On the heels of a Washington Post report on House Republicans’ plans for a policy conference at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront in September—an event the president traditionally attends and addresses—and an invitation from Rep. Elijah Cummings, there is rising speculation surrounding whether President Trump will visit Baltimore in the coming months.

By this point, the president’s attacks against Baltimore City and Rep. Elijah Cummings have been well documented. The latest development came this weekend, when Cummings declared at the opening of the McCullough Street Nature Play Space in West Baltimore that the president was welcome to visit. “Do not just criticize us,” he said. “But come to Baltimore and I promise you, you will be welcomed.” Whether Trump will heed Cummings’ invitation remains to be seen.

“One of the reasons why people are critical of the president for doing what he’s doing is when the President of the United States speaks negatively of a city, it has a huge effect,” says Greg Kline, co-founder of Red Maryland, a conservative media network. “It sends a message far and wide. I think he’s very likely to go [to Baltimore], if nothing else to avoid someone like Congressman Cummings saying he’s afraid to go there.”

Despite Washington, D.C. being a short commute away, the president has never made an appearance in Baltimore since being elected. (Last December, plans for him to visit Rev. Donté Hickman of Southern Baptist Church in East Baltimore were scrapped at the last minute.) He did, however, visit during his campaign, holding a rally that was attended by both protesters and supporters at the Baltimore Convention Center.

After the events of the past week, there were those who felt compelled to share their love for the city by posting photos of their favorite spots on social media. And as Towson University history professor Richard Vatz puts it, there is a stark divide between Republicans who defended the president, and Democrats who find his tweets offensive. This chasm is a marker for how a potential visit might play out.

Goucher associate professor of political science Mileah Kromer notes that the optics of such a visit could hinge on just how the administration anticipates the reception in Baltimore. “If the administration believe they’re going to be met with overwhelming protests, there’s certainly a chance he would cancel,” she says.

There is a hope, perhaps, that if the president does visit Baltimore, whether it be in September or earlier to meet with Cummings, he might be exposed to all the positive things that the city has to offer.

Richmond Davis, who ran against Cummings in the 2018 midterm election as the Republican nominee for Congress, says he hopes that a potential speech by Trump in Baltimore could look past the vitriol and instead highlight the plight of urban areas. It could be an opportunity, he believes, to address—perhaps more tactfully–the problems that the city faces.

“I would hope he would realize that there’s more than just the trash-strewn areas that were featured on Fox News,” he says. “That is the responsibility and obligation of the president—to expose himself to as many points of view and observe as much of this country as he can.”

Arizona Senator John McCain’s funeral arrangements have been announced following his death on Saturday, August 25. After losing his yearlong battle with brain cancer at age 81, he will lie in state in both the Arizona Capitol and the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday—his birthday—and Friday, respectively, before he is laid to rest at a private service at the Naval Academy in Annapolis on Sunday, September 2.

While the outpouring of support and love for the late U.S. Senator and Vietnam War hero continue to flow on social media, here’s what you should know about his upcoming funeral.

Services will also be held in Arizona and Washington, D.C.
The late senator will first lie in state at the Arizona State Capitol where a private ceremony will take place on Wednesday at 10 a.m. PST—which would have been McCain’s 82nd birthday. Members of the public get the chance to pay their respects in his hometown from 1 p.m. until 8 p.m. PST on Wednesday. There will also be a memorial service on Thursday at the National Phoenix Baptist Church where former Vice President and lifelong friend of McCain’s, Joe Biden, will speak.

His body will then be transported to Washington, D.C. to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol on Friday, making him the 13th senator to do so. A ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. and the public will be allowed to pay their respects from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“The nation mourns the loss of a great American patriot, a statesman who put his country first and enriched this institution through many years of service,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement confirming the senator would lie in state at the U.S. Capitol. “I appreciate my colleagues and the entire Senate and House family’s assistance with this honor.”

A memorial service will also be held at the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday, Sept. 1 at 10 a.m. McCain’s office said a livestream will be available for the services at the National Phoenix Baptist Church and the National Cathedral.

Two former presidents will speak at the funeral.
Before he passed, McCain asked that both former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama deliver eulogies at his services at the National Cathedral in Washington.

McCain was bested by both in presidential elections of 2000 and 2008, respectively, but both men deeply respected the senator and his request shows that the respect was reciprocated. Obama said McCain had the “courage to put the greater good” above his own. Bush called McCain “a man of deep conviction and a patriot of the highest order.”

“These were bitter contests, both of them,” Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., told the Associated Press. “To ask them to speak at your funeral, and for them to be honored at the opportunity, that tells you all you need to know.”

President Donald Trump, who did not release an official statement but rather posted a tweet sending condolences, was informed by McCain’s family that the senator requested that he not attend the services. However, Vice President Mike Pence is expected to attend.

McCain will be buried at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
McCain came from a lineage of Navy admirals—both his father and grandfather served in the U.S. Navy. McCain graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1958 later becoming a Naval aviator, retiring in 1981 as a captain.

His grave site will overlook the Severn River, and will be next to his old friend, Adm. Chuck Larson.

Last year on 60 Minutes, McCain told Leslie Stahl, “I want, when I leave, to just have a couple of people that stand up and say, ‘This guy, he served his country.’”

“Honey, let’s get into this chapter here,” is how Baltimore-based rapper DDm began his Facebook Live video Tuesday night as he began his latest live reading of Omarosa Manugault Newman’s tell-all book, Unhinged: The Omarosa Story. For the past few weeks, DDm, who was born Emmanuel Williams, has been reading in his living room with his cat Taco Bell by his side—with plenty of colorful commentary—to his thousands of followers.

Williams, who is very much into politics, planned to read Manigualt Newman’s book just for leisure but he says that when she revealed that she had tapes of White House conversations, he just knew that he wanted to take it to social media.

“I didn’t think anybody was going to care,” he said. “I just thought that me and a few of my friends would just laugh and ki-ki and then move on with our lives. I had no idea it would be all this.”

Viewers tune in Tuesday through Thursday as he reads various excerpts from the book and discusses it in the only way he knows how—very candidly. Tuesday night, Manigault Newman even commented on his live stream saying that she wanted to meet him.

“I wasn’t expecting that at all,” Williams said of the comment from the former reality star and Trump political aide. “I’m gagging! I was so shocked. I didn’t even know until someone pointed it out to me.”

Williams’ videos come at a time when plenty of whistleblowing and controversy is surrounding the Trump administration and the rapper says he’s happy to be part of the conversation.

“I get so many emails and messages from people who were completely tapped out with the whole situation in the White House,” he says. “They say I’ve reinvigorated their interest in what’s going on politically.”

After receiving an overwhelming amount of support from his more than 20,000 Facebook followers, Williams has decided to expand his reach by launching a new YouTube channel, a Christmas special, and a podcast Secretary of Shade set to debut on September 4.

“People are telling me that they watch it like a TV show,” he said. “If they like it, I’ll keep doing it. It’s a great way to showcase all that I do. People aren’t tuning in because I have a hot record, or they love the video. They just like to hear me read a book.”

On Monday, nine attorneys general, including Maryland’s Brian Frosh, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to prevent a Texas-based company from publishing blueprints for 3D-printed guns online. This would allow the downloadable guns for unlimited public distribution in any form.

The suit filed in Seattle asks a judge to block Defense Distributed from releasing the plans for the hard to trace guns, which officials say has already been downloaded by 1,000 people. A recent settlement between Defense Distributed and the U.S. State Department will allow people to avoid background checks by using 3D printers to make their own guns at home.

“This proposal for someone to put plans up on the internet for guns to be printed on a 3D printer is extremely dangerous,” Frosh said. “The guns are untraceable because they don’t have serial numbers, and they’re undetectable in metal detectors, and it makes protecting people in Maryland more difficult.”

Last month, the Texas-based company gained authorization from the State Department to post instructions for plastic firearms—which fire conventional bullets—including a single-shot pistol called “The Liberator,” an AR-15 lower receiver, and a complete Beretta M9 handgun.

Cody Wilson, the founder of Defense Distributed who has been fighting for his right to post blueprints since 2013, says he’s not concerned about the lawsuit against his company. In fact, last week a federal judge in Texas denied a motion for a temporary restraining order filed by gun control advocacy groups against the company to halt the distribution of the plans online—the same restraining order that is being requested through this new lawsuit.

“If you want your second amendment online, this is the fight,” Wilson said on Twitter. “Join Me.”

The most recent lawsuit was filed by the attorney general of Washington State, Bob Ferguson, who said, “If the Trump administration won’t keep us safe, we will.” Along with Washington and Maryland, other states joining the suit include California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia.

The document states: “Anyone with access to the [Computer Aided Design] files and a commercially available 3D printer could readily manufacture, possess, or sell such a weapon—even those persons statutorily ineligible to possess firearms, including violent felons, the mentally ill, and persons subject to protection and no-contact orders.”

In Maryland, there are laws in place for those who wish to purchase a gun—including fingerprinting, extensive background checks, and a waiting period—but Frosh says that the ability to download and create a firearm completely destabilizes those laws. In light of this, he has signed a letter from 20 other attorneys general to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressing concerns over the federal government’s recent settlement with Defense Distributed and urging them to withdraw from the settlement.

“It’s shocking that the federal government would just allow this,” Frosh says. “It’s not just dangerous for the people, it’s dangerous for the government. Every criminal that wants to stick up a 7-Eleven or commit a murder can download the file and create their own gun. It completely undermines the law enforcement system we have in place.”

President Trump said on Monday in a tweet that the guns themselves didn’t “seem to make much sense” and that he was speaking with the National Rifle Association (NRA) about the matter.

Frosh anticipates a hearing to take place today for a temporary restraining order to stop Defense Distributed from posting those instructions online.

“We’re going to do everything we possibly can to stop this from happening,” Frosh said.

President Donald Trump nominated judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy following his retirement at the end of the month. Kavanaugh, an appellate courts judge in Washington, D.C., who worked in George W. Bush’s White House, will be Trump’s second Supreme Court nominee since taking office.

“In keeping with President Reagan’s legacy, I do not ask about a nominee’s personal opinions,” Trump said in the announcement. “What matters is not a judge’s political views but whether they can set aside those views to do what the law and the Constitution require. I am pleased to say that I have found, without doubt, such a person.”

While many may not have heard of him until yesterday, here is some background on the latest Supreme Court Justice nominee, who is a native of Bethesda:

Kavanaugh has decades of experience as a federal judge.
After graduating from Yale Law School, he was plunged into politics when he was charged with investigating President Bill Clinton’s deputy counsel Vincent Foster. He also later laid the groundwork for impeaching Clinton following the president’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

In December 2000, with the presidential race between Al Gore and George W. Bush undecided, Kavanaugh joined the Republican legal team that won the fight to stop the ballot recount in Florida. He was then nominated in 2003 by President George W. Bush to the appeals court and was confirmed in 2006. Since then, he has written nearly 300 opinions and has taken stances on several Obama-era environmental regulations including efforts to limit greenhouse gases and hazardous air pollutants.

He describes his judicial philosophy as “straightforward.”
Kavanaugh has said in the past that he does not believe that there is a such thing as Democratic or Republican judges. He believes that there is only one kind of judge under the constitution.

“A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law,” Kavanaugh said. “A judge must interpret statutes as written. And a judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent.”

He portrays himself as an advocate for women.
The judge spoke at length about his wife and two daughters, even mentioning that it was his mother who first introduced him to law. These comments are particularly examined because his nomination is expected to center around his views on abortion and access to contraception.

Democrats on Capitol Hill are prepared to rally in defense of Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion rights decision. They also fear that LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriage could be overturned by the court with Kavanaugh’s nomination. But, it is unclear how soon those decisions will be made.

Kavanaugh once worked for his predecessor.
He clerked for Kennedy on the Supreme Court in the early 1990s alongside Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s first Supreme Court pick. Although Kavanaugh is a protégé of Kennedy, he is more conservative and may not share his views on cases regarding civil and women’s rights.

His history in D.C. will provide the opposition with ammunition to deny his appointment. Last fall, Kavanaugh ruled against an immigrant teenager in federal custody who sought to terminate her pregnancy. But he did not go as far as another D.C. Circuit judge who said the teen had no constitutional right to an elective abortion.

He values family, church, and basketball.
Kavanaugh grew up in Bethesda and attended Georgetown Preparatory School, the same Jesuit high school as Gorsuch. He is an observant Catholic, regularly attending church at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Northwest D.C.

He met his wife, Ashley, while they were both working at the White House under President Bush. The couple has two daughters together and Kavanaugh has coached their basketball teams for the past seven years. Following President Trump’s announcement, Kavanaugh event cracked a joke about Duke’s men basketball coach Mike Kryzyzewski.

“I have two spirited daughters,” he said. “Margaret loves sports and she loves to read. Liza loves sports and she loves to talk . . . The girls on the [basketball] team call me Coach K.”

Over the past few weeks, the Trump administration has been under fire from opponents and allies following the images and sounds of more than 2,000 young children who were separated from their parents and being kept in cages in a detention center in Texas. Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order that ends the policy of separating migrant children from their parents who are detained.

“So, we’re going to have strong—very strong borders,” Trump said. “But we’re going to keep the families together. I didn’t like the sight, or the feeling of families being separated.”

These comments come after he earlier argued that “you can’t do it by executive order.” The President is now ordering that family separation will be replaced with the detention of entire families. It’s not immediately clear what will happen to the detained children or when they will be reunited with their parents.

Since May 24, when the “zero-tolerance” policy was enforced, there have been dozens of immigrant children from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras in Maryland that were separated from their families after crossing the border into America illegally. While the President’s order will stop the future separation of child and parent, local organizations are concerned about the well-being of the children already separated. The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) that works with refugees and migrants openly opposes the practice of family detention.

“While children will no longer be ripped from the arms of their parents for the sole purpose of deterring immigration, they will go to jail with their parents,” said Kay Bellor, VP for programs at LIRS, in a statement. “Jail is never an appropriate place for a child.”

For the past two years, the Catholic Charities of Maryland’s Esperanza Center has been running a family reunification program that helps minors reunite with their families. The center has helped 243 unaccompanied minors who have crossed the border—including eight who were forcibly separated from their parents—so far this year.

“We haven’t received any guidance from the [Trump] administration for how they are going to handle the children who have already been separated,” said Helany Sinkler, who runs the reunification program. “Although the children are being cared for and looked after in the shelter, there’s nothing better than reuniting a child with their family.”

Sinkler says that the reunification process is not an easy one and predicting how long it takes is tougher. Locating and approving a sponsor is a tedious process including finger printing, background checks, and myriad communication across borders given that most children arrive with nothing but a name and phone number for a relative. During that time, the child is placed in either a shelter or foster care, depending on the age, until a legal sponsor is appointed.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, and the American Psychiatric Association have all issued statements warning against the traumatic effects of separating families—representing more than 250,000 doctors in the United States.

“To pretend that separated children do not grow up with the shrapnel of this traumatic experience embedded in their minds is to disregard everything we know about child development, the brain, and trauma,” the doctors wrote in a statement to President Trump.

In addition to the reunification process, director of the Esperanza Center Val Twanmoh says that they are working with children have suffered traumatic experiences both in the home country and once crossing into the U.S. She stressed a need for increased counseling and mental health workers to assist with the transition of the children.

“Finding bilingual mental health providers is extremely difficult,” she said. “We normally have to refer them out because we don’t have the workers to accommodate it. It’s extremely difficult.”

Sinkler is still planning to do all she can for as many children as she can with the current resources she has but is still in disbelief that something so “unbelievable and incomprehensible” is happening in this country.

“When you’re talking about family separation, there’s now this added layer on top of everything they’ve already suffered in home country,” she said. “We are essentially re-traumatizing the children that came seeking protection and fleeing already horrible conditions. It’s unreal that this is America that is doing this. This isn’t another country that’s notorious for not being sympathetic. This is not what we do.”

On March 7, CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner and/or operator of 193 television stations in the country, would be forcing its anchors to record a promotional message about “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories plaguing our country.” Selter and Deadspin both see the message as support for President Donald Trump’s ongoing attack on “fake news.” 

In what seems like a Saturday Night Live parody, Timothy Burke of Deadspin pieced together the footage of various broadcasts from Seattle to Washington D.C.—all Sinclair affiliates—of news anchors reciting the same copy. 

“The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. More alarming, some media outlets publish these same fake stories,” the anchors say in unison. “This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”

The video spread quickly on social media over the weekend, leading to heavy criticism of Sinclair. Democrat Rep. Tony Cárdenas of California resurfaced a letter, signed by 38 lawmakers and dated March 22, that called for the rejection of the Tribune merger that would dramatically expand Sinclair’s reach to 72 percent of American households.

President Trump responded to the scrutiny of the media company by defending them in a tweet. 

“So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased,” he wrote. “Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.”

Scott Livingston, senior vice president of the Hunt Valley-based media company, said the purpose of the message was to echo Sinclair’s mission and “commitment to reporting facts.”

“The stories we are referencing in this promo are the unsubstantiated ones (i.e. fake/false) like ‘Pope Endorses Trump,’ which move quickly across social media and result in an ill-informed public,” he told The Sun in an email statement. “We are focused on fact-based reporting. We consider it our honor and privilege to deliver the news each night. We seek the truth and strive to be fair.”

Although it is the country’s largest broadcaster, Sinclair is not a household name and viewers may be unaware of who owns their local news station. Critics have accused the company of using its stations to advance a mostly right-leaning agenda. The company often sends what are called “must-runs” to its affiliates that include content like commentators speaking in support of President Trump, terrorism news updates, or speeches from company executives.

This is not the first time that Sinclair has been accused of being biased in its reporting. The company has also been accused of using connections in the Trump administration—by way of Sinclair’s chairman David D. Smith’s meeting with future FCC commissioner Ajit Pai the day before Trump’s inauguration—to ease regulations on media consolidation. Sinclair is currently seeking approval from the Justice Department and the FCC for a $3.9 billion deal to buy Tribune Media.

Correction: A previous version of this story stated that the Tribune merger would result in the company acquiring The Baltimore Sun. However, Tribune Media is the TV side of the former Tribune Co., which spun off Tribune Publishing (now known as tronc). Baltimore regrets the error.

A sea of peace signs shot into the air at 1 p.m. on an overcast day last January. More than 4,000 people at the intersection of N. Charles and E. 33rd streets gathered during a moment of silence, which was observed at similar events around the world. It was a rare, quiet moment from the passionate crowd of demonstrators who converged near The Johns Hopkins University for the Women’s March in Baltimore, one of hundreds of events held in solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington on January 21, 2017. “It turned out to be a pretty wonderful day, despite our huge disappointment in the election,” recalls Donna Martin, a 74-year-old former pastor and retired hospice worker who organized the Baltimore event, which, like its sister events, was pointedly planned for the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Wearing a brick-colored baseball cap and a camera around her neck, Martin spent the day energizing the demonstrators. “We are the ones who make change happen!” she yelled into a megaphone. “We are here to say we are not going back!”

Now, just 10 months later, sitting at a desk in her Northeast Baltimore home after spending the morning gardening, Martin—a petite woman with silver hair cropped closely around her face and a confident and vivacious personality prone to laughter—reflects on the march’s impact in the time since it took place. “Women are not going to forget that march,” she says firmly. “In the long run, women have learned that they have a voice, and they do have power.”

A year after that group of women took to the streets—many donning pink knitted “pussy hats” and brandishing signs that read “the future is female”—women in Baltimore are channeling the same passion and energy into new organizations aiming to create change in the city.

“The march has really made a huge difference, in terms of the lives of women,” Martin says. “It has caused big cultural shifts for us in our country.”

In a small classroom at Maryland Institute College of Art, a half-dozen people have gathered on a Saturday afternoon for a workshop titled “Listen to Black Women,” where men and women ranging in age from 18 to 60 discuss dismantling institutionalized sexism in men’s lives, and how they can do a better job at supporting women in society.

The free class, led by Brittany Oliver, a 29-year-old Baltimore activist and founder of Not Without Black Women, is part of the grassroots program North Avenue Knowledge Exchange. During the class, Volandia, a pregnant woman staying in Baltimore after Hurricane Irma forced her to leave the Virgin Islands, voices concerns about raising her son in a culture that doesn’t treat men and women equally. DeBora Ricks, a local author and attorney, brings up how sexism is often considered a taboo or divisive topic in the black community, even among women. As a point of linguistic proof, Ricks mistakenly says “institutionalized racism” rather than “sexism” several times before correcting herself, noting, “See—we’re not even used to saying those words.” Men, including 18-year-old Louis Williams, who graduated from Baltimore City College, and Charles Jackson, a program coordinator at Morgan State University, discussed strategies for shutting down sexism witnessed in their own lives.

Like other leaders of women’s groups that sprung up over the past year, Oliver, whose background includes stints at the ACLU of Maryland and anti-street harassment nonprofit Hollaback! Baltimore, says the creation of Not Without Black Women was influenced by the Women’s March on Washington, but for another reason: “I was one of the people who came out against the Women’s March,” she explains. “I intentionally didn’t go.”

Her protest stemmed from what she describes as an erasure of women of color by the event’s white founders—down to the name used in its original Facebook event, the Million Woman March. Several well-known black marches throughout history, from a 1997 march of the same name that drew hundreds of thousands of black women to Philadelphia, to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom that famously culminated with Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, have used similar titles.

“Why not look at history and contact people who have been doing the work before?” she asks. “Black and brown communities are going to be hit the hardest. Their voices are the ones that need to be at the center of any type of march.” March organizers responded to the criticism by renaming the event, bringing in veteran nonwhite activists, and releasing a statement on diversity.

“We need to uplift women, and we need to start saying what we feel. Sometimes you need a support system to do that.”

Still, tired of black women’s experiences being sidelined, Oliver, a self-described introvert, reached out to other black women in Baltimore by hosting a social gathering at Harbor East café Teavolve in July. She called it Not Without Black Women: An Evening of Dialogue and Sisterhood.

“I thought that this was going to be something where 10 women come, it’s informal, let’s talk and get to know each other,” Oliver recalls. “It turned out 40 women showed up at this event, just from word-of-mouth on social media. We talked about politics, dating, relationships. We talked about our everyday lives.”

Since that first meeting, Not Without Black Women has convened for monthly gatherings attracting a multigenerational crowd.

“We’re bringing black women together to support things that may have limited us at one point,” explains Kalila Daniel, who regularly attends Not Without Black Women events and started a mentorship program called Young Queens back in 2009. “But we’re coming together to overcome those different barriers and take our place in the community as we help uplift each other.”

Wearing earrings in the shape of black power fists, Daniel says women of color are often missing from the conversation about political change. “There’s not enough representation of black women of all ages, of different economic backgrounds,” she says. “What’s really happening in the communities, what’s really happening with us every day, is not really addressed. With a group like Not Without Black Women, we can bring a face and a name to those different people, and bring it to the forefront.”

As much as Not Without Black Women aims to be a political force—the group’s leadership team was in the process of crafting its political agenda based on input from members in late 2017—it’s also a social space. “We’re conditioned to not talk about our pain,” Oliver says. “We need to uplift women, and we need to start saying what we feel. Sometimes you need a support system to do that.”

Another such support system exists in the Society of Excellent Women, which was born from a desire to deepen connections between women in Baltimore. “My friend that I used to work with was having a problem where she felt like she wasn’t able to make connections outside of her friend group,” recalls the group’s founder, Brittany Wight. “She was having dinner parties and she would invite three or four friends, and each friend would invite another friend who didn’t know anybody else.”

Inspired by that dinner, Wight—along with Rosemary Kourdoglow and Emma Hagan—organized a “Slushie Social” happy hour at Wet City the night before the presidential election. Using the name Society of Excellent Women, they spread the word via social media.

Despite steadily growing RSVPs, when more than 200 women showed up at the Mt. Vernon beer bar, Wight was shocked. “It was really inspiring. It made me feel like we were doing the right thing,” recalls the Baltimore City Retirement Systems employee and owner of Wight Tea Co. She greeted each guest at the door and asked her to talk to someone she didn’t already know. Glasses clinked and connections were made long after the happy hour’s scheduled conclusion at 8 p.m. “Women come to our other events with women that they met at our first event. It makes me feel warm inside.”

The outpouring of interest in the organization, which Wight says attracts mostly millennials, points to a shared desire among women to connect with their community on a personal level. “Everyone calls Baltimore ‘Smalltimore,’ but we end up in these very closed-off groups,” Wight says. “Baltimore has lots of different communities, but they don’t seem to mix. I think everyone wants to be able to mix, but it’s not necessarily easy to figure out on your own.”

Since the first meeting, Society of Excellent Women has hosted events designed to represent the diverse interests of its members. Attendance has remained steady, with about 200 coming out for larger events, and 50 or 60 for happy hours and smaller meetups.

Often, Wight partners with other women-focused groups in Baltimore, like a clothing swap hosted with A Workshop of Our Own, a collaborative space for women and gender-nonconforming makers, and lifestyle blog The Stylette. At Zine Queens, a panel and workshop held at Open Works, the society gathered leaders of Beast Grrl, Nasty Press, and The Bush Zine to talk about women and zines before attendees collaborated on their own creations.

“The election results definitely started the fire, but the Women’s March set the whole forest aglow,” says Nasty Press co-founder Zoey Duong. “The feeling of that many people in one place who were there to resist Trump and support and uplift each other at the same time became all the momentum that was needed. When I came back from the march, I brought everyone together and what would be the first Nasty Press meeting was held.”

Founded by Duong, Xochi Davila, and Em Jones, Nasty Press launched its first zine last April and is currently working on its second issue with the overarching goal of sharing art by a diverse group, particularly those in the LGBTQ community.

For its part, the Society of Excellent Women is also trying to cast a wider, more diverse net. About halfway through the group’s first year, Wight brought together a group to address inclusivity and the organization’s goals for the future. “I am a straight, white female, and I feel like I am not able to represent all of Baltimore,” Wight says. “I put together a panel of women from all over the city who wanted to be a part of it and had different viewpoints. I asked what they wanted, and we formulated a new, more inclusive mission statement.”

One specific change, thanks to feedback from members, was using a “Y” rather than an “A” in the spelling of womyn in the organization’s messaging, “because not every woman identifies as a w-o-m-a-n,” Wight says. The society also updated its mission to “create safe, inclusive spaces and events in which womyn in Baltimore can find each other for friendship.”

While the initial motive behind the organization was friendship, not politics, Wight says there was a time when she wondered whether or not the society should be politically vocal, or if taking a public stance would alienate some women. “Ultimately, any women’s group at this point has to be vocal,” she says. “It was kind of decided for us.”

Gender politics has always been a calling for Martin, who became one of a small number of women ordained as members of the Methodist clergy in the 1960s. “That wasn’t looked on particularly fondly by the patriarchy,” she recalls. “I’ve always been very social-justice oriented, and I always lead my congregation in that direction.”

Since retiring, Martin—who became aware that she was gay in mid-life—has served on the board of directors for Equality Maryland, pushing for the same-sex marriage referendum in 2012. These days, her focus is on educational equality.

When reflecting on the events of the past year, she remains hopeful about the march’s impact. “It doesn’t make an immediate change,” she says, “but I think it makes a big difference for visibility, and also in the minds and hearts of the people participating.”

Martin points to an increased number of women running for office—especially the historic wins for transgender candidates—and the #MeToo movement calling out sexual abusers on social media as evidence that women are marching on in their own ways. She is especially heartened to see what is happening right in her backyard.

“I’m so proud of these young women in Baltimore taking the reins,” says Martin. “We are cheerleaders for the next generation of activists, and it is particularly poignant when I realize I can no longer do all the things I used to. Passing the torch is not only possible, but necessary.”

Long gone are the days of dial-up Internet and AOL messenger where internet speeds were universally slow for everyone. Now, we all get impatient if our Instagram feed doesn’t refresh in milliseconds or our videos on YouTube start to buffer. This is all made possible by something called net neutrality—open and fair Internet service.

In 2015, regulations were placed so that internet service providers (ISP) treated all online content the same—not showing favoritism to certain websites or penalizing others with slower speeds based on your ISP. Today, the FCC—headed by Trump-appointed chairman Ajit Pai—voted to repeal these rules, changing the way we use the Internet moving forward. Maryland is one of 18 states in a multi-state lawsuit challenging the net neutrality repeal. 

Deb Tillett, executive director of Emerging Technologies Center (ETC), an incubator for tech startups in Highlandtown, explained how the repeal of these regulations will drastically affect the small businesses and innovation in the city.

In layman’s terms, can you explain what net neutrality means?
It means that the internet should be an open marketplace, available to anyone, at any time, with total equality, regardless of who they are, without disclosing why they’re using it. So in the same way that you would use your telephone line and nobody stops you from making any calls that you care to, whether it’s offensive to anyone or not, you can pick up your phone and dial. The internet itself should be considered a basic utility, and it’s the foundation and fundamental nature of everything that we do. By doing away with net neutrality, you essentially put a gatekeeper in place.

Without net neutrality, I wouldn’t be able to sound as smart as I do about the topic because the articles I’ve read wouldn’t be openly available to me. [Laughs]

That’s a great point. Why do you think the net neutrality rules were established in the first place?
As we got more sophisticated and realized we could do more things with the internet, it became necessary to keep it the neutral, open marketplace that it had become. Monopolistic service providers like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast are literally in charge of content. So the FCC put these rules in place—they had been trying to do it for years, but it wasn’t until 2015 that they were actually able to get the laws passed.

Why do you think that the FCC wants to repeal the rules now?
I think it’s greed. They would essentially be back in control, so if they had a preferred provider of content, they would favor that. Again, I think it goes back to bottom lines, that the three monopolistic service providers would have more ways to create more income.

What would that mean for small business and startups in Baltimore?
It’s extremely critical in a city like Baltimore, where the small businesses and innovation spaces are the foundation of our economy. This has the greatest impact on small businesses and startups because, if you have an idea for an app or you want to put up a website, you can’t afford to pay what a larger, fiercer competitor pays and it ultimately puts you out of business.

It’s stomping on the little guy because big guys can afford to pay more for content, pay more for faster speeds, pay more—you hear what I’m saying? It’s all about pay. Small businesses rely on the internet for their websites to attract customers. Using web advertising to push people into a store. The ability to block speech and prevent any kind of free speech is really disturbing to me.

Wow. What about regular consumers and local nonprofits?
It’s an absolute blow to minorities and underserved communities. People who have used this open internet to organize to get the word out about oppressions for them—to find like-minded people to come together and make a stand. Providers could potentially sensor that content if they don’t like what you’re saying.

It has the direst of consequences. The internet’s openness is what fosters job creation, competition among small businesses, and clearly innovation. 

Do you think that there’s anything that the Baltimore tech industry can do about the net neutrality rules being repealed?
The only possible solution is that we band together and do the best we can to have it overturned. We would have to—it would put tons of people out of business. It’s so crazy. I can see it being a real detriment to any kind of startup. Some of my mature companies can probably find a way, but some of the folks just starting out and developing apps and want to get the apps out there, absolutely, positively depend on this open marketplace.

Some stood, some knelt, some sat, some stayed in the locker room, and one even stretched for the National Anthem during Sunday’s NFL games. Following comments made by President Donald Trump at a political rally in Alabama on Friday calling on NFL owners to fire any player who “disrespects our flag,” multiple teams in the organization came together on Sunday in one of the biggest displays of open protest.

The Ravens and Jaguars kicked off a long string of protests in London Sunday morning with 10 Ravens players—including Terrell Suggs, C.J. Mosley, and Lardarius Webb—either taking a knee or standing with locked arms in solidarity in response to the president’s remarks.

“That’s a total disrespect of our heritage,” President Trump told supporters on Friday in Huntsville, Alabama. “That’s a total disrespect of everything that we stand for. Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now.’”

This was the first time any Ravens player protested—just as quarterback Colin Kaepernick did back in 2016 in protest against the treatment of African Americans in the United States.

Following the Ravens early game, a number of other NFL players followed suit by staying in the locker room during the Anthem, including members of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks, and Tennessee Titans. Trump responded to the series of protest on Twitter Sunday.

Supporters of the protests insist the act is less about the American flag and National Anthem, and more about the right to exercise free speech and speak up about racial injustice. 

“In nearly 25 years as a sports executive, and a lifetime spent as an American citizen, I have never been so appalled by the abusive blood lust of my country’s highest governmental office, to defile my country’s constitutional guarantees,” president of MASN Sports, John P. Angelos, wrote on Twitter. “Anti-American and anti-citizen abuse of [the Trump administration’s] power should be repudiated, protested, and legally opposed on every front.” 

However, opponents of the athletic protests believe their actions are unpatriotic and disrespectful to those who have served or are serving in the military. Locally, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey R. Gahler took to Facebook to express his anger with the Ravens franchise.

“The embarrassment that is the NFL continues and people wonder why I am on strike,” Gahler wrote. “Ravens join the nonsense of taking knee [sic] while on the soil of the country we gained our independence from. Will be doing a housecleaning of any Ravens merchandise later today and getting it all ready for the burn.”

There are many people in Baltimore that have mixed feelings about the protests that happened on the field Sunday, wondering if there is a way to simultaneously respect the right to free speech while also honoring the country and its veterans.

“Just a thought . . . what if every past, current, and future American military person chose to take a knee instead of fighting to keep our country safe and free?” Bar Liquorice owner Jeff Cahill posted on Facebook. “I do respect anyone’s right to peacefully protest, but it has to be tempered with the respect for those who fought and lost their lives [my family included] in service to this country, which is what our flag and National Anthem symbolizes.”

The protests have also gone beyond the NFL, with Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry declining an invitation to visit The White House. President Trump then rescinded the invitation and Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers sounded off on Instagram. The ripple effect continued into the MLB when Oakland Athletics’ catcher Bruce Maxwell, who is from a military family, became the first baseball player in history to kneel during the National Anthem on Saturday.

The weekend of protesting has caused a firestorm on a local level with a mixed bag of protests, support, boycotting, and championing. For Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti himself, he sees all of the dialogue as a reflection of democracy.

“We recognize our players’ influence,” he said. “We respect their demonstration and support them 100 percent. All voices need to be heard. That’s democracy in its highest form.”

Update September 5: On Tuesday, President Trump announced, via Jeff Sessions, that the DACA program would be suspended.

“I am here today to announce that the program known as DACA that was effectuated under the Obama administration is being rescinded,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. 

The Department of Homeland Security will cease processing new applications for the program effective Tuesday, however the administration plans to continue to renew permits for those expiring in the next six months. No one’s status will be revoked before it has expired and many applications received on Tuesday will still be processed.

The move to end the program puts Congress on a deadline to come up with a solution that will protect DACA participants who—under this new ruling—begin losing their status March 5, 2018. 

If Congress does not act, nearly 300,000 people would lose their DACA status in 2018 and more than 320,000 more in 2019. 

President Donald Trump is expected to dismantle a program put in place by former president Barack Obama that allows hundreds of thousands of children brought to the U.S. illegally to live and work without punishment.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has been under scrutiny since its creation in 2012 by members of the GOP. For weeks, President Trump has been deciding whether to continue the program or face legal reprimand from several Republican attorney generals who deem the program unconstitutional. 

A decision is expected to come as early as today—four days before the September 5 deadline set by the attorney generals. If Trump opts to terminate the program, he will let active DACA cardholders remain in the U.S. until their work permits expire, allowing him to fulfill his campaign promise to terminate Obama’s signature initiative while also keeping his inauguration pledge to “show great heart” to the young immigrants in the program.

In Baltimore, Mayor Catherine Pugh and Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz have joined more than 100 civic leaders across the country in a Cities for Action campaign calling for President Trump to continue the program until a legislative solution is found.

“In Baltimore County, we are embracing the children who came here as youngsters, grew up as Americans, and are now contributing to the American dream,” Kamenetz said in a letter to the president. “We urge the President to continue our country’s support of America’s Dreamers.”

A September 2016 report by the Migration Policy Institute recorded approximately 17,000 DACA participants in Maryland. Catalina Rodriguez-Lima, director of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant and Multicultural Affairs (MIMA), says that there are currently 34,000 eligible DACA applicants waiting for entry to the program if it is not terminated.

“Our role in the mayor’s office is to use her platform to urge the president to continue DACA,” she said. “For us, it doesn’t only go against our most resilient professionals and students, it’s also an attack on our economy. A lot of these people have bought homes, go to school, are nurses, are lawyers, are business owners—they create jobs.”

All current participants of DACA have already been subjected to extensive background checks and pay income taxes. Without them, the economy would lose more than $460 billion from the national GDP and more than $24 billion from Social Security and Medicare contributions.

Hundreds of national business leaders—including Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and nearly 400 other companies—have also signed an open letter to Trump calling for him to preserve the program. 

“Unless we act now to preserve the DACA program, all 780,000 hardworking young people will lose their ability to work legally in this country, and every one of them will be at immediate risk of deportation,” the executives wrote. “With them, we grow and create jobs. They are part of why we will continue to have a global competitive advantage.”

“Trump must end DACA,” wrote the editors of the National Review. “If we are going to amnesty an entire class of people, it should obviously be done through the democratic process and, in our view, happen only in exchange for reforms to the immigration system. DACA contravenes the elementary principle that the legislative branch ought to pass laws and the executive branch ought to enforce them.” 

As the country awaits the president’s decision, Rodriguez-Lima and MIMA are encouraging local DACA cardholders to be proactive in the event that the program is suspended. She recommends applying for other immigration release programs besides DACA and consulting with legal professionals. 

“My hope is that if the program is terminated, congress can come together to develop a solution for these students who were brought to this country not knowing they were undocumented,” she said. “They shouldn’t be punished but accepted. The U.S. is the only home they’ve ever known.” 

Today former FBI director James Comey told the the Senate Intelligence Committee that he believes he was fired by President Donald Trump because of concerns with the Russia investigation. Due to this mistrust, Comey testified, he documented their private conversations, appointed a special counsel to probe the administration, and accused White House officials of telling “lies, plan and simple.”

In numerous, seemingly uncomfortable, conversations with President Trump, Comey said he was asked for his “loyalty” and to abandon the FBI’s investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. 

Several Maryland representatives had varying reactions to the bombshell testimony, including U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, who called the details “disturbing.” 

“There is no reason to doubt the integrity of Mr. Comey’s recollection of how Mr. Trump repeatedly used the weight of the presidency to ask a law enforcement official to drop an investigation,” Cardin said in a statement. “Such inappropriate actions cannot be simply written off to a learning curve.”

Cardin said it should further encourage his colleagues to cosponsor his legislation to create an independent, 9/11-style commission to investigate Russia’s actions during the 2016 presidential campaign. 

Other local representatives had a different takeaway from Comey’s testimony today.

“I am disturbed by Mr. Comey’s statement that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch asked him to refer to the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email servers as a ‘matter’ instead of an ‘investigation,'” Rep. Andy Harris said in a statement. “If true, this would in fact demonstrate a clear bias by Ms. Lynch and an attempt to influence public perception of Hillary Clinton during the presidential campaign.”

The testimony was also of special interest to Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, which is running an investigation into possible Russian collusion. Today, he announced that Rep. Trey Gowdy, of South Carolina, was chosen by the Republican Steering Committee as the new Committee Chairman, subject to final approval.

“I offer my sincerest congratulations to Rep. Gowdy on his new role as Chairman of the Oversight Committee,” Cummings said in a statement. “I look forward to working with him in a constructive and bipartisan manner on an agenda that serves the interests of the American people.”

 Cardin concluded his statement with another note of bipartisanship, urging both sides of the aisle to investigate Russia’s interference with the American political system.

“It is time for Republican leadership in Congress to acknowledge publicly how dangerous the president’s actions and rhetoric have been to American rule of law—the very foundation of our nation,” he said. “We need an independent commission to get to the heart of Russia’s interference in our country and to make public its findings and recommendations for how we can avoid this kind of nightmare in the future.”

Shortly after the Comey hearing, Sen. Chris Van Hollen went down to the Senate floor to urge Congress to pass sanctions on Russia. 

“Right now the world is looking at the United States and asking why we haven’t imposed tougher sanctions on Russia for its unprecedented and multifaceted campaign to undermine our elections,” he said. “There is no excuse for inaction. The United States must show Putin that we will not stand idly by while he attacks our democracy. We need to be unified in our resolve and put patriotism over partisanship.”

You’ve been at the epicenter of all the political news in Washington since President Donald Trump’s election. What has that been like for you?
It’s a lot. The uptick is extreme, and we’ve never had an uptick like this before. I’ve been in the middle of watching politics for 20 years in Washington, but this is definitely different. We’re bombarded with everything now. Typically, during the course of the day, there would be two to three stories that would circulate, but now it’s everywhere, everything, all day, all night, and on weekends. And Twitter is now more relevant than ever before. I was talking to a friend who actually has an audio alert for when the president posts something. As I’m talking to you, that reminds me that I need to do that.

As someone who’s covering the news, what do you make of this change?
The way we used to cover news is no more. I grew up in the era of Walter Cronkite where you didn’t know the journalists’ political persuasions. You trusted them. There was no social media; we didn’t have to think about Twitter, or the internet. I remember in college they told us, “Be ready for the information superhighway,” and now it’s here. They should have told us not just to be ready, but beware.

It’s extreme, and there’s a hunger now for immediacy, be it news, or responses from people. And that has caused the news cycle—the news machine—to go into overdrive. This is the first time in history where a newsmaker, a high-profile person, can talk directly to their constituency, their fan base, without going through the filter of the media. We used to be the ones who would ask the questions that we heard from the groundswell of Capitol Hill. And now, you don’t have to read the story because you can watch it happening.

Trump seems to have taken it to another level. You could argue that Barack Obama had access to the same type of technology.
But the issue is we didn’t see him tweeting everything. He didn’t watch a TV show and tweet about it, or tweet something that would throw firebombs everywhere and people were scrambling to determine if it was real, if it happened, what does it mean. He wasn’t a president who would be his own press secretary. Now, you have the day’s activities set, then all Trump has to do is send out a tweet and the whole day has changed. And these are big news pieces, so then the question becomes, what do you as a journalist focus on? It’s tough.

It also seems like there has to be scrutiny of what the White House is saying.
This president doesn’t believe in being politically correct. He goes from the gut, and what he thinks comes out. And this is what some people love about him—the realness of him. He is one of the people, but there’s a flip side, too, because your words can change markets. It can cause anxiety from other world leaders. Words mean something.

You’ve been in the news yourself lately, whether that was when Trump asked you to set up a meeting with black lawmakers, or reality TV star Omarosa Manigault claimed you were being paid by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Obviously that’s not something that normally happens with journalists covering the White House. What has that been like for you?
[Laughs] It’s been rough. I choose not to talk about the particular situation that happened between me and Omarosa, but what I will tell you is there were plenty of people who saw it. Yes, we had been friends for 20 years. Yes, during the summer she had asked me to be in her wedding, but yes, also in October, she started sending me these crazy emails saying things that were not true. It’s about my career, my journalistic integrity, that I’ve built for 20 years. And I’m not going to lose that for someone who comes back to Washington who’s trying to smear the media. This is all part of a campaign, but for a friend to do this to a friend? That’s a problem. You don’t want them asking questions? You don’t want them being a part of the White House press corps? The press is a part of the framework of this country. We were built into the Constitution by our founding fathers. It makes no sense to me.

Nationally, it seems like respect for journalism is on the rise, with readership at The New York Times and The Washington Post increasing. Still, it must be difficult to continue working with what appears to be an increasingly hostile White House.
I do the job that I’ve been doing. I talk to my sources and newsmakers, people from other presidential administrations, Democrats and Republicans. It’s the same job, we’re just under attack. Why? I’m still trying to figure that one out. There’s anxiety, but you know what, I still have a job to do. My company is 1,000 percent behind me, flatfooted. It means a lot to have that support.

I wanted to talk about your book, At Mama’s Knee, which looks at race relations through the lessons that mothers teach their children. How did it come to be?
Since I was a kid, there was something in my spirit about writing a book, but that didn’t come back into my mind until I started working at the White House. A friend of mine who really inspires me and he’s been a mentor to me—his name is Norman Hall and he works at The Associated Press—said to me once, “You cannot sit next to the seat of power and not write a book. You see things and experience things other people will never experience.” And he was right. So I started writing my first book, The Presidency in Black and White, and it took about 17 years to write.

History hit me hard personally, not just at the White House, because I had to talk to my children about race. They attend a predominantly white, wealthy school where people don’t normally have to talk about it. But that school, along with other schools in the area, closed early because of what happened after the funeral of Freddie Gray in 2015, and I had to talk to them. I can’t just talk to presidents of the United States or newsmakers and leaders around the world about issues of race. I would be remiss if I had not talked to my children and told them why they were being dismissed from school early and why this was happening. It really started one day when I was at work and my baby daughter called me and said, ‘Mommy, is it true that a kid got killed because he was playing with a gun?’ And the reason she called was because my aunt told her to bring her toy Nerf gun in the house because she did not want it to be misconstrued as a real gun because of what happened [to Tamir Rice in Cleveland in 2014.] My 6-year-old’s mind did not understand the dynamics, and I had to explain to her that this was very real. She was nervous, she was scared, and she didn’t believe me. I had to show her the video, walk it through with her. But I also had to tell her that at the end of the day, there was hope.

The day of Freddie Gray’s funeral, I was watching what happened in the White House. I was screaming, ‘That’s Mondawmin Mall, that’s Monroe Street!’ These were the haunts I used to go to as a kid—I remember going to piano practice on Tioga Parkway, next to Mondawmin Mall. This is my town. My family kept telling me, ‘Get home, get home, get the girls.’ So I drove home, with tears in my eyes. I was so scared that night. The next day, I decided not to go to work, and sure enough, school was let out early again. So we drove up the street to the local grocery store and I tried to keep it light, set a tone that we were going to be ok. Then I saw this Confederate flag on the back of a pick-up truck, brandishing around in the wind as the truck was driving around this maze of a parking lot. I looked out the window at these other women who were by the store, and I said, ‘Is that what I think it is?’ My oldest daughter did not know what it was, so I had to tell her, and she started to cry. I tried to get a picture of this person and the license plate and I called the police. By waving that flag, they were adding fuel to a fire. I believe in freedom of expression, but this was not the time. Wisdom was needed. And I was very fearful that something could erupt. I still have pictures of it in my phone.

How have things changed for you and your family since Freddie Gray’s death?
My kids are more aware now. I love the way my oldest approaches it. She has friends from every walk of life, but when there are questions from other communities, she breaks it down in a non-threatening but informative way, as a 14-year-old. I’ve had teachers from her school call me and tell me how they’re so happy at how she is able to talk to kids from other communities who don’t understand. It makes me feel great that my kids understand that we live in the world that we live in, but that there’s still hope. They have Jewish friends, Asian friends, white friends, black friends. And I love the fact that they are able to come together and say, ‘Hey we’re different but we celebrate each other.’ That’s the world that I hope for. That’s the United States that I’m desperately hoping for.

Did you ever consider leaving Baltimore, especially since your work is in D.C.?
I did. But my family and my friends are here. Baltimore’s a real town. I love Baltimore. I’ve been here pretty much my whole life. . . . We have a lot of hurts in Baltimore, but we also have a lot of greatness. And there will be a time, I believe, that Baltimore will have its renaissance. Yeah, we’ve got Band-Aids on some of the ugly things, but we are rising. And that’s one of the reasons why I won’t leave. 

Do you see any other books in your future?
Yes. [Laughs] It won’t be a surprise when it comes out, but it will be a page-turner, that’s all I’m going to say.

When news broke earlier this month that the popular Obama-era initiative Let Girls Learn may become a casualty of the most recent round of federal budgeting, one Baltimorean was especially jarred. As the former director of policy for former First Lady Michelle Obama, Krishanti Vignarajah helped the administration launch the initiative in 2015. We caught up with the Woodlawn High School graduate—who now runs her own company, Generation Impact, and is expecting her first child (a daughter)—to talk about the status of Let Girls Learn, and why it’s worth saving.

Let’s start with the basics. What is Let Girls Learn and how does it work?
It’s an initiative that President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama launched in March of 2015 to support adolescent girls’ education, at home and abroad. We ultimately had seven agencies integrally involved, ranging from the State Department and our development agency, USAID, to the Department of Labor, Peace Corps and the Department of Agriculture. 

Let Girls Learn supports girls’ education in three different ways. The first is through governmental support, everything from the building and renovation of schools to “second chance programs” for girls who’ve dropped out, to science and tech camps that bring together teenage girls from around the world. But we also appreciated that the U.S. couldn’t do it alone, and so we built an international coalition of governments ranging from Japan and Pakistan, to South Korea and the United Kingdom. But . . . even an international coalition of governments couldn’t solve a problem as large as nearly 100 million adolescent girls out of school worldwide, so we partnered with about 100 private sector companies and organizations, ranging from IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Girl Scouts, and Lands’ End, to universities like Georgetown and Cambridge to help us support girls in completing middle and high school.

What was your involvement in the creation of Let Girls Learn?
Mrs. Obama had been really quite moved by the Boko Haram kidnapping of over 200 girls in Nigeria. So she raised the question of what could we do to address this heartbreaking situation of girls getting kidnapped simply for going to school. Obviously, for both the President and the First Lady, the issue was personal, both because each of their success stories was in part driven by education, but also being the parents of two daughters, the incident hit close to home. We recognized that there was some ongoing programming that the U.S. government already supported, but that there was clearly a need to step up our efforts. So, I basically tried to figure out how could we address the issue of girls’ education, in a real and enduring way.

Why focus on girls not boys?
The reality that we see, both at home and all across the world, is that girls often fall behind—particularly when it comes to middle and high school. And so you end up seeing in some places dramatically lower completion and graduation rates for girls compared to boys. What we realized is that there’s no smarter investment in the future of America than investment in girls’ education.

How so?
When you talk about diverting resources from young girls, you’re really talking about divesting from the next generation of America’s leaders, the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, and astrophysicists. And they’re coming from everywhere—small towns, inner cities. They’re going to be the daughters of immigrants and working-class parents. So that’s why we knew that this was a priority. The investment in these girls is not just an investment in them, but an investment in their families, communities, and countries. We know, for example, that . . . for each additional year of high school, a girl’s earning potential goes up as much as 25 percent. Another example: Girls who attend school have healthier families. A Lancet study, for example, found that increasing girls’ education was responsible for more than half the reduction in child mortality between 1970 and 2009. I could go on and on.

So what does it cost the U.S. government per year to run this program?
We ended up investing $1 billion. Unfortunately, even that large amount is still far from what’s needed, because the tragic reality is that we still have 130 million girls out of school around the world.

One billion dollars sounds like a lot of money. For comparison’s sake, what are some other budget line items?
So, for example, our HIV/AIDS funding through PEPFAR, which President Bush created, receives about $7 billion. The State Department budget is about $50 to $51 billion, while the Defense Department budget is about $600 billion.

In terms of soft diplomacy, is Let Girls Learn one of the best investments we can make? You know, winning hearts and minds and all that.
Absolutely. [Secretary of Defense] General [James] Mattis has said this, ‘If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately.’ In some cases, it’s pennies on the dollar compared to the other investments we make. But you absolutely get the best bang for your buck.

As of today, it is unclear what the status of Let Girls Learn is. Initial reports suggested it was cut, then the State Department released a statement saying that the program will remain intact, but may get rebranded.
As you can imagine, I sort of scrambled to try to find out what was happening and what was potentially on the chopping block. I’ll tell you I think there is a lot of confusion about what exactly is being contemplated. In my mind, what is absolutely clear is that educating the next generation of women cannot become a casualty of partisan politics.

Do you worry that the Trump administration is just trying to avoid bad publicity here and fully intends to quietly end the initiative?
I realize that there’s always a chance with a new administration that an initiative like Let Girls Learn could have a bull’s-eye on it because it was so closely identified with the [former administration]. But . . . it would just make no sense. President [George W.] Bush, for example, launched the Millennium Challenge Corporation as a new approach to development and to substantially increase HIV/AIDS funding through PEPFAR. When we came into the White House, we realized the importance of these programs and actually increased funding for them. And the idea that something is bad just because it’s what a prior administration has done is at odds with the legacy of the White House.

On Thursday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) introduced the Keeping Girls in School Act, which aims to preserve some aspects of Let Girls Learn, should the Trump administration decide to jettison the initiative. 
Of course, I appreciate any effort to safeguard the significant achievements we made through Let Girls Learn. But it’s too bad if we need legislation to protect an initiative intended to ensure girls get an education—this issue should be above the fray of politics.

What if the Trump administration decides to keep the program but rebrands it? Why would changing that name and that brand be such a loss?
We launched Let Girls Learn in over 50 countries around the world. And as you can imagine, when Michelle Obama says ‘Let Girls Learn,’ people hear it and it means something. We had successful public service announcements that we put out that had everyone from Meryl Streep to John Legend making the case to let girls learn. Likewise, when we launched a social media campaign asking people to respond to the question ‘What did you learn in school?’ we got an overwhelming response. It ended up trending number one [on Twitter] domestically and number three internationally. We had everyone from David Cameron to Prince Harry to Beyoncé all supporting this cause. To rebrand and remove all of that would threaten to take away all of the awareness we’ve raised.

So, you’re saying there’s a lot invested in the brand already. It’d be like trying to rename Nike or something.
It’s like relabeling Coca-Cola and instead calling it Brown Fizzy Water. If you think there’s no cost to that, you’re failing to appreciate what Coca-Cola has built.