The Barras Report Blog

Time for an overdue talk among DC officials about the government’s core mission

Apr 10, 20237 min read

Time for an overdue talk among DC officials about the government’s core mission

OVER the past several weeks, the political and public policy rhetoric in the District has seemed like a five-alarm fire — the heat and...

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Ensuring Our Right to Invest in the Next Generation’s Future

Ben Jealous

Apr 10, 20233 min read

Ensuring Our Right to Invest in the Next Generation’s Future

IF a public opinion poll done last month is right, more than half of you won’t know what I mean by the initials “ESG,” and fewer than one...

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Make Banks Make Good on Their Pledge to End Fossil Fuel Financing

Ben Jealous

Mar 20, 20233 min read

Make Banks Make Good on Their Pledge to End Fossil Fuel Financing

CONOCOPhillips needs more than the disastrous approval it won from President Joe Biden's administration last week to proceed with its...

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Can DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson handle the coming collisions over policy, politics and money?

jonetta rose barras

Mar 17, 20238 min read

Can DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson handle the coming collisions over policy, politics and money?

WARD 3 State Board of Education member Eric Goulet publicly asked on Twitter whether DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson has become...

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jonetta rose barras

Mar 17, 20237 min read

The Radical Historian Among Us

LONG before Stokely Carmichael (aka Kwame Ture) shouted the phrase “Black Power” in 1966; before James Brown, sans his famous processed...

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jonetta rose barras

Feb 10, 20230 min read

What's a Green Bean Krewe?

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Taking on the Symptom that is Gun Violence and the Disease Behind It

Ben Jealous

Feb 2, 20233 min read

Taking on the Symptom that is Gun Violence and the Disease Behind It

WE'VE had more mass shootings this year than we’ve had days this year. It’s sad to imagine that Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park will join...

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Disposing of Division, Not People and Places

Ben Jealous

Jan 28, 20233 min read

Disposing of Division, Not People and Places

AS an organizer who’s spent much of my life fighting for civil rights and access to the ballot box, I reflect on the work and words of...

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jonetta rose barras

Jan 28, 20237 min read

A City Traumatized By Crime

I am on the telephone listening to my granddaughter discuss the week’s events. Normally she is a confident, self-assured, sassy high...

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jonetta rose barras

Nov 24, 20226 min read

Transform this!

AFTER winning her historic third term as mayor of the nation’s capital and chief executive officer of the DC government, Muriel Bowser...

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A new beginning in DC or the same old thing?

jonetta rose barras

Nov 24, 20228 min read

A new beginning in DC or the same old thing?

WHEW! Raise your hand if, like me, you are happy to see the end of DC’s 2022 election season. Don’t get too comfortable, though. There...

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Voters Make an Important Down Payment on Democracy’s Future

Ben Jealous

Nov 24, 20223 min read

Voters Make an Important Down Payment on Democracy’s Future

A lot of good news came out of this month’s elections—and enough bad news to remind us that we can never let our guard down when freedom...

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jonetta rose barras

Nov 1, 20223 min read

Press Release (Nov. 1, 2022)

Former DC Council Candidate Eric Goulet Calls on the U.S. Attorney to Investigate Potential Crimes Committed by D.C. Councilmember Elissa...

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Building a Political Syndicate and Violating Local Campaign Laws

jonetta rose barras

Oct 30, 202212 min read

Building a Political Syndicate and Violating Local Campaign Laws

THE DC Office of Campaign Finance (OCF) decision in its investigation of At-large DC Council member Elissa Silverman’s actions during the...

606 views3 comments

Ben Jealous

Oct 21, 20223 min read

Georgia Is Ground Zero for Democracy

By Ben Jealous LIKE so many of us right now, I’ve got Georgia on my mind. As I write this, I’ve just gotten back from meeting with Black...

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A hot at-large DC Council race gets hotter

jonetta rose barras

Oct 21, 20227 min read

A hot at-large DC Council race gets hotter

DC voters began receiving their ballots for the November general election this week. The contests for mayor, DC Council chair and council...

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DC elected officials claim to care about poor people, but the HUD report says otherwise

jonetta rose barras

Oct 21, 20228 min read

DC elected officials claim to care about poor people, but the HUD report says otherwise

DON’T expect me to mince words here. The DC government and, thus, the entire city, particularly low-income residents, have been drowning...

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jonetta rose barras

Oct 2, 20227 min read

THE BARRAS REPORT

IF YOU DON’T WIN A DC CONTRACT, START A CITIZEN PROTEST THAT surely must be the thinking of leaders at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield...

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jonetta rose barras

Oct 1, 20228 min read

Finding the truth, passing the word

“[T]HE highway was lined with yellow wildflowers that danced from their roots every time a car drove by. Smoke seeped up into the sky...

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Jack Evans

Oct 1, 20222 min read

The Coming D.C. Financial Crisis

FISCAL Year 2023 for the District of Columbia started today, October l, 2022. The D.C. Council just passed a $20 billion budget in...

310 views0 comments

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