WAMU-FM (Washington, D.C.)

1 week ago | wamu.org | Aneri Pattani |Lydia Zuraw |Henry Larweh

Overdose deaths in D.C., Maryland and Virginia fell more than 37 percent in the last year, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Opioid manufacturers, distributors, and retailers have also begun shelling out billions of dollars to settle lawsuits over their role in the overdose epidemic. But how best to spend this money remains an open question. Most of the windfall is flowing to state and local governments. Not directly to victims of the crisis.

1 week ago | wamu.org | Jackson Sinnenberg |Natalie Yuravlivker

Sixty-five summers ago, the children of union organizers in Bannockburn and Holocaust survivors in Montgomery County spent their day alongside Black students from Howard University, sweating in the summer heat and humidity to protest the “white’s only” policy at Glen Echo Amusement Park. It was one of the first integrated protests of the Civil Rights Movement.

1 week ago | wamu.org | Chris Remington |Tamika Smith

Music festivals have exploded in popularity over the past 20 years, growing from community oriented, niche-events to a 3 billion dollar global industry. Festivals like Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza make headlines every year for their icon studded lineups, cultural moments and attendees in the hundreds of thousands. The D.C. region is home to a wide variety of festivals that support Washingtonians’ eclectic musical tastes, albeit on a smaller scale.

2 weeks ago | wamu.org | Jackson Sinnenberg |Natalie Yuravlivker

Two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot while leaving a young diplomats’ reception at the Capital Jewish Museum Wednesday night. They had been attending an event for young professionals that was being hosted at the museum, which sits just blocks from Congress. “We are horrified by the shooting this evening that occurred outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.,” the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, D.C. wrote in a statement shared on their social media channels.

2 weeks ago | wamu.org | Margaret Barthel

If you were looking for evidence of Rep. Gerry Connolly’s influence in Virginia Democratic politics, his annual St. Patrick’s Day fundraiser — on what he joked was “the holiest day of the year” in a nod to his Irish roots — would be a pretty good place to start. At this year’s event in March, more than a thousand people packed a room festooned with green streamers and filled with the smell of corned beef and cabbage.