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Deborah Simmons

dsimmons@washingtontimes.com

Deborah Simmons was a senior correspondent who reported on City Hall and wrote about education, culture, sports and family-related topics.

Articles by Deborah Simmons

As a D.C. Council member representing Ward 8, Marion Barry represented the city's most downtrodden and least-educated residents. (The Washington Times)

Marion Barry: A deal-maker who championed home rule

Marion Barry, 78, collapsed shortly after midnight Sunday, and before the clock struck 2 a.m., he was pronounced dead. Some might say that heaven and hell prepared a place for him, as he often was at odds with other Democrats and liberals and the D.C. business community that was used to running the city.

November 23, 2014
Mayor Marion Barry arrives at a meeting of the Financial Control Board at the headquarters on Thomas Circle in Northwest on June 10, 1996. (Kevin T. Gilbert/The Washington Times)

Marion Barry, former D.C. mayor, dies at 78

Former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, who rose from the sharecroppers' shacks of Itta Bena, Mississippi, to the executive suite of the District's City Hall and overcame an embarrassing public drug arrest while in office to return as D.C. mayor and council member, died early Sunday. He was 78.

November 23, 2014

DEBORAH SIMMONS: Just vote no on marijuana

On Tuesday, voters will decide whether to take the next giant leap in the pro-marijuana movement by approving ballot measures that call for legalizing recreational use.

October 30, 2014

DEBORAH SIMMONS: Elect candidates who support kids, learning

There is a candidate running for a high office in the nation's capital who wants a "moratorium on school closings and new charter schools." I won't name the candidate because the focus should not be on the candidate, but on the fact that such a stance is anti-children.

October 23, 2014

DEBORAH SIMMONS: Stop muddying the Ebola issue

Ebola has not yet been contained, people are dying at a breathtaking clip and nobody has come forward to announce the comforting words, "We are prepared to combat Ebola with a vaccine called ..." The Ebola issue also is being muddied by politics, racial hatred and ethnic bias, and ordinarily respected partisan mouthpieces.

October 13, 2014

SIMMONS: Unarmed police are sitting ducks, Mr. Grosso

David Grosso, a freshman at-large council member, wants members of the Metropolitan Police Department to serve but not protect. He wants to take their guns away, and he wants us to participate in a love-in of the '60s and '70s variety. Mr. Grosso must be having flashbacks from innocently being in the vicinity of second-hand reefer smoke.

October 9, 2014

SIMMONS: Obama, other out-of-towners enter D.C. mayor’s race

The titular head of the national Democratic Party endorsed Muriel Bowser for D.C. mayor Monday, and last week, the Democratic governor of Vermont endorsed one of Ms. Bowser's independent opponents, a former Republican named David Catania.

October 6, 2014