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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

Pedestrians stand beside a fence covered in protest signs on the north side of the White House, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020, on a section of 16th Street renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, on the day before the U.S. election. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

All eyes on election results 2020

Tuesday's the day. Election Day. And the day after, if you live in the nation's capital or around the Beltway, all eyes and ears will be focused on election results after what happened on Election Day 2016, when The Donald beat Hillary.

November 2, 2020
President Donald Trump greets Jon Voight during a National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) **FILE**

Celebrity families feud over Trump, Biden

Let's move onto another platform, a fun-for-the-sake-of-fun platform, like where celebrities stand on Biden-Harris versus Trump-Biden. It's a worthy distraction if you didn't watch the final debate.

October 22, 2020
This photo taken May 20, 2014 shows the new "Capital Wheel" at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. With a massive new Ferris wheel overlooking the nation’s capital, a children’s museum, a village of restaurants and hotels and a major casino resort on the horizon, National Harbor in Maryland has quickly become a travel alternative to the marble monuments and museums of nearby Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci) ** FILE **

National Harbor has a problem

National Harbor, a U.S. Census-designated site, is being overtaken by youths and nefarious ne'er-do-wells, including partygoers, restaurant-goers who skip out on their bills and -- get this -- parents and other adults who rent hotel rooms for the careless young people.

October 19, 2020
FILE - In this 1930s file photo, General Robert E. Wood, president of Sears, Roebuck & Co., and Julius Rosenwald, chairman of the board, posing for a photo next to an All State tire, outside of the Sears Distribution Center, in Atlanta. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File) **FILE**

Public-private partnerships build schools

There has been no rabid public outcry among Prince Georgians concerning the potential to raise taxes and fees and/or create new taxes. But there is measurable agreement about the need to begin erasing the county's $8.5 billion backlog in modernizing schoolhouses, most of which are 45 to 55 years old. Well, the Prince George's County Council disagrees, and somebody, ahem, should set them straight.

October 15, 2020
FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2020, file photo, stickers to be given to people who have voted are seen at a satellite election office at Temple University's Liacouras Center in Philadelphia. In the run up to Election Day, President Donald Trump is seizing on small, potentially routine voting issues to suggest the election is rigged. But there is no evidence there is any widespread voter fraud as the president has suggested. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

Protect our voting rights and our votes

Two of the most consequential actions voters appreciate on Election Day, after casting ballots, are the election machine verifying it has received their ballots and a precinct volunteer handing them a red-white-and-blue sticker inscribed with "I Voted."

October 8, 2020
This April 13, 2014, file photo shows the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) headquarters building in Washington. On Friday, April 17, 2020, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly asserting that one can call a 1-800 number and enter your social security number to check on the status of the relief check the federal government is sending as part of the $2.2 trillion economic recovery bill in response to the coronavirus. The IRS isn’t currently accepting calls by phone because of the coronavirus. The IRS has warned Americans of scam artists who might try to swindle you out of your relief check through fraudulent emails, text messages, websites or social media posts that request your banking or personal information. (AP Photo/J. David Ake, File **FILE**

COVID-19 fever

Keep away from the fly-by-night crews, those tax "experts" that pop up online and along strip malls. They've got COVID-19 fever, too, and can't wait to get their hands on your Social Security number, bank account info, date of birth and other personal info.

October 5, 2020
Loralie Lombardo, center, eats lunch with her family at an outdoor seafood restaurant in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. on June 15, 2020, the first day New Jersey allowed outdoor dining to resume during the coronavirus outbreak. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) **FILE**

Tend to faith, family and food in the kitchen

2020, it seems, is the year of upsetting apple carts, by any means necessary, which is why it's time to take a leap. Redirect that energy, soothe the soul. Get in the kitchen, boil a pot of potatoes, peel them, add milk and butter, and whip away for you and your family. If that sounds too simple that's because it is, and that's why mashed potatoes is considered a "comfort food."

October 1, 2020
In this file photo, a Washington, D.C., man rides the escalator up at the Metro subway Congress Heights train station in Washington, Friday, March 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) ** FILE **

Metro must brace for spending cuts ASAP

Money doesn't grow on trees, as most average Americans have learned during the era of COVID-19. And it doesn't matter whether the tree is growing in Brooklyn, burning in California or standing tall in a cul-de-sac in suburban Virginia or Maryland.

September 29, 2020
In this file photo, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks during a news conference on Sept. 4, 2020 (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) ** FILE **

Single dads and moms need child care, too

While such facts of life could challenge normal everyday living, COVID-19 and government shutdowns created a new "unnormal" by shuttering school buildings and child care services, and mandating virtual schooling.

September 21, 2020
In this July 31, 2019, file photo, then-Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., listens as Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a Democratic presidential primary debate at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden has chosen Harris as his running mate. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File) **FILE**

Will D.C. statehood spark partisan fire at the debates?

The Republican nominees, Donald Trump and Mike Pence, and their Democratic counterparts, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, are preparing for their upcoming debates. So, as a note, in case you're looking for candor and civility, look to Mr. Pence, who likely will be the lone grownup at the debate podiums. Even on such gnawing issues as D.C. statehood and congressional voting rights.

September 17, 2020
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, left, stands next to community members during a news conference in Los Angeles Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020. Villanueva said Thursday that deputies fatally shot a man after he allegedly opened fire when they tried to serve a search warrant in Compton. The killing comes less than two weeks after other deputies fatally shot 29-year-old Dijon Kizzee, whose death has sparked several days of protests in South Los Angeles where demonstrators claim authorities have violently pushed back against the protesters. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) **FILE**

If Black lives really do matter, prove it

You would think that when a toddler, a Black toddler, is shot an all-hands-on-deck situation would grab the media's attention and the protesters' attention. But, no. They'd rather continue to go ape crazy over police tactics for enforcing the law.

September 14, 2020
District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks at a news conference on the coronavirus outbreak and the District's response, Monday, Aug. 17, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) ** FILE **

Muriel Bowser, D.C. mayor: Prepare polling places for Nov. 3

Give Mayor Muriel Bowser big credit: She's underscoring the crucial importance of voting in the republic. Other city and state leaders should take a page from her Election 2020 handbook. Miss Bowser wants voters where they should be on Nov. 3. At the polls.

September 10, 2020
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 30, 2020. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP) **FILE**

Rand Paul’s SCHOOL Act is spot on

Sen. Rand Paul gets it. He understands that when it comes to the health, education and welfare of children, few things are more important to a family. Enter the SCHOOL Act, legislation Mr. Paul introduced in early August that encourages parents to opt their kids out of public schools and hands them the money to pay for tutoring, nonpublic schooling and education items, among other things.

August 17, 2020
Todd Gallagher prepares mail in ballot envelopes including an I Voted sticker Wednesday, July 29, 2020 in Minneapolis. Absentee ballots are being requested at a record level this year. Nearly 470,000 Minnesotans have requested to vote absentee. That's an amazing 12-times the number requesting mail in voting at this point in 2018. This year's demand obliterates the demand in the 2016 Presidential election, when only 20,000 absentee ballots were requested by July 24. (Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune via AP) **FILE**

D.C. fouls up voting rights again

As one of 503,000-plus registered D.C. voters, I crossed my fingers that surely city officials would get the mailers for absentee voting right.

August 13, 2020
FILE - In this June 7, 2020, file photo, visitors watch sunrise from the Lincoln Memorial steps in Washington, the morning after massive protests over the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Key messages, messengers of Get Your Knee Off Our Necks Rally

If you're keeping even the mildest interest in disruptions these days, weeks and months since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, then you probably know that the Get Your Knee Off Our Necks Rally is scheduled for Aug. 28, the 57th anniversary of the peacefully successful March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

August 3, 2020