Washington, D.C
A Worker-Led Alternative to Billionaire-Owned News in DC
CMR: It seems like the model of journalism funded by online ad revenue is somewhat defunct. We’ll get to the Post later, but what do you all make of the argument that good journalism takes a lot of money to make and just might not be profitable in and of itself?
AH: I think what Maddie just described is a really important answer to this. We’re hearing very often that journalism is not sustainable anymore, that now with the internet people aren’t willing to pay for journalism. What we all need to agree and commit it to is that journalism is a public good.
Journalism is a thing that we need. Particularly when it comes to local news, when we lose publications, corporate malfeasance increases, people are less likely to vote, to run for office, are less civically engaged. There is a litany of negative effects when we lose news, so there needs to be a commitment to make it happen. And good journalism is expensive. But when you compare it to all the other things that our government and we as a society spend our money on, it’s really not that expensive.
MP: Just check out those daily National Guard fees!
AH: Exactly. The ad model has collapsed, which means we need to replace that funding with something else.
CMR: What gap in coverage did you see the 51st filling when you launched, what were people looking for?
AH: DC is an interesting case. It’s not a news desert as compared to the very real news deserts, particularly in rural areas across the United States, where there are no publications left. But DC shows signs of approaching a news desert, and has experienced a steady and increasingly dramatic erosion of local news. It’s in a unique position because we have a lot of journalists in DC, but most of them are focused on Congress and what Trump said this week. That’s important work, but we also need journalists who are covering DC as a city where hundreds of thousands of people live and work.
Credit: Henry Kan
With the closure of DCist, where all of us used to work, followed by dramatic reductions at Washington City Paper, and buyouts at the Post that cut deeply into the Metro section, there were so many different gaps that were left in the city. Dedicated education coverage was dramatically lacking, as was dedicated housing coverage.
A thing we heard from a lot of DC residents was a lack of holistic coverage of crime, not in a dramatic or fear-mongering way, but as a societal issue. What services are young people in DC not getting, what ways are neighbors working to keep each other safe etc.
There was also a huge gap in accountability reporting too, the kind of reporting that holds elected officials feet to the fire. That’s something that our full-time reporter, Martin Austermuhle, does by being at the Wilson Building regularly, going to city council hearings and reporting on what is said and passed. There are very, very few journalists that do that dogged local coverage any more.
MP: The other thing we’ve seen people want is stories about local curiosities. The Pho Viet story, about the beautiful abundant garden outside a mainstay Vietnamese restaurant. Or the one about the lifeguard at Banneker Pool that is always playing bops. The sort of things that help you know the fixtures in your community and your neighbors better, things that make you feel really proud to live in DC. There is tendency in national news to talk about DC as just Capitol Hill, it’s important for us to tell stories about why we love this place and why it’s so much more than just a political backdrop or pawn.
AH: Local news is how you know about and get connected to your neighbors. Another thing we heard as we were doing research before launch was that people felt like they didn’t have the information to make weekend plans anymore, didn’t have information about events happening in the city, or restaurants opening, or community events that don’t grab big headlines. That’s what local news is. It’s how people get connected to the other people who call their city home.
CMR: How are you all feeling about the layoffs at the Post? Relatedly, there seems to be significant demand for a “replacement” for the Post’s coverage, what makes the 51st different from other local news offerings in that regard?
AH: I’m still digesting it — I feel so angry and so sad. What happened at the Post did not need to happen. The money to support a publication like the Post and the journalists who work there exists, and, in fact, exists in the pocket of the man who owns the Post. It’s so frustrating how absolutely unnecessary these cuts were. I feel sad about what we’re losing. I feel sad about the journalists losing their jobs, and about what us as citizens of the United States and of the world are losing from all the stories that will no longer be told. And I also feel really scared. What’s happening at the Post is happening in tandem with losing two and half local newspapers every week and massive institutions like CBS and the Post not only being dismantled, but being repurposed for the aims of powerful right wing interests to further consolidate money at the top and remove the remaining checks that we have on their power.
MP: There’s so much to digest, just incredibly heartbreaking and scary and a symptom of the greater collapse we’re seeing across our systems and institutions.
There is a part of me that remains optimistic because of how many people are hungry, eager, and ready to build alternative structures in response to collapse. We are not going to make up this giant void left by this storied institution, but we are taking community feedback really serious and listening to understand what’s needed: an alternative approach to how journalism has traditionally been done, at least institutionalized journalism.
AH: It is really important for us to be clear that we cannot replace the Washington Post. The kind of resources that an institution like that commanded to do vital journalism is irreplaceable. That being said, we are really passionate about the alternative model that we’re building, and really believe in the ability of that model to be part of creating a better local news ecosystem. A local news ecosystem that is not controlled by powerful executives who may or may not have any experience in journalism, one that is directly responsive to the needs of readers and community members.
Local news in particular, but journalism more broadly, does not have a perfect history or present. There are plenty of examples of journalism holding up the interests of the powerful and failing to protect the less powerful. While we contend with what is a catastrophic loss for journalism, it’s also our responsibility to start building better alternatives. We believe that in the community of DC that’s what we’re doing with the 51st.
Thank God we’re not the only local news institution left. DC deserves a vibrant local news community with a bunch of different publications that are well funded and supported to do their journalism. It’s really important to us that we partner with other local institutions — we co-publish with the Spanish language publication El Tiempo Latino and the Amharic language publication Ethiopique. I think that long term it’s better for DC to be a city with many different community-responsive publications than one behemoth like the Washington Post. That’s the vision that we’re building towards.
MP: We have been planning to grow our newsroom and fundraise this month based on the two-year anniversary of the 51st’s launch with a campaign to bring on two full-time employees. After what happened at the Post, we realized the need is so much greater, and also that community support is really there. In the three days after the cuts were announced we saw 700 new paid members join without us even really putting a call out there. (That’s the second biggest growth spurt in the 51st’s history. The first? When Bezos pulled the Post’s endorsement of Kamala Harris) It’s a heartening testament to building something that the community wants. So we’re going to be launching a $375,000 campaign for the next month, and are already in talks with some major local donors and foundations about providing matching funds. We know the need is there for talented reporters in DC.
AH: The support is reflective of the fact that people need this, want this, and, in this economy, are willing to put their dollars behind it. DC has had a rough, rough year. Not only is the National Guard continuing to occupy our streets, but we have seen unprecedented amounts of layoffs in this city both from federal agencies as a result of DOGE and also from nonprofit and think tanks that rely on government funding. A lot of DC residents are worse for wear economically, but are still continuing to show up and commit memberships to the 51st. News and information is something people want, something people deserve, and something that should be free and available to everyone.
This first appeared on Inequality.org.
Abigail Higgins is the president and managing editor of the 51st.
Maddie Poore is the director of growth and engagement at the 51st.
WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration received 12,000 applications in 24 hours after its annual air traffic control hiring window opened Friday, a figure Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described as record breaking amid the agency’s new campaign to recruit video gamers to the job.
In a post on X over the weekend, Duffy said the 12,000 applications marked “the most in one day since the FAA was created 68 YEARS ago!” He told Fox News in an interview Sunday that 11,000 of those applicants were considered qualified and 8,000 have already been sent a skills test required to move forward in the process.
Duffy specifically credited the Transportation Department’s fresh effort announced earlier this month — just a week ahead of the opening of its hiring window at midnight April 17 — to seek out those who play video games to apply.
“To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt,” Duffy said in a press release on the new campaign at the time. “This campaign’s innovative communication style and focus on gaming taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller.”
The transportation chief told Fox News on Sunday that the idea was sparked by a poll the agency took of students at an FAA academy in Oklahoma City in which all but three of the 250 people randomly surveyed said they were gamers.
“And so we thought, listen, there’s a connection here,” Duffy said. “They problem solve, they are spatially aware, they do multiple things at the same time. It is very reminiscent of what air traffic controllers do.”
Since then, Duffy said the agency has reached out to the community, including with a video appearing to target gamers he posted earlier this month. He called the response the agency has received “remarkable.”
“YOU can be the future of air traffic control,” Duffy said in a post on X earlier this month that included the video ad. “It’s not a GAME, its a CAREER.”
The push comes as the FAA has been plagued with air traffic controller staffing issues for years, a reality that has been amplified amid recent government shutdowns, which leave them working without pay until the matter is resolved.
During the government shutdown last fall, Duffy told CNN in an interview that the FAA was seeing 15 to 20 air traffic controllers retiring a day, up from four before the lapse in funding. He added at the time that the FAA was short “about 1,000 to 2,000” air traffic controllers in general and noted he had embarked on an effort to pay experienced people in the position to stay on the job and not retire.
A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office released earlier this year found that the number of air traffic controllers in the country has declined by about 6% over the last 10 years. The GAO cited government shutdowns in 2013 and 2018-2019, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, as contributing factors in the decline, noting both disrupted training.
In the report, the GAO also noted that there has been a 10% increase in the number of flights that rely on the air traffic control system over the same period, exacerbating the issue.
President Donald Trump’s 2027 budget proposal to Congress includes a request of a $481 million increase to “continue to support the Administration’s air traffic controller hiring surge, as well as enhancements to aviation safety, commercial space operations, and updates to FAA’s outdated telecommunications systems,” according to a fact sheet from the White House.
There are a number of prerequisites to qualify to be an air traffic controller, including being under 31 years old and being able to “Speak English clearly enough to be understood over communications equipment,” according to the FAA website.
Those interested must also pass a medical exam, as well as the agency’s air traffic pre-employment tests. The FAA notes that less than 10% of all applicants meet all of the requirements and are accepted into the training program.
Washington, D.C
The director of the Congressional Budget Office—known for its gloomy national debt data—is very optimistic that a crisis will be avoided entirely | Fortune
Dr Phillip Swagel is an optimist, both by nature and when he looks at the U.S. economy.
This fact is perhaps at odds with what one might assume: Swagel is the director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the nonpartisan agency that offers independent budgetary and economic analysis to Congress.
Very often—an inevitable occupational hazard—the subject of national debt and the interest the U.S. Treasury pays to maintain is its central focus. The numbers are eye-watering: Public debt stands at more than $39 trillion. The interest expense on that borrowing now exceeds $1 trillion a year. Indeed, the latest budget update from the CBO highlights that the government—according to preliminary estimates—paid out nearly $530 billion between October 2025, when the fiscal year starts, and March 2026. This equates to more than $88 billion in interest payments a month, or more than $22 billion a week.
The CBO’s figures are routinely cited by policymakers, think tanks, and lobbyists as alarming evidence that the U.S. needs to find a more sustainable fiscal path or risk dire straits.
Swagel doesn’t subscribe to the notion that the U.S. will face a crisis of its own making. His justification is simple: He was at the Treasury during the 2008 financial crisis, and joined the CBO months before the COVID pandemic began. He has watched as the U.S. economy, seemingly against all odds, has clawed its way out of economic crises before.
That’s not to say Swagel isn’t a staunch advocate of setting the U.S. on a more sustainable fiscal path—rather, he trusts the people in power to do so when the time comes.
Why the optimism?
Among those concerned about national debt are notable names: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also worried about federal spending and has endorsed a plan floated by Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett that would render members of Congress ineligible for reelection if they allow deficits to exceed 3% of GDP.
On the other hand, optimistic economists suggest that, despite the value of the debt, it’s not actually an issue: the bond market is holding steady, indicating a reliable market of buyers. Likewise, the U.S.’s own central bank buys huge swaths of the debt, meaning, in the simplest of layman’s terms, the economy can essentially print its own money. There are holes in this argument, not least the fact that Fed chairman nominee Kevin Warsh has suggested he would like to reduce the Fed’s balance sheet and may therefore be less inclined to finance borrowing.
Swagel’s positive outlook doesn’t rely on the argument that a crisis hasn’t happened yet, so therefore it never will: “[My optimism] is rooted in my experience,” Swagel tells Fortune in an exclusive interview in Washington D.C. “First being at Treasury during the financial crisis and seeing very difficult times and the country coming together with an effective response—not saying it’s perfect, lots of controversy—but it was effective.”
“The second thing is policymakers are smart, they’re thoughtful. Interacting with members of Congress makes me optimistic. I know you read about all the squabbles … I’m completely aware of this, but the policymakers that are thinking about these things are thoughtful and effective. Not necessarily always effective at passing legislation, but that’s part of our political system, it was set up to make it difficult ot pass legislation.”
Decisions on the horizon
Swagel’s optimism that Congress will be pushed into action will be tested sooner rather than later, likely at some point in the next six years, he told Fortune. This is partly due to the fact that, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) both Social Security and Medicare will become insolvent within that time period.
“Making progress to address the fiscal trajectory would be a positive for the U.S. economy,” Swagel said. “Credible steps would lead to lower interest rates that would make the subsequent adjustment easier, there is a reward to virtue. It’s a positive thing, we can’t go on [with] the scolding narrative. My sense is that members of Congress understand the fiscal situation, it’s not that everyone single one has looked at our one-pager of numbers and understands the debt to the third decimal point, but they understand something needs to be done.”
“It doesn’t have to be done immediately, but at some point reasonably soon.”
Swagel is of the opinion that bond investors haven’t increased risk premiums not because they’re not worried about a fiscal crisis, but because they have priced in preventative action from Congress—in his mind “a vote of confidence that my optimism is not misplaced.”
“As a country, we face up to these problems. It’s not happening now, I’m not sure it’s going to happen in the rest of this year or even the next year, or the next two years. But we will face up to it, and the market in some sense expects us to, because otherwise interest rates would be higher,” he explained.
The Cheesecake Factory
The role of the CBO, to some extent, is to provide policymakers with their options if and when they do choose to take action on federal deficits. It’s a menu not unlike the Cheesecake Factory, Swagel says: Large, inclusive of a range of modifications and options, and delivered without judgement.
“Right now it’s maybe a pick three, and you’re looking at a six or seven course menu,” joked Caleb Quakenbush, director of fiscal policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, in an interview with Fortune. “The longer you delay, the more you’re gonna have to add to your tab, and those options become more expensive.”
Indeed, economists and analysts aren’t necessarily worried about the absolute level of government debt, rather the debt-to-GDP ratio. Depending on whom you ask, the debt-to-GDP ratio stands at around 122% of GDP at present. This measure demonstrates an economy’s spending versus its growth, and the risk associated with lending to a nation that isn’t growing fast enough to handle its spending. To rebalance that ratio, an economy could either cut spending or increase growth—the latter being by far the less painful option.
The growth option is becoming less feasible, Michael Peterson, CEO of fiscal think tank the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, told Fortune in an exclusive interview: “I think it requires government action because we’ve waited so long. We’ve added so many trillions, and the current deficit is so big at 6% that the level of growth you would need really exceeds what is feasible.
“Growth needs to be a part of it, but it’s sort of a vicious cycle. The longer we delay, the more debt we have, the slower growth is going to be. The more we get this under control, I think the greater optimism there is, interest rates go down, more growth comes from that. It’s sort of a virtuous or vicious cycle depending on your policy response.”
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Seventy-two veterans took a trip Saturday to our nation’s capital to visit memorials honoring their service in the armed forces.
This year marks the 12th trip to Washington, D.C. for Honor Flight Tallahassee.
Early Saturday morning, veterans and their guardians met to take a charter flight up to D.C.
Throughout the day, veterans were taken to the World War II memorial, as well as the Korean and Vietnam War memorials. The veterans also visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
More Tallahassee news:
The day ended with a wonderful welcome home celebration.
Our Jacob Murphey, Julia Miller, Taylor Viles, and Grace Temple accompanied the veterans, capturing moments from throughout the day.
The team will have live coverage from Washington, D.C. on Monday to share more from the day’s events.
We will continue to have coverage throughout the month of May, leading up to our Honor Flight special on Memorial Day.
To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Nextdoor and X (Twitter).
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