Join The Conversation! Talk about the news of the day with public radio fans on WAMU 88.5's The Conversation.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Your Amazon.com purchases support WAMU 88.5
Your purchases from the NPR Store support WAMU 88.5
October 09, 2009 -
October 09, 2009 - The house at 1310 Calder Road in McLean, VA has been drawing crowds. It's a luxurious new home that is also energy efficient, and it's claim to fame is that it is the first carbon neutral show house on the east coast.
The house was sponsored by Charity Works, a group made up of volunteers from the community that help fight poverty in D.C., and have now taken on the task of building homes that save on space and energy.
The organization is hosting tours of the property for $25 in advance or $30 at the door. All the proceeds go to McLean Project for the Arts, Friendship Public Charter School, the Injured Marines Semper Fi Fund and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. The house will eventually be available for sale.
Video produced by Kate Sheehy and Priska Neely...
October 09, 2009 - Students at one Prince Georges County elementary school received H1N1 flu vaccinations as members of President Obama's cabinet looked on.
Around 100 students received their vaccine, through a nasal spray put into each nostril, at Dodge Park Elementary in Landover, Maryland. Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius was there to lend support and to try to calm fears from parents.
Other schools in Prince Georges County will start vaccinating later this month. Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley says school children are one of five priority populations getting the vaccine first. Dr. Donald Shell, the chief health officer for Prince Georges County, says they followed federal guidelines in determining who received the first vaccines.
Matt Bush reports...
Around 100 students received their vaccine, through a nasal spray put into each nostril, at Dodge Park Elementary in Landover, Maryland.
Courtesy of: Matt Bush
View more images from this gallery.
October 09, 2009 - Some teachers in D.C. and their supporters are vowing to teach Mayor Adrian Fenty a lesson for his part in laying off almost 400 D.C. school employees.
At the union-organized "Rally for Respect" several educators said they wanted to make it clear to Mayor Adrian Fenty that they will remember the teacher layoffs come election time.
The Washington Teachers union has filed a lawsuit hoping to stop the layoffs scheduled for November 4th. It's president George Parker says older teachers were clearly targeted in the layoffs.
Chancellor Michelle Rhee says the layoffs were necessary and that new teachers were "more likely" to have been laid off.
Kavitha Cardoza reports...
One man expresses his frustration with the recent D.C. school employee layoffs. Chancellor Michelle Rhee says the layoffs were necessary and that new teachers were "more likely" to have been laid off.
Courtesy of: Kavitha Cardoza
View more images from this gallery.
October 09, 2009 - As H1N1 vaccines begin to make their way to clinics across the country, Mana Rabiee reports on the first batch distributed in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Families lined up even before the Dennis Avenue Health Center in Silver Spring opened, with some sitting on the cement floor to reserve their places. Nurses explained to parents that their vaccinations will help protect their babies. "We cannot protect the under six months so we need to protect them by doing what we call herd immunity," said one nurse. "Get the herd vaccinated and the one single person won't get ill."
Patient number one was Robin Cohen whose three-month old is too young for the vaccine. "They have cases of H1 at my son's school and there's been confirmed cases at my office so we were especially concerned that my daughter might get infected and might not be able to get the vaccine herself," says Cohen.
By mid-day more than 500 people received the vaccine. The clinic has 2,000 doses left and expects more next week.
Mana Rabiee reports...
October 09, 2009 - A childhood literacy campaign came to Nationals Park with the goal of transforming children into very hungry readers.
One million children around the country took part in the program by reading the same book on the same day. Read for the Record's selection was "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. More than half a million copies were donated.
Dorothy Douglas of the D.C. State Board of Education says one in three children entering kindergarten has never been read to.
More than 200 children attended the "read in" at Nationals Park.
Jamila Bey reports...
October 09, 2009 - The military's Base Realignment and Closure plan will mean thousands of workers in the region will lose their jobs in the next two years.
Margaret Wright oversees D.C.'s department of employment services office at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. That's where civilian employees who will lose their jobs under BRAC can receive job training. Wright says demand for the job training was so great, the office had to open three weeks early. Wright says her office is working closely with colleagues in Maryland and Virginia.
Many of the duties performed at the military bases and offices in the district that will close will be moved to Bethesda Naval Center in Maryland and Fort Belvoir in northern Virginia.
Matt Bush reports....
October 09, 2009 - The opening of duck-hunting season in Virginia this week is reigniting debate between duck hunters and homeowners along the Potomac. Residents say duck hunting takes place too close to homes, but duck hunters say they were there first.
Michael Pope reports...
October 09, 2009 - Non-profits in Loudoun County are being encouraged to attend a meeting tonight if they're looking for funding.
Groups interested in funding must provide services to residents in the county in one of several categories including health, arts, culture and economic development. They also must be a tax exempt, non-profit 501(c)3 organization.
After applying for the funding, the board of supervisors will decide who gets what when they go through the budget process for fiscal year 2011. The meeting starts at 10 a.m. at the Loudoun County Government Center in Leesburg.
Pat Brogan reports...
October 09, 2009 - In just a few weeks, restaurants and bars across the state of Virginia will have to go smoke free.
Governor Tim Kaine is trying to highlight some that made the change long ago --- including one in Fairfax.
Earlier this year Virginia joined 27 other states and the District of Columbia by enacting a smoking ban for restaurants and bars.
Kaine says while this may have been a difficult step for a tobacco-producing state, the health risks of allowing smoking in a restaurant are unique.
"There will be a concentration [of smoke] that is 5 to 6 times greater than in a house or other business where smoking is allowed," he said.
Kaine spoke inside El Pueblo, a restaurant in Burke, Virginia.
Owner Ana Benitez says El Pueblo has been smoke free since 2002, and though some patrons still ask if they can light up inside the doors they don't actually leave when she tells them no.
"They still say," she said. "If they want to step outside and have a cigarette, it's their choice."
The Virginia Department of Health says 70 percent of the states fast-food and full-service restaurants are now smoke free. It says secondhand smoke is responsible for as many as 1000 adult deaths per year in Virginia.
Jonathan Wilson reports...
In just a few weeks, restaurants and bars across the state of Virginia will have to go smoke free.
Courtesy of: www.flickr.com/lanier67
October 09, 2009 - (October 10) DANCE LIKE AN INDIAN The Kalanidhi dance company brings the bright costumes and intricate movements of the Indian subcontinent to Rockville, Maryland, with a performance at American Dance Institute tomorrow night at 6. This group of supple and skilled dancers is keeping the Kuchipudi dance form alive, performing Yaatra or "journey" that mixes contemporary and classical styles from India's southeastern coast. Kalanidhi presents two more events in its Festival of Indian Classical Dance on October 24th and November 8th.
(Oct 11, Nov 1, 8 & 22, Dec 6 & 20) SUNDAY CINEMA CLUB Forget about movie reviews passing judging for you - The Avalon Theater in Chevy Chase, D.C. presents the Cinema Club, a sneak-peek film preview society, Sunday mornings at 10:30. All are welcome to the community-sponsored theater for a screening and discussion about some of the best American independent and foreign films of the season. But shhhh...the movies remain secret until show time, letting members view with true surprise and spontaneity.
(October 11-January 3) HEROES: MORTALS & MYTHS IN ANCIENT GREECE A jaunt out to Baltimore yields the latest exhibit at The Walters Art Museum, opening Sunday at running through January 3rd. Heroes unearths the mortals and myths of ancient Greece and how these complex and extraordinary icons are mirrored in the values of modern society.
October 09, 2009 - Washington has lost a legend. Ben Ali, the founder of Ben's Chili Bowl passed away earlier this week at the age of 82. When Ben Ali and his wife Virginia opened up their restaurant on U Street in 1958, the neighborhood was hopping with bars and jazz clubs. U Street, back then, was known as 'Black Broadway.' And Ben Ali - a native of Trinidad and former student at Howard Univerisity - stumbled upon a brilliant culinary concept. That simple idea, heaping gobs of spicy chili on anything and everything, accounts for part of the restaurant's incredible staying power. Ben's Chili Bowl was the only store on U Street to stay open during the 1968 riots. It survived the lean years, during the seventies and eighties, and is now thriving. That was evident Thursday, as people lined the counter at Ben's.
Patrick Madden reports...
Washington has lost a legend. Ben Ali, the founder of Ben's Chili Bowl passed away earlier this week at the age of 82.
Courtesy of: www.flickr.com/MatthewBradley
October 09, 2009 - The National Park Service has a new employee working along the C&O Canal. She's going through an extensive training period, and when she's up-to-speed Eva will only work a few hours a week. Eva is a mule; she recently arrived from Fredricksburg, Virginia. Stephanie Kaye visits with the park's animal caretaker, Ranger Mark Myers.
NOTE: The 13th Annual Life & Death on the C&O Canal tour takes place on Saturday October 17, 2009 from 6:30-9:00 p.m. at the Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center in Maryland.
October 09, 2009 - Leighton Steward wraps up a three-day stint on Capitol Hill today lobbying against cap-and-trade climate legislation.
Elizabeth Wynne Johnson reports...
October 09, 2009 - A new Washington Post poll shows Republican Bob McDonnell with a 9-point overall lead among likely voters over Democrat Creigh Deeds in the Virginia Governor's race. The Post's polling Director Jon Cohen joins WAMU's Morning Edition Host Matt McCleskey to talk about the results...
October 09, 2009 - A system to alert residents of any escapes from a state prison in Hagerstown, Maryland is nearly in place. The existing emergency notification system at the Maryland Correctional Institution-Hagerstown came under question after a convicted murderer escaped in January. Prison authorities say a siren was sounded, but some residents of the area say they didn't hear it. The siren was later tested and modified in April. Now the state Division of Correction says the new warning system is nearly ready to go. The prison's executive staff was trained on using it earlier this week. A spokesman tells the Herald-Mail newspaper the system involves a variety of communication forms but says people living near the prison will have to sign up to receive notifications in the event of an escape.
Natalie Neumann has the details...
October 09, 2009 - A new poll out shows a change in momentum in the Virginia governor's race, and in the District there's been protest and a lawsuit pending over teacher layoffs.
Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney joins WAMU's Morning Edition Host Matt McCleskey to talk about some of the region's top stories...
October 09, 2009 - Two Metro stations and part of a third will be closed during the Columbus Day weekend, along with an important Metro bridge over the Potomac.
Starting Friday night at 10:30, part of Metro's green line will be shut down entirely as crews replace rail switches around the L'Enfant Plaza station. As a result of that work, the Waterfront-SEU and Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter stations will be closed. There also will be no Green Line service at L'Enfant Plaza, although Blue and Orange line service there will not be affected.
Meanwhile, the Yellow line bridge over the Potomac will be closed this weekend for an annual safety inspection and maintenance. The Yellow line will be rerouted to follow Blue line tracks between the Pentagon and Stadium-Armory stations. There will be no Yellow line service though between there and Fort Totten.
Shuttle buses will connect the closed stations. Service is expected to get back to normal Tuesday morning.
Matt McCleskey reports...
October 09, 2009 - The Maryland State House dome will be lit pink in recognition of breast cancer awareness month. The dome's color change from white to pink will take place tonight.
Gov. Martin O'Malley says the gesture is being made to honor victims and survivors and to call attention to work still needed to find a cure. It's estimated that about 3,660 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in women this year in Maryland, and about 810 are expected to die from the disease.
Health officials say annual mammograms are the best way for women to lower their risk of dying from breast cancer. The survival rate for women diagnosed with breast cancer before it has spread outside of the breast is 98 percent.
Meymo Lyons reports...
October 09, 2009 - Thousands of gay rights advocates will convene in Washington this weekend for several events and that has some local business owners excited for a possible boost in revenue.
Thousands are expected to march on the national mall Sunday, and President Obama will address the Human Rights Campaign Saturday night.
Some members of the business community, gay and straight alike, hope to turn the big weekend into big profits. Justin Nelson is the president of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. He says this weekend could inject up to $33 million into the local economy and will put the District's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender policies in the national spotlight.
"If D.C. really wanted to make an example there would be, and I'm not saying things aren't happening, but we'd see a larger push for LGBT owned companies to be a greater part of the supply chain of the city," says Nelson.
LGBT-owned businesses are considered minority companies when applying for D.C. procurement contracts. Nelson claims the District tends to opt for other minority groups first, but hopes this weekend will change that.
Peter Granitz reports...
October 09, 2009 - On Monday, President Barack Obama opened the White House doors to doctors from across the country, seeking second opinions for his prescription to heal a broken health care system.
Elizabeth Wynne Johnson reports...
October 09, 2009 - Construction crews may have broken ground for the Metrorail to Dulles project in Virginia, but funding for all the stations along the future tracks hasn't been secured. A new proposal in Fairfax County may soon change that.
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova joined Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) Friday afternoon to announce a preliminary deal with commercial landowners in her county.
The deal would create a special tax district including much of the Route 28 corridor, the entire town of Herndon and much of Reston.
Businesses in the district would pay higher property taxes, raising the $330 million needed to pay for three Metrorail stations in the area. Bulova says this should be the very final piece of the funding puzzle for the Dulles rail project.
Thirty-five businesses in the district have signed onto a petition in favor the tax proposal, and the town of Herndon and the Fairfax board of supervisors must hold public hearings before it is officially adopted.
Jonathan Wilson reports...
privacy policy - terms of use - contact - sitemap - directions - rss - podcasts - jobs - community
Copyright WAMU 88.5 American University Radio | 4000 Brandywine Street NW | Washington, DC 20016-8082 | (202)885-1200
