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Jacksonville advocates join crime survivors' march on Washington – Jacksonville Today

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Jacksonville advocates join crime survivors' march on Washington – Jacksonville Today


Jacksonville’s Feletta Smith and Beverly McClain are both survivors of violence who arose from the darkness to found support groups for other survivors.

Both will join more than 3,000 others, including others from Jacksonville, who have lost loved ones to violent crime, or been victims of it, at Tuesday’s Crime Survivors Speak March on Washington. The first by a national grassroots movement centering the needs of victims of crime, they seek to urge lawmakers to expand support for crime victims and their families and pass reforms to break cycles of crime.

Smith survived being shot 13 times on Feb. 29 of 2004, as Thomas Bevel killed her boyfriend Garrick Springfield and 13-year-old Phillip Sims in her home in the Brentwood area, police said. Bevel ultimately received two death sentences. And as she healed, Smith began Beyond the Bullet to cultivates a safe place for victims of gun violence, encourage them to take action, and celebrate the lives of those who were killed.

For her, meeting with other survivors of violence is a key reason to go to Washington.

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“We can talk about victims’ rights and just hear how we feel about gun violence as well,” Smith said just before leaving for the march. “I was chosen to go to the White House to speak about gun violence, so that will be very exciting for me.”

McClain will be there as well, 19 years after her son Andre was murdered. Devastated by his death, she started Families of Slain Children as a way to help other families in the same situation. Outside its headquarters on North Myrtle Avenue is a memorial wall commemorating almost 3,000 crime victims, with room for no more.

Now McClain wants to add her voice to the chorus asking lawmakers for change.

“The more, the better,” McClain says. “The more ears, the better. Our voices will be heard. We need to come together so we can learn to support each other more, and better.”

Feletta Smith (left), founder and president of Beyond the Bullet, and Beverly McClain, founder of Families of Slain Children, on Jan. 22, 2024. | Will Smith, Jacksonville Today

Many of the local crime victims and march participants left for Washington, D.C., early Sunday on a bus from Families of Slain Children’s North Myrtle Avenue office.

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The march was organized by Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice, a national network of more than 200,000 crime victims advocating for a justice system that prioritizes healing, prevention, and recovery, its organizers said.

The group says it’s helped get more than 100 criminal justice and public safety reforms passed in state legislatures. And the march comes on the 40th anniversary of the Victims of Crime Act, the 30th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act, and the 20th anniversary of the Crime Victims Rights Act.

Planned events include a march and rally with survivors at Union Square, and a Healing Festival on the National Mall. And several survivors and advocates, including Smith, will meet with congressional representatives and senators to discuss policy priorities, share personal stories and advocate for programs that address the root causes of crime.

McClain, who helps the families of those who died with grief counseling, food or just someone to talk to, she hopes someone listens to their pleas this week in Washington. Not a day goes by that she doesn’t think of her son “and other sons and daughters who I deal with.”

“It doesn’t get any better; it doesn’t get any easier,” McClain said. “There are too many.”

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And Smith, who said she is worried about how many young people are dying because they have access to high-powered guns at such an early age, also hopes they listen.

“We are telling our stories; we are voicing how we feel,” Smith said. “We are coming to heal. We want to have the right to heal, so we want to have someone listen to us and listen to our thoughts and our feelings. Put us at the table with the lawmakers and just let them know how we feel as survivors of these violent crimes.”



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Washington Watch: CCAMPIS grant competition announced – Community College Daily

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Washington Watch: CCAMPIS grant competition announced – Community College Daily


The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “on behalf of the Department of Education (ED),” on Monday released a Notice Inviting Grant Applications for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program. Applications are due by May 29.

Last November, ED announced that it had entered into an interagency agreement with HHS to administer the CCAMPIS program. This is the first CCAMPIS competition conducted under this arrangement.

Approximately $73.5 million will go to institutions of higher education that awarded at least $250,000 in Pell grants to enrolled students in FY 2025. HHS will award about 148 grants, ranging from $150,000 to $1 million.

The terms of the grant competition are not significantly different than prior competitions. As before, there are two absolute grant priorities that every application must address – leveraging non-federal resources and utilizing a sliding-fee scale for low-income parents.

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This year’s competition includes only one invitational priority that reflects the Trump administration’s general educational policy. The new priority, entitled “Expanding Education Choice in Early Learning Settings,” encourages applications that “expand access to education choice … including by empowering parents in choosing the early learning setting that best meets their family’s needs.” Flexible childcare programs that include drop-in care and care during nontraditional hours are also encouraged.

One other notable difference from prior competitions is an expanded “Terms and Conditions” section that not only requires compliance with applicable civil rights laws, but also refers to Trump administration Executive Orders and guidance on racial discrimination that clarify “the application of federal antidiscrimination laws to programs or initiatives that may involve discriminatory practices, including those labeled as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) programs.” This includes any “discriminatory equity ideology [as defined in Executive Order 14190] in violation of a federal antidiscrimination law.”

The exact scope of these terms is unclear because courts have not found many of the practices described in these Executive Orders and guidance documents to be violations of federal law.



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A look at the roots (and routes) of immigration to Washington

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A look at the roots (and routes) of immigration to Washington


The Newsfeed

This week, the team brings you stories about how communities including Filipino immigrants, Sephardic Jews and Somalis arrived in the Pacific Northwest

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Each week on The Newsfeed, host Paris Jackson and a team of veteran journalists dive deep into one topic and provide impactful reporting, interviews and community insights from sources you can trust. Each day this week, this post will be updated with a new story from the team.

Group hopes to boost recognition for Seattle’s Filipinotown 



By Venice Buhain

The group Filipinotown Seattle hopes to make sure that the legacy of Filipino Americans in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District isn’t forgotten. 

One of the group’s current projects is pushing for a Filipinotown placemarking sign in the CID. 

“Filipino Americans have had a presence here for over 100 years in Seattle,” said Filipinotown Seattle Executive Director Devin Israel Cabanilla.  

He said that the signage is important to remind people that “the International District is not just Chinatown. Japantown. Filipinotown is here as well.” 

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The group held a poll on what signage might look like and where it might be located. It would be similar to the Chinatown sign on South Jackson Street and Fifth Avenue South, or the Wing Luke Museum  

In the early 20th century, the area now known as the CID was a hub full of businesses, entertainment, social groups and housing that served Seattle’s growing immigrant population from Asia and elsewhere. The communities all intermingled throughout the CID. 

“This area was a central place for Asian Pacific immigrants simply because of segregation,” Cabanilla said. 

Because the Philippines was a U.S. territory from 1898 to 1946, Filipino immigrants were unaffected by laws in the 1920s that restricted immigration from Japan or China. Many Filipinos came to study at the University of Washington or to work in burgeoning industries, like lumber, farming, canneries and factories.  

While the physical Filipino presence in terms of buildings and storefronts in the CID dwindled in the later 20th century with redevelopment, Seattle Filipinos and Filipino Americans continued to make impacts locally, regionally and nationally.  

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“It may not have been in terms of storefronts, but our presence has always existed in terms of politics, culture as well,” Cabanilla said. 

The Seattle Department of Transportation said it is aware that the group is working on its signage request, but the Department of Neighborhoods has not yet received a formal request. They are also working to develop a clearer process for this and other similar neighborhood signage proposals. 

Filipinotown Seattle said it hopes that the sign helps remind Seattle of the CID’s unique designation as a neighborhood shaped by many immigrants and migrants to Seattle. 

“Is it Chinatown? Is it Japantown? Is it Little Saigon? It’s all those things. And I think re cultivating that this is a multicultural district, Filipinotown is helping establish: Yes, it’s more than one thing,” Cabanilla said. 

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Venice Buhain

Venice Buhain is a multimedia journalist at Cascade PBS. She previously was the Cascade PBS’s associate news editor and education reporter. Venice has also worked for KING 5, The Seattle Globalist and TVW News.



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The Church of Jesus Christ has announced its 384th temple

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The Church of Jesus Christ has announced its 384th temple


The state of Washington is getting a seventh temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Marysville Washington Temple was announced Sunday night during a devotional in the Marysville Washington Stake by Elder Hugo E. Martinez, a General Authority Seventy in the church’s United States West Area Presidency.

“We are pleased to announce the construction of a temple in Marysville, Washington,” the First Presidency said in a statement. “The specific location and timing of the construction will be announced later. This is a reason for all of us to rejoice and express gratitude for such a significant blessing — one that will allow more frequent access to the ordinances, covenants and power that can only be found in the house of the Lord.”

The other temples in Washington are the Columbia River, Moses Lake, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma and Vancouver temples.

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The church has 214 temples in operation. Plans for another 170 temples have been announced; many of those temples are in various stages of planning and construction.

Sunday’s temple announcement follows the new practice of the church’s First Presidency, which determines where temples will be built — and when and how they will be announced.

The First Presidency directed a General Authority Seventy to announce the first temple in Maine at a fireside there in December.

In January, church President Dallin H. Oaks said the Maine announcement set the pattern for future temple announcements.

“The best place to announce a temple is in that temple district,” he told the Deseret News.

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The First Presidency will continue to decide where future temples will be built. It then will “assign someone else to make the announcement in the place where the temple will be built,” he said.

This pattern came to him as a strong impression after he assumed leadership of the church in October, following the death of his friend, President Russell M. Nelson.

This came as a strong impression to him shortly after he assumed the leadership of the church, President Oaks said.

The church remains in the midst of an aggressive temple-building era. President Nelson announced 200 new temples from 2018 to 2025. All but one were announced at general conference.

Five dozen temples are now under construction.

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President Oaks now has overseen the announcement of two temples, neither at a general conference.

At the October conference he said that “with the large number of temples now in the very earliest phases of planning and construction, it is appropriate that we slow down the announcement of new temples.”

Ten new temples are scheduled to be dedicated in the next six months.

  • May 3: Davao Philippines Temple.
  • May 3: Lindon Utah Temple.
  • May 31: Bacolod Philippines Temple.
  • June 7: Yorba Linda California Temple.
  • June 7: Willamette Valley Oregon Temple.
  • Aug. 16: Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple.
  • Aug. 16: Cleveland Ohio Temple.
  • Aug. 30: Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple.
  • Oct. 11: Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple.
  • Oct. 18: Managua Nicaragua Temple.

Two-thirds of the 170 temples still to be built are outside the United States.

Temples are distinct from the meetinghouses where Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ each Sunday. Temples are closed on Sundays, but they open during the week as sanctuaries where church members go to find peace, make covenants with God and perform proxy ordinances for deceased relatives.



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