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2 weeks ago | 
wamu.org | Natalie Yuravlivker |Jackson Sinnenberg
Montgomery County continues to rank as one of the healthiest areas of the country, according to the 2025 County Health Rankings – the annual survey conducted by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. But the picture of good health gets blurry when zeroing in on Black and Hispanic residents.
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2 weeks ago | 
wamu.org | Kayla Hewitt |Natalie Yuravlivker
On the evening of January 29, an American Airlines passenger jet and a Black Hawk military helicopter collided over the Potomac River. 67 people were killed. The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to release its final report on what led to the crash early next year. But this week, the New York Times published a story detailing the moments leading up to the collision. Mark Walker is an investigative reporter focused on transportation at the Times.
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2 weeks ago | 
wamu.org | Jackson Sinnenberg |Natalie Yuravlivker
Here’s a sneak peek at some of the stories WAMU will be highlighting in the days ahead:More lawsuits are expected to be filed against the state of Maryland this week and throughout the rest of May as a deadline closes for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
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4 weeks ago | 
wamu.org | Natalie Yuravlivker |Jackson Sinnenberg
It has been one month since Prince George’s County resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported to a mega prison in El Salvador due to an administrative error by the Trump administration. The 29-year-old Salvadoran national came to the U.S. without legal status but his attorneys successfully argued in 2019 for him to receive court-ordered deportation protection due to his fear of retaliatory gang violence if he returned to his home country.
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2 months ago | 
wamu.org | Margaret Barthel |Natalie Yuravlivker
As the Trump administration continues to make drastic cuts to the federal workforce, leaders in our region are scrambling to assess and mitigate the impact on the local economy. Many are warning of a region-wide economic recession that could be worse than the COVID-19 slowdown. And this time, there would be no federal infusion to bolster local governments through a slump. One surprising challenge has been getting everyone on the same page about which metrics to use when tracking the impact.
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2 months ago | 
wamu.org | Natalie Yuravlivker |Chris Remington
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Five years later, COVID may have settled into the background of more common respiratory infections like the flu. However, potential pandemic-watchers like Emily Smith, an epidemiologist and associate professor of global health at George Washington University, are concerned that in the U.S., preparedness for widespread occurrence of an infectious disease is decreasing.
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2 months ago | 
wamu.org | Natalie Yuravlivker |Jackson Sinnenberg
Arab American comedian Rola Zaarour, known professionally as Rola Z, says she learned to use her sense of humor as a way to deal with trauma at an early age. When she was a child, her family fled her native Lebanon due to the Lebanese Civil War. She says making dark jokes helped ease the stress. That skill helped her get through the COVID-19 lockdowns, by the end of which she was laid off, lost her life savings and had a marriage fall apart.
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Jan 24, 2025 | 
wamu.org | Natalie Yuravlivker |Kojo Nnamdi |Jackson Sinnenberg
President Donald Trump wasted no time upon his return to the Oval Office, within hours of his inauguration signing dozens of executive orders, memorandums and proclamations. Some are focused on changes to the federal workforce and could have a potentially huge impact on the D.C.-region.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
wamu.org | Natalie Yuravlivker |Matt Blitz
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves has been the top federal prosecutor in the District for just over three years. It’s a wide-ranging job which includes prosecuting most adult crimes in D.C., as well as federal crimes that take place in the city. Graves will step down this week, ahead of the inauguration of the President-elect Donald Trump.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
wamu.org | Chris Remington |Kayla Hewitt |Natalie Yuravlivker
Monday’s snowstorm put D.C. at a standstill for much of the week, with school and government closures in the District thru Wednesday and delays and closures across parts of the region till Friday. But the week started with a huge political win for Mayor Muriel Bowser as President Joe Biden signed into law the RFK Stadium bill, which moves control of the site from the federal government to the District for the next 99 years.
