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DC Courts create new pathway for people without lawyers to get legal help – WTOP News

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DC Courts create new pathway for people without lawyers to get legal help – WTOP News


Nonlawyers who receive training will now be able to help with civil matters in D.C., as part of a new order issued by D.C. Courts that expands access to legal assistance.

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DC Courts create new pathway for people without lawyers to get legal help

Nonlawyers who receive training will now be able to help with civil matters in D.C., as part of a new order issued by D.C. Courts earlier this month that expands access to legal assistance for people without an attorney.

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The rule, scheduled to take effect in April, creates a framework for Community Justice Workers, or nonlawyers who are supervised and trained to offer limited legal assistance through a partnership with legal services organizations.

The step comes after a yearslong assessment into the possible role for nonlawyers in offering certain types of legal help to D.C. residents.

As of 2017, 97% of plaintiffs in paternity and child support cases, and in small estate matters, represent themselves in D.C. Superior Court, according to a 2025 report from the District of Columbia Courts Civil Legal Regulatory Reform Task Force.

“We are facing an extraordinary need,” said Nancy Drane, executive director of D.C.’s Access to Justice Commission. “There are thousands of District residents who are not getting the legal help they need.”

The Community Justice Worker model could be compared to seeing a nurse practitioner in a doctor’s office. Ariel Levinson-Waldman, director of nonprofit Tzedek D.C., said someone who goes through a supervised program would be able to provide help, “just like your nurse practitioner does.”

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Tzedek D.C. offers pro bono legal help and financial counseling. But, Levinson-Waldman said, there are thousands of people who are eligible for their services and the work of similar providers, and only a select few are available to help.

“Many of the court’s high-volume dockets are cases where the individual D.C. resident is not getting any help,” he said. “This effort, we saw that as a way to change that, to bring more people into opportunities for access to justice, to bring more resources to the problem.”

Whether it be divorce, custody cases, small claims or child support cases, the stakes are high.

Without an attorney or someone who can help in some way, cases often go “less well than it would have. It impacts their family, their future, their finances, sometimes access to the custody of their children,” Levinson-Waldman said.

In some instances, Drane said people experiencing issues such as eviction or family conflict navigate cases without help from a lawyer because legal help is expensive. Free legal service groups have limited capacities and budgets.

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Under the Community Justice Worker model, organizations could either train their own staffs to help or partner with community nonprofits.

“What this would mean, practically, is that we will have more helpers in the community who are trained and authorized to provide certain types of legal help,” Drane said. “The real beauty of Community Justice Workers is that they receive what I would call ‘bite-sized training for bite-sized tasks.’”

Karen Dale, market president and CEO of AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia, said people “need assistance, they need support. Having someone by your side to help you navigate with a level of specificity, get you to the right resources in a timely way, should be able to help less lives and families and communities get derailed.”

The approach, Levinson-Waldman said, will provide a formal way for “public spirited” volunteers to help their neighbors.

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Man in critical condition after water rescue in Southwest DC

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Man in critical condition after water rescue in Southwest DC


A man is in critical condition after falling into the Anacostia River in Southwestern Washington, D.C., Friday night.

What we know:

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D.C. Fire and EMS reported the rescue effort shortly after 10 p.m. at James Creek Marina in Buzzard Point.

Crews believe a man fell from the dock into the water. 

By 10:30 p.m., crews were able to pull the man out of the water. 

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Paramedics took him to the hospital in critical condition.

What we don’t know:

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Officials did not identify the man who was rescued. No other information was immediately available.

The Source: Information in this story is from the D.C. Fire and EMS Department.

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DC’s baseball team faces potential DOJ probe after exec allegedly admitted to religious discrimination

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DC’s baseball team faces potential DOJ probe after exec allegedly admitted to religious discrimination


NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

FIRST ON FOX — Washington, D.C.’s professional baseball franchise could come under Justice Department scrutiny after a viral video showed a team executive appearing to admit to his religious discrimination against a Christian player.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., is urging Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon to investigate alleged religious discrimination against players for the Washington Nationals, according to a letter sent Thursday to and first obtained by Fox News Digital.

The letter comes after Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe published a secretly recorded video of Washington Nationals Director of Community Relations Sean Hudson saying the team does not include pitcher Trevor Williams in certain social media promotion.

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He cited the player’s public criticism of another Major League Baseball franchise for hosting a drag group mocking Catholics.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., is urging the Department of Justice to investigate alleged religious discrimination within the Washington Nationals organization and across Major League Baseball. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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“According to the reporting by James O’Keefe, it appears the Washington Nationals are engaged in unlawful religious discrimination,” Boebert told Fox News Digital in a written statement. “I urge the DOJ to take immediate and decisive action.”

A spokesperson for the Justice Department said they received Boebert’s letter. 

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“The Department is reviewing the matter and will evaluate all appropriate next steps. As always, we remain committed to enforcing federal law and protecting civil rights,” they told Fox News Digital. 

A spokesperson for the Washington Nationals did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Hudson, in the clandestine recording, pointed to Williams’ public objections to the Los Angeles Dodgers honoring the Sisterhood of Perpetual Indulgence — a drag group that dresses as nuns — during the team’s 2023 “Pride Night.

The event also drew condemnation from multiple Catholic bishops, who described it as “blasphemous.”

Trevor Williams of the Washington Nationals sits in the dugout before a game against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, Wash., on May 28, 2025. (Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)

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Williams said he found the group’s anti-Catholic demonstration featuring vulgar caricatures of the crucifixion and sacred rituals to be “deeply offensive,” in an interview with Bishop Robert Barron last year. The professional baseball player said he made the decision with his wife to speak out even though it would put “a target on our back.”

“Baseball stadiums should be a place where everyone feels welcomed, like 100%,” Williams said in the interview. “We should all feel welcomed there. But that was clearly against one certain religion. If you don’t draw the line in the sand, who’s gonna do it?”  

According to Hudson, that public criticism of the drag group’s performance later affected Williams’ opportunities at the Nationals franchise. 

“Because of that we don’t use him on social [media],” Hudson told an undercover journalist in the video. “When they’re like ‘is a hot dog a sandwich’ and the players come up, we don’t ask him.”

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Boebert said she is concerned that Hudson’s admission could mean the franchise violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on religion and other protected classes. 

“Americans of faith should not face professional repercussions for objecting to the mockery of their sacred traditions,” the Colorado Republican said in the letter. “MLB’s privileged legal position should not become a license for exclusionary practices.”

“Sister Unity” and “Sister Dominia” of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were honored on Pride Night before the MLB game between the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on June 16, 2023. (Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire)

Hudson, in the video, described himself as “far-left leaning” and nonreligious. Meanwhile, he called Williams “super Catholic.”

The Washington Nationals executive also boasted about a Communist Party poster in his office and mused about pushing redistribution of wealth and other leftist agendas during baseball games at Nationals Park in Southeast Washington, D.C.

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“What a cool opportunity for us [Nationals] to also, be a little bit of like, the voice of reason,” Hudson said. “And a lot of people will tell you when I come to a baseball game, I don’t want to think about that s–t.”

“If you’re a sports fan and we piss you off, where else are you gonna go,” he went on. “I don’t give a sh–t.”



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‘Gateway to our city’: $465M grant to renovate Union Station

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‘Gateway to our city’: 5M grant to renovate Union Station


U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Thursday hundreds of millions of dollars to help with what he says are critical structural repairs and upgrades for D.C.’s Union Station.

“It was built in 1908, over a hundred years ago, and it was the largest train station in the world when it was built,” Duffy said. “And over the course of decades, it’s become run-down,” Duffy said.

A $465 million grant aims to ensure the overall experience for those coming and going remains up to par and on track at the transit hub. It will help fast-track repairs like roof upgrades and passenger concourses, Duffy said.

The project includes the Amtrak lounge and the ticket experience.

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For some travelers, alternatives to fast food are a must.

Retail, parking and office spaces will be priorities of the project to maximize the station’s revenue, as will public safety.

Already, Columbus Fountain is flowing again after being broken and dry for almost two decades.

“Now when you come out of Union Station, the gateway to our city, you’ll be met with a fountain that is beautiful and a fountain that actually works,” Duffy said.

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