friends and colleagues who have lost their jobs, and what it means for the future of public health training.听

In terms of how the public can trust the health information being released post-layoffs, Davis said she doesn鈥檛 know.

鈥淚f we’re changing research data to not have certain words because of political ideologies, that doesn’t sound good. And if that’s going to be the sentiment across all these types of actions, that’s not good,鈥� Davis said.

鈥楤read and butter鈥� let go.

Losing institutional expertise is costly enough, but it also sets off a ripple effect that hits the entire support team.

Under normal circumstances, Sydney Verdine鈥檚 department would鈥檝e helped DeLancey with things like early retirement. Verdine鈥檚 support to staff went beyond that, and she helped between 300 and 500 departments, she said.

鈥淭here’s people who are pending early retirement and they don’t know what date [they end], they don’t know when to take their stuff. You know, they’re just sitting there,鈥� Verdine said in a phone interview.

Verdine, 35, is a Maryland resident who worked as a management analyst in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the White Oak, Maryland, campus. She said her entire team were let go, even her superiors.

She described her department as the backbone of the work that is done at the FDA.

鈥淲e were the operating staff, the bread and butter, you know, just to help everything run smoothly, and I have been told that without us being there 鈥� it’s chaotic without us there,鈥�

Verdine was asked to help with timekeeping and credit entry while she鈥檚 on administrative leave, but said there wasn鈥檛 much help she could offer since she didn鈥檛 have access to everyone鈥檚 timesheets.听

鈥淓very ecosystem needs every single part to thrive. And when you pull something from the ecosystem, it messes with it. It’s no longer the same,鈥� Verdine said.

A chainsaw vs. a scalpel听

听An FDA instructional systems specialist requested that their name not be used after seeing an article about investigations targeting laid-off workers who had spoken听to the press.

The former FDA employee trained physicians to be clinical reviewers, creating master classes, e-learning materials and instructional recordings to ensure physicians are up to speed. They described their role as 鈥渘o other training in the world.鈥�

Clinical reviewers at the FDA oversee the testing of new medications during clinical trials, where they assess side effects and determine whether the medication is safe for release to the public. Clinical reviewers have a year to review all data to make a final determination.听

The former FDA employee worked remotely from the Midwest, where their work was shared across all FDA campuses.听

With a gut to almost all of the former FDA employee鈥檚 team, only the physicians, who are also training clinical reviewers, remain standing. The former employee stated that it’s not safe for them to perform their job alone.

鈥溾�奣o me, I feel like it’s just dangerous to not have people who are fully trained to do their job, and there’s nothing available and there’s not going to be anything available for who knows how long,鈥� they said.

鈥溾�嬧�嬧�奍 knew that the Republican agenda was to cut the workforce. What I didn’t realize is how they were going to do it. I didn’t realize they were gonna take a chainsaw versus a scalpel,鈥� the former FDA employee said.

Termination letter errors

The former employee said they were one of many other former federal workers that reported mistakes in their termination letter.

最新蜜桃影像 issued to highlight the sections the former FDA employee identified as incorrect. These edits do not reflect all potential errors, as the former employee is still consulting with their superiors to better understand the letter鈥檚 contents. Certain areas of the letter have been blacked out to protect the individuals’ identities.

On April 29, the Health and Human Services (HHS) Public Affairs office received a request to comment on why employees had errors on their RIF letters and whether official corrections would be issued.听

This was the explanation for why errors occurred.

鈥淎ll of the data in the RIF notices was populated from HHS鈥檚 human resources system of record. To the extent there are errors, it is because the data collected by HHS鈥檚 multiple, siloed HR divisions is inaccurate. This is exactly why HHS is reorganizing its administrative functions to streamline operations and fix the broken systems left to us by the Biden Administration. Streamlining this into one operation will allow for enhanced data integrity and coordination,鈥� said an HHS spokesperson.

When asked if the errors would be corrected, the spokesperson did not respond.

Living in Limbo as Gen Z

The FDA was Menna Ibrahim鈥檚 first big career move as a 25-year-old graduate student, and her work has already crumbled before her.

This month, Ibrahim is set to graduate from the Merrill College of Journalism MA program. She also worked full-time as an FDA recruitment and outreach management analyst since July 2022.

听鈥溾�奍t’s already hard to navigate your first job as is. And it seems to be significantly more difficult when the government and the people that are supposed to protect you, quote unquote, are making it significantly harder to navigate,鈥� Ibrahim said.

After being unable to return to the FDA communications department since the April 1 layoff, Ibrahim still has yet to receive a RIF letter.听听

Ibrahim resides in the Trinidad neighborhood of Northeast D.C., about an hour鈥檚 commute from her Rockville FDA campus.听

She had the day off on April 1, but woke up to the news of her colleagues and supervisor being terminated. Her supervisor told her to log in to her work email to see if she had received the RIF sent out at 6:05 that morning.

Ibrahim logged in at 8 a.m. 鈥� nothing. She texted her colleagues to see what was going on.

鈥溾�奣hey had all received theirs. And so I was really confused. I was like, 鈥楧o I still have a job? Do I not? What’s the vibe?鈥� Ibrahim said in a phone interview.

Her supervisor said that the letter may arrive in her inbox around noon, and to keep an eye on her laptop.

By mid-May, the message had still not arrived.

Click on the image above to begin slideshow

A part of Ibrahim hoped she survived the swinging axe of unemployment. The next day, she drove the hour-long commute to the Rockville office. She swiped into the garage, and her card worked. But she still had to swipe into the building. Her building swipe didn鈥檛 work, and at that moment, she鈥檇 realized her job was gone.

Ibrahim had a feeling she wouldn鈥檛 survive staffing cuts anyway being the youngest on her team.

听鈥淚 knew if they were going to keep one person on my team, the likelihood that it would be me is super low because I have way less experience than the people that I worked with,鈥� she said.

Ibrahim鈥檚 work as a recruitment and outreach management analyst supported student interns and post-graduates. She also managed the FDA鈥檚 LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) page and wrote for the agency鈥檚 bimonthly newsletter.

She planned to stay at the FDA until she found her dream job to be in a newsroom after graduation, but the security net fell beneath her.

鈥淏ecause I’ve been let go, things feel a lot more urgent and I feel like I’m a lot more desperate to take on any role that will pay me,鈥� Ibrahim said.

Being a journalist and a former FDA employee hasn鈥檛 been easy for Ibrahim, but she said being a reporter makes her 鈥渉ave so much more empathy for federal workers.鈥�

Frustrations continue after layoffs

Corrilisha Telford couldn鈥檛 attend Robert F. Kennedy Jr.鈥檚 on April 11 because she was let go, but said her colleagues who could attend told her they were 鈥渧ery upset鈥� by his remarks.

In Kennedy鈥檚 speech at the White Oak campus, he referred to the FDA as a 鈥渟ock puppet for the industry it was supposed to regulate,鈥� which were one of the many statements that did not sit well with the crowd.

There are 鈥減eople [who] are still working there, and you’re telling them that their work doesn’t matter basically,鈥� Telford said.

Kennedy has that his plans to slash health agency staff will lead to significant cost savings, and projected the layoffs to save taxpayers $1.8 billion annually.

Telford said that cuts to her department would not save taxpayers any money, as it’s funded by user fees 鈥� charges paid by individuals or businesses to government agencies for access to services and resources.听

Telford, 28, of Silver Spring, Maryland, worked for the FDA for three and a half years, and in the last nine months of her role, she worked in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). Her office handled regulatory policy.听

For her colleagues who remain, she is worried about how they will be able to function with a minimized staff.

鈥淚’m concerned for my colleagues, because it’s not working.鈥�

Telford said she鈥檚 unsure how she fits into the world now. Within her first two weeks of unemployment, Telford applied for 20 to 30 positions, but the required skill sets don鈥檛 fully mirror her FDA expertise.

Like Verdine, Telford was also asked if she could return to work after the layoff to help with the transition of work.

Telford did not take up the offer.听

鈥溾�奧hy would I do that? Y’all laid me off. Why would I help you?鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd that goes to show you, they just don’t have enough people.鈥�

The post Mass layoffs plunge DMV federal workers into sudden hardship first appeared on 最新蜜桃影像.

Election results that do not align with the hopes of a voter are what health studies professor and registered dietician Dara Ford describes as an example of acute stress. Though acute stress is typically short-term, it has the ability to suppress appetite hormones in the body, Ford said.

Several Harris supporters tell 最新蜜桃影像 they are experiencing exactly that following Harris’ defeat in the presidential race.听

鈥淚t’s almost like a fight or flight response and because of that, the body’s not focused on getting food and digestion. It’s really almost a survival mode at that point,鈥� Ford said.听

Ciara Taylor was a first-time voter in this election and tried to maintain an optimistic outlook but couldn鈥檛 shake the feeling that things could go drastically south.听

When Taylor realized the voting numbers were in favor of Donald Trump, she didn鈥檛 eat anything and said she 鈥渇elt a heavy cloud鈥� over her.

She turned on the news to keep up with the election updates, but not too much later, she had to shut the television off. 鈥淚t was starting to make my stomach hurt鈥� [and] I tend to carry my anxiety in my stomach,鈥� she said.听

Taylor spent the night mostly awake and had to turn off her phone from fear of seeing more states turn red.听

鈥淚 started to get a little bit hopeful and then I heard about something called a 鈥� but it started to look a little bit more than a red mirage, so I decided I was going to not look at the results, but I couldn’t help myself,鈥� she said.听

Donald Trump was announced as the 47th president in the early hours of Nov. 6, and Taylor could not stomach the thought of what the next four years will look like for her.听

鈥淚t was weird because I was forgetting about an appetite like there were so many things running through my head that I was just forgetting that an appetite even existed,鈥� she said.听

Taylor had to remind herself to eat in the days that followed, but even when she did, she could only tolerate bland foods.听

鈥淚 would be nauseous before I ate, but also nauseous because I didn’t eat and then just be more nauseous after I ate and it just wasn’t really going too well with me,鈥� she said.听

Nina Thomas realized she lost her appetite a week before the election, and once the results were called, her prioritization to eat dwindled.听

鈥淭he night of the election, I did not eat,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he day after the election, I did not eat again just out of sadness and reflections of the outcome of the election and feeling like that sense of hopelessness.鈥澨�听

Thomas didn鈥檛 eat her first full meal until two days after the results at 10 p.m., and as someone who typically enjoys cooking, she said it still felt like a chore.听

鈥淚 feel like I’m not finding enjoyment in a lot of things post-election and anxiety just kind of takes the fun out of a lot of things,鈥� she said.听

Kelsey Espada went to bed at 11 p.m. on the night of the election and said she woke up at six in the morning because she 鈥渉ad the jitters.鈥� She woke up in disbelief.听

鈥淥nce I looked, I actually told myself I was like, no, this has to be a dream. Let me go back to sleep. 鈥〢nd once I actually got up, I looked at the results again, and I noticed, okay, this is real life.鈥�听

Espada said she and her family had all felt queasy after seeing the results, and that she didn鈥檛 feel like herself.听

鈥淚 actually felt sick to my stomach, and I didn’t want to eat. I really didn’t,鈥� Espada said.听

Espada said she had high hopes for the election and believed that Harris was fit for the role of being the next president. But the road to 270 had just been too steep.听

Espada ate her first full meal three days after the election, and even though she was working to gain her strength back, she said 鈥渢he fight continues on.鈥�听

鈥淚 think right now things might look a little blurry and I think we’re all in this state of uncertainty, but I think as long as we are continuing to build community, advocate for one another and really just coming together, especially for those who are people of color, I really think that is what will be the best bet,鈥� Espada said. 听

According to the American Psychological Association, skip a meal due to stress.听

Ford said that within the 鈥渇irst 12 hours鈥� of not eating enough, people can begin noticing the shifts in their body after skipping a meal.听

鈥淵ou can have headaches, fatigue, irritability. 鈥㏕hat’s all very short term when it comes to not eating enough,鈥� she said.听

But Ford warns against allowing the short-term effects of undereating to turn into long-term effects, as it can be more harmful to the body.听

鈥淟onger term would be concerns like nutrient deficiencies,鈥� Ford said. 鈥淪hort-term stress can become long-term, and then typically long-term stress.鈥�听

While it may be difficult to hold food down in moments of appetite loss, Ford advises those who are having a hard time to try to take care of themselves in the small ways they can.听

鈥淭ry to eat your regular meals in a day. Maybe they’re smaller, maybe it’s different foods, but making sure you’re eating at regular intervals, eating foods that feel good to you at that time. Getting a vegetable and getting a fruit in is great,鈥� Ford said.听

When 最新蜜桃影像 presented the question of appetite loss due to the election results through an Instagram story, only women came forward. While men can have a shared experience, registered dietician Elsa Chu believes the topics discussed during campaigns may have made this election 鈥渕ore personal鈥� to women.听

鈥淚 think a lot of men feel frustrated and angry and scared on a political level, but they aren’t afraid that some of their fundamental rights are being violated,鈥� Chu said.听

Chu specializes in sports nutrition and eating disorders at , and said it is 鈥減retty normal to lose an appetite鈥� during times of emotional instability.听

鈥淭hat part of us that when we feel deeply unsafe, when we feel scared, when we feel panicked or anxious, a lot of people’s appetite will turn off because that’s kind of a safety sense that we need to feel,鈥� Chu said.听听

Chu described the nervous system as categorized into two functions: fight or flight, rest, and digest. When someone is in fight or flight mode due to high stress levels, they have trouble accessing their rest and digest function, leading to sleep and appetite loss.听

Chu said that even though 鈥渟elf–care becomes much more prescriptive鈥� during times of high stress, getting back to self-care habits requires 鈥渁 lot of gentleness with ourselves.鈥�听

鈥淓ven if the world is crashing around you, your body deserves and needs care and needs nutrients and needs rest,鈥� Chu said.听听

For those who are having trouble gaining their appetite, Chu said, 鈥渢ry to find someone else or find community or find bonding. For a lot of people that helps ease anxiety not around eating, but with eating. If you want to share a meal with somebody else, that tends to help us de-block.鈥�听

If you or someone you know is having trouble with their eating habits due to stress, please refer to 听

The post After Kamala Harris lost the election, some voters lost their appetite first appeared on 最新蜜桃影像.

Francis Stevens, which houses elementary and middle school students, is in its final year of a three-year modernization process. The $57 million project is slated to be completed for the start of the 2024-2025 school year.听

鈥淚鈥檓 confident that D.C. Public Schools will tell us that our building is ready for next year, I do not know if the building will actually be ready or ready to a degree of quality,鈥� said Zach Carroll, a middle school social studies teacher at Francis Stevens, as well as the Washington Teachers Union representative for the school.

Another DCPS school is expected to relocate to the temporary facility that Francis Stevens is currently using in the next school year, he said, so Francis Stevens staff and students will likely have to move back into the school鈥檚 2425 N St. NW location whether the modernizations are satisfactory or even completed.

Parents also expressed a lack of faith in the quality of the modernization and in the city actually listening to feedback.听

Leah Shoval, the parent of three children at the school, said, 鈥淭hey鈥檙e still not necessarily listening to the needs of the community, per se, in terms of things we care the most about. There are obvious budgetary constraints.鈥�

Parents and teachers also expressed concerns that the school community has received about the modernization is heavily filtered and infrequent, leading to a lack of confidence in the project.

鈥淚 think we get fed information from the architecture firm a lot and from the [Department of General Service] project managers that is self-serving to some extent, and so it鈥檚 hard to know what鈥檚 actually getting communicated to the community,鈥� Shoval said.

The DCPS facility planning and design point person on the project, Matthew Dela Cuesta, said he has no concerns and the modernization is on track to be completed on time and ready for the upcoming school year.

鈥淏y all accounts, we will be opening up in time to open the school and welcome students for school year 2024-2025,鈥� Dela Cuesta said.

He also said the brunt of the requested feedback from the community was during the design phase of the project, back in 2021. However, economics have changed since the budget for the project was last decided, and the allocated funding has not.

鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 feel like our voices are being heard and/or that budgets are being changed with inflation, with material costs, anything like that,鈥� Shoval said.

After two years in a temporary facility鈥搕he old Benjamin Banneker school two miles away鈥損eople are ready for a new building but hesitant that they will have the quality, modernized building promised by the city.听

Already, some students have transferred due to the modernization, whether families don鈥檛 want to deal with children being bussed across town or for other reasons.

鈥淎 lot of people kind of jumped ship because they didn鈥檛 want to go across the city and get bussed across the city during the modernization, so the student body has sort of changed as well,鈥� Shoval said.

Laura Frazier moved her elementary-aged son to another nearby public school at the start of the 2022-2023 school year before students were moved to the temporary site at Banneker.

鈥淲e chose to send him to the new school because of number one, communication not being great, the length of time they were going to be displaced, and then the convenience,鈥� Frazier said. 鈥淲e had another option available in our neighborhood that was an equally good school.鈥�

Another family moved their daughters to the same school that Frazier moved her son to, she said.

鈥淭hey did the same thing we did,鈥� Frazier said. 鈥淭hey came to the same conclusion and switched both of their daughters to the other school.鈥�

Communication was a key factor in the decision for Frazier to move her son.

鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 really tell us any information, which motivated us to change schools, because they weren鈥檛 really keeping everyone up to date and clear on the modernization project. Plus the school that we sent him too was already renovated so we knew that there would be no chance of him having to re-locate or re-shuffle to a different place.鈥�

According to data from DCPS and the National Center for Education Statistics, enrollment at the school has dropped from the 2019-2020 school year, which was before the modernization construction began, from 540 to 479 students last year.

Additionally, Carroll said the temporary facility that Francis Stevens currently inhabits, this past week has had temperatures of over 90 degrees in a few elementary classrooms, Shoval and Carroll both said they have seen flooding as well as rats and mice in the building.

Shoval said her children have told her about heat issues at Banneker and continue to wear shorts and short-sleeved shirts to school, even in the winter, to deal with the high temperatures in the building.

鈥淭hey鈥檝e said things like, 鈥榠t鈥檚 so hot don鈥檛 make me go to school with pants on, don鈥檛 make me go to school with long-sleeve shirts on, I never have enough water during the day,’ 鈥� she said. 鈥淪o all of those things to me create a learning environment that鈥檚 not exactly conducive to optimal learning spaces.鈥�

Carroll also said he鈥檚 noticed disengaged students and attributed some of the lack of interest to the heat.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really difficult to lead effective instruction for young people and for young people to feel motivated coming to school when the school building is that hot and they don鈥檛 see anything being done to fix the issues,鈥� he said.听

Students feel undervalued and are more cognizant of the city鈥檚 lack of upkeep of their school building than many people realize, he said. They also appear tired and sleepy, and the heat in the building is likely a contributing factor.

鈥淭hey have the feeling that they鈥檙e uncared for,鈥� Carroll said. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 see care for their personal well-being and basic needs.鈥�

The post Francis Stevens parents lack confidence that DCPS can deliver promised modernized school first appeared on 最新蜜桃影像.

Wright, 63, has been a poll worker in Washington, D.C., for 30 years and has been a site coordinator for several of these elections. Expecting a good turnout on Election Day, Wright said he and workers at his site feel safe and prepared for today鈥檚 voters.听

鈥淚 haven’t heard of anyone being threatened around here [and] I haven’t heard of anyone being afraid of being threatened,鈥� Wright said. “It may simply be that this is a small, closed-in city, and therefore being able to make anonymous threats isn’t as easy.鈥�听

Since 2020, threats to election workers, from top elected officials to citizen volunteers, have , according to the Center for American Progress. With many former volunteers fearful of persecution, lower turnout for election workers this year.听

Nick Jacobs, public information officer for the D.C. Board of Elections, said overall, they have not seen these risks come to the nation鈥檚 capital.听

鈥淲e’ve pretty much been spared all of that,鈥� he said.听

Today鈥檚 election worker numbers are on par with previous years in D.C., Jacobs said, with just under 1,900 workers trained as of last week.听

Robin Raphel, who describes herself as 鈥渟emi-retired,鈥� is at Annunciation Church today for her first time as an election worker. As a voter assistance clerk, Raphel said her job is 鈥渢o ease the way for people鈥� by greeting those who come inside, helping voters submit their completed ballots, and giving them an 鈥淚 voted鈥� sticker at the end.听

鈥淚t’s meant to be a pleasant experience, so that people keep coming to vote,鈥� Raphel said.听

Training, a four-hour class required for all workers, involved learning how to assist voters, including anyone with disabilities, Raphel said. Security is also a part of training, according to Jacobs, who said workers learned how to ensure ballots are protected and safely returned from the site to the D.C. Board of Elections for tabulation.听

鈥淲e ensure that all locations are safe and secure both to protect ballots and to protect voters and election workers,鈥� Jacobs said.听

At Annunciation Church, like other voting sites, Wright said their ballot box inside is under lock and key. At the end of today, he and another witness will take out the ballots for them to be transported in a specially sealed bag by an election worker and police officer to the Board of Elections.听

鈥淚 think the District of Columbia does a pretty good job, cumbersome though it is, of making sure the will of the people is duly recorded,鈥� Wright said.听

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鈥淭here鈥檚 plenty of space to build in D.C.,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to take one of the last greenspaces here that鈥檚 of historic value to the city, historians and definitely the community.鈥�

Supporters of preserving McMillan suffered a recent loss as the D.C. Court of Appeals is allowing demolition to begin. Despite the Sept. 29 ruling, community members and organizations, like , have filed lawsuits challenging the city鈥檚 demolition permits.

The 25-acre park has been the center of other court battles since ideas of redevelopment started, including

consisting of EYA Inc., Trammell Crow Co. and Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners designed a 2.1 million-square-foot plan that will include office spaces, housing, condos, a grocery store, a park and a community center.听

Carson said the development plans are too much. She wants to see a more effective development to preserve the greenspace like building an amphitheater or a park that would be open to the public.听

鈥淲e just need smart development and we don’t have smart leaders,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think the mayor and her entire team lack vision and I think they鈥檙e going to be sorry if they develop this place to the extent that they want to develop it.鈥�

Renowned architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. designed the grounds of the park, which became open to the public in 1912. The park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and

In 2016, Mayor Muriel Bowser, Ward 5 Councilman Kenyan McDuffie and others broke ground on the site. The groundbreaking was solely ceremonial, as demolition was not legally allowed.听

Shovels break McMillan ground

鈥� bill rice (@ricebilldc)

The recent court ruling has made people wanting to save and protect the site furious. At a rally in support of preserving the park, community member Maurice Cook said the development will be unaffordable for the people who have lived in the area for generations. 20% of the plan鈥檚 housing will be affordable to those earning 50-80% of the area median income.听

鈥淚t鈥檚 just another symbol of what has occurred throughout the city,鈥� Cook said.

Others are ready for the redevelopment, like Bloomingdale resident Amy Zhou.

鈥淚t would just infuse life into what is otherwise a barbed wire, fenced-off plot of land,鈥� she said.

Zhou and other neighbors counter-protested the rally.听

鈥淚t鈥檚 not that I’m against these counter proposals, it鈥檚 just that none of them are real, none of them are material,鈥� she said. 鈥淧eople want to see something versus nothing.鈥�

Park supporters argued the new development will cause even more traffic headaches. Kirby Vining, treasurer of Friends of McMillan Park, said in hearings before the Zoning Commission, the .听

Vining said Friends of McMillan Park hired an engineer from WMATA to look at traffic data of the North Capitol Street and Michigan Avenue intersection. Vining said the engineer projected that car trips would be around double the given estimate.

鈥淚 don’t want to live in a neighborhood where there鈥檚 going to be thousands of additional cars,鈥� Carson said.

Protestors are also worried about airborne asbestos if demolition begins. Carson wants to see the 20 filtration sites tested appropriately. Even at low levels, the CDC says

鈥淲e want to test it, I don’t know why anyone would be against testing it,鈥� she said.

Despite the possibility of the underground structures containing asbestos, demolition permits were approved as part of the D.C. Court of Appeals鈥� ruling. Supporters of the park will continue to fight for McMillan during their court hearing on Oct. 26.

鈥淧eople have been in this neighborhood for generations,鈥� Carson said. 鈥滱nd we don鈥檛 want new unaffordable apartments and condos to take up the space.鈥�

The post Bloomingdale鈥檚 historic McMillan Park inches toward redevelopment first appeared on 最新蜜桃影像.

The DC Public Schools (DCPS) system on Sept. 15 that it supports the renaming of the school, and DCPS in October collected nominations for new names.

In recent months, 最新蜜桃影像ington Post has run letters to the editor lobbying for the school to be named after or .

The renaming won鈥檛 come cheap. A DCPS representative told the DC Council in September that the cost of the renaming will likely surpass $1 million because of the spaces, buildings and insignia that will need to be changed. DCPS that a decision on the new name will be made in December.

The decision to rename the school came amid a nationwide reckoning over race. Many institutions that have named buildings or schools after Wilson 鈥� such as 鈥� have announced that they will be renamed.

In recent years, the debate over Woodrow Wilson鈥檚 legacy has been brought to the fore. Activists say Wilson鈥檚 name 鈥� which for some recalls the segregation and marginalization of Black people in early 20th century America 鈥� should have no place in the public sphere.

A dispersed community

Woodrow Wilson High School is located across the street from Fort Reno, the site of a fort used during the Civil War that is the highest-elevation natural point in the District.

Embedded in the neighborhood鈥檚 history is a then-predominantly African American community that lived at Reno and was eventually forced to disperse, Neil Flanagan, an architectural designer and writer who has about that community, told 最新蜜桃影像.

Flanagan said that the community at Reno was a small farming community until 1890, when suburbs began to grow in the area and the community grew with African Americans moving to the area.听

鈥淲e know that there was community interest as early as 1899 to clear Reno,鈥� Flanagan said. Residents were finally pushed out through the 1930s after the National Capital Park and Planning Commission (NCPPC) bought up property and evicted residents, Flanagan鈥檚 research shows.

鈥業mposing order鈥�

In 1932, the DC Board of Education decided to name the new school in northwest Washington after Woodrow Wilson, who was president from 1913 to 1921. It was just eight years after his death.

The legacy of Wilson, whose big-government administration created the Federal Reserve and a federal income tax, is mixed. Wilson also segregated the federal government.

At the time, progressivism and its proponents 鈥� like Wilson 鈥� were defined by the philosophy that 鈥渢he world could be made better through human action and government action,鈥� Eric Yellin, an Associate Professor of History and American Studies at the University of Richmond, said.

Yellin called segregation an 鈥渋mpulse鈥� for progressives like Wilson because 鈥渟egregation and a legal structure in which African Americans were denied the right to vote or denied the right to public accommodations was a way of imposing order.鈥�

鈥淔or southern Democrats 鈥� who were mainstream progressives 鈥� who would end up in Wilson’s administration, their search for order involved instituting segregation deeply and broadly,鈥� Adriane Lentz-Smith, an associate professor of history at Duke University, said.

John Milton Cooper, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told 最新蜜桃影像 that Wilson was 鈥渁lways nervous about support in the South鈥� and agreed to segregate federal workplaces after pressure from Southerners in his cabinet.

Cooper, a Wilson biographer, called Wilson鈥檚 record on segregation 鈥渘ot pretty鈥� but said in a recent interview that Wilson was 鈥渘ot the worst sinner and he was not a particularly unusual sinner in that.鈥�

Yellin, who has about Wilson鈥檚 segregationist policies, goes further.

鈥淲hat makes Wilson different from other white progressives who embraced segregation: it鈥檚 his presidency, right?鈥� Yellin said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the way in which his administration fundamentally changed an American institution 鈥� the federal government 鈥� and how it treated African Americans.鈥�

To Lentz-Smith, who wrote 鈥淔reedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I,鈥� what makes Wilson’s segregationism noteworthy is 鈥渉ow programmatic and committed he was.鈥�

鈥淲ashington was different after Wilson’s presidency from what it had been before Wilson’s presidency,鈥� Lentz-Smith said, 鈥渂ecause [the people in Wilson鈥檚 administration] decided to make Jim Crow broad and systematic.鈥�

鈥榃hite complacency鈥�

At the time of its founding 鈥� and for years afterward 鈥� only white teenagers attended Wilson. The school began integrating after a 1967 court decision, according to Wilson鈥檚 .

Tim Hannapel, a lawyer at the National Treasury Employees Union, graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1977. Hannapel and Wilson parent Judith Ingram met at a talk about Reno, where Hannapel says he suggested changing the name of the high school.

Their fledgling group had its first meeting in June 2018 and called itself the DC History and Justice Collective. It held a in February 2019 鈥� in which Flanagan, Yellin and Cooper spoke 鈥� and created an that has received nearly 23,000 signatures.

Cooper described the conversation at the time of the event: 鈥淚t wasn’t 鈥榳e’ll discuss this,鈥� but it’s 鈥榌here鈥檚] how we’re going to do it.’鈥�

Hannapel maintains that the name needs to be changed as soon as possible, and has said that he has advocated for the school not to 鈥渋ssue any more diplomas bearing this guy’s name.鈥�

鈥淭here’s this complacency, it’s a white complacency,鈥� Hannapel said.

鈥楾hat鈥檚 just not right鈥�

In a recent interview, Hannapel said that it took six months for the group of activists to organize.

鈥淚t鈥檚 incredibly important for us to let people know [about Wilson] in a way that was not condescending, that was not pandering, that was not beating them over the head,鈥� Hannapel said.

Cooper, a 1957 graduate of the high school, has been among the most vocal opponents in the high school name change debate.

鈥淚t’s been a grand old school and I wish it well,鈥� Cooper said, 鈥渂ut it’s not going to be the same to me without that name.鈥�

Students have vocally protested the school’s current name as well, including by near the school, amid the pandemic.

Racquel Jones, a Wilson senior who is the president of the school’s Student Government Association, told 最新蜜桃影像 that students started looking towards Instagram and activism after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor this year.

鈥淎 lot of students started realizing, 鈥楬ey, Wilson’s named after this racist man; why hasn’t the name been changed yet?鈥欌�� Jones said. 鈥溾�業t’s 2020, why do we still have Woodrow Wilson as the name of our high school?鈥欌��

鈥淎nd it’s made up of a diverse community, there’s plenty of people of color, and plenty of black students there, so that’s just not right, that’s not fitting at all,鈥� Jones said of Wilson. Some 29% of the school鈥檚 1,900 students last year were Black, according to District .

鈥淪o, a lot of students were thinking, this needs to be like this name needs to be changed immediately. And not just to another white person, but it should be named after a person of color.鈥� Jones also said that she was trying to get 鈥渁 lot more student involvement鈥� in suggesting new names for the school.

Meanwhile, Hannapel, the activist, acknowledges that there鈥檚 still work to do.

He noted that DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson earlier this month that Wilson was a 鈥済reat president,鈥� outlining his achievements as a progressive Democrat before detailing his racist policies.

The report, which from Mendelson鈥檚 fellow DC councilmembers, has since been and no longer calls Wilson 鈥済reat.鈥�

鈥淚t just reflected that there’s more work that needs to be done there,鈥� Hannapel said. 鈥淭hat’s why I say the new name has 85 years of repair work to do.鈥�

The post Woodrow Wilson High School is getting a new name. It鈥檚 about time, local activists and students say. first appeared on 最新蜜桃影像.

In that area, one of the District鈥檚 most northwestern wards, two deadly shootings have been recorded in the past month, with at least one nonfatal shooting also recorded.

鈥淭he District, like other large cities across the country, has witnessed an increase in gun-related violence,鈥� Interim Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Roger Mitchell told 最新蜜桃影像 in a statement. 鈥淥ver the coming weeks, we look forward to presenting a comprehensive plan to meet this challenge head-on with a network of resources and services to our most vulnerable communities impacted by gun violence.鈥�

The spate of shootings has rocked the area, and MPD 2nd District Commander Duncan Bedlion has spoken at two community meetings in recent weeks to assure Ward Three residents that MPD detectives, who Bedlion says have a 68% homicide case closure rate, are actively investigating the cases.

鈥淗opefully, we will be able to piece this together and be able to announce something soon to the public,鈥� Bedlion said at an Oct. 15 ANC3E meeting. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 very disturbing about these particular crimes is they appear to be sudden, and they were ruthless.鈥�

鈥淭here are promising leads,鈥� Bedlion said, 鈥渂ut in terms of video, there is nothing that we can share with the public at this time.鈥� An MPD spokesperson declined to comment on the specifics of the shootings or investigations, citing their ongoing nature.

According to Sarah Bever, the vice-chair of the local police district鈥檚 community advisory council, the increased deadly shootings in Ward Three have unnerved local residents.

鈥淧eople do seem alarmed by the recent violent crime because that’s not usual for this neighborhood,鈥� Bever said.

ANC3E chair Jon Bender told 最新蜜桃影像 that the recent murders in Ward Three are 鈥渙f great concern.鈥� But, he said, 鈥渋t’s a concern that goes well beyond our neighborhood. And although we need to take any reasonable steps to protect our neighborhood, in a way, we’re doing better than lots of parts of this town and lots of parts of the country.鈥�

It鈥檚 been an especially deadly 2020 for the District and . There have been 141 fatal shootings across the district this year 鈥� more than last year鈥檚 final tally of 129 such shootings.

The rise in deadly shootings in the District comes amid a nationwide reckoning over racism and police brutality. In the District, lawmakers are currently whether to make permanent a sweeping package of police reforms. And Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, has come in recent months by local activists seeking to defund MPD in the wake of George Floyd鈥檚 killing and related protests.

At the ANC3F meeting last week, Bedlion, the police commander, encouraged residents to report suspicious behavior to the police.

That didn鈥檛 sit well with James Tandaric, a local teacher.

鈥淥n a personal note, as a person of color, when he was saying how 鈥榠f you see something suspicious, call the police鈥� 鈥� to me that that’s very racially loaded,鈥� Tandaric told 最新蜜桃影像.

Tandaric said that the four or five people who wrote in the meeting鈥檚 Zoom chat that they agreed with him was 鈥渉uge progress.鈥�

鈥淚f this was like, a year or two ago, there might not be any鈥� agreement over Tandaric鈥檚 statement, he admitted. 鈥淚 think like when I made that comment, people were like, 鈥榦kay, oh yeah, that’s true. I’m learning that right now.鈥欌��

The post 鈥楽udden鈥� and 鈥榬uthless鈥� murders roil Tenleytown, Friendship Heights first appeared on 最新蜜桃影像.

Local bicyclists say that a doesn鈥檛 adequately serve the thousands of students, faculty and staff who commute to American University 鈥� and the neighborhoods around the university.

Although the university says that bike-share stations near AU鈥檚 main campus that are a part of Capital Bikeshare are 鈥渨ell-used鈥� by students, staff and faculty, students are left under-served by the plan to build just one new station near campus and expand the others, according to Tom Quinn, an ANC3E commissioner.

鈥榁irtually no protected infrastructure鈥�

The neighborhoods around the university aren鈥檛 especially bike-friendly, bike advocates say, and AU 鈥� with its considerable voice 鈥� could be pushing for more.

鈥淎t the pace we鈥檙e going, my daughter 鈥� who’s in third grade right now 鈥� is still not going to have a safe route to bike to the middle school that she would go to throughout her time there,鈥� Ward Three Bicycle Advocates founder Josh Rising said. 鈥淪o, within six years, [the District Department of Transportation] is not on pace to implement a safe way for kids to bike to a neighborhood middle school.鈥�

鈥淯nfortunately, this part of the city has virtually no protected infrastructure that has been built for bicycles,鈥� Rising also said. 鈥淪o that means people who do want to bike either need to bike on the sidewalk, where there may be some conflicts with pedestrians, or they’re forced to bike in the road and mix with traffic.鈥�

A year ago, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) to triple the number of protected bike lanes in the District by adding 20 miles of bike lanes by 2022.

鈥淭he city has laid out plans previously and not executed on them,鈥� Rising said. 鈥淪o, this is certainly better than what exists right now. But even after adding those 20 miles, that’s not going to be sufficient infrastructure.鈥�

Rising said that adding bike infrastructure in Ward Three, where American University is located, has 鈥渞eally been a challenge.鈥�

鈥淚t’s clear that AU has been a real leader in trying to think about sustainability and the role of the university in addressing issues such as climate change,鈥� Rising said. 鈥淎nd this [plan] is a very important way for the university to continue engaging on that.鈥�

But Rising says that the transportation report, which AU unveiled nearly a month ago, doesn鈥檛 do enough.

鈥淥nce somebody steps foot off the AU campus, if they’re living in the greater Tenleytown area, they have to take other roads in order to get to American University,鈥� he said. Rising said that a more comprehensive plan could have mapped out the most densely populated areas of commuters to determine where more bike infrastructure should be implemented.

鈥淲e do know that many students live in…multiple apartment buildings along Mass. Ave. but I do not believe that we mapped where all students, faculty and staff live,鈥� Ed Fisher, AU鈥檚 assistant vice president for community and government relations, told 最新蜜桃影像 in an email.

Pushing for Capital Bikeshare

Quinn told 最新蜜桃影像 that he has advocated for AU to push for two additional bike share stations on campus, so students don鈥檛 have to walk across campus to pick up bikes.

鈥淎s noted in the [transportation review], the university is working with DDOT and the members of the community to explore expanding Capital Bikeshare near campus,鈥� Fisher told 最新蜜桃影像 in an email.

鈥淭he [transportation review] was developed in close coordination with the AU Neighborhood Partnership Transportation and Parking Working group, and as a result, has been shaped by significant community input gathered over the past several months through AU鈥檚 collaborative planning process,鈥� Fisher wrote.

American University鈥檚 geography is not irrelevant in the conversation about bicycle infrastructure. The university鈥檚 main campus is located near Tenleytown and Fort Reno, the highest point in Washington. That presents challenges for bicyclists using traditional bikes, according to Capital Bikeshare.

鈥淩iders are more likely to travel from uphill neighborhoods like Woodley Park and Columbia Heights to downhill neighborhoods like Dupont or Logan Circle than the reverse,鈥� a Capital Bikeshare released earlier this year noted. 鈥淭he introduction of electric-assist bicycles could lessen this imbalance by making uphill trips easier on riders.鈥�

Capital Bikeshare from 2016 show that the development of a Capital Bikeshare station at 48th St. NW and Massachusetts Ave. NW was 鈥渟cheduled to be installed in FY2016, or as soon as site-specific issues are addressed.鈥� However, that station has not yet been built.

Capital Bikeshare and the DDOT did not respond to a detailed list of questions about the network鈥檚 Ward Three expansion plans and the Capital Bikeshare station at 48th St. NW and Massachusetts Ave. NW.

Replacing a garden with buildings

Transportation aside, there are other components of American University’s Campus Plan that are controversial.

The plan an 鈥渁thletic, residential, and campus life village鈥� tucked away in the northwest corner of campus currently made up of tennis courts, basketball courts and a community garden.

Jerri Husch, an adjunct professorial lecturer in AU鈥檚 sociology department who tends to the garden and incorporates it into her classes, told 最新蜜桃影像 that she understands the rationale for replacing the garden with the buildings.

鈥淚’m over getting upset,鈥� Husch told 最新蜜桃影像. Emphasizing that she is focused on experiential education, Husch said that she hopes that members of the AU community 鈥渃an see their relationship to the planet鈥� as she continues to use spaces on campus to teach.

The post Bicyclists disappointed by American University鈥檚 10-year plan first appeared on 最新蜜桃影像.

The fire, at a small apartment building on 1525 Church Street NW, left nine residents displaced. According to the District Fire Department, there was significant damage to the top floor of the apartment building and the roof, as well as substantial water damage to the lower floors.

District Fire dispatched at around 10:30, and reported that the fire was under control within a half hour.

No residents were harmed during the fire, but District Fire confirmed that one firefighter was injured and was transported to a hospital with minor injuries. The circumstances of the injuries are unknown at this time.

One resident described hearing smoke alarms blaring, but chalked it up to someone overcooking something. He heard a loud boom, and then encountered 鈥渇lames as tall as I was鈥� and proceeded to start banging on the doors of different apartments. The resident said he wasn鈥檛 sure who called 911.

He said that he had “no idea” what the first boom was.

The resident felt fortunate, as he told 最新蜜桃影像 that there was very little damage to his own apartment, but would likely still have to move due to damage to the building.

After heading outside at the direction of emergency services, he said he heard a second boom. He told 最新蜜桃影像 that he was told it was a propane tank that blew up. District Fire confirmed this.听

As the fire spread to the roof, it reached a propane cooking grill, causing it to explode. This was secondary to the original fire.听

District Fire says that the original cause of the fire is still 鈥渦ndetermined.鈥� The Red Cross and other agencies assisted residents after the fire.

The post Fire on Church Street NW Leaves Nine Displaced, One Firefighter Injured first appeared on 最新蜜桃影像.