Local News/Neighborhoods

All this Summer FOX News has led almost every broadcast with lurid crime stories. Just yesterday someone shooting out the back window of their own car in an argument became the lead story on FOX, complete with white tourists saying they felt safer with so many cops in that part of town. This drumbeat has been in most of the major media, but FOX especially ever since the Battle of Baltimore was fought over the murder of Freddie Grey by police. There is the real possiblity that this is an organized effort to rebuild support for police on the part of media outlets owned by the wealthy whites whom police protect.

The residents of Museum Square, one of the last Section 8 rentals in Chinatown are facing mass eviction followed by demolition and condo construction. Bush Companies (of Williamsburg, Va.), the landlord, offers only an option to buy the building for nearly ten times what the DC government assessed it as being worth for property taxes. On the 23ed of June, the tenants staged a mass protest against the planned evictions. They were backed by the National Alliance of HUD Tenants.

Video highlights of the rally (2 min)

Model for 'best practices' in policing demonstrations U.S. District Court issues preliminary approval for class action settlement After more than 12 years of class-action litigation, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) has reached an unprecedented settlement with the Justice Department and the Department of the Interior that will significantly change the handling of mass protests. Presiding Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has issued preliminary approval for the settlement.

On the 20th of April, Empower DC sent a delegation to the DC City Council to demand a total end to demolition of public housing. They also are demanding that that the 2016 government budget include money to repair vacant public housing units so homeless familes can move into them.