Washington, D.C
Republicans join effort to change confederate statues representing MS in Washington
Statuary Hall could have changes coming in 2025
Several Republican Mississippi lawmakers are now seeking to replace confederate statues representing the state in Washington, D.C. just weeks after Arkansas installed a statue of a civil rights activist next to Mississippi’s Jefferson Davis.
During the 2024 session, several bills were filed to either replace or establish a commission to find replacements for Davis, a U.S. Senator and most notably president of the Confederate States of America, and James Z. George, a Confederate politician, military officer and namesake of George County. However, those bills died without ever being brought up in House or Senate Rules Committees.
The statues, meanwhile, have been displayed for about 100 years in the U.S. Congress’ Statuary Hall. The Davis statue now stands adjacent to that of Arkansas’ Daisy Bates, a Black civil rights leader involved in the integration of Little Rock’s Central High School among many other efforts. The juxtaposition of thew two is notable.
House Rules Committee Chairman Fred Shanks, R-Brandon, who previously declined to comment on a related report in February, told the Clarion Ledger Tuesday he is planning to address changing the statues in the 2025 session.
More on 2024 efforts Confederate symbols removal pushed by Mississippi Democrats in State Capitol, Washington DC
“It’s a big deal, and it’s going to be an extremely hot topic,” Shanks said. “I wanted some time to look at it when we don’t have some of the other major things that impact the state going on like we did this past session.”
Senate Rules Chairman Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, did not respond to several calls and messages seeking comment, nor did House Speaker Jason White, R-West. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann’s staff declined to comment.
Sen. Nicole Boyd, R-Oxford, told the Clarion Ledger she has been quietly working on this legislation for a few years, and she plans to pitch an outside group connected to tourism to lobby, advocate and spearhead efforts for replacing Davis and George with more modern historical representations of Mississippi.
“It’s not about who’s coming down. It’s about who we can put there,” Boyd said. “It’s about what are the things that we want to promote in the state that we want to use as tourism to attract people.”
Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons said he believes it has bipartisan support.
“Even though this effort has been laid by Democrats, Democrats and Republicans want to honor someone who is more representative of a modern day Mississippi,” Simmons, who is from Greenville, said.
Several other House and Senate Democrats had harsh words for Republican leaders waiting until now just to address the statues.
“It shows that the leadership of those various committees had the opportunity to review that legislation but turned their eye and turned away from doing what’s right,” Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, said.
Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, said the state can simply do better than have Davis and George representing the state in the Capitol.
“I anticipate that we will file this bill again. It sets up a commission to study who best represents Mississippi,” he said. “There are any number of controversial subjects that go to the Rules Committee and (it’s) generally not the place for controversial topics, and I understand that, but this is important.”
What is Statuary Hall, and who is Daisy Bates?
Statuary Hall was established in the U.S. Congress’ Capitol building in 1807, but it was destroyed by British troops in 1814. The hall, along with the Capitol, was rebuilt a few years later.
Over the many years, states have submitted so many statues that the Architect of the Capitol has had to display several in other places around the capitol building. Mississippi is also one of only a few states with confederate statues still in the building. Arkansas, a previous member of that list, voted to change its statue in 2019.
Since 2000, 17 states have changed their statues, according to congressional records, and some Southern states have or are replacing Confederate people with modern historical figures, civil rights activist and even prominent Native Americans. Arkansas now has Bates; Virginia has Barbara Johns, and Florida now has Mary McLeod Bethune, one of the most important Black educators of the 20th century.
According to the National Women’s History Museum, Bates was a prominent civil rights activist in Little Rock Arkansas. Throughout the 1900s, she helped lead a popular newspaper, The Arkansas Weekly, served as the President of the NAACP Arkansas chapter and pushed the state’s schools to integrate after the U.S. Supreme Court deemed segregation unconstitutional in 1954.
She was widely known for her efforts with the Arkansas Nine, a group of nine students she regularly drove and assisted to integrate Central High School in Little Rock.
“She regularly drove the students to school and worked tirelessly to ensure they were protected from violent crowds. She also advised the group and even joined the school’s parent organization,” the Museum wrote about her.
The Arkansas NAACP chapter, nor the chapter representing her native Union County, responded to several calls or messages asking for comment on Bates or her statue’s placement in Congress.
How to replace a statue, who is being considered?
Boyd said that even if the Legislature approves replacing Davis and George, it will need approval from a congressional committee, and locations to move the two existing statues will need to be submitted and approved as well.
All the costs associated with removing the old statues and the construction and installation of the new statues would be put on the state.
Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, who spoke to the Clarion Ledger earlier this year, floated rock’n’roll legend Elvis Presley and Blues icon B.B. King. Another name suggested by Democrats was famous civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer.
Read about Tunica Casino project See which former Mississippi casino could house undocumented immigrant children
Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett.com or 972-571-2335.
Washington, D.C
Boogarins Light Up the Night at Washington DC’s Comet Ping Pong
From the moment they stepped onstage, Boogarins played like they were commanding a festival crowd ten times the size. There was no scaling down, no “intimate set” compromise. Instead, they leaned fully into the grandeur of their sound, flooding the room with swirling guitars, hypnotic rhythms, and a kind of euphoric intensity that made the walls feel like they were breathing along with the music.
The setlist, anchored heavily in Manual, felt both nostalgic and freshly alive. These weren’t just songs being revisited, they were being reimagined in real time, stretched and reshaped with an almost telepathic sense of musicianship. Every transition felt seamless, every crescendo earned. The band locked into grooves that felt endless, yet never indulgent, always pulling the audience deeper into their orbit.
What makes Boogarins so captivating live isn’t just their technical precision, though that alone would be enough to impress, it’s the emotional current running beneath everything. Sung in Portuguese, the lyrics could easily create a barrier for some audiences, but here, language felt irrelevant. The emotion translated effortlessly, carried through reverb-soaked vocals and shimmering instrumentation that spoke louder than words ever could. You didn’t need to understand the language to understand the feeling, you felt it in your chest, in your bones, in the way the crowd collectively leaned forward as if pulled by gravity.
And that crowd, packed tightly into Comet Ping Pong’s cozy confines, responded in kind. There was a shared sense of awe in the room, the kind that only happens when a band and audience meet at exactly the same frequency. Heads nodded, eyes closed, bodies swayed. It was less a concert and more a communal experience, a psychedelic séance conducted through sound.
If this tour is a celebration of Manual, it’s also a reminder of why Boogarins have become such a vital force in modern psych rock. They don’t just play music, they create environments, immersive worlds that you step into and don’t want to leave. One thing is certain: if Boogarins are coming anywhere near you on this run, don’t hesitate. This is a band that demands to be seen live, in all their kaleidoscopic glory.
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Washington, D.C
Confirmed case of measles in DC as country faces significant resurgence – WTOP News
D.C. health officials are warning of the possible measles exposure at Dulles International Airport and multiple Metrorail lines between April 23-27.
Officials with the District’s Department of Health announced a confirmed case of measles in the city on Thursday.
In a release, D.C. Health are warning residents who may have been exposed to the contagious person at multiple locations around D.C.
- Concourse B, the Aerotrain and the Baggage Claim Area of Dulles International Airport on Thursday, April 23, and Friday, April 24
- M60 Metrobus northbound toward Takoma Langley Crossroads Transit Center from April 24 to April 27
- M60 Metrobus southbound toward Fort Totten station from April 24 to April 27
- Metrorail Green Line from Fort Totten to L’Enfant Plaza and the Blue Line toward Downtown Largo on Saturday, April 25, from 9 a.m. till noon
- Metrorail Green Line from Fort Totten to L’Enfant Plaza transferring to the Orange Line toward New Carrolton on Sunday, April 26, from 7:50 a.m. to 10:50 a.m.
- Orange Line from Minnesota Avenue transferring from L’Enfant Plaza to the Green Line toward Greenbelt on Saturday, April 25, and Sunday, April 26, in the evening
- Red Line Metrorail from Fort Totten toward Shady Grove on Monday, April 27, from 5 p.m. to 7:15 p.m.
Anyone who was at those locations during the listed times should monitor for symptoms for 21 days and check their vaccination status. Early symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes, followed by a rash.
D.C. Health officials said the virus can stay in the air for up to 2 hours after a contagious person leaves the space.
As always, vaccination remains a key component in fighting the spread of the disease. Two doses of the vaccine are recommended for children between 12 months and 4 years old
“It is so contagious that about 9 out of 10 people who come near a person with measles will also become infected if they are not vaccinated,” D.C. Health wrote.
Three cases of measles were also confirmed in February among people traveling through the D.C. area.
People who think they might have been exposed to the virus should contact their healthcare provider or D.C. Health at 844-493-2652 for guidance.
Measles outbreaks have surged nationwide. This year through April, there were more than 1,814 confirmed measles cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
Roughly 2,300 cases were reported in 2025.
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© 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
Washington, D.C
LUCC members tackle housing affordability shortage
County officials representing large urban areas across the country traveled to Washington D.C. April 23 to discuss data-driven approaches to expanding housing supply and affordability at a think tank and relay local housing needs to federal agency staff and members of Congress at NACo’s Large Urban County Caucus (LUCC) fly-in.
“Housing, especially housing supply and affordability, is one of the most pressing challenges facing our respective metropolitan areas,” said LUCC Chair Adrian Garcia, who serves as a Harris County, Texas commissioner. “It’s a core constraint, not only on quality of life, but also on economic growth and workforce ability.”
Best practices
Edward Pinto, senior fellow and co-director of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Housing Center, outlined three ways local governments can increase housing supply:
- Allow houses to be built on smaller lots, increasing the amount of starter single family homes and townhomes
- Allow lot split flexibilities on existing lots, enabling a variety of dwelling types and sizes to exist on one property (such as duplexes, ADUs and townhomes)
- Expand flexibility to build homes near jobs
“The three most important things in housing affordability are small lot, small lot, small lot,” Pinto said. “Small lots cost less; you get smaller homes on small lots.”
Local governments should encourage the construction of small residential properties — specifically single-family buildings that contain between one and four separate dwelling units, according to Pinto.
“That is the way that you actually make housing affordable,” he said. “… The first home I bought in 1975 [was] 1,400 square feet, three bedrooms, on a 4,800 square foot lot. We don’t build those houses anymore. They’re illegal. You need to activate that.”
Into the early 20th century, it was common to have multiple types of residences — small, large, duplexes, triplexes, townhomes — mixed in the same neighborhood as doctor’s offices, grocery stores and other commercial properties, Pinto said. And not just in urban areas, but in smaller cities, as well, he noted.
That ended when Herbert Hoover, who was the U.S. Secretary of Commerce at the time, appointed a zoning commission to develop a model zoning statute for the states to pass. That statute was based on a Baltimore city ordinance that led to economic segregation, Pinto noted.
In 1910, Baltimore passed the country’s first racial-zoning ordinance, making it illegal for Black people to live in predominantly white neighborhoods, and vice-versa. In 1917, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down racial zoning, declaring it unconstitutional to refuse to sell a home to someone because of their race, so the city then moved to control how land could be developed and used, requiring lots and homes to be a certain minimum size.
“They came upon economic segregation … That’s why they focused on single-family, detached [homes],” Pinto said. “They now could set lot sizes. They could set side yards, front yards, backyards … and they knew there was lots of research that showed that that would just drive the prices up, out of the reach of the people they didn’t want living there.”
Over a century later, it’s these restrictive zoning ordinances that continue to prevent the expansion of housing supply and affordability, Pinto said. In the United States, 38 million people between the ages of 25 to 65 qualify as low-wage workers, meaning they make less than $40,000 a year working full-time. Low-wage workers usually can’t afford to rent one- or two-bedroom units in high-rise buildings. So, if the goal is to expand affordable housing, those types of developments shouldn’t make up such a large share of new construction, he said.
“Of the 40% of low-wage workers that are in rental households, 60% of them live in single family-1 to 4 — the exact things that were being built in Los Angeles that [the Federal Housing Administration] stamped out back in 1935,” he said.
“And the reason is because you can spread the cost … across more than one wager easily, either you’re married, you have roommates, whatever, you’re able to spread it, but it’s very hard to do that in a one-bedroom apartment.”
If counties do rezone land to maximize housing supply, they need to make the replatting process as simple and inexpensive as possible, so that it’s not dragged out, Pinto said.
“If you’re just taking 8,000 square feet, and you’re dividing it into four, 2,000 square foot lots, that should be drop dead simple,” he said. “If it isn’t drop dead simple, you need to make it drop dead simple.”
Federal housing priorities
In December, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) finalized its housing target goals through 2028, which outline that a certain percentage of acquisitions that the enterprises make must support low-income households in low-income areas and multi-family housing, according to Leda Bloomfield, associate director of FHFA’s Office of Housing, Community Investment and Inclusion.
“We want to make sure that you’re providing liquidity not just for the class A new construction, but also for starter homes and homes where we think the vast majority of Americans and families are,” Bloomfield said. “Thinking about, how do we achieve the American dream, to get them into those kinds of housing? And making sure that we support the spectrum of borrowers there.”
FHFA announced April 22 that it’s implementing VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T for mortgage underwriting, according to Daniel Fichtler, principal readiness adviser for FHFA’s Division of Conservatorship Oversight and Readiness. They are modern, trended-data credit models approved by the FHFA for mortgage underwriting by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA replacing older static models. Both analyze 24-plus months of credit behavior, including rent/utility payments, to better predict risk and expand homeownership opportunities.
“They use what’s called trended credit data, which is more accurate, more reliable,” Fichtler said.
“And they also do things like better account for rent payments — those types of obligations that aren’t always as visible on the credit bureau side, but that can give a better picture of certain borrowers’ credit worthiness.
“We think this is going to be a really important development, because it both improves access and improves safety and soundness.”
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, bipartisan legislation the Senate passed in March, would modernize locally administered housing programs and cut artificial costs from regulatory barriers, according to NACo.
If enacted, it would be a “very important step that’s going to help Americans access quality, affordable housing,” said Geoffrey Smith, general deputy assistant secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations.
HUD will continue to work with Congress to expand the housing supply, streamline regulations and lower housing costs for all Americans, Smith said. Deregulation is a “top priority” for the department, he noted.
“HUD is taking bold action to help American families with thoughtful proposals to increase housing and opportunity zones, promoting the value of manufactured housing and addressing just the mountain of red tape out there builders are dealing with right now,” Smith said.
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