Deborah Simmons — Life As It Happens
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Taxpayers hoodwinked for schooling and no schooling
Around mid-March, schools around the country began closing because of the coronavirus scare. Now as the 2020-21 school year approaches, parents want definitive plans for reopening them. They also should be asking what's happened to the money.
Madam mayors, save the Black children
At the risk of sounding sexist, I've put Miss Bowser and a few other female mayors on the spot because of the violence this past holiday weekend -- a weekend when family, food and fun posed what? A triple threat?
Happy Birthday, America! Are you in?
Though America has not declared war on another country and another 9/11 has not caught us napping, America is nonetheless at war.
Sanctuary cities pull the trigger on school security
The cries for police reform are justifiable, especially when the daily and nightly news constantly replay lives permanently quieted by the questionable actions of a few law enforcers. Legislating too quickly, however, could unwittingly put students, their families and school faculty at risk.
Don't move the Lincoln emancipation statue or the others
If the Emancipation Memorial is defaced, destroyed or removed from its prominence of Capitol Hill, so too would the history of African and Caribbean Americans.
D.C. draws riders of latest movement in long, hot summer
People say they're fed up, frustrated and angry, and they're demanding that everybody "get on the bus."
Virginia Democrats may move the needle
If she were to win, Ms. McClellan would become America's first black female governor, Virginia's first black female governor and the second woman elected to a statewide seat in Virginia. Talk about breaking glass ceilings. And to do so in Virginia, of all states, would be a democratic, er, Democratic stunner.
Latchkey generation unveils what's going on
The children born to the latchkey generation want a reason -- any reason -- to be released from purgatorial COVID-19 lockdown. Teens and young adults were given free reign to play hooky from school for protests -- and parents went along with the schools' permissive policies. And they know they risk being arrested for breaking curfew but do not care. Police will let them go, and they know it.
Montgomery County should follow the people's lead
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich has a lot of explaining to do. He has been shouted down by residents and other stakeholders who have been protesting his heavy-handed lockdown. In fact, he has been shouted down by his own constituents every time he attempted to make a point at one of his press conferences.
D.C. gets voting rights wrong
On June 3, the day after the presidential primary, D.C. lawmakers and officials under the direction of the mayor made a confession: Caretakers of D.C. voting rights had screwed up big time.
COVID-19 sends education back to school, back to basics
Politicians and unions are mostly focusing on what school facilities should look like when faculty and students return, mostly proposing the same health and safety mandates that have been followed since the COVID-19 lockdown.
Systemic racism didn't kill George Floyd
The day the world learned that Martin Luther King became a martyr has left an indelible mark, April 4, 1968, on the soul of humanity, because he reached out to the minds and hearts in America.
The 'new normal' is coming. Are you ready?
The press for the "new normal" means local and state governments locked us down so they could lock up the keys pegged to fiscal responsibility.
Contact tracing: Siri, Alexa meet the new kid on the block
You needn't be a hi-tech hipster to be familiar with Siri of Appleland or Alexa of the Amazon, the artificially intelligent ladies at your beck and call now hanging out with a new kid on the AI block. Its name is contact tracing, and it's being deployed in the battle to rein in COVID-19.
Looking forward to Memorial Day, family gatherings and coronavirus vaccine
Nobody knows whether the fat lady is warming up her vocal cords or not. America's prima donna of political song has been in self-quarantine — alone -- since the Chinese lied about the existence and origins of COVID-19.
The geese laying tarnished COVID-19 golden eggs in D.C.
A Democrat, Miss Bowser and the duly elected members of her legislative counterparts are in the throes of a major crisis, trying to balance spending priorities and declining revenues against the onerous realities of COVID-19.
Inside the Beltway during the coronavirus pandemic
Having already failed to impeach President Trump, Beat Trumpers devised another strategy: Unify to counter Mr. Trump's COVID-19 efforts, turn on the spigots labeled federal, state and local dollars, and coalesce state and local leaders to beg for tax dollars as if their lives -- and the lives of their families and constituents -- depended on it.
Travel, tourism could take years to recover from COVID-19
The roads, seas and skies are less traveled these days, as the travel and tourism industry hear the incredible sucking sound of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Coronavirus exposes failure of one-size-fits-all education policies
As governors and mayors continue cracking their COVID-19 whips, parents and other citizens are pleading "give us free. They're talking about their jobs, public schools, libraries, beaches and recreational programs, and their liberties. They're also learning, learning the hard way, that one-size-fits-all policies and practices continue to fail.
Dishonest masked singers of 2020
If you've never watched the musical game show "The Masked Singer," check it out. It's as unprecedented as our response to COVID-19 -- except it's funny, and we can all benefit from strong doses of humor these days.
