A D.C. man was sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in an armed carjacking at a gas station in Southeast last year.

Prosecutors said that 38-year-old Andrew Patrick was found guilty last September of an armed carjacking offense that carries a 15-year mandatory-minimum sentence.

On Sept. 22, 2022, a woman drove her 2005 Chevy Suburban to a gas station on Good Hope Road in Southeast D.C. when Patrick forced her to give up her keys at gunpoint, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She pleaded for him not to harm her but he “pushed the victim into her vehicle, grabbed her keys, and drove off in her car,” a release outlined.

Later that day, police caught Patrick in the woman’s car after a license plate reader identified the woman’s tags when he drove through Northeast. Police also discovered an unregistered gun in the car, prosecutors said.

The woman gave a powerful testimony at the sentencing hearing saying how the event impacted her life and how it hurt her deep “in her soul.”

In addition to Patrick’s armed carjacking sentence, he will serve five years for possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, three years for unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, one and a half years for carrying a pistol without a license, one year for possession of an unregistered firearm and one year for unlawful possession of ammunition, prosecutors said.

After his sentence is completed, he will serve five years of supervised release.

The number of D.C. public school students missing class has improved slightly in a new report, but still remains high.

Chronic absenteeism dropped from 48% to 43% in the 2022 to 2023 school year in D.C. public schools, according to the attendance report by the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education.

The report found that truancy fell from 42% to 37% during the same time.

The report comes at a time when there is an increased number of D.C. teachers leaving their jobs and fewer students repeating ninth grade despite reports of high chronic absenteeism.

OSSE noted that only 2% of all public school instruction in the District was remote during the 2022 to 2023 school year.

The report stated that high schoolers had the lowest attendance rate compared to elementary and middle school students.

It found that 60% of high school students were chronically absent, compared to less than 40% of students in lower grades

When it comes to chronic truancy, elementary grades showed 28% were chronically truant, compared to 60% of high school students.

Freshmen and seniors in high school had the highest level of absenteeism, according to the report. About 63% of students in ninth grade and 12th grade were chronically absent.

It also found that schools that had later start times had lower attendance rates.

For every 10 minutes later school started at local high schools, on average, the attendance rates were 2.5 percentage points lower, according to the report.

The likelihood of being chronically absent was 2.9 times as high for economically disadvantaged students as students without economic disadvantage, according to the report.

Turns out those pesky nuts falling from the sky onto you and your car, and littering the D.C. area ground in late fall, are more important to the planet than you might think.

A new exhibit at the Smith Hall of Art on the campus of George Washington University celebrates the most unlikely of foods: acorns.

“‘Acornucopia’ is a wonderland of earthly acorn delights!” exclaimed artist and educator Shawn Shafner.

Shafner, who is also a graduate student and published author, says the idea to not only look into how to make art using acorns, but also how to sustainably use and dispose of them, came to him a while ago.

‘Acornucopia’ is the fruit of his labor—and it tastes…oaky.

“If you’ve seen me around campus, you’ve probably thought I was crazy, gathering all my acorns for this exhibit,” Shafner joked.

Shafner says ‘Acornucopia’ champions the acorn as an unvalued resource, both as a food source AND the genesis of new life in our ecosystem.

“It’s also a powerful instigator of forests,” he told WTOP.

To boot, Shafner says coming out to GW to see the work can support a good cause.

“We’ve partnered with Tomorrow’s Trees, an initiative of the Potomac Conservancy,” he explained. “Most of the native oak seeds you see here are donated to them.”

Acornucopia also happens to be a ton of fun.

At the exhibit, you can learn how to mash, refine, and cook acorns. You can also engage in a variety of activities like acorn shuffleboard and ink painting. The latter is the result of the murky water left over after cooking tannins out of the acorns—to make them safe for eating. The more you know!

“If you can crack the code, and you’re willing to put in the time to do an awful lot of cracking, then you can know what otherwise the squirrel only knows,” Shafner mused.

‘Acornucopia’ runs Saturday, Dec. 2 at the Smith Hall of Art at GW until 1 p.m. But if you miss it, Shawn says his acorns will be back starting December 6, as part of another exhibit on GW’s campus called ‘(Up)Root(ed).’

(Up)Root(ed) is all about getting in touch with native and indigenous cultures, and will feature an exhibit on native plants—including oak trees.

With 17 different kinds of oaks on GW’s campus, Shawn says he plans to collect more acorns, and have an acorn cookout on December 8.

You can find the invite to “(Up)Root(ed)” here.

Be on the lookout next week for an upcoming episode of WTOP’s ‘Matt About Town’ series too, where WTOP’s Matt Kaufax does his best morning talk show host impersonation—to cook and eat fresh acorns with Shawn!

‘Matt About Town’ airs every Tuesday and Thursday on WTOP, with video pieces on wtop.com.

If you’ve got an idea for a feature story Matt should cover, reach out via the WTOP “contact us” page to submit your idea.

You can also contact Matt directly. His contact information is listed below.