Lowcation Studios has lost one of its talented audio engineers, Dinari McAlmont, who was found dead shortly after arriving in the Bahamas for vacation.

“I just broke down,” said Oliver Franklin, the owner of Lowcation Studios. “He was, he was really young, and it’s just, it’s just devastating.”

Franklin said McAlmont worked there for the last year producing music.

“In that year, you know, he was somebody that, you know, I talked to every day,” Franklin said. “You know, he was always obviously in the studio, and it was just crushing.”

McAlmont and his parents live in Bowie, Maryland. They flew to the Bahamas for vacation Friday.

Less than a day into the trip, his aunt, Marcelle Bacchus, told News4 the 23-year-old was found dead on the beach near his resort, Atlantis Bahamas.

News4 spoke with her by phone.

“We don’t have answers,” Bacchus said. “We don’t really know, but it’s very frustrating. Seems as though everything is being pushed under the rug.”

Bahamian police say an autopsy showed McAlmont drowned, and they do not suspect foul play.

But his family has questions.

The police told them there was some type of issue at a restaurant before McAlmont’s body was found.

“They said he spat on someone and ran through a door,” Bacchus said.

She says his mother told her when she went to see his body, authorities would only show her a photo. She said it looked like McAlmont had been beaten.

They also question why no surveillance video has been released.

“We’re just here in the dark,” Bacchus said. “We really need some help, some eyewitness, somebody to come forward and help us to just solve this puzzle.”

News4 reached out to the resort to help them get some answers. They sent a statement saying, “We are deeply saddened by the passing of one of our guests. Our condolences are with the guest’s family and loved ones during this difficult time. The police authorities are carrying out an investigation of this tragic incident. We await the police’s findings and will not comment on speculation.”

Bacchus told News4 the family is working to get an international attorney that can help them going forward.

News4 spoke with McAlmont’s father by phone Wednesday. He is still in the Bahamas. He declined to be interviewed.

Mark and Marilyn Steele hadn’t planned to own a food market, but they knew the need was severe.

“A grocery store is a cornerstone of a community, and if you want to see a healthy community, you’ve got to have a good store,” Marilyn Steele said.

Indian Head was without a grocery store for almost 25 years.

“I’m like, ‘Oh, my God! That shouldn’t be,’” Marilyn Steel said.

For more than a decade, the town was a federally deemed food desert.

“A lot of folks, they don’t have access to transportation, that just means elderly populations or different income levels, that kind of all feed into that equation,” Indian Head Mayor Brandon Paulin said.

He said work to bring a grocery store to the area started well before he became mayor.

“In 1999, the Super Fresh left the town of Indian Head, and they’re have been many folks, town councils over the years that have tried to address the issue,” Paulin said.

Then the Steeles got involved. They already owned a coffee shop, but the new business venture could serve as an oasis, which is why the store was named Oasis Fresh Foods Market.

The Steeles hope to achieve one goal for their customers.

“I wanted to give everyone a fighting chance at feeding their family well, and that’s what this store represents,” Marilyn Steele said. “You can go from your fresh produce to meats. You can go from canned vegetables to breads. You can go from grab-and-go to prepared foods. It has everything you need to sustain a family well.”

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Elected county and state leaders broke ground on the developing Largo Civic Plaza, which is part of the first phase of the $400 million Blue Line Corridor project. The Civic Plaza in Largo is set to open in December.

The project was the vision of U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks when she was Prince George’s county executive. Leaders hope the corridor will lead to as much as $2 billion in investments.

“Today is a moment of pride,” Maryland State Sen. Nick Charles said at the ceremony. “It’s a moment of progress and a moment of promise for Prince George’s County.”

Alsobrooks spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony and recalled her efforts to convince former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to support the project. She said the former governor initially didn’t want to pour money into the area because he didn’t like Daniel Snyder, who owned the Washington Commanders at that time.

“We had a really aggressive conversation where I said to him, ‘Why would we leave the people who live around the FedEx field in the lurch because of whatever we feel about the owner? We have an obligation to invest there,’” Alsobrooks said during the ceremony.

Hogan appeared with Alsobrooks at a Blue Line corridor funding announcement in April 2022. At the time, both leaders said the investments would happen with or without the team being in Landover.

Although the funding is going through the Maryland Stadium Authority — a first for Prince George’s County — it’s not being used to build a new home for the Commanders.

A spokesperson for Hogan told News4 that he didn’t want any deals that would benefit Snyder.

“He was proud to work with the then-county executive to deliver on the legislation making these transformational investments possible,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The project corridor stretches from Largo Town Center to Morgan Boulevard to Addison Road-Seat Pleasant to Capitol Heights. County leaders said it serves communities that have been left behind

“We’ve been pounding the pavement to get quality development in our area to attract quality business,” said Rande Atcherson from the Largo Town Center Association.

The plaza will have a lawn and stage area for community events and festivals, a playground for children, an artwalk with seating and a dog park. The corridor will eventually include a sports and entertainment zone, a library, amphitheater and youth sports fieldhouse at the conclusion of the project’s five phases.

Blanco, 44, a native of the Caribbean island, played 56 games with the Washington Nationals during their inaugural season in 2005, including the first game in franchise history.

As of Wednesday, the collapse has left more than 120 people dead, and over 150 others have been transported to local hospitals, police confirmed.

The cause of the collapse is still under investigation. It occurred while renowned merengue singer Rubby Pérez was performing at the nightclub’s famous “Jet Set Mondays” event.

In a Facebook post, MLB added that Blanco played nine professional seasons in the United States and eight in Japan.

Blanco spent only one year in Major League Baseball but played eight seasons in the minor leagues.

Baseball in mourning

Former MLB pitcher Octavio Dotel was rescued alive but later died from his injuries.

Nelsy Milagro Cruz Martínez, the sister of seven-time MLB All-Star Nelson Cruz and the governor of Montecristi, a province in the northwest of the Dominican Republic, was also among the victims of the collapse.

MLB Commissioner Robert D. Manfred expressed his condolences to the players and the official on social media.

“Major League Baseball is deeply saddened by the passings of Octavio Dotel, Tony Blanco, Nelsy Cruz, and all the victims of last night’s tragedy in Santo Domingo,” the statement read.

“We send our heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of all those who have been affected and to our colleague Nelson and his entire family. The connection between baseball and the Dominican Republic runs deep, and we are thinking of all the Dominican players and fans across the game today.”

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“This is the part where you kind of wait and see,” said Mack, watching her phone.

She’s used a wheelchair since she was 10 — moved to D.C. after college, she said, because our city was trying to be more accessible. When the I-Team asked if the city was keeping its promise, she responded, “Here and there.”

D.C. does has a few options for passengers with wheelchairs.

Metro trains and buses are accessible. MetroAccess works too, but it requires setting up rides days in advance and being willing to wait.

The Transport DC program offers subsidized taxi rides, but only within the district.

When it comes to ride share companies like Uber and Lyft, the District does not require them to have wheelchair accessible vehicles — even though they account for 95% of all the for-hire rides here.

That leaves taxis, which make up just 5% of all for-hire trips in D.C. Taxis are District regulated and provided 23,000 trips for people who use wheelchairs last year.

“I call it the Yeti, because it’s rumored to exist, but, you know, I rarely ever see it,” exclaimed a frustrated Mack while waiting on a taxi she had reserved days before we met up.

The District has worked to increase service. D.C. has a law mandating 20% of large cab fleets be wheelchair accessible, but the I-Team couldn’t find it’s ever been enforced.

The head of the Department of For-Hire Vehicles (DFHV) told the I-Team, “we can’t punish them into compliance.”

Passenger Naomi Hess was hopeful last year when D.C. set aside $500,000 to incentivize cabdrivers to operate Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles -paying more per hour or to work late hours.

“There really, really needs to be progress,” said Hess.  The city even set up a  Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) hotline for people to get connected.

“I tried that pilot line multiple times and they just couldn’t find one for me. Where is the money going?” asked Hess.

The city already spent $255,000 in that pilot program and told the I-Team it generated 435 taxi trips from June to December. That’s $586 per ride.

Jonathan Rogers — the Director of DFHV, which spearheaded the pilot — wouldn’t talk to News4 on camera, but said “Council encouraged us to experiment and figure out what would change behavior… so that’s what we did.”

He said he hoped it would build momentum, and that the six new drivers with accessible vehicles added, would stick with it.

The department just launched a new pilot program in March, and says it’s offering more incentives to taxi companies and drivers. Plus, a spokesperson said it would be sending letters to all taxi companies asking for their long-term plans to address the issue.

“Anyone without a wheelchair can get an Uber, Lyft or taxi, whatever they want. It’s just not fair. And it has put me in unsafe situations,” Hess told the I-Team. 

Last fall, she had all her travel planned out so she could attend the Sabrina Carpenter concert in Baltimore. But a delayed train back to D.C. got her to Union Station at 1 a.m., leaving her with few options.

“I was forced to walk home alone in the middle of the night.”

Both she and Mack say it isn’t like this everywhere. In New York City, there are more than 12,000 wheelchair accessible taxis and ride share vehicles, according to the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission.

The city said 46% of its taxi fleet is wheelchair accessible. By law, anyone who now wants to start driving for ride shares has to use an accessible vehicle there.

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Back in D.C., Uber has some accessible vehicles, but did not respond to our questions about how many.

While Lyft offers accessible rides in nine other cities, it does not in the District. A spokesperson told the I Team it “will continue to push for solutions that make rideshare as accessible as possible for everyone.”

As for taxis, none of the larger companies in town would talk to News4 on camera. But they did admit it’s a challenge, saying wheelchair accessible taxis are both expensive to buy and costly to maintain due mostly to their weight and modifications.

That could explain why the I-Team found so many out-of-commission vehicles in taxi lots with markings that read “junk” and “need engine and transmission.”

Back at Mack’s apartment, she still waited for confirmation her taxi was on the way. It’s been so frustrating for her that she started keeping track of all her taxi calls for the last three years.

“I had 72 attempted trips,” she said. “I averaged those years and came out with a 71% failure rate.”

Which is exactly what happened on the day we hung out with her. 

“We’ll wait a few more minutes and then probably gear up, put on the coat, head out,” she said.

But that taxi never came.

Ella Robinson contributed reporting to this investigation.

Federal agents swarmed a Dale City home March 27 and arrested 24-year-old Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, charging him with possession of a firearm by a person who is in the country illegally.

The motion to drop the charge did not give a reason why, but The Washington Post reports sources familiar with the matter say it’s so they can fast-track Villatoro Santos’ deportation.

Santos’ newly-appointed public defender is asking the court to delay the dismissal for fourteen days in order to get his client immigration counsel.

He noted the “substantial risks” involved in his client’s transfer to the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and recent deportations by the Trump Administration without due process.

Attorney General Pam Bondi described him as “one of the top leaders of MS-13” and “one of the top three for the entire country.” She said he is from El Salvador and will be deported.

News4 and Telemundo 44 spoke to Villatoro Santos’ mother, who shared copies of a federal search warrant affidavit showing agents seized multiple guns, ammunition, a letter from a jail outlining inmate “cliques” and immigration documents.

The front door of Villatoro Santos’ mother’s home was smashed from a battering ram. Her rear sliding glass door was smashed out.

President Donald Trump has blamed violence and gang growth on lax immigration policies. In his first term as president, Trump promised an all-out fight against MS-13, saying he would “dismantle, decimate and eradicate” the gang.

The Senate passed the legislation immediately after approving the continuing resolution last month — and President Donald Trump has urged House Republicans to do the same — but so far, House Speaker Mike Johnson has been silent on the D.C. budget fix and has not scheduled a vote.

If the legislation doesn’t pass, D.C. would have to cut $1.1 billion from its current budget by September.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said that would require devastating cuts to programs and services as well as possible layoffs, but she has stopped short of providing specifics on cuts.

“We will work with the members of the council to make the best decisions for Washington, D.C.,” she said last month.

“We start with we have to go where the money is in our budget to cut that fast, and our top areas of spending — our schools, public safety and the human services,” Bowser said.

Bowser and the D.C. Council have put off making any cuts so far, hoping the House would pass the Senate’s fix, but with the House set to recess for two weeks, waiting won’t be an option for much longer.

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“We are talking about serious and significant cuts to city operations, public safety, public education, our own transit system,” Councilmember Charles Allen said. “So, it’s deeply devastating, and the clock is ticking. The city will have to start moving forward with planning out what those cuts look like that the House is making.”

Bowser declined to comment Wednesday, but multiple sources told News4 she and Johnson talked by phone this week to discuss D.C. funding as the House determines a path forward.

A spokesperson for Johnson said the speaker has been laser focused on congressional Republicans’ big budget resolution but did not rule out some type of action when the House returns in two weeks.

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Kilmar Abrego Garcia was detained on March 12 and flown on a Justice Department flight to a notorious prison – though he had legal status to live in the U.S.

His wife, Jennifer, said Wednesday that her husband’s deportation has destroyed her family’s happiness and their children’s innocence. She fought tears as she spoke on the Hill with Rep. Glenn Ivey and Sen. Chris Van Hollen.

“Kilmar, if you can hear me, I’m still fighting for you. Your brother, your mother, our children are still fighting for you. We’re not going to give up hope until the Supreme Court justices do the right thing,” she said.

Some supporters held signs reading “Bring Kilmar home.”

“We are with you in this fight for justice and we demand that Kilmar be returned home now. What has happened should never happen in the United States of America,” Van Hollen said.

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Abrego Garcia’s family is awaiting word from the Supreme Court on its decision in his case.

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to vacate a lower court’s order to release Abrego Garcia from the prison and return him to the U.S.

The solicitor general claimed Judge Paul Xinis did not have the authority to order Abrego Garcia’s release and return.

In their most recent court filing, his attorneys note he has not lived in El Salvador since 2011, when he was just 16. They say he has no criminal record there or here in the U.S.

The decision comes a day after the Supreme Court also sided with the Trump administration in another lawsuit filed over mass firings.

A split panel for the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the terminations of federal workers should probably be appealed through a separate employment process rather than fought out in federal court. Two judges appointed by Republican presidents sided with the administration, while a third Democratic appointed judge dissented.

The decision comes in a lawsuit filed by nearly two dozen states, who said the mass firings will cause irreparable burdens and expenses to support recently unemployed workers. They said at least 24,000 probationary employees have been terminated since Trump took office.

The states could still seek further review as the lawsuit continues to play out.

The Republican administration has argued that the states have no right to try to influence the federal government’s relationship with its own workers, but also had already reinstated some 15,000 workers to full duty or paid leave as the lawsuits played out, according to court documents.

The appeals court order halts a decision from U.S. District Judge James Bredar in Baltimore, who was one of two judges appointed by Democratic presidents who found that the Trump administration violated federal laws in carrying out the terminations at 20 agencies in the states that sued.

The Supreme Court blocked another order from U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco on Tuesday, finding that nonprofit groups lacked legal standing to sue over the firing of probationary workers. The case still has additional plaintiffs, however, and Alsup was weighing Wednesday whether to again order reinstatement on behalf of the state of Washington and labor groups.

Probationary workers have been targeted for layoffs across the federal government because they’re usually new to the job and lack full civil service protection.

The states suing the Trump administration in the Baltimore case are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin, along with Washington, D.C.

___

Associated Press writer Janie Har in San Francisco contributed to this report.

It was a joyful day that came after decades of effort by abolitionists and amid the Civil War.

In 2025, D.C. is celebrating 20 years of officially observing the holiday. A parade, festival, concert and fireworks will mark D.C. Emancipation Day on Sunday, April 13. It’s free to attend.

Grammy winner Anthony Hamilton, NAACP Image Award winner Chanté Moore, The Crank Crusaders featuring D.C.’s own Raheem DeVaughn and DJ Kool will take the stage for the All-Star Concert starting at 4 p.m.

The family-friendly festival has plenty for kids, too, including mini golf, a gaming lounge, crafts and carnival and arcade games.

Go early for the parade stepping off from 10^th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW at 2 p.m., and stay late for the fireworks finale at 8:30 p.m.

The African American History and Culture Museum will also host a celebration on the actual holiday.

What is D.C.’s Emancipation Day?

Emancipation Day honors the day slavery ended in Washington, D.C. after President Lincoln signed the DC Compensated Emancipation Act in 1862.

District residents marked the first anniversary after the Civil War with a parade. For the last 159 years, D.C. has marked the important date with celebrations including concerts, parades and more.

How did D.C.’s Black community react to the news?

African-Americans had been traveling to D.C. to escape war and bondage for years, and the District’s Black community felt deep joy upon learning of the Emancipation Act, historian C.R. Gibbs wrote in an explainer.

He quotes a letter that a Black resident of the District wrote to a friend in Baltimore:

“When I had finished the chambermaid had left the room sobbing for joy. The slave women clapped her hands and shouted, left the house saying, “let me go and tell my husband that Jesus has done all things well.” While the cook who is free retired to another room to offer thanks for the blessing sent. Should I not feel glad to see so much rejoicing around me?”

What did the Emancipation Act do and how is it different from the Emancipation Proclamation?

The DC Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862 was passed by Congress and signed by President Lincoln.  It ended slavery in the District, reimbursed former slave owners up to $300 and provided $100 for freed men and women if they chose to emigrate to another country.

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued months later on Jan. 1, 1863. It freed all enslaved people in “rebellious” states fighting with the Confederacy but allowed slavery to continue within the Union.

Is Emancipation Day different than Juneteenth?

Juneteenth, also called Emancipation Day, is a nationwide celebration on June 19 that marks the day that news of the Emancipation Proclamation spread to Texas in 1865.

Is D.C.’s Emancipation Day an official holiday?

Emancipation Day was made an official public holiday in the District in 2005 after lobbying from community members, including Loretta Carter Hanes.

What’s closed for the official holiday on April 16?

Some city services will be paused. All Department of Motor Vehicles offices will be closed on Wednesday, April 16.

Trash services will slide to Thursday, April 17.

D.C. Public Schools would close for the holiday, but students and teachers will be on spring break next week.

What’s open?

Typically, federal services like the U.S. Postal Service remain open, as do outdoor parks.

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Chase Feaster and Alonzo Goffney, both 18, were two of the men killed in the shooting along Olde Greenwich Circle, Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office said in an update Wednesday morning. Authorities haven’t yet named a 20-year-old man who died.

A barrage of gunfire blasted through the residential street lined with brick townhomes about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Some neighbors were seen rinsing blood off of the sidewalk and boarding up broken windows Wednesday.

“It was really scary. … I’m, like, … I want to move,” one woman told News4 while checking her car for gunfire damage.

“I got kids. This is scary. My kids play right here every day. They ride their bike every day right here,” one man said while standing outside his home. Two bullets hit his home near his front kitchen window.

Bullet holes were spotted all over cars and homes on the block where the sheriff’s office said two 16-year-old boys, a 17-year-old boy and 18-year-old Jeremiah Upson opened fire. The four suspects were arrested and charged with malicious wounding and using a firearm to commit a felony, the sheriff’s office said.

Doorbell surveillance video obtained by News4 shows two suspects wearing masks and holding large guns. They’re seen walking one direction, but then they stop, turn around and run off.

One of the 16-year-old suspects was shot and was receiving care at a hospital, authorities said. The three other suspects are in jail without bond.

“I could’ve been in my kitchen cooking and the bullets could’ve came through my window and killed me. That’s scary. I’ve been up all night long because I was afraid that they were still out there in the woods,” resident Kimberly Tilghman told News4.

Tilghman said she moved to the neighborhood two weeks ago.

“It’s really just traumatic for me, just coming here, just moving. Like, I didn’t expect this,” she said.

One neighbor, who asked to stay anonymous, described to News4 what her family witnessed just feet from her home.

“My son was actually outside walking the dog, and he said he heard what he thought was a car backfiring, but it was gunfire. And he actually saw one of the suspects running in the street and he got the dog in the house and he told everybody to go to the basement to get out of, you know, trajectory of the bullets because he didn’t know where the gunfire was going …” she said. “The sound that they heard they thought a car was backfiring, but then they heard the rapid gunfire and that’s when they realized they were shooting an automatic rifle or some type of gun.”

The sheriff’s office didn’t give any further information about the alleged illegal gun sale or robbery it said led to the shooting.

Deputies said Tuesday that three people were injured in addition to the three men killed, but authorities haven’t given an update yet on their conditions.

Spotsylvania County Public Schools and Fredericksburg City Public Schools opened two hours late Wednesday in the wake of the shooting.

“This delay will allow us the necessary time to prepare our buildings and staff to welcome students with the care and support they may need during this difficult time,” Fredericksburg City Public Schools said in a statement.

After the shooting, the sheriff’s office acknowledged the community had been through a rough couple of days. Two parents were arrested Monday after a gun went off inside a third grader’s backpack at Lee Hill Elementary School.

“You know, Spotsylvania County has had several incidents over the past 24 hours that were gun related. We take these extremely seriously. I mean, this is … probably as bad as it could get with at least six people being shot right now. It’s been a stressful 24 hours,” Major Elizabeth Scott said.

Last November, Lopez pleaded guilty to Involuntary Manslaughter for selling counterfeit Percocet found to be laced with deadly amounts of fentanyl. Aiden Vining, who was 17, was found unresponsive in his family’s Chevy Chase home in October of 2023.

“This is a grown man who sold drugs to my underage child,” said Alexis Vining, Aiden Vining’s mother.

She said she can’t stop thinking how Lopez’s sentence — five years in prison and five on probation — is much less than the ones likely facing the men charged with first degree murder in the death of a good friend of hers who was killed just a month before she lost her son.

Blake Bozeman, a former Morgan State basketball star, a local realtor and father, was murdered in September 2023 when he walked into the path of two men as they began firing into a crowded lounge on H Street Northeast in D.C.

“The weapon involved for my son was fentanyl, the weapon involved for Blake was a gun,” Alexis Vining said. “There’s a weapon in each instance, one just happens to be a drug and the other one is a gun, so why is there five years for my son and 20 years for Blake”

Assistant State’s Attorneys Jennifer Harrison and Kimberly Cissel with the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Overdose Prosecution Unit worked to secure Lopez’s Conviction.

State’s Attorney John McCarthy says he understands Alexis Vining’s concerns and has thought about them himself.

“I’m also hoping that somebody in the legislature will listen to us and understand that distribution of fentanyl resulting in death should be its own crime.”

One friend who spoke on behalf of Aiden Vining says his loss, this tragedy, has inspired her to pursue studies to become a doctor.

State legislators faced a $3.3 billion deficit and hundreds of millions in cuts from the Trump administration.

The approved budget includes a 3% IT services tax and increases in marijuana and online sports betting taxes.

“We did, in fact, leave here with that deficit closed and a cash cushion to be able to weather the ongoing storm from what [President Donald] Trump and [Elon] Musk are doing to Maryland’s economy, Democratic House Majority Leader David Moon said.

The state’s wealthier residents also will pay more. Two new tax brackets will apply to those who make $500,000 per year and $1 million or more — a so-called millionaires tax.

Gov. Wes Moore says 94% of Marylanders will either see a cut in their income taxes or they’ll stay the same. But lawmakers also provided for local jurisdictions to impose a 0.1% “piggyback” tax on income.

“There are sacrifices that we are asking some Marylanders to make, but again, it’s for the benefit of the overall state economy,” Moon said.

The budget was condemned by Republican party leaders, who criticized the tax increases, including a $5 fee on each new tire purchased in the state

“This represents the largest tax hike in Maryland history — a staggering burden on working families, small businesses and retirees already struggling with inflation and economic uncertainty,” the Senate Republican Caucus said in a statement.

Lawmakers say they’ve yet to realize the full scope of how cuts from the Trump administration could affect the state. Legislative leaders haven’t ruled out the possibility of a special session if the cuts are too deep. A panel will monitor federal actions and provide updates to legislators to prepare them to respond to decisions in the nation’s capital.

“From public education, to health care and our federal workforce, we have already witnessed how recent federal actions threaten the economic stability of our state,” Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones, a Democrat, said. “We know these threats will continue after the General Assembly’s 2025 legislative session adjourns.”

Moore also noted concerns about continuing challenges that the heavily Democratic state faces from actions taken by the Trump administration, from federal job cuts to tariffs.

The governor described the Maryland revenue increases as tax reform that spares the middle class and brings tax cuts for many, while asking more of high-income residents. He said the state budget reductions were “the largest amount of cuts that you’ve seen in a Maryland state budget in 16 years.”

“We are continuing to deliver for the people of the state, particularly at a time when we’re seeing so much chaos coming from Washington, D.C.,” Moore told reporters Monday.

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Republicans, who are outnumbered in both the House and Senate, have repeatedly noted that Maryland has been facing a big deficit since before Trump regained the White House in January. They criticized the tax increases and fees, noting a variety of them relate to vehicles and will affect anyone who drives.

“We could have done it differently,” said Del. Jesse Pippy, a Republican and the House minority whip, who said the budget could have been balanced without tax increases. “I think the taxpayers would have appreciated a different course of action.”

Here is a look at some of the highlights of legislation lawmakers have sent to the governor’s desk:

Immigration enforcement

A bill that would have banned police agencies from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement through the so-called 287(g) program failed to pass, but lawmakers did pass legislation creating guidance around ICE access to schools, hospitals, places of worship and other spaces.

Energy package

Lawmakers passed a package of measures aimed at addressing energy needs, including initiatives to generate more power from nuclear, natural gas, solar and battery storage. It also includes a small rebate on state ratepayers’ electric bills, with two installments adding up to an average of about $80.

Abortion funding

The Maryland Department of Health would have access to $25 million for an abortion grant program to help providers pay costs for the uninsured. The money comes from part of the federal Affordable Care Act that has collected fees from insurers to pay for abortion services for their policyholders.

Health care for young adults

Lawmakers approved a measure to make permanent a program that provides subsidies to help young adults get affordable health insurance.

Prescription drugs

A state board would have its authority expanded to set upper price limits for prescription drugs statewide, instead of only for state and local governments.

Second Look Act

People convicted of a crime between the ages of 18 and 25 who have served 20 years or more of a prison sentence would be able to petition for a reduction in sentence if they have not been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole or are a sex offender. The bill does not apply to offenders convicted of killing first responders.

Criminal records

Many more state residents would be able to expunge criminal records after completing their sentences. The measure also will require the state to automatically shield records from public view for roughly 175,000 people who were pardoned by the governor last year for minor cannabis convictions.

Slavery reparations

A statewide commission would study and recommend potential reparations for slavery and the lingering effects of racial discrimination.

Sex abuse lawsuits

Future liabilities from claims of sexual abuse at state and private institutions would be limited with caps on settlements from $890,000 to $400,000 for cases filed after May 31 for state institutions and from $1.5 million to $700,000 for private institutions.

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Safety investigators said a communication breakdown led to the close call between two trains that ended up on the same track and headed toward each other near Dupont Circle in July. The trains stopped about 400 feet short of a head-on collision. 

At a meeting about the close call, the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission’s Robert Lauby shared a confusing exchange between a train operator and a traffic controller.

“The train operator stated, “I thought you wanted me to go in the opposite direction.’ And the controller replied, ‘No, ma’am, I want you to go in the opposite direction,’” Lauby said.

Metro said it implemented a safety stand-down for retraining after the near-collision, and one train operator was permanently barred from their role because of it.

The near-collision was not related to automatic train operations, but members of the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission (WMSC) did discuss separate concerns about the system that’s been in place for the Red Line since December.

Automatic train operations “cannot be relied upon” amid station overruns on Red Line, safety watchdog says

Meanwhile, concerns about station overruns could delay automatic train operations, called ATO for short, from expanding beyond the Red Line. Overruns are when a train moves past a station platform. 

In March, there were 33 overruns, according to the WMSC. The agency said overruns could impact passengers trying to get off a train.

“Based on these continuing overruns, just on the Red Line, Metrorail’s automated train control can not be relied upon to make station stops at fixed locations, which is the purpose of ATO.” WMSC’s Paul Smith said.

Some on the commission are calling for outside help from federal investigators.

Crime and Courts Mar 27

Metro approves banning violent offenders

Metro (WMATA) Apr 8

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”What if we had the NTSB investigate these investigations and come up with an answer?” said Chris Hart from WMSC. “Because I refuse to believe that we can’t come up with an answer on why this is happening.”

The commission told Metro no additional lines could start ATO until the issues seen in the Red Line system are addressed.

In a statement, Metro said it’s ready to move forward with automatic train operations on the Green Line now, and other lines could be ready by this summer.

Metro says it will discuss ATO overruns at the next Metro board meeting, but called ATO a “safety and efficiency success.”

“Within the last three months, we’ve delivered 99.97% reliability related to servicing customers at station platforms,” Metro said in the statement.

4 more context: Metro restarted Automatic train operations in December

 The ATO system accelerates and decelerates the trains as they leave and pull into the stations. Metro said it’s supposed to result in a smoother, less forceful ride for passengers.

Metro first used ATO when it opened its doors to the public in 1976 but suspended ATO after the 2009 Metro crash, which killed nine people and injured another 80. The cause of the crash was later found to be a track defect, not ATO.

ATO relaunched on the Red Line in December. Some overruns were reported, and a spokesperson said the ATO system was “performing well with only minor, first-day adjustments.”

According to Metro’s website, ATO could mean more on-time trains and quicker speeds.

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“All suspects are in custody and there is no threat to public safety,” Spotsylvania Sheriff Roger L. Harris said. He didn’t share the names or ages of the suspects but said more information is forthcoming.

Officials did not immediately release the names of those who died.

The public was asked to avoid the area of the shooting.

Spotsylvania County Public Schools and Fredericksburg City Public Schools were set to open two hours late on Wednesday in the wake of the shooting.

Police were first informed about the shooting at about 5:30 p.m. ET, according to the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office, when the 911 calls started coming in reporting several gunshots.

Hours later at the scene, windows could be seen shattered and several bullet holes were left behind in a red Mercedes-Benz.

A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office described the investigation as fluid. Investigators blocked off most of the neighborhood.

Several agencies are lending a hand as detectives spent Tuesday night collecting evidence and searching for the person or people who pulled the trigger. Investigators have not said much yet about what led to the mass shooting or who is responsible.

“My son was actually outside walking the dog, and he said he heard what he thought was a car backfiring, but it was gunfire. And he actually saw one of the suspects running in the street and he got the dog in the house and he told everybody to go to the basement to get out of, you know, trajectory of the bullets because he didn’t know where the gunfire was going …” she said. “The sound that they heard they thought a car was backfiring, but then they heard the rapid gunfire and that’s when they realized they were shooting an automatic rifle or some type of gun.”

“We have nearly all of our detectives out right now looking for the suspects, and we will stay looking for these suspects,” Maj. Elizabeth Scott said earlier. “We have multiple other agencies assisting with us, the city of Fredericksburg, the police department is also assisting as well as Virginia State Police. We will stay out here until the suspects are caught.”

Fredericksburg City and Spotsylvania schools said they opted to open late to prepare to help support their communities.

“This delay will allow us the necessary time to prepare our buildings and staff to welcome students with the care and support they may need during this difficult time,” Fredericksburg City Public Schools said in a statement.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he plans to tell the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to stop recommending fluoridation in drinking water nationwide.

He’s creating a task force to study the issue.

The announcement comes as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces it is reviewing new information on potential health risks with fluoride in drinking water.

RFK Jr. said this is something President Trump would do on day one. That didn’t happen, but Kennedy is making the push now.

The federal government does not set the standard for water fluoridation. That decision is made by states and local governments. But they largely follow the CDC’s guidance, because it’s considered the best scientific standard and has been for decades.

Health Apr 7

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Fluoride is added to water by the different water suppliers in and around Washington, D.C. Some suppliers meet or exceed CDC recommendations in order to help prevent tooth decay.

Kennedy, who oversees the CDC, cannot order communities to stop fluoridation. But the Health Secretary can direct the CDC to stop recommending it.

Furthermore, water providers in our region have said they plan to continue the process when News4 checked.

The US Environmental Protection Agency sets the maximum level of fluoride allowed in public water – and no systems are allowed to surpass that.

The EPA’s standard for changing its policy has a much higher bar than the CDC and requires an evidence base. News4 spoke with public health attorney Kathleen Hoke on what that means.

“The EPA could change its regulations, but they can’t do so without an evidence base,” Hoke said. “The legal standard is that they can’t act in an arbitrary and capricious manner, so they can’t just withdraw the regulations and then say there can be no fluoride in public waters, because they would get sued.”

“I think it would be incredibly difficult for the EPA to say there could be no fluoride at all, or some minuscule level in public waters, and have that survive litigation,” Hoke said.

In Kennedy’s fight to remove fluoride, he has connected it to lowering IQ’s in children, and claimed it causes bone breaks and disease. The IQ study he cites has been criticized because the data was collected from countries outside the U.S., where fluoride levels are more than double what’s recommended here.

Still, the issue has been at the center of heated debate, with Utah becoming the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water despite pushback from dentists and health experts.

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At a rally outside the Office of Personnel Management Tuesday, Qua Crowner said she was laid off for participating in a diversity, equity and inclusion training course she was instructed to take under the previous administration.

“We followed the mission, we followed the leadership and now we’re being punished for it,” she said.

DEI is one of the many targets of the Trump administration, but the American Federation of Government Employees labor union says the administration isn’t only targeting DEI advocates and practitioners, but also people who happened to learn about DEI in a training the government offered them.

“These workers merely attended a DEI training years ago because their management encouraged it, and that was enough for them to get targeted by this administration, and that ain’t right,” AFGE National Vice President for Women and Fair Practices Kendrick Roberson said.

During his first two days back in office, President Donald Trump signed executive orders mandating the Office of Personnel Management terminate all activities related to DEI.

AFGE says the administration falsely claims DEI resulted in unqualified hires.

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“Federal jobs are not given as handouts to the underserved, and the best candidates are not overlooked because they are not brown enough or because they are not man enough,” Roberson said. “That is literally federal law. Let’s stop it with the lies.”

In March, a group of federal employees took legal action, alleging the administration sought to punish employees for what the administration perceived as their political views, which the complaint says violates the First Amendment. The legal action was filed with the Merit Systems Protection Board, which has yet to act.

“I come from a family of military veterans and civil servants,” Crowner said. “We were taught to leave our politics at the door. We serve everyone with no exceptions.”

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President Trump signed the “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful” executive order on March 27, establishing the task force to increase police presence in public areas, maximize immigration enforcement, expedite concealed carry licenses and crack down on Metro fare evasion.

According to the internal memo obtained by News4, Orville Greene is the chair of the task force. The memo states Greene is the director of the Homeland Security Council Transitional Threat Directorate.

Greene was formerly a New York City Police Department officer and, more recently, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent in Detroit.

Trump’s order called for respresentatives of “key government agencies” to sit in on the task force, including the Department of the Interior, Department of Transportation, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the
U.S. attorneys’ offices for D.C., Maryland and the Eastern District of Virginia.

In the memo, Greene raises the possibility of adding more agencies to the task force, including the DEA, U.S. Capitol Police, the Federal Protective Service, Amtrak Police, the General Services Administration and the National Capital Planning Commission. He also called for local representatives from the D.C. government to be participants.

Greene’s memo, which was sent to D.C. officials as part of an invitation to participate in the meeting, detailed the focus of the meeting and the goals of the task force.

At the top of the meeting agenda: reviewing D.C.’s enforcement of and compliance with federal immigration law, improving police recruitment and retention, reviewing the concealed carry permits process and cleaning up public monuments, memorials and homeless encampments.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she opted not to send any representatives to the meeting. Bowser said she sent a written response instead.

Bowser said she has some requests of the task force and the Trump administration.

“Number one, we need the House to pass the budget fix, and we need it to happen this week. We also outlined what we understand recently that the NPS, the National Park Service, has been impacted by cuts and they have reduced the number of trash pickups on the Mall. So we’re asking them to restore, I think, three times daily trash pickups on the Mall,” Bowser said. “We saw with the cherry blossom weekend, some overflowing trash cans. That’s not beautiful. So we want that fixed.”

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As for the task force’s focus on public safety, Bowser had another request.

“I asked [the chief of police] if this task force could could help with police presence in any way, what would be the request? The request was more patrols from Park Police on the parkways that are in or approach the District: George Washington Parkway, Suitland Parkway and B.W. Parkway,” Bowser said.

In February, Trump said he supports putting D.C. directly under federal control.

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Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation and the legal battle that has followed is being seen as a test case on the Trump administration’s deportation authority.

The Supreme Court is weighing arguments from Abrego Garcia’s lawyer and the Trump administration’s lawyer.

In a new filing Tuesday, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued the preliminary injunction filed by Judge Paula Xinis should be vacated because “the court’s order takes the remarkable and unprecedented step of compelling the United States to succeed by 11:59 p.m. yesterday in negotiating Abrego Garcia’s release and return from El Salvador or face contempt.”

Sauer went on to write, “…courts cannot order the Executive to conduct the country’s foreign relations in a particular way because under Article II ‘the transaction of business with foreign nations is executive altogether.’”

Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, has argued if the government of El Salvador can give a tour of the prison to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, they can remove Abrego Garcia and send him home. He said he has cases in which ICE has admitted its mistakes and tried to correct them.

“What happened to Kilmar is not out of the ordinary. There have been wrongful deportations in the past and in every prior such case, the United States government has really bent over backwards to fix it, to make it right, to bring the person back,” he said. There is plenty of case law and cases in which this has occurred.”

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In a friend of the court brief file with the Supreme Court, three constitutional law professors, including Harvard professor emeritus Laurence Tribe, wrote: “In this case the Executive Branch is effectively asserting absolute, unreviewable authority to remove an individual from the United States even where the removal was in conceded violation of a court order.”

They went on to say, “If the Solicitor General’s argument were correct, the Executive Branch would possess a shuddering degree of power – power that the President could wield in extreme and extraordinary ways, including against American citizens that the President simply disfavors.”

At a meeting scheduled for Thursday, Metro’s board is set to amend Clarke’s employment agreement with the transit agency, and News4 has learned Clarke will sign a contract extension. 

The exact details of the contract extension are not yet available. 

Clarke took over the role of Metro’s general manager in the summer of 2022. He originally signed an agreement for five years but is expected sign an extension to stay with the transit agency longer.  

We are grateful for Leon’s eight years of service to our newsroom. We thank him for his commitment to our community, dedication to journalism, hard work, and friendship. He will be missed, and we wish him nothing but the best.

State leaders in Minnesota and New York said they will not comply with an Education Department order to gather signatures from local school systems certifying compliance with civil rights laws, including the rejection of what the federal government calls “illegal DEI practices.” Chicago’s mayor promised to sue over any cuts. California and Vermont told schools they don’t need to respond.

It amounts to some of the most forceful opposition yet as the Education Department uses federal funding as leverage to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda on issues from DEI to campus antisemitism and transgender athletes. The White House has targeted colleges and K-12 schools alike, but unlike universities that rely greatly on federal grants and contracts, school systems get the vast majority of their money from state and local sources.

In a letter Monday to the Education Department, Minnesota’s education chief said the Trump administration overstepped its authority with its latest demand, adding that there’s nothing illegal about DEI.

“Threats to this funding without backing in law or established requirements put key programs at risk that students and schools depend on every day,” said Willie Jett, Minnesota’s education commissioner.

It follows a Friday letter from New York’s education office challenging the federal government’s latest demand. It said New York already has provided assurances that it follows federal law and “no further certification will be forthcoming.”

The Trump administration set a deadline for schools to disavow DEI

The U.S. Education Department told state agencies in a letter Thursday they must sign a document saying they follow federal antidiscrimination laws and get the same assurance from schools. The document threatens to cut federal money for any civil rights violation, including using DEI practices “to advantage one’s race over another.”

On Tuesday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon commended Puerto Rico for being the first to submit its certification. “Every state that wants to continue receiving federal funds should follow suit,” McMahon posted on X.

The letter does not carry the force of law but threatens to use civil rights enforcement to rid schools of DEI practices. Schools that continue such practices “in violation of federal law” can face Justice Department litigation and a termination of federal grants and contracts, it said.

The letter initially gave states 10 days to submit the certification. On Monday, the Education Department extended the deadline to April 24.

A department spokesperson said the agency is “simply asking school districts to certify they are following the law and not using race preferences or pernicious race stereotypes in schools.”

The nation’s largest teachers union is asking a federal court to block the order, saying some schools are already clamping down on DEI practices as the government raises the stakes. The National Education Association filed the motion in Republican-led New Hampshire, which is moving to comply with the federal demand.

Schools in many states are already required to affirm compliance with antidiscrimination laws, and even some GOP-led states question whether they need to get the new document signed by each district. Missouri’s education office said schools’ previous assurances should be sufficient, and it will reach out to districts “if additional information is necessary.”

Others are moving to follow the order, including Virginia and Arizona, where state education chief Tom Horne said the order “aligns completely with my philosophy.”

The pushback contrasts with colleges’ responses to government demands

The resistance from some states stands in contrast with the response from universities targeted by the federal government. As the Trump administration has made demands upon colleges including Columbia University and Harvard University, some students and faculty have implored institutions to do more to defend their values and academic freedom.

The stakes are different for colleges, which depend on federal money that makes up nearly half the total revenue at some institutions. Federal funding makes up a smaller portion of K-12 school budgets — roughly 14%.

Vermont’s education chief assured schools the state supports DEI practices and said superintendents won’t need to sign the certification. Instead, the state will assure federal officials it’s already following federal law, Zoie Saunders, the state’s education secretary, said in a letter to school districts.

“Nothing about this directive requires a change to our diversity, equity and inclusion practices, and we’re not going to change,” Saunders said in a news release.

The Illinois board of education rebuked the federal agency, saying it’s “attempting to exert power over every district in the country — even as it claims it’s returning education to the states.” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, said his city is willing to go to court over the order, which he called federal overreach.

The New York and Minnesota letters both cite past comments from Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education secretary during his first term, extolling the virtues of diversity and inclusion. In a 2020 memo to agency staff, DeVos wrote that “embracing diversity and inclusion are key elements for success.” The states argue the Education Department is shifting its position without explanation.

The states also accuse the Education Department of making broad declarations about the illegality of DEI without citing policies that violate federal law. Minnesota’s letter said if the federal agency has identified DEI practices that violate civil rights law, “we request advisement of them.”

Many states said they were still reviewing the letter.

___

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

“Changes to the Underground Railroad page on the National Park Service’s website were made without approval from NPS leadership nor Department leadership,” NPS spokeswoman Rachel Pawlitz said late Monday in an email. “The webpage was immediately restored to its original content.”

She did not say who ordered the changes or for what reason. The changes — first reported by The Washington Post — included removing Tubman’s picture from the top of the page and making multiple edits to the text. A side-by-side analysis of the pages, using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, revealed changes that removed references to slavery and changed descriptions about the issue and its brutal realities.

For example, the original opening sentence referenced the railroad’s core role in “the resistance to enslavement through escape and flight.” The edited version called the railroad “one of the most significant expressions of the American civil rights movement” and described how it “bridged the divides of race, religion, sectional differences, and nationality.”

The issue comes amid sweeping government changes to comply with President Donald Trump’s campaign against so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the federal government. In some cases, officials have scrambled to remove and then restore online content as changes came to light.

Trump administration Apr 3

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Trump has also targeted the Smithsonian network of museums, which includes the National Museum of African American History and Culture. He has tasked Vice President JD Vance with heading up the effort to purge what Trump termed “improper ideology” in the Smithsonian’s depictions of American history.

Among the public controversies has been the Pentagon’s wholesale deletions of pages related to the Navajo Code Talkers’ contributions in World War I and baseball legend Jackie Robinson’s military career. Both of those pages were quickly restored when the deletions drew public outcry.

When the Harriet Tubman edits first came to light, NPS officials acknowledged the changes but denied any intention to downplay her role or soften the realities of America’s history with slavery.

“We celebrate her as a deeply spiritual woman who lived her ideals and dedicated her life to freedom,” Pawlitz said, citing dozens of pages about her, as well as two parks named for her. “The idea that a couple web edits somehow invalidate the National Park Service’s commitment to telling complex and challenging historical narratives is completely false.”

The revelation of the NPS edits drew an immediate backlash from civil rights figures. Bernice King, daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., posted on Instagram Monday that the changes constitute “an attack on truth, an attempt to erase history that would help us improve society today, a refusal to be uncomfortable.”

The decision to grant the administration’s request means the federal government doesn’t have to take steps to bring back some workers who were laid off while litigation moves forward before a federal judge in California, NBC News reports.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, two of the court’s liberal justices, noted they dissented from the unsigned decision.

The order indicated that some of the nonprofit groups that sued may not have legal standing to press their claims.

Further complicating matters, a judge in Maryland issued a similar ruling that applies to the same agencies at issue in the California case as well as others. That decision, which requires affected employees in 19 states and the District of Columbia to be kept on paid administrative leave while litigation continues, remains in place.

The affected agencies in the California case are the departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Energy, Interior, Agriculture and Treasury.

The Trump administration, in an initiative spearheaded by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, has sought to dramatically decrease the number of federal employees, sparking a fierce legal fight.

California-based U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that fired probationary employees should be reinstated because the process used was legally flawed.

The Trump administration argued Alsup did not have the authority to reinstate the workers and made the problem worse by micromanaging the process. Lawyers also argued that the various labor unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees, and other groups that sued did not have a direct stake in the firings.

The Supreme Court decision only addressed the claims made by the nonprofit groups, as those were what Alsup’s ruling was based on. The union claims could yet lead to further court action.

No individual federal employees are involved in the lawsuit.

Alsup’s ruling “violates the separation of powers, arrogating to a single district court the Executive Branch’s powers of personnel management on the flimsiest of grounds and the hastiest of timelines,” then-acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris said in court papers.

“That is no way to run a government,” she added. 

Harris said the Maryland case is different because the judge, James Bredar, only required the workers to be put on administrative leave and did not order that they be fully onboarded. Bredar’s case is also at an earlier stage of the legal process, meaning his ruling is only provisional.

Harris noted that the Department of Agriculture is also subject to a decision issued by the Merit System Protection Board, a federal agency set up to protect federal workers, that required thousands of workers to be reinstated.

Lawyers for the challengers pointed out in court papers that the government had already said in a different filing that it has “substantially complied” with the reinstatement order, reducing the need for the Supreme Court to intervene.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Fake job seekers are flooding U.S. companies that are hiring remote, tech CEOs say
• House GOP leaders scramble to corral votes for Senate budget plan to advance Trump’s agenda
• Elon Musk calls Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navarro a ‘moron’ and ‘dumber than a sack of bricks’

No students or staff were hurt after the gunfire at Lee Hill Elementary School on Monday morning, the county sheriff’s office said.

“Once the gun discharged, the teacher evacuated all 26 students from the classroom and notified the School Resource Officer who was on site,” a statement by the sheriff’s office said.

The child’s parents, Terrence Carroll Jr., 34, and Ciara Armstead, 36, were arrested later Monday and charged with recklessly leaving a loaded, unsecured firearm so as to endanger the life or limb of a child under 14, the sheriff’s office said in an update Tuesday. The charge is a misdemeanor.

Carroll and Armstead cooperated with the investigation and were released on $5,000 bond, the sheriff’s office said. Their child was not charged, after consultation with prosecutors.

The child found the handgun at home and put it in his backpack, the sheriff’s office said.

“At some point while in the classroom, the child reached into his backpack to retrieve something and inadvertently pulled the trigger on the gun,” the statement said.

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No information was released on who owned the gun or why the child took it to school. The student had no intent to do harm, the sheriff’s office said after conducting initial interviews.

Carroll and Armstead are due in court Friday.

So far this school year, 12 instances of elementary schoolers having guns at school have been reported, according to the National Association of School Resource Officers. Guns accidentally went off in two cases, the group said.

Parents have been charged after their children opened fire at school.

A mother in Newport News, Virginia, was sentenced in 2023 to 21 months in prison for using marijuana while owning a firearm after her 6-year-old son took a gun to school and shot and wounded his teacher.

Last year, the parents of a school shooter in Oxford, Michigan, became the first parents convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting. They were each sentenced to at least 10 years in prison after their teen son shot and killed four classmates.

That’s how Maryland mother Ondraya Graves says she felt after she learned the man accused of killing her daughter was being offered a plea deal.

“I actually was at work when they called and so my heart dropped and was very sad… it just made me feel alone…” Graves said. “Essentially he would get away with murder…”

Back in November, her daughter, Olivia Graves, was gunned down on Atlantic Avenue Southeast.

Family members say the 24-year-old had gotten a ride from friends to pick her nephew up from school. They decided to stop on their way home and found themselves in the middle of a deadly dispute.

“Really just trying to protect her nephew and she took the bullet for him…” Graves said. “She was a protector. She sacrificed, and she made sure that if there was a need, she was the one who was trying to. She’s a problem solver, so she would try to do whatever she needed to do, even if it meant she sacrificed something of herself.”

Days after the fatal shooting, Maurice Jackson was arrested for second degree murder, but last Friday he accepted a plea for voluntary manslaughter.

“The possibility of an early release, that is very scary to me. I believe that he has demonstrated throughout his life that he is a threat to the community…” Graves said. “Whatever the full extent of the law is for punishment for second degree murder, is what, that’s the only thing that would be satisfying.”

Graves says now she worries their family won’t get justice.

Her grandson, who was 12 at the time and witnessed the shooting, is still struggling.

“Daily trauma, you know, he doesn’t even sleep alone anymore,” she said.

Graves says she is grateful for the support and communication from the U.S. Attorney’s Office — she just wants to make sure her daughter’s accused killer gets the appropriate punishment.

Jackson’s sentencing is scheduled for July. As she waits to learn his fate, she has this message for other families who lost loved ones and are navigating the justice system:

“Stay involved, get involved, let your voice be heard and speak, be that voice for… your friend or family who is a victim in D.C.”

Now, investigators in Charles County, Maryland, are setting the record straight about the intense search for a young mother who has not been seen since the end of March.

The Charles County Sheriff’s Office says they suspect foul play in the disappearance of Lesbia Mileth Ramirez Guerra.

They now believe the 23-year-old mother of two young children may have been missing for a few days before her disappearance was reported to police on April 2.

It’s a critical time period.

Investigators want to talk to anyone who during that time saw this vehicle: a red Toyota 4Runner with a “Baby on Board” decal. They’ll only say it’s a family vehicle.

“If they saw this vehicle anywhere in a remote area, someplace isolated, anything like that … give us a call,” said Diane Richardson with the Charles County Sheriff’s Office. “Check your Ring cameras. Check any footage you have. If you’re a hunter and you have cameras out there, check those.

Guerra was last physically seen the evening of March 31 at the Waldorf home where she lives with several people, including her boyfriend, who is the father of her children.

Her family is distraught. Some of Guerra’s relatives came down from Pennsylvania to help search for her.

The press release on her disappearance notes that while serving a search warrant on her residence, detectives located what turned out to be fraudulent identity documents belonging to her boyfriend. When they contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement to verify his identity, agents responded and took him into custody.

Azzi Fudd and the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team dominated South Carolina to win the 2025 NCAA championship.

“I knew I was going to give it my all, leave everything on that floor for 40 minutes,” she said after the game.

The 22-year-old was absolutely electric in that game, scoring 24 points. She was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player.

“I knew when I saw her in fifth grade that she was going to be a star,” St. John’s College High School varsity girls’ basketball coach Jonathan Scribner said.

Fudd played high school basketball at St. John’s in D.C.

“Just to watch her out there play the way we always knew she played, and to do that on the national stage, I mean, that pride and happiness and joy just can’t even begin to describe it,” Scribner said.

Her sophomore year, Fudd was named Gatorade’s National Player of the Year — an award presented to her by former Washington Mystics star and WNBA legend Elena Delle Donne.

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Fudd was ranked the No. 1 recruit before she committed to playing for the Huskies. But injuries have limited her playing time.

She credits her success to her faith and her teammates.

“I really don’t have words to describe what this feels like, what it means to me, but I’m super grateful and I’m super proud of this entire team,” she said.

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Surveillance video shows three people involved in a fight and police moving in to break it up.

In the same area in March, police were called to a restaurant for a fight. Three people were arrested.

Across the street in late February, Bar Bao closed early because of a large, unruly crowd and fight.

Arlington police have had special patrols in the nightlife area on Friday and Saturday nights for a decade. But in 2023, they added Sunday nights, too.

The goal is to spot trouble before it happens act quickly when it does.

“We want to be engaging with patrons early,” Arlington police spokeswoman Ashley Savage said. “We want to step in and see those pre-fight indicators — maybe people in a verbal dispute, maybe they’re balling up their fists, they’re showing their getting ready into that. “But also, if we’re seeing fights, that we’re actively breaking it up. I think from the video this weekend, you see how quickly officers responded to that incident.”

The police department also helps run what’s known as the Arlington Restaurant Initiative, which provides training to restaurant and bar staff.

“From our officers, we’re doing de-escalation training, as well as when to notify officers,” Savage said. “Again, we’re there. We’re in the area. So, if they’re see an incident that’s rising, they want to notify those officers.”

Arlington’s county manager proposed a budget that would provide increased funding for police overtime to staff the Clarendon nightlife detail — $321,000 is included in the plan the county board will vote on this week.

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Experts say the end of remote work could have ripple effects in the U.S. economy.

“I wasn’t caregiving for my child while working, but [remote work] allowed me to pick up my son on time, drop him off on time and just be able to work and have a career as a single mom,” one federal worker mom said.

After 14 years of serving the government while working remotely, President Donald Trump’s order to report to an office full-time changed her life and her career. Without the ability to work remotely or money to pay for afterschool child care, she didn’t see any way to keep her job and also care for her child.

When she received the now-infamous Fork in the Road email from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, pressuring federal workers to resign or risk being laid off, she decided taking the deferred resignation was her best option. She said she didn’t want to pull her son out of his school and move closer to D.C. amid threatened layoffs.

“I didn’t want this. I was forced to take this route,” she said.

‘Thought I would have to quit’

In Montgomery County, Maryland, another federal worker mom also found herself having to make a tough decision.

The Department of Homeland Security employee primarily worked from home for years. She thought the contract she signed protected her telework arrangement. Then Trump’s order said she needed to report to the office full time within weeks.

She and her husband had been able to avoid putting their son in day care thanks to help from family and her husband’s flexible work schedule. Suddenly, they were scrambling to find child care. The federal worker said she felt “unbelievably lucky” to find a day care spot for $1,600 per month. Her husband began working overtime to help cover the cost, they’re watching their household expenses and they’re feeling the loss of family time they once had together.

“I have to drop him off very early in the morning and then either leave early from work or just pick him up really late,” she said.

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She’s a fourth-generation civil servant proud of her years of government service. The return-to-office order made her and her colleagues feel degraded at work, but she plans to stay.

“I have no plans of leaving. I want to stick this job out. I just love it so much,” she said.

‘We might see a reduction in women’s labor force participation’

The return-to-office order is forcing caregivers to make difficult choices that could matter for the economy more broadly, said Kate Bahn, chief economist at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to sustaining a thriving economy that includes women.

“When you have really limited choices, you’re not necessarily making a good choice, you’re just making the best choice you can for yourself,” she said.

Bahn’s research shows that in over half of American families, women serve as the co-breadwinner or sole breadwinner.

“Not having those incomes, their families would not have adequate economic well-being,” she said.

Ending remote work isn’t just tough for many individual caregivers; it also may push sizable numbers of women out of the workforce altogether, said Bahn, who’s a new mom herself.

“We might see a reduction in women’s labor force participation. So, women just dropping out altogether because they can’t manage caregiving responsibilities alongside their jobs,” she said. “Or we’ll see women making really constrained choices when they do work, so, taking a job that’s maybe suboptimal for them, they don’t like as much, they don’t earn as much, but they just don’t have another choice because it’s the only thing that works with their caregiving responsibilities.”

Six in 10 women surveyed by Bahn’s group said job flexibility determines whether they’ll accept a job offer. Without flexibility, 4 in 10 said they would reduce their hours or leave their jobs altogether.

Data shows women are already underrepresented in the federal government, at 45%, compared to 58% in the private sector, according to federal data and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The White House said data was not available on how many women have resigned, retired or been laid off from the federal workforce since Inauguration Day.

Why Rep. Brittany Pettersen says policies supporting parents matter

The impact of workplace restrictions is being felt at the highest levels of government.

“These systems are not made for us. They’re made for, historically, for older, wealthier white men,” said Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat who represents Colorado’s 7th District.

Just four weeks after Pettersen gave birth to her second son, she found herself flying across the country with her newborn so she could vote on critical legislation. Congress required in-person voting. She championed a bill to allow proxy voting for new parents, but it hasn’t gained needed support.

“These are common-sense changes that we can do to make sure that people like me who have just given birth aren’t putting their health at risk and their newborn’s health at risk,” she said.

Pettersen argues creating policies to support parents in Congress will ultimately help the families they represent.

“When we start to change the people who are elected and the life experiences that they have, you’re gonna start to see policies change that are actually supporting the families that are struggling the most right now,” she said.

‘Taking a leap of faith’

In Loudoun County, the federal worker who decided to leave her career after over a decade packed up her son’s toys and considered how they would both adjust to the next chapter in their lives. Her son would make new friends at a new school, and she would look into starting her own consulting firm in her hometown.

“It’s scary. It’s really scary and overwhelming. But I’m taking a leap of faith,” she said.

She said the return-to-office order forced her to choose between showing up at the office and showing up for her son, and she chose her son.

“As a single mom, most importantly to me, I’ve been able to successfully and substantially provide for my son. I don’t want to cry,” she said, fighting tears. “For me, it means the world to provide for my son and not have to ask for any help.”

Reported by Tracee Wilkins, produced by Andrea Swalec and Katie Leslie, shot by Jeff Piper and Evan Carr, and edited by Jeff Piper

Scott Jenkins, the former sheriff of Culpeper County, told the court last week he plans to appeal his conviction. He was sentenced last month to a decade in prison and has not yet reported to start serving.

On a webinar hosted by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, Jenkins said he has no money for an appeal and now hopes Trump will help.

“I truly believe if I could get an hour of time with someone in the administration and lay out some facts with my attorney and I really believe if they could hear the other side which I couldn’t get in front of the jury – I believe whole heartedly in the president,” he said. “I believe if he heard the information, I know he would help if he knew my story.”

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During the trial, News4 asked Jenkins if he would seek a pardon or clemency. At the time, he did not respond.

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President Donald Trump attempted to put on a similar parade during his first term in office but had to cancel it because of cost concerns.

The Trump administration has been contacting local leaders in the D.C. area about having a parade. The size and scope of the parade is unclear.

June 14 will be the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. It’s also Trump’s 79th birthday, a celebration that could include a parade, the Washington City Paper’s Tom Sherwood first reported.

“I would say that it’s in its early stages,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser confirmed. “Yes, they have reached out.”

Bowser cautioned that a true military parade with heavy equipment like tanks would come with a cost.

“Military tanks on our streets would not be good,” she said. “If military tanks were used, they should be accompanied with many millions of dollars to repair the roads.”

“We all know that President Trump likes big, grandiose events,” said Sherwood, a former News4 reporter and analyst. “And this is his chance to have a parade that he can oversee from the Pentagon to in front of the White House.”

Infrastructure like the 14th Street Bridge would have to be tested to see if it could support the parade, officials said.

Trump wanted a parade in 2018 during his first term, but it didn’t work out, Sherwood said.

“The military leaders said it would cost too much, nearly $90 million; Mayor Bowser ridiculed the idea on the Twitter system and said it would cost us $20 million just for public safety,” Sherwood said. “So, he canceled it — angrily canceled it. But this time around, it doesn’t sound like he is gonna cancel.”

Arlington leaders say they also got a heads up about the parade planning.

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No students or staff were hurt after the gunfire at Lee Hill Elementary School, the county sheriff’s office said.

The handgun fired at about 10:50 a.m., the office said in a statement.

“Once the gun discharged, the teacher evacuated all 26 students from the classroom and notified the School Resource Officer who was on site,” the statement said.

The student had no intent to do harm, the sheriff’s office said after conducting initial interviews. Detectives are continuing to interview the student and the student’s parents.

In a message to families, Spotsylvania County Public Schools said “school staff immediately followed safety protocols that included securing the weapon, safely removing students from the classroom to the cafeteria, going into a school-wide hold, and conducting a threat assessment.”

School officials advised families to look inside kids’ backpacks.

“We ask that parents and guardians check their child’s backpack each day to make sure they are bringing to school only items that are needed for instruction,” the message said.

No information was immediately released on who owned the gun or how it got into the student’s backpack.

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Pop-ups where you can fill up your spring garden, egg hunts and some major National Cherry Blossom Festival events – such as the parade and Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival– are on tap around D.C. this week and weekend.

Here’s our list of things to do for the week of April 7-13, 2025.

What to do in Washington, D.C.

Theater – “cullud wattah”: Through April 27, Atlas Performing Arts Center, $61.50+ 

Live! At the Library: Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey and traditional Hawaiian music from The Kohala Mountain Boys: Thurs., 7-8:30 p.m., Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, free

“The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks” 360-degree film: Through April 20, The Kennedy Center, $29 (limited $10 tickets available at the box office on the day of shows)

The Washington D.C. Pancakes & Booze Art Show: Thurs., Hook Hall in Northwest D.C., $15

National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade: Sat., 10 a.m., Constitution Avenue NW between 7th and 17th streets, free or seating available for $25-$40

Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival: Sat. and Sun., Pennsylvania Ave. NW between 3rd and 7th streets, $15 (one-day) or $25 (two-day) in advance

Georgetown Flower Tour: Sat., 1-5 p.m., check in at Georgetown Neighborhood Library, $0-$40

D.C. United Cherry Blossom Night: Sat., 7:30 p.m., Audi Field, $29+

That’s So Vintage Market: Sat. and Sun., Dock5 at Union Market, $5-$25

DC Beer Fest: Sat., Nationals Park, $55-$90

Blossom: A Spring Fashion Pop Up: Sun., metrobar in Northeast D.C., free admission

Spring into Fitness: Sun., 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Alethia Tanner Park, free with RSVP

DC Emancipation Day parade, festival, concert and fireworks: Sun., Freedom Plaza, free

DC Design Tours: Various dates and locations, $20 (child)/$35 (adult)

What to do in Maryland

The Butterfly Experience: Opens Thurs., Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, $9 (ages 3-12)/$14 (ages 13+), free for kids under 3

Cinema Hearts and Gabby & Nick Cameron: Fri., 8 p.m., Brentwood Arts Exchange, $20

Garden Supply Pop-Up Shop at Community Forklift: Fri. to Sun., Edmonston, free entry

Holi Color Fun Run/Walk: Sat., 10:30 a.m., Chrysalis, Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods in Columbia, $28.52+

Paint & Sip: A Celebration of Black & Brown Queer Community in the DMV: Sat., 2-5 p.m., Solaire Social in Silver Spring, $39.19

Eggstravaganza: Sat., noon, Granville Gude Park in Laurel, free

Cherry blossom mixology class: Sat., 5-7 p.m., The Westin Washington National Harbor, $76.54

Miho Hazama & m_unit: Sun., 8 p.m., The Music Center at Strathmore, $28 – $68

What to do in Virginia

Spring Egg Hunt at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens: Daily through April 30, Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, $8 per egg hunter

Spring Egg Hunt at Potomac Overlook: April 12-20, Arlington, $8 per egg hunter

F1 – themed ‘Build the Thrill’: Through April 27, LEGO Discovery Center Washington, D.C., $24.99+

Pink Beats: Thursdays through April 10, 5-8 p.m., Water Park in National Landing, free

American Horticultural Society’s Spring Garden Market: Fri. and Sat., 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., River Farm in Alexandria, $20 per car or $5 for walk-ups

Wine & Watercolors: Fri., 5 p.m., Shop Made in VA in Alexandria, $25

Art of Pink: Fri., 5-10 p.m., Metropolitan Park at National Landing, free

Full Moon Hike at Neabsco Regional Park: Sat., 7 p.m., Woodbridge, $12

MoCA on the Move at Met Park: Sundays, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Arlington, free

Tulip Ride and Walk on the Mount Vernon Trail: Sun., 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., meet at Compass Coffee (1201 Wilson Blvd, Arlington), $10

International Food and Culture Fest: Sun., The Manassas Museum, free entry

Sip & Shop by Pop Up Gallery: Sun., 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Port City Brewing in Alexandria, free entry

90’s Music Bingo: Sun., 2-4 p.m., Lost Boy Cider in Alexandria, $5

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The temporary order comes hours after a Justice Department emergency appeal to the Supreme Court arguing U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis overstepped her authority when she ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the United States.

The court asked Abrego Garcia’s lawyers to respond by Tuesday at 5 p.m.

On Friday, Xinis gave the administration until just before midnight Monday to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return.

“The district court’s injunction — which requires Abrego Garcia’s release from the custody of a foreign sovereign and return to the United States by midnight on Monday — is patently unlawful,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in court papers, casting the order as one in “a deluge of unlawful injunctions” judges have issued to slow President Donald Trump’s agenda.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit sided with Kilmar and denied the government’s request for a stay. Pending what the Supreme Court decides, the order to return him to the U.S. by just before midnight Monday still stands.

“The United States Government has no legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process, the ruling by the three-judge panel says. “The Government’s contention otherwise, and its argument that the federal courts are powerless to intervene, are unconscionable.”

Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said the government has the power to bring his client back home.

“I don’t think there is anyone in this country who genuinely believes that if we didn’t just pick up the phone and make a good faith phone call, that we couldn’t get him back within a day or two,” he said on MSNBC on Monday afternoon. “I mean, the connections between our government and the government of El Salvador when it comes to these deportations, to this prison – they put Kristi Noem inside the walls of the prison and they got her back out. They can get him back out”.

The administration has conceded that Abrego Garcia should not have been sent to El Salvador because an immigration judge found he likely would face persecution by local gangs. But he is no longer in U.S. custody and the government has no way to get him back, the administration argued.

The Trump administration is separately asking the Supreme Court to allow Trump to resume deportations of Venezuelan migrants accused of being gang members to the same Salvadoran prison under an 18th century wartime law.

The federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, denied the administration’s request for a stay. “There is no question that the government screwed up here,” Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote in a brief opinion accompanying the unanimous denial.

The White House has described Abrego Garcia’s deportation as an “administrative error” but has also cast him an MS-13 gang member. Attorneys for Abrego Garcia said there is no evidence he was in MS-13.

Xinis wrote that the decision to arrest him and send him to El Salvador appears to be “wholly lawless,” explaining that little to no evidence supports a “vague, uncorroborated” allegation that Abrego Garcia was once an MS-13 member.

Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national who has never been charged or convicted of any crime, was detained by immigration agents and deported last month.

He had a permit from DHS to legally work in the U.S. and was a sheet metal apprentice pursuing a journeyman license, his attorney said. His wife is a U.S. citizen.

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In 2019, an immigration judge barred the U.S. from deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.

A Justice Department lawyer conceded in a court hearing that Abrego Garcia should not have been deported. Attorney General Pam Bondi later removed the lawyer, Erez Reuveni, from the case and placed him on leave.

Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears will face Democratic nominee and former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger.

The Republican Party of Virginia said Saturday that Earle-Sears was the sole candidate to qualify for the Republican primary ballot.

“Winsome-Sears will be a governor for all Virginians, and the Republican Party of Virginia congratulates her on becoming our nominee,” the party said in a statement.

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Earle-Sears had faced the threat of a GOP primary when two other candidates announced they would challenge her for the nomination. Former Del. Dave LaRock did not collect enough signatures. Former State Sen. Amanda Chase, who billed herself in line with President Donald Trump, also fell short.

Whomever wins the election on Nov. 4 will make Virginia history as the first woman elected governor.

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Washington Capitals fans, the NHL and many across the D.C. area are celebrating Ovechkin’s 895^th career goal to come out on top of the record books.

At 39 years old, Ovechkin is now the greatest goal scorer in NHL history.

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Alex Ovechkin asked Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin for memento after record-breaking goal

Ovi completed his “Gr8 Chase” on Sunday with former record holder Wayne Gretzky in attendance at the game in New York against the Islanders.

Even though Ovechkin didn’t break the record in D.C., he sure has an entire city stoked.

If any fans want to have a piece of history, the Ovi Shop will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. It’s at Capital One Arena’s entrance on 7^th Street NW. The team is selling exclusive 895 gear including shirts, hats and pucks.

As for a larger Ovechkin celebration? We understand the team is planning something around their home game this Thursday.

The historic goal coincides with Fan Appreciation Week, which is happening through Sunday. The team is holding a sweepstakes and plans to give out Baby Caps kits to newborns and their families at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

Team store discounts, watch parties and specials are also on tap leading up to Fan Appreciation Night on Sunday. Find more details here.

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Now, the church is selling t-shirts and other merchandise that’s centered around the Proud Boys but their messaging is completely different.

“To take from those who would make the world worse for those of us that love liberty, and to make with those resources something better, and in this moment, this is exactly what I feel we need to be doing,” said Rev. William Lamar IV

Lamar described the messaging behind the rollout of these shirts, with some reading, “Stay Proud, Black Lives Matter” and “Stay Black, Black Lives Matter.”

“They will see the appropriation of the Proud Boys logo that now stands for in our interpretation being proud to be Black and being proud to stand with Black people who resist,” Lamar said. “So white brothers and sisters, Black brothers and sisters, Latinx brothers and sisters, Asian brothers and sisters, if you believe in a world where all of us are welcomed and flourished, then this is the type of merchandise we hope you wear proudly.”

Back in 2020 after a pro-Donald Trump rally, Proud Boys members tore down and burned Black Lives Matter banners at the church along with another place of worship.

Following those actions, church leaders filed a lawsuit seeking damages from the vandalism. A judge awarded the historic church $2.9 million in damages, but the Proud Boys defaulted on the multi-million dollar judgement, which then led to AME Church taking control of the Proud Boys trademark earlier this year.

“They would’ve used it to continue white supremacy, authoritarianism, fascism,” Lamar said. “We’re using it to build our ministry of liberation and justice.”

Former leader of the Proud Boys Enrique Tarrio later confessed to taking part in the burnings and was sentenced to more than five months in jail on those other charges. He was also sentenced for orchestrating the Jan. 6 riot.

Lamar said these shirts are the first step and plan to roll out even more inclusive shirts to reflect the community. Proceeds from the sales of the merchandise will go to the church’s community justice fund.

“We are clear that the founders of the Proud Boys never intended to lift up Juneteenth and never intended to lift up the LGBTQIA+ community,” Lamar said. “That’s what we are doing because the god that we serve lifts up these communities and we say that we are open, welcome to all, and we have to keep fighting.”

“I looked at my dad,” Gretzky recently recalled, “and said, ‘Well can I enjoy this for just a couple days?'”

Gretzky enjoyed holding the record for more than 30 years – and then that someone appeared, and that someday arrived.

It was Alex Ovechkin on April 6, 2025.

The date will forever be etched in history as the day the Washington Capitals star scored his 895^th career goal to break Gretzky’s record and become the top goal scorer in league history.

The 39-year-old Ovechkin netted the record-breaking goal Sunday during the Capitals’ 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Long Island. He scored on the power play with 12:34 remaining in the second period, firing a one-timer off a feed from longtime teammate Tom Wilson past Islanders goalie, and fellow Russian, Ilya Sorokin.

Ovechkin reached 895 goals in his 1,487th game — the same number of games Gretzky played in his NHL 20-year career.

“I’m probably gonna need a couple more days or maybe a couple weeks to realize what does it mean to be number one,” Ovechkin said after the game. “But all I can say is, I’m very proud for myself, I’m very proud for my family, for all my teammates that helped me to reach that milestone, and for all my coaches. It’s huge. It’s an unbelievable moment.”

After scoring the goal, Ovechkin celebrated with a belly-flop, sliding towards center ice on his stomach before he was mobbed by teammates. The goal sent the thousands of Capitals fans among the 17,000-plus in attendance into a raucous celebration.

The game was paused for a roughly 20-minute ceremony that marked the completion of what has been dubbed “The GR8 Chase.”

Gretzky, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Ovechkin’s family joined Ovechkin on the ice.

“They say records are made to be broken,” Gretzky said during the ceremony, “but I’m not sure who’s going to get more goals than that.”

Records sure are made to be broken, but greatness is rarely expected to be matched. And yet, “The Great One” himself is now second greatest on the league’s most hallowed statistical list.

Ovechkin’s climb to the top required longevity, consistency and availability – all of which he has provided since being selected first overall in the 2004 draft.

In his NHL debut on Oct. 5, 2005, he scored the first two goals of what would be a 52-goal season, the third-most ever scored by an NHL rookie.

Ovechkin, during his third season, scored a career best 65 goals. He has recorded nine 50-plus goal seasons, matching the record shared by Gretzky and Islanders legend Mike Bossy. He has scored 40 or more goals in a season 14 times, which topped Gretzky’s record of 12.

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Alex Ovechkin milestone goals

• First — Oct. 5, 2005
• 100^th — Oct. 12, 2007
• 200^th — Feb. 5, 2009
• 300^th — April 5, 2011
• 400^th — Dec. 20, 2013
• 500^th — Jan. 10, 2016
• 600^th — March 12, 2018
• 700^th — Feb. 22, 2020
• 800^th — Dec. 13, 2022
• 894^th — April 4, 2025
• 895^th — April 6, 2025

Ovechkin won nine Rocket Richard Trophies for most goals scored in a season, three Hart Trophies as most valuable player, and the 2018 Stanley Cup, which was the first in Capitals franchise history.

With each goal along the way, he inched closer to greatness.

“Wayne, you’ll always be the ‘Great One’ and you had a record that nobody ever thought would be broken,” Bettman said during the in-game ceremony. “But Alex, you did it. You’ve been amazing.”

Gretzky had held the goals record since 1994 when he tallied his 802nd goal on March 23, 1994 to pass Detroit Red Wings legend Gordie Howe. Gretzky, who played primarily for the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings, scored his 894th and final goal came on March 29, 1999, as a member of the New York Rangers. He retired three weeks later at the age of 38, holding 61 NHL records at the time, including most career assists (1,963) and points (2,857), both of which still comfortably stand.

His goals record outlasted many Hall of Famers who took aim but fell short — with Jaromir Jagr scoring 766 goals before retiring in 2018 and Brett Hull netting 741 goals before closing his 19-year career in 2006.

Ovechkin in December 2022 became just the third player in league history to reach 800 career goals, joining Gretzky and Howe. He began his 20th NHL season in October needing 42 goals to top a record once believed to be unbreakable. He missed 16 games earlier this season with a fractured left fibula, pushing the record pursuit closer to the end of the season.

Ovechkin entered Sunday having scored in four consecutive games. He scored twice on Friday against the Chicago Blackhawks, including career goal No. 894 to tie Gretzky’s record total.

He broke it with just five games remaining for the Capitals in the regular season.

“Finally, I’m not gonna have those questions of when do you think you’re gonna break it,” Ovechkin said. “It’s already done. So, gonna have to figure out what the next question is gonna be. For me and for all the boys, it’s a fun time. You can see how many people traveled from all over the world to see that moment. It’s special.”

Ovechkin will now look to become the first NHL player to score 900 career goals, a club he will remain the sole member of for quite some time, if not permanently.

Until – of course – someone, someday comes along.

Correction: a previous version of this article stated the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2017. They won the Stanley Cup in 2018.

The victims are all in stable condition, and their injuries are considered non-life-threatening, according to police.

Police said good Samaritans from the community chased and subdued Andrade before he was taken into custody.

“He poked me in my head, in my hip and cut me in my back,” said Edward Thomas, a good Samaritan and one of the victims.

Thomas broke down the injuries he sustained, along with fresh bandages, after confronting what police described as a man armed with a knife.

“When he knocked the women down I knew something was wrong, and I said “now do I react?’do i flight? I ain’t going to take flight, I’m going to help them so I took it upon myself to try to help them,” he said.

Police said the suspect, Kevin Andrade, was under the influence of an unknown substance before allegedly attacking several strangers in the area.

“While walking down the street, the individual began stabbing himself, and then he stabbed a female acquaintance who was also with him,” said Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith

According to court documents, that female acquaintance was Andrade’s ex-girlfriend, who told police she heard the suspect say, “If I can’t have you, no one can.”

Andrade then turned the knife on himself before police say he attacked a group of women, including a grandmother.

“The grandmother and her granddaughters were getting in a car, primarily minding their own business,”

Court documents say one of the victims told police that before attacking them, they heard Andrade say, “Everybody getting stabbed today.”

Investigators showed News4 an image of the bloody knife that was recovered after the attack.

Andrade now faces multiple charges, including assault with intent to kill and destruction of property.

United Medical Center in Southeast D.C. will close its doors for good April 15, the same day Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health opens.

“It is bittersweet, because UMC has been such an important part of this community for such a long time,” D.C. Deputy Chief Financial Officer Angell Jacobs said.

United Medical stopped admitting new patients this week. Ambulances no longer take patients to UMC. Walk-ins are still allowed, but patients who need in-patient care are being taken to another facility.

“For any patient that when we get to the 15^th still needs hospitalization, those will be the patients that will be transferred to a different facility of their choice,” said.

Hospital leaders told News4 alternative care will be available for longer-term patients.

The adult emergency room will close for good April 12. The children’s ER will stop accepting new patients at 11 a.m. April 15.

“Children’s National will begin providing services at the new Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center on April 15 at 12:01 a.m. … allowing overlap to make sure there’s no interruption of pediatric services,” Jacobs said.

UMC, the city’s only hospital east of the Anacostia River, served the community for 60 years.

D.C. leaders decided to close the hospital in 2019, citing mismanagement and financial issues.

The closure was expected to result in hundreds of layoffs. Officials say staff members have been assisted in finding new jobs.

“I know they have been looking for employment elsewhere, and our human resource department has been helping them with, for example, resume writing ‘cause a lot of the staff have been here for many years,” UMC CEO and Chief Nurse Officer Dr. Jacqueline Payne-Borden said.

Cedar Hill is located on the old St. Elizabeths Hospital campus in Southeast. It’s a privately operated hospital with much-needed state of the art health care, including emergency, trauma, behavioral health, and maternal health and delivery services.

“Despite the fact that the sunsetting of UMC is approaching, we are very excited about the new facility that will be available to patients in the community,” Jacobs said.

Cedar Hill will be the first full-service hospital to open in the District in more than 20 years.

Kayla Owen spent most of last year fighting for a college waiver. She advocated and lobbied while also working, raising her kids and caring for her husband, a military veteran left severely injured as a result of his service.

Because of her husband’s service-related injury, Owen and her kids qualify for the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP), which offers higher education waivers.

Last year, the program was gutted, then reinstated. Then funding issues were raised and solved — temporarily.

“We are back at a point where we have money through the end of the ’25-’26 school year, but beyond that, we have no idea what the future of the program is gonna hold,” Owen said.

The cost of funding VMSDEP is ballooning, lawmakers say, and Virginia’s universities claim supporting the education of military families falls on the backs of other students in the form of tuition hikes.

During this year’s state budget process, Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin wanted to pull money out of the Virginia529 college savings plan to pay for VMSDEP. Virginia529 has billions of dollars in surplus.

“This budget amendment, which uses the commonwealth saver’s plan, which is excess money inside 529, to fund these tuition waivers up to $60 million a year will fully fund this program once and for all,” Youngkin said.

But this week, Virginia’s House of Delegates passed on that idea. So, the current VMSDEP funding will run out after the coming school year, and families like Owen’s will once again wonder if the state will hold up the promise it made to military families.

“This sounds like the perfect solution, and maybe we’re back playing politics again,” Owen said.

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State Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington County, says the General Assembly wants to take a closer look at the billions of dollars in surplus that the 529 plan has amassed before committing it to the military education waivers.

“Where did it come from?” she asked. “Should we be returning any of that surplus money to some of the original subscribers? Are there other demands on that money? We need to take a whole, comprehensive look. But again, our commitment is to fund the VMSDEP program.”

Now, that commitment will have to wait until next year, the same year current funding runs out to keep a promise to some families who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the commonwealth and country.

Alex Ovechkin tied Wayne Gretzky for the most goals scored in NHL history, netting his 894th career goal in the third period of the Washington Capitals‘ home game against the Chicago Blackhawks Friday night.

The record-tying goal, which was Ovi’s second of the game, gave the Caps a 4-3 lead with 13:47 left in regulation. They went on to win 5-3 after Ryan Leonard scored on an empty net for the first goal of his career.

Capitals players stayed on the ice after the game to celebrate with their star as fans chanted, “Ovi! Ovi! Ovi!”

Ovechkin’s pursuit of the career goals record — which continues Sunday when the Capitals play on the road against the New York Islanders — has been dubbed “The GR8 Chase.”

Ovechkin reached 894 goals in his 1,486th game. Gretzky finished with 894 in 1,487 games.

Gretzky was in the building with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to witness the historic moment by the 39-year-old Ovechkin.

Gretzky had held the scoring record since 1994 when he tallied his 802nd goal to pass Detroit Red Wings legend Gordie Howe. Gretzky, who played primarily for the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings, scored his 894th and final goal came on March 29, 1999 as a member of the New York Rangers. He retired three weeks later at the age of 38, concluding a historic 20-year NHL career.

His scoring record had stood since — with Jaromir Jagr scoring 766 goals before retiring in 2018 and Brett Hull netting 741 goals before closing his 19-year career in 2006.

Then came Ovechkin, who after being selected first overall in the 2004 draft, scored 52 goals as a rookie, including two in his debut on October 5, 2005.

That was nearly 20 years and 892 goals ago.

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Ovechkin scored a career best 65 goals during his third season in 2007-2008. He has recorded nine 50-plus goal seasons, matching the record shared by Gretzky and New York Islanders legend Mike Bossy. He has scored 40 or more goals in a season 14 times, which topped Gretzky’s record of 12.

Along the way, Ovechkin won nine Rocket Richard Trophies for most goals scored in a season, three Hart Trophies as most valuable player, and the 2017 Stanley Cup, which was the first in Capitals’ franchise history.

Ovechkin entered his 20th NHL season in October needing 42 goals to top a record once believed to be unbreakable. He missed 16 games earlier this season with a fractured left fibula, pushing the record pursuit closer to the end of the season.

Ovechkin scored No. 893 less than four minutes into Friday’s game, setting the stage for the record-tying goal in front of the Washington fans.

He now shares the league’s hallowed scoring record with the sport’s most revered player.

“Alex has been exceptional for our game,” Gretzky told CNBC earlier this season. “I hope I’m the first guy to shake his hand when he does break the record.”

It was lunchtime on the steps of the Inner Harbor during a field trip to the Maryland Science Center. Science teacher T.J. O’Leary was having lunch with the kids — when something caught his attention.

“I kind of see a seagull running and just see this little kid, like [a] 5- [or] 6-year-old, just jettin’, bolting out over the end. Then I kind of the father maybe eight, nine feet behind him, just ran, jumped in.”

O’Leary quickly realized both father and son were struggling and unable to swim.

“I’m ripping my shoes off, like, didn’t even think about it, just very, very reactionary,” he said. “I jumped in; you know, we got the kid, and then I went out to get the father and he was just kind of in a panic and immediately swamped me. I said, ‘I’m trying to help you! I’m trying to help you!'”

Christine Klauder, a parent attending the field trip as a chaperone, was watching from the edge.

“At that point, the three of them were in the water and I heard someone say, ‘He can’t swim,'” she said.

O’Leary says he was able to get the father in a secure hold, and Klauder, a former lifeguard, waded into the water to help.

“Mr. O’Leary was holding up the boy and pushing the dad, and I was able to pull them up onto the brick,” she said.

First responders arrived quickly and checked out the father and son before taking them to a hospital. O’Leary says the boy was crying, the father too in shock to even speak.

“I’m like, ‘Hey buddy, I’m glad we were able to get you in.’ I said [to the dad], ‘Your son’s a great kid, and I’m glad we were able to help and everyone gets to go home tonight.'”

As for O’Leary and Klauder, they both had go to a hospital once back in Northern Virginia, to get decontaminated from any bacteria in the water.

O’Leary’s strength and size no doubt were a help with the rescue — he’s a former college baseball player. But it was thinking of his own kids that really propelled into the murky water.

“I don’t think of it as [being] a hero,” he said. “I feel like anyone in that situation would have jumped in and done it.”

Klauder’s son watched his mom jump into action.

“He was proud of his mom. He was like, you know, ‘Good job, Mom,'” she said.

Both O’Leary and Klauder are hoping the St. Agnes kids returned home with a valuable lifelong lesson.

“If anything, I hope they look for opportunities to be better citizens and help people when they need it, and not to stand by and think someone else will take care of it. You know, you can be part of the solution.”

Baltimore police tell us the father and son did not suffer any injuries.

Tisha Grant’s journey started with trial and error after she got divorced and bought a home.

“I said, ‘I’m going to figure it out. I’m going to try and do some of this stuff myself,’” she said.

Grant watched countless tutorials and got to work.

“I was literally in there hammering everything out, knocking down the walls, pulling out the carpet, because I didn’t have the money to pay,” she said.

She documented her journey on social media. Before she knew it, messages started pouring in.

“People kept asking me questions about, ‘Where did you learn this stuff? How did you learn this? Where can I learn this?’ And I realized there was a hole in the market. There was no place for women, women of color, to learn these types of skills,” she said.

Grant launched her company, The ContractHer, and bought herself a pink truck to make sure everyone knew she was driving the business.

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She teaches three-day courses to mostly women. Students learn how to tackle home projects, from basic plumbing and electrical work to tiling and painting.

The goal is to give women the confidence and skills they need so they don’t feel dependent on someone else to do the job.

“My other goal is to learn more so I can keep my house up and keep money in my pocket,” student Veronica Moore said.

From self-doubt to self-made success, Grant said she’s living proof that with a little determination and the right tools, anything is possible.

“For most people, especially women, your home is going to be the single greatest investment that you ever have. Why shouldn’t we know how to protect it and upkeep it?” she said.

Learning the skills to tackle home projects can save homeowners thousands of dollars. The average home improvement project costs a little over $8,100 when professionally done, versus about $2,700 to do it yourself, the Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey says.

Archbishop of Washington Robert McElroy issued a statement Friday confirming McCarrick’s death a day earlier but provided no details. His statement focused on those McCarrick abused.

“At this moment I am especially mindful of those who he harmed during the course of his priestly ministry,” McElroy said. “Through their enduring pain, may we remain steadfast in our prayers for them and for all victims of sexual abuse.”

In recent court proceedings, it was disclosed that McCarrick had been diagnosed with dementia. He had been living in Missouri, and Vatican News reported he died there.

The McCarrick scandal created a crisis of credibility for the church, primarily because there was evidence Vatican and U.S. church leaders knew he slept with seminarians but turned a blind eye as McCarrick rose to the top of the U.S. church as an adept fundraiser who advised three popes.

The Vatican’s report on its investigation put the lion’s share of blame on a dead saint: Pope John Paul II, who appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington, D.C., in 2000, despite having commissioned an inquiry that confirmed he slept with seminarians.

The report found that John Paul believed McCarrick’s last-minute, handwritten denial in which he wrote: “I have made mistakes and may have sometimes lacked in prudence, but in the seventy years of my life I have never had sexual relations with any person, male or female, young or old, cleric or lay.”

Over several decades, bishops, cardinals and popes dismissed or downplayed reports of McCarrick’s misconduct with young men as he rose through the ranks to become a cardinal and archbishop, according to the investigation.

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The report contained heartbreaking testimony from people who tried to raise the alarm about McCarrick’s inappropriate behavior, including with children, in the mid-1980s.

While the findings provided new details about what the Vatican knew and when, it didn’t directly blame or admit that the church’s internal “old boys club” culture allowed McCarrick’s behavior to continue unchecked.

Cardinals and bishops have long been considered beyond reproach. Claims of homosexual behavior are used to discredit or blackmail prelates that they often are dismissed as rumor. There also has been a widespread but unspoken tolerance of sexually active men in what is supposed to be a celibate priesthood.

The report drew on documents from Vatican departments, U.S. dioceses and seminaries and the Vatican’s U.S. Embassy. Investigators interviewed 90 people, including McCarrick’s victims, former seminarians and priests, and officials from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, responded to McCarrick’s death expressing frustration that the ex-cardinal, although defrocked, never stood trial for “the vast harm he inflicted.”

“McCarrick may be dead, but his many victims are not,” said Peter Isely, a founding member of SNAP. “We are still here, still living with the harm he caused — and with the church’s failure to stop him. ”

McCarrick, who was the archbishop of Washington from 2000 to 2006, was one of the highest-ranking U.S. church officials accused in a sexual abuse scandal that has seen thousands of priests implicated. He traveled widely, was a gifted fundraiser and spoke multiple languages.

He was a priest in New York City from 1958, when he was ordained, until 1981, when he became bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey. He was archbishop of Newark from 1986 until 2000 and was elevated to cardinal in 2001.

McCarrick participated in the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, presided over the graveside service for Sen. Ted Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery in 2009, and celebrated Mass with Pope Francis during his 2015 visit to Washington.

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that McCarrick died Thursday, instead of Friday.

More than three weeks after Kilmar Abrego Garcia was detained and flown to a notorious prison in El Salvador, U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis ordered that the government return him to the U.S. in about three days, by the end of the day Monday.

The ruling came at the end of a dramatic hearing in which a government lawyer acknowledged to the judge that he couldn’t make a case for the deportation.

“We concede the facts. The plaintiff should not have been removed,” a Justice Department lawyer said Friday afternoon in court in Greenbelt.

Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported because of an “administrative error,” ICE admitted Monday. The Trump administration went on to accuse Abrego Garcia of being in the gang MS-13, which his family denies.

Xinis asked the government lawyer which documents he could produce showing the government had an arrest warrant for Abrego Garcia or an order of removal.

The lawyer said he could not provide either document but argued there was an order of removal on file.

The judge asked how the detention and deportation process began, and the lawyer said he didn’t know.

Abrego Garcia’s deportation appears to be an illegal act by the government, the judge said. She got the government to concede it had no document showing the Salvadoran government had filed any charges against him.

Xinis found Abrego Garcia had a lawful order to remain in the U.S. that specifically said if the government were to ever remove him from the U.S., he should not be sent to El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia’s wife sat at the defense table. The courtroom was packed with family members, members of clergy, union members and supporters. When the judge issued her ruling, the gallery broke out in applause.

“I want to say thank you to everyone that has helped us, that has supported us in fighting this, and we will continue fighting for Kilmar, for my husband,” his wife, Jennifer, said.

“The thing that was most striking for me about the hearing was that the attorney for the government, who handled the matter very professionally, had so few answers to the judge’s factual questions. Over and over again, he stated that his clients had not provided him with certain information, that his clients had not provided him with certain documents,” defense attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

“They’ve spent little effort actually making it right. In fact, I think it’s fair to say they’ve spent no effort whatsoever on making it right,” he continued.

It’s unclear whether the Trump administration will abide by the ruling or file an appeal.

A sudden detention and disappearance

Abrego Garcia had just finished his job as a sheet metal worker and was in the car with his young son when ICE pulled him over and detained him.

He was taken to Baltimore and questioned about his alleged ties to MS-13, his wife said in an affidavit. He was then transferred to Louisiana and La Villa, Texas.

Three days after Abrego Garcia was detained, he was flown to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, ICE confirmed.

His wife spoke to him by phone when he was in the U.S. and tracked his location using ICE’s online detainee locator tool. But when he was flown out of the country, he vanished from the online system and she had no idea where he had been taken.

Finally, she recognized him in a video El Salvador’s president posted to X, showing men in white uniforms being frog-marched and having their heads shaved. In a photo of detainees, she recognized his tattoos.

The government said the order to send Abrego Garcia to El Salvador was an “oversight” and was done “in good faith.”

This week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the administration’s decision, claimed Abrego Garcia is a gang member and said he will not return to the U.S.

Attorney Lucia Curiel said Friday that he was accused of being in MS-13 in 2019 and was cleared. She spoke about the conversation she had with him then, when she represented him.

“I delivered the news to him that the judge had cleared him of the reckless, false gang allegations and granted him withholding of removal. I told him that that meant he could live in the U.S. legally, and that the government was prohibited from deporting him to El Salvador. I had never seen him smile so much. That news that I told him was true then and it is true now,” she said.

“The basis for that allegation in 2019 was a confidential informant, you know, one of these anonymous tips,” Sandoval-Moshenberg previously said. “There was never any concrete evidence produced.”

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Abrego Garcia has lived in the U.S. since 2011. He left El Salvador as he fled gang violence, including gang members who threatened to kill him in an attempt to extort his parents, Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

Abrego Garcia’s wife, lawyers and supporters held a rally Friday morning to call for his release. “Bring Kilmar home,” their signs said.

“Kilmar, if you can hear me … I miss you so much … and I’m doing the best to fight for you and our children,” his wife said.

At the rally, Abrego Garcia’s wife spoke about how much their three kids miss their dad. She said she found their 10-year-old daughter trying to send him messages on her tablet. The little girl said she wished she could trade places with him.

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Passage of the plan would give Republicans the chance in coming months to muscle a tax cut bill through both chambers of Congress even if Democrats are unanimously opposed, just as they did in Trump’s first term.

Democrats are intent on making the effort as politically painful as possible, beginning with all-night votes on dozens of proposals that GOP senators will have to defend before next year’s mid-term elections, including on Trump’s tariff policies and the administration’s efforts to shrink the federal government.

Republicans are framing their work as preventing a tax increase for most American families. Unless Congress acts, the individual and estate tax cuts that Republicans passed in 2017 will expire at the end of this year.

“Republicans believe fundamentally that Americans know best what to do with their money,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

Democrats accused Republicans of laying the groundwork for increasing deficits and cutting key safety net programs such as Medicaid and nutritional assistance to help pay for tax cuts they say disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

“The investments that affect America’s future are hanging by a thread, and Republicans are about to cut it,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

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The debate Friday was generally one-sided. Senate Democrats are taking full advantage of 25 hours of their available debate time, while Republicans yielded much of theirs in order to get to an all-night voting frenzy referred to as a vote-a-rama. Once lawmakers have exhausted their list of amendments and themselves, they’ll move to a final vote on the plan itself, most likely sometime Saturday morning.

The Senate is expected to approve the measure. The House will also have to pass it to unlock the process that Republicans can use to pass legislation with a simple majority and avoid a Democratic filibuster.

And that’s just the beginning.

Developing a final bill will take weeks, if not months, with the GOP leadership and Trump needing virtually every Republican vote to get a package over the finish line. The GOP leaders will confront concerns from fiscal hawks in deep red states and congressional districts who want trillions of dollars in spending cuts to help pay for the tax breaks. And they will confront dozens of lawmakers in swing districts and states worried about what those cuts will mean for their constituents, and their reelection chances.

It will be a delicate task with no guarantee of success, particularly as economic gyrations from Trump’s tariff policies test his ability to keep Republicans united.

The Senate’s budget plan allows for extending the individual and estate tax cuts under a scoring method that treats them as not adding to future deficits, even though a new estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation projects they will add $5.5 trillion over the next decade when including interest, and $4.6 trillion not including interest.

On top of that, the budget plan instructs the Senate Finance Committee to expand deficits by up to $1.5 trillion more over that same timeframe. That would give senators room to include some of Trump’s campaign promises, such as no tax on tips, Social Security benefits and overtime. Republicans are also looking to increase the $10,000 deduction for state and local taxes, something that lawmakers from states such as New York, California and New Jersey say is necessary to get their support.

The budget plan also allows the Senate to increase the debt ceiling by up to $5 trillion. Final approval of such an increase would allow the federal government to continue to finance its debts and push any further votes on the matter until after next year’s mid-term elections. Trump is wary of giving Democrats the chance to extract concessions on a debt ceiling vote.

The plan also instructs four Senate committees to find at least $1 billion each in budget reductions. That’s just a small fraction of the potential tax relief. But the leadership is emphasizing that the instructions purposefully set a low floor for spending cuts to provide maximum flexibility and that committees will be on the hunt for far more.

Committees are also given authority to pursue as much as $521 billion to boost border security, defense and the Coast Guard, though Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has said the final spending total will be closer to $345 billion.

The House budget plan provided for $4.5 trillion in tax breaks over 10 years, though the amount for tax breaks would shrink if the spending cut totals don’t get to $2 trillion in savings.

The GOP leadership has encouraged members to just get a budget plan over the finish line, saying they have time to work out the tough questions of which tax breaks and spending cuts to include.

Throughout the debate, Democratic have focused on framing the tax cuts as helping out the wealthiest at the expense of average Americans. Sen. Jeff Merkley, the lead Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, spoke with a sign behind him that read “Republican Plan: Families Lose, Billionaires Win.”

“That’s a terrible plan,” Merkley said.

Extending the the 2017 breaks would cut taxes for about three-quarters of households but raise them for about 10 percent. In 2027, about 45% of the benefit of all the tax cuts would go to those making roughly $450,000 or more, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, which analyzes tax issues.

Sen. John Barrasso, the No.-2 ranking GOP senator, said voters gave Republicans a mission and a mandate in November, and the Senate budget plan delivers.

“It fulfills our promises to secure the border, to rebuild our economy and to restore peace through strength,” Barrasso said.

Cars driving past the Kennedy Center witnessed an unexpected liftoff on Thursday, after a 30-foot-tall Mars balloon escaped its moorings and rolled from its place outside the arts center onto the highway.

The planet famous for its rovers went roving itself, departing the Kennedy Center’s REACH plaza and rolling east onto the roadway.

The balloon is part of the Kennedy Center’s “Celestial Bodies: Earth, Moon, Mars” exhibit, which allows viewers to wander the grounds and examine inflatable models of the Earth, the Moon, and Mars. At night, the balloons are illuminated from within, making for a fun photo-op.

After Thursday evening’s out-of-this world viral moment, the Mars balloon was quickly retrieved from the highway and returned to the Kennedy Center.

Commenters on social media appreciated the balloon’s meteoric journey, with many cracking jokes about recent political events.

“We understand Mars.. we feel the same way,” said one user.

“Good for her,” said another.

No balloon-related injuries were reported as a result of the incident.

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Kevin Steve Andrade, 34, was walking with a woman along Meigs Place in the Trinidad neighborhood when he suddenly started stabbing himself and her, the Metropolitan Police Department said.

“The suspect was in an altered mental state from an unknown substance,” D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said Thursday.

Then Andrade randomly stabbed other women on the street, including a grandmother getting into a car with her grandchildren, police said.

“The grandmother and her granddaughters were getting in a car, primarily minding their own business,” Smith said.

Andrade ran northbound on Montello Avenue NE, where he attacked a sixth person, police said.

Good Samirtans then chased him and were able to subdue him near the intersection of Montello Avenue and Mt. Olivet Road.

Officers who were in the area then took Andrade into custody.

Four women and two men were taken to hospitals. They were stable, police said Thursday evening.

Police said Thursday evening Andrade had surgery for serious injuries that were not life-threatening.

He was charged with six counts of assault with intent to kill.

Police said they recovered a bloody knife a few feet away from Andrade.

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