06 30 2021

VOL. 18 ISSUE 23

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Roberta LeNoir, an emergency room nurse, stands in front of United Medical Center with Wala Blegay, staff attorney and labor specialist for the nurses association.

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EVENTS

// 3

NEWS IN BRIEF Uncertainty over housing complicates preparations for hypothermia season in DC

COURTESY OF EAST OF THE RIVER MUTUAL AID

East of the River Mutual Aid volunteer information session Wednesday, July 7 // 7 p.m. - 8 p.m.

RSVP for location/connection details.

Learn what Mutual Aid is, what volunteer opportunities are available, and how to get started. Especially encouraging Black folks living in Wars 7 and 8! No law enforcement of ANY kind (active or retired)!

Register at: tinyurl.com/eormajune FRIDAY, JULY 2

Food Distribution Event (Drive Thru) 9:30 a.m. - 11 a.m.

3716 Rhode Island Ave. Brentwood, MD 20722 Centro De Apoyo Familiar is hosting a drive thru where they will be distributing free fruits and vegetables and information about programs to benefit community members.

Register at: tinyurl.com/fooddistribution-drive-thru

UPDATES AT ICH.DC.GOV

SUNDAY, JULY 11

D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness Meetings

Racism Within: Black People and the Inferiority Complex

Executive Committee July 13, 1:30 p.m. - 3 p.m.

Virtual via WebEx

5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Busboys and Poets 2021 14th St NW

Executive Committee July 19, 3 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Virtual via WebEx

Come ready to hear a mindaltering discussion moderated

by Krystal Glass. This is a free, in-person, socially distanced event.

***For call-in information, as well as meeting info for unlisted working groups, contact: ich.dmhhs@dc.gov

Register at: tinyurl.com/racism-within

WE’RE LOOKING FOR A SKILLED WEB DEVELOPER! Street Sense Media seeks to contract someone with expertise in WordPress, PHP, and MySQL. Does this describe you? If so, please contact jobs@streetsensemdia.org.

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Members of the Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) shelter capacity working group met June 23 to discuss last winter’s shelter numbers and plan bed-capacity recommendations for this winter’s hypothermia season.

The meeting ended with work left to do.

During hypothermia season, which extends from Nov. 1 to March 31, the District is legally required to make shelter available for all who desire it whenever temperatures and wind chill reach 32 degrees. From 2011 to 2019, 42 people experiencing homelessness died from hypothermia, with another 68 deaths where hypothermia was a contributing or associated factor. While last winter’s hypothermia numbers have not yet been reported, at least 180 people experiencing homelessness in D.C. died in 2020, an estimated 13% due to COVID-19.

While the hour-long meeting was supposed to yield recommendations to go before the Department of Human Services (DHS), the working group ultimately delayed its decision. The first 30 minutes was spent presenting current shelter capacity and numbers of beds needed last winter. Most in attendance were alarmed when the chair opened up the last half hour for the group to create their recommendations for the upcoming winter. One meeting, they agreed, was not nearly enough time to predict how the end of federal housing assistance programs instituted during the pandemic might affect the number of people seeking shelter this winter.

From November 2020 to March 2021, a peak of 1,416 men sought shelter on hypothermia-alert nights, compared to a high of 1,254 on nonalert nights. On emergency alert nights, a high of 540 women sought shelter, compared to 513 on non-alert nights. The number of men and women residing at emergency shelters from November through the present has been greater than the same period in 2019.

During the meeting, a senior staff member from a nonprofit service provider said that COVID-19 concerns might have affected typical hypothermiaweather shelter numbers, as some people may not have wished to risk living in the shared indoor space of a congregate shelter during the pandemic.

A senior staff member from a different nonprofit raised concerns that the expected end of the D.C. eviction moratorium in September and uncertainty over how many rental subsidies will be available for the city’s rapid-rehousing programs could change how many people experience homelessness this fall and winter. According to the Aspen Institute, as of August 2020, 51,000 to 57,000 households in D.C. were at risk of eviction, representative of 118,000 to 131,000 people. The most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that 18,585 D.C. residents have no confidence, and 11,961 slight confidence, that they will be able to pay next month’s rent.

A number of federal resources to help are also time-limited. STAY D.C., for instance, offers $352 million in rental relief funds but could be redistributed to other states if the District does not spend at least $150 million by the end of the fiscal year. Similarly, the Pandemic Emergency Program for Medically Vulnerable Individuals (PEP-V) is expected to end in September when FEMA reimbursements will no longer be available.

The hotels for the program housed up to 621 medically vulnerable people in non-congregate shelter spaces during the pandemic, and it’s conclusion may lead to an increased need for shelter beds this hypothermia season.

Working group members also brought up concerns about how housing changes could impact families experiencing homelessness, in addition to individuals. Usually, transitional housing programs that offer short-term shelter between anywhere from 2 - 24 months have higher numbers of individuals compared to families. But as of May, transitional housing had higher rates of family occupancy, and the number of families in family shelters had decreased. Space for families is currently limited in rapid rehousing programs, which may place a larger burden on emergency shelters this winter.

With much still up in the air before it gets cold, the working group will meet again by July 15. The hypothermia plan will be finalized by the Emergency Response and Shelter Operations Committee — which is scheduled to meet July 28 — and finalized by the ICH Executive committee in September. —sarah.watson@streetsensemedia.org

4 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A // J U N E 3 0 - J U LY 6, 2021

NEWS

Local nonprofit opens transitional housing to meet growing demand among LGBTQ youth

BY WILL SCHICK will@streetsensemedia.org

Keith Pollard, the deputy director of youth housing programs at SMYAL (pronounced “smile”), knows just what it’s like to come face to face with discrimination.

He began his advocacy work with the organization in 2015 because he “always wanted to be the example” by helping provide what he did not have “growing up as a gay, Black boy in this world.”

Having been raised in a part of West Virginia he describes as very religious, Pollard said he remembers “going to church and hearing the scriptures and the preaching of homosexuality being an ‘abomination’ and being wrong and being sin and so on and so forth.”

For a time, the anti-gay propaganda caused Pollard to worry about the consequences of revealing his true self to those around him. “I, at a younger age, had a fear of being kicked out and being homeless,” he said.

However, he was fortunate enough to have “two parents who were supportive and amazing,” and he never had to experience being rejected by his immediate family.

Pollard says not everyone has this kind of critical support, which is one of the many reasons that SMYAL (Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders) exists to empower LGBTQ youth.

SMYAL, which was formed by advocates who began meeting in 1984, opened its first youth housing facility in 2017. A few weeks ago, the D.C.-based nonprofit opened its third youth home to meet the growing demand for transitional housing for LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness.

Many of the young people who participate in SMYAL programs do so after experiencing homelessness, and many have also experienced rejection from their families because of their sexual and gender identities.

This kind of rejection can lead to “severe mental health challenges” that create additional obstacles for young people seeking to become independent, according to Pollard.

Research published by San Francisco State University found that gay and transgender youth who have been rejected by their families are more than eight times as likely to die by suicide. They are also nearly six times as likely to suffer from depression, three times as likely to use illegal drugs, and three times as likely to contract STDs. Research also shows that LGBTQ-identifying people experience homelessness at disproportionately high rates, which makes the work SMYAL does all the more important.

In a weeklong survey conducted in 2019, the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness (TCP), a nonprofit contracted by the Department of Human Services to collect data on youth homelessness, found 1,306 people aged 18-24 experiencing homelessness throughout the city. By contrast, TCP’s 2020 survey found 651 homeless youth throughout the city but stated that COVID-19 had impacted its ability to collect information safely from service providers, likely resulting in the lower count.

Generally speaking, youth homelessness is far less visible and harder to quantify than among other age groups, with people and providers often viewing it as distinct from “chronic homelessness” because young adults are in a period of transition.

The door to an apartment at Roman’s House. PHOTO COURTESY OF SMYAL

In TCP’s 2019 survey, more than a third of the single youth identified as LGBTQ+, as did 13% of youth heads of households. Additionally, 42% of all the youth surveyed indicated they experienced domestic violence as a result of their housing situations. And 85% of singles and 94% of heads of households identified as Black or African American.

The newly opened extended transitional housing program, known as Roman’s House, consists of two apartment buildings and provides youth aged 18-24 not only with stable housing but also with the kind of support Pollard says is invaluable to people at this stage of their lives. Youth may stay there for up to six years, depending on the age they enter, while SMYAL’s other two programs allow for up to two years of stay.

Roman, the namesake for SMYAL’s two latest apartment buildings, was a positive, upbeat young member of the SMYAL community who loved music and was learning how to play the guitar and the piano. Roman also enjoyed nature, had a special connection to animals, and struggled with substance abuse. Their unexpected death last October came as a shock to those within the SMYAL community.

“We named Roman’s House in honor of that youth, for the impact that they had on us while they were with us, and [just] the light that they shined in the world,” Pollard said.

SMYAL requested not to share Roman’s full name out of respect for their privacy.

Given the demand for this kind of housing, the newly opened Roman’s House is already close to its 12-person capacity. As for SMYAL’s other two youth houses, one is at capacity while the other is close, according to Pollard.

While Roman’s House opened formally in early June, two residents had moved in back in March through the city’s youth “coordinated entry” system. Youth housing programs across the country are generally capped at age 24, which some advocates argue is an unfair practice.

The Roman’s House residents each have access to a bedroom of their own and share a common space that includes a bathroom and a kitchen.

SMYAL’s housing programs all feature a clinical on-site case manager who helps to guide youth struggling with mental health and provides them the support they need to gain confidence in themselves and become more independent.

While the participating youth are all given a safe, supportive place to sleep and live, their day-to-day experiences differ depending on the individual.

“We have community health care workers, we have food service workers, we have customer service and retail workers, we have some entrepreneurs,” Pollard said of the residents.

Not only do the participants have diverse interests and backgrounds, they also each come with their own needs, some of them universal and others unique. “[We tailor] our services to the individuals that we have, making sure that our houses feel like home, making sure that they’re safe spaces, making sure that there is 24-hour staff to address their needs no matter what it is,” Pollard said.

For example, Pollard explained, someone experiencing an anxiety attack in the middle of the night can rely on someone from SMYAL’s staff to help them through it.

In Pollard’s view, it’s the combination of housing and programming that contributes to SMYAL’s success.

Recently, he said, three program participants who were graduating the same day all searched for, applied for, and moved into an apartment together.

“We’ve [also] had people come in and graduate with their GED. We’ve had people come in and enroll in college.

We have several of our trans women in a workforce development program through us … that are thriving [and] building careers for themselves,” Pollard added.

For Pollard, there’s one overarching aspect that makes his work at SMYAL so rewarding. “My proudest moments are when the youth that I work with are proud of themselves,” he said.

This article was co-published with The DC Line.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

// 5

Mayor proposes expanded funding for DCRA, ignoring a new law to break up the agency

BY WILL SCHICK will@streetsensemedia.org

L

ong-held criticism of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs — which manages everything from licensing plumbers and other professionals to enforcing housing safety codes and issuing building permits — led to a new law in April that promises reform by splitting the department into two new agencies.

Once funded and implemented, the law would pass responsibility for “construction compliance, rental housing safety, and residential property maintenance activities” on to a new Department of Buildings, and re-brand the remaining portion of DCRA as the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection.

Creating a second agency, the council says, is a way to streamline the process for issuing permits and conducting inspections, and to resolve concerns raised for years by tenant advocates and others.

But the future shape of the District’s regulatory apparatus remains unsettled — and the likely subject of legislativeexecutive wrangling over the fiscal year 2022 budget.

The council passed the law in December over the repeated objections of Mayor Muriel Bowser, whose administration contends creating a second agency will add bureaucracy and stymie reform efforts already underway.

Since Bowser’s budget proposal does not include funding for the new agencies, it’s unclear whether these two new agencies will ever be established. Instead of funding for the new Department of Buildings, Bowser’s proposal recommended adding $16.9 million to DCRA’s operating budget, growing the agency’s total allocation to $90.6 million for FY 2022.

While the D.C. Council continues to review the city’s budget with the final votes scheduled in August, Bowser’s proposal highlights the continuing rift between the council and the mayor over what to do about DCRA. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson — who pushed the restructuring law through the legislative process after years of raising the issue — will have several opportunities in the coming weeks to propose budgetary shifts to fund the dual agencies.

Overriding a veto: No common ground on DCRA’s future The Department of Buildings Establishment Act, which Mendelson introduced in 2018 and again in 2019 before final council passage in December 2020, is meant to address the agency’s long history of poor responsiveness and lax code enforcement.

Bowser, however, has actively opposed breaking up the nearly 40-year-old agency. She vetoed the bill in January, arguing in a letter addressed to Mendelson that it “wastes a significant amount of taxpayer dollars” and “duplicate[s] personnel and infrastructure already in place.”

The D.C. Council, however, voted unanimously in February to override the veto.

Mendelson, prior to the 12-0 vote in December, argued that DCRA has attempted many reforms over the years, none of which have succeeded in making the agency truly effective.

(Councilmember Brandon Todd recused himself from voting.)

“Its permit center, unveiled in 1983 as a ‘one-stop shop’ to make obtaining a permit seamless, became such a headache for homeowners and developers that they often paid surrogates to

stand in line and do the paperwork for them,” Mendelson said.

These problems, he argued, have persisted well into today.

At a council hearing in December 2019, DCRA Director Ernest Chrappah acknowledged the agency’s past problems but emphasized in his written testimony that his team is making progress.

“Too often, residents would contact the agency about an issue and never hear back about how and if it was resolved.

And if a customer called to follow-up on their request, they would need to re-explain all the details,” Chrappah said.

According to Chrappah, however, DCRA’s new data management tracking system has streamlined this process and “ensures that issues are being dealt with promptly.”

A recent query on the agency’s online performance dashboard from June 22 shows that 14% of DCRA customers rate their experience as “poor” compared to 17% who state their experience has been “satisfactory.” The other 69% of customers rated their experience as “excellent.”

The dashboard also shows the agency meeting more of its targets for building inspections, licensing, and permitting than it did in 2018.

Chrappah cited these statistics in his public testimony at a budget hearing in early June, touting them as yet another sign of the improvements the agency has made.

“I want to thank Mayor Bowser for the increased investment in DCRA, which I view as a down payment on the future of an agency that by any objective measure is steadily improving,” he said.

But not all agree that these metrics show actual progress.

Some advances are due in part to a program implemented in 2019 that allows residents to become inspectors after a few days of training. Likened to online services like Uber, the resident inspectors serve as on-demand quasi professionals who are paid anywhere between $30 and $100 per inspection.

Kathy Zeisel — an attorney and advocate at the Children’s Law Center, a nonprofit that advocated for the establishment of a Department of Buildings — said in an interview that a person who has “a few Saturdays of training” may not be the best judge of whether “your home is structurally safe and healthy for you.”

Zeisel, whose clients have included tenants who couldn’t get the agency to fix unsafe living conditions, also cited inherent conflicts of interest among DCRA’s components as another main reason to split up the expansive agency.

“DCRA’s main customers are developers. They fast-track permits if you spend over $1 million. One of their main jobs is to make sure development goes safely and smoothly,” Zeisel said.

According to Zeisel, this function inherently conflicts with another of DCRA’s primary duties: fining businesses for code violations.

In FY 2020, DCRA issued $10 million in fines for housing violations but collected only about $70,000, according to the agency’s online data dashboard. For Zeisel, the paltry collection rate is one manifestation of the conflicts of interest within DCRA. For many, DCRA’s problems are rooted in their own experiences with the agency.

Testifying on behalf of her neighbors on the 400 block of Shepherd Street NW, resident Kisha Salters said during the June 10 hearing that she’s been trying for years to get DCRA to do something about vacant, rat-infested houses

in the area. She described the properties as “crumbling” and overrun with mold, and said they had been like this for almost as long as she can remember.

“I’m now 46 [years old] and some of these homes have been boarded up since I was in my 20s,” Salters said.

Salters also said she sees DCRA as falling short in fulfilling its responsibilities to the public.

“All they do is slap a couple of different color signs on the doors. .. I’m not even sure why DCRA even exists,” Salters said.

Testing the limits of a legislature’s ability to force change Like Bowser, John Guggenmos — a Ward 2 advisory neighborhood commissioner with 31 years of experience owning and operating businesses in D.C. — thinks DCRA has made “massive” progress in recent years.

While Guggenmos describes these changes as “astronomical,” he also says he’s wary of creating another bureaucracy in order to change a fundamentally bureaucratic problem.

“If the D.C. Council could write a bill that would be detailed enough to tell a bureaucracy how to run its agency, then we wouldn’t be here — they would have already done it,” Guggenmos said.

In her January veto letter, Bowser argued that breaking up DCRA would only slow down the improvements that supporters such as Guggenmos say the agency has been making.

Bowser also argued that the bill overstepped the council’s authority, stating that a portion of the law that directs the mayor to appoint several key officials “with the advice and consent of the Council” violates the separation of powers established by the Home Rule Act. The positions involved include the zoning administrator, a chief enforcement official, and a strategic enforcement administrator.

While it remains to be seen whether the mayor is ultimately able to stop the plans to break up DCRA, it is likely that the council will try to identify the funding for it, and pressure Bowser to implement the law.

Evan Cash, the committee and legislative director for the Committee of the Whole, said that he expects Mendelson to find the appropriate monies for it.

“The chairman has previously indicated that he would like to find the funding for it,” Cash said over the phone.

The first opportunity to do so will come Thursday afternoon, when the Committee of the Whole — which Mendelson heads — is scheduled to mark up the budget for DCRA and other agencies under its purview. Mendelson will also work later with the council’s budget office to reconcile the recommendations of various committees and come up with a final budget proposal to present to the full legislature.

The fiscal impact statement issued by the city’s chief financial officer in December, when the council voted on the DCRA legislation, says that funding the new Department of Buildings would require an extra $11.7 million in FY 2022 and $33.1 million over four years.

Since Bowser’s budget proposal does not include funding for the new agencies, it’s unclear whether these two new agencies will ever be established.

This article was co-published with The DC Line.

6 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A // J U N E 3 0 - J U LY 6, 2021

NEWS

Patients and staff brace for large cuts to Southeast DC’s only hospital Roberta LeNoir, an emergency room nurse at United Medical Center and the collective bargaining unit president in the District of Columbia Nurses Association, stands outside of the hospital.

PHOTO BY RODNEY CHOICE // CHOICEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

BY JOHN WOOLLEY john.woolley@streetsensemedia.org

T

he District’s only general hospital east of the Anacostia River faces major spending cuts — a decision both employees and patients say feels like a betrayal.

United Medical Center (UMC) will likely undergo significant spending reductions starting Oct. 1, owing to a new fiscal oversight board established by the D.C. Council in May. Both staff and patient services are expected to be hit as the oversight board copes with the D.C. Council’s new subsidy limit — just $15 million from the city to cover the hospital’s more than $40 million annual deficit. Details about the cuts will be released in July.

Lawmakers in favor of the board and subsidy cap explained their decision is intended to limit city spending while a new replacement hospital is constructed nearby. That hospital, however, won’t be completed for several years. To residents who rely on UMC’s services, these cuts are the latest in a long history of neglect from city officials.

UMC, now a nonprofit operation owned by the D.C. government, has long struggled financially. The facility has undergone multiple bankruptcies and owners since it began operating in 1966, but the exact cause of its struggles today is a point of contention.

According to D.C. Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Wayne Turnage, the story is one of overstaffing and years of decline in patient volume. UMC’s nurses, however, report feeling severely understaffed, and attribute the hospital’s finances to mismanagement and a lack of support.

“The hospital runs on average about 70 patients a day, and when it varies it tends to vary down,” Turnage said during a D.C. Council hearing in May. He described a 10-to-1 staffto-patient ratio at UMC, including both nurses and other non-clinical staff. “If you look at their staff and compare it to the standards suggested by the American Hospital Association, they are 45% overstaffed.”

The American Hospital Association (AHA) has no publicly available standards on typical hospital staffing ratios and could not be reached before publication, but the organization does have a history of opposing nurse staffing ratio mandates. In an online policy declaration, the group describes mandated staffing ratios as “a static and ineffective tool that cannot guarantee

a safe health care environment or quality level to achieve optimum patient outcomes.”

Wala Blegay, staff attorney and labor specialist for the District of Columbia Nurses Association, contests Turnage’s characterization. According to her, Turnage is undercounting UMC’s patient load by only including in-patients — those admitted to the hospital for treatment after being processed through the emergency room or behavioral health unit.

“If you are in critical condition and you need to go to the [Intensive Care Unit], but the ICU only has room for four to five people, they can’t transfer you to ICU so they might have to transfer you out of the hospital or keep you in the [Emergency Room],” Blegay said. “Technically you’re not in-patient because you’re in the ER, even if you’re in the ER for a long time, because the ICU can’t take you. So the reason why the actual hospital has a low [patient] number is due to the limited services, not due to people not coming to the hospital.”

Because the hospital does not offer specialty care services like cancer treatment, many UMC-processed patients are transferred to other D.C. hospitals rather than admitted. On top of this, most of UMC’s patients are on Medicaid and Medicare, thereby generating less revenue for the hospital when billed.

These conditions together have left the hospital in an untenable financial position, according to Blegay.

“If you take surgery, cancer, all of these things out of the hospital, then you have a hospital that really only gives general care. General care, even emergency care, is not enough to pull any hospital through,” Blegay said.

Turnage, in a comment to Street Sense Media, defended his measurement of UMC’s patient volume. It is “one standard used by the industry,” he wrote. Additionally, Turnage said that while his office monitored UMC’s daily in-patient census more closely than others, patient volume metrics across the board showed similar declines.

“Almost without exception, the trend for those metrics at UMC that drive revenue — admissions, patient days, ER visits, and inpatient surgeries — are either negative, or the total volume of the activity is much lower than what you would expect to see at a robust acute care hospital,” Turnage wrote.

According to data Turnage’s office provided to Street Sense Media, emergency room visits are down 20% compared to the previous year and the number of days patients spent in the hospital are less than half of what they were this time last year. Though these statistics were impacted by COVID-19, the negative trends at UMC also predate the pandemic.

Roberta LeNoir, an emergency room nurse and the collective bargaining unit president in the Nurses Association, pushed back against the notion that UMC is overstaffed. She described a hospital that repeatedly struggles to keep up with its current patient volume — precisely because it lacks necessary funding from the city.

“We have people coming from all over, and we’re doing the best we can with what little resources we have. We’re being strangled from the top financially by cutting our services, and we’re being just beaten to death from the bottom by the amount of patients that come in. And it’s awful because even though we’re seeing the patients, we’re not getting the revenue because we got to transfer them out,” LeNoir said. “It makes no sense. How are we to make money if we got to transfer everybody out?”

LeNoir recounted how inadequate staffing forced her and her colleagues to balance patient care with a myriad of other responsibilities — even basic custodial duties.

“We’re past skeleton staffing, we’re down to a bone,” LeNoir said. “When gunshot wounds run in or stabbings run in, they routinely drip blood from the lobby or ambulance bay into the [Emergency Department]. If they don’t have enough staff, you have to decide whether you’re going to let the blood stay there or get it up, and you’re going to get it up because you don’t want the clients walking in blood.”

According to LeNoir, the situation has gotten worse over time as UMC’s declining financial situation has forced repeated rounds of permanent staffing cuts, known as reductions in force (RIF). “That’s normal,” LeNoir said, noting she’s been through several such reductions.“When they have these RIFs, they do not rehire the people, they don’t refill the positions. We have to make do with what we have.”

This understaffing has had consequences for patients who visit UMC for care. The Washington Post featured one neighbor of the hospital who said he travels across town to the George Washington University Hospital when in need of care. But for many residents in Wards 7 and 8, UMC is their only option.

“We still have all of these people coming in [to UMC] — people that are looking for doctors to deliver their babies — and the reason why they’re coming there is because most of our people do not have the funds to travel up Northwest,” said Christopher Hawthorne, a community leader and former Ward 8 ANC commissioner. “And that’s one of the sad parts.

For most of these operations that they need, they simply do not have the time to be traveling such a far way.”

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

Residents of wards 7 and 8 suffer from a disproportionately seems to be an expectation that they don’t have any budgetary high number of negative health outcomes compared with the constraints,” he wrote in a statement to Street Sense Media. rest of the District. African American residents, specifically, The since-appointed fiscal control board is expected to live with increased risk for hypertension, diabetes, obesity, deliver its reduced spending plan to the D.C. Council next and other conditions, according to a 2016 study by month. Angell Jacobs, the board’s chair and former D.C. Georgetown University.

Deputy Chief Financial Officer, testified during a June 7 As a result, COVID-19 mortality rates in UMC’s intensive hearing that the board will “strive to minimize the impact to care unit are far above the national average — 47% of admitted those delivering direct services to our patients.” coronavirus patients have died to date, according to an April In addition to Jacobs and Turnage, the fiscal control board’s report from UMC’s hospital board. That same report noted members include former city administrator Robert Bobb, that approximately 9% of UMC patients left without seeing a vice chair of UMC’s board of trustees Dr. Malika Fair, D.C. provider in March — a slight decline from the previous month, Nurses Association representative Donita Reid-Jackson, and but still more than four times the Service Employees International national average.

Union representative Girume UMC’s nurses have been Ashenafi. The hospital’s interim calling attention to the hospital’s CEO, Marcela Maamari, and its mismanagement for years. Back chief medical officer, Dr. William in 2017, after the hospital Strudwick, are also non-voting permanently shuttered its obstetrics members of the board. ward due to reported mishandling Though the 2019 legislation first of pregnant patients, the nurses establishing the oversight board Roberta LeNoir took a vote of no confidence against required the mayor to specifically UMC Emergency Room Nurse the consulting firm that ran the appoint a Ward 8 resident as hospital. At the time, UMC’s top a member, the D.C. Council doctor accused the firm, Veritas, of “disregard[ing] patient removed that stipulation last month. Lawmakers changed the care and commit[ting] malfeasance in its effort to increase language so that the appointee could be from either Ward 7 patient volume.” This led the city to switch contractors in or 8 — a requirement Dr. Fair, a Ward 7 resident, meets. The 2018 from Veritas to UMC’s current operator, Mazars. last-minute change discouraged Hawthorne, who says he feels D.C. Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt called the unrepresented in the decisions surrounding his community’s hospital “functionally” bankrupt in 2018, as Mazars was hospital. “At this point in time, we have no one to advocate for onboarded. According to Turnage, UMC revenues since then the community that’s serving on that board,” Hawthorne said. have declined by 10% to $100 million, while expenses have His frustrations, however, stretch beyond just the impending only declined by 4% to $142 million in the same period. spending cuts. For him and his neighbors, the fiscal control Moreover, Turnage expects that $42 million dollar deficit board is the latest in a pattern of city officials breaching the to grow in the next year. “My guess is, given the decline in trust of their most vulnerable residents. patient activity and the lingering effects of the pandemic, that “Our District leaders are hypocrites to their fiduciary duties,” [revenue] may drop below $100 million in 2022,” Turnage Hawthorne said. “We still pay taxes. We should have a hospital said at the May hearing. in our area. And if we wanted to have two — UMC and the These incidents have motivated city officials to invest in a new hospital — to handle the volume of people, we should new facility meant to replace UMC by 2024. As part of a 2019 very well have it. But we’re not allowed to have those things.” plan to speed up the replacement hospital’s construction at St. Until the new spending plan is released in July, nurses like Elizabeths East Campus in Ward 8, the Council capped the LeNoir can only wait and hope to weather the storm to come. amount of subsidies UMC could receive annually; any funding It’s not the first time they’ve had to. above the Council’s designated $15 million subsidy threshold “I would like it to be known that the same staff that works would trigger the fiscal control board to rein in spending. at UMC works at other area hospitals,” LeNoir said. “We are The Council’s subsidy limit became relevant last month as trained. We save lives everyday. We do the very best we can.

Mayor Bowser allocated an additional $25 million to the hospital And we have no control over the management companies that in order to cover payroll and other expenses for the remainder of have been brought in that have raped that hospital time and this fiscal year. Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent Gray introduced time again.” emergency legislation in order to raise the subsidy limitation “We never get to vote on who comes in or what they do from $15 million to $40 million, which would have avoided the when they get there. But we have to carry the brunt of ‘Oh fiscal oversight board and the service cuts that will accompany it. well, that’s UMC.’” But the bid failed by two votes. UMC received the $25 million to stay afloat through Sept. 30, but will now have its budget dramatically downsized by the oversight board going forward.

The fiscal control board is expected to stay in place until UMC’s replacement hospital opens.

Though the city is funding construction, the new hospital at St. Elizabeths will be privately operated by United Health Services, the same company that operates George Washington University Hospital. This also means UMC’s closure will leave D.C. without any public hospitals. While private hospitals traditionally offer more personalized care and shorter wait times, they are also smaller and more cost-prohibitive for patients — St. Elizabeths is planned to have fewer beds than UMC, but will offer more specialty care services.

The emergency bill’s failure came as a frustrating surprise to the hospital’s staff, including LeNoir. She and Blegay testified before the Committee on Health — chaired by Gray — in the aftermath, commenting on June 7 that the Council’s actions felt contradictory to their constituents’ values. “It is difficult for us at UMC to believe that Black lives of residents in wards 7 and 8 really matter,” LeNoir said at the time.

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who voted against the emergency bill, blamed UMC’s administrators for the Wala Blegay, staff attorney and labor specialist for the District of hospital’s continual financial woes. “The hospital has to Columbia Nurses Association, stands outside of the United Medical Center hospital. PHOTO BY RODNEY CHOICE // CHOICEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM account for what they say and control their spending. There

// 7

AT A GLANCE

“We’re past skeleton staffing, we’re down to a bone.”

Vennie Hill.

BIRTHDAYS Vennie Hill July 4 ARTIST/VENDOR

ACHIEVEMENTS Artist/Vendor Reginald Black; Interns Avi Bajpai, Ben Cooper, Annemarie Cuccia, Lana Green, Julia Pinney, Sasha Polonko, Cammi Rood, Eunice Sung, Callan Tansill-Suddath; Volunteers T.B. Khadra and Joseph Young; and Staff Members Eric Falquero and Jake Maher Society of Professional Journalists D.C. Pro Awards: Winners and finalists

ANNOUNCEMENTS • The Street Sense Media office will be closed Monday, July 5.

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8 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A // J U N E 3 0 - J U LY 6, 2021

h c t a c o t w Ho c a m o t o P S r e v i R s r e t s n o m

BY JEFFERY MCNEIL Artist/Vendor

ome people believe you can teach a man to fish. I believe fishing is something that teaches. In my previous column, I wrote what inspired me about fishing.

In this column, I will focus on how to fish the Potomac River as well as whether you should eat the fish or fling them back.

The Potomac remains an anomaly.

America’s most famous river is also the nation’s least appreciated river. It runs 380 miles beginning in the Allegheny Mountains and emptying in the Chesapeake Bay at Havre de Grace, Maryland.

The Upper Potomac offers big brown, rainbow trout, pike, and muskies. Lower Rock Creek Park and Georgetown, where I fish, offer giant carp, herring, shad, snakeheads, rockfish, bass, and monster catfish.

While some like to fish the giant Potomac, I prefer streams and canals because the fish follow the herring and perch that spawn during the spring. While anglers prefer fishing in daytime hours, these times are not lucrative in catching trophy size fish.

Big fish like cooler deep waters and will not feed when the water temperature rises.

The best time to catch trophy fish is an hour before dusk or sunrise.

If fishing in the DC area or Lower Potomac, this isn’t fresh water but tidal water. Before I plan my fishing trip, I check the tide charts, but in some places it doesn’t matter if the herring or bait fish are in, the fish will be gorging themselves.

If you plan on boating or canoeing and you’re a novice, I suggest obtaining a guide because there are underwater currents, places where boats have disappeared and people have drowned.

The most experienced hands can get befuddled navigating the Potomac.

I privately have secret fishing spots outside the river, where there’s no civilization and the water isn’t as polluted as the DC metropolitan area. Because I work near my fishing spot, I like to grab my rod after work, and I’m lucky enough to be near a 24-hour Safeway where I can grab chicken, liver or fish, good for catching catfish or big bass, if biting. If you want to catch everything from bass to big cats, use gulp bait. I swear by this over any lure.

I have fished all over the Potomac, but my preferred place is Thompson’s Boathouse. When fishing, be aware of whom you divulge information to or get shocked seeing that person with a rod and reel fishing in your spot.

When fishing at night, I carry three to five rods. Catfish are funny feeders: sometimes they crush liver, while other times they will lose their minds with shrimp or cut bait.

While known as bottom huggers, when the shad and herring come in, the river is alive with giant popping sounds.

This is where I have my light rod or Ugly Stick. I tie on a gulp bait with a feather jig.

It’s all in the technique. You have to make it look like a swimming fish for a bass to hit it. I also like to use frog or popping lures when I see the fish splashing. Another tip is to bring rod holders and a good net if you’re fishing off a bridge or bulkhead.

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail I learned catching fish starts long before you throw a line in the water. Nothing is more frustrating than fishing at night,

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

seeing fish jump, and not having your lines ready. My fishing trip starts the day before. Catfish fishing can be treacherous.

They live under stumps and boulders. I fill my tackle box with sinkers, small and sometimes as heavy as 6 ounces, depending on current. Rockfish like fast-moving water and bridges, so it can be expensive buying lures for bass. What worked for me was shrimp. I caught trophy-sized Rockfish in New Jersey, where they are called stripers.

Rockfish have a ferocious hit so when they strike, you have to set the hook fast or they’ll drop the hook. With catfish, you have to have patience. That’s why I have rod holders.

Sometimes you have to wait twenty-thirty minutes before you set the hook. I would rather have a rod holder so I can read a book or play video games. When it looks like my line headed for the river, I know he’s hooked good and hard.

What to do, when you catch them?

I’m often asked, do I eat the fish? My advice if you’re going to eat catfish, eat the smaller ones, from three to five pounds.

Big catfish have homes and don’t venture from them so all the toxins get in their bodies; the smaller ones are flighty, so they taste better. Stripers, walleyes, and pan fish such as crappies live in cleaner water, Snakeheads like clean streams,

so eating them is OK. Some people eat carp, soft-shell turtles, and terrapins that are part of the Potomac. If you know how to cook them, they are edible.

Prepare your fish, especially catfish!!

I’m not a catfish eater but the best way to cook them is to marinate them in buttermilk, add vinegar and lemon juice, and wait for about seven hours to get the toxins out. With stripers and walleye, I fillet them. Some love frying the whole fish bone-in. I prefer fillets. While I prefer fish out of the ocean, I’m a sucker for a nice walleye or bass.

My last piece of advice is, know the laws and rules before throwing a line in the river. With some fish, like snakeheads and flathead catfish, you must kill them if they are caught and you will have excellent table fare. Bass, shad, and walleyes have size and catch limits. Get a license, so the game warden doesn’t creep on you. If using a boat, keep in mind that some areas don’t allow gas motors.

As you see, there is more to fishing than throwing a line.

The moon, stars and weather play active roles in fishing. It’s important to prepare and know what to fish for, as well as where you’ll find the best opportunities for big fish.

Stay tuned I Hopefully I will catch more fish this summer.

Dependable fishing lures. PHOTO BY JEFFERY MCNEIL

Steps for cooking your catch All photos by Jeffery McNeil

First, catch the fish out on the river.

Then, take it back home and scale it.

Cut the fish into filets and marinate it.

Finally, fry it in oil until golden brown and enjoy!

// 9

1 0 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A // J U N E 3 0 - J U LY 6, 2021

OPINION

The ugly brutality of prison sensory deprivation PHOTO COURTESY OF EMILIANO BAR / UNSPLASH.COM

BY PIERRE JOHNSON

The 13th Amendment states that slavery is abolished unless one has been arrested for a crime. In other words, if being incarcerated seems like a form of slavery, that’s because it is.

Sensory deprivation, usually imposed on prisoners through solitary confinement, is a form of punishment. These deprivation cases alone are worth billions and many landowners get government grants from big banks to buy land to build prisons. I still talk to people today who tell me how hilarious it is to think that the prison system has changed. With the COVID-19 pandemic, sensory deprivation has only gotten worse.

Picture living in a human cage about the size of a bathroom. You are placed in this cage in a human warehouse where you will eat, sleep, wash, read, think, and take care of bodily functions. You are there 24 hours a day, day in and day out, year in and year out, with no end. The prisoners say that the silence is eerie.

There is a steel door between you and the rest of the world. You may be allowed out once every other day for an hour and a half in a concrete yard. You may be allowed one 15-minute call a day and that call is monitored. In some of the units you get one call every three months. Your mail and reading material is censored.

If for some reason you have to leave your cage, you are stripsearched, which often includes a pointedly humiliating anal probe.

You are shackled around your waist and handcuffed. You are entirely under the control of prison guards who carry long, black clubs they refer to as “n***** beaters.” You remain constantly on the alert for your own mental and physical deterioration. In a letter from one of these brothers, he asks me, “how does one go about articulating desperation to another who is not desperate? How does one go about articulating the psychological stress of knowing that people are waiting for me to self-destruct?”

There is no question in my mind that this is an acute form of torture that is being carried out deliberately. Sensory deprivation and isolation are brainwashing techniques. This is no accident.

The world of control units and supermax prisons is a world in which isolation and segregation for long and indefinite periods of time has led to a psychological brutality of ugly proportions. The expanded use of these units has led Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the World Organization Against Torture/USA to criticize the United States’ practices. The use of isolation in this country breaks the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which the U.S. has signed.

One of the conditions that hasn’t changed at all throughout my years monitoring prisons has been the brutality. I don’t think it is possible to hold such power over another human being and retain one’s humanity. I get reports on a daily basis of beatings, cell extractions, hosings, and worse — the most horrible kind of treatment that one human being can inflict upon another.

Pierre Johnson is an artist and vendor with Street Sense Media.

Feeling forced into the vaccine

BY MARCELLUS PHILLIPS

As a child, my experiences with vaccines are what brought me to the decisions I have made today for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Every year I took a vaccine to attend school, I would get a rash that was said to be caused by the vaccine taken at the time. Once I was allowed to make my own decisions with my body, I no longer allowed any type of experimental vaccine into my body. Everyone on earth may have the same features, but we all react to everything differently. I have a seizure disorder, so things affect me differently.

Over the last ten years I have had to readjust to medications and have felt side effects that I no longer want to experience in life from any medication or vaccine. I currently take Aptiom and Lamictal that I cannot miss for any reason, and I worry the vaccine could trigger a lifethreatening seizure.

The COVID-19 vaccines are still allowed by the Food and Drug Administration on an emergency basis, and I have found in the past that my body and mentality are not structured to handle experimental vaccines or medications. After doing extensive research, I have come to the conclusion that I do not trust the FDA. At the end of the day, it’s just a job to them. They all benefit from others getting sick and pretending to cure all while in reality people are dying because of their trials and tribulations.

At this point, I feel that I am being forced to take a vaccine to keep a job, and I feel I'm looked at differently because my views are different then the average person.

While I was at work one day gathering papers, I caught the end of a conversation

in which someone said that people who do not take the vaccine are stupid. Hearing that hurt, and reminded me of my days of homelessness, which are feelings I never like re-visiting. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I never think less of anyone else for wanting to take the vaccine, so I am extremely saddened by the fact that people like me are looked down upon. I'm currently struggling with the fact that we probably will never see eye to eye on this subject.

I contacted my doctor, and spoke to her about why I will not take the vaccine in hopes of some type of documentation to provide for my employer. She explained to me that I should either look for another job or take the vaccine. Now I'm being told by my doctor and employer that I have to take the vaccine or I can’t work there anymore.

I also plan to do a lot of traveling for networking, and feel that as long as I as well as everyone around me wears masks and social distances there will be no issues, just like there aren’t any now. When I go outside or visit stores, I'm noticing that people are getting comfortable with not wearing masks, which I feel is irresponsible and uncaring for those of us who feel masks are still needed to protect the safety of all.

I'm currently backed in a corner and being forced by multiple individuals and organizations to get a vaccine or be treated as less worthy for having different beliefs. I can not change a person’s way of thinking, but I should have full control over what I put into my body without the stress of losing my job, and will fight for what's right until the day that I die.

I never think less of anyone else for wanting to take the vaccine, so I am extremely saddened by the fact that people like me are looked down upon.

Marcellus Phillips is a vendor program associate with Street Sense Media.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Street Sense Media requires people working in its offices to be vaccinated, and masks to be worn in common areas. Also, the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have been proven safe and effective, with side effects only in rare cases.

Join the conversation, share your views - Have an opinion about how homelessness is being addressed in our community?

- Want to share firsthand experience?

- Interested in responding to what someone else has written?

Street Sense Media has maintained an open submission policy since our founding.

We aim to elevate voices from across the housing spectrum and foster healthy debate.

Please send submissions to opinion@streetsensemedia.org.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

// 11

ART

Choose me

Staying strong with your mental health and anger

BY KYM PARKER Artist/Vendor

We all at birth have one choice Free will To understand what we want We choose her to know Voices can be evil But God’s words are not She never hurts her children Believe Choose God God chose us

BY JOE JACKSON Artist/Vendor

Sometimes you think you have a handle on your life and you don’t. I’m out here trying to stay strong to sell the paper, but I recently caught an assault charge. Going to jail was the hardest thing for me. I couldn’t stop thinking that I was going to lose everything that I worked hard for.

I’ve been staying with Pathways to

IMAGE BY PLEASE DON’T SELL MY ARTWORK AS IS ON PIXABAY.COM

u t a r g n Co

! s n o i t a l

BY DARLESHA JOYNER Artist/Vendor

Dear Alicia, my daughter, Congratulations on becoming a young lady. I am so proud of you going to 6th grade. I am cheering you on all the way through. I want you to know that I am proud of you. Keep up the good work and remember that Mommy loves you.

Dear Zachara, my daughter, Life’s about to start for you, going to kindergarten now.

I’m excited for you, baby girl. I’m looking forward to graduation and all your cute work.

Housing. Doing the COVID-19 pandemic everything just slowed down. It was hard to make money out here to take care of my place and keep it stocked with household cleaning supplies. When you start out here trying to sell the paper, you are being judged by people, but you have to remember that you’re working on your life.

The splendor of love

BY AYUB ABDUL Artist/Vendor

In the early morning breeze awaken To see a love that was meant to be.

When our eyes met the feelings Fall upon one’s soul No denials, no lies.

For this was strong and can’t do any wrong.

A sparkle in our heart.

So Cupid shot his dart.

For once kissed, love shall stay eternally.

Sales over the weekend

BY MARCUS MCCALL Artist/Vendor

I guess when people think of the weekend they think it’s time to chill and party. Some even relax. But for me, it is different.

I been trying to be a paper boy on the weekend. During the work week or most of the week I be too busy to sell papers, so I chose the weekend to do so — also on Wednesday because new issues come out every week now!

I be very busy during the week with appointments and working on a better housing situation for myself. Over the

weekend I experience people being very snobbish towards me, saying, “Oh, I already read one before” or just saying “No thank you” when I did not even open my mouth to greet them myself.

When people ask what do I write about, I tell them my personal life, poverty, religion.

Do you enjoy reading? If so, just check out my content! Please donate to Marcus McCall #643 or email me at marcusmccall@gmail. com for comment!

1 2 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A // J U N E 3 0 - J U LY 6, 2021

ART

My name is Strong

BY PATTY SMITH Artist/Vendor

Hello my name is strong.

Strong name.

Strong woman.

Looking for a strong man.

I have had and still have strong family ties.

Vote for me, the vendor of the year.

ILLUSTRATION BY PATTY SMITH

Seasons are changing

BY ROCHELLE WALKER Artist/Vendor

Pandemic is done forever

BY ABEL PUTU Artist/Vendor

Things gettin’ better. Things is step by step comin’ back together. And I always pray that things will get back to normal, so we can be able to do our activities that we was doing before.

I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to do activities like movin’, that kids will be able to play at the park, the recreation center. Not only for D.C., but all over the 50 states — it should be 52, but 50.

I appreciate that things are getting back to normal. I appreciate that everywhere we Street Sense vendors go, people want to see us there.

And they’re glad that we comin’ back. And they appreciate us putin’ the words out there for Street Sense Media.

May the sun make us have summer fun, The moon let us not move too soon, but follow the summer hot weather broadcast.

May the rain drops keep us inside, Crying the summer blues.

May the summer rainbow colors help us to grow all season long.

May the summer breeze get us walking in victory.

May the sun keep us from staying indoors.

Summer in DC

BY ANTHONY CARNEY Artist/Vendor

There are hot days coming In the nation’s capital.

They call them dog Days. We will be in The high 90s and even Over 100 degrees in July and August. Stay cool, drink Plenty of water I’m going to drink lemonade And stay under a shady tree.

MY LIFE STORY, PART 2:

Dealing drugs

BY TONY WEST Artist/Vendor

PREVIOUSLY: In Part 1, Tony wrote about his life from ages 5 - 10, living in fear of abuse from his father.

I lived in and out of jail for years.

For 17 years my downfall was when I was on crack. I robbed people, I supported my crack habit by stealing and selling crack. My life was miserable. I went to many rehab centers and I lived homeless for 17 years in and out on the streets.

When I lived in abandoned buildings it was dark and cold in the winter time and hot in the summertime. I always lived in fear. I projected a false image of myself. I was very defensive and did not want any friends around me. I was hopeless and miserable all the time. I could not get my life together. I ended up in the psych ward because I went into a deep depression. I gave up on life. I started to believe that no one loved me and I did not love myself.

To be continued.

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// 1 3

To a Precis I am all way seeing on un clime shwrend but vor hoops unnyt? Ime Naias, toh all thr goodis in bime...

Owls lyghte anye plays! Hw sublime to see itt from zuech holy unwown lan’!

Straw!!! Rayn-drops foreuman, meny time!

BY FRANKLIN STERLING Artist/Vendor

Friends

IMAGE BY GORDON JOHNSON / PIXABAY

The adventure of fishing with my dad

BY BRIANA BUTLER Artist/Vendor

I wake up to a cool, breezy morning filled with peace and a frying pan layered with eggs. We load the car with fishing rods, bait and lots of goodies to snack on. Rolling through the country roads filled with shady trees, while singing to the “oldies but goodies.” After pulling up, we walk through a trail with lots of gear on our shoulders. A tree slaps daddy across the face! It’s funny and he is okay.

Can you believe that a person can catch two fish at the same time? That’s me when I reel a perch in and the perch maneuvers around a rock or seaweed. The perch releases itself and I start to reel him in again. And just that moment a gigantic bass bites and holds onto the perch. And I bring in two good size fish all at once!

Then my father cast his fishing rod into a tree and into the water. He catches a 25-27 inch striped large bass. We catch many different fish in all sizes like white perch, spots, croakers, yellow perch and other basses that we don’t want because they are too small according to the law. Later we go to the beach to swim and catch more fish and drink colas. We catch flounders.

Then we light some charcoal and smoke and eat the fish. We take pictures of the big basses we caught. Then we lay on a beach towel with a large red umbrella to shade us when resting.

Finally we cross the big Bay Bridge back home and clean the rest of the fish and have lots of laughs. That’s what happened to us on our fun fishing trip.

BY JACKIE TURNER Artist/Vendor

In my experience of life I have only had two good friends. One I met in elementary school and have been friends with for over 60 years. Although we have been out of touch for some years now, in my heart she is still my friend.

The second friend died in 2005. We met in junior high and continued to be friends up till I got married the second time in 1984. Then we lost touch.

Friends are hard to come by. You might know a lot of people but most people have few friends. In my opinion, a friend is someone you can always talk to and is supportive. Someone you can share your life with, and sometimes mature with.

Some people think that to be true friends you have to be the same sex in order to relate. People who believe you have to be alike to be friends are out of touch. We have evolved past that type of thinking. People are able to change places in their mind with their emotions and be able to develop a friend. So all people are capable of being friends — but you have to be open to find a good friend.

OnlineCrosswords.net

1 4 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A // J U N E 3 0 - J U LY 6, 2021

FUN & GAMES

This is the Daily Crossword Puzzle #4 for Jun 17, 2021

Novice Sudoku by KrazyDad, Volume 2, Book 1

Sudoku #3 6 5 4 7 9 2 3 9 6 8 4 8 3 9 9 4 1 7 3 5 8 4 5 3 2 4 5 3 1 © 2013 KrazyDad.com

Novice Sudoku by KrazyDad, Volume 2, Book 1

Fill in the blank squares so that each row, each column and each Sudoku #2 all of the digits 1 thru 9.

3-by-3 block contain

Find this

2 use 4 logic 1 you6 can7 solve 8 the3 puzzle 9 without 5 If you guesswork. crossword puzzle’s

at: www.

6 a little 5 9The2hints4 page 1 shows 7 8a logicalanswers 3 help?

Need order to solve the puzzle.

Use it to identify the next square you should solve.onlinecrosswords.net/ Or use the answers page 7 really 1 3 5 4 2 6 8 get 9 stuck. if you

5 2 4 7 8 6 9 1 8 1 6 2 9 3 7 5 9 7 3 4 5 1 6 8 3 9 2 8 6 7 5 4 4 6 7 5 1 2 8 3 1 5 8 3 4 9 2 6

3 4 2 1 9 7

Sudoku #4 2 3 7 4 6 5 1 9 9 8 4 5 1 4 8 2 3 9 6 8 5 7 2 1 8 1 9 7 7 6 5 3 4 2 3 6

1 9 5 6 7 3 4 2 8 6 2 1 3 7 5 9 6 7 3 4 7 5 1 2 3 6 8 4 9 2 4 3 6 5 1 8 2 9 4 9 5 7 8 1

Sudoku #6 7 5 1 4 3 6 4 1 8 9 2 7 2 8 5 9 6 7 9 5 4 1 3 6 9 4 7 8 5 2 8 3 1 3 6 2

2 6 8 3 9 9 8 7 5 2 5 3 4 1 6 3 1 6 4 7 4 2 3 8 1 8 7 9 2 5 1 5 2 6 3 6 9 1 7 4 7 4 5 9 8

8

Sudoku #8 7 5 3 6 8 9 2 6 1 4 7 5

1 3

4 2 8 9

solutions/84681

<< LAST EDITION’S PUZZLE SOLUTION

American freedom consists largely in talking nonsense.

-- Ed Howe

4 7 9 3

Across Across 1. Baking chambers 1. Baking chambers 6. Circle segments Circle segments 10.6.Crush Crush 14.10.

"M*A*S*H" locale 15.14.

Golfer's warning “M*A*S*H” locale 16.15.

She, in Seville Golfer’s warning 17.16.

Small particles She, in Seville 18.17.

Medicinal plant Small particles 19.18.

RRMedicinal stops plant 20.19.

Positive RR stopsresponses 21.20.

Symbolize Positive responses 23.21.

Dry, as wine Symbolize 25.23.

Highway sign Dry, as wine 26.25.

Poison remedy Highway sign 31.26.

Major network Poison remedy 32.31.

Foreman Major network 33.32.

Worship Foreman 35.33.

Health farm Worship 38.35.

Sixth sense Health farm (abbr.)

39.38.

Expressed Sixth sensescorn (abbr.)

40.39.

Animal's foot Expressed scorn 41.40. ____ Moines, Animal’s footIowa 42.41.

Court sport ____ Moines, Iowa 43.42.

Anger Court sport 44. Adriatic, e.g.

43. Anger 45. Tied up 44. Adriatic, e.g.

47. Small amount 45. Tied up 50. Wilt 47. Small amount 51. Party after a wedding 50. Wilt 56. Speedy 51. Party after a wedding 60. Stratford-on-____ 56. Speedy 61. Wish 60. Stratford-on-____ 62. Unattended 61. Wish 63. Make well 62. Unattended 64. Afresh 63. Make well 65. From that time 64. Afresh 66. Certain bills 65. From that time 67. Doesn't exist 66. Certain bills 68. Legendary stories 67. Doesn’t exist 68. Legendary stories

Down

1. All right!

2. Ballot

3. God of love Down 4.

Arch enemy All right!

5.1.Talked back Ballot 6.2.Distant God of love 7.3.Portrayal 4.

Arch whip enemy 8. Riding 5.

Talked 9. Prophet back 6. Untidy Distant 10. conditions 7.

Portrayal 11. Change 8. Riding whip 12.

Informal speech 9. Prophet 13. Rapidity 10. Untidy conditions 22.

Implant 11. Change 24. Eye surface 12. Informal speech 26. Asleep 13. Rapidity 27. Smelling organ 28. Recipe units (abbr.)

29. Youth 30. Happening 31. Tops of waves 34. Pennsylvania port

Find the solution at https://onlinecrosswords.net/84681

35. Shadowbox 36. Knight’s assistant 22. Implant 43. Decorative clothing 37. Stunned 24. Eye surface 44. Panoramas 39. Make tea 46. Bother 26. Asleep 43. Decorative clothing 47.

Piece of land 27. Smelling organ 44. Panoramas 48.

Musical show 28. Recipe units (abbr.)

46. Bother 49. Squirrel's treat 29. Youth47. Piece of land 30. Happening 48. Musical show 52. Asian language 31. Tops of waves 49. Squirrel’s treat 53. Charged particles 34. Pennsylvania port 52. Asian language 54. Honest 35. Shadowbox 53. Charged particles 55. Politician ____ Gingrich 36. Knight's assistant 54. Honest 57. Early video game 37. Stunned 55. Politician ____ Gingrich 58. Indian of Peru 39. Make tea 57. Early video game 59. Disappointing grade 58. Indian of Peru 59. Disappointing grades

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