North Carolina voters approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage Tuesday, dealing a setback to a gay rights movement that has enjoyed significant momentum in recent years. With less than a third of the returns tallied, the measure had enough support to pass, according to the Associated Press. It strengthens a same-sex marriage ban already on the books in North Carolina, which until Tuesday had been the only state in the Southeast that had not taken the step of incorporating the ban into its constitution. Read full article > >

Visit link:
N.C. approves constitutional ban on same-sex marriage

It was Sunday morning, and the church was filled with more than 200 men, women and children, praying, singing and testifying. “I have been searching for a faith all of my life,” Melvin Davis, 60, of Southeast declared from the pulpit. The grocery clerk’s story, genial and direct, bared a quest for a spiritual home that long had come up short. Read full article > >

Read the original:
Mindful of history, Mormon Church reaches out to minorities

No matter how much Sylvester Stallone has tried, some things in boxing you just can’t make up. It was enough late Saturday night that a 27-year-old man from Southeast, homeless before a boxing trainer took him and his little brother in when the boy was 10, rocked the fight world by winning his first major world title over the prohibitive favorite. Read full article > >

Continue reading here:
Lamont Peterson’s boxing title is the new sports story of the year in D.C.

Business owner Ephrame Kassaye didn’t doubt that people would flock to Mellon Convenience Store when he opened it in Southeast Washington in 2008. It sat along bustling Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue near a bus stop and stayed open 24 hours. A steady stream of customers handed over cash and D.C. government debit cards for sodas, chips, cigarettes, lottery tickets, canned and frozen groceries, and household sundries. He didn’t sell alcohol. Customers liked the welcoming vibe of the store but paid Kassaye and his staff through bulletproof glass he’d installed for protection. Read full article > >

See the original post here:
Southeast Washington business owner gives away hundreds of turkeys

Chevron says a spill in the Campo Basin off the southeast coast has almost dissipated, but investigators are threatening fines and prison terms if they find violations.

Read more from the original source:
Brazil Officials Criticize Chevron Over Oil Spill

The woman who opened a hip new bar and restaurant this year in Anacostia has been charged in a federal drug-trafficking investigation that tracked 65 kilograms of cocaine from Texas to the doorstep of her office in Fort Washington. Natasha Dasher, 36, whose Uniontown Bar and Grill has become a popular destination in Southeast Washington, was confronted late last month by federal drug agents who had followed a tractor-trailer carrying the cocaine, about 140 pounds of it, to Fort Washington, according to an affidavit by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. Read full article > >

Original post:
Anacostia restaurateur charged in federal drug-trafficking case

George Davis of Northeast Washington treks to Prince George’s County once a week to shop for groceries in District Heights. And at least once a month, James Royster, looking for discounts, gathers a group of seniors in his Southeast neighborhood to drive to another store in Oxon Hill. But on Thursday morning, the men were among a throng of residents who stood outside a recently built Aldi store in Northeast, waiting for city and Aldi officials to cut the ribbon on the company’s first market in the District. Read full article > >

See the original post here:
Grocery store openings boost underserved communities in D.C. region

In 11 years as a counselor at Malcolm X Elementary in Southeast Washington, Jacqueline Sutton mediated disputes, visited students’ homes, alerted authorities to possible child abuse and kept food in her office for kids who came to school weeping sometimes because they were so hungry. Two years in a row, she earned “effective” ratings on new evaluations, designed to identify high-performing educators and remove weak ones. But Sutton is now unemployed — despite twice meeting or exceeding standards the District says are more rigorous than ever. Read full article > >

See the original post here:
D.C. educators rated ‘effective’ can still lose jobs

In a bare, basement storage room at the Naylor Gardens apartments in Southeast Washington sits a worn, deflated punching bag that Dusty Harrison began hitting when he was 1 or 2 years old. Harrison’s father, Buddy, hosted weekly sparring matches in the same basement until Harrison grew too strong and skilled for the other neighborhood children. Dusty Harrison fought in his first Toughman boxing competition at 6, when he knocked out a 10-year-old in the second round. At 8, he won his first amateur fight in a 55-pound Golden Gloves competition. Read full article > >

The rest is here:
At 17, D.C. fighter Dusty Harrison may have to wait for next chance

New to the Washington area and its notorious commutes , Cheryl Rouland was eager to find the easiest way to get to work in Southeast Washington after moving to Manassas in June. She tried Virginia Railway Express . But while riding the train home from L’Enfant Station one day, Rouland received a $100 fine for fare evasion. She was dumbstruck, she said, because she had bought a roundtrip ticket that morning. Rouland was cited because she had failed to validate the afternoon portion of her “two-ride” ticket, which under state law is considered riding the train without payment. Read full article > >

Read the rest here:
VRE cracks down on fare evasion, other offenses

New to the Washington area and its notorious commutes , Cheryl Rouland was eager to find the easiest way to get to work in Southeast Washington after moving to Manassas in June. She tried Virginia Railway Express . But while riding the train home from L’Enfant Station one day, Rouland received a $100 fine for fare evasion. She was dumbstruck, she said, because she had bought a roundtrip ticket that morning. Rouland was cited because she had failed to validate the afternoon portion of her “two-ride” ticket, which under state law is considered riding the train without payment. Read full article > >

Read the rest here:
VRE cracks down on fare evasion, other offenses

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Southeast Asian leaders made little headway Sunday in helping Thailand and Cambodia end a deadly border dispute that could undermine peace and stability in the region as it pushes for economic integration. The prime ministers of the two feuding nations held talks Sunday — mediated by Indonesia’s president — as part of efforts to hammer out a lasting cease-fire. But neither seemed in any mood to back down. Read full article > >

View original post here:
Southeast Asian leaders fail to resolve Thailand, Cambodia border dispute

Work on a 20-mile multiuse trail in Southeast Washington’s Anacostia Park hits an unexpected snag. Read full article > >

Read more:
Ospreys nest on a D.C. crane, halting construction

Twenty-three people were killed in North Carolina, hit by monster supercells on Saturday, the weather service reports. Across the Southeast, as many as 44 people have died in three days of severe weather.

The rest is here:
North Carolina hardest hit by latest wave of severe weather

Kevin Bjerregaard was a new English teacher at H.D. Woodson last year, and he confessed to his students that he was nervous about the walk between the Southeast Washington high school and the Benning Road Metro station.

Read the original post:
Student-athlete’s death stuns Woodson