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December 11, 2014
Blog

District of Columbia voters passed the most restrictive marijuana reform law in the country, allowing possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use only. Four states have passed marijuana legalization laws.


March 6, 2013
Blog

Snow is keeping federal workers at home today, and Congress will keep up to a million at home with the sequester cuts in today's continuing resolution. No emergency like snow or even the deficit will be responsible. The responsibility lies with the House majority, which has abdicated its responsibility to govern.


February 7, 2017
Blog
President Trump’s first two weeks were not about the District of Columbia, but his chaotic beginning coincided with my amendment to remove language from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s (OGR) Authorization and Oversight Plan for the 115th Congress that appeared to signal an intention to get into D.C.’s local government operations well beyond the usual disagreements with D.C. laws.

April 13, 2018
Blog
Today, DC begins its commemoration of DC Emancipation Day, when slaves in the nation’s capital were freed 9 months before the Emancipation Proclamation.

January 30, 2013
Blog

The great majority of Americans now want to move our country from the outskirts of civilization into the civilized world of nations that protect their children from assault weapons, limit the number of bullets that magazines can hold, perform background checks for every gun purchase, and routinely cover mental health in insurance plans.


February 11, 2015
Blog
Last year, my daughter Katherine was the Global Down Syndrome Foundation Ambassador of the year. Katherine, who lives with me, does quite all right, but unlike many disabled Americans, Katherine will never be fully independent. However, many of her friends at the remarkable Art and Drama Institute, which she attends daily and equips disabled people to deal with the world in which they live, are close to achieving independence.

May 29, 2014
Blog
Fifteen years ago, ESSENCE Magazine took me to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to sit with Maya Angelou in her lovely, spacious home for a fly-on-the-wall exchange between Maya and me about Black women “embracing their own power.”

June 4, 2014
Blog
Many questions remain about the release of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.

February 9, 2012
Blog

The press reporters a serious Republican split with only a 50/50 chance that Republicans can get their members to agree on a payroll tax deal. Line that 50/50 Republican split up against their near-unanimous opposition to having wealthy and corporate taxpayers contribute one dime to deficit reduction.


July 28, 2011
Blog

At a time when D.C. residents want to be focused on voting rights and statehood, home rule, won in 1973 after more than 170 years of autocratic rule by Congress, is on the line.