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Friday, March 19, 2010
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July 22, 2009 - (Ending July 23) NOT YOUR GRANNY'S REVOLUTION Not Your Granny's Revolution, a collection of monologues, is on stage tonight and tomorrow at the Goethe Institut-Gallery in D.C.'s Chinatown. Produced by Fringe Festival veteran Laura Zam and Helen Hayes award winning director Jessica Lefkow, the play explores how women and men deal with gender inequality in a "Yes We Can!" world.
(Artist talk July 25; Exhibit through August 16) THE DIRT ON DIRT Margaret Boozer showcases Dirt Drawings, her new show of earth and ceramic sculptures at American University's Katzen Arts Center, opening with an artist's talk this Saturday afternoon at 2. Boozer gets her hands dirty as she explains just how she creates moving, beautiful patterns and textures out of the most basic elements around.
(Through January 3, 2010) FORM AND MOVEMENT Philip Trager's acclaimed photographs of buildings and dancers are on display during Form and Movement at the National Building Museum in downtown D.C. The exhibit, on display through January of next year, features large black and white shots highlighting Trager's ability to make architecture appear to move and to capture dancers in flight.
"Not Your Granny's Revolution" ends July 23rd at the Goethe Institut-Gallery.
Courtesy of: Goethe-Institut Gallery
View more images from this gallery.
July 22, 2009 - The University of Maryland School of Medicine says it will lead a human trial of a swine flu vaccine.
Clinical trials begin in August. The university expects to enroll as many as 1,000 healthy adults and children at 10 centers nationwide. Participants in five different age groups will get two doses over 3 weeks -- the reaction after the first dose will be compared to the second. The trial will be evaluating two strengths of the vaccine to determine how much is needed to protect against the swine flu. The University of Maryland School of Medicine is home to one of eight federally supported Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units.
Stephanie Kaye has more...
July 22, 2009 - Maryland governor Martin O'Malley is expected to announce close to $300 million in budget cuts later this morning. O'Malley will make the announcement at a meeting of the state's Board of Public Works, which consists of O'Malley the state comptroller and treasurer. Cuts to the state university system are expected to highlight this round of reductions. As for public grade schools, cuts in their funding could come from local officials.
Matt Bush reports...
July 22, 2009 - The National Endowment for the Arts is bringing together experts and performers. They'll be examining the particular challenges faced by people with disabilities who want careers in the arts. Leaders in the field are gathering at the Kennedy Center. They'll be evaluating progress made over the past few decades. They also plan on developing strategies to help people with disabilities get education and find jobs in the arts.
Conferences will be held during the day; at night, public performances include "Flying Solo," a collection of monologues by deaf performers, and "Gimp," a dance by a group based in New York, will be followed by after-show discussions with the audience. The summit is the first of its kind to be held in more than 10 years.
Stephanie Kaye reports...
July 22, 2009 - Human rights advocates say sex trafficking is a growing problem across the U.S., especially in the Washington region. About o100,000 under-age girls are used as prostitutes annually in the U.S., according to the group Shared Hope. The average age of the girls is 13. Former Washington State Congresswoman Linda Smith founded Shared Hope.
"So here in Washington, D.C. and in the Baltimore area, we found large amounts of trafficking. Between Baltimore and Washington D.C. we found large national gangs moving girls into Baltimore, Baltimore into D.C.," she says.
Smith says law enforcement officials should punish the pimps, not arrest the young girls. Advocacy groups want Congress to allocate more money for rehabilitating girls who were forced into prostitution.
Matt Laslo reports from Capitol Hill...
July 22, 2009 - D.C. officials might see a change in the city's bond rating, depending on the outcome of the ongoing budget process. D.C. officials visited Wall Street last week to make the case that the District's bond rating should be higher. Council member Jack Evans heads the Committee on Finance and Revenue. He says if the rating agencies improve D.C.'s rating, it could mean between $5-10 million in interest payment savings. A city's bond rating is a little like a personal credit score, the lower the score the higher the interest rates. Evans says all three agencies -- Fitch, Standard & Poor's, and Moody's -- are watching as the D.C. Council works to close the budget gap. Evans says they're looking for significant cuts in spending, no tax increases and no one-time solutions. The District's bond rating is currently an A+. Maryland and Virginia both have AAA ratings, which are higher than the District.
Kavitha Cardoza reports...
July 22, 2009 - Elementary and middle school students in Maryland have improved their scores on standardized tests for the seventh consecutive year. State education officials released the results of the Maryland School Assessments, which measure whether schools are meeting federal standards. Students are tested in reading and math in grades 3 through 8. Scores were up statewide in both subjects and at all grade levels except fourth-grade reading, which saw a slight decrease. Scores in eighth-grade math, an area of concern, improved by more than five percentage points statewide. Schools in Baltimore City and Prince George's County continued to lag behind the rest of the state, but the gaps are narrowing in some categories. Those two jurisdictions have the highest percentages of minority students and students living in poverty.
Meymo Lyons reports...
July 22, 2009 - Representatives from Sesame Street and MTV Family come to Capitol Hill for a Senate hearing on the future of the Children's Television Act. And the House Energy and Commerce Committee delays a mark-up on the health-care bill.
Elizabeth Wynne Johnson reports...
July 22, 2009 - Metro is disputing a Washington Post article saying there may be widespread problems with the rail system's track circuits. According to the article, one Metro official says that "anomalies" have been found in six circuits across the system. The official says signaling equipment has malfunctioned in those sites since last month's crash.
Metro doesn't dispute that there are anomalies. But it insists the problems on these other circuits are not as serious as the problem at the crash site. Metro says the system is safe, and it calls the Post's suggestion of widespread problems a "gross exageration."
The signaling equipment in the crash area failed periodically in the days leading up to the accident. Federal investigators have not determined what caused the crash. But they have urged Metro to upgrade its train control system with continuous backup protections.
Rebecca Blatt reports...
July 22, 2009 - The missing mental health records of the student gunman in the Virginia Tech shootings have been found.
Matt McCleskey has more...
July 22, 2009 - The University of Maryland School of Medicine says it will lead a human trial of a swine flu vaccine.
Clinical trials begin in August. The university expects to enroll as many as 1,000 healthy adults and children at 10 centers nationwide. Participants in five different age groups will get two doses over 3 weeks. The reaction after the first dose will be compared to the second. The trial will be evaluating two strengths of the vaccine to determine how much is needed to protect against the swine flu. The university is home to one of eight federally supported Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units.
Stephanie Kaye has more...
July 22, 2009 - Though crime has fallen dramatically in Prince George's County, burglaries are on the rise. County officials say they think one way to stop the increase is by cracking down on pawn shops.
Sabri Ben-Achour reports...
July 22, 2009 - Testimony today in the Banita Jacks trial offered a reminder of why many people feel her four daughters' deaths could have been prevented.
Jonathan Wilson has more from D.C. Superior Court...
July 22, 2009 - Several former Republican state legislators in Virginia are endorsing Democrat Creigh Deeds' run for governor.
The list of Deeds' Republican endorsements includes former state Sen. Marty Williams of Newport News, Senate retirees Russ Potts and John Chichester and former delegates Anne ''Panny'' Rhodes and Jim Dillard.
This is the second partisan crossover this week. Major Democratic donor Sheila Johnson, co-founder of the Black Entertainment Television network, stunned Virginia political circles by endorsing Republican Bob McDonnell.
Stephanie Kaye reports...
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