As of October, the national unemployment rate is at 6.9% according to the That amounts to around , due to both consumer spending and industrial output falling because of the pandemic.

Mike Curtin, CEO of DC Central Kitchen, a food distribution organization and unemployed adult training facility, contended that the holiday season is a time where everyone gets into the philanthropic spirit.

“Everyone becomes all of a sudden keenly aware of their neighbors that are less fortunate than them,” he said.

Curtin said the usual surplus of donations is so great, they can store enough turkeys in the offsite freezer to last until the next July. However, COVID-19 presents a special case for the holidays.

“There is a much greater need, much greater,” said Jane Heishman, a Vienna resident who volunteers with her church for community food organizations such as and . “And I think all the organizations will tell you that.”

According to Curtin, food insecurity in D.C. is estimated to rise to 16% this year, a 60% increase from its 10.6% rate last year. Additionally, 1 in 3 children in the nation’s capital are food insecure.

“This is in one of the cities that has the most attention, the most resources,” Curtin said. “Just imagine what it’s like in rural areas or native reservations or urban communities that don’t have the kinds of resources that D.C. does.”

Food insecurity is to rise by 60% between 2018 and 2020 (Sarah Salem / 91����).

In terms of providing COVID-friendly ways to donate, many organizations have switched to online. Heishman said the organizations that she volunteers for have worked hard to adjust to contactless ways to give back, such as drive-by food drives and a virtual sign-up for giving Christmas gifts to families in need.

“Everything is wiped down, people wear gloves,” she assured. “Everyone wears a mask, tables are six feet apart.”

Susie King, a McLean resident who volunteers at her church for organizations such as food bank , said initiatives such as a “Giving Tree” at her church — where people can take a tag off of a tree for requests from food banks and nursing homes and bring it back with a gift — are still happening but online.

“It’s hard to believe that even in McLean there are people who need this stuff,” King said, alluding to those who struggle in the wealthier areas of the DMV. “It’s hard in this area because I don’t think this area has been hit as hard as some of the other areas… life in Herndon is very different from life in McLean right now.”

The announcement of the and the holidays coming up has brought hope to the D.C. community, but Curtin is not as optimistic.

“The next six weeks [or] two months are going to be grim,” he said, alluding to the people who will do “things they shouldn’t” over the holidays out of excitement. “People will say, ‘oh, the vaccine is right around the corner.’ That’s true, but the economic impacts are going to last for years.”

Curtin argued that the band of individuals who are one paycheck away from poverty has widened, in addition to the already marginalized or impoverished communities, similarly to how the band widened during the Great Recession. D.C. Central Kitchen’s mission is to provide opportunities to decrease that band.

“We’ve been overwhelmed and humbled by the incredible outpouring of philanthropy we’ve seen over the last eight months,” he said. “But that’s not going [to] keep up. It can’t. It’s impossible.”

Curtin mainly advises that giving during the holidays in large quantities, while helpful, is not sustainable. He encourages year-round giving instead, along with providing opportunities for employment for those less fortunate.

“It’s wonderful to be conscious of your neighbor being hungry during Thanksgiving,” he said. “But people are also going to be hungry the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. And in February. And in March and in August… food will never end hunger.”

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Named the “Million MAGA March” and “Stop the Steal,” supporters at the event believe voter fraud played a role in the election, a claim that has been disproven by the , the and .

“We believe these votes on the last election on Nov. 3 were not legally counted,” Anna Boone, a political economist from North Carolina, said. “And that is our main directive: to make sure every legal vote is counted.”

Boone organized a Facebook event entitled “Nationwide Stop the Steal Protest” to encourage people to protest either in D.C. or in their own cities. Other Facebook groups advertising “Stop the Steal” have been by Facebook and Eventbrite. One of the Facebook groups had amassed 320,000 members by Thursday morning when it was taken down, according to the .

“We encourage our organizers to express their views and gather for a chosen purpose as long as it’s done in a way that doesn’t violate our Terms of Service,” an Eventbrite worker said in an email to Amy Kremer, chair of Women for American First and one of the organizers for the march. “We do not permit events, content, or creators that share or promote potentially harmful misinformation.”

The IS NOT CANCELED just shut down our event & emailed everyone that it was canceled

THE MARCH IS NOT CANCELED

First it was

Next it was

Now is trying shut down our march

But we won’t let them

— Amy Kremer (@AmyKremer)

Despite the efforts by Eventbrite and Facebook, the weekend of protests continues. Far-right groups such as the Proud Boys, which President Trump told to “stand by” during a presidential debate, made a showing. Leftist groups such as Refuse Fascism, Antifa and Black Lives Matter showed up to .

This is giant. Hundreds of Proud Boys and supporters marching on the streets of DC chanting “FUCK ANTIFA” two hours ahead of the .

— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer)

Unrest breaks out in DC as Antifa confront MAGA marchers

— The Stark Naked Brief. (@StarkNakedBrief)

“Trumpism is real, and it scares the hell out of the left-wing party,” Boone said.

Boone said the most important part of the protest is to “expose the mockery of democracy” in this country.

“We can’t get the election right,” she said. “Our country has struggled with this every election even back to Al Gore. And we are tired.”

Brad Botwin, organization chair for the Montgomery County GOP, said people “want to show support for the president, the country.”

“People are still excited,” he said. “There’s lawsuits going on, there’s recounts going on. So a lot of people feel like they just want to do something.”

Drew Satterfield, who lives in McLean, Virginia, and works in Sales Management, stopped by even though he said he’s a “big supporter but not too into the public demonstration aspect of it.”

“I think the goal is to show what the 70 plus million people who voted for him feel currently,” he said. 

President Trump drove through in a while on the way to his golf course in Virginia. 

“Heartwarming to see all of the tremendous support out there,” Trump said in a tweet.

Heartwarming to see all of the tremendous support out there, especially the organic Rallies that are springing up all over the Country, including a big one on Saturday in D.C. I may even try to stop by and say hello. This Election was Rigged, from Dominion all the way up & down!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

For the rest of the weekend, and further down the line, Boone alludes to more protests.

“This will not be the last one,” she said, “because… this has multiple organizers… Our goal — my goal — was to provide a platform.”

Botwin and Sutterfield assured that they will be “friendly” to DC residents and counter-protesters.

“They’re not going to riot or loot, they’re going to have a friendly protest,” Botwin said. “We’re allowed. As Americans, we’re going to do these things.”

“He’s accomplished a lot,” Boone said. “He needs four more years to finish.”

The post Trump supporters swarm DC to protest election results first appeared on 91����.

The donation will support , a program that addresses racial disparities in the community by having community conversations about it. The donation shows Amazon’s desire to support ���������Բ��ٴDz�’s broader adopted in 2019.

Samia Byrd, chief race and equity officer in Arlington County, said Amazon donated to “allow for these conversations to go forth as well as for them to be a partner with us.” 

She said they will “also receive training and to make sure that they commit to having these same conversations with their employees as a business in Arlington County.”

Amazon, which is building its in Pentagon City, has committed to training members of its staff to facilitate these conversations and will assist Arlington County in reaching out to the community to encourage participation. Arlington has hired over that will work at the new headquarters.

“It’s a longstanding relationship that we’ve been working through for the last several months with Amazon to really assess what are our needs,” , diversity chief at Arlington Public Schools, said. “Amazon is one of our partners because they’re within our community.”

comes in three tiers, according to Byrd. The broadest is “DRE in your community,” which involves virtual conversations for Arlington residents to take part in. The next one is on , with one in Spanish available as well.

The next tier is “DRE Together,” specifically meant for Arlington civic associations, nonprofits, faith partners, and businesses. Byrd said that while the Amazon donation was recent, Arlington County has worked for years on promoting diversity. 

GoodCall, a research website dedicated to helping consumers make smart financial decisions, named Arlington the No.1 in 2015.

“Arlington embraces a diverse selection of business ventures, and we’re proud of the work we’ve done in helping many of those businesses,” Tara Palacios, director of ���������Բ��ٴDz�’s BizLaunch Small Business Assistance Network at Arlington Economic Development, said on the organization’s .

The final tier, “DRE in your Neighborhood,” is still in progress but will address how to have conversations among residents’ neighbors and family members about racism.

“Talking is action, and talking leads to action,” Byrd said, referring to DRE.

School systems, at all levels, can become color-brave by courageously analyzing and disaggregating data by race. When doing so, veer away from immediately jumping to conclusions but use dialogue for inquiry, strategies, and then adult implementation. tip.

— Arron Gregory (@APSEquity)

Arron Gregory, chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at Arlington Public Schools, said APS is enacting an equity policy to focus on creating a more equitable school system through its resources, outputs, instruction and workforce diversity (Courtesy of ).

Besides the Arlington government’s DRE initiatives, APS has enacted their . This policy, according to Gregory, will be “looking at inclusivity of our students by recognizing that all of us are starting from a place of inequity, and we need to do what we can… based on inequities that exist,” he said.

The equity policy will focus on creating a more equitable school system through its resources, outputs, instruction and workforce diversity.

Arlington has also partnered with , an organization dedicated to educating people about how to hold dialogues on systemic and institutional racism. All are part of the equity resolution that Arlington County Government and Arlington Public Schools agreed upon.

While improving racial equity has been a priority for Arlington County, and the county has received recognition for its efforts, both Byrd and Gregory said that improvement is welcome. Byrd specifically said in the next year, she wants to “have a better understanding of who we are as a community… and start to talk about that in a way that moves us to action.”

When thinking about the future of racial equity in Arlington county, Gregory said they wanted to start with a conversation, and specifically with “normalizing” conversation surrounding racism.

“Starting with race and the intersectionality of race is something we really need to address,” Gregory said. “We have achievement gaps and opportunity gaps that exist within APS and in all of our systems.”

Byrd agreed, saying that policymakers must ask themselves the following questions: “Who benefits? Who’s burdened? Who’s missing? How do we know? And then what do we do?”

“But before we can get to that,” she said, “we need to be able to speak to one another about race.”

For more coverage on DRE, see Alex Lucas’s article on 91����.

The post Arlington County receives $100k Amazon donation for racial equity dialogues first appeared on 91����.

The results of the presidential election   as election officials count an unprecedented number of absentee ballots during the coronavirus pandemic and face legal challenges. The standoff is both anger- and anxiety-provoking for Democrats and Republicans alike, who believe there is much at stake, especially around immigration, health care and racial justice.

“I had people calling me weeping this morning, afraid that Trump was going to win,” said Carol McGinnis, president of the Maryland Counseling Association on Nov. 4. “Clients are just really struggling right now. It’s painful and it’s scary.”

Nearly 80% of American adults say the “future of our nation” is a significant source of stress, compared to 66% in 2019, according to from the American Psychological Association.

The anxiety flowed across party lines. Over 75% of Democrats and 67% of Republicans reported that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was a significant source of stress.

Counselors are working overtime to figure out the best ways to support their clients during this time. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline added more staff on Election Night because the organization saw a 140% increase from normal traffic on Election Night in 2016, .

“We want to listen and affirm,” McGinnis of the Maryland Counseling Association said. “Then we have to come up with a plan. ‘If Trump wins and he is the source of your anxiety, then what’s your five-year plan? Let’s go beyond Trump.’”

Mental health providers are encouraging clients to limit news consumption and take walks or talk with friends instead. It isn’t useful to focus on “the minute by minute activities related to the elections, over which none of us have any individual control,” said Jean Harris, the president of the D.C. Chapter of the National Alliance of Mental Illness.

Counselors have also noticed that anxiety, stress and anger can be higher in communities of color. The recent wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the country led to a widespread awareness of systemic racism, and that is on the top of clients’ minds.

“Counselors have to help clients find a way to process all of the trauma which could now be compounded by this election,” McGinnis said.

Counselors also note that living in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area is particularly taxing. The District has been for racial equity, including those held during the summer and on Election Night.

“The other things that are happening in our community all may evoke a strong, emotional response for individuals within our community,” said Barbara Bazron, the director of the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health.

It’s hard not to be angry during this time, counselors said. But anger can be positive and productive, depending on where it is directed, said McGinnis.

“If you don’t do anything with it or turn it toward yourself then you become depressed and might turn to alcohol or drugs,” McGinnis said. “But you can learn how to use your anger to move you toward action and education. Turn that coal into a fire.”

The election anxiety adds to the declining mental health Americans have experienced during the coronavirus pandemic. More than 9.3 million coronavirus cases , and more than 230,000 people have died from the virus. 

Those numbers are expected to rise as the country faces another wave this holiday season, as people thwart social distancing guidelines and localities begin to reopen. 

Counselors are expecting to see even more demand for their services, as families bring holiday transitions to virtual platforms, or struggle to put meals on the table.

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“I love our president,” Carole DeLong, 77 and former president of the Arlington Republican Women’s Club, said. “I’m Catholic so I’ve been doing a lot of prayers… for him and for all of us actually. But I can lose my temper when I see liars on the news.”

DeLong said that she and the other Arlington Republican organizations wanted a place to gather, have some drinks and celebrate the election results.

Due to coronavirus prevention measures in place, such as staying six feet apart and prohibiting more than 50 people in an indoor dining facility, most election watch parties around the D.C.-metro area have been canceled to avoid crowds.

One of these events includes a gathering at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., where President Trump planned to make an appearance.

“I’ll be perhaps between the White House and the hotel,” Trump told the when asked about his plans for Election Day.

Instead of holding a gathering at the hotel, Trump plans to host a viewing party in the White House East Room for 400 people, the in the White House.

One of the most recent White House events was the White House Rose Garden ceremony, where Trump announced his Supreme Court nomination of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci nicknamed this event a “,” since masks were not required and many attendees got infected with coronavirus as a consequence.

Some members of the cabinet plan to watch results at the hotel, while others plan to spend the evening at the White House.

Bill Bayne, who is 56 years old and one of the owners of the bar, said they had different groups reserve spots in the venue to be able to stay under the capacity of 250 per group in Arlington, Virginia.

“They have a party of 65,” Bayne said, pointing to one group, “they have a party of 50, I think, and I have a party of 10, so we’re fine.”

One party attendee, John, who did not want to provide a last name and is 45 years old, said he believes we will still hear either late tonight or early tomorrow morning. He additionally said even though Pennsylvania will take a while to give full results, he believes Trump will get to 270 electoral votes faster than Joe Biden will.

“As long as he keeps Michigan,” he said, “he can lose Pennsylvania, which is 20, he can lose Wisconsin, which is 10, and he can keep everything else and be at 276.”

DeLong and Bayne explained that though they understand why people think that Trump is “flawed,” they believe his work shows more than his attitude and encouraged people to look at his record, “not at his roughness.”. “He’s from New York, for God’s sake,” DeLong said.

Bayne said that Trump being transparent, and being “qualified to run the biggest business in the world,” is what ultimately impressed him.

“I love a businessman running the United States of America,” he said. “We don’t need politicians, we need people that are competent to run a business, and I’m just very impressed with the guy. I think he’ll go down as the greatest president in the history of the country.”

Delong, along with Debbie Martin, 66, said if Trump loses the election, they fear the country will turn to socialism. Martin specifically said she fears the entire country being on Medicare, since her experience with Medicare was difficult and expensive.

“They want to run us from cradle to grave,” she said. “Like sheeples, they want to run us around and tell us what to take in school, what kind of job to have, you know, they just want to be in total control of our lives, and that’s not what the constitution and our founders fought and died for.”

DeLong, however, said she worries even if Trump wins.

“If he loses, God forbid, we’re going into communism,” she said. “If Trump wins, we’re all happy and blessed, but I think we’re gonna have riots, and tearing up the streets, and… it scares me.”

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Leaders at Street Sense Media, the nonprofit and newspaper; Doorways for Women and Families, an Arlington shelter for domestic violence victims and the homeless; and nonprofit A-SPAN, which fights homelessness in Arlington, Virginia, are among those forced to adapt to the coronavirus crisis.

“We had to figure out how to do this safely, figure out social distancing,” said Scott Miller, the senior director of development at

“What if someone tests positive, or who are we going to test, and how are we going to spread people around safely and have them not sleep near one another?”

Maddie Cunningham, the director of development and communications at , said that the virus has worsened the challenges homeless people already face.

“One big thing we’ve been seeing in our case management program is an increase in mental health issues and some substance abuse issues,” Cunningham said. “People who experience homelessness were really isolated when the pandemic hit, and are now even more isolated.”

Cunningham said that the homeless population might be nervous about being around others in shelters, so they decide to stay on the streets. “But with the stress of the health crisis, people are more exposed when they’re on the street, and their health is already at risk.”

The organizations have had to consult nurses, reconfigure sleeping arrangements, set up quarantine facilities and coordinate with feeding programs to work with this particularly vulnerable population.

This means stricter cleaning protocols and a push to re-house clients more quickly.

“Wearing a mask is a problem”

determined that nationwide 206 homeless people died of COVID-19 as of August 2020; there could be a large number undiagnosed. Of those deaths, 153 were concentrated in six cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C., Seattle and Phoenix.

Researchers speculate that the homeless may be more prone to COVID-19 exposure because of worse general health, whether due to lack of food, shelter, or health care. In 2011, a study by the in England reported that homelessness significantly decreased a person’s lifespan, with homeless women dying by 43 on average and homeless men dying by 47 (compared to an average lifespan of 77 in the U.S.).
Miller said he believes the biggest challenge to helping the needy has been the ever-changing rules, regulations and recommendations.

“Our population tends to not do well with a lot of interruption and change,” he said.

“Especially at the beginning of COVID through now, the rules were always changing. Social distancing, mask-wearing, all of which are so critical, but for a lot of our clients that have behavioral or emotional health issues, wearing a mask is a problem.”

Can’t “sleep near one another”

Organizations in D.C. adapted their routines. Closing was not an option.

“COVID was a game changer for us,” Miller said. “We’ve been a 24-7 facility, we’ve always been 24-7, and when COVID was creeping upon us, we really had to think strategically and intentionally about how we’re going to remain open.”

A-SPAN operates as both a resource center and a shelter; the organization worked with a nurse practitioner to strategize next steps.

Miller said that A-SPAN developed a triage list with its full-time nurse practitioner to determine where to put people. “We had to determine who is safest to stay at the center, who do we have to move off-site, who do we put in hotel rooms. There’s a number of clients still in hotel rooms that have tested positive and needed to be quarantined or that are just high risk.”

Street Sense Media, which was founded by Street Sense and operates as both a nonprofit organization and newspaper, has stayed open throughout the pandemic. The newspaper employs homeless people who write and sell the publication.

Due to the accompanying financial crisis, Cunningham says Street Sense had a “steep increase” in writers needing help with other resources, such as legal services or food stamps.

“We’re operating in a socially distant fashion,” Cunningham said, “but we have our lounge open to vendors in case they need anything such as a place to sit, to use the restroom or even some food.”

While organizations have had to adapt, Arlington, Virginia, public officials said they already had prevention measures in place. Kurt Larrick, the assistant director at Arlington County Department of Human Services, said the county has historically low homelessness rates, with only 20 people on the street and 199 homeless all together as of January 2020.

Larrick said that ���������Բ��ٴDz�’s work was done over 15 years of prevention, which prepared the county to help the needy during the pandemic.

“A lot of that has gone on all summer, and a lot of the success has been in the prevention of homelessness. We’ve continued that this year by investing millions of dollars in eviction prevention programs.”

The Human Services department rearranged living quarters in shelters and quarantined homeless people in hotels to make physical distancing easier.

“Rapid” rehousing for people in shelters

The shelter has continued its operations yet readjusted priorities in terms of rehousing homeless people.

“In a lot of settings, it’s OK for people to share a space,” Linley Beckbridge, communications and outreach director at Doorways for Women and Families, said. “But obviously right now that’s a big challenge. So we’ve had clients move out of the shelter more rapidly.” The same steps used to take weeks, to months to a yar or more.

Since Doorways works with domestic violence survivors, Beckbridge said the normal priority would be to help clients heal from trauma before looking for housing.

While Doorways has a unique clientele, Beckbridge said organizations in Arlington such as the Arlington Housing Branch, the Arlington Landlord Partnership, and Doorways’ HomeStart program and home locator services will help the homeless population navigate barriers to housing and help them get rent subsidies.

“For folks with a criminal record or immigration status challenges, those barriers can be even higher,” she said. “So we advocate with landlords directly.”

The testing challenge

Miller of A-SPAN suggested the serves as a referral to Doorways, A-SPAN, or a food bank.

“The hotline directs you to the Department of Human Services,” he said. “It is the single intake resource for anyone experiencing any crisis. Whether it’s food insecurity, domestic violence, homelessness, the county will figure out what’s the immediate needs.”

While coronavirus testing can be expensive,  free testing can be found on the (Sarah Salem / 91����).

Larrick said that the Arlington Mill Community Center provides free testing to anyone in the community.

“You don’t need insurance, you don’t need proof of citizenship or residency, you can just walk up and get tested.”

What’s next

In March 2020, Congress passed the , which allocated more than $4 billion to programs and local governments for the homeless. According to the Howard Center at University of Maryland, however, communities either had limited access or were still waiting on guidelines on how to spend the money.

This dilemma gives organizers pause as the area faces new challenges: hypothermia season and the lifting of the national eviction moratorium.

“There is a crisis looming when the eviction moratorium is up,” Larrick said, alluding to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) calling for a until Dec. 31.

Hypothermia season, as Miller explained, kicked in Nov. 1. Homeless people who may not come to a shelter throughout the year, come in simply “to get out of the cold weather.”

“Housing isn’t their endgame,” Miller said. “Long gone are the days that we just put someone in housing.”

Still, Miller said he believes that local and public organizations are collaborating to combat the challenges ahead.

“We didn’t have to rework the wheel,” he said. “We are together, sharing best practices.”

The post Organizations struggle to help area homeless avoid COVID-19 first appeared on 91����.

“We tend to be in a vacuum with social media and at times we follow people that have similar beliefs and similar likes,” said Jason Mollica, a professorial lecturer in the School of Communication at American University.

A voter outside a Northern Virginia polling site agreed that information can be viewed in silos.

“I’m mostly on Facebook,” said Jessie Chirino, 34, at the Courthouse, Virginia, voting location. “I don’t see much of what I dislike, maybe because I cater it more towards what I do like to see.”

According to , the majority of Americans surveyed believe that the burden for the spread of misinformation falls on tech and social media companies. The issue was front and center again Oct. 28 on Capitol Hill when a pressed Twitter, Google, and Facebook CEOs on how they moderate, or not, political speech on their platforms.

More than of Americans polled believe that tech giants have too much power with regard to swaying public opinion. The report said 93% of Americans are concerned about misinformation online and 71% say tech and internet companies are doing a poor job of preventing its spread (Sarah Salem / 91����).

To help voters sort through misinformation and disinformation about the election, AU experts focused on these warning signs:

1. Be wary of something that looks “too good to be true”

“What’s most helpful to look out for is something that confirms your beliefs a little too much,” said Ericka Menchen-Trevino, AU assistant professor.

“For example, half the country, if they saw Donald Trump kicked a puppy, they would believe it. But if the other side saw Donald Trump ran into a building and saved a child, they would believe it,” she said.

Mollica agreed. “It comes to how much do you believe the messenger,” he said. “People will believe anything. If you start seeing posts on Facebook that really look too good to be true, be aware.”

2. Be skeptical of information not verified by a reliable source

“If you don’t see many other people in your network posting things like this, that’s something to be aware of,” Mollica said.

Outside the Courthouse voting station, precinct captain for the Arlington County Democratic Committee Michael Angeloni, 32, said he tries to do his research and verify a source.

“You should pay attention to what the link is,” Angeloni said. “Depending on who’s sharing it, that can be a good way to know. What kind of news source is it, what kind of news do they post. If it’s not an outlet you recognize, look into it.”

Chirino says she will look on Google to see if other sources corroborate what she saw.

“If I see it on multiple sources, then that probably confirms it happened,” she said. “Google is my best friend.”

3. Be alert if the account posting the information looks suspicious

Saif Shahin, AU assistant professor, said to figure out which accounts are bots on the internet. “Bots” are computer-generated accounts that can post on the internet, usually on Twitter.

“Bots often spread misinformation,” Shahin said. “They have very few followers but tend to follow a lot of people. They’re there to spread misinformation.”

Mollica said you can spot bots by looking at both the username and the content. If the account was just created, and there are either numbers in the username or the user and profile name don’t match up, that’s an indicator.

“How are they posting,” he said regarding the content itself. “If the content in the post is very broken, or seems like it was generated by a computer, that’s something that would be a red flag.”

4. Avoid the “sock puppet” account

Aram Sinnreich, AU professor and chair of the Communication Studies division, said a sock puppet account is an account used solely for deception purposes.

“For example, you might see a Facebook group of people claiming to be ‘LGBT Americans for Trump,’” he said. “But you might not recognize the names of the organizers because they’re not real people, they’re characters created for the purpose of spreading disinformation.”

5. Be vigilant about something exploiting someone’s mistrust in an institution

As an example, Mollica mentioned that the theory was spread by a group of people who shared a distrust in the government and mainstream media.

Sinnreich agreed. “Public trust levels in the media, government, scientific and academic institutions are at all-time lows right now,” he said. “It’s because the public sphere has been flooded with narratives that challenge the integrity and authority of these institutions often without basis.”

The best advice the experts had was to be vigilant, verify all sources and be thorough before reposting something. Sinnreich recommends users do this whether a post goes with or against their own political beliefs.

“I think, for instance, that Donald Trump is a racist,” he said. “But if someone I’ve never heard of says, ‘I heard Donald Trump say the N-word,’ even if I believe Donald Trump is capable of that, I should not retweet or repost that claim until I verify its truth.”

Mollica said the days before the election will spring a lot of information on everyone, true or not.

“In the coming days, people need to make sure they’re paying close attention to what’s being posted,” he said. “As we get closer and closer to the election, you need to have a clear mind.”

The post How to spot misinformation about the election first appeared on 91����.

Candice Lopez, the manager at Project PEACE, said the point of these workshops is to “highlight lesser-known or hidden forms of domestic violence.”

Arlington residents have a general understanding of what domestic violence is. Arlington resident James Bower says an unhealthy relationship is “one where one person gives too much sentimentality to it and the other person kind of abuses that, whether emotionally or physically.”

Linley Beckbridge, the communications and outreach director at the domestic violence nonprofit and shelter , concurred with the public’s definition and added that isolation — with or without quarantining during COVID-19 — can hide those behaviors.

“The abusive partner will isolate the victim or survivor from their friends and family,” Beckbridge said. “Maybe moving further away from friends and living with the partner. It can also be more in terms of not physically moving, but telling the survivor or victim that they can’t see their friends or making them feel guilty for that.”

Beckbridge included that with this isolation, the victim exists in a vacuum where they only hear feedback from their abusive partner and none from people that care about them. She advised friends of victims to be patient and to stay in a victim’s life so that they have someone to turn to if they do escape.

“It’s extremely difficult and extremely dangerous to leave a situation,” she said, adding that it takes a victim seven tries on average to leave an abusive partner. “Unfortunately that can play into victims or survivors being isolated because their loved ones might be frustrated that they’re staying with that person and distance themselves.”

With the pandemic forcing people to quarantine in their homes, Beckbridge said Doorways anticipated an uptick in a request for help in a time of forced isolation, but did not see the uptick that they were expecting initially. Lopez agreed, and both said the stagnation in calls most likely came from victims being stuck at home with their abusive partners.

“We saw a decrease in calls initially, of people calling hotlines or people calling the police in the initial isolation phase,” Lopez said. “And then after things started opening up we saw an increase in calls. But across the region, people are seeing more severe calls.”

On average per 100,000 people in Arlington County, there were 18 incidents of rape per year as of 2015. For context, Arlington County had a population of 389,101 people in 2015 (Sarah Salem / 91����).

According to Lopez, the county suffers from similar rates to the rest of the nation. One in five women suffer from domestic violence, and one in seven men similarly suffer.

In Arlington specifically, through the conducted in high schools, 25% of high school girls in Arlington report that a dating partner used a form of emotional abuse with them, such as calling them names or putting them down. Of that 25%, one-fifth of those girls reported being sexually assaulted by the person they are dating.

Project PEACE has already hosted two workshops: on Oct. 8 they hosted one for reproductive coercion, which Lopez defines as a way to “control someone’s access to birth control, or control how they engage in sexual activity.” On Oct. 11 they hosted one for LGBTQ-specific domestic violence in honor of Coming Out Day that Sunday.

“We had a great turnout,” Lopez said. “We had 20 people show up for these events.”

While the organizations involved in Project PEACE have taken the pandemic as an opportunity to be creative with their initiatives, the pandemic has still created obstacles to build the outreach they would have otherwise had.

“COVID has definitely made some outreach things a little difficult,” Danielle Fincham, the volunteer and outreach coordinator at the , said. “Domestic Violence Awareness Month is such an important month and normally we’re able to go out into the community and give brochures, really talk to people one-on-one about these things and create awareness for what’s happening, but we’ve had to scale that back in a way.”

According to Fincham, even though calls for help have decreased, shelter stays have increased, specifically at LAWS. At one point this summer, LAWS had triple the number of shelter stays that they had at the time last year.

“In a non-covid world, many people are able to stop by and do walk-ins because they have that accessibility,” she said. “But even just in the sense of school, children are still at home. Some people are teleworking, some businesses aren’t open during their regular hours. So times when many people found an escape from whoever their abuser might be have been limited.”

Fincham explained that the lack of escape creates a greater chance of violence to escalate. “When people are forced into a room together that are already not in a healthy relationship, it’s only going to get worse.”

Arlington County has resources available for victims and survivors of domestic violence such as the nonprofit and shelter Doorways, as well as a . LAWS also has a Silent Witness Display where bystanders can stand in a victim’s shoes, regardless of age, height or gender, and understand what they go through in a day (Sarah Salem / 91����).

The next workshop on Oct. 22 will focus on spiritual abuse and the role religion plays in abusive relationships. The workshop series will show that domestic abuse can come in many forms, but Fincham said the most important takeaway is that domestic violence can happen to anyone. Fincham said not even being in Loudon County — one of the richest counties in America — prevents well-off clients from experiencing domestic violence.

“It happens to literally everybody, no matter what your economic status, gender, or age, which is very unfortunate because that would make it a little more preventable,” she said. “That’s why it’s so important to make everyone aware.”

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is higher density housing – such as duplexes, courtyard homes and small multiplexes – designed to be more affordable since it uses expensive land more efficiently by fitting more people within it. Despite the benefits to this type of housing, zoning and land use policies in the county restrict it, making 75% of land zoned residential areas in Arlington exclusively for single-family, detached homes.

CPHD found a strong relationship in their research between ���������Բ��ٴDz�’s exclusionary zoning policies and a lack of diversity and housing opportunities for ���������Բ��ٴDz�’s households of color, specifically Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino households.

In the state of Virginia, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey conducted in June, 57% of those who said they lacked confidence in the ability to make next month’s rent were black, and 14% were Hispanic.

Households of color are being affected additionally by COVID-19 eviction moratoriums being lifted. Jhon Deleon, 22, said he remembers his neighbors being evicted recently.

“There was one couple, my neighbors,” he said, “but that’s because they were making a lot of noise and making barbeques out there.”

Richard Tucker, the Housing Coordinator of the Department of Community Planning, Housing & Development, said Arlington has been a county since the 1920s, a time where residential areas were assigned. Then, households of color were designated to zones with duplexes and multi-family households.

Tucker said that when combined with a history of discriminatory lending practices concerning federal loans, the value of these zones of land depreciated. As a result, this type of housing is less common now compared to single-family, white-populated, high-valued housing.

“Our goal is to increase the amount of the supply of housing,” he said, “and increase the diversity of housing as a way to help address the disparity and growing gap in jobs that are created in this area and the housing that’s available in this area.”

The impetus for this Missing Middle Housing Study was feedback from members of the community that participated in ���������Բ��ٴDz�’s , a series of nine roundtable conversations that Arlington County hosted in the summer of 2018. The community brought up the lack of affordable housing in the area as one of the main themes.

“The middle class is blown away by property values,” community members said in their roundtable comments. “Does growth provide the opportunity for affordability? We need to keep families with low [or] moderate incomes here.”

Tucker said affordable housing is a problem in Arlington because Arlington is a very desirable place to live within the region due to its proximity to D.C.

“It’s a region-wide problem that housing costs have increased over time,” he said. “The region generates a lot of jobs, a lot of high-quality jobs. It’s always going to be in the center of the housing crunch for those reasons.”

An example of affordable housing in the area is Gates of Ballston, a multi-family multiplex, with a minimum income of $34,000. Kevon Caesar, 23, said though affordable housing was hard to find, the complex suits him very well.

“It’s pretty safe,” Caesar said. “They pretty much have everything I need here. The buses are over there, the grocery store, I pretty much have everything in walking distance.”

While Caesar and Deleon are two examples of residents satisfied with their affordable housing situations, Tucker said the problem is quantity, not quality. According to the , the D.C. area is projected to gain 300,000 additional jobs by 2040. Therefore, Tucker said the county must solve for supply.

“Housing in Arlington will continue to be more and more expensive and less obtainable overtime,” Tucker said. “Do we want to interject ourselves with this study to determine if there are other housing forms in single-family areas that can be produced at a lower cost?”

On Sept. 23, CPHD presented their research to the County Board, which plans to implement a “refined scope” of missing middle housing in the county in late October. The study will involve a of first understanding the community’s challenges and priorities, studying where a housing shortage falls, and considering new recommendations for amending policies such as the .

The post Arlington citizens grill county board on housing problems first appeared on 91����.

Arlington citizens can win prizes and help the environment if they take the pledge not to drive their car today, Sept. 22, during Car Free Day, hosted by Arlington Transportation Partners.

Car Free Day is an annual event to encourage sustainable travel methods and reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and traffic congestion, according to the event’s website. By taking the , citizens are automatically entered into a raffle for a chance to win prizes. Prizes include grocery store gift cards, a Capital Bikeshare membership, a $25 SmartTrip card and gift cards to local restaurants.

As of Sept. 21, the majority of the pledges said teleworking would be their mode of transportation rather than a car. But Jim Larsen, the Bureau Chief at Arlington County Commuter Services, said transit and metro are usually the most popular in previous years.

“Arlington has been a leader in getting people not to drive their car,” Larsen said. He said as climate change continues to become a global problem, Arlington has only continued to reduce its emissions and encourage eco-friendly modes of travel.

While the Department of Environmental Services does not have recent emissions data, it has maintained a trend of reducing emissions even as the population goes up, according to a

Larsen also provided a survey by MobilityLab with data on Arlington commuters from 2019. According to the survey, Arlington residents:

• used a bus or train for 40% of their weekly commute trips, compared to the regional average of 24%;
• used a car alone for 41% of their trips, below the 57% rate for all regional employees;
• biked or walked for 8% of weekly trips, compared to 3% for regional employees.

Since this data is from 2019, it does not reflect the shift away from public transport and toward telework. Matt, 34, who didn’t want to provide a last name, is one of ���������Բ��ٴDz�’s teleworkers who would have taken transit otherwise.

“I would be taking the metro under normal circumstances because I work in downtown D.C.,” he said, “but working from home, I don’t use any transit most days.”

Larsen said Car Free Day provides an opportunity to advertise that some public transit, specifically the metro, is available, and safe, for people to ride.

“We push the fact that things are washed daily and substantially sanitized,” he said. “For other transit, we’re hoping for January. We’re hoping sooner than that, but the question still becomes: how do we get people back on?”

Larsen said he worries that the pandemic has driven people away from more sustainable transportation, such as transit and carpooling. But Sarah, 29, who didn’t want to provide a last name, said the pandemic actually made it easier for her to drive her car less because of telework options, which she said is her way of reducing emissions.

“I feel like we’re driving a lot less in general,” she said. “We’ve spent way less on gas. One tank of gas a month, mainly.”

For those who do leave their houses, WMATA is working to make riding the metro safe. Some may still be afraid, but Larsen said Arlington has other options beside taking a car. He specifically mentioned BikeArlington, a bike -education and -encouragement program, and Capital Bikeshare, a bike-share service where if you buy a pass, you can use any of the bikes on sidewalks to get around Arlington.

“We always try to be innovative, and we have been innovative,” Larsen said. “Without our programs, there would be 45,000 cars on the road.”

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