Washington, D.C

DC mayor says Initiative 82 needs to be repealed – WTOP News

Published

1 year ago

May 5, 2025

DC mayor says Initiative 82 needs to be repealed – WTOP News

On Monday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said a controversial law regarding restaurant wages for tipped workers needs to be repealed.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser says a controversial law regarding restaurant wages for tipped workers needs to be repealed.

The effort to repeal what was known as 2022’s Initiative 82 was unveiled Monday as part of her plan to transform the city’s federally dependent economy.

In the fall of 2022, voters approved the measure to end the tipped minimum wage and create one wage scale for workers regardless of their industry. The referendum passed by a 3-1 margin, though efforts to pass a similar measure in other neighboring jurisdictions haven’t been so successful.

Appearing at a venue on H Street Northeast, Bowser said it’s clearly hurting the city’s restaurants disproportionately.

“The economy that we’re dealing with right now and the environment for restaurants is vastly different than the economy and the environment that restaurants were operating in when this ballot measure was advanced,” Bowser said. “It would be negligent of us to act like we’re in the same place we were three years ago.”

‘We have to save this industry,’ Bowser says

Any changes to the law would require approval from the D.C. Council, which overturned the measure once before, in 2018. She thinks there’s a strong case for the council to do it again.

“They know the importance of restaurants to our economy and local hiring and keeping D.C. residents employed, they can see that we are out of line with the rest of the region, and we are losing investment of new restaurants, growing restaurants and employees to other parts of the region,” Bowser said.

She wouldn’t speculate whether voters would look at the referendum differently from 2022, but said city residents are supportive of policies that make sense.

“We have to save this industry, and there are things that are going to be out of our control with other increasing costs, but this one is in our control,” she said. “This is a local policy, and we have to make the strong case.”

Joining Bowser on stage at the Atlas Theater was Rock Harper, a chef who owns two restaurants on the H Street Northeast corridor.

“That means that we have a way to get to profitability,” he said, in regards to the proposal. “If you have a fast casual restaurant or a fine dining restaurant, you all have to operate the same way, and that just doesn’t work. We have the data, and we see that just doesn’t work.

“Raising the minimum wage for everybody really shrunk the scope of getting to profitability,” he said afterward.

In an emailed statement, the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington thanked Bowser for her support and said repealing the legislation is about “saving jobs, saving restaurants, and stabilizing a vital sector of the District’s economy.”

The group called on the D.C. Council to repeal the initiative, echoing its sentiments shared with District lawmakers from last month.

A leading advocate for repealing the measure, the Arlington-based Employment Policies Institute, hailed the move, saying it has “wreaked havoc” on the industry.

“Advocates promised the law would bring higher wages with no impact on tips,” Rebekah Paxton, a research director with the think tank, said in a statement. “But all D.C. tipped workers actually got were fewer tips, lost jobs, and closed restaurants.”

‘Stunning betrayal’

The group One Fair Wage, which pushed the referendum that overwhelmingly passed in 2022, also put out a blistering statement on the measure.

“This is a stunning betrayal of D.C. workers and democracy,” Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage, said in a statement. “Mayor Bowser is siding with industry lobbyists who have fought fair wages for decades, rather than respecting the twice-expressed will of voters who chose dignity, fairness, and economic justice.”

The group argues that tipping of workers remains strong, and that restaurant employment continues to increase.

“The data shows growth, not collapse,” she added. “Voters in the District voted in favor of One Fair Wage twice — we will thus be fighting for their votes to matter.”

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Related Topics:dc minimum wage Featured initiative 82 john domen Muriel Bowser restaurant workers Tipped Workers

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Washington, D.C

Texas man indicted in shooting near Washington Monument that left bystander hurt

Published

2 hours ago

May 30, 2026

Press Room

Texas man indicted in shooting near Washington Monument that left bystander hurt

WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — A Texas man accused of shooting at a United States Secret Service agent near the Washington Monument earlier this month has been indicted on federal charges, the Justice Department announced Friday.

A federal grand jury indicted 45-year-old Michael Marx with “assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon” and “using, carrying, possessing, brandishing, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence,” in connection with the May 4 incident, in which a stray bullet struck a teenage bystander.

“Today’s indictment reflects the gravity of the defendant’s actions on one of the most heavily visited public spaces in the nation,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Friday, in part. “The evidence shows Marx not only carried an illegal firearm into DC, but he fired it at uniformed officers, wounding an innocent teenage bystander who was simply visiting the National Mall with his family on a spring afternoon.”

Authorities previously charged Marx with assaulting federal officers with a dangerous weapon, using and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

According to court documents, an undercover Secret Service agent initially noticed Marx trying to conceal a gun on the right side of his body near 15th Street and Madison Drive NW shortly after 3:30 p.m. on the afternoon of the shooting.

At the same time, the motorcade for Vice President J.D. Vance was leaving the White House, passing through the area just up the street.

Uniformed Secret Service officers arrived to provide backup, finding Marx along the path of Vance’s motorcade. The attorney’s office said officers began to give the Texas man verbal commands, but he started running through a crosswalk and eventually fired at one of the agents as he reached the sidewalk.

The bullet struck the teenage bystander, who was walking behind the agent, in the leg, according to the DOJ.

Agents quickly returned fire, striking Marx in the hand, left arm, and upper body, according to court documents.

Court documents state that agents used Marx’s Texas driver’s license, which he was carrying, to identify him as the gunman. Investigators also identified various aliases Marx allegedly went by, including Patrick Michael and Michael Zavici.

While in the hospital, he allegedly made statements to officers, including ”F— the White House,” and “kill me, kill me, kill me,” the DOJ noted in a release.

Police found a Sig Sauer P365 handgun loaded with 9mm ammunition from the street where Marx fell.

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Washington, D.C

Storm Team4 Forecast: May ends with sunshine and clear skies

Published

12 hours ago

May 30, 2026

Press Room

Storm Team4 Forecast: May ends with sunshine and clear skies

4 things to know about the weather:

Abundant sunshine
Temps slightly cooler than average
No rain in sight — again
Mid-week warmup

May is drawing to a dry, comfortable close, in stunning contrast to the very soggy Memorial Day weather we saw last weekend.

That 10-day stretch of rain put a definite dent in our drought, according to the weekly national drought monitor, but it seems that was the end of the improvement for a while: There’s almost no clouds in sight for the DMV for several days.

Enjoy the many hours of sunshine on Saturday. The high pressure coming in from the Hudson Bay brings a stiff north wind, but the day will also be sunny and comfortable, with highs in the mid 70s.

Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.

The wind will die down after dark, and Sunday morning will be bordering on chilly. Expect widespread mid/upper 40s in most of the D.C. area, with urban centers and bayside communities staying just above 50°. Sunday afternoon will be just a bit warmer, in the mid 70s, but with far less of a breeze.

Highs will be back around 80° for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with overnight lows in the comfy 50s. It’ll be a perfect start to meteorological summer (June/July/August).