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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

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser pauses during a news conference at One Judiciary Square in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017. (Associated Press) **FILE**

D.C. should bolster school choice

You don't have to be a top chef to know that, like oil and water, President Trump and left-of-center Democrats don't go well together — and that sensitive palates find the taste of anchovies yucky.

April 22, 2019
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe delivers his final "State of the Commonwealth" address to the General Assembly at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. (Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP) **FILE**

Terry McAuliffe and the Democrats’ 2020 strategy

American voters should get to know or reacquaint themselves with Terry McAuliffe. He's the Democratic Party's don and king who seemingly doesn't take the money and run but makes sure his own pockets runneth over.

April 18, 2019
Democratic presidential candidate and former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke speaks during a campaign event in Sioux City, Iowa, on Thursday, April 4, 2019. (Justin Wan/Sioux City Journal via AP) **FILE**

Term limits would drain the swamp

As the "Democratic Demolition Coalition" grows, another group of get-out-the-vote movers and shakers is on the move, too. Supporters of term limits are making their voices heard. One of them is James Baker, who lost to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in the 2018 Democratic primary and was a write-in candidate in the general election.

April 11, 2019
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, left, and Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford speak at a news conference in Annapolis, Md., Monday, April 8, 2019, the final day of the state's 2019 legislative session. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark) **FILE**

Larry Hogan’s smart BW Parkway push

Enter Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who is so fed up with the NPS ignoring the dangerous and gridlocked realities of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway that he has urged the state's congressional delegation into action.

April 8, 2019
FILE - In this Dec. 6, 2016 file photo, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh delivers an address during her inauguration ceremony inside the War Memorial Building in Baltimore. Maryland's chief accountant is calling for Pugh to step down, calling the latest revelations about lucrative deals to sell her self-published children's books "brazen, cartoonish corruption." In a Monday, April 1, 2019 tweet, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot wrote: "The Mayor has to resign — now." His comments came on the same day that Kaiser Permanente disclosed that it paid Pugh's limited liability company about $114,000 for roughly 20,000 copies of her "Healthy Holly" children's books. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Baltimore mayor vs. Catherine Pugh

The scandalous ruins surrounding Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh means Charm City is in the throes of urban renewal — not gentrification, though.

April 1, 2019
In this Feb. 20, 2019, photo a worker carries interior doors to install in a just completed new home in north Dallas. On Wednesday, March 13, the Commerce Department reports on U.S. construction spending in January. (AP Photo/LM Otero) **FILE**

Give manual labor a chance

The job market is calling for laborers and manufacturing workers. All those boxes delivered by FedEx, Amazon and the U.S. Postal Service don't appear by osmosis.

March 21, 2019
This Tuesday, March 12, 2019 photo shows the University Village area of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. USC is one of many colleges and companies moving swiftly to distance themselves from employees swept up in a nationwide college admissions scheme, many charged with taking bribes and others from well-to-do and celebrity parents accused of angling to get their children into top schools. By Wednesday, March 13, USC had fired senior associate athletic director Donna Heinel and water polo coach Jovan Vavic. USC's interim President Wanda Austin said about a half-dozen current applicants affiliated with Singer's firm will be barred from admission. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)may be connected to the scheme alleged by the government. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon) **FILE**

Education system scandals is true March Madness

Every liberal and conservative, progressive and libertarian should agree that cheating a child of their education is wrong. It's simply wrong. Yet it happens, sometimes is even encouraged, in schools across the country.

March 14, 2019
Musician R. Kelly arrives at the Daley Center for a hearing in his child support case at the Daley Center, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Chicago. Kelly was charged last month with sexually abusing four females dating back to 1998, including three underage girls. He's pleaded not guilty. (AP Photo/Matt Marton) **FILE**

R. Kelly unplugged

The reality is this: R. Kelly is in denial and scared to death of facing the music that he and his entourage wrote the score to.

March 7, 2019
File - In this Jan. 30, 2019, file photo, a sign posted at The Vancouver Clinic in Vancouver, Wash., warns patients and visitors of a measles outbreak. The focus on measles in the Pacific Northwest intensified Friday, March 1, 2019, as public health officials in Oregon announced a new case of the highly contagious disease unrelated to an ongoing outbreak in Washington state that's sickened 68 people so far. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File) **FILE**

Measles vaccinations: Bolster them now

There is no cure for measles. So you see, when it comes to "one of the most contagious diseases known to man," an ounce of prevention against measles, two doses, is worth a pound of cure.

March 4, 2019
In this Feb. 26, 2018, file photo, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine, attends a news conference near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) ** FILE **

D.C. targets Trump

This week, D.C. prosecutors became third in line, behind New York and New Jersey, to subpoena the Trump inauguration committee. They want to know the specifics of the whos, the whats, the whens and the wheres -- and, of course, how much.

February 28, 2019
Fireworks explode over Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol building at the National Mall in Washington, Tuesday, July 4, 2017, during the Fourth of July celebration. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) **FILE**

Trumpeting July Fourth along the National Mall

Here comes Mr. Trump, who apparently loves a parade and wants one on display in the nation's capital on July Fourth. With his proposal comes backlash. Indeed, if we've ever had a president who draws immediate backlash, it's Donald Trump.

February 25, 2019
"Empire" actor Jussie Smollett leaves Cook County jail following his release, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019, in Chicago. Smollett was charged with disorderly conduct and filling a false police report when he said he was attacked in downtown Chicago by two men who hurled racist and anti-gay slurs and looped a rope around his neck, a police official said. (AP Photo/Kamil Krzaczynski)

Jussie Smollett never grasped that he was really attacking his own credibility

The cameras caught much of the "attack," but the director of the fantasy lost his way. He never seemed to even grasp the reality that he was attacking himself -- his credibility as an actor, singer, producer, a TV star, a friend -- or "Empire" coworker, if you will -- whose ethical behavior others depended upon.

February 21, 2019