The Barras Report Blog

SOMETIMES it’s difficult for me to tamp down my cynicism about the District government and local politicians, especially as it relates to...

DURING the past month, I have heard that question multiple times from people across DC who are not satisfied with AG Brian Schwalb’s...

WHEN the galley for Ruth J. Simmons’ memoir — Up Home: One Girl’s Journey — arrived in my mailbox a few months ago, I couldn’t wait to...

ON Saturday, environmental advocate Bill Vanderberg was where he is most Saturdays during the year – leading volunteers maintaining...

A year in which there are only three races for governor’s seats, all in the Deep South, wouldn’t normally create a lot of political...

Editor's note: The Supreme Court 6-3 ruling made public on June 29 striking down affirmative action programs and policies at two...

When I learned of recent funding cuts and spending prohibitions for key District programs and services preliminarily imposed by House...

“CLOSE the racial wealth gap” was the phrase du jour last week at DC Council Chair Pro Tempore Kenyan McDuffie’s public hearing on the...

I traveled recently from Baltimore, the city where my mother grew up, to Portland, Maine, where my dad did. It’s easy for many to see...

By Teresa Kay-Aba Kennedy “I don’t want nobody to give me nothing. Just open up the door and I’ll get it myself.” That line from the...

THE interstates built in the 1950s and 1960s killed the vitality of the communities where people of color and the poor lived, from...

Before my friend and activist Tony De Pass died of colon cancer, he often boasted, during frequent and blistering critiques about the...

A lightning strike and a small fire are all it took this weekend to remind residents in South Louisiana – across much of the Gulf Coast...

TATUM is an East Texas town of about 1,300 people, closer to Shreveport than Dallas. It’s on the north shore of Martin Lake. Across the...

I thought last week about the psalm that describes how the most exalted pays closest attention to the smallest, the most in need among...

SOME people have become accustomed to vote trading in national and local politics. There is the belief that such transactions lead to...

THE $19.7 billion Fiscal Year 2024 Budget and Financial Plan submitted earlier this year by Mayor Muriel Bowser demonstrates her...

OVER the past several weeks, the political and public policy rhetoric in the District has seemed like a five-alarm fire — the heat and...

IF a public opinion poll done last month is right, more than half of you won’t know what I mean by the initials “ESG,” and fewer than one...

CONOCOPhillips needs more than the disastrous approval it won from President Joe Biden's administration last week to proceed with its...