Newswire

On the 17th of February, FOX News pre-empted the crime coverage that usually starts their broadcast to focus on furious upscale residents at a Van Ness community meeting. The subject was Mayor Bowser's proposal to locate one of 8 dispersed homeless shelters in their neighborhood. Objections to opening a homeless shelter in upscale neighborhoods like anywhere in Ward 1 are usually based in NIMBYism (not in my back yard) fortified with an unhealthy heap of racism. In this case, there are legitimate questions about Mayor Bowser's objectives, given her police raids on homeless camps and her seeming belief that more arrests,searches, and police harassment can solve any social problem.

On the 12th of February, many hundreds of labor activsts were in town for the National Jobs With Justice Conference. In late afternoon a massive march left the conference. The march divided into two, with the restarant workers going to the DC Chamber of Commerce and the retail workers marching on the National Retail Federation's DC headquarters. At the National Retail Federation, marchers stormed the building because of this organization's active lobbying against living wage legislation and legislation to stop "just in time" scheduling that leaves workers with unpredictable hours.

Video of labor activists storming the National Retail Federation(3 min)