While it’s hard to quantify exactly how many more ticks there are, D.C. area researchers say the population is growing and thriving.

“If you were watching them over the last 10 years, they’re really kind of exploding, especially in the Mid-Atlantic to northeast area,” Grace Hummell, a University of Maryland faculty researcher, told WTOP. “And it’s different species.”

And the little bugs find the region has a lot of what they’re looking for in a perfect home.

“It’s hot and humid and ticks love hot and humid areas,” Hummell said. “We’re having longer springs and falls, so there’s more interaction with the ticks when you’re going out. And then, of course, we have a lot of white-tailed deer here, and host species that are really good at keeping those abundances high of ticks.”

Plus, one tick can make a lot more.

“One female lone star tick or one female deer tick can lay up to like 3,000 to 8,000 eggs in one go,” said Hummell’s colleague Logan Owens, a graduate research assistant. “So it’s not only that there’s more ticks. They just are incredibly efficient at reproducing, and so that doesn’t help either.”

The ticks’ range is also expanding. The warming climate means ticks that were once found only in the southeastern United States can survive in places like Maine.

Avoiding the little bloodthirsty hitchhikers

If it’s raining out, ticks will hide out, but they are more likely to hitch a ride on you or your dog on hot and humid days without any rain.

“If you have longer stints of two weeks of hot, humid days, they’re out every day trying to get on a host, so that could be a possibility of why we’re seeing more,” Hummell said.

But it’s best that people be on guard “anytime that they’re outside,” Owens added, “even if they’ve just gone outside, to like take out the garbage or something like that, and they brushed across the grass.”

Hikers and people working in their yards and gardens should take extra precautions.

“You could go out to a park and there’s nothing��and then maybe go to your neighbor’s yard and there’s hundreds of ticks,” Hummell said.

“Taking the time to actually check — look over your pants, making sure that you’re covering any excess skin that you can. So wearing pants, wearing long socks, tucking your socks into your pants, those are going to be the things, unfortunately, that you have to do,” Owens said.

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While that’s one sign of strength, the governor’s campaign also touted another 93%+ win rate. The campaign said that’s how many of the roughly 200 or so candidates endorsed by Moore around the state also either won, or are winning.

Some of the candidates he endorsed were easy winners too, but others, such as Adrian Boafo and April McClain Delaney, were in tough and expensive congressional primaries. County executive candidates Will Jawando in Montgomery County and Julian Jones in Baltimore County also held leads in competitive primaries.

“It really shows that, despite having an approval rating hovering right around 50%, he’s got some sway over Maryland Democrats,” said St. Mary’s College political science professor Todd Eberly. “I’ve got to think that the Moore team comes out of last night feeling pretty good.”

During Moore’s first term, there were moments when lawmakers in Annapolis were willing to push back on the governor. They overrode vetoes and would occasionally defy the governor’s preferred course of legislative action. Eberly said lawmakers might be a bit more collaborative with the governor during a second term.

“Maybe there’s a little bit of rethinking how popular Wes Moore is, the influence that he has, and whether or not you necessarily want to break with him,” Eberly said. “He easily secured renomination. He demonstrated his influence among the electorate, demonstrated that withholding his endorsement can actually have an impact on an even very powerful member of the General Assembly.”

Eberly was referring to Senate President Bill Ferguson, who won his race, but not by the margin you’d think he would against a candidate who was relatively unknown and lacked political experience. Moore notably did not endorse Ferguson after the two clashed over redistricting earlier this year.

“Someone like Ferguson should not have faced any real challenge at all,” Eberly said. “This was primary voters angry with Ferguson over breaking with Gov. Moore over redistricting. Ferguson did what he thought was right, what he thought was the sort of principled decision, and primary voters sort of sent him a message here by giving 44% of the vote to a not really well-known or well-financed challenger.”

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As a result, in a close race, it might take longer to declare a winner, but it shouldn’t impact the results.

Because of the mix-up, the state reissued ballots to everyone who received a mail-in ballot. But not every voter who got a second ballot actually needed one.

“You do have some voters who got the correct ballot to begin with, returned it, and then they got a second ballot,” said Alysoun McLaughlin, director of the Election Resilience Lab at the University of Maryland.

For those voters, McLaughlin said, the state is holding onto that first ballot until the last day — waiting to see if the voter also returns the second one. If they don’t, the first ballot counts. But those ballots won’t be counted until 10 days after Election Day, which means close races could take longer to call.

“On the one hand, they have really solid procedures for handling this,” McLaughlin said. “There’s all kinds of reasons why a voter might be sent more than one ballot, so the processes for keeping track of which ballot is the live one, which ballot is not the live one, which one is supposed to count — that’s an everyday, every election kind of a thing. But the scale of it is different. So, for election officials, it’s more work, it’s more anxiety on the part of the voters.”

She added that if a contest is so close that it comes down to questions about how many ballots were returned, the state will be able to provide that data.

“We will actually be able to track how many voters got the first ballot, how many voters got the second ballot, how many voters returned which type of ballot. That data is all going to be available. The bad news is that it’s not going to be available right away, so it’s going to take time for people to find out what the history was of the voters in that district,” McLaughlin said.

She said she’s satisfied with how Maryland has handled the situation, pointing to existing procedures designed for exactly these kinds of complications.

“The important thing is that those things get caught,” she said. “There’s a paper trail. Those things get caught in the audit before the election is certified.”

She also pushed back on any suggestion the error could taint results, saying Maryland’s election process includes Republicans and Democrats working side by side, along with records that can be reviewed and analyzed.

“Trust but verify,” McLaughlin said, adding voters and political parties can attend canvassing processes after Election Day to check the work themselves.

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With a big parade, a block party, and other festivities, D.C. will have a lot of visitors ready to have a good time this weekend. Those visitors will also be more than ready to spend some money too.

“Pride literally keeps us afloat and keeps us going for the other 364 days a year,” said Eli Downes, the general manager of JR’s, what he calls one of the oldest gay bars in D.C. “We are packed the entire weekend. We like to say kind of Pride weekend pays for the entire year.”

Downes said June is the bar’s busiest and most celebratory month, drawing packed crowds all weekend for Capital Pride, which D.C. leaders say brings in roughly 650,000 to 700,000 people to the District.

The direct economic impact of these celebrations isn’t typically measured, though when D.C. hosted World Pride last year, there were about 1.2 million visitors who had an economic impact of more than $300 million.

“We know that when people come together for our major annual festivals in the District that it creates a significant amount of revenue activity,” said Nina Albert, D.C.’s deputy mayor for Planning and Economic Development.

That activity includes sales and hotel tax revenue as people dine out, have drinks, and spend the night in the city.

“We have a lot of gay community that travels from other states,” said Shane Mounts, a manager at Dupont Circle’s The Fireplace. But it’s not just members of the LGBTQ+ who come.

“A lot of them are in support when they have gay family members,” he said. “A lot of their family members come to our bars. So whether they live in D.C. or they’re just from out of town, they know about our gay bars down here, so they support that.”

“It’s not only good for D.C.’s economy, but it’s also good for the gay bars in our community,” he added.

“You feel at home during Pride. You feel safe during Pride. You feel together during Pride,” Downes said.

He said the support comes from all directions — gay and straight businesses alike, neighbors and visitors traveling from out of state specifically for the weekend.

“It’s helped us stay open for 40 years,” Downes said. “Without community, we have nothing.”

“We are a city that invites all,” said Albert. “We just had the UFC last weekend. This weekend we’re going to be focusing on FIFA and then also at the same time host Capital Pride. It just shows that we are a city that knows how to host big events and festivals and celebrate the true diversity of our country.”

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Over the past 45 years, Rep. Steny Hoyer has amassed the kind of power few in Congress are ever able to obtain, including two stints — totaling eight years — as House majority leader.

And when Hoyer announced he was retiring at the end of this term, he set off an avalanche of interest from Democrats, Republicans and Independents who hope to take his place.

Twenty-seven candidates — two dozen Democrats and three Republicans — are on the primary election ballot in the sprawling 5th District, which stretches from northern Prince George’s and western Anne Arundel counties through Southern Maryland.

The candidates also have expansive backgrounds. Some currently hold elected office, risking their current day jobs for this seat. Others work in the private sector, hoping to transition into politics.

And some have decades of experience in politics, while others only know what it’s like to duel politically with Trump-era Republicans.

Among the Democrats, many of them all share the same concerns. WTOP reached out to everyone running to get their views on a handful of issues, and then offered to sit down with candidates who had raised at least $200,000. Of those, Quincy Barebee and Harry Dunn weren’t available. The rest of the candidates spoke with WTOP.

What were the issues that mattered the most? Affordability and helping fed workers were two of the answers that came up a lot.

“The things that are affect us are broad,” said former Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker. “Affordability. When we talk about affordability, you know, that’s more than just one word. That’s housing. That’s the cost of gas prices that have gone up because of the wars that this president has gotten us into. It’s our electric bills which are going up because of data centers. We’re going to see our water bills going up. So people in the district are concerned about that, but they’re also concerned about transportation.”

Red tape prohibits progress

Transportation also came up in other interviews, with state Sen. Arthur Ellis of Charles County touting his work to revive the once-dormant Southern Maryland Rapid Transit, a light rail line he’s been championing in Annapolis that would run from White Plains to the Branch Avenue Metro Station.

Another candidate, volunteer firefighter Harry Jarin of Edgewater, said the long, drawn out process — red tape is how some would describe it — to getting projects like that done is a textbook example of the lack of coordination between federal and local governments for completing those kinds of big projects in any reasonable amount of time and at a reasonable cost.

“We need federal policy and we need federal intervention in many cases to override local NIMBYism,” Jarin said. “You have so many federal workers that are mandated back in the office five days a week. A lot of people moved out there during COVID when they could work from home. And the traffic is just a nightmare. I mean, people commuting two hours each direction. It’s atrocious.”

The plight of federal workers also came up often. Ellis touted the second bill he ever introduced in the Maryland State Senate back in 2019, which protected furloughed feds from having utilities shut off and mortgages foreclosed on, as an example of the type of leadership he would bring to the district.

“My job going to Congress will be to get those fired workers their jobs back with back pay and with benefits,” Ellis said. “And that will compensate them for that unconstitutional firing. Because all these federal programs and federal agencies were created by an act of Congress and funded in a bill through Congress. So the president does not have unilateral authority to just fire people.”
Like Ellis, Baker said his experiences helping federal workers in Prince George’s County will also benefit the entire district.

“I’ve been through a Trump shutdown and got workers, federal workers help,” Baker said. “I’ve been through a Trump administration where we actually did transportation and built the Purple Line. I’ve been through the Trump administration when Congress wasn’t helping out, and we actually put money aside for the FBI to come here.”

An original ‘Bernie bro.’

Some of the most progressive stances taken in the race are coming from Prince George’s County at-large member Wala Blegay. Calling herself one of the original “Bernie bros,” she rattled off a large list of causes she intends to fight for if elected.

“When we push for Medicare for All, we push for taxing the billionaires,” Blegay said. “All of those things. Free community college, even universal childcare. It was kind of like, ‘we can’t afford that.’ But now at a time like this, people are seeing why those policies work.”

Blegay also has the backing of several unions around the district, and has made free healthcare and other populist proposals central to her campaign.

“Tax the billionaires,” said Blegay. “Implement the wealth tax.”

The contending candidates are running in a District considered a very safe seat for Democrats, with a 17-point registration advantage at a time when President Trump’s popularity has sunk, especially among independents. Yet voters around the country still talk about significant frustration with the Democratic Party, suggesting at least some of the momentum they might have right now is more because they happen to be the alternative out of power as opposed to being the party that’s embraced by the electorate. No one really disputed that.

“The Democratic Party has not provided solutions. They’ve been just anti Trump,” Blegay said. “But the problem is that what happens when we become the majority? Are we just going to say we’re anti Trump or are we going to implement policies that make a difference?”

“I don’t like my party either. I’ve been battling my party,” said Ellis, who then pointed out his frustration with Maryland state Senate President Bill Ferguson over redistricting this year.

“Democrats have been running like scared people. They’re frightened.”

Meanwhile Del. Adrian Boafo and Jarin, two candidates in their 30s, both faulted Democrats for losing sight of voters who used to be the backbone of the party, costing them the backing of younger men who voted for President Trump in 2024.

“As Democrats, sometimes we don’t talk about the issues that are top of mind to people. In 2024, it took us about seven months into the election to start talking about the economy,” said Boafo, who is endorsed by Hoyer, Gov. Wes Moore, and U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks. “That’s a problem for Democrats. And I think part of the solution here is the new generation of folks who understand deeply what it feels like to live in this economy. I tell folks, for the first time in American history, young people, people in my generation, are worse off than ever before.”

‘Deradicalizing’ the GOP

Jarin, who is a consultant and grant writer for firefighters for his day job, pointed to MAGA leanings inside the firehouses he’s worked in as another example of Democrats losing focus. Despite being married to a former high-ranking director with the DNC who later was appointed to a position in the Treasury Department by President Biden, Jarin vowed to aggressively work to marginalize the Republican Party until it’s “de-radicalized” the same way he said Germany rid itself of the Nazis after World War II.

“They are a fascist movement. They cannot be reasoned with or dealt with in any way. They are much closer to a cult of personality,” Jarin said.

“We’re going to have to go through a very severe deradicalization of our politics if we’re going to be able to move forward as a democracy and there’s really no other way,” Jarin said. “And I understand that most Democratic candidates are not talking in these terms, but I want people to understand that that’s the seriousness of what we’re dealing with. We can’t have a two-party system where one party is completely off the reservation and doesn’t accept the basic principles of electoral politics as legitimate.”

Both Boafo and Baker agreed that partisanship has been bad for America, and said federal laws regarding voting and voting rights need to be a priority if Democrats can take control.

“De-gerrymandering America, making sure that we end Citizens United once and for all and get money out of politics, doing that kind of stuff to safeguard our system,” is some of the solutions Boafo proposed. “But then, more importantly, moving forward, elect people who want to actually be in Congress to serve. Not necessarily there to be celebrities, not necessarily there just to be hyper partisan, but people who want to actually solve issues.”

Baker said Supreme Court decisions and passing a new Voting Rights Act is among his highest priorities, in ways that it wasn’t just a few months ago.

Court ruling are “going to push us back 20 years or 30 years or even 100,” he said. “You think about the representation we’re going to lose, especially not only in the south, but also in some northern states.”

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D.C.’s first Black woman-owned brick-and-mortar brewery is opening in Shaw — and it’s a full-circle moment years in the making.

Eamoni Collier has spent years trying to open a brewery of her own. WTOP told you about her story in 2023 and afterward, she even signed a lease and poured a lot of heart, soul and money into a space in Northeast D.C., only to see it all fall through. But undeterred, that dream finally becomes real on Friday.

will open its doors on T Street Northwest in Shaw, in a spot right next door to the Howard Theatre and inside the same building where Collier first fell in love with making beer when it was home to Right Proper Brewing.

“It kind of made the experience a little bit more comfortable because I know the ins and outs,” Collier said. “But also a bit surreal because it’s now my space.”

Collier, the founder and co-owner of Urban Garden Brewing, said the brewery is D.C.’s first Black woman-owned brick-and-mortar brewery. In an industry where the stereotypical brewery is a bald, bearded white guy, she’s none of that.

“I realized that there was a lack in representation, especially not just as Black American, but also like Black women,” she said.

The location carries deep personal meaning. Collier’s grandfather used to perform in the Howard Theatre; she described him as one of the pioneers of go-go music who used to work with Chuck Brown.

Inside the brewery, a dedicated space called the Joe Tate Listening Lounge will honor his legacy, complete with vinyl records and a mural in his honor.

The beers themselves are brewed on site and draw from an unexpected source of inspiration — botanicals found inside the everyday person’s garden.

“We focused a lot more on like the botanicals versus how hoppy we can make the beer,” she said. “We love hops, but we really like to explore different botanicals, flowers, herbs and spices to bring out the essence of the beer.”

After years of contract brewing with other established, local brands, Collier thought a spot along South Dakota Avenue in Northeast would be her own, only to lose it. The financial hit was significant, and Collier said she lost some hope along the way.

“I was really just focusing on the how — like, I want this, how can we have it?” she said.

Co-owner Malaika Tate-Scott, who also designed the interior of the space, said the setback tested everyone involved.

“The losses are big — financially, it’s big,” Tate-Scott said. “But there was always this little glimmer.”

The joy inside the brewery was palpable.

“I smile every time I think about it,” Tate-Scott added. “There aren’t many words. It’s a feeling really more than anything of like ‘Wow, look what we’ve done, right? Look what, look who we supported, and how much she’s bloomed.’”

Her husband and co-owner Renaud Scott said he first believed in the concept after tasting Collier’s homebrews in a backyard, including a beer called Lotus Flower Bomb.

“There’s love, there’s joy, there’s history, there’s craft in this,” Scott said.

As a self-described “beer lover,” he’s spread the word about Collier’s brews and the story behind them.

“I just started bragging about it, just because I loved it, right? Lotus flower bomb, lotus flower bomb, lotus flower bomb, all over with my friends and family, and such,” Scott said.

The grand opening Friday includes a ribbon cutting at 1 p.m. You’ll also find a beer garden on the patio, build-your-own bouquets, DJs, tastings from other Black-owned brands and a go-go party with N2L Band&Show. Collier said the full draft lineup of Urban Garden beers and the complete dinner menu will also debut that night.

“We were raised here in D.C., so it means much more to us,” Scott said. “Not only just for the story, the background, the history, the legacy, but also for us as individuals growing up in the city. Seeing us own businesses, seeing us provide services and economical support to the community.”

“This space for me is really about the gathering of the community,” Collier said.

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That’s the last day of school for students in Prince George’s County, and it applies to anyone under the age of 18. It’s also far more strict than the current midnight curfew.

Following other high profile incidents around the DMV, as well as disruptions at Fourth of July festivities last year, kids under 18 won’t be allowed out in public after 10 p.m. until after Labor Day.

“We feel that with the recent team meet up throughout the regions, we just want to make sure that our kids, our community is safe, and so we wanted to execute the curfew right after school let out,” said Laurel Mayor Keith Sydnor.

There are some exceptions, like if kids are out with their parents, if they’re going to or from work or coming home from some other organized event or activity.

“It’s something we see as regional and kids follow regional trends, and we just want to be proactive and making sure that our kids are not out too late,” Sydnor said.

Laurel is also planning to host a series of teen-focused events throughout the summer that aim to keep kids safe, but still get them home in time for the curfew. And Sydnor says the city is putting money behind it.

“I have a Laurel High School rising senior, she’s a student ambassador, and so she’s going to be coming up with ideas and bringing them to my attention, so we can put funding behind it,” he said. “We want to engage our kids in positive activities, that way they don’t have to be outside past a certain time.”

Last year, a similar curfew took effect after Sydnor said Fourth of July celebrations were disrupted. Sydnor said no one was arrested or punished after that expanded curfew was imposed and he’s hopeful there won’t be any problems with it this year either.

“Kids were meeting up, and then some incidents happened … this year with Laurel High School students meeting up in the community, and so we just want to put an extra layer of protection for our young people and also our public citizens as well,” Sydnor said.

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The president was sort of led into a question about the race for mayor in D.C., with the questioner on Thursday talking about Janeese Lewis George’s perceived efforts to be a D.C. version of New York City’s socialist-leaning mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

But that’s all it took for President Donald Trump to threaten a takeover of D.C. should voters put the Ward 4 council member in the mayor’s office this year.

“I wouldn’t like it” if Lewis George wins, Trump told reporters.

If it happens, “maybe we’ll take back Washington and run it on a federal basis. We won’t put up with it. We’re not going to lose our businesses.”

However, the message might not play like the president hoped it would with D.C. residents.

“They know how they feel about Donald Trump,” said Keneshia Grant, an associate professor of political science at Howard University. “If it is the case that Donald Trump doesn’t like Janeese Lewis George, then it might tell them, ‘OK, me and Donald Trump usually disagree, I’m going to support Janeese Lewis George, because I know that I would disagree with Donald Trump on this.’”

A recent poll put Lewis George in the lead, thanks to a younger, whiter base of voters who are newer to D.C. They’re also more progressive and really don’t like the president.

“If those people are turning out in greatest numbers, then yes, she had a fantastic day yesterday,” Grant said about Lewis George. “Getting the president on the record for this was good for her.”

In addition, it could also reinforce to voters a connection the Janeese Lewis George campaign has tried to forge between the other front-runner in the race, former D.C. Councilman Kenyan McDuffie.

WTOP sent a questionnaire to all the candidates in each contested race, asking them to introduce themselves to voters.��Read their responses here.

Her campaign has been suggesting that a small number of donations given to McDuffie’s campaign from people who have also donated to the president is indicative of a closer alignment with the president’s policies, which are not popular in D.C.

For his part, McDuffie has been forceful about denying that and vowing to fight for the city’s priorities and independence. He’s also adamant he’s no fan of the president either. But Grant said Trump’s words on Thursday might not help.

“This statement from the President from Donald Trump yesterday made that connection even closer,” Grant said.

By making the claim that he doesn’t want to work with one of the front-runners, Grant said the average voter in the District may come to the conclusion that Trump would prefer to work with another candidate over Lewis George.

And voters who dislike Trump, may opt to vote against candidates he seemingly prefers.

However, voters who are really concerned about home rule might see it differently. That’s also the case if D.C.’s historical voting base, older Black residents who go back generations in the city, turns out in higher numbers for their preferred candidate, which is believed to be McDuffie.

“If the latter group is going to turn out more, then the statement yesterday, even though it came from Donald Trump, might be a big and important moment for Kenyan McDuffie,” Grant said. “Why is this the case? That second group of voters is worried about losing the city, and believe that a mayor could work together with Donald Trump, even though they might disagree with Donald Trump on everything, to keep home rule in place.

“This voter would assume that Donald Trump is telegraphing that I’m not necessarily going to take your city if I get a person who I think is a reasonable politician,” she added. “And the implication is that Kenyan McDuffie is the reasonable politician.”

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The war of words continued into Wednesday. After a lawsuit was subsequently filed by the commission, county leaders did not hold back in their criticism of the agency.

Hours after the council fixed the errors in the new budget, the commission put out a statement warning that tens of millions of dollars in cuts and nearly $40 million more in transfers to other council programs would be destabilizing and threaten jobs and services.

“The Commission was blindsided by the magnitude of the planned transfer and reductions,” said the Tuesday statement. “The Commission believes that a more transparent and deliberative process is essential not only for agencies but for the residents who ultimately rely on these services.”

This is all happening after state lawmakers told the county earlier this year to stop raiding the commission’s bank accounts after more than $27 million was moved by the county council from the commission to other parts of the county budget.

In a new statement on Wednesday, the commission argued, “the transfer of more than $39 million, by July 1, without submission of receipts or invoices, before any services have been provided, and without proper vetting through the Commission’s procurement process, raises serious concerns about legal authority and our ability to provide the services the residents of Prince George’s County expect from us.”

The commission also says it needs the courts to intervene and “protect the public trust and ensure these resources are used as intended.”

County leaders raised their own concerns about how the commission spends its money and suggested it’s doing a better job of making sure M-NCPPC money is being used for its intended purposes.

“One of the things that we thought was interesting was that they wanted to give themselves a 99% increase in the director’s office,” said County Executive Aisha Braveboy. “The chair was asking for a … over $300,000 salary. So, you were asking me why they wanted to take money meant for residents and give it to themselves?”

Council Chair Ed Burroughs, for his part, went even more aggressive with the commission’s spending priorities.

“What park and planning has done has spent over $100 million on a corporate headquarters building,” said Burroughs. “Yesterday, I was outside of Tucker Road Community Center because they canceled the Oxon Hill Boys and Girls Club’s ability to use the field because they didn’t pay $3,500 in a light usage fee. How is it possible when we pay so much money to park and planning as taxpayers?”

“I welcome the conversation and debate around park and planning,” he added. “It’s a large entity that Prince George’s County taxpayers gives hundreds of millions of dollars to every single year, and so we should be debating what is an appropriate use of those funds.”

But the commission suggests it’s a debate that Burroughs might want to have, but legally cannot.

The lawsuit argues the county believes it has “unfettered access to and control over tax dollars collected for the Commission.” But it says the law is clear that the commission has “control over these tax funds to carry out its powers and duties.”

The county plainly sees things differently.

A statement issued Wednesday morning said, “Prince George’s County has reviewed the allegations in the M-NCPPC’s lawsuit. The Office of Law strongly disagrees with their interpretation of governing laws and will vigorously defend the County’s interests in this case. The project charges agreements between the County and Commission that the Commission is now challenging have been in place for over two decades and have benefited communities all throughout Prince George’s County.”

The county also said the lawsuit was the commission’s attempt to defund critical programs from around the county, something the commission itself would happen if the money transfer goes through.

It’s not clear when the two sides will begin to meet to hash it out inside a courtroom.

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“Pride Month is a time to remember that creating healthy communities means ensuring that everyone has access to the care, support and resources they need to thrive,” county health officer Dr. Toyin Opesanmi said.

“Our mission is to provide compassionate, confident, confidential, and culturally responsive services that help individuals protect their health and well-being,” she said.

The county’s HIV program, for example, provides free and confidential testing, prevention education, linkage to care, treatment, case management support and access to prevention tools.

Opesanmi also said the county health department works with community partners to reduce stigma and connect residents to resources — and that staff are “committed to meeting people where they are.”

County Executive Aisha Braveboy and members of the county council were also on hand for the ceremony.

Opesanmi called the Pride flag-raising more than a celebration.

“It is an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to health equity and ensuring that every resident feels seen, valued, respected and supported,” she said.

“We recognize that health outcomes improve when communities are inclusive, welcoming and connected to resources.”

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The council previously approved the county’s nearly $6 billion fiscal 2027 budget on May 27, but County Executive Aisha Braveboy sent the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission budget back to the council last week.

In the days before the revote Tuesday, and immediately after, county council leaders were adamant there was nothing deceptive about the errors, and that the budget was always balanced.

“Anytime you have people doing the budget for the first time, there might be things that they are learning and mistakes that they can make,” Council Chair Krystal Oriadha said.

“We have two major spreadsheets that we use, one for the major budget and one for park and planning, and then we give it to staff and it’s a big document. They take the spreadsheets and embed it in every document,” she said.

“If they miss a page or a line from the spreadsheet, then it’s not complete. It’s not what we intended, it’s not what we gave them,” Oriadha said. “So that’s a technical error because we know what we intended to pass.”

The error was a first for the council, and Oriadha said the revote didn’t have to happen.

“The option was that if it’s technical in nature, that I could just upload it, didn’t need to vote, didn’t have to do anything at all,” she said afterward.

“But what’s important to me is to be very transparent, right? Because even if that was an option, I felt like that was not what I was going to do, right? I said it didn’t matter if people wanted to say things or stretch the story or become even a narrative that’s not accurate. The most important thing is accountability.”

This is the council’s latest issue with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, which has been heavily criticized by certain members for everything from how the agency spends its money to perks demanded by leadership.

A recent state law put a stop to the council’s mid-year reappropriations of M-NCPPC money. Some council members worried the repeated movement of money would diminish the agency in the future.

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A daily arts-based after-school program started by a nonprofit known for its work in the arts is now coming to a Prince George’s County elementary school that needs it.

Dozens of students at William Beanes Elementary School in Suitland will get to begin a program through the Brentwood, Maryland-based Joe’s Movement Emporium, which focuses on arts education and youth development.

This program will start by targeting Beane’s students in pre-K through second grade, keeping them at school as late as 5 p.m., when dismissal is normally at 1:40 p.m. every afternoon.

“For a parent that works a traditional nine to five, that becomes a barrier around what community supports are available to them to pick up their child at the bus stop,” principal Nyree Smith said.

“This program will help support ensuring that our parents have a safe space for them.”

Brooke Kidd, executive director of Joe’s Movement Emporium and its community center Creative Suitland, said students will explore all sorts of visual arts like painting, drawing and sculpture, to the performing arts like dance, music, theater and poetry.

By emphasizing reading and literature, the hope is that it also leads to better test scores, while also improving attendance.

‘They’ll be excited to come to their after-school program and want to make sure they get to school,” Kidd said.

“They can have exhibitions and performances throughout the year and just share the talent and creativity school wide.”

The money for this program is coming from federal funds allocated by Congress. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, who spent part of her youth growing up in Suitland, said the investment is personal. She said she was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder around age 8, leading her parents to enroll her in Howard University’s children’s theater program, where she eventually found herself performing at Arena Stage.

“That set the foundation for absolutely everything else that happened in my life,” Alsobrooks said. “The confidence that I developed, the ability to present myself to others, to stand on the stage in those productions, it has carried me for the rest of my life.”

Beanes Elementary was the last of four stops made by Van Hollen and Alsobrooks on Monday. The two also visited Prince George’s County’s Latin American Youth Center, College Park’s Attick Towers Apartments, and Ivy Community Charities of Prince George’s County, in order to tout further federal investments in programs offered there.

“This is an opportunity to show where the federal government, by investing a little bit of money, a lot of seed money, can help good things grow,” said Van Hollen. Most of the programs targeted youth around the county.

“One of the smartest investments we can make is in our young people, especially when they’re very young,” he said.

The one exception was the money that will help renovate the Attick Towers Apartments, which is owned by the College Park Housing Authority and is a senior living facility.

“Seniors can live in dignity” there, said Van Hollen. “We have an affordable housing crisis in Maryland and throughout the country. Seniors, especially since they’re on fixed incomes, have trouble affording rising rents and costs. We’re able to renovate this building and let them stay there — age in place rather than be thrown out on the street.”

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Whatever you do, definitely don’t go reaching for a new bag of fertilizer, and think twice about firing up the mower again anytime soon. Instead, the best thing you can do right now is actually the easiest: back off.

“Do as little as possible,” said Daniel Sandor, an assistant professor of turf grass science at Virginia Tech. “The grass knows what to do. It can recover.”

Most D.C.-area lawns are cool season grasses — fescue and bluegrass for example — and Sandor said those are the ones most affected by drought stress. The key right now is limiting anything that adds extra strain.

That means cutting back on mowing. Since the grass isn’t getting enough water to grow, it’s probably not growing much anyway.

When you do mow, Sandor said to raise your mowing height to at least three inches, or as high as your mower will go, and always follow what he calls the “one-third” rule: never cut more than one-third of the blade in a single mow. In fact, he’s an advocate for mowing at higher heights anyway.

“I know a lot of people want their lawn to look like a golf course or a fairway, if you will,” Sandor said. “The higher you mow, it really helps reduce the stress on the turf and allows those roots to go deeper, so that when that drought does come, those roots are already deeper in the soil, or trying to go deeper in the soil, to where they can maybe get water at deeper depths. If we’re just mowing short all the time, those roots aren’t really going very far.”

Skip the fertilizer, too. It might seem like a good way to nurse a struggling lawn back to health, but Sandor said it won’t do much good right now.

“If the soil is already dry, you don’t have the ability for the fertilizers to breakdown in the soil solution, but also for the active energy in the roots to absorb those nutrients,” he said. Instead, wait until fall, when root growth is most active and nutrients are more readily absorbed.

And if you’re planning a backyard cookout or a kids’ birthday party on the grass? Go for it, as long as you’re OK knowing the extra foot traffic will add some stress. Sandor said the lawn should still bounce back once rain returns.

For next year, Sandor said the best drought defense starts well before summer by fertilizing in the fall, and then conducting a soil test every three years to help you know exactly what nutrients the lawn needs.

“That really helps the turf in terms of root growth and shoot growth during those times of active growth, really be fortified,” Sandor said. “That should ultimately improve their drought resistance if they’re healthy going into the drought period.”

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The boat that Kevin Sherwood of Springfield, Virginia, bought is still in dry dock as he makes final repairs and preparations ahead of the whole reason he bought the “Bay Retriever” in the first place.

If all goes as planned, he’ll get it in the water Wednesday, and starting at noon on Friday, he’ll be heading south down the Chesapeake Bay on a 753-mile voyage to Bermuda.

Sherwood’s boat is one of 21 in , or A2B, which dates back to 1979. He’ll be joined by a crew of four others in a race he said is among the most challenging on the East Coast.

“I bought this boat in 2022 specifically for the Bermuda race,” Sherwood said. “Since I bought this, everything we’ve done has been prepping for it.

“Plenty of sailors never leave the Chesapeake. It’s very different when we’re dealing with ocean waves, ocean weather, all kinds of different conditions. So, the boat really needs to be set up for it.”

The bay, being both relatively shallow and surrounded by land, can make for ideal sailing; if something still goes wrong, help isn’t far away.

Heading out in the blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean to an island more than 600 miles off the coast can present more difficult circumstances. Yet, if you go on the race’s website, you’ll see a long list of people hoping to get picked up by a boat to help take part.

“We’re out of rescue range for a portion of the trip. They’ll ask a passing freighter to come help you if you have a problem,” Sherwood said. “We are on our own out there.”

Some boats will have full galleys available to help cook meals for the crew. But Sherwood’s vessel, being smaller, has been stocking up on food and water from the grocery store.

He and the crew will take turns sailing and resting in the cabin down below. A “lee cloth” — imagine a hammock, more or less — will catch anyone if the boat leans one way while they’re sleeping, lest they fall to the floor.

Of course, that assumes they’ll have strong winds and waves. Sherwood, who has done this race twice before, said that’s not always the case.

“My first Bermuda race, we had plenty of nothing going on,” he said. For two days, the winds were so calm Sherwood’s team was “barely making two knots.”

Two years ago, he saw more clouds than stars and sun, and waves were running 12-15 feet high.

“The last couple of races we haven’t seen many sunsets because of clouds, fog, rain, that sort of thing,” Sherwood said. “But when you are out there all alone and just the stars, it’s incredibly detached. There’s really nowhere left in the country to get this isolated.”

Of course, having access to Starlink means there is some connection out on the water — though, if you’re on duty, you’re too focused to care. If you’re not, you’re probably resting.

“There’s definitely parts I’m going to hate,” he said. “There’s parts I’m going to be asking myself, ‘Why am I doing this? Why am I here?’ But it’s just such an awesome team sport. When I go off watch, I’m trusting the other guys to keep sailing, keep racing, to keep us safe, to keep the boat moving fast. We get to detach from the world.”

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For how long is anyone’s guess. ӣ����Ƶ and winds will determine the time it takes to get there.

“If conditions are amazing, we’ll get in on Tuesday,” he said. “If conditions are great, Wednesday. If they’re average, Thursday, and if they’re terrible, Friday.”

Those following from home . Whenever he arrives, he said workers on the docks will have a “Dark n’ Stormy” — — waiting for them.

He’ll also be hoping to be handed a trophy he can sail back with, but that’s not the most important thing right now.

“There’s a point of pride just for completing this; 753 miles of ocean sailing is a big deal,” he said.

“So, yeah, I mean, I want to do well, but my first goal is just to make it back here safely in two and a half weeks. My next goal is to make it to Bermuda safely. Then my third goal is to finish well and get a podium finish again.”

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While militaries around the world are deploying AI on the battlefield, organizations such as the Red Cross and peace-focused tech companies are using the same tools to try to protect civilians, reunite families and help broker ceasefires.

Laura Walker McDonald, technologist with the Red Cross, said the organization uses AI to identify targets, the same way some militaries do. But in the Red Cross’s case, those “targets” are people who need help.

“So we can understand where people might need assistance or where people are even,” Walker McDonald said.

The Red Cross also uses drone technology. Walker McDonald pointed to a major earthquake in Nepal years ago, when damaged roads made it nearly impossible to reach remote villages.

“You could fly a drone out there, and it would be able to send back imagery and tell you what had happened so you could get help to people,” she said.

But drones used in conflict zones can backfire for aid agencies such as the Red Cross, since the sound alone can trigger fear in people who’ve recently been attacked.

“When you hear it, you think, ‘I have to hide, because I don’t know what’s going to happen,'” Walker McDonald said. “Whether they’re looking for people and will come back, or whether the drone itself is armed makes you feel stressed.”

Because of that, Walker McDonald said the Red Cross won’t deploy drones anywhere the noise itself causes harm.

The Red Cross has also turned to AI to dig through a century’s worth of records on missing persons — files that are damaged, faded or simply hard to read.

“We have archives of information about people who have been missing in war, who’ve been seeking their families, or whose families have been seeking them,” Walker McDonald said. “They go back 100 years. We’ve been able to train an AI to start looking at those records and actually digitizing the information much faster.”

On the peace-building side, Frank Aum, a peace strategist with the AI company Transcend, said AI can compress the timeline for conflict analysis from months down to moments, which can be a big help for private companies working in areas where conflict and tensions have raged on for decades, as well as the United Nations, which seeks to resolve such disputes.

“We have built agents and a platform that can do the type of analysis that humans would do in the period of days, weeks, months, which AI can do very quickly,” Aum said.

Transcend, founded by Ola Mohajer, focuses on de-escalation.

“What we want to do now is automate a lot of that analytical layer of the work,” she said. “So that we can do the important things like building trust, addressing political will.”

She said examples of how that information could help the private sector could involve a mining company working in Africa, where there’s lots of documented tensions.

“What you’re likely to find there are things like black market rates for critical minerals, child workers, unsafe working conditions, forced labor,” she said. “Companies absolutely do not want this. They don’t want it anywhere in their supply chain, and so, what companies pay attention to is making sure that, A, it’s not in there in the first place, but B, if it does get in there, make sure it’s quiet and taken care of.”

Mohajer said the technology could also help figure out solutions to the root of those problems.

Aum said automating the analytical work so human experts can focus on the harder parts — building trust and political will — will save senior decision makers and experts time.

“Helping governments, nongovernmental organizations make peace and the resolution of conflict faster,” Aum said.

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