113 days ago - Scott Abel is at the cash register, ringing up customers. He seems to know them all by name: Chris, Anita and Jonathan. Others step up, books in hand, satisfaction on their faces. I know that look.

Turning off the spigot in Washington

117 days ago - “The District wants to work with organizations that are professional and have the capacity to deliver,” Neil Albert, deputy mayor for economic development, said after news broke that the administration had threatened to end its relationship with the Anacostia Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) and the East of the River Development Corporation (EREDC), unless the groups finished government-supported projects and resolved complaints from homebuyers.

Apology accepted — and offered

120 days ago - D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton often talks about how her great-grandfather, Richard Holmes, walked out of Virginia into the District. He was a runaway slave. He arrived in the city nine months before President Abraham Lincoln ended slavery in the nation’s capital.

Law enforcers as law breakers

124 days ago - There you are sitting outside at the Starbucks at 18 Street and Columbia Road NW. You don’t usually support these big corporate enterprises even if they have cute ads and tout environmentally conscious rhetoric. But the small shop down the street feels like a large office: people on laptops; networking; or plotting some takeover of the government. So you landed here, at Starbucks, because there’s outdoor seating.

Taxing representation in D.C.

127 days ago - Dwarfed perhaps by her larger sisters, the John A. Wilson Building, an example of “American Beaux-Arts Classicism,” is an architect's delight. From Freedom Plaza, between 13th and 14th streets on Pennsylvania Ave. NW, the view is magnificent: the marble from South Dover; N.Y.; the Blue Hill, Maine granite; the huge columns, the eight “heroic figures” on the upper cornice, designed by Adolfo De Nesti and depicting sculpture, painting, architecture, music, commerce, engineering, agriculture and statesmanship.

Some misdirected charters mirror DCPS

131 days ago - Tragically, some District charter schools mirror DCPS: marginal student achievement, poor financial management and deteriorating facilities.

Clearing the weeds in D.C.

138 days ago - Isiah Garcia, 6 months. Brittany Jacks, 16. Tatianna Jacks, 11. N’Kiah Fogle, 6. Aja Fogle, 5. Unidentified boy, 5 months. These children died in the District — although reports of their neglect had been filed at the city’s Child and Family Services Agency and social workers were supposed to have investigated the allegations. There may be others. Residents only learned of the 5-month-old boy on Monday at a hearing before the D.C. Council’s Committee on Human Services.

Summer school offensive in D.C.Summer school offensive in D.C.

145 days ago - If it’s summer, then District officials are playing politics with the future of children.

Marion Barry oldies but goodies

152 days ago - He’s consistent. You have to give that to Ward 8 D.C. Councilman Marion Barry. He created the operational premise of the District government as employer of first, second and last resort. That was his song, and he’s sticking to it.

City program perpetuates victimhood

166 days ago - Logic escapes the D.C. Council more often than anyone wants to acknowledge. And its form of liberalism can be crippling, perpetuating a victimhood that stifles growth. Consider the Local, Small, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program as a relevant example.

Checkpoint zone debate offers choice in D.C. — saving rights or saving lives

173 days ago - “How can you talk about the Fourth Amendment when bullets are whizzing around your head?” Father George Clements asked me more than a decade ago when I was writing an article about the American Civil Liberties Union's effort to thwart the Chicago Public Housing Authority's random sweeps for drugs and guns.

Surprise, D.C. needs a community college

180 days ago - Talk about coming late to the party: The Greater Washington Research at Brookings Institution, DC Appleseed and DC Fiscal Policy Institute are expected to announce Friday that the District needs a robust community college system.