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Perspective | Homeless after years in prison, he turned to Miriam’s Kitchen for help

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Perspective | Homeless after years in prison, he turned to Miriam’s Kitchen for help


On the September day in 2018 that Andrew Anderson was released from federal prison in Atlanta, he was handed $220 and a one-way Greyhound bus ticket to Baltimore. He’d been behind bars for 24 years and it was time for him to start over.

After a month in a Baltimore halfway house, Anderson came to Washington, the city of his birth. He slept downtown in McPherson Square and at the Center for Creative Nonviolence shelter on Second Street NW.

“I didn’t have no place to go,” Anderson, 58, told me. “At that point, I was officially homeless.”

One morning, someone at the CCNV shelter invited Anderson to tag along for breakfast at a place in Foggy Bottom called Miriam’s Kitchen. Hungry people could get a meal there, he said. Anderson got a lot more than that.

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Miriam’s Kitchen, a partner in The Washington Post Helping Hand campaign, serves breakfast and dinner every weekday in its dining room in the basement of Western Presbyterian Church at 24th Street and Virginia Avenue NW. A meal is all that some of its guests want. But if they’re ready for more, Miriam’s is ready to help. Clients can charge their phones, pick up their mail, get help procuring identification or getting medication.

The goal of all these things is to move people toward their greatest need: getting off the streets and finding a place to live.

“Ever since that day, I kept coming back,” Anderson said. “I plugged into a lot of different programs.”

Anderson was teamed with a Miriam’s Kitchen case manager who explained that his situation — a citizen returning from incarceration without a home or a job and with medical issues — might make him eligible for housing benefits. For months, she worked through the process of filling out the necessary forms and tracking them through the system. Anderson continued to live on the streets, spending his days in the library and his nights in the outdoor seating area of a restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

A half-dozen men would bed down there every evening, appreciative of how the restaurant staff would run the outdoor heater for a few extra hours, warming a spot.

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“We were very protective of one another,” Anderson said. “I have to say I kind of miss those days. I don’t miss being homeless, but I miss those guys.”

They had each others’ backs. And Miriam’s Kitchen had Anderson’s back. The nonprofit hired him for a stint as an advocacy fellow. These are Miriam’s Kitchen clients who learn the ways of the District government, testifying before council committees and advocating for policies that help ease homelessness.

“That showed me that Miriam’s Kitchen was showing faith in me,” he said. “They wanted me to have the opportunity to be independent. I did that for six months, all during the waiting period for a [housing] voucher.”

Two months later, Anderson received a call from his case manager.

“She was crying on the phone,” he said. “She told me I’d been matched for housing.”

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Anderson had qualified for a housing voucher through the D.C. Housing Authority. In May 2021, he moved into an apartment near Nationals Park. He pays a third of his monthly supplemental security income benefit in rent, $265.

He volunteers with the People for Fairness Coalition, a group founded at Miriam’s Kitchen to advocate for affordable housing.

“When they visit encampments, I’m there asking if there are any returning citizens,” Anderson said.

He also contributes photos to Street Sense, the newspaper sold by people experiencing homelessness.

Anderson said he doesn’t try to hide the reason he was away from Washington for so long. He’d pleaded guilty to assault, attempted murder and weapons possession.

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“I don’t want to give anyone a false impression of who I am,” he said. “If people ask about my criminal background, I want to be honest. It’s in the past for me. I’ve done my time. I’m a free man now and I want to help other returning citizens reintegrate into society.”

Hanging on a lanyard around Anderson’s neck is something he keeps as a reminder of his past and a warning to himself: his prison ID.

“I don’t want to go back to prison,” he said. “I don’t want to wear any more handcuffs.”

Your donation to Miriam’s Kitchen will help it help others. To give online, visit posthelpinghand.com and click where it says “Donate.” To give by check, write Miriam’s Kitchen, Attn: Development, 2401 Virginia Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20037.



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Washington, D.C

17-year-old arrested in DC carjacking of FBI agent – WTOP News

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17-year-old arrested in DC carjacking of FBI agent – WTOP News


A 17-year-old has been arrested and charged in connection with the November carjacking of an FBI agent in Northeast D.C.

A 17-year-old has been arrested and charged in connection with the November carjacking of an FBI agent in Northeast D.C., according to court documents that also reveal more details about what happened.

Authorities said two carjackers pulled a gun on the agent in the 100 block of 12th Street NE near Lincoln Park at about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 29, as the agent was getting out of her vehicle.

According to court records, the agent told investigators she was knocked to the ground as she was standing by her driver’s side door and zipping up her coat. The agent told police she looked up and saw someone pointing a handgun at her and demanding her keys.

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At one point, according to court documents, the agent told police she remembers wrestling with the gunman over her keys and sustained a cut on her lip. The carjackers also took the agent’s phone before driving off in her vehicle, which had FBI-issued ammunition in the trunk, according to court records.

Police found the car a short time later around 4:10 p.m. and at least some of the stolen property was inside. Court records indicate that the agent said some of her ammunition was still missing.

Investigators poured through surveillance footage, tracked and recovered the agent’s cellphone, received an anonymous tip and spoke with witnesses — all leading them to identify the 17-year-old who has been arrested as the gunman in the carjacking, according to court documents. The tipster told police the teen is an Area 71 gang member.

Police searched the teen’s residence and found black Nike boots matching those worn during the carjacking, a handgun magazine and two boxes of 9 mm rounds of ammunition, according to court records.

The 17-year-old was charged as an adult and arraigned Tuesday on charges of armed carjacking, armed robbery and other weapons violations. He was ordered held without bond and is set to appear for a preliminary hearing Monday, Dec. 11.

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Police are still looking for the other suspect.

Anyone with information regarding this case should contact D.C. Police at (202) 727-9099 or by texting a tip to 50411.



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Washington, D.C

2024 Capitol Summit

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Interested officers should contact their state or territory association executive director or president. Participation is open to NGAUS members, Army or Air, second lieutenant to captain or warrant officer 1 to chief warrant officer 2. To learn more about the Capitol Summit, please contact [email protected].


CGOs Get Close Look at How Washington Works (Washington Report, Oct. 12, 2022)

‘A Peek Behind the Curtain’ (NATIONAL GUARD magazine, Nov. 2021) Group Photo

NGAUS Holds First In-Person Capitol Summit Since 2019 (Washington Report, Nov. 9, 2021)

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Mountain snow coming to Mid-Atlantic, conversational flakes possible in D.C.

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Mountain snow coming to Mid-Atlantic, conversational flakes possible in D.C.


Plowable snowfall is targeting the high country of western Maryland, eastern West Virginia and some surrounding regions. That’s good news for Mid-Atlantic ski resorts after rather paltry amounts of snow last winter. Some flakes should also spill east of the mountains, perhaps into the D.C. area, although accumulation is unlikely.

Tuesday evening through Wednesday, high terrain from southwest Pennsylvania and southward through eastern West Virginia are expecting about 3 to 6 inches of snow, with some spots potentially seeing more.

The precipitation is initially associated with a “clipper” system divebombing into the Mid-Atlantic from the northwest. These storms originate in Canada and are notoriously moisture-starved and speedy. Even so, they can deliver accumulating snow not only to the mountains, but sometimes to the lower elevations and coastal areas to the east.

Any snow that falls in lower elevations this time won’t amount to anything. Still, snow lovers could catch a glimpse of some flakes as far east as the D.C. region late Tuesday night into Wednesday.

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If it was a few weeks later in the season, this storm system would have decent potential to deliver accumulating snow to lower elevations east of the mountains if it had more moisture or was slower-moving. The track, with most of the energy associated with the storm’s low-pressure center passing south of D.C., is generally favorable for snow in and around the nation’s capital.

In this case it won’t matter too much.

That’s because temperatures will be too mild. Tuesday night’s low temperatures east of the mountains are forecast around 33 to 38 degrees, which would preclude any accumulation other than a quick dusting. Whereas in the mountains above about 2,000 feet, temperatures should be mainly at or below freezing throughout the event.

Winter weather advisories go into effect Tuesday afternoon and run through Wednesday evening in the Allegheny Front of West Virginia and Western Maryland.

The Weather Service expects these regions to begin as mostly snow and then stay snow through the event. With accumulation beginning late Tuesday afternoon and persisting through Wednesday, a widespread 3 to 6 inches is forecast, with some higher totals possible.

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A majority of the snowfall in the mountains will come via upslope snow, or orographic lift, on the backside of the clipper as relatively moist air rises from lower to higher elevations, causing clouds and precipitation develop. This is how much of the snow in the impacted area falls in an average winter.

Snow lovers and winter resorts will surely embrace the news of this widespread snowfall. November was also on the snowy side in the highest elevations. Last winter was among the worst on record for snow in the area, with some places at least 5 to 8 feet below average for seasonal tallies.

While mountain snow should readily accumulate given temperatures below freezing through the event, and cold conditions last through Thursday, warmer air is on the horizon, as is a risk of rain this weekend. That combination may ultimately limit how long the snow sticks around.

D.C. area ‘conversational’ flakes

In and around Washington, this is a “mood snow” event at most — seeing anything more significant than a period of non-accumulating flakes would be surprising.

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If you’re up late Tuesday night or early Wednesday in the D.C. area, you might see rain change over to a period of light snow. The best chance of this is west and northwest of Interstate 95, but the whole area could see conversational snowflakes for a time. If cold air arrives faster than expected, odds of a small dusting go up, but the relatively warm ground temperatures in recent days should limit that risk.

Additional snowflakes may flutter around D.C. at times Wednesday, but more in a showery or flurry type fashion. It’s chilly and breezy through the day with highs only in the low and mid-40s plus wind chills in the 30s.

The closest spots favored to see some light accumulations are the Blue Ridge around Skyline Drive in northwest Virginia and Catoctin Mountain in northern Maryland. The Weather Service is forecasting a coating to an inch or two in the highest elevations of these spots, although they note the potential for a bit more than that.



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