The rollout of the so-called Guardian Score program, which uses real-time data analytics and insights to understand how police officers treat people, is funded by a grant from the PATH Foundation, according to a news release.

As part of the program, officers will hand out cards to each person they have an interaction with. The cards have a QR code that sends people to a digital survey. Each card is tied to a unique interaction and to the officer handing it out — and can only be used once.

The anonymous survey asks people to rate officers on their ability to explain “why,” their listening skills, fairness, professionalism and their ability to explain next steps.

The Warrenton police department participated in a 90-day pilot of the program, and got mostly positive responses.

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“This program provides a great way for us to thoroughly measure our officers’ effectiveness and impact on the community,” said Chief Mike Kochis with Town of Warrenton Police Department, in the news release.

The Guardian Score program, which is available to police departments across the country, says the data is not publicly accessible. The program’s website takes as its inspiration driver- and rider-rating tools on ride-hailing platforms, asking, “Why can we rate Uber drivers but not police officers?”

An FAQ on the Guardian Score website says, “Guardian Score is not a public forum to complain about officers. Guardian Score is not a complaint reporting tool. Guardian Score is a tool to help police leaders identify officers in need of improvement, training issues, and behavior role models.”

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is a $12 million federal program targeted at low- and -moderate income students who are getting an associate or bachelor’s degree in IT, health sciences or education. Money from the program is given to students who have applied for all other grants, scholarships and financial aid and still need aid.

The annual grant is limited to the University of the District of Columbia, or UDC’s Community College, Trinity Washington University and Catholic University.

“When we support the career dreams of Washingtonians, that is the type of fair shot that can change the trajectory of someone’s life,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said in statement.

“The DC Futures Program is a critical investment that will help breakdown traditional barriers to postsecondary education and provide more Washingtonians with the support they need to succeed in college.”

The program also gives students coaching — and as much as $1,500 in emergency funds for food, health care, housing and child care.

According to a news release, city residents are encouraged to apply to DC Futures or any of the city’s postsecondary education support options, including D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program and the Mayor’s Scholars Undergraduate Program, which will offer more than $50 million in financial aid and postsecondary supports during the 2022-2023 award year.

Awards will be distributed depending on each program’s criteria, including the applicant’s high school, age, postsecondary institution, cost of attendance, family income and college major.

The deadline to apply is Aug. 19. Read more about DC Futures at the .

To apply,

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Prosecutors allege the men operated in Maryland’s Montgomery and Prince George’s counties and elsewhere across the D.C. area, distributing cocaine and other illegal drugs to lower-level drug dealers. The men, , range in age between 27 and 43, and are all residents of Maryland.

The following individuals have been charged:

• Fabricio Alexis Rivera, aka “Breeze,” 30, of Rockville, Maryland;
• William Reyes Garcia, aka “Will,” age 31, of Silver Spring, Maryland;
• Adrian Josue Velasquez, aka “AJ,” age 31, of Lanham, Maryland;
• Rodney Ricky Rivera, aka “Rodney,” age 27, of Beltsville, Maryland;
• Noel Reyes, Jr., aka “June,” age 28, of Bowie, Maryland;
• Joey Garcia King, aka “Joe,” age 43, of Silver Spring, Maryland.

Officials believe the men distributed illegal drugs from September 2020 to last month. Law enforcement seized several packages of cocaine that had been shipped from a border town in Texas to an address associated with the defendants.

Agents discovered that some of the men charged had tracked the packages online as they made their way to Maryland. All six were arrested in January.

As part of their investigation, police searched 21 locations, seizing around 4.2 kilograms of cocaine, about 280 pounds of marijuana and 12 firearms — including a ghost gun. If convicted, each could face up to 20 years in prison.

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Beth and John Bachmore and their three sons — Jack, Sam and Ben — are mourning the loss of the family’s youngest child, Abigail Catherine Bachmore. She was known, of course, as Abbie. She died early this year of acute-onset .

Her family is honoring her memory by encouraging and blood sugar tests for children and adults, and by creating a using money from a .

Signs of Type 1 diabetes are sometimes noticed during the preteen years. Abbie was almost 12-and-a-half years old, and unbeknown to her and her family, she had been developing Type 1 diabetes for months. Diabetes didn’t run in the family, and no one knows how she came to develop it.

In early February, Abbie wasn’t feeling well, so her mother took her to the hospital.

“She was fine when I left for work in the morning,” Beth Bachmore told Â鶹ąŮÍř. “I came home and brought her to the hospital and didn’t come home with her.”

By then, the undiagnosed diabetes had done too much damage. Abbie was kept alive, so her organs were viable if her parents agreed to donate them. When organ donation professionals asked, Beth and John Bachmore quickly said yes.

“It gives me and John peace knowing that she’s helping other people still live their lives here,” Beth Bachmore said.

She wants children to have regular blood sugar tests, so their doctors will be able to see if they are developing diabetes. “Why not just get the little machine out and boop, poke it and then put it in the machine and then check blood sugar real quick?”

She also wants parents whose child has died to consider donating their child’s organs, so others can live.

“If there’s any bright spot, it’s the fact that (Abbie) could help people,” Beth Bachmore said.

Abbie lives on through the four people who got her organs, including a father in his 30s who received one of Abbie’s kidneys; a woman in her 20s who was very ill and got Abbie’s other kidney; a woman in her 60s who received both of Abbie’s lungs; and a teenage boy who received Abbie’s liver.

You can learn more about . You can also read Beth Bachmore’s .

Lastly, learn more about organ donation — and sign up to be a donor — on the .

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On Monday, Montgomery County judge sentenced Jonathan Robbins to 40 years in prison – with all but 12 years suspended — for stealing $1.8 million from a woman who had asked him in 2013 for help managing her estate. The woman was an 88-year-old widow who wanted to ensure her daughter would be financially secure after her passing.

Instead, Robbins methodically stole from her. Prosecutors said Robbins lived the high life for six years on the woman’s money, moving from a modest townhouse into a 6,600-square-foot house on 2.5 acres in Potomac, buying furniture, computers, artwork and watches. They also said he continued

Robbins was indicted in 2019; he was convicted last June.

Prosecutors had asked that Robbins be required to serve 18 to 20 years behind bars before being released on probation. They said Robbins had shown no remorse and was guilty of pure and simple greed. They said he “chose over and over again to betray the trust of his client, someone he knew was vulnerable.” They called his thefts “an egregious exploitation of a senior citizen … and her family.”

The woman, who had worked as a church secretary and saved and invested her money over decades, died in 2017 at 91. Prosecutors called her the perfect victim: someone who trusted others, had a lot of money, had dementia and had no friends or family nearby to watch out for her.

A restitution hearing is planned for February.

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An emergency law signed by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser last week also requires up to eight hours of paid leave for recovery time.

The law will stay in effect until the middle of next year.

The District wants to “remove every obstacle that might be in place that prevents our residents and workers from getting the vaccine,” D.C. Council Member Elissa Silverman told Â鶹ąŮÍř.

“We still think there are people out there who haven’t gotten the vaccine just because they can’t afford to do it. This just provides an incentive for people to do it sooner rather than later.”

The law allows employers to require documentation of the date and time that employees got vaccinated. And there’s a cap of 48 hours compensated leave for a COVID-19 shot over one year.

It also gives job protection to workers affected by COVID-19 and continues existing unpaid leave for COVID-related purposes.

The emergency bill continues unpaid COVID-19 leave under the District’s Family and Medical Leave Act. It can be used if an employee tests positive for COVID-19 and has to quarantine or isolate. It can also be used if an employee is caring for a family member or member of their household who is sick or must quarantine, or if a school or child care provider is not available.

As with time off for shots, employers are allowed to require documentation of these circumstances.

“We need to do everything possible to get all eligible residents and workers vaccinated and boosted,” Silverman said. “That’s how we will beat COVID-19 and safely reopen our city completely.”

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During a discussion with a caller on a radio show he was co-hosting onlast month, Harris told the man that he had prescribed ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19.

Ivermectin is not authorized or approved by Food and Drug Administration for prevention or treatment of COVID-19. Current available data do not show that it is effective against COVID-19, but clinical trials are ongoing, the FDA said.

Last month, the American Medical Association, the American Pharmacists Association and the American Society of Health System Pharmacists the ordering, prescribing or dispensing of ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19 outside of a clinical trial.

that during the show, Harris also criticized pharmacies for not making the drug available. He said he couldn’t find a pharmacy to supply ivermectin.

In August, on the same station, Harris .

During the COVID-19 pandemic, dispensing of ivermectin by pharmacies increased, as well as the use of veterinary formulations that are available over the counter but are not intended for human use, a .

The has urged people not to use ivermectin as a treatment for infection with the coronavirus. In August, the FDA posted a : “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

Ivermectin tablets are approved by the FDA to treat people with conditions caused by parasitic worms. Topical forms are also approved to treat external parasites, such as head lice, and for skin conditions, such as rosacea, .

Ivermectin for animals is approved for the prevention of heartworm disease and the treatment of internal and external parasites. The two ivermectin products — for people and for animals — are different from each other. When used as prescribed for approved indications, “it is generally safe and well tolerated,” .

Harris isn’t opposed to coronavirus vaccines, however. In fact, earlier this year, he .

Still, Harris strongly opposes vaccine and mask mandates. On the radio show in September, he questioned whether masks do anything.

masks should be part of a comprehensive strategy of measures to suppress transmission of the coronavirus. that people including children older than 2 should wear a mask in indoor public places if they’re not fully vaccinated, fully vaccinated and in an area with substantial or high transmission, or fully vaccinated and with weakened immune systems.

Harris said he is worried that, “Americans actually agree with these mandates. What are we, a bunch of lemmings?”

Â鶹ąŮÍř’s Abigail Constantino contributed to this report. 

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Under the Child Wealth Building Act, every qualifying child would start with a publicly funded trust of $1,000, with contributions of up to $2,000 a year thereafter, depending on their family income. The bill was introduced by Ward 5 Council member Kenyan McDuffie, who said the bonds will help bridge the city’s racial wealth gap.

that, in 2013 and 2014, the average white household in the District had a net worth of $284,000, 81 times the average Black household’s net worth of $3,500.

Once the child turns 18, they’d have access to up to $25,000 to help buy a home or a business, create an investment account for retirement, or pay for education.

Earlier, joined the full Council to pass into law the creation of baby bonds for District children, intro’d by . Aims to close the racial wealth gap by ensuring when a child turns 18, they have money to help them succeed. This is a big deal.

— CM Allen’s Team (@CMCharlesAllen)

The bonds will cost about over the next four years.

The bill goes to Mayor Muriel Bowser for her signature.

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The immigrant advocacy organization gathered approximately dozen activists and tenants at the nearly 2,900-unit complex Monday night to demand that the landlord — Fieldstone Properties — work with tenants to help them from being evicted.

CASA claims the management of the complex has refused to help many renters, including “not offering payment plan agreements that would allow tenants to pay back rent and prevent their eviction.” CASA claims many residents on the eviction list have lived in Franklin Park for a decade.

Many members of the immigrant and minority communities live in the complex of garden units. Built in 1964, and showing their age, the three-story buildings have units that the range in size from 829 to 1,533 square feet, with rents of between $1,291 and $2,227.

the owners of the complex have obtained more than 180 writs of evictions and have already carried out at least 11 of them. The organization told Â鶹ąŮÍř that as many as 400 to 500 people, including children, would be homeless if sheriff’s deputies execute all of the outstanding writs. It’s demanding that the apartment complex agree in writing not to carry out any more evictions. CASA claims apartment employees have been pressuring tenants to pay their back rent or be evicted.

At the protest, announced that county employees would be on site on Tuesday and Wednesday beginning at 10 a.m. on the second floor of 9230 Spring Hill Terrace to help people apply for rental assistance. She said those who are in danger of being evicted would have their applications fast-tracked.

Davis also said anyone who has already applied for rent assistance and wants to know the status of the application can call 301-883-6504, Monday through Friday. She said the county has hired additional staff to answer calls from the thousands of people who have asked for rental assistance.

Â鶹ąŮÍř witnessed five apartment employees monitoring the protest. They confirmed to Â鶹ąŮÍř that some renters had been evicted recently, but claimed those tenants had not applied for rental assistance and were many months behind on their rent. They said they would work with the county to keep people in their apartments and the complex was allowing the county to hold a renter-assistance fair at the property.

In a written statement handed to Â鶹ąŮÍř after the protest, apartment managers said they had emailed, called and visited tenants to tell them about the help that’s available.

The statement said Franklin Park had communicated with multiple organizations and city, county and state officials to “defuse the narrative that (we plan) to evict hundreds of residents in a week … We have no plans to evict … residents within the next week, month or remainder of the year.”

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Officials say the calendars reflect the needs and preferences of families, students, teachers and staff, while maximizing learning time for students and giving teachers 10 days for professional development.

Each calendar consists of 180 school days and 13 religious holidays, along with winter and spring breaks.

Officials want to know what you think, . The deadline for public feedback is Oct. 22, and the calendars could be finalized by this winter.

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The city was participating in the , which has been adopted by 70 cities in North America.

The project promotes and supports health, wellness, and physical activity by temporarily closing streets to cars, encouraging people to explore public spaces on foot, scooter, bike, roller skates — or whatever moves them. It gives residents a chance to see what their neighborhood is like when cars aren’t whizzing by.

Thousands of people moved freely down the avenue, many with kids and dogs.

The District plans to expand the Open Streets program to every Ward.

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A six-month found that tens of thousands of people die in the country every year with no one to bury or cremate them, forcing state, county and local governments to handle those arrangements.

Maryland is one of the few states that tracks the number of unclaimed bodies. told Â鶹ąŮÍř that 2,510 bodies went unclaimed last year. That’s approximately 3% to 4% of all deaths recorded in the state.

The board said the number of people who die without anyone claiming their remains has increased steadily over the past few years. On average, Maryland spends between $1 million and $2 million a year managing the bodies left unclaimed.

Virginia doesn’t track the number of unclaimed bodies in the state. It leaves that, along with the final handling of remains, to the commonwealth’s counties, cities and towns.

The , however, told Â鶹ąŮÍř that 301 of 8,683 deaths it investigated last year resulted in bodies that were unclaimed.

In 2019, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the District buried or cremated 231 bodies that were never claimed. The told Â鶹ąŮÍř that it has no estimate on how much the city spends burying or cremating the unclaimed.

Many coroners, and others handling the deceased, estimate as many as 3% of the deceased go unclaimed every year in the U.S. If true, that would be more than 100,000 people who are buried or cremated by the government, according to the Washington Post article. In some areas, those unclaimed are buried in unmarked graves.

The Post found that, in many cases, officials are able to find relatives of the dead, but family members say they don’t want to be involved — or can’t afford to be, citing high funeral and burial costs. In other cases, those deceased had been living isolated lives, with no family members or friends to make final arrangements for them.

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Barbados is one of 16 nations that still recognize the Queen of England as head of state. But in about two months, after more than 20 years of planning, it will become the world’s newest Republic, removing the queen as its nominal ruler. That will reduce the number of countries that the . Jamaica, another British Commonwealth, is also as their head of state.

The queen’s current representative to the island, will be installed Dec. 1 as the — which became an independent nation in 1966 after four centuries as a British colony.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley “the time has come for us to … make decisions fully on our own. It’s not a divisive decision. We believe that the time has just come for us to boost the confidence of our people.”

Mottley has called the decision to fully and formally break with Britain “another step in the island’s journey from a deep colonial past, to an independent future.”

She also said it’s an important move because it allows young people in the nation to believe they can become head of state in their own country.

After Gov. Mason is installed as president, it will be the first time Barbados has had two Black women as national leaders, though most governing power in the nation of 300,000 will remain with Parliament and the prime minister.

As in many democracies, the ruling power of the president will be limited in Barbados. That may change as the country may soon begin to rewrite its constitution.

In doing so, Barbados could potentially adopt the American-style of government — with a president as head of the executive branch, and separate legislative and judicial branches. It could also choose to retain the so-called ‘‘, under which it has operated for more than half a century.

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School and city officials are hoping the campus will become the pulsing economic center of the city for the next generation, and will attract companies from around the world, helping the region become the country’s next big technology hub.

The 300,000-square-foot building — the first of three planned buildings on the campus — will be something to behold: It’s a one-of-a-kind architectural feat, where graduate students will take courses in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data analytics.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said the campus “is becoming exactly what we envisioned,” and it will be “a place where academia, government and industry connect, working to solve problems through technology.”

Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson says the project took years to come to fruition, but it was worth it.

“We’re gonna have a building with state-of-the-art architecture, sustainability components that you’ve heard about, tied in with transportation.”

Wilson believes the campus will benefit the city for decades to come.

“Long after all of the companies that are partnered with this are gone, Virginia Tech will continue to be here in the city of Alexandria churning out the workforce that our Commonwealth, our community is gonna need long into the future,” Wilson said.

The building should be complete by the fall 2024.

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