One of the ways Democrats are hoping to gain more electoral and congressional power is by changing the status of heavily Democratic Washington D.C. from a federally controlled district to the 51st state. In January, a Democratic Congressman introduced House Resolution 51, the &#8220;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/51/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22H.R.51%22%5D%7D&amp;r=1&amp;s=1">Washington, D.C., Admission Act</a>,&#8221; which would &#8220;provide for the admission of the State of Washington, D.C. into the Union,&#8221; and her fellow Democrats overwhelmingly signed on. On Thursday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held the first hearing on the bill.
Among the Democrats enthusiastically supporting the bill is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who took to Twitter to promote it but was quickly met with pushback after making an historically inaccurate claim while doing so. One of the reasons D.C. should be granted statehood, she suggested, is because it was &#8220;the 1st territory in the United States to free the enslaved.&#8221;
&#8220;DC was the 1st territory in the United States to free the enslaved,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Thursday. &#8220;It&#8217;s where Black Americans fled the tyranny of slavery &amp; towards greater freedom, to DC. Yet today it&#8217;s where 2nd class citizenship reigns, and the right to vote is denied. It&#8217;s time to recognize DC statehood.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">DC was the 1st territory in the United States to free the enslaved.
It’s where Black Americans fled the tyranny of slavery &amp; towards greater freedom, to DC. Yet today it’s where 2nd class citizenship reigns, and the right to vote is denied.
It’s time to recognize DC statehood. <a href="https://t.co/AkfaRHw38C">https://t.co/AkfaRHw38C</a>
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1174756817425096705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
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But as noted by many of Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s critics online, the claim that D.C. was the first territory to free the enslaved is not true. In fact, it was one of the last territories in the U.S. to abolish slavery, <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/20/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-washington-d-c/">The Daily Caller</a> notes. First was Vermont, way back in 1777. Three years later, Pennsylvania was the first state to abolish it. About ten years later, in <a href="http://www.dchistory.org/publications/dc-history-faq/">1791</a>, D.C. officially became a territory. While the slave trade was ended in the district by the famous Compromise of 1850, it was still legal to own slaves in the district until the passage of the District of Columbia Emancipation Act of 1862. The National Archives provides the following summary of the act:
<blockquote>On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia. Passage of this law came 8 1/2 months before President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The act brought to a conclusion decades of agitation aimed at ending what antislavery advocates called &#8220;the national shame&#8221; of slavery in the nation&#8217;s capital. It provided for immediate emancipation, compensation to former owners who were loyal to the Union of up to $300 for each freed slave, voluntary colonization of former slaves to locations outside the United States, and payments of up to $100 for each person choosing emigration. Over the next 9 months, the Board of Commissioners appointed to administer the act approved 930 petitions, completely or in part, from former owners for the freedom of 2,989 former slaves.
Although its combination of emancipation, compensation to owners, and colonization did not serve as a model for the future, the District of Columbia Emancipation Act was an early signal of slavery&#8217;s death. In the District itself, African Americans greeted emancipation with great jubilation. For many years afterward, they celebrated Emancipation Day on April 16 with parades and festivals.</blockquote>
In response to blowback from the tweet, Ocasio-Cortez issued some follow-up &#8220;clarifications.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">The right is pushing back on this. To clarify in 280 chars, DC was the first area where enslaved people were freed by the US government.
It was enacted by the Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862. <a href="https://t.co/plbSr7WCkw">https://t.co/plbSr7WCkw</a>
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1175056974481936384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">(Certain localities and municipalities did pursue abolition earlier, but none were federally recognized.)
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1175057387918692352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;The right is pushing back on this,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;To clarify in 280 chars, DC was the first area where enslaved people were freed by the US government. It was enacted by the Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862.&#8221; She followed that explanation with another post noting, &#8220;Certain localities and municipalities did pursue abolition earlier, but none were federally recognized.&#8221;
The inspiration for Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s D.C. tweet Thursday was the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which address the statehood question as a result from &#8220;growing momentum in the city’s statehood movement and increasing support from both congressional Democrats and all Democratic presidential candidates,&#8221; as reported by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/09/19/dc-statehood-is-back-houses-agenda-heres-why-it-faces-an-uphill-battle/">The Washington Post</a>.
In its report, The Post provides some historical context for the D.C. statehood debate:
<blockquote>The Constitution’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-17">enclave clause</a> allows Congress to reserve a territorial seat for the federal government and to “exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District.” The clause’s framers hoped to protect Congress against angry Revolutionary-era mobs such as the one that stormed a 1783 meeting of the Continental Congress. Congress has since interpreted the clause to withhold congressional representation and home rule from the District and its 700,000 residents, more than the <a href="https://www.census.gov/search-results.html?searchType=web&amp;cssp=SERP&amp;q=state%20population%20rank">populations</a> of either Vermont or Wyoming.</blockquote>
While there&#8217;s debate about the constitutionality of H.R. 51, with opponents arguing that it exceeds the enumerated powers of Congress and requires the repeal of the 23rd Amendment, the Post sides with those who say it passes constitutional muster.
A total of 219 Democrats signed on to the bill, meaning it will almost certainly pass the House. However, it will also almost certainly die in the Senate, where Republicans still hold the majority. Even if it passed in the Senate, President Trump could still veto the bill.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/52014/watch-hearing-explodes-when-republican-asks-james-barrett">WATCH: Hearing Explodes When Republican Asks Sharpton About Past ‘Racist And Anti-Semitic’ Statements</a>
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

After Blowback, Ocasio-Cortez ‘Clarifies’ D.C. Slavery Claim

American History

Slavery

Washington D.C.

The straw ban has officially come to Washington, D.C.
While a ban on plastic drinking straws took effect on January 1, 2019, restaurants were only given a warning if they were found in violation of the law. On Monday, however, businesses that provide disposable plastic straws will be fined between $100 and $800 if their employees repeatedly provide the straws, WTOP <a href="https://wtop.com/dc/2019/07/minimum-wage-hike-straw-ban-leave-tax-new-laws-go-into-effect-monday-in-dc/amp/">reported</a>.
City inspectors had been traveling to businesses throughout the district and handing out warning letters to those noticeably carrying plastic straws, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/out-with-plastic-straws-up-with-minimum-wage-and-in-with-happy-hour-ads-as-new-laws-take-effect-in-virginia-maryland-and-the-district/2019/06/28/012533bc-9852-11e9-916d-9c61607d8190_story.html">reported</a>.
“Businesses are allowed to keep a small stock of plastic straws for customers with disabilities,” the outlet added.
Bans on plastic straws have spread across the country thanks to a poorly conducted “study” from a 9-year-old. Proponents of the straw ban constantly point to a claim that Americans use 500 million plastic straws each day. That figure comes not from the National Park Service, as it is often attributed, and not from recycling company Eco-Cycle, cited by NPS, but from a phone survey that Milo Cress conducted when he was nine. Cress simply called up straw manufacturers and asked for their estimates. Now, nearly a decade after the phone survey, politicians are imposing a ban and punishing people found in violation.
As Reason’s Christian Britschgi <a href="https://reason.com/2018/01/25/california-bill-would-criminalize-restau">wrote</a> in 2018, even using Cress’ dubious estimates, it is not known how many of the plastic straws Americans use each day wind up in waterways. Those in favor of the straw bans have suggested biodegradable paper straws or even glass or steel straws. Britschgi sarcastically noted “how good steel smelting is for the environment.”
D.C.’s ban at least contains a provision for those with disabilities — something the hysterical politicians who jumped onto the straw-ban train didn’t take into account.
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/33767/plastic-straw-bans-hurt-those-disabilities-ashe-schow">previously reported</a>, people with disabilities spoke out against the straw bans, as plastic provided the only straws flexible yet strong enough for those with mobility issues.
Karen Hitselberger wrote at The Washington Post last year that drinking tea without a straw could cause her to choke or even burn her.
Penny Pepper wrote in The Guardian that alternatives to plastic straws just don’t work.
“Paper straws generally don’t do well in hot liquids and I’ve yet to find decent flexible ones. This is important to get the angle right for safe drinking, when you can’t hold a cup or even if another person holds it for you,” she wrote in 2018. “Metal ones are often fat, better used for smoothies and not good if you have a biting issue. I tried silicone straws, which were too soft and fat to be reliably useful.”
Many cities that have proposed or implemented bans ended up carving out an exception for those with disabilities following the outcry.
The ban itself, based on a dubious study, is a perfect example of America’s media and political problems. Something that couldn’t even be considered a problem gets grossly inflated in a poorly conducted “study” and is parroted unquestionably by the media. Politicians also latch onto the “study” and introduce laws in order to receive media attention in an effort to look like they’re solving a problem — a problem that never existed.

Restaurants In D.C. Will Now Be Fined For Handing Out Plastic Straws

An author who lost her book deal after she posted a photo on Twitter of a Metro worker eating on the train is now suing her publishing house for $13 million.
On the morning of May 10, Washington, D.C.-based author Natasha Tynes tweeted a photo of a Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Authority employee who was eating on the train, something passengers are not allowed to do.
&#8220;When you&#8217;re on your morning commute &amp; see @wmata employee in UNIFORM eating on the train,&#8221; Tynes wrote in her now-deleted tweet. &#8220;I thought we were not allowed to eat on the train. This is unacceptable. Hope @wmata responds. When I asked the employee about this, her response was, &#8216;worry about yourself.'&#8221;
As The Daily Wire&#8217;s Emily Zanotti <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47146/dc-author-might-lose-her-book-deal-after-she-emily-zanotti">previously reported</a>, WMATA arrested a teenager last year for &#8220;standing on a platform with a bag of chips and a lollipop.&#8221;
After Tynes sent her tweet, a backlash ensued. People criticized her for putting someone&#8217;s livelihood at risk. Author and activist Roxanne Gay wrote: &#8220;We all complain on social media but you&#8230; don&#8217;t identify the person you&#8217;re complaining about, in a photo no less, and try to get them fired. What on earth? For eating on the train?&#8221;
Tynes, who is Jordanian-American, was also accused of perpetuating racism, since the WMATA worker in the photograph is black &#8212; as if what she did would somehow be okay if the worker were white. Tynes apologized for her tweet and made her Twitter profile private, but the backlash was not over. Rare Bird, which was set to distribute her novel, &#8220;They Called Me Wyatt,&#8221; announced it was <a href="https://twitter.com/rarebirdlit/status/1127010177700519937">dropping her book</a>:
<blockquote>
Rare Bird is aware that an author distributed by us, Natasha Tynes, and published by an imprint that is sub-distributed by us, California Coldblood, did something truly horrible today in tweeting a picture of a metro worker eating her breakfast on the train this morning and drawing attention to her employer. Black women face a constant barrage of this kind of inappropriate behavior directed toward them and a constant policing of their bodies. We think this is unacceptable and have no desire to be involved with anyone who thinks it&#8217;s acceptable to jeopardize a person&#8217;s safety and employment in this way.
</blockquote>
The sub-distributor then echoed Rare Bird&#8217;s statement and announced it was pulling Tynes&#8217; book from publication.
The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2019/06/08/an-author-lost-her-book-deal-after-tweeting-about-metro-worker-shes-suing-million/">reported</a> that Tynes has now filed a lawsuit against Rare Bird alleging breach of contract and defamation and demanding $13 million in damages for &#8220;extreme emotional distress&#8221; and the harm done to her reputation.
Tynes claimed in her lawsuit that Rare Bird defamed her when it accused her of perpetuating racism by &#8220;policing&#8221; a black woman&#8217;s body. Tynes said she did no such thing, &#8220;did not engage in any act of racism&#8221; and did nothing that put the woman&#8217;s safety at risk.
Tynes claimed she was hospitalized after the incident for &#8220;an acute anxiety reaction and suicidal ideations,&#8221; according to the lawsuit. She received online threats. Goodreads, a book review website, began receiving negative reviews for her book &#8212; which hadn&#8217;t even been published.
&#8220;What Rare Bird has done to Natasha Tynes is just beyond abhorrent,&#8221; her attorney, William Moran, told the Post. &#8220;I&#8217;ve never seen a publisher throw an author under the bus like this before.&#8221;

D.C. Author Who Lost Book Deal After Shaming Metro Worker Is Suing For MILLIONS

Racism

In a horrifying moment caught on video, a man set himself on fire near the White House on Wednesday, walking around fully engulfed in flames for several seconds before Secret Service and police arrived to extinguish the flames and attempt to save his life. The man died from the wounds Wednesday evening, authorities say. More details about the man, who has since been identified, have emerged.
The man, who U.S. Park Police identified early Thursday as Arnav Gupta, 33, of Bethesda, Maryland, died of his wounds Wednesday evening, Washington D.C.&#8217;s <a href="https://wtop.com/dc/2019/05/man-sets-himself-on-fire-near-white-house-secret-service-says/">WTOP</a> reported Thursday. Gupta had been reported missing earlier Wednesday, family members citing concerns about his &#8220;physical and emotional welfare.&#8221;
On Wednesday, the Montgomery County Police Department issued the following <a href="http://www.mymcpnews.com/2019/05/29/concern-for-missing-bethesda-area-man-2/">press release</a> announcing &#8220;Concern for Missing Bethesda Area Man&#8221;:
<blockquote>
Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police &#8211; 2nd District Investigative Section are asking for the public&#8217;s assistance in locating a missing Bethesda area man.
Arnav Gupta, age 33, was last seen by family when he left his Cindy Lane home at approximately 9:20 this morning (Wednesday, May 29).
Gupta is described as an Indian male who is 5&#8217; 9&#8221; tall and weighs 200 pounds. He has black hair, brown eyes, a mustache, and wears glasses.
Police are concerned for Gupta&#8217;s physical and emotional welfare.
Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Arnav Gupta is asked to call the Montgomery County Police non-emergency number at 301-279-8000 (available 24 hours). Callers may remain anonymous.
</blockquote>
&#8220;At approximately 12:20 p.m. a man lit himself on fire on the Ellipse near 15th and Constitution Ave., Secret Service personnel are on scene assisting @NatlParkService and @usparkpolicepio in rendering first aid,&#8221; the Secret Service tweeted Wednesday.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
At approximately 12:20 p.m. a man lit himself on fire on the Ellipse near 15th and Constitution Ave., Secret Service personnel are on scene assisting <a href="https://twitter.com/NatlParkService?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NatlParkService</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/usparkpolicepio?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@usparkpolicepio</a> in rendering first aid.
&#8212; U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecretService/status/1133780123675746305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
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After authorities put out the flames, Gupta was rushed to a nearby hospital.
&#8220;Sgt. Eduardo Delgado, a spokesman for the U.S. Park Police, said the man was in critical condition. Park police assumed jurisdiction because the Ellipse is a national park,&#8221; The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/man-sets-himself-on-fire-on-white-house-ellipse-secret-service-says/2019/05/29/bf72fc9e-8233-11e9-95a9-e2c830afe24f_story.html">reported</a> Wednesday. &#8220;Delgado said authorities are trying to identify the accelerant that was used and determine whether the man has a car parked in the area. He said police do not yet know the man&#8217;s identity and don&#8217;t know a motive.&#8221;
The case has since been turned over to the Washington D.C. police department.
Video of the incident quickly made its way onto social media (warning: disturbing content):
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FoxNews</a> Video of the person that was literally engulfed in flames on the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WhiteHouse?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WhiteHouse</a> lawn. Unbelievable <a href="https://t.co/4IS37Rndme">pic.twitter.com/4IS37Rndme</a>
&#8212; Krisjan Berzins (@KrisjanBerzins) <a href="https://twitter.com/KrisjanBerzins/status/1133776514175197185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Jesus Christ. This guy set himself on fire outside the White House. <a href="https://t.co/IIXAoGS6ia">pic.twitter.com/IIXAoGS6ia</a>
&#8212; Mariaaaa (@bedolla_maria) <a href="https://twitter.com/bedolla_maria/status/1133797975094960130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

UPDATES: Man Who Set Himself On Fire Near White House Dies; Identity Revealed

White House

A prominent research meteorologist shut down claims about the climate from socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) last week after the 29-year-old lawmaker revealed that she did not understand the difference between weather and climate.
Ocasio-Cortez, a climate extremist who has repeatedly insisted that the world will seemingly end in 12 years unless her policies are adopted, claimed that a tornado warning in Washington, D.C., was proof of climate change.
&#8220;A tornado watch, issued by the National Weather Service was tweeted 2:47 PM Thursday afternoon for the D.C. area. A watch means conditions are favorable for a particular weather event, while a warning means be prepared to move to a protected area,&#8221; HotAir <a href="https://hotair.com/archives/2019/05/25/meteorologist-slams-aoc-weather-isnt-climate-change/">noted</a>. &#8220;A warning is issued when a tornado, for example, has been spotted in the sky or radar shows intense low-level rotation. In other words, a person should pay attention to weather conditions and be cautious under a watch but if a warning is issued, that is the time to act.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Tornado Warning including Washington DC, Arlington VA, Hyattsville MD until 4:15 PM EDT <a href="https://t.co/HRYRLy2VUu">pic.twitter.com/HRYRLy2VUu</a>
&#8212; NWS DC/Baltimore (@NWS_BaltWash) <a href="https://twitter.com/NWS_BaltWash/status/1131647874813448192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;The climate crisis is real y&#8217;all,&#8221; Ocasio said on Instagram. &#8220;Guess we&#8217;re at casual tornadoes in growing regions of the country?&#8221;
Ryan Maue, who has a Ph.D. in meteorology, quickly fact-checked Ocasio-Cortez, writing on Twitter: &#8220;I thought this was fake but it&#8217;s from [Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s] Instagram story. No idea what she means with &#8220;casual tornadoes&#8221; and how this line of severe thunderstorms is proof of any &#8216;climate crisis.&#8217; It&#8217;s just the weather in D.C.&#8221;
&#8220;The Congresswoman [Ocasio-Cortez] does not know the difference between weather and climate,&#8221; Maue added. &#8220;Let&#8217;s try an easy analogy: Weather is what outfit you wear heading out the door. Climate is your closet wardrobe.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
The Congresswoman <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AOC</a> does not know the difference between weather and climate.
Let&#8217;s try an easy analogy:
Weather is what outfit you wear heading out the door.
Climate is your closet wardrobe. <a href="https://t.co/mmdLr6F2mD">pic.twitter.com/mmdLr6F2mD</a>
&#8212; Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) <a href="https://twitter.com/RyanMaue/status/1131717726328823810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Even more hilariously, the PBS article that Ocasio-Cortez &#8220;referenced in her Instagram story doesn&#8217;t concur that increased tornado activity is the result of climate change,&#8221; HotAir added.
Prominent climate change scientists have pushed back on Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s extremist rhetoric. <a href="https://www.axios.com/climate-change-scientists-comment-ocasio-cortez-12-year-deadline-c4ba1f99-bc76-42ac-8b93-e4eaa926938d.html">Axios</a> reported the following quotes:
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Andrea Dutton, a paleoclimate researcher at the University of Florida: &#8220;For some reason the media latched onto the 12 years (2030), presumably because they thought that it helped to get across the message of how quickly we are approaching this and hence how urgently we need action. Unfortunately, this has led to a complete mischaracterization of what the report said.&#8221;</li>
<li>Gavin Schmidt, who leads NASA&#8217;s Goddard Institute for Space Studies: &#8220;All the time-limited frames are bulls***. Nothing special happens when the &#8216;carbon budget&#8217; runs out or we pass whatever temperature target you care about, instead the costs of emissions steadily rise.&#8221;</li>
<li>Kate Marvel, a climate scientist at NASA: &#8220;12 years isn&#8217;t a deadline, and climate change isn&#8217;t a cliff we fall off &#8212; it&#8217;s a slope we slide down. We don&#8217;t have 12 years to prevent climate change &#8212; we have no time. It&#8217;s already here. And even under a business-as-usual scenario, the world isn&#8217;t going to end in exactly twelve years.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
Ocasio-Cortez recently backed off her claim that the world was going to end in 12 years if her policies were not adopted by the U.S. government after she found herself on the receiving end of mockery for several months.
&#8220;This is a technique of the GOP, to take dry humor + sarcasm literally and &#8216;fact check&#8217; it,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. &#8220;Like the &#8216;world ending in 12 years&#8217; thing, you&#8217;d have to have the social intelligence of a sea sponge to think it&#8217;s literal. But the GOP is basically Dwight from The Office so who knows.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
This is a technique of the GOP, to take dry humor + sarcasm literally and &#8220;fact check&#8221; it.
Like the &#8220;world ending in 12 years&#8221; thing, you&#8217;d have to have the social intelligence of a sea sponge to think it&#8217;s literal.
But the GOP is basically Dwight from The Office so who knows. <a href="https://t.co/pmkwrdeAnq">https://t.co/pmkwrdeAnq</a>
&#8212; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1127604746066583552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

Meteorologist Shuts Down Hysterical Climate Claim From Ocasio-Cortez

Climate Change

A Washington, D.C.-based author may lose her book deal after she tweeted a photo of a Metro transit system employee defying the system&#8217;s own rules, tucking into a huge breakfast while riding on the train.
Natasha Tynes tweeted a photo of the employee, who is black, and tagged the Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Authority (WMATA), asking why the employee was being allowed to eat on the train when WMATA heavily polices the rule in both its stations on and on its vehicles. Just a year ago, the WMATA transit police, for example, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/metro-transit-police-arrest-teenager-for-carrying-chips-and-lollipop-into-station/2016/10/19/1360a014-9627-11e6-bb29-bf2701dbe0a3_story.html">arrested a teenager</a> for standing on a platform with a bag of chips and a lollipop.
&#8220;When you&#8217;re on your morning commute &amp; see @wmata employee in UNIFORM eating on the train,&#8221; Tynes wrote in the now-deleted missive. &#8220;I thought we were not allowed to eat on the train. This is unacceptable. Hope @wmata responds. When I asked the employee about this, her response was, &#8216;worry about yourself.'&#8221;
WMATA eventually responded to Tynes and asked to add some pertinent details to her report: what train she was on, what direction she was going, and the exact time she witnessed the transgression. WMATA thanked her for her warning.
But that wasn&#8217;t the end of Tynes&#8217; experience, by far. Almost as soon as she posted the tweet, Tynes was accused of racism and of threatening the worker&#8217;s employment for what social media users believed was a minor transgression.
&#8220;That&#8217;s literally someone&#8217;s life. That&#8217;s their job you&#8217;re messing with,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/author-reported-metro-worker-eating-train-now-she-might-lose-n1004716">one user responded, according to NBC News</a>. &#8220;She was eating. Trying to live. She was commuting.&#8221;
&#8220;We all complain on social media but you&#8230; don&#8217;t identify the person you&#8217;re complaining about, in a photo no less, and try to get them fired. What on earth? For eating on the train?&#8221; said another, author and activist Roxanne Gay.
Tynes, who is Jordanian-American herself, quickly apologized for her transgression and took her Twitter profile private, before completely deactivating it on Sunday afternoon. &#8220;I apologize for a tweet I posted earlier today, which I have since deleted,&#8221; she wrote as her final tweet. &#8220;I am truly sorry.&#8221;
Friday afternoon, Tynes&#8217;s book distributor, Rare Bird, tweeted out its own apology, and announced that it was dropping Tynes&#8217; novel, &#8220;They Called Me Wyatt&#8221; from its imprint.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
A word from us on what happened this morning with Natasha Tynes in DC. <a href="https://t.co/gJY4lZLFUQ">pic.twitter.com/gJY4lZLFUQ</a>
&#8212; Rare Bird (@rarebirdlit) <a href="https://twitter.com/rarebirdlit/status/1127010177700519937?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
Tynes &#8220;did something truly horrible today in tweeting a picture of a metro worker eating her breakfast on the train this morning and drawing attention to her employer. Black women face a constant barrage of this kind of inappropriate behavior directed toward them and a constant policing of their bodies,&#8221; the group said, urging Tynes&#8217; publisher, a group called California Coldblood, to consider &#8220;appropriate actions&#8221; against her.
They issued their own statement, echoing Rare Bird: &#8220;We do not condone her actions and hope Natasha learns from this experience that black women feel the effects of systemic racism the most and that we all have to be allies, not oppressors. As for the book&#8217;s publication, we are working with our distributor to take appropriate next steps.&#8221;
Late Saturday, California Coldblood announced that they would be pulling Tynes&#8217; book from publication and are discussing &#8220;next steps&#8221; with others involved in the book, to see if they can fully cancel.
WMATA&#8217;s union defended the employee saying, in their own statement, that workers receive &#8220;an average of 20 minutes to consume a meal and get to their next access point to ensure all buses and trains are on time, safe, and ready to serve the riding public.&#8221;
&#8220;Our operator,&#8221; the union boss added, &#8220;was doing nothing wrong.&#8221;
WMATA has also pledged not to enforce its rules against food and drink on platforms and trains until they have a chance to assess the effects of the policy.

D.C. Author Might Lose Her Book Deal After She Tweeted A Photo Of A Subway System Employee Eating On The Train

What could possibly go wrong allowing some Washington, D.C. residents to issue parking tickets against their neighbors?
A whole host of things, but the D.C. city council may implement a pilot program that would allow citizens to issue parking tickets to those obstructing a bike lane, crosswalk, bus lane, or fire hydrant by using a mobile app.
The Citizen Safety Pilot Program is included in <a href="http://lims.dccouncil.us/Download/42522/B23-0288-Introduction.pdf">a larger bill</a>, called the Vision Zero Enhancement Omnibus Amendment Act of 2019, which was introduced to address transportation safety concerns after several cyclists and pedestrians recently died, WTOP <a href="https://wtop.com/dc/2019/05/power-to-the-people-dc-residents-could-soon-issue-tickets/">reported</a>. This section of the bill would allow up to 10 residents in each ward to be trained to use the app and issue the tickets.
&#8220;It would start small. Just 10 people per ward. They would be trained and made sure they would be ready to go. When they see a vehicle that is blocking a bike lane, blocking the crosswalk, blocking a fire hydrant, they would have the ability using an app on their phone to be able to take a picture and actually have a ticket that will be issued,&#8221; D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen, who introduced the bill, <a href="https://www.fox5dc.com/news/local-news/dc-councilman-pushes-for-citizen-traffic-enforcement">told Fox 5</a>.
The photo taken by the authorized resident using the app would indicate when and where the photo was taken, and once submitted through the app, would carry the authority of a traffic injunction issued by a city employee.
Residents who applied for the program would be trained in &#8220;bicycle and pedestrian safety; the laws, regulations, policies, and best practices related to issuing notices of infraction for parking violations; proper use of the app; and conflict resolution techniques,&#8221; according to the bill.
There could be some legal issues involved in providing citizens such power, however, Allen&#8217;s bill also provides for abuse of the program.
&#8220;Anyone who knowingly submits false information through the app, or who provides anyone not authorized by the Department with access to the app, shall be subject to a civil fine of up to $100.&#8221;
The city will end the program after one year and issue a report detailing how many residents signed up for the program, how many were granted access to the app, how many infractions they issued, and how many of those infractions were dismissed. The report will also look into &#8220;evidence of confrontations attributable to the&#8221; program and issue recommendations for improvement.
Traffic cops already get plenty of grief if they&#8217;re spotted giving someone a ticket. Imagine what could happen if a resident gets a ticket from his or her neighbor &#8212; a neighbor whose address he or she knows.
As with any idea, this could end up being great for neighborhoods or disastrous. Should the program be extended, perhaps cyclists and pedestrians could be issued notices for crossing during red lights.
The inner libertarian in me, of course, doesn&#8217;t approve of such over-policing, but the &#8220;nearly hit by a cyclist who rode full speed through a red light and nearly plowed into me when I was legally crossing the crosswalk&#8221; in me thinks these people need to obey some traffic laws.

D.C. May Soon Allow Residents To Issue Parking Tickets

Crime

Declared 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden&#8217;s lengthy record bit him in the behind again on Thursday, as racially charged comments from Biden back in 2007 began to recirculate online.
When Biden was <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/10/25/biden-stumbles-over-education-question/">asked</a> by The Washington Post about the discrepancy in school performance in Iowa compared to schools in Washington, D.C., the Democrat cited the high population of African-Americans and other minorities in the D.C. area.
&#8220;There&#8217;s less than one percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than four of five percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you&#8217;re dealing with,&#8221; he told the paper.
At the time, the Post chalked up Biden&#8217;s comments as a &#8220;stumble&#8221; &#8212; leeway the mainstream press would not likely afford to anyone on the Right, certainly not in 2019.
The Democrat went on to discuss &#8220;dysfunctional homes&#8221; in minority communities and suggested minority mothers don&#8217;t talk to their children &#8220;from the time they&#8217;re born.&#8221;
&#8220;When you have children coming from dysfunctional homes, when you have children coming from homes where there&#8217;s no books, where the mother from the time they&#8217;re born doesn&#8217;t talk to them &#8212; as opposed to the mother in Iowa who&#8217;s sitting out there and talks to them, the kid starts out with a 300-word larger vocabulary at age three,&#8221; Biden said. &#8220;Half this education gap exists before the kid steps foot in the classroom.&#8221;
<a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/10/25/biden-stumbles-over-education-question/">According</a> to a CNN report published shortly after Biden&#8217;s comments, the Democrat&#8217;s &#8220;campaign quickly sought to clarify the remarks, saying in a statement that the senator was not making a &#8216;race-based distinction,&#8217; but rather a &#8216;socio-economic&#8217; one.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
reporter: why are schools in iowa are better than DC? 
joe biden: lol black people of course <a href="https://t.co/T916JDaFJ1">pic.twitter.com/T916JDaFJ1</a>
&#8212; josh (@lyftrs) <a href="https://twitter.com/lyftrs/status/1125894701117267973?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Similarly, a racially charged clip of Biden from 2007 discussing condom use in the black community and AIDS testing re-emerged online last week. &#8220;On a debate stage alongside Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama, Biden bragged about spending his entire summer trying to convince black men to wear condoms, scolded &#8216;the community&#8217; for being &#8216;in denial&#8217; about AIDS, and praised Obama for getting an AIDS test,&#8221; The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46813/flashback-biden-says-he-spent-all-summer-trying-amanda-prestigiacomo">reported</a>.
&#8220;As Hillary points out, there&#8217;s neglect in the part of the medical and the white community focusing on educating the minority community out there. I spent last summer going through the black sections of my town holding rallies in parks trying to get black men to understand it&#8217;s not unmanly to wear a condom, getting women to understand they can say no, getting people in the position where testing matters,&#8221; said Biden. &#8220;I got tested for AIDS. I know Barack got tested for AIDS. There&#8217;s no shame in being tested for AIDS. It&#8217;s an important thing.&#8221;
Obama made note during the debate that he got tested for AIDS alongside his wife Michelle in an effort to raise awareness about the disease.
&#8220;The fact of the matter is, the community, the community is engaged in the community. They&#8217;re engaged in denial. No one wants to talk about it in the community,&#8221; the former VP continued.
&#8220;And we do not have enough leaders in the community and outside the community demanding we face the reality; confront the men in the community, as well as the women, letting them know there are alternatives,&#8221; added Biden.

Biden Flashback: D.C. Schools Worse Than Iowa Because Of High Black Population

2020 Election

Iowa

Joe Biden

Race

Homelessness is a huge issue in major cities, and government programs to help those suffering simply do not work very well. We as a society still don&#8217;t seem to know how best to help this forgotten population, but it seems pretty obvious that one-size-fits-all approaches do not work.
In Washington, D.C., city housing officials &#8220;increased the value of rental subsidies&#8221; in order to &#8220;give tenants who had previously clustered in impoverished, high-crime areas east of the Anacostia River a shot at living in more desirable neighborhoods,&#8221; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/local/dc-politics/dc-housed-the-homeless-in-upscale-apartments-it-hasnt-gone-as-planned/2019/04/16/60c8ab9c-5648-11e9-8ef3-fbd41a2ce4d5_story.html">The Washington Post reported</a>.
While government officials no doubt spent the next two years after this change was made bragging about the number of low-income individuals now living in a better neighborhood, the policy had predictably adverse effects.
At Sedgwick Gardens, an upscale apartment complex in Cleveland Park, &#8220;Many of the new tenants are previously homeless men and women who came directly from shelters or the streets, some still struggling with severe behavioral problems,&#8221; the Post reported.
This caused issues. The Post reported that police visits to Sedgwick &#8220;have nearly quadrupled since 2016,&#8221; causing some tenants to move out. After resident complaints, social workers were dispatched to the building to handle issues at night.
There are three basic complaints from residents at Sedgwick: Those who received city vouchers to live in the complex that say they feel unwelcome by their more affluent neighbors, the affluent neighbors who support the program but insist the building&#8217;s use of the vouchers was mismanaged, and those who think the program was implemented too hastily.
&#8220;It&#8217;s not about the voucher program. It&#8217;s not about racism. It&#8217;s about people&#8217;s conduct and behavior,&#8221; Lorraine Starkes, a former homeless woman who was able to move into Sedgwick, told the Post.
Starkes told the outlet that many of her fellow voucher residents weren&#8217;t properly screened and &#8220;are trying to turn [Sedgwick] into a ghetto.&#8221;
And there is the problem with policies like this. Giving someone a better place to live doesn&#8217;t automatically improve their lives. For some, like Starkes, it can make a difference, but other people need specialized help for mental illness or other disabilities that a nice apartment can&#8217;t fix. As the Post reported:
<blockquote>
That approach calls for placing the homeless in long-term housing without first requiring treatment for mental illness or addiction. Many experts say it is the best way to help people who have trouble helping themselves amid the chaos of homelessness.
But as <a href="https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/Housing-First-Permanent-Supportive-Housing-Brief.pdf">housing first</a> has emerged as a national policy consensus, some have begun to warn that it is being applied too broadly and at times with inadequate support for people who aren&#8217;t ready for the independence and responsibilities of living by themselves.
</blockquote>
City officials, naturally, told the Post that Sedgwick was not the result of mismanagement.

D.C. Gave The Homeless The Ability To Live In High-Priced Apartments. It’s Gone As Well As You Think.

On Monday, federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint revealing details about a thwarted terror attack in the Washington, D.C. area &#8212; and just how close the would-be terrorist came to harming innocent people.
The suspect, a Muslim American citizen from Maryland who had become radicalized, wanted to emulate the horrific truck attack in Nice, France. He likely would have been able to carry out his murderous plot if he had not chosen to delay the attack.
In <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5798855-093110186271.html">criminal charges</a> submitted to the U.S. District Court of Maryland Monday, federal prosecutors say the suspect, a 28-year-old computer engineer from Maryland (name withheld per Daily Wire policy on mass killers), stole a U-Haul van for the purpose of using it to run over people in a densely populated area, similar to the radical Islamic attack at the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, which resulted in the death of 87 people, including the terrorist, and the injury of over 400 others.
&#8220;The defendant, inspired by the ISIS terrorist organization and prepared to die for his cause, stole a vehicle with the intent of &#8216;plowing it through a crowd full of people&#8217; at the National Harbor,&#8221; the complaint reads.
Authorities say the suspect stole the van from an Alexandria, Virginia parking garage on March 26. The next day, he drove to Dulles International Airport, where he attempted for about two hours to find a way to get through security. Failing to do so, prosecutors say he drove to the popular tourist site at the National Harbor waterfront at around 10 a.m. After scoping out the location in an attempt to find the ideal place to carry out his plot, prosecutors say, he chose to wait a day because the crowds were sparse. The suspect broke into a boat at the harbor and hid there that night. That delay appears to be the reason authorities were able to thwart his plot. Police discovered the stolen U-Haul the next morning and identified the would-be terrorist via the I.D. he left in a BMW in the parking garage from which he had stolen the U-Haul.
&#8220;For two years, the defendant has harbored &#8216;hatred&#8217; (in his words) for &#8216;disbelievers&#8217; who do not practice the Muslim faith,&#8221; the federal complaint reads. &#8220;Seeking out and watching videos of foreign terrorists beheading civilians and fighting overseas, the defendant considered these gruesome actions brave and he wanted to emulate them. The defendant, though, did not have any weapons training. He was a computer engineer by trade, and knew nothing of explosives or firearms. But he knew how to drive, and he also knew of the terrorist truck attack in Nice, France. So the defendant decided to use what was readily at his disposal and conduct a vehicular attack on a crowd of innocents.&#8221;
&#8220;On Tuesday, March 26, 2019, the defendant walked off his job in Germantown, Maryland, in the middle of the day, determined to walk down the extremist path,&#8221; prosecutors allege. &#8220;Recognizing that his older four-door sedan would not cause the catastrophic damage that he desired, the defendant drove around the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area looking for a larger vehicle to steal. While seeking out a larger vehicle, the defendant&#8212;now fully committed to his mission&#8212;discarded his cell phone on an interstate highway, in an attempt to destroy evidence of the inspiration behind his attack. In Virginia, the defendant saw a U-Haul van of an appropriate size&#8212;larger, heavier, and more durable than his own car&#8212;and tracked it to its storage location. The defendant would have preferred a larger vehicle, but his impatience to act spurred him to opt for the good rather than wait for the perfect.&#8221;
&#8220;After stealing the U-Haul van, the defendant continued driving around the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area, assessing target locations he already had decided would attract substantial media coverage,&#8221; the complaint reads. &#8220;At approximately 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 27, 2019, the defendant arrived at Dulles International Airport in Virginia. At that early hour, the airport lacked the large number of unloading pedestrians the defendant hoped to find. So, reconsidering his options, the defendant exited his U-Haul and entered the terminal, trying to find a way through security to harm &#8216;disbelievers; in a way designed for maximum publicity. The defendant first tried to access a restricted area by piggy-backing behind a cleared individual. The defendant next studied the security checkpoint, looking for any weak spot through which he could slip. Finally, the defendant attempted to obtain paperwork from a check-in kiosk. After more than two hours of failing to breach Dulles&#8217;s security perimeter, the defendant returned to the U-Haul and his original plan of driving through a crowd.&#8221;
Having failed to find a way to inflict enough harm at Dulles, the suspect then drove to the popular tourist site.
&#8220;The defendant then drove the U-Haul from Virginia to the National Harbor in Maryland, arriving around 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 27, 2019,&#8221; prosecutors say. &#8220;He wanted to create &#8216;panic and chaos,&#8217; the &#8216;same as what happened in France.&#8217; He had no escape plan, intending to die while killing others for his cause. In his own words, &#8216;I was just going to keep driving and driving and driving. I wasn&#8217;t going to stop.'&#8221;
&#8220;But so early in the morning on a weekday, the defendant did not find the sizable crowd upon which he desired to inflict his radical conduct,&#8221; it continues. &#8220;He parked the U-Haul and walked around until he found what he considered an ideal spot for an attack, in a popular part of National Harbor. He even calculated how he may have to come off the road and onto the sidewalk in order to hit people. With the crowds still too thin, however, the defendant needed a place to hide until the time was right, so he broke into a boat and hid there overnight. By the following morning, Thursday, March 28, 2019, police officers had discovered the location of the stolen U-Haul and were awaiting the return of whomever had stolen it. When the defendant leapt over the security fence from the boat dock, observant police officers arrested him.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5798855-093110186271.html">Read the full federal complaint here</a>.
Though the suspect admitted his intentions to authorities, he is pleading <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/us/national-harbor-rondell-henry.html">not guilty</a>.

Prosecutors Reveal How Close ISIS-Inspired Man Came To Pulling Off D.C.-Area Terror Attack

Islamic State (ISIS)

Radical Islam

Terrorism

Author and screenwriter Lou Aguilar brings us his latest book &#8220;Paper Tigers.&#8221; It is a very timely fictional novel that takes us behind the scenes into the newsrooms of the mainstream media, the halls of academia, the cesspool of progressivism in Hollywood, and the corrupt swampland of Washington, D.C. Though the book is about politics &#8212; particularly government, the media, and the entertainment industry &#8212; it strays away from political correctness and focuses on character development and crafting a story. 
Cowboy Conservative Nick Jarrett arrives at The Washington Post at the same time as Ivy League feminist Laura London. As interns, they are assigned to the same mailroom and almost immediately clash over politics. The two seem to disagree on everything. The role of government, feminism, masculinity, education, marriage, and everything in between. However, sparks fly between the two. Despite their political divide, they manage to find themselves in love. As they try to navigate their unusual relationship, the two of them get involved in covering a campus protest that threatens to turn violent, a massive Hollywood blacklist scandal, and corruption in the highest points on Capitol Hill. 
&#8220;Paper Tigers&#8221; hits all of the high points for today&#8217;s political climate. Though it is a fictional story, several of the incidents the protagonists find themselves in are ripped straight from the headlines. This gives the novel a timely feel as the characters navigate moment to moment as journalists. Even though it is fiction, as a reader, you get the impression that the circumstances you are reading about seem oddly familiar. From the halls of the Ivy League to the streets of our nation&#8217;s capital, you will recognize these events. 
The main protagonists&#8217; banter back and forth about traditional values and liberal values are probably conversations you have heard over Thanksgiving dinner or visiting with your family on the weekends. Each makes the points succinctly, though a few times the conversation did feel a bit cliche in the general sense of what they were saying when it came to the point of view of their political aisle. 
One of my favorite sequences in the novel was Nick&#8217;s investigation into a new Hollywood blacklist. After tracking down a mystery writer who lost out on a big film contract, he discovers a cabal of progressive watchdogs. This time, a ban is not in place over the evils of communism, but over support for American values. Anyone who holds true to tradition is immediately labeled and banned. As a screenwriter, Aguilar has a particular expertise with this part of the conversation and he wastes no time showing how leftism has infiltrated the entertainment industry with its propaganda. 
The plot explores the political themes of this modern era, but is also written in a classic novelist style. The characters have depth, the story moves at a perfect pace, and it does not bog itself down in minutiae or melodrama that makes so many modern novels bland and droll. &#8220;Paper Tigers&#8221; gives the reader glimpses into the worlds of the media, government, academia, and Hollywood that gets political without the political correctness. 
<div> </div>

Book Review: ‘Paper Tigers’ by Lou Aguilar

Conservatism

Hollywood

Leftism

Progressivism

Washington Post

With all the municipal governments banning the use of plastic straws, somebody has to be the guy that enforces it. In our nation&#8217;s capital, that man is Zach Rybarczyk, an inspector for the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment, who goes from restaurant to restaurant issuing notices to any violators, reports the <a href="https://www.adn.com/nation-world/2019/01/30/on-patrol-with-washingtons-plastic-straw-cop/">Anchorage Daily News</a>.
Rybarczyk described his recent patrol of D.C.&#8217;s Union Station food court, where one violator, the Chinese restaurant Lotus Express, was issued a warning: Should the restaurant fail to eliminate their stash of plastic straws, they would be fined up to $800.
&#8220;At Lotus Express, the inspector, one of three dispatched by the city to check cafeterias, bars and restaurants, scribbled the restaurant&#8217;s name on the paper sleeve of the plastic straw and tucked it into his back pocket, along with two others from scofflaw restaurants,&#8221; reports the Anchorage Daily News. &#8220;He planned to later check whether they floated in water, another telltale sign of prohibited plastic.&#8221;
Julie Lawson, director of D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser&#8217;s Office of the Clean City, told the Anchorage Daily News that plastic straws will soon become as socially unacceptable as tobacco.
&#8220;It&#8217;s pretty absurd the amount of resources we put into creating plastic materials that we are using for five minutes to an hour, and then never again,&#8221; said Lawson. &#8220;Single-use plastics are taking the same cultural place as tobacco, where it&#8217;s socially unacceptable.&#8221;
City officials claim that plastic straws pose a problem to the local Anacostia and Potomac rivers because they are too small for common recycling machinery. The city allegedly cleaned 10,000 plastic straws out last April during the 30th annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup.
Laura Cattell Noll of the Alice Ferguson Foundation, a local environmental group, told the D.C. Council that plastic straws in the street end up in the water system during the rain seasons.
&#8220;Plastic pollution that ends up on the street is carried by rain water into storm drains and eventually into streams and rivers,&#8221; said Cattell Noll. &#8220;In many cases, this stormwater is untreated, leaving local waterways choked with plastic bags, Styrofoam, plastic bottles and plastic straws.&#8221;
Keith Christman, managing director of plastics markets for the American Chemistry Council, told the Anchorage Daily News that a complete ban on plastic straws goes too far, noting that one material will just be substituted for another.
&#8220;We don&#8217;t think the ban is the right approach because it ends up substituting one material for another,&#8221; said Keith Christman. &#8220;What we need to do here is reduce waste and not take a straw when you don&#8217;t need one.&#8221;
While some restaurants in D.C. have complied with the ban by switching out plastic straws for compostable material, the city&#8217;s straw cop Rybarczyk says that other establishments are completely dumbfounded about the new law when he confronts them.
&#8220;Obviously there will be some holdouts until July, when we start issuing fines. But it&#8217;s most fair to give businesses a heads up,&#8221; said Rybarczyk.
Rybarczyk uses only metal straws when he goes out and keeps one for personal use in his backpack.

Meet Washington’s Plastic Straw Cop

Environmentalism

In what could be construed as a brazen slap in the face of those Americans who staunchly believe that an unborn child has rights, a Washington, D.C. abortion-providing facility unabashedly advertises <a href="https://www.capitalwomensservices.com/LateTermAbortionCareForMaternalFetalIndications.php">on its website</a> that it offers abortions up to 36 weeks.
Capital Women&#8217;s Services writes that it &#8220;offers late-term abortion care up to 36 weeks under certain circumstances, such as for fetal or maternal indications. All requests for late-term abortion care are handled on a case-by-case basis after consultation with our clinicians &#8230; The U.S. Supreme Court, in its classic Roe vs. Wade Decision, ruled that abortions are legal at any gestation to preserve the life or the health of the woman.&#8221;
The website continues:
<blockquote>
According to the CDC, birth defects affect 1 in every 33 babies born in the United States, and they are the most common cause of death in infancy, accounting for over 20 percent of all infant deaths.
No one is certain why there are so many birth defects. Some fetal anomalies are due to structural abnormalities (e.g. Anencephaly), exposure of the fetus to harmful substances (e.g. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome), or genetic defects (e.g. Trisomy 13).
We understand that this can be a difficult time. While some birth defects can sometimes be repaired surgically, in other cases the outlook is bleak. Discovering a fetal indication is often very upsetting news because it can sometimes mean that a wanted pregnancy can no longer continue. These are tragic situations, and we will always respect the right of a woman to make her own medical decisions regarding her own life, her own body, and her own family.
</blockquote>
A normal baby at 36 weeks after conception weighs roughly six pounds, and is between 17 and 20 inches in length. <a href="https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/week-by-week/36/">Parents.com</a> notes that at this point, &#8220;Your baby is working hard to accumulate all the fat she can at this point, and that layer of fat has now rounded out her face. This build-up of fat &#8212; about 15 percent of her total weight &#8212; will help her maintain her body temperature and give her a store of energy. Her sucking muscles, which are quite powerful, have also finished developing now, and are ready for their first real feeding.&#8221;
According to <a href="https://statelaws.findlaw.com/dc-law/district-of-columbia-abortion-laws.html">FindLaw</a>, &#8220;Washington D.C. has the least restrictive abortion laws in the country. Abortions do not need to be performed by a licensed physician; the district does not ban late-term abortions; and there are no requirements that abortions be performed at a hospital or with a second doctor present. There are public funds available for women seeking an abortion in the case of rape or incest.&#8221;
According to <a href="https://www.operationrescue.org/archives/abortion-facility-numbers-continue-to-decrease-in-2018-according-to-new-survey/">Operation Rescue</a>, there are four abortion clinics in Washington, D.C. Operation Rescue notes that there are two categories of abortion clinics: surgical abortion clinics and medical abortion clinics. Medical abortion clinics use drugs or other chemicals to induce abortions. Operation Rescue points out, &#8220;At the end of 2018, there were 23 fewer surgical abortion clinics than at the same time last year. Thirty-two surgical abortion facilities closed or no longer meet the definition of a surgical abortion facility.&#8221;

This Abortion Facility Advertises It Performs Abortions At 36 Weeks

Abortion

We are two days away from government workers actually missing a paycheck (despite what the media is claiming, no one is currently working without pay because paychecks haven&#8217;t been missed yet). But for those who have been furloughed, times might get tough real quick (or not).
Multiple bars have offered &#8220;shutdown specials&#8221; with relevantly named cocktails, including Capitol Lounge, which came up with <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/dc-bar-offers-5-shutdown-cocktails-for-federal-employees-as-government-shutdown-nears/65-39c81b99-87d6-431b-afe6-3a07d28e80a2">a list of seven cocktails</a> priced at just $5 each. (My favorite is the &#8220;Nothing Really Mattis,&#8221; which combines &#8220;Mad Dog 20/20 &amp; vodka &#8211; Order it, drink it, and leave.&#8221;)
The Instagram account WeThePeopleDC has been collecting shutdown specials, the most useful of which comes from Atlas Vet, which &#8220;is offering 20% off exam fees for FURLoughed federal government employees) who show their government ID or contractors who can prove they have also been &#8220;FURloughed.&#8221;
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BsY6XhDA0qS/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">This next business is near and dear to my heart. @lolacaintheboglen and I have been #AVFaithful since I adopted her in 2016 from @dcpawsrescue. @atlasvetdc is offering 20% off exam fees for FURLoughed federal government employees (must show fed govt ID to receive discount) and contractors who can prove they have been FURloughed by the shutdown. We The People are not the only ones affected by the shutdown: our furry friends are as well. #atlasvet #FURlough #furloughedfeds</a>
A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wethepeopledc/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> We The People DC</a> (@wethepeopledc) on Jan 8, 2019 at 1:49pm PST
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Other offers include a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BsZZxwXgaoT/">buy-one-get-one-free ticket deal</a> for any show at the 9:30 Club, Anthem, the Lincoln Theatre, and U Street Music Hall; <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BsZXyKHg0St/">10% off massage sessions</a>; <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BsZdJzzgn4y/">$5 fitness classes</a>; and discount facials and hair removal services.
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The media is portraying federal workers as near destitute due to the shutdown and unable to pay their bills, so it seems improbable that they would not have the disposable income to splurge on alcohol and massages. Unless, of course, the crisis is overblown. And even if it&#8217;s not, D.C. people need their pampering and booze, I guess.
It should be noted that most furloughed workers can apply for unemployment benefits to help get them through the shutdown, should it last past Friday. The Federal News Network has <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-shutdown/2019/01/a-furloughed-federal-employees-guide-to-filing-for-unemployment-during-the-shutdown/">a guide on how to apply for benefits</a> in each state. Unemployment benefits are a small percentage of one&#8217;s full paycheck, and must be paid back after furloughed workers are given backpay (which has happened in every previous shutdown), but it&#8217;s still a help.

Businesses, Restaurants Offer Discounts To Furloughed Government Workers

Government Shutdown

Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn&#8217;t officially in office just yet, but that doesn&#8217;t mean she&#8217;s not already calling on her future colleagues to take action on her initiatives. Her newest agenda item: a &#8220;DC living wage&#8221; for everybody on Capitol Hill.
In a series of posts Monday, Ocasio-Cortez said that after meeting &#8220;several&#8221; people employed in Senate and House offices working side jobs in order to make a living, she believes it&#8217;s time for Congress to set the example for the nation by providing a &#8220;DC living wage&#8221; to all people working on Capitol Hill.
&#8220;This week I went to dive spot in DC for some late night food. I chatted up the staff,&#8221; she wrote in the first tweet. &#8220;SEVERAL bartenders, managers, &amp; servers *currently worked in Senate + House offices.* This is a disgrace. Congress of ALL places should raise MRAs so we can pay staff an actual DC living wage.&#8221;
She followed that tweet with another describing her own salary of $174,000 as a &#8220;living wage&#8221; and calling on Congress to right this injustice, which she suggested was the Republicans&#8217; fault.
&#8220;It is unjust for Congress to budget a living wage for ourselves, yet rely on unpaid interns &amp; underpaid overworked staff just bc Republicans want to make a statement about &#8216;fiscal responsibility,'&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;If that&#8217;s the case, they can cut down on staff to pay them well. Or raise the MRA.&#8221;
In response to questions about how to pay for her proposed across-the-board living wage, she wrote: &#8220;Gotta love the rich irony of Congressmen asking &#8216;How are you going to pay for it?&#8217; suddenly grow awfully quiet when called out on their expectation that part-time workers magically invent money to work for free.&#8221;
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This week I went to dive spot in DC for some late night food. I chatted up the staff.
SEVERAL bartenders, managers, &amp; servers *currently worked in Senate + House offices.*
This is a disgrace. Congress of ALL places should raise MRAs so we can pay staff an actual DC living wage.
&#8212; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ocasio2018/status/1069652489383960577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 3, 2018</a></blockquote>
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It is unjust for Congress to budget a living wage for ourselves, yet rely on unpaid interns &amp; underpaid overworked staff just bc Republicans want to make a statement about &#8220;fiscal responsibility.&#8221;
If that&#8217;s the case, they can cut down on staff to pay them well. Or raise the MRA.
&#8212; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ocasio2018/status/1069655034093297665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 3, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Gotta love the rich irony of Congressmen asking &#8220;How are you going to pay for it?&#8221; suddenly grow awfully quiet when called out on their expectation that part-time workers magically invent money to work for free <a href="https://t.co/303cx5DpvA">https://t.co/303cx5DpvA</a>
&#8212; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ocasio2018/status/1069717413640527872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 3, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Like everything she posts, the democratic socialist&#8217;s new demand was instantly met with pushback. Some noted the problem with her description of her $174,000 congressional salary as a &#8220;living wage&#8221; (h/t <a href="https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2018/12/03/the-hell-is-she-talking-about-now-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-calls-her-salary-as-a-congresswoman-a-living-wage-and-yeeeah-no/">Twitchy</a>):
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You&#8217;re making $174,000 a year as a member of Congress. That&#8217;s not a &#8220;living wage,&#8221; that&#8217;s a damn good living! Almost $500 PER DAY. You&#8217;re an embarrassment to Congress.
&#8212; Mark Dice (@MarkDice) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkDice/status/1069775422311690240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Men and Women in Congress are overpaid at $174K per year.
&#8212; allimama7 (@amdenijs7) <a href="https://twitter.com/amdenijs7/status/1069657134634287106?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 3, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Others suggested she should set the example by spreading the wealth around using her own sizable salary:
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Start by making an example and give away your salary to those workers.
&#8212; Kalvin McClain (@Kalvin_McClain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Kalvin_McClain/status/1069730217252478977?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 3, 2018</a></blockquote>
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You can feel free to redistribute your new found wealth to your staffers.
I know you won&#8217;t though.
&#8212; Chris Rogerson (@chris_rogerson_) <a href="https://twitter.com/chris_rogerson_/status/1069790230897704960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Others focused on the problematic idea of paying unpaid interns a living wage, including Town Hall&#8217;s <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2018/12/03/alexandria-ocasiocortez-isnt-even-in-office-yet-and-shes-making-even-more-demands-n2536922">Beth Baumann</a>. &#8220;My last semester of college, I interned for the American Conservative Union and guess what? I wasn&#8217;t paid monetarily,&#8221; wrote Baumann. &#8220;I was paid with experience. It was a trade off. I was given opportunities that seriously helped my career. Building contacts and relationships with other people was what I was paid with. That also meant that I had to live off of savings and a few hundred dollars that my parents sent me each money. It was one of the best decisions I ever made for myself. If nothing else, I learned what it was like to work and live on Capitol Hill.&#8221;
Some made the same point a little more bluntly:
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Hello! It is a privilege to get an unpaid internship. That is how people move up in the world. EXPERIENCE!!!! Pharmacy residents and doctors who are residents get paid very little. That is part of the moving up process. Snowflakes want everything for no work.
&#8212; Monogamous Apostate (@MApostate) <a href="https://twitter.com/MApostate/status/1069773896667226112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
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As for her suggestion that somehow this was now a Republican issue, some critics noted that Democrats have a worse track record on not paying their staff than the GOP:
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Hey AOC, more Republicans pay Hill interns than Democrats.. we can all agree Hill staff are overworked and underpaid but don&#8217;t try to score political points for your party on this issue.
&#8212; Christopher Zhen (@chrismzhen) <a href="https://twitter.com/chrismzhen/status/1069755175500476416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
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All the buzz online over Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s &#8220;DC living wage&#8221; tweets follows a stir caused by another tweet this week in which she cited a misleading report about the supposed $21 trillion unaccounted for in the Department of Defense&#8217;s budget.
&#8220;$21 TRILLION of Pentagon financial transactions &#8216;could not be traced, documented, or explained,'&#8221; she wrote, quoting from an article by left-wing outlet The Nation. &#8220;$21T in Pentagon accounting errors. Medicare for All costs ~$32T. That means 66% of Medicare for All could have been funded already by the Pentagon. And that&#8217;s before our premiums.&#8221;
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$21 TRILLION of Pentagon financial transactions &#8220;could not be traced, documented, or explained.&#8221;
$21T in Pentagon accounting errors. Medicare for All costs ~$32T.
That means 66% of Medicare for All could have been funded already by the Pentagon.
And that&#8217;s before our premiums. <a href="https://t.co/soT6GSmDSG">https://t.co/soT6GSmDSG</a>
&#8212; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ocasio2018/status/1069307293752279040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2018</a></blockquote>
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But, as the Manhattan Institute&#8217;s Brian Riedl pointed out, the representative-elect&#8217;s claim has one glaring problem. &#8220;In the original study, $21 trillion refers to transfers back-and-forth between accounts,&#8221; he tweeted. &#8220;So the same $1 can be counted 1000&#8217;s of times. It *does not* mean that $21 trillion in total spending was mis-spent. AOC should have realized $21T *spent* is crazy.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38941/ocasio-cortez-gets-roasted-after-strikingly-ryan-saavedra">Ocasio-Cortez Gets Roasted After &#8216;Strikingly Erroneous&#8217; Claim</a>

Ocasio-Cortez Issues New &#8216;Living Wage&#8217; Demand For Congress; Critics Point Out A Few Problems

Capitol Hill

In a report rather innocuously titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/3rd-brett-kavanaugh-accuser-julie-swetnick-has-history-of-legal-disputes/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&amp;linkId=57579623">3rd Brett Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick has history of legal disputes</a>,&#8221; the Associated Press provides deeply damaging evidence regarding Swetnick&#8217;s credibility, including that she has been involved in &#8220;at least six legal cases over the past 25 years,&#8221; some of which involved what evidence strongly suggests are multiple false claims by Swetnick.
With no corroborating evidence, Swetnick &#8212; who is represented by Stormy Daniels&#8217; lawyer Michael Avenatti &#8212; has accused Brett Kavanaugh of drugging girls and potentially participating in &#8220;gang rapes&#8221; at high school parties, about ten of which she says she attended. At one of those parties, Swetnick says she herself was gang raped, though she has not accused Kavanaugh of being one of the alleged rapists. For its interview with Swetnick which aired Monday night, NBC News introduced the interview by stating that they were unable to verify any of her claims. She provided NBC the names of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/36566/four-really-big-problems-kavanaugh-accuser-joseph-curl">four witnesses</a>: one was dead; one said they did not know Swetnick; the two others failed to respond. During the interview, Swetnick <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/36562/watch-kavanaugh-accuser-swetnick-walks-back-some-ryan-saavedra">walked back</a> her most explosive claims.
In a report published ahead of the interview on Monday, AP provided details about legal cases involving Swetnick, including the widely reported lawsuit against her by her former employer Webtrends, which alleged that in response to a report that she engaged in &#8220;unwelcome sexual innuendo and inappropriate conduct&#8221; toward two male co-workers, Swetnick claimed four co-workers sexually harassed her. The company found no evidence for her claims and discovered that she had falsified information on her application. The suit was eventually dropped.
Another troubling legal dispute highlighted by AP is a 1994 personal injury lawsuit Swetnick filed against the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which contains strong evidence that she attempted to swindle the department. AP reports that Swetnick sued the transit authority for $420,000 in earnings she said she allegedly lost after hurting her nose in a fall on a train in 1992. AP reports (formatting adjusted):
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Swetnick, who described herself in court records as a model and actor, claimed she had &#8220;numerous modeling commitments&#8221; with several companies at the time of the accident but missed out them because of her injuries. To support her claim for lost wages, Swetnick named &#8220;Konam Studios&#8221; as one of the companies promising to employ her. A court filing identified Nam Ko, a representative of &#8220;Kunam Studios,&#8221; as a possible plaintiff&#8217;s witness for her case.
Ko, however, told AP on Friday that he was just a friend of Swetnick&#8217;s and that he had never owned a company with a name spelled either way and had never agreed to pay her money for any work before she injured her nose. He said he first met Swetnick at a bar more than a year after her alleged accident.
&#8220;I didn&#8217;t have any money back then. I (was) broke as can be,&#8221; Ko said. Ko said he has a hazy memory of Swetnick asking to use him as a &#8220;character reference&#8221; but doesn&#8217;t recall hearing about her lawsuit. &#8220;I thought it was for a job application,&#8221; he said.
</blockquote>
The lawsuit was dismissed in 1997 after the attorneys resolved it out of court. &#8220;Vincent Jankoski, one of the lawyers who defended the agency, said the case was resolved without paying Swetnick any money after she failed to provide documentation supporting her lost-wage claims,&#8221; AP reports.
The transit authority lawsuit includes another interesting twist. AP notes that the paperwork filed by Swetnick&#8217;s attorney included a letter by Richard Zamora &#8212; who now goes by Richard Vinneccy &#8212; claiming that Swetnick was going to be hired by the company Fiber Sign Inc. for a base salary of $60,000 but went with someone else after she injured her nose. Vinneccy is the ex-boyfriend of Swetnick who eventually filed a restraining order against her after he said she threatened him and his family.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/36570/kavanaugh-accuser-swetnicks-ex-boyfriend-shreds-ryan-saavedra">Kavanaugh Accuser Swetnick&#8217;s Ex-Boyfriend Shreds Her Credibility In Interview</a>

AP Provides Evidence Kavanaugh Accuser Swetnick Tried To Swindle Washington Transit Authority

Brett Kavanaugh

Julie Swetnick

A Washington, D.C. woman was stabbed to death in an &#8220;unprovoked attack&#8221; while jogging on Tuesday night, just one week after she was engaged to be married.
Thirty-five-year-old Wendy Martinez was stabbed around 8 p.m. at the intersection of 11th and P Streets. She stumbled into a nearby Asian American restaurant where Good Samaritans tended to her wounds, the horrifying moments captured on video surveillance.
Martinez was then transported to a local hospital where she tragically succumbed to her injuries, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/20/us/washington-dc-jogger-stabbed/index.html">said</a> Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham at a Thursday press conference.
&#8220;Wendy should have been shopping for her wedding dress on Friday,&#8221; said a friend of Martinez&#8217;s, Kristina Moore, through tears. &#8220;There is a hole in our hearts that will never be replaced.&#8221;
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DC JOGGER MURDERED | Wendy Martinez was stabbed to death while running in the Logan Circle area of Northwest DC. It was around 8:00pm on Tuesday night. According to <a href="https://twitter.com/DCPoliceDept?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DCPoliceDept</a>, it appears the stabbing may have been random <a href="https://twitter.com/wusa9?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@wusa9</a> <a href="https://t.co/yDK3mruAlY">pic.twitter.com/yDK3mruAlY</a>
&#8212; Michael Quander WUSA (@MikeQReports) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeQReports/status/1042467121077383169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 19, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Surveillance footage of the park led officers to suspect Anthony Crawford, 23, who was charged with the murder on Thursday.
The motive of the vicious crime remains &#8220;unknown.&#8221;
&#8220;We were able to talk to multiple witnesses and we don&#8217;t have anything to suggest that there was any type of confrontation between the two,&#8221; said Newsham. &#8220;It looks like it was an unprovoked attack. &#8230; We also do not have any information to suggest it was a robbery, so the motive in this case right now is unknown.&#8221;
Newsham confirmed that Crawford has a criminal history but did not disclose specifics, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6189359/Police-arrest-suspect-fatal-stabbing-newly-engaged-DC-jogger.html">according</a> to The Daily Mail.
&#8220;I cannot even begin to imagine what her fiance, what her family, what her mom, what her brother, what her friends are going through right now, and I want to extend our heartfelt condolences to this family,&#8221; added the police chief.
Moore described Martinez, a Georgetown graduate, as &#8220;joyful and funny and loving and always there.&#8221;
&#8220;Wendy Karina Martinez was the light of our lives. Not only was she an avid runner, but she was a devout Christian, a wonderful friend, and a driven professional. Everything you hope that a daughter and a friend could be. She was also excited to be planning her upcoming wedding to her fiancé, Daniel Hincapie. They were engaged just last week,&#8221; said the family in a statement.
WATCH:
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TRAGEDY: D.C. Jogger Murdered One Week After Engagement, Video Shows Horrifying Moments After Attack

Murder

Speaking on behalf of the Trump administration, Vice President Mike Pence paid tribute to the late Sen. John McCain at a special ceremony in the United States Capitol Rotunda.
After welcoming guests and family members to the Friday service, Pence avoided partisanship and focused on Sen. McCain&#8217;s extensive service to the United States.
&#8220;It is deeply humbling to stand before you today at the United States Capitol to commemorate the life and service of an American patriot, Senator John McCain,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The President asked me to be here, on behalf of a grateful nation, to pay a debt of honor and respect, to a man who served our country throughout his life in uniform and in public office. And it&#8217;s my great honor to be here.&#8221;
Pence praised McCain&#8217;s military service, discussing how he joined the Navy and would go on to become a POW during the Vietnam War, saying, &#8220;But captivity did not diminish John&#8217;s sense of calling or his commitment to mission.&#8221;
The Vice President also noted that Sen. McCain had served over 35 years in Congress and made special mention of his care for the men and women of the armed forces. 
&#8220;I never traveled with a colleague who was better to our enlisted, or harder on our generals,&#8221; he said. &#8220;John McCain loved the men and women who serve in the uniform of the United States, and he was a champion of our armed forces throughout his career.&#8221;
He continued, &#8220;We gather here today to honor an American patriot who served a cause greater than himself. And we gather here remembering a man who knew how he wanted to be remembered.&#8221; 
&#8220;And so let me say to all those gathered, and his beloved family, on behalf of a grateful nation, we will ever remember that John McCain served his country. And John McCain served his country honorably.&#8221; Pence concluded, &#8220;May God bless the memory of John McCain. May God comfort his family and friends. And may God continue to bless the United States of America.&#8221;
You can watch the speech below:
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Mike Pence Honors Senator John McCain At Special Capitol Service

John McCain

Mike Pence

Republican Party

Trump Administration

U.S. Navy

The Catholic Church is reeling from a new series of sexual abuse allegations this time out of Pennsylvania, where investigators claim that there were more than 300 &#8220;predator priests&#8221; practicing in six Pennsylvania diocese, as Bishops and Cardinals apparently turned a blind eye.
A Pittsburgh grand jury, which has been investigating a handful of allegations made against priests in the Pittsburgh diocese, <a href="https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/08/14/pennsylvania-diocese-sex-abuse-grand-jury-report-released/">released an 884-page report</a> late Tuesday, revealing an intricate web of abuse and deceit that goes back seven decades.
The report represents two years of work, hundreds of interviews with victims and alleged perpetrators, and mounds of evidence.
&#8220;Today, the most comprehensive report on child sexual abuse within the church ever produced in our country was released,&#8221; Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a press conference Tuesday. &#8220;Pennsylvanians can finally learn the extent of sexual abuse in these dioceses. For the first time, we can all begin to understand the systematic cover up by church leaders that followed. The abuse scarred every diocese. The cover up was sophisticated. The church protected the institution at all costs.&#8221;
The report goes into excruciating detail and lists 301 predator priests by name, as well as the names of their directors, bosses, and Bishops. In the diocese of Pittsburgh alone, the investigation found 99 &#8220;predator priests,&#8221; who &#8220;groomed and abused&#8221; both boys and girls. Some of the priests even operated as a collective, sharing photos of their victims in &#8220;child pornography collections,&#8221; and giving &#8220;favored&#8221; victims gold crosses to wear so that other predators could identify easy targets.
&#8220;Priests were raping little boys and girls and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing: they hid it all,&#8221; the report states, indicating that many of the priests had help from higher-ups within their respective diocese.
&#8220;Diocesan administrators, including the Bishops, had knowledge of this conduct and yet priests were regularly placed in ministry after the Diocese was on notice that a complaint of child sexual abuse had been made. This conduct enabled offenders and endangered the welfare of children,&#8221; the report continues.
Shapiro put it succinctly: &#8220;they protected their institution at all cost.&#8221;
The report redacts the names of some of the most egregious offenders, but the name of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., and the former Bishop of Pittsburgh <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cardinal-wuerl-named-in-pennsylvania-grand-jury-report-responds-to-criticism-54373">appears more than 200 times in the report</a>. Although Cardinal Wuerl is reported to have swiftly handled all new cases of abuse under his tenure as Bishop of Pittsburgh, in a number of cases, most inherited from his predecessor, priests under his watch appear to have been relocated rather than dismissed, and some were given financial support (though Catholic Canonical law does require this in many circumstances).
The cardinal pushed back on the report, saying he quickly developed a &#8220;zero tolerance&#8221; policy to handle cases of abuse in his diocese, and that he was shocked by the state of affairs when he took control in the late 1980s.
The new allegations come on the heels of a report that longtime Church leader, the once-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, allowed and even facilitated the abuse of seminarians in his diocese. Many Catholics fear that, taken together, these allegations and the ones against McCarrick demonstrate an American Church plagued by internal rot and a clerical hierarchy that seems willing to protect itself to the detriment of millions of faithful.
The implications of their investigation were not lost on the Pittsburgh grand jury:
&#8220;We, the members of this grand jury, need you to hear this. We know some of you have heard some of it before. There have been other reports about child sex abuse within the Catholic Church. But never on this scale. For many of us, those earlier stories happened someplace else, someplace away. Now we know the truth: it happened everywhere.&#8221;

Catholic Church Rocked By New Scandal: THREE HUNDRED Predator Priests Named In Grand Jury Report

Catholic Church

Pennsylvania

Sexual Abuse

Sexual Assault

On Friday, the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s office for Washington, D. C. quietly dropped all charges leveled against protesters arrested during President Donald Trump&#8217;s inauguration &#8212; a mere 532 days after they were captured blocking traffic and destroying public property.
<a href="http://dailycaller.com/2018/07/06/charges-trump-inauguration-protesters/">The Daily Caller reports</a> that of the 234 protesters arrested on January 21, 2017, around 200 were eventually charged. Twenty-one protesters pleaded guilty before trial, the Caller says, but &#8220;prosecutors failed to secure any convictions&#8221; for those protesters who chose to go to trial.
Jurors refused to levy guilty verdicts against many of the demonstrators, saying videos, allegedly showing the protesters destroying government property, were too blurry, and the jury couldn&#8217;t draw a connection between the protesters on trial and those pictured on the security camera footage.
Earlier this year, prosecutors dropped charges against around 150 protesters arrested on Inauguration Day. The U.S. Attorney&#8217;s office, last week, filed a motion to dismiss charges against any remaining protesters.
&#8220;The destruction that occurred during these criminal acts was in sharp contrast to the peaceful demonstrations and gatherings that took place over the Inauguration weekend in the District of Columbia, and created a danger for all who were nearby,&#8221; a statement, released by prosecutors, read.
Protesters caused more than $100,000 in damage to D.C. city property, and even more to private property.

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