LeNard Johnson, 47, has a job interview. He’s an IT guy who’s worked for the federal government, he says, sometimes with a security clearance. But it’s been hard to find work even after spending hours scrolling ZipRecruiter. He needs this virtual interview, at 5 p.m., to go well.
Washington, D.C
At a D.C. homeless shelter, two men face their demons in freezing weather
Johnson has been at the shelter every night since he got off a waiting list around Thanksgiving. If he misses check-in, he risks losing his bed. The sun is setting, and the first snow in more than 700 days coats the ground.
On a freezing night in a city with nearly 5,000 homeless people, Johnson does not want to be where he found himself last fall during his first extended bout with homelessness — riding the Silver Line from end to end to get some sleep.
Every liquor store is a temptation.
“I’m trying,” he says.
Robert Vaughn, 69, lines up for dinner at Central Union: Beef stew. Despite his labored breathing — Stage 3 emphysema — he’s jubilant. He says he’s been sober for 11 months, one of his longest stretches since he left home around 1967.
Central Union, founded in the 1880s to serve veterans of the Civil War, was a 14th Street landmark until about a decade ago, when it was replaced by boutique condos. Its current location — two blocks from Union Station and across the street from a luxury hotel — serves as a reminder of people in desperate straits who are stranded among policymakers, commuters and tourists at the foot of Capitol Hill.
After years living in other D.C. shelters — “hellholes,” Vaughn says — he’s in a long-term recovery program at Central Union. He lives in a four-man suite on the shelter’s third floor, having graduated from the second-floor dormitory. He’s made amends with his four adult children and agreed to a no-fault divorce from his wife. He says he no longer smokes crack. He is no longer, in his telling, a “hurricane” ruining women’s lives.
“I used to live a different way,” he says. “Now, I’m doing all the things I was told to do years ago.”
Johnson and Vaughn report to Central Union’s chapel, separated from the cafeteria by a collapsible wall. Johnson reports that his job interview went well. He was told he’s at the “top of the short list.”
“I try to remain optimistic about any opportunity,” he says. “If not, depression sets in.”
Ahead of a nightly ritual — the reading of the shelter’s rules — a chaplain welcomes guests.
“You’re making it in this cold,” he says. “Thank Him for heat. Thank Him for shelter. Can we praise the Lord tonight?”
A nondenominational Christian service begins. The service’s leader — the Rev. Norman Thomas of the First Baptist Church of Glenarden, Md. — gives a sermon about names. Johnson scrolls a job website as he listens.
The names God gave His creations have power, Thomas says. Those who carry these names must live up to them. In the film “Black Panther,” he says, Prince T’Challa defeated a formidable enemy by invoking the power of his mighty name.
“What is your name?” Thomas asks. “What does your name mean for you?”
Ahead of lights out, Johnson and Vaughn report to a lobby on Central Union’s second floor. The men have volunteered for housekeeping duties.
Johnson monitors the line for mandatory showers, making sure no one goes over the seven-minute limit. Vaughn polices the dormitory “tub rooms,” where residents stow personal items in plastic containers.
Vaughn takes the elevator down to a small lobby crowded with chairs and a TV. A handful of sleeping mats cover the floor. These are for “hypothermia” visitors — men who cannot be turned away during a hypothermia alert even though the dormitory is full. In the semidark, they huddle in their coats with their bags surrounding them.
At 7 a.m., it’s time to figure out where to spend tomorrow.
The lights are on, but it’s still a cold world.
BALTIMORE (WBFF) — A Maryland man was sentenced to over two decades in prison for sextorting young girls through social media platforms, the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Monday.
25-year-old Isaiah Poole, of Suitland, was sentenced to 25 years in prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release, for one count of producing child sexual abuse material.
The sentence was announced by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Kelly O. Hayes, alongside Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul, FBI Baltimore Field Office.
According to official records, Poole manipulated and coerced at least six girls — ranging from ages 9-14 — to send him sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves through Snapchat and other social media accounts.
Pretending to be a teenage girl, Poole manipulated the girls to produce and send him the images under the ruse of playing truth or dare.
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He would direct the young girls to expose their genital areas and engage in sexual conduct, according to authorities.
After some of the girls informed Poole that they didn’t want to send him any more images, he would then threaten to send the images to their families and friends.
Additionally, Poole distributed the sexually explicit images he received from two of the girls.
U.S. Attorney Hayes commended the FBI for its work in the investigation, along with the Maryland State Police and Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office for their valuable assistance.
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Ms. Hayes also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alex Treiger and Brooke Oki who prosecuted the case.
Washington, D.C
APPLY NOW: The College Fix’s paid fall 2026 D.C. journalism fellowships | The College Fix
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A student journalist in Washington, D.C.; Grok image
During the fall of 2026, the Student Free Press Association, parent organization for The College Fix, will offer paid internships at Washington, D.C.-based media organizations.
The internships are open to college students and recent college graduates. SFPA will match its intern with an appropriate host organization. Previous fellows have worked at National Review, Real Clear Politics, Daily Wire, Daily Caller, Reason, Washington Examiner, Washington Free Beacon, The Dispatch, EWTN, and Just The News, among others.
(To learn more about their experiences, go here and here.)
The internship will run for about 14 weeks, beginning in September. The specific start and end dates will be determined with the intern and media organization.
SFPA will provide a stipend of $8,400.
In addition to supplying the internship, the Student Free Press Association will offer customized career advice and networking opportunities. Applications must be received by July 15, 2026.
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Washington, D.C
Lake City’s ArtFields helps bring S.C. stories to national stage in Washington, D.C.
LAKE CITY, S.C. (WPDE) — A community art project with roots in Florence County is now on display on one of the nation’s biggest cultural stages.
ArtFields, the nationally recognized art festival based in Lake City, was selected as South Carolina’s official host for the National Scrollathon, a collaborative artmaking project that brings together people from across the country to share their stories through fabric scrolls.
The project is now being unveiled at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., giving Lake City and the Pee Dee region a place in a nationwide artistic celebration.
Created by brothers and artists Steven and William Ladd, Scrollathon invites participants to design personal fabric scrolls that reflect their experiences, hopes and dreams.
The individual pieces are then combined into a larger work of art that represents communities from across the United States.
Earlier this year, dozens of residents in Lake City participated in the project through an initiative called “Tied Together,” creating scrolls that shared their personal stories and connections to their community.
Carla Angus, an ArtFields consultant, said the project’s impact comes from bringing people together through creativity and storytelling.
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“Everyone who was invited receives these strips of material and fabric, and they select their colors, they select what they want to put together and they create a story behind their scroll,” Angus said. “That’s what’s so powerful about the project because it brings all these different people together with different backgrounds and different experiences.”
In addition to Lake City, Scrollathon events were held at other South Carolina cultural institutions, including the Gibbes Museum of Art and the International African American Museum.
Now, those local contributions are part of a much larger display.
More than 250,000 participants from all 50 states and U.S. territories contributed to the National Scrollathon.
The collection is being showcased at the Kennedy Center, where visitors can experience what organizers describe as a visual representation of the American story.
For Angus, seeing scrolls created in Lake City displayed alongside contributions from across the country is a proud moment.
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“When I look at those scrolls, I know those are thousands upon thousands of individuals that have shared their stories,” Angus said. “Now they have become one unified piece of artwork.”
Angus described the experience as surreal and said it demonstrates how art can connect people regardless of where they come from.
“It’s almost surreal because what we want to do is connect people through the arts,” Angus said. “To be a part of something that is so large, bringing so many states together, it shows how powerful art can be.”
The National Scrollathon will remain on display through Labor Day as part of the Kennedy Center’s yearlong celebration of America’s 250th anniversary and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
For Lake City and Florence County residents, the exhibit represents an opportunity to see their stories become part of a national conversation, one scroll at a time.
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