Washington, D.C

Why female athletes are coming to Washington – Washington Examiner

Published

4 days ago

June 24, 2024

Why female athletes are coming to Washington – Washington Examiner

As a female athlete, I know that my most precious resource is my time. I started swimming at a young age. By age 8, I was swimming competitively, and by late middle school, I was devoting at least 20 hours per week to swimming. I gave up countless Christmas holidays, weekends, and social events to work toward my goal of swimming at the Division I level. My experience is not uncommon or unique. All female athletes have made sacrifices, like I have, in order to be the best at their sport.

So why are so many serious female athletes winding our way around the country on a bus right now to be a part of the Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition? Why are we using our scarce and valuable time this way? Why are we asking people to join us in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday for a rally to Take Back Title IX?

For a couple of years now, the media have occasionally shared stories about men entering and winning women’s athletic competitions. You may have heard about runners in Connecticut, a woman’s fractured skull during a MMA fight, Lia Thomas facing Riley Gaines in the swimming pool. Yet these high-profile examples are just the tip of an already large and growing iceberg. According to SheWon.org, male athletes have entered hundreds of competitions across the country meant for women and taken spots on teams, medals and honors on award podiums, and even scholarships meant for female athletes.

Yet this already bad situation is about to get worse. The Biden administration has just rewritten Title IX, a law that was supposed to ensure that women have equal opportunity in education including athletics, to equate sex with “gender identity.” Basically, the new Title IX will require schools and athletic competitions to allow any athlete to opt into a competition that matches his or her self-proclaimed gender identity. So the best male athlete from last year can switch to competing in the women’s races this year if he wants to.

Claiming that somehow this “inclusion” of men doesn’t threaten female athletes is ridiculous. You don’t need to dig up scientific studies, though there are plenty providing this point. Just check out the world records for women’s and men’s competitions in every sport. You’ll see that men are consistently faster and stronger than women. That’s why there are women’s teams and men’s teams in the first place: If there weren’t, women simply wouldn’t win and often wouldn’t even make the team.

We can’t let the Biden administration’s Title IX rewrite destroy women’s sports. I hear terrible stories of young girls who are coming up in their sports who are questioning whether they should bother playing at all since they expect that they will have to play against boys and those boys will invariably beat them and may even physically injure them far more seriously than any female competitor would.

That makes me furious. It makes me mad enough that I gave up time to travel the nation and to speak out. This isn’t about being anti-transgender or anti-anyone. It’s about being pro-woman and pro-reality.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

I want men who identify as women to be treated with respect. Yet those men should also respect the perspective of women who have different bodies and aptitudes. We don’t get flooded with testosterone during puberty. We get breasts and our periods, which can make competitions harder, not easier. It’s not fair to women to disregard this unchangeable reality of our bodies. Women and girls deserve a level playing field and sports of our own.

I’m joining the Our Bodies, Our Sports Take Back Title IX summer bus tour because I know that, right now, what we are fighting for is bigger than any single competition. We are fighting for the future of women’s sports itself. I won’t stand by and watch as female athletes are pushed aside. And if you care about women and fairness, neither should you. Take a stand to defend women and take back Title IX.

Paula Scanlan is an ambassador with the Independent Women’s Forum and a former swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a teammate of Lia Thomas.

Source link

Washington, D.C

Look inside the home of some high-powered D.C. dinner parties

Published

6 hours ago

June 28, 2024

Press Room

Look inside the home of some high-powered D.C. dinner parties

This French Colonial-style house at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in D.C.’s Massachusetts Avenue Heights neighborhood is somewhat deceiving. Its out-of-the-way location, two miles from downtown Washington, helps camouflage the role it has played as a gathering spot for high-powered business, political and sports leaders.

Seclusion is part what attracted owners Michelle Fields and Jamie Weinstein to this white, painted-brick house, built in 1966, as the venue for their much-discussed (in some circles) off-the-record dinner parties.

Weinstein, a journalist and political commentator, runs the flagship podcast for conservative digital media company the Dispatch. He began hosting soirees at his Ritz-Carlton Georgetown corner unit in 2012, pairing young reporters with their sources — and subjects — for evenings of privileged discussion. Since 2020, the parties have been held at 3115 Normanstone Terr. NW, now on the market for $3.29 million.

The get-togethers, Weinstein said, sometimes last four or five hours. There are no planned topics of conversation for the reporters and notable guests, who recently have included New York Mayor Eric Adams, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, businessman and TV personality Mark Cuban and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Weinstein declared the dinner with Sanders “particularly fiery” in an Instagram post.

Such parties were “top of mind,” Fields said, when she and husband Weinstein bought the house. They wanted one that had plenty of entertainment space and that was removed from the bustle of downtown.

“It helps [guests] open up a little bit more because you’re not in the center of the work world in a certain way,” Weinstein said. “When you’re in D.C., you see the buildings all around and feel work, work, work, work, work. And when you’re here, you feel like you’re in the country.”

Another consideration favoring a larger house was their growing family. The couple had a year-old child, and Fields was pregnant with a second. They made some child-friendly renovations, including closing off a spiral staircase.

Before Weinstein and Fields lived here, the house was owned for decades by Stanley Rabinowitz, a long-serving rabbi at the Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, where he led services attended by members of Congress, White House officials and visiting Israeli prime ministers.

The house was built in 1966 and has two floors above a finished lower level and more than 5,000 square feet of living area. The front door opens to a foyer with marble floors. On one side is a dining room with hardwood floors and crown molding. The other side has a living room with a fireplace and French doors that open to a rear terrace. The kitchen — with an island, wine storage and a breakfast area — connects to a family room with oversize paned windows and a vaulted ceiling. This level also has a powder room and a gym.

The second floor has a primary bedroom suite with a fireplace, a balcony, a walk-in closet and a bathroom with a two-sink vanity. There are three more bedrooms on this floor, one with an en suite bathroom and two that share a bathroom, one of which has a balcony.

On the lower level, a recreation room with a fireplace connects to an office. This level also has a bedroom with an en suite bathroom, and it has a laundry room and access to a covered terrace.

The property includes a detached two-car garage across the street.

3115 Normanstone Terr. NW, Washington, D.C.

Bedrooms/bathrooms: 5/6
Approximate square-footage: 5,000
Lot size: nearly half an acre
Features: This 1966 house has several fireplaces, crown moldings, French doors, paned windows and several outdoor spaces. The property includes a detached two-car garage.
Listing agent: Michael Rankin, TTR Sotheby’s International Realty

Source link

Washington, D.C

Fireworks injuries on the rise, report warns ahead of July 4th celebrations

Published

13 hours ago

June 27, 2024

Press Room

Fireworks injuries on the rise, report warns ahead of July 4th celebrations

DC ranked 8th best place to celebrate Fourth of July

Washington, D.C. is the eighth best place in the country to celebrate the Fourth of July, according to a new study by WalletHub.

The Fourth of July is commonly associated with food, fun, and of course, fireworks – but the number of injuries caused by fireworks may catch some Americans by surprise.

According to a report released this week by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), there were eight deaths and an estimated 9,700 injuries involving fireworks in 2023.

“Many people just aren’t aware of the risk involved with fireworks, and we want to help change that to help keep people safe,” explained CPSC Public Affairs Specialist Thaddeus Harrington.

The report also said that between 2008 and 2023, injuries from fireworks increased overall. And while teenagers ages 15-19 had the highest rate of emergency room visits due to fireworks injuries in the four weeks surrounding last year’s holiday, kids between the ages of 5-9 had the second-highest rate.

“Really there is no such thing as safe fireworks,” Harrington said. “Even sparklers burn at about 2000 degrees, as hot as a blowtorch. So if you wouldn’t let your child run around with a lit blowtorch, same goes for sparklers.”

More information about the report – as well as safety tips – can be found here.

Here’s more information about which fireworks are – and are not – legal in DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

Source link

Washington, D.C

Washington D.C. YSA Stake plans charity event to help 1,500 families

Published

20 hours ago

June 27, 2024

Press Room

Washington D.C. YSA Stake plans charity event to help 1,500 families

The second annual Stock the Block drive-through distribution event on June 22 drew more than 1,500 families near Washington, D.C., to receive donations and other services from local nonprofits.

Stock the Block committee members, made up of local young adult congregations from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Lazera Ministries, organized this year’s community distribution event.

“We partner with local nonprofits to help provide both services and needed items to help families in our community,” said Tiffany Osborn, chair of the Stock the Block Committee.

Based on an average household size of five people, the Stock the Block committee estimates that 7,700 men, women and children will benefit from the donations distributed.

Volunteers hand out hygiene supplies on June 22, 2024, to recipients at the Stock the Block community distribution event in Alexandria, Virginia. | Rebecca Lane

“When people are in the midst of poverty and in the midst of being marginalized, their children are experiencing that,” said Yolonda Earl-Thompson, executive director for Lazera Ministries. “We just want to bring a little joy in a little moment so that the kid can be a kid.”

The donations were primarily provided by Good360, a product philanthropy nonprofit based in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, and by the Church. Donation items included personal hygiene items, cleaning supplies, diapers, socks, school supplies and toys for children.

Romaine Seguin, CEO of Good360, said that the organization’s mission is to close the need gap between what goods and services people do and do not have.

The Stock the Block community distribution event “gives [community members] hope,” said Seguin. “This is a day of giving our communities sustainable support, and they can move on and better their lives.”

Donation recipients drove through a corridor of supplies on either side while volunteers helped load their cars. For those without access to a vehicle, a walk-up center was available to receive aid. A free shuttle also traveled through neighboring communities, picking up individuals, driving them through the lines and delivering them back to their homes with their donations.

Members of the Stock the Block Committee pose for a photo on June 22, 2024, near their donation site in Alexandria, Virginia. | Provided by Stock the Block committee

The Stock the Block committee partnered with the Fairfax County Police Department and other Fairfax County community services and other organizations to provide additional services and spread the word about the event to the local communities.

The more than 300 volunteers helping at the event were primarily from the Washington D.C. YSA South Stake with about 60 area missionaries from the Washington D.C. South Mission. They braved temperatures reaching into the high 90s to help direct traffic, distribute goods and provide translation services to those who needed it.

“While today’s event was largely run by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it wasn’t an incredibly religious experience,” Osborn said. “But for us, it was still a sacred experience because we were able to lift and serve in the way our Savior would serve. We not only saw miracles, we also felt His presence and His love on behalf of the people around us. We do this because we love Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ loves us, and we embrace our responsibility to reflect that love to all of God’s children.”

Source link