That’s why he created the annual concert series, Mozart in Jeans, which features an all-Mozart program in a casual setting.

Peled said he believes in a “dress down philosophy” in classical music.

“I really believe that we have to break the barriers between us performers, the music we play, and the audience,” Peled said.

Mount Vernon Virtuosi will bring its next D.C. performance to St. Ann Catholic Church in Tenleytown on Dec. 14, starting at 3:00 pm. The concert is free.

Peled said that he feels wearing a tuxedo creates more barriers and makes the audiences feel like they are in a museum. Peled said his group and other performers wear their “special shirts” that display the three pillars of which they perform upon: Concerts, Education, and Community.

Katherine Needleman, an oboe player and a member of the Baltimore Symphany Orchestra, will be joining Mozart in Jeans. This is Needleman’s first time working with Peled and Mount Vernon Virtuosi.

“I am also so happy that Amit has entertained my somewhat wild cadenza idea, which involves the orchestra, and can’t wait to explore that with everyone and see how it turns out,” Needleman said.

Peled said this program started years ago, wanting to make the musicians feel a little bit out of their comfort zones. Peled said the performers feel weird wearing jeans when performing Mozart on stage.

“It created this fun atmosphere with the audience,” Peled said. “I always tell the audience the concept before.”

Peled said this event brings more young people because it is such a casual event.

“You play the highest level, and you treat it the most serious way, the music, but you don’t have to create a barrier between you and the audience by wearing something that people wore 200 years ago,” Peled said.

Peled said he originally started his music career in Israel with a crush on a girl who was four years older than him.

Peled said his class only about six or seven students on average, so the relationships with the teachers were very personal. Peled said he chose the cello because that is what his crush played, but he had immediately fell in love with the cello.

Peled said he went to an art-type school in Tel Aviv, but his music career was slightly derailed. Peled was drafted to the army at 18 in Israel but was accepted into the only string quartet that represents the Israeli defense force.

“There are only four people who are lucky enough to win this position, and then for three years instead of fighting, you play music for soldiers and for the prime minister,” Peled said.

Peled said he could not really practice during his three years of service, but he was able to continue to play music. Once Peled completed his service, he received a full scholarship to Yale University. After Yale, he went to the New England Conservatory and finished his graduate studies in Berlin, Germany.

At 27, Peled had his Carnegie Hall debut recital. At this time, Peled had his first opportunity to teach a masterclass at Baltimore’s Peabody Institute. At 28, Peled then offered an official teaching position at Peabody.

“I got this opportunity to be myself, to be an artist, to be a teacher, and to get to know this area of the world, of America and to make it my own and to try to make a change in it,” Peled said.

In 2018, while teaching, Peled had noticed something that bothered him: extraordinary talents are brought here and the day they finish Peabody, they leave. Peled said he felt bad and wanted them to stay here.

“I wanted this area to be a cultivating ground for great artists to create a better environment,” Peled said.

Peled felt that students that leave universities are not ready for the professional world because they are trained in a classroom and are not truly trained to be performing artists. So, Peled said he created what he calls the “Cello Gang.”

In a professional setup, Peled does a program called Around the World in six cells. With current students and former students alike, they join together and get paid for it. Peled said the group started touring the world and making CDs.

“It promotes the ability to be on stage and not just to study with me in the classroom,” Peled said.

After seeing the success, Peled decided to transform the “Cello Gang” into a chamber orchestra. Peled wanted to expand his mission of keeping more musicians in the area and producing more concerts and professional opportunities for them. Peled also had another thought: keeping the concerts free.

“I don’t want these people to pay in order to hear this extraordinary young, talent,” Peled said.

Peled thought about equal opportunities for musicians but also equal opportunity for community members, especially underprivileged ones, to hear classical music. This was the start of the Mount Vernon Virtuosi.

“Everybody thought, and still thinks, I’m crazy, but I thought that if wealthy people in our area or in our world would actually know the mission,” Peled said, “you want this in your community for free.”

Peled said that now in its seventh year, they are able to maintain the group through donations. With 52 concerts a year throughout the D.C. area, the group plays nearly once a week. Peled said the goal is to spread the group and mission throughout the United States.

Needleman said the Mount Vernon Virtuosi’s involvement in the community combined with the opportunities for young musicians had caught her attention.

“I’m thrilled to share the stage with a curious artist who speaks out about the value of music and against the injustice,” Needleman said.

Peled said he is an actor when performing and that the script he plays is written in the language of music. Peled said music is the only language that forces you to listen while speaking.

“You cannot speak language of music without learning to listen to what happens while you’re speaking,” Peled said.

Peled said he is trying to be as approachable as possible. Peled wants people to have the opportunities that he was able to have because of his parents and upbringing.

“We are not the Beatles, and we don’t have thousands of followers and bodyguards,” Peled said, “I want to be there for the people.”

More events can be found at the Mount Vernon Virtuosi .

The post Amit Peled and his story to performing Mozart in Jeans first appeared on 91����.

Peled, conductor and celloist for the Baltimore-based , said the group loves to participate in events that serve the community. Peled said the orchestra is grateful to St. Ann for being invited back to participate in the concert series.

“It was only natural for us to say yes, because this serves exactly what we want, that anybody can step into this beautiful church and listen to our music,” Peled said.

St. Ann Catholic Church in Tenleytown is hosting its on certain Sundays at 3 pm to showcase classical artists.

The concert series launched earlier this month. Held on certain Sundays starting at 3 p.m., the free concerts showcase classical artists.

It will run until June 2026 and features the series largest lineup of artists to date.

Jan Gallucci, a parishioner of St. Ann Catholic Church, said she attends as many of the concerts as she can. Gallucci said that there is a good turnout at most of the concerts.

“It’s quite a large turnout. It doesn’t fill every seat, but I’ve come sometimes where I had to sit in the back,” Gallucci said.

Peled said the music can connect people. Music is a language like English, Russian, and Hebrew, and it’s one of the most understanding languages, he said.

“[Music as a language is] really the only language that’s not suggested, but forces the player to listen to one another,” Peled said.

The also is participating in this year’s series. Scott Tucker, the group’s artistic director, said that this is the first time the D.C.-based chorus is participating.

“Being new participants in a concert series allows people to hear us who otherwise might not.��We’re excited about having some new attendees from the St. Ann community, the Tenleytown area, and American University students,” Tucker said.

The Camerata has been around for a little over 40 years. Tucker said that while they have participated in some events in the D.C. area, the Camerata is trying to become more involved in the community.

“We are actively looking for others as part of our commitment to��civic participation��across the area,” Tucker stated.

Tucker even teased what the Camerata’s show will look like which is happening on May 31, 2026.

“Our program in May will��also��be��special because we’re celebrating the 250^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. We will be exploring American music, a particularly rich repertoire given the variety of cultural influences of the past 250 years,” Tucker said.

Tucker encourages people to join in on the music.

“Even if you’ve never come to a chorus concert, or heard a men’s choir, we hope you’ll come by. It’s a way to take a break from the crush of everyday life, rest your weary mind and soul, and feel uplifted,” Tucker stated.

Susannah Patton, a regular series attendee, said she attends the concerts when she can.

“I hate to miss one because they’re so good,” Patton said.

Patton said people should try not the miss these concerts with the remarkable people that are brought in to perform especially since they are free.

Not only is the concert series showcasing classical musicians, but it includes a fundraising event that is to take place in April 2026 to benefit the American Guild of Musical Artists () Relief Fund. The fund helps musical artists who are in need.

While the concerts are free, St. Ann Catholic Church accepts donations.

“Come and bring your kids and sing, you can even make noise. You can clap between movements, just be yourself and experience the joy of this language that we try to spread around,” Peled said.

Officials from St. Ann Catholic Church did not respond to requests for comment.

The post Bringing music to the community: Free concerts at Tenleytown church first appeared on 91����.

Jack MacCallum, a neuroscience major at American University, runs around all day. As a senior, he balances classwork, hanging out with his friend group, and working as a research assistant. A normal student by any other means, except that his personal information lives on the internet dangerously outside of his control.

One night last year, during an open mic night at the Bridge Café on campus, his friend showed him an Instagram video– of him. The post showed MacCallum tearing down with a caption asking viewers to “expose him.”

He ran to the bathroom, sick to his stomach, and began to read the comments. “I just see this photo of me, and I go through the comments, and they are all like, ‘he deserves the electric chair,’ ‘he should not be working in academia,’ ‘he’s a terrorist,’’ MacCallum said. “The night it happened, I stayed in the lab until 3 or 4 in the morning because I was scared to walk across campus.”

Although he knew someone had recorded him that night, he never imagined it would lead to this.

In the following days, more posts would be created on different websites. Master profiles compile everything from his social media accounts, the school he attended, the clubs he participated in, and photos of him.

This weaponization of personal information due to political differences is often referred to as In the wake of the conflict in Gaza, to share information about college students, professors, and faculty who are deemed opponents of Israel.

, found that young adult men are often the perpetrators and victims of doxing. After following popular websites Pastebin, 4chan, and 8ch for four months, they found more than 5,000 posts to be doxing.

Canary Mission, , features MacCallum with a dozen more people affiliated with American University. However, MacCallum urges people not to engage with the site, as every click boosts the number of targeted individuals in Google searches.

According to another A.U. affiliate who was doxed on the site, they spent over $1,000 on search optimization services to bury their exposed information and reduce the chances of people finding it. The source, after receiving threats and sustained online harassment resulting in the need for therapy, has requested anonymity and will be referred to as “A.U. affiliate.”

After growing up watching the Iraq War and later the Syrian War unfold on the news, the affiliate said they were “introduced to concepts of needless war and exploitation at a young age.” And as they got older, they began to express their support for the Palestinian conflict on Twitter. But one day, the self-proclaimed “social media addict,” said they too found a detailed index of their information scraped from their LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

They said it felt like they were in the Twilight Zone when they found out. “It put a pause on everything, it shook up everything,” the affiliate said.

Canary Mission believes that like the canaries used to detect toxicity in coal mines they too can warn others of alleged bigots or antisemites on college campuses. Their mission statement says, “We pursue our mission by presenting the words and deeds of individuals and organizations that engage in anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry on the far right, far left and among the array of organizations that comprise the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.” Canary Mission did not respond to a request for comment.ƒ

The website now calls for “uncovering foreign nationals”. It includes information about students, including Mahmoud Khalil and Momodou Taal, who have been taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. Their detainment followed the signing of by President Trump, which expanded the grounds for deportation of non-citizens found in violation of any immigration-related regulation.

But Farah Afify, Research and Advocacy Manager at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said what Canary Mission is actually doing is cyberbullying students to scare them from speaking up.

“The students are challenging the Israeli government, and they’re challenging the United States’ government support of Israel,” Afify said. “And I believe that what we see in response are organizations and individuals attempting to damage their reputations as a consequence of engaging in that form of speech and calling for human rights.”

that while doxing can lead to job loss or a damaged reputation for an individual, it can serve as a warning to a group. “Such denunciations play a disciplining role to audience members who may identify with the target, for example, as members of the same minority group,” he wrote.

After meeting him, Fatima Brandes, a close friend of MacCallum, learned about doxing and quickly saw its impact. “I think it just affected him in the way that he knew people could find his address, see where he works – and some people were contacting the people he works with,” Brandes said. “People just seemed to be paying more attention to him.”

And virtual glares became real as MacCallum said he was also publicly recognized.

One day, while getting a new tattoo, he noticed two people staring at him, looking at their phones and loudly saying, “Yeah, that’s him.”

“I’m definitely a little more anxiety-prone and cautious in what I do now,” he said. 

The affiliate said that with each post, they continued to battle Twitter, Google and other websites to have their information removed, constantly questioning, “How is this even legal?”

CAIR in Maryland continues to push Bill 889 to give greater protections to students like MacCallum, as the United States largely lacks doxing laws. Afify said that without these measures, students will continue to be harmed.

But MacCallum does not regret the actions that led to his doxing. He viewed the tearing down of posters as an act of protest.  

“If my name is going to get blasted, at least it’s getting blasted for saying ‘I support human rights,’” MacCallum said.

And for the affiliate, it’s hard to know what the exact consequences of their online exploitation have been in the four years since. Maybe employers saw their online presence and denied their application, or maybe they would not have needed therapy, or maybe they wouldn’t be as strong now.

The post When Your Social Media Is Turned Against You first appeared on 91����.

Former U.S. Capitol Officer Harry Dunn said he was sitting on his couch eating popcorn when he found out the people who had attacked him four years prior on Jan. 6, 2021, were pardoned for their crimes. This news came as no surprise to Dunn. In fact, Dunn had more concerns for the people who were surprised by the president’s . 

Washington Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges shared the same sentiment, feeling it was “obviously coming” and was “unsurprised” by the news.

The two reflected on their experiences working at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and President Trump’s pardons in a panel hosted by American University’s School of Communication and Kennedy Political Union last night. Dunn said he felt Trump made it “very clear” on Jan. 7 when he did nothing to condemn the Capitol’s attackers. Then, Trump had promised to pardon rioters while on the for the 2024 election.

Both officers have been outspoken on their perspectives on the Jan. 6 attacks. In an interview with the Dunn said his fists were bloody from throwing punches at the rioters. Hodges was shown in a being crushed in a revolving door.

Hodges and Dunn have used the platform they’ve gained from their virality and firsthand accounts to spread their perspective on the event and combat misinformation and conspiracies stemming from Jan. 6.

“[Jan. 6] is still tragically relevant,” said Hodges. “[People] are perpetuating this idea of collective violence as a valid tool.” 

Dunn said he wishes he hadn’t had to speak on Jan. 6, four years later, but the event’s relevance continues. Hodges added that people look to Trump for his approval. Trump’s passiveness on Jan. 6 and his pardons can be seen as approval for political violence, setting a precedent for future acts.

“But it’s a reality that we have to deal with that what happened on Jan. 6 could indeed happen again by him pardoning them… I guarantee the odds just went up a lot,” said Dunn.

To Dunn, Trump’s pardons are a sign that his supporters will “stand back and stand by.” Trump used that same phrase during a presidential debate when asked about his support from a right-wing group, the Proud Boys. Some members and leaders of that group were initially convicted of criminal acts related to January 6th. 

“He literally has a militia on call right now,” said Dunn.

Both Hodges and Dunn have advocated for justice for themselves and fellow officers who were on the front lines of the Jan. 6 attacks. Both testified before Jan. 6 committees, and Dunn ran for public office. Dunn noted that Jan. 6 is one of the most highly documented historical events and believes there isn’t a narrative but just the truth.

“There ain’t no narrative. Press play.” Dunn said. “It’s literally the most documented crime in American history. Press play. People are trying to shape it as a peaceful protest and a day of love.”

While the two officers blamed Trump and the Republican party, Dunn felt that the Justice Department failed him.

“I really believed in Merrick Garland,” said Dunn. “I want to believe he did his best. It wasn’t enough… And somebody needs to be held responsible for that.”

Dunn explained that rioters sentenced for their participation in Jan. 6 had already before the Supreme Court decided whether or not Trump could be held accountable for the incident in , nearly three years after the attack.

“The justice system, the criminal justice system, the courts, they failed me,” Dunn said.

“There’s the institution of Democrats in power that failed,” Hodges added.

The officers took questions from the audience, but one common theme was: How can we, as civilians, stop the cycle of misinformation and political violence?

Dunn and Hodges emphasized the importance of truth-telling and fighting misinformation. They urged listeners to engage with people who want to educate themselves and avoid online trolls or people who just want to argue.

“Engage with people who want to understand, who seek it and have a genuine thirst for knowledge,” urged Dunn

Hodges said, “My advice is to prioritize ethical living over what the law is… understand right from wrong.”

The panel’s turnout was high, with students and their professors filling every seat in the theater. Some attendees stood by the walls. After the panel, the crowd, seemingly moved by Hodges and Dunn’s thoughts, gave a standing ovation.

“We’re not shaping the narrative,” Dunn said. “We’re combatting the lies.”

The post Capitol officers warn Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons create political uncertainty first appeared on 91����.

Greenstein, in the last four years while completing their Bachelor’s in the School of Public Affairs, became the first person to graduate with a minor in disability studies. They also created the Disabled Students Unions, one for the undergraduates and one for the graduate students. This is where Greenstein’s and many others’ fight for equal accessibility on AU’s campus began but is not nearly close to being completed.��

“We get a lot more credit than I think we deserve,” Greenstein said about American University’s accessibility. “People will come to the university thinking that we’re in, like, the top 10 most accessible universities. We still have two ADA-non-compliant buildings… East Quad Building and Hurst Hall are both non-accessible buildings. I cannot get into them. I cannot use them. I cannot have classes in them.”��

And this is just one of the many accessibility issues Greenstein mentioned on campus. They also mentioned potholes, elevators not working, steep ramps, door actuator buttons never being fixed, which are among a slew of other physically restricting roadblocks for the disabled community members on campus.��

Issues like these are a large part of the reason why many in the community believe that the administration needs to act and listen to their students.��

However, after 91���� conducted its own investigation and revealed that the university currently does not have a 504 Coordinator for its students, the administration seems much farther away from addressing accessibility issues than many initially thought.��

According to the U.S. Department of Education, “All school districts, colleges, and universities receiving federal financial assistance and employing 15 or more persons must designate at least one employee to coordinate their efforts to comply with and carry out their responsibilities under Section 504.”

Currently, American University falls under both categories, thus legally needing to require a 504 Coordinator that should have their contact information published. 91���� looked into this further, finding that the only documentation of a 504 Coordinator for students is under the that cites Seth Mancini, Office of the Deputy Provost and Dean of Faculty, as the coordinator.����

This policy, last revised in 2023, needs to be corrected. If any member of the community were to type Mancini’s email into their Outlook search, an automated message would automatically show.����

“Thank you for your message,” the automated message said. “Please note that as of Thursday, September 5, 2024, I am no longer employed at AU.”

In response to an interview request from 91����, Associate Director of Disability Support in the Academic Support and Access Center (ASAC), Nicole Nowinski would only respond via email. In one of Nowinski’s answers, she addressed Section 504.

“We recognize that the overarching laws, such as the ADA and Section 504, that regulate our work are not perfect and there is still progress to be achieved regarding equal access across many public and private sectors,” she said. “However, the ASAC is committed to ensuring the AU student body is aware of the disability-related services the ASAC provides.”

91���� has since reached out again to ASAC and the Provost Office for a reply on speculation of there currently being no 504 coordinator for students, and are now awaiting response.

As more community members realize that the University’s policy is false and not updated, student leaders have begun to act.����

Kasey Bernat, a sophomore and student senator in the Undergraduate Student Government at American University, wrote the Disabled Students Bill of Rights this October with the help of many disabled students on campus.��

The bill, according to Bernat, was meant to demand the institution to recognize not only the movement, but also create better accommodations through several channels, like ASAC, for students. The response from the administration? According to Bernat, nothing.����

“There is in the introduction, it asks that the administration send out an email, at least acknowledging it and saying that they would work with the USG, so it’s really upsetting that they didn’t reach out,” he said.��

“We get a lot more credit than I think we deserve,” Greenstein said about American University’s accessibility. “People will come to the university thinking that we’re in, like, the top 10 most accessible universities. We still have two ADA-non-compliant buildings… East Quad Building and Hurst Hall are both non-accessible buildings. I cannot get into them. I cannot use them. I cannot have classes in them.”��

Bernat and others also know that the 504 Coordinator for Students has not been appointed and said that the next steps could potentially involve legal action.����

“There’s talks about pursuing action legally with the 504 coordinator, and the fact that we may or may not have one for students, and that is a huge issue, and that’s something that needs to be addressed, and that’s one of the things I’m going to keep advocating for, talking to students who do know and talk to admin about this type of stuff,” Bernat said.��

Dr. Tanja Aho, Senior Professorial Lecturer of American Studies at American University, believes that people in the community are afraid to address these accessibility issues due to their own lack of knowledge.��

“I think a lot of people are afraid of disability because they’ve never been taught how to think about it, and because even when they themselves are oftentimes disabled or neurodivergent or chronically ill, right?” Dr. Aho said.��

Despite the reasoning, members of the disabled community on campus, like Greenstein, are asking the administration to listen.��

“So, when we’re asking for help, we need you to listen, and that’s one of the things that I think is most important,” Greenstein said. “We need to be listened to, and we need to be seen as a community who deserves the same things as all of the other communities on this campus, and I think that that’s one of the things that we’re just not being listened to on.”

91���� will closely monitor the students’ next steps, the administration’s response and the outcome of the 504 Coordinator for Students.

The post American University accused of disability accommodation shortcomings first appeared on 91����.

He’s worked in Tenleytown for about a decade. His office stands out.��

He can be spotted in front of the Wisconsin Avenue CVS parking lot every weekday during working hours. A bike rack serves as his desk, and a crate replaces an ergonomic chair. His wares are unique. It’s not clothing nor food that he sells but a digital newsletter, “The Hobo.” It can be purchased for $5 and downloaded via QR code.��

Foster has spent much of his adulthood homeless. In his newsletter, he writes about life on the streets under the guise of the fictitious character Black Fields.��

Earlier this fall, Foster turned 50 years old. It’s an age he wasn’t sure he’d reach, but he feels it in his back, ankles, knees, his stamina and his outlook on life.

“It’s a lot of guys out here, man, in their 40s and 50s that’s passing, so each day is like man… this might be it,” Foster said, adding that aging involves “just constant awareness of your mortality.”

He first became particularly conscious of the fragility of his life and body on September 18, 1992, his golden birthday.��

He got into a fight with a college peer when the other student closed the door on his hand, slicing off his finger.��

Had the incision been a quarter inch deeper, it would have impacted his artery and led to severe blood loss, the emergency provider told him in the ambulance.

“That was my first kind of instance where it’s like, ‘Okay, I’m mortal. I could die out here,’” Foster said, gesturing with nine and a half fingers. “You start thinking about consequences.”������

Within days, he began using drugs for the first time in his life. The habit would persist for years. He wouldn’t understand the correlation between the events until about seventeen years later in a drug rehab program.��

As he ages, it becomes harder to contend with the challenges of homelessness, he said. Each year, it’s more difficult to bear through the cold, defend himself against adversaries he encounters on the street and compete with panhandlers. He said he feels “vulnerable” sometimes.��

Fortunately, others look out for him.��

On an October afternoon, CVS security guard William Jones stopped by to say hello and give Foster a fist bump. Foster broke into a smile.

“That’s the head of my security team right there,” Foster joked.

Jones said Foster adds a nice bit of variety to the suburban neighborhood, even as far as the local homeless population goes.��

“He’s different from the rest of the homeless people,” Jones said. “He has a product for sale and it’s actually a cool product.”

Jones said he enjoys having Foster around the corner every day and reading his newsletter every so often. It reminds him of “The Boondocks” TV show, he said. It’s fun and unique.

Homelessness isn’t ideal for Foster, but he isn’t ignorant of the challenges of participating in the housing market. In order to afford a comfortable, well-insulated and clean home in the Washington D.C. area, he’d need a much higher and more stable income than his business brings in now.��

“All the discomforts that I would experience outside, I’m going to experience in the type of place that I’m going to get,” he said.

Unless he stumbles into a fortune, the Tenleytown block where he’s become a mainstay will remain his makeshift office for the foreseeable future, and that’s alright with him. He feels lucky just to be waking up each day.

“The lifestyle I lived, I really probably should have been dead in my 20s or 30s,” he said. “It’s just God been walking with me the whole time.”

The post Tenleytown community staple Duane Foster reflects back on 50 years of life first appeared on 91����.

They convened to discuss a question the university announced it would begin assessing almost exactly a year ago: should American University campus police officers be armed or equipped with more enhanced weaponry?

An October 2023 letter from the university’s Chief Financial Officer, Bronté Burleigh-Jones, explained the school would be reassessing the weapons available to campus officers following a shooting at Morgan State University in Baltimore.��

The first three sessions were intended to host only staff, faculty and students, respectively, in favor of arming the officers or enhancing the options of weapons available to them. Future sessions, starting today, are designed for staff, faculty and students against the change in practice.

Burleigh-Jones explained the goal of this format was, with such sensitive subject matter, to make as many campus residents as possible feel comfortable sharing their opinions.

“People need to feel safe to talk about it,” she said. “There are students who won’t talk freely in front of faculty and staff. There are staff who will not talk freely in front of faculty. We don’t want this to be a debate.”

The first October community forum we attended was the beginning of a sequence of events designed to solicit community feedback from staff, faculty and students at American. The meetings were organized so only like-minded people were speaking to each other.

Of the small group in the meeting room, only one person was a staff member there to voice an opinion. The rest were part of the team organizing the feedback effort.

Sam Sadow, visual resources curator at the Katzen Arts Center, was strongly against arming campus officers, but he was unable to make it to the anti-enhancing weapons event so he came to this one instead to share his thoughts.��

Organizers clicked through slides with discussion questions and listened intently as he conveyed his concerns.��

“In my own experience, guns add a level of menace and threat that is just unavoidable,” said Sadow, who is also an elected representative of the AU staff union.��

He and colleagues he’s heard from worry the guns would be used to hurt students, but, even short of that, he’s concerned just the presence of guns in holsters would change the campus climate and strike fear into the young adults that populate the university.

“I think the real threat of violence and harm is one thing,” Sadow said, but having armed officers could also “chill activism on campus, chill free expression on campus.”

“They’re students and shouting at a cop that’s unarmed is a lot different than shouting at a cop that is armed and I want them to be able to shout at cops,” he added.

The assistant vice president of university police services, Phillip Morse, explained that the department is currently trained to, in every way possible, reduce violence.

“We train deescalation so we do not train aggressive tactics,” Morse said. “Deescalation, deescalation, deesecalation. That’s everything we do starts with that.”

The following day, a large campus community space was again occupied by the same handful of organizers and a singular campus community member present to offer an opinion. Though the afternoon was designed to attract faculty members in favor of providing the officers more enhanced weaponry, this sole attendee, was, again, anti. He simply wasn’t aware the forums were organized by opinion, he said.

William Brent, a performing arts faculty member who teaches audio technology at American, has seen one too many horrific news stories to view guns as a good addition to campus.

“That kind of escalation could lead to a tragic outcome involving a firearm where it really wasn’t necessary,” Brent said. “That’s what I worry about the most.”

Over his 14 years on campus, the school has become his and his children’s home. The university community’s safety is paramount for him. He’s not convinced arming officers would better protect the school but imagines how it could do the opposite.��

“A lot of people I care about are here,” said Brent, the only person sitting in the right half of the window-lined conference room.��

The final session of the week was designed for students in favor of changing the practice around arming officers and adding more sophisticated weapons to their arsenals. This one was better attended, but the majority of the participants were, again, anti-arming officers, according to Joey Katzenell, an undergraduate student and March for Our Lives member. Most of the students had come with Katzenell, they said.��

During the event, other students with March for Our Lives sat on the other side of the meeting room’s glass walls handing out pamphlets featuring gun violence statistics and a list of student organizations that had come out against the change in practice.

“More guns doesn’t mean less gun violence,” Katzenell said. “I think it poses a huge threat to students, especially Black and brown students, especially disabled students.”

Katzenell and Sadow expressed concerns about not just the issue of arming officers but the way the university was conducting the project.��

“Where’s the problem that this is trying to solve?” Sadow asked.

According to Burleigh-Jones the question originated with a member of the Board of Trustees who inquired about the school’s procedure in the event of an active shooter on campus. The university’s 23-member Board of Trustees is primarily composed of people based outside of Washington D.C. and with work experience in education, media and weapons manufacturing.��

The policy around the use of weapons for campus police had not been assessed recently, Burleigh-Jones, so it seemed time to look into it and worth investigating all options in the process.

“That’s when we took a look at, ‘What is our current practice? What are the spectrum of practices? Let’s do an examination,’” Burleigh-Jones said. “Why would we take on the question and not consider the full spectrum?”

After the shooting at Morgan State, the Baltimore university announced it would have armed campus security around the residence hall near the scene of the incident.

George Washington University recently completed arming top officers. According to the school’s website, it announced it would receive community feedback on the topic in the spring of 2023 and started implementation around August of that year.��

Katzenell said the thoroughness and length of American’s process, which has now surpassed a year, gives them confidence that the school is trying to go about this in the most transparent way possible.��

However, the lack of dialogue across viewpoints worries Katzenell.

“If we had a forum where we could all just communicate and talk about what we think is right or wrong we could at least see where the other one was coming from,” Katzenell said.

In addition to the pro and anti events, the university has upcoming one for campus members “on the fence” about amping up weaponry for campus police and a forum for “impacted communities.”

Community forums will conclude Thursday, Oct. 17. After that will come a survey. Happening concurrently with all the steps so far, a feasibility study is being compiled which will, in addition to the feedback collected, inform a draft report sent to campus leadership. The process will end with a decision by the board and campus community.

Though Sadow and Katzenell appreciate the time and attention being given to collecting community feedback, they’re unsure it will be carried through all the way to the decision.

“We never interact with the Board of Trustees. They’re not in these forums. They are not available to talk to. It is almost impossible to reach them. I have no way of having faith that they’re going to listen to us,” Katzenell said. “Why do they need this privacy so bad that they want the community to investigate it but they don’t want to be part of the conversation?”��

Sadow expressed the same uncertainty about how this all ends.��

“That’s my concern and it’s not assuaged by that like nice, thought out community study process and the just ‘decision’ basically,” he said.

The Board of Trustees did not return a request for comment.��

Burleigh-Jones said she hopes to bring the findings to the board in February.

“The level of thoughtfulness that has gone into this project, when it is all said and done, I know that we will all be proud of,” Burleigh-Jones said.

Upcoming community forums are over the next two weeks.

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It’s the location at which a medical cannabis store is slated to open later this year in D.C.’s Tenleytown neighborhood.

The shop will be named C’est Moi, according to its owner Colen Jones. In French, the phrase means “it’s me.” It’s an expression he felt well represented the atmosphere he wants to nurture in the store – one that celebrates individuality.��

“It’s like, ‘Hey, if I choose to go this route and I like marijuana … it’s me. It’s who I am,” Jones said.��

According to the city’s Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration, Tenleytown currently has no other licensed medical retailers while the city’s third ward, which includes much of D.C.’s northwest quadrant, only has one other.

The store, which will occupy the space of a former scuba shop at 4932 Wisconsin Avenue, is scheduled to open in the next two to three months, Jones said. Jones, who comes from a military family, said the store will offer a 15% discount for veterans.��

While Jones has operated dispensaries before, this will be his first location in his hometown. Providing cannabis to the residents of Tenleytown and the surrounding area is not a role he takes lightly, he said. Everything about the operation will be designed toward convenience and privacy for the shoppers.

“I hope [the store] adds more safety and peace and comfortability,” said Jones, who’s from D.C.’s Northwest neighborhood.��

Some shoppers may not want passersby to know they are buying cannabis. That’s why the front of the store will be designed like a waiting room with a sitting area and drinks available. Shoppers will then get buzzed into the display area and their identification will be checked twice, Jones said – once in the front of the store and again when the customer makes the purchase.

Jones, who said he’s been working on this project for two years, liked the character of the Tenleytown neighborhood and said it aligned with the kind of facility he wanted to create.

“I feel like that’s what they were missing, like an upscale dispensary,” he said.

Residents he spoke to noted they sometimes have to drive a significant distance or visit neighborhoods they don’t feel safe in to get cannabis.

Though C’est Moi will be the only licensed facility in the neighborhood, once it passes various city assessments, the corridor on which it will be located has numerous smoke shops, some of which have been known to illicitly distribute cannabis to minors, said Jonathan Bender, the region’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission chair.

“I’ve been trying for a long time to get rid of the illegal places,” Bender said, adding that they tend to also be “robbery magnets.”

Problem locations in the neighborhood include Smoke Island and Smokes and Vapes, the latter of which recently closed, Bender said. A different Smoke Island location on Wisconsin Avenue, farther south in the city, was served a cease and desist letter in July for selling cannabis illegally.

Possessing cannabis became legal in D.C. in 2015. In 2022, the district expanded its access to medical cannabis, allowing anyone 21 or over to self-certify for it. This helped give way to a rise in stores selling other products for an upcharge and “gifting” cannabis alongside it. It’s a practice the city council passed a law to better combat earlier this year.

The Tenleytown neighborhood and surrounding area house multiple public schools as well as American University, making the region a potential hotbed of sales to those below the age of 21.��

Only 11 licensed facilities are currently operating in the district, according to the city’s Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration. However, demand for the products is high. In August, the city had 26,204 unique medical cannabis patients producing more than $2.8 million in sales for dispensaries, according to an administration report. Across each month of 2024, cannabis sales generated between around $2.5 million and nearly $2.9 million.

Having C’est Moi on the block will hopefully offer residents a safe, legal avenue through which to purchase cannabis, Bender said. He’s confident Jones will follow all necessary procedures based on how compliant he’s been so far, he said, explaining Jones “was willing to do pretty much whatever we asked.”

The store is scheduled to open Dec. 1 at the latest and operate from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Sunday.

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Samantha Decenord, an Adams Morgan resident, stood at the Wisconsin Ave. and Woodley Road bus stop waiting for bus 33. She said the bus times online rarely coincide with the actual pick-up time.

“The buses have been kind of running weird lately,” Decenord said. “Google Maps will say a certain time, then it’ll come early or really late. I have trouble figuring out the times, so I just go and wait at the stop.”

She said she noticed the road paving on Wisconsin Avenue but did not know it could cause significant delays. She said the 96 line from East to Capitol Heights Station is the most delayed bus she takes.

91����ington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority issued an alert around 10 a.m. Tuesday for the 96 line.

Jordan Pascale, a media relations manager for WMATA, said traffic along the route is causing significant delays.

The 96 line moves from Tenleytown along Wisconsin Avenue NW to the Capitol Heights Station along E Capitol Street SE.

“Anything that’s going through a high congestion area, usually there’s going to be some traffic along there,” Pascale said. “They usually clear up pretty fast.”��

96 Alert: Traffic delays Route 96 in both directions. Check where your bus is at

— Metrobus Info (@Metrobusinfo)

Decenord said she understands traffic and construction can delay the buses, but she wants more accurate timing online.

Parts of Wisconsin Avenue NW near Cathedral Heights seem easier to pass through for motorists, but strips of the road near Tenleytown are down to one lane on each side. Traffic near the road work on Tuesday morning caused some bus delays.��

Fiona Goe, a student at American University, said she’s seen a lot of bus delays and buses not in service.��

Goe said she waited “for a while” for her bus to campus Tuesday morning.��

“I feel like it’s been 30 minutes,” Goe said. “It’s horrible; it makes me late to school all the time.”

The District Department of Transportation announced in November “ on Wisconsin Avenue NW from Upton Street NW to Warren Street NW, from Monday, November 27, 2023, to Friday, January 5, 2024.”

The paved Wisconsin Avenue NW in parts, with some working on roads near Newark Street NW and others on the ground near Van Ness Street NW.

The post Wisconsin Avenue road work causes some bus delays first appeared on 91����.

The closure of the Tenleytown station caused significant disruptions for Red Line commuters heading to Glenmont. In the nearby Bethesda and Friendship Heights stations, metro card scanning systems were down, allowing passengers to pass through without paying.

The Tenleytown station shutdown lasted about one hour, forcing over fifty red-line riders traveling in the Glenmont direction to disembark at Friendship Heights and transfer to a shuttle service to Van Ness Station.

When attempting to talk to the DC transit police on the scene, they said the station was closed for maintenance reasons.

However, Vito Maggiolo, the DC Fire & EMS Department’s Public Information Officer, confirmed that the firefighters came to Tenleytown Metro Station due to reports of smoke.

“The Fire & EMS responded because there was smoke in the tunnel. They found that there was an insulator issue. The Fire department has cleared the scene.” Maggiolo said.

On-call Public Information Officer for WMATA, Tierra Hill, said an arcing insulator issue caused the smoke.��

“The defective insulator was removed, and normal service was restored,” said Hill.��

According to a by the Federal Transportation Agency,��electrical arcing happens when a strong electric current escapes from a power cable and runs along the surfaces of train tracks—which can be covered in dust, rust, dirt, and grime.

Arcing can be a problem because it can damage cables and tracks, create bursts of light, and even start fires.��The smoke from arcing can be harmful to passengers, workers, and emergency responders because it might contain poisonous fumes.

However, this Friday’s incident is not a first for WMATA or the Red Line. The 2016 FTA report noted����70 arcing incidents between October 26, 2015, and October 21, 2016. Most incidents occurred on the red line, with a high concentration between the Medical Center and Van Ness stations.

Despite adopting safety measures, WMATA’s indicates 16 arcing insulator incidents, a higher number than in

While there were no injuries, the incident caused panic, confusion, and delays, highlighting the challenges of the district’s public transportation system.��

The post Fire disrupts Red Line at the Tenleytown-AU Station first appeared on 91����.