would strengthen the enforcement of court orders to protect victims, strengthen pretrial detention of domestic violence offenders, enhance accountability for offenders and protect victim and survivor privacy, according to Mayor Muriel Bowser, who announced the legislation Friday alongside U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro.

The bill would also make聽repeat violations of temporary and civil protection orders a felony, give more authority to the courts to detain people charged with domestic violence offenses, make unlawful entry a felony in cases where an accused offender enters a home to commit an assault, and create a new crime for particular offenses committed in the presence of a child.

Pirro said she was surprised to learn D.C. did not have a separate charge in cases where domestic violence takes place in the presence of a child.

“We’ve got to make that a crime, because there is no question that the consequences are long-term in terms of that child learning that violence is the only way to resolve conflict in their lives based upon what they are seeing between their parents or intimate partners,” Pirro said.

Pirro also said she’d like to see enhanced sentencing for offenders who strangle their partners.

“Right now, my office has filed 90 felony strangulation cases,” she said, adding that her office was on track to “file 360 before the end of the year.”

Pirro said while strangulation was recategorized as a felony from a misdemeanor 鈥� as a result of the Secure D.C. Act 鈥� the sentencing guidelines remain, in her view, low.

“When someone strangles an intimate partner, they’re 800% more likely to kill that person in the future,” Pirro said.

At the opening of his remarks, Interim D.C. Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said there have been a string of domestic violence cases recently that have ended in murder and/or suicide.

“And just this past Tuesday night, a suspect shot and wounded his former girlfriend and another man, before taking his own life,” Carroll said. “Although violent crime is down, domestic offenses are fueling an increase in assault with dangerous weapons, which are up 36%.”

He also highlighted a called “Know DV.”

“We want every resident to know the signs of domestic violence and know the resources that are available,” he said. “The message to the survivors is clear: know that you are not alone.”

Natalia Otero, executive director of spoke at Friday’s announcement.

“We’ve seen what happens when systems move too slowly, and what it costs survivors when patterns of violence go unaddressed,” she said.

Otero said her organization, D.C.’s only 24/7 crisis intervention agency for domestic violence, has been pushing for years for measures such as those in the Protecting Victims Act of 2026.

She called the proposed legislation “a critical step in supporting survivors and saving lives.”

Referencing a series of lethal domestic violence cases, including that of Dr. Cerina Fairfax, who was killed by her husband, former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, Otero said, “The general public, once again, has been witness to the devastation that intimate partner violence can cause. It is pervasive and exists across socioeconomic lines and across every neighborhood, and it is our responsibility to solve it.”

Bowser said she will be with members of the D.C. Council, working with them to schedule hearings and quickly move the legislation forward.

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Montgomery County Police say they got multiple calls about a group of teenagers on e-bikes and dirt bikes near Arlington Road and Bethesda Avenue. According to the complaints, the teens were speeding along on sidewalks, driving on the wrong side of the road, nearly hitting pedestrians and blocking traffic.

Police body camera footage shows the teenager being arrested after the group was approached by police on foot, and then sped off toward Elm Street “at a high rate of speed.”

In a news release, police said the teen resisted arrest and shouted racial epithets at the officers. That’s not audible

In the video, the teen is seen being handcuffed and taken out of the street. Then, referring to the dirt bike riders, a woman tells police that “they’ve been such a nuisance.”

The teenager 鈥� who did not have a Maryland driver’s license 鈥� was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, driving an unregistered motor vehicle, reckless and negligent driving along with failure to obey traffic control devices.

The dirt bike that the teen was operating was confiscated and towed.

In Wednesday’s case, the dirt bike the 13-year-old was operating should have been licensed and registered and had safety equipment in order to be used on a public roadway, according to Maryland law.

Montgomery County Council member Andrew Friedson, whose district includes downtown Bethesda, said he had seen the video police released related to the incident. He said the illegal operation of dirt bikes in the area has been “an ongoing issue.”

In an interview with 91欧美激情, Friedson said, “I have been in touch with police about it, and it has been an ongoing concern from community members and local businesses.”

“I’m hopeful that this particular incident will be a deterrent 鈥� realizing the police are going to respond,” Friedson said.

The message being sent, he said, is that when dirt bike operators behave recklessly, “you could be caught and you will face consequences. And I think that’s an important message in this case to send to our young people.”

A from Montgomery County’s District 2 commander, which serves Bethesda, included a message to parents urging them to “Know where your kids are, who they are with, and the laws around dirt bikes and mini dirt bikes.”

Police also reminded parents that there are a number of laws that apply to dirt bikes and many are linked to how the bikes are categorized.

Montgomery County Police are urging parents to be careful in buying dirt bikes and e-bikes for their children, and become familiar with the laws that apply to owning and operating them. Any vehicle with an engine of more than 50cc must be registered.

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The Red Line opened to the public in March 1976 with just five stops in central D.C. It now spans 32 miles and includes 27 stations.

Metro documents state that the Red Line’s “aging system presents challenges with safety, reliability, capacity and efficiency.” The documents state that trespassing incidents and human error “are difficult to mitigate with current system design.”

Under the plan, $913 million will go toward Red Line improvements that Metro said will put the system “on the path to providing world-class transit.”

There are plans to seek federal funding in the form of grants that could support the project. The details are part of the proposed fiscal 2027-32 Capital Improvement Plan, which Metro’s Board of Directors unanimously approved Thursday morning.

Debate over automation

Included in the improvements is full automation of the Red Line, which is already significantly automated. Automatic train operation, abbreviated as ATO, controls Red Line trains’ acceleration, deceleration and speed via special equipment on the tracks.

Metro workers said during Thursday’s meeting that ATO is not foolproof, and the system isn’t ready for more automation.

Christopher Terry, a former Metrobus driver who said he鈥檚 worked in rail yards across the system, told the board ATO 鈥済litches continually, and we are there to fill the gaps. Operators are the first line of defense to troubleshoot issues on the railroad.”

While Metro trains were designed to be largely automatic, the use of automated trains was discontinued after a 2009 crash on the Red Line, which killed nine people and injured 80.

Metro returned to ATO systemwide last year for the first time since that crash.

鈥淭he trains have always had the ability to operate in ATO, and the reason why we stopped doing that, or have not initiated it, is because the system is not ready,” said Jackie Jeter, a train operator who previously led ATU Local 689 as the union president.

Further modernization of the Red Line would include installing platform doors that would open only when trains pull into stations. Platform doors are currently used in transit systems in other countries, and even closer to home; they operate similarly to those at Dulles International Airport’s AeroTrain.

Metro officials said the doors would make stations safer and allow for speedier train arrivals and departures. The automation of the Red Line is the first step toward a system-wide modernization, according to Metro.

鈥淲e鈥檝e had 10 people hit already by trains this year 鈥� seven of which have been fatalities, six of which have been on the Red Line,鈥� Metro General Manager and CEO Randy Clarke said.

Clarke added the system has 鈥渁n engineering and technology solution鈥� to address those incidents, 鈥渁nd that鈥檚 one of the values of this program.”

Additional automation could also extend to eliminating the need for train operators, who currently control doors, make announcements and monitor track conditions. The union representing rail operators has expressed concern.

鈥淏efore you take the operator off the train, you should be able to look every rider in the eye and guarantee their safety. And today, nobody in this room can do that,” Jampsea Campbell, a union member and Metro station manager, told the board.

Benjamin Lynn with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 told 91欧美激情, “The union isn’t opposed to progress. Progress can come in many forms.”

ATU Local 689 represents approximately 8,500 WMATA employees.

“The union thinks that step is premature 鈥� that WMATA should focus first on ensuring the system is at a state of good repair,” he added.

Lynn said there’s roughly $15 billion of needed repairs that have already been identified.

“Job loss is a concern of the union,” Lynn said. “We’re also really concerned about what full automation without a human operator would mean for the safety of the riding public.”

Clarke addressed concerns about job loss during Thursday’s meeting.

鈥淓mployees are a core of what we do at Metro,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e are at the start of a process. The Red Line modernization is not about getting rid of employees.鈥�

There will be a plan in place to consider future roles for operators under the modernization plan.

鈥淎round the world, people do this totally differently. Sometimes there鈥檚 train attendants, sometimes there鈥檚 operators, sometimes they are security staff,鈥� Clarke said.

Lynn said that the union would be part of the conversations about exactly what full automation would mean.

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The move clears the way for a second council vote May 5 when it would face congressional review before taking effect in the fall.

Council member Janeese Lewis George was among the “no” votes, saying that studies from other cities show that “curfews do not result in fewer instances in youth-involved crime, public disturbances or high-risk behaviors.”

Council member Zachary Parker told his colleagues he would be voting “no” on both the permanent curfew bill and an emergency measure. Parker said the government cannot be a substitute for parents.

“Families and guardians have a fundamental responsibility to guide and supervise their children. I’m going to say that one more time, because it takes a village,” he said.

Council member Robert White, a candidate for delegate to Congress, also voted “no” on the permanent curfew bill.

“How is it that we always have the money to incarcerate and handcuff, but we don’t have the money to prevent (youth crime)?” he asked. “We can’t keep going in this circle and expect anything other than what we have.”

Ward 3 Council member Matt Frumin voted in favor of the bill, saying, “We need to be lifting up these kids, but we also need to be protecting our communities and our kids.”

How curfews are working

During a discussion prior to the vote, Ward 2 Council member Brooke Pinto, who lead the push on the legislation, was asked what evidence there is to show curfews actually work when it comes to public safety and young people.

“The most persuasive evidence that I hear is from parents who’ve reached out to say thank you for giving the police this tool,” Pinto said.

Several times, council members commented on that showed a D.C. police officer pulling two girls off an e-bike and then standing at the top of an escalator at the Navy Yard Metro station calling out, “We’re going to get you!”

Council member Wendell Felder called the images “extremely concerning” and said they should be investigated.

Pinto agreed that the incidents were troubling, and said, “These instances are unacceptable and these cases have been referred to the office of police complaints.”

She added that she would continue to work so curfew zones “are implemented properly and safely.”

While the council gave the initial green light to the permanent curfews, the push to extend the current declaration by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser with emergency legislation failed to advance.

D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson moved to table the vote on emergency legislation, which would have extended curfew zones for another 90 days and needed nine votes to pass.

Mendelson explained the postponement by saying the curfews are in reaction to “something new and different,” referring to the teen meetups organized on social media that have resulted in hundreds of young people flooding neighborhoods like the Navy Yard.

“We are not alone in this discussion. And by that I mean, there are folks who are not friends to the District who are looking very intently at what we are doing or not doing,” Mendelson said. “I’m not interested in giving them any talking points or ammunition.”

The failure to vote on the emergency measure before the next scheduled legislative session May 5 means that the curfew in place under Mayor Bowser’s declaration will lapse.

Among those opposing the delay was At-Large Council member Anita Bonds, who said, “You know we kick the can, and the can doesn’t move very far, and we kick it again. We continue to put off what we cannot put off.”

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Wright compared the role of teacher coaches to athletic coaching during a virtual call with reporters. Teacher coaches are experienced educators who work with teachers on classroom strategies, not employee evaluations.

“Any athlete will tell you the impact of good coaching on their game,” Wright said. “When teachers have access to strong, high quality, effective instructional coaching, students win.”

Under the plan, the will hire 52 literacy-based coaches, five regional literacy coaches and four regional mathematics coaches.

Among the 52 hires, 35 will be school-based literacy coaches placed across the state.

During the General Assembly session that ended earlier this month, $14.2 million was included in the budget for the plan and to fund those positions.

Wright, who is often credited with bumping up student performance in her previous role as the Mississippi State Superintendent of Education, told reporters, “The research is clear, and other states agree, when teachers have access to a highly effective instructional coach, it has lasting effects on the students of today and those who will follow.”

The placement of the teacher coaches across Maryland will be tied to three factors, including the performance of third graders on the English language arts and mathematics exams of the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program, also known as MCAP. That will be based on student performance over the past three years.

Another factor used to decide where the teacher coaches will be placed includes the percentage of conditionally licensed teachers among a school’s faculty and staff. Conditionally licensed teachers are educators still completing full certification requirements.

In January, under the Academic Excellence Program, seven literacy coaches were assigned to support teachers in 14 Prince George’s County elementary schools under a pilot program. The additional hiring campaign is expected to add 15 more coaches to the county school system.

“The statewide initiative will be built on that,” Wright said.

Under the plan, “philanthropic funds” would be used and the goal would be to have a total of 22 coaches in Prince George’s County. Philanthropic funding refers to private or nonprofit financial support that supplements state funding.

The Academic Excellence Program is part of Maryland’s strategy to improve education under the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a sweeping multi-billion dollar education reform plan. The initial plan was signed into law in 2019, with the plan for implementing the Blueprint passed during the 2020 General Assembly session in Annapolis.

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“We hear from our residents and faith groups that the world feels less safe,” County Executive Marc Elrich said Monday while announcing the funding. “We are diverse, we are welcoming and we refuse to let hate determine how residents live.”

Montgomery County Council President Natali Fani-Gonz谩lez stood alongside Elrich during the announcement.

“When we say that we are a county that is going to be defending you and protecting you, that also means that you need to put your money where your mouth is, and that is what we’re doing,” she said.

Houses of worship and nonprofits in the county have faced numerous threats, according to Luke Hodgson, director of the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

“From graffiti, vandalism and arson to intimidation and threats aimed at parishioners or other members, online and phone threats, white supremacist materials distributed at or surrounding their facility, and individuals entering their facilities and threatening them directly.”

Hodgson referred to a 2024 county report that documented 483 hate incidents, 291 of which were related to schools.

“Bias crimes as we know are traditionally underreported, so we suspect there’s even more that are happening out there,” Hodgson said.

Race and religion were among the top targets of hate crimes and bias incidents.

“Most of the incidents motivated by racial bias were anti-Black, while most of the incidents motivated by religious bias were antisemitic,” Hodgson said.

CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington Ron Halber praised county officials for acting to boost the grant money for groups affected by hate incidents.

“This is how local government should work; proactive, responsive and effective,” he said.

Halber said the No. 1 deterrence for attacks to institutions is the presence of security personnel. Halber said it was “absolutely unquestionable” that the tactic helps prevent hate crimes.

Hodgson said there were 49 applicants who signed up for the additional funds to do things, such as boost security staffing or implement security cameras or additional lighting on their properties.

“This investment sends a powerful message,” said Mariam Khan with the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring.

And that message, Khan said, is “that our community matters, and that everyone deserves to feel safe in their place of worship.”

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Mindy Thiel is the executive director of Chesapeake Counseling Associates. Her practice provides services for children affected by domestic violence through the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and the Family Justice Center. While she’s also worked with children across the state of Maryland, she said in Montgomery County alone, “There are thousands of protection orders that are issued each year.”

“We have children who have witnessed homicides and suicides. We have had children who’ve witnessed attempted murders,” and overall, Thiel told 91欧美激情, domestic violence “is incredibly common.”

Thiel said when she explains how common domestic violence is, clients feel less alone.

“How much relief that provides for them is incredible,” she said.

And Thiel said there is no sector of society untouched by domestic violence.

“This is something, we have worked with kids in every zip code, at every income level, various religious, cultural, socioeconomic backgrounds,” she said.

One of the reasons the impact of domestic violence carried out by parents, including when it’s directed at their partners, is so damaging, Thiel said, is because, “Our parents are supposed to be our caregivers. Our parents are supposed to be, when we are younger, our means of survival.”

Knowing a parent 鈥� or both parents 鈥� can’t be counted on to provide a safe environment, she said, is damaging.

“It certainly will create this great sense of insecurity,” Thiel said.

In younger children, that can result in clingy behavior and regression. It can also cause sleep issues. Some behaviors around sleep disturbance can include “waking up in the middle of the night, or kids who don’t want to be in a room by themselves sleeping.”

Thiel said she sees instances of kids “who have nightmares or night terrors, and again, all of this actually can apply to adolescents and adults as well. ”

Thiel uses a form of therapeutic treatment called Safe Start designed specifically for children affected by domestic violence. Restoring a child’s sense of security is the focus, Thiel said.

“Just being present, just being able to sit in a room with another adult for a certain amount of time and feel safe 鈥� feel like their psychologically safe and feel like they’re physically safe,” she said.

Another thing Thiel emphasized is even for those clients who have been exposed to extreme cases of domestic violence, “There’s a better life out there.”

“There are many, many clients we’ve worked with who, you know, have gone to college, graduate school, are successful professionals,” and she said, “have started their own families.”

Where to find help

Smita Varia is the program manager at the Montgomery County Family Justice Center at the Sheriff’s Office.

“We’re kind of known as the one-stop shop for domestic violence victims and their families,” Varia said.

Among the services provided, Varia said, are walking people through the process of applying for and getting protective orders, developing safety plans and assisting with basic needs.

“We can help people get into shelter.”

And, she said, the center provides career counseling so that, “if they need a job, to be able to stabilize their home after they leave their partner, we’re able to help them with that as well.”

Often, people outside the home will call to get help for those affected by domestic violence.

“We get referrals from anywhere 鈥� from doctors’ offices, churches, the police, other agencies and also schools as well, because a lot of times children may show signs where they’re living in an unstable household, where there is conflict,” she said.

Varia said among the behaviors teachers or other adults might see in children witnessing domestic violence, “children who are withdrawing, who have trouble with attachment. So the younger children may revert back to an earlier stage of childhood, where you might see a toddler start crawling again or sucking their thumb as a way of comfort.”

With older children, Varia said, “They may be misbehaving. They may be skipping school. They may not want to be separated from the parent that’s being abused. They may not be sleeping, either because they can’t fall asleep because of the violence that’s happening, or because they are so worried about the violence that may happen, which then in school, translates to maybe falling asleep in school or not being able to concentrate.”

In addition to watching out for children, Varia offered advice for assisting partners who are being abused.

“If you’re worried about somebody, I know that a lot of times, our first gut reaction is to say, ‘Leave the relationship.’ However, unfortunately, the most dangerous time for a victim is when they do try to leave, because domestic violence is all about power and control, and at that point, the abuser feels that they’re losing that power and control. So the violence might escalate.”

Varia said all the services that are offered through the are free to residents. Anyone can walk in and calls are taken between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

In cases where residents need help outside those hours, Varia said people can call 911 or the county’s 24-hour crisis line at 240-777-4000.

Below are domestic violence resources for other counties in the D.C. region.聽

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The events will commemorate the date 鈥� April 16, 1862 鈥� when President Abraham Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act.

The law abolished slavery in the District. But as the name suggests, it also compensated slave owners for freeing the people they held in bondage.

As a result of the act, Emancipation Act, more than 3,000 formerly enslaved residents of D.C. were freed.

Lincoln went on to issue the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, freeing more enslaved people 鈥� but only those in states that had seceded from the Union.

Years before Lincoln acted, there were efforts to abolish slavery in the District. The says in April 1848, abolitionists William Chaplin and Daniel Drayton hired Edward Sayres, the captain of the Pearl schooner, to carry out an escape plan for 77 enslaved men, women and children.

The three had joined with three freed Black men 鈥� Daniel Bell, Samuel Edmonson, and Paul Jennings 鈥� who are credited with coming up with the plan to bring the large group to freedom by sailing down the Potomac into the Chesapeake Bay, and ultimately north.

While the 77 people were able to slip out of their homes to the schooner moored at what is now D.C’. s Wharf, weather, and by at least one historical account, human actions, would scuttle the plan.

Judlyne Lilly-Gibson, a playwright 鈥� and a former news anchor at 91欧美激情 鈥� wrote a play, “The Pearl” that told the story of the ill-fated escape. The play was staged at DC’s Source Theatre in 1992.

Lilly-Gibson drew on historical accounts of a Black freedman, Judson Diggs, being pushed by furious slave owners to tell them where the fugitives were headed.

Lilly-Gibson went to every performance, and she said the moment Diggs gives up the escapee’s plans drew the same reaction, without fail.

“The audience just went ‘Ugh!’ You know, they were so upset.” Lilly-Gibson said.

The Pearl made it as far as Point Lookout in Southern Maryland before a ship carrying a posse bent on capturing the escapees overtook the fleeing vessel.

The enslaved people were captured and returned to the District. They were shackled and paraded through the streets of D.C.

Days of rioting followed, with abolitionists attacked for their opposition to slavery, and many of the escapees people placed back in bondage and sold to plantations in the South.

Abolitionists tried to buy the freedom of some of the original 77 escapees, among them Ellen Stewart, who is described by the White House Historical Association as a teenager and one of former first lady Dolley Madison’s slaves.

Lilly-Gibson said reading the histories of the enslaved people and telling the story of freedom snatched away from the passengers on the Pearl provided plenty of gut punches.

“I was like, oh my God, this is horrible,” she said.

After researching the play, Lilly-Gibson said she looked at D.C.’s landmarks differently.

For example, the figure on top of the U.S. Capitol included the labor of Paul Reid, an enslaved man whose training as an artisan was cited in the casting and mounting of the statue.

“Her name is Freedom. That’s the irony,” Lilly-Gibson said.

While those stories may seem long ago and far away, the days of slavery are just a few generations old. Lilly-Gibson’s grandmother was born in the 1880s.

“Her parents were slaves, and she would tell me stories about, you know, what life was like for them,” she said.

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James Mulhern III, a 43-year-old media technician at the high school, faces a charge of sex abuse of a minor in connection with the recorded images, according to Montgomery County police.

According to a news release from the police department, the images came to light after two students spotted a camera in a control booth at the high school’s theater.

One of the students reportedly discovered images of a man placing the camera in the girl’s changing room after viewing the images on the camera’s memory card. The same memory card also contained images of girls dressing for a theater performance in the girls’ changing room.

Police said the student who viewed the images mailed the videos to school principal Nicole Morgan.

Morgan notified parents in an email Thursday, and without naming Mulhern, said the employee implicated in the case had been placed on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the investigation. Morgan included a link to the , which named Mulhern.

Police said that searches of the school and Mulhern’s Clarksburg home were carried out on Wednesday, and that items “of evidentiary value were recovered.”

Police said the investigation is ongoing.

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The mayor’s office announced that the nightly curfew would begin at 11 p.m. on Thursday and continue until the expiration of the emergency on May 1. The new curfew rules apply to youth under the age of 18.

Bowser said previously that she intended a declare a mayoral emergency to revive the measure. The move is intended to provide a bridge to the next D.C. Council meeting on April 21, where the issue is expected to come up for a vote.

Bowser repeated her support yesterday for the Juvenile Curfew Second Temporary Amendment Act of 2025. That amendment gives authority to D.C. police to establish juvenile curfew zones in designated areas from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The zoned approach is intended to stop mass gatherings of teens in places such as the Navy Yard, where so-called “teen takeovers” have often erupted into fights and led to arrests.

Under the bill that was in effect until April 15, anyone under the age of 18 who gathers in groups of nine or more in designated zones would be in violation of the curfew. According to the provision, the parents or guardians of children under the age of 18 could be fined up to $500 or be assigned community service if a child in their care violates the curfew.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Bowser said the curfew strategy is a necessary tool.

“It’s not the only tool, but we need it,” she said. “When we have a curfew zone and we tell children not to take over an area, it has worked.”

There have been a number of exceptions to the zone curfews.

Teenagers under 18 would be exempt if they are accompanied by a parent, are completing an errand for an adult, riding in a car, on their way to or from work or are attending or leaving any activity sponsored by the D.C. government or a civic organization. They would also be exempt if they were exercising their First Amendment rights.

D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto, who, like the mayor, said the curfews serve as one tool against juvenile crime and violence, is expected to ask her colleagues on the council to pass a permanent version of the bill when the next legislative meeting is held April 21.

Opponents of the curfew say there’s little evidence to suggest that they actually work.

“They’re not proven to reduce crime. What we know is that what they can do is displace crime rather than preventing it altogether,” Riya Saha Shah, CEO of the told 91欧美激情.

Saha Shah also said that curfews can lead to “more young people being pulled into the criminal legal system 鈥� because children are being surveilled and stopped for things that ordinarily they wouldn’t be.”

Curfews also serve to “criminalize” homeless teens for being outside when they don’t have a place to go, “because they are unhoused,” she said.

Some of the debate over curfews spills over to whether young people have enough outlets for constructive activities. D.C.’s Department of Parks and Recreation has ramped up programming for kids and teenagers to help aid that exact concern.

But Saha Shah said what many people take for granted 鈥� the ability to gather informally in public places 鈥� is often denied to teenagers.

“We’re criminalizing kids being out and about anywhere now, through these curfews,” she said. “When I was a teenager, that’s what we did. We just hung out outside the movie theater or outside the grocery store or something. That’s what children do.”

91欧美激情’s Jeffery Leon contributed to this story.

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The graffiti referenced the man who carried out the Sandy Hook shooting that left 26 people dead, and appeared on the property of Bradley Hills Elementary School in Bethesda on Saturday.

Days before, a shed on the school property had been set on fire. Police said the teenage boy, a student at Walt Whitman High School, is charged in that incident as well.

He was taken into police custody Wednesday morning, according to a . A search of his home turned up what police said were “items of evidentiary value.”

The teen faces charges including two counts of second-degree arson, first-degree malicious burning, malicious destruction of property and threats of mass violence. He also faces a charge of altering physical evidence.

“These incidents have unsettled the community, causing fear and anxiety for families with kids who attend the school, staff members who work there, and neighbors,” County Executive Marc Elrich wrote in a statement. “We don鈥檛 know what motivated these terrible actions, but we all need to take them seriously.”

Police from Montgomery County’s Second District, which includes Bethesda, will continue patrols around the Bradley Hills, but police said there is “no ongoing threat to the school or the public” tied to the case.

Police said the case will be handled by the Department of Juvenile Services.

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In the days before the session ended, when Gov. Wes Moore signed his nearly $71 billion budget into law, Maryland House Minority Leader Jason Buckel said the five-year-old was putting unsustainable pressure on the budget.

“We can’t afford the Blueprint without massive middle class tax hikes, period,” he said in a statement.聽“We’re going to have to reform the Blueprint. We can’t afford the Blueprint. I’ve said it 5,000 times.”

“I don’t understand why my Democratic friends and colleagues can’t just admit it,” he added.

Budget projections by the Maryland Department of Legislative Services indicate the state’s structural deficit could balloon to as much as $4 billion by 2031.

Asked about Buckel’s statement, Maryland State Board of Education President Josh Michael told 91欧美激情: “The Blueprint is a very ambitious investment in public education.”

“My focus is on making sure that those dollars are invested exceptionally well,” he said.

Part of the Blueprint’s efforts to attract and retain educators is a requirement that school districts set $60,000 as the floor for educator salaries by July 1.

In 2024, the Maryland Department of Education reported nearly 11% of teachers did not return to state classrooms.

Michael said his department would work with counties struggling to reach the new salary minimum.

“But our expectation at this point is that all are going to meet that minimum $60,000 standard,” he said.

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D.C. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsay Appiah said at a recent meeting of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments that there were two recent instances of “terrorist-type events in the District.”

Appiah was referring to the killings of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in May and the shootings of two members of the West Virginia National Guard near the Farragut West Metro station in November. One of the service members died, the other was critically wounded.

“That has certainly heightened our planning and our awareness,” Appiah said, adding that public safety officials will coordinate with jurisdictions outside D.C. as well as federal agencies. “It’s been very important for us to work with the Department of Homeland Security to really assess what is the level of threat or risk in our planning.”

She explained that the Special Event Assessment Rating, or SEAR, is used to measure the need for federal and local interagency coordination. The planned events will receive SEAR ratings to help them evaluate the necessary security.

Appiah also said it’s likely that there will be a lot of coordination for mutual aid between area police chiefs and their agencies, and said it’s also likely to result in a lot of overtime.

Scott Boggs, who serves as MWCOG’s managing director of Homeland Security and Public Safety, said at Tuesday’s meeting of the Board of Directors, “I’m working with Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia to deploy drone sensors to try to get some detection in place.”

He said the airspace over the region is “one of the critical vulnerabilities.”

“Right now, we’re focused on specific areas associated with America250,” Boggs said. “We’re trying to get things put in place before June 1.”

Boggs said a contract with Axon 鈥� the manufacturer of products ranging from Tasers to body-worn cameras and drones used by public safety agencies 鈥� will provide “detection as a service” that could feed information to the National Capital Region Coordination Center, which would in turn monitor regional airspace.

91欧美激情 contacted MWCOG for further information, but was referred to Boggs’ statements at Tuesday’s meeting.

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For NASA’s Artemis II crew, the solution was to bring a variety of cameras to. Two Nikon cameras, an iPhone and a number of compact action cameras were included on the trip.

But what got photo blogs and message boards buzzing was the choice of a classic, the Nikon D5, an older model that’s no longer in production. Unlike today’s cameras, which are mirrorless, the Nikon D5 is a DSLR version that was first introduced in 2016.

Jack Peralta at ‘s Burke, Virginia location, explained that the D5 “was a very popular camera when it was around. It’s just a 20-megapixel camera, and it’s a little bit on the heavier side.”

It was considered a workhorse, “very easy to use, but very much a professional camera,” Peralta said.

Megapixels are the tiny dots that make up a digital image and enhance the resolution of the pictures you capture. In contrast to the D5, the iPhone 17 Pro that the Artemis crew is currently using is 48 megapixels.

Peralta said that photographers who want to upgrade their cameras will often trade these in.

“When we do get a D5 in, it will definitely go very quickly,” he said.

The Artemis crew also has a Nikon Z9 camera, a top-of the line mirrorless camera that many pros use now.

But a check of the shows that the older models are capable of taking spectacular images, something that could hearten those new to photography who may suffer sticker shock when looking at the latest cameras as they consider what to buy.

Of course, there’s constant debate over whether there’s a need for cameras in the age of mobile phones that are jam-packed with technology that allow users to capture images that are dazzling compared to years past.

To that, Peralta said when customers struggle to decide whether a camera is worth the investment, “I keep, on my phone, a picture that I’ve taken of something with the phone and with the camera, and show them the difference between the two.”

He said that’s often enough to tip the scales in the favor of a sale.

His advice to people brand new to cameras? Put more money into the lens quality, not the camera body.

“That (lens) adds a lot more to the quality of your pictures,” he said.

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At a meeting of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments board of directors, Kihn said was created with “displaced federal workers front and center,” and that it was a response to President Donald Trump’s administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, that called for the mass layoffs of government workers.

Kihn said the efforts made to assist displaced federal workers in finding work could be applied to the D.C. area’s future employment outlook.

“It wasn’t lost on anyone 鈥� that what we’re learning about how to handle displaced workers and disruptions to the labor market will be very, very important for us all as we look to the next two or three years of AI enablement in our economy,” he said.

Will Lopez, president of the said since the launch of Talent Capital, there have been over 100,000 unique users on the site.

“Currently, there’s about 83,000 unique active users on Talent Capital right now that are matching to over 65,000 job listings,” he said. “Now, we’re seeing an uptick in the conversations being around training opportunities and upscaling opportunities, specifically around project management, leadership and AI foundational skills as well.”

According to Lopez’s presentation to the board members, 42% of users are from Virginia, nearly 40% are from Maryland and just over 16% are from the District of Columbia.

As for what kind of industries are looking to hire, Lopez said health care leads the list, with 15,814 positions open; followed by engineering, with 6,646 positions being advertised on the site.

“This is specifically around cybersecurity,” Lopez said.

He also said that Talent Capital is able to provide a seamless process for applicants to be linked to skills training to prepare them for jobs in new careers.

“Starting in May, we are going to create virtual and asynchronous training around AI foundational skills, free of charge for all constituents across the region,” Lopez said.

One thing that’s lacking currently is the ability to determine how matches made on Talent Capital result in hires for applicants. That’s because Talent Capital doesn’t own the job postings. So once the applicants leave the Talent Capital website to apply, they can’t be tracked any further.

The hope, Lopez said, is that employers will start to use Talent Capital as their direct job posting site and then measure the success of jobs posted to matches that resulted in hires.

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