“It Was Just Completely Demeaning” - Black Architect Has To Prove To Bank She Works For Company To Deposit Cheque

Story out of Washington, DC:

Trish Doolin’s story gained traction when her friend Sugar (who declined to give her last name for safety reasons) took a screenshot of Doolin’s Facebook status describing her experience at a KeyBank branch in Kirkland and tweeted it.

"Pls. RT When you're 1 of a handful of Black female architects EVER and you try to cash your payroll check @keybank."  — bald headed Sug (@whoissugar)

Doolin, a job captain of architecture at design firm Nelson, Inc., told BuzzFeed News that she had just moved to Seattle a few weeks ago and stopped at KeyBank on Wednesday morning to deposit her paycheck.

Nelson had recently moved to Washington, Doolin said, and employees’ direct-deposit service hadn’t taken effect yet.

“I went in, deposited my check, and went about my day,” the 37-year-old Kansas City, Missouri, native said.

A few minutes later, the banker called her, told her there had been a problem with her check, and asked her to return to the bank.

Doolin said she was taken into a cubicle and noticed when she sat down that the bank teller — whom she described as white — had already pulled up her design firm’s website on his computer.

“He asked my profession, and then asked why the company’s headquarters were in Philadelphia,” she said. “Then he asked if HR could verify that I was an employee there.”

As he dialed her company, Doolin said he “kept saying it was for the bank’s safety,” adding that at no point did he ask for her ID.

When her company didn’t answer the phone, the man proceeded to tell Doolin that because her account had not been open for 30 days, the bank had to hold her paycheck for nine days to verify the funds.

“When I realized that I was defending who I was, trying to prove to someone I didn’t know who I was, I knew I was being discriminated against,” she said. “It was just completely demeaning.” Cont.

Story from - BuzzFeed

"I'm A Female" - Decorated Transgendered Navy SEAL Humiliated By TSA

Story out of Washington, DC:

A transgender former Navy SEAL was left humiliated by airport security at Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C. after they referred to her as a man and arranged for a male agent to search her.

Kristin Beck, who served in the military for 21 years, was traveling to Kansas City on Tuesday to give a speech to federal employees about gender sensitivity when she was left embarrassed by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents as she tried to pass through security.

Beck told CNN that she was flagged down by both a female and male officers after passing through the body scanner machine.

The decorated Navy SEAL thought she would be passed through the check without much commotion after she encountering no issues in passport control.

But the two agents thought she was a man despite her long hair, breasts and low cut dress.

'I'm a female,' she said she told them. 'It's no big deal.' 'This is wrong. I'm a female, it says female on my Maryland driver's license. This is the real me.'

According to Beck, the supervisor responded, 'Then somebody pat him down.'

A female staff member 'under duress' then searched her as she stood humiliated and close to tears.

After the ordeal was over and she went through to her departure gate she took to Facebook to vent her frustration.

'Oh, the kicker. I'm flying to Kansas City to give a HUMAN RIGHTS speech at Department of Justice Bureau of Prisons on rights and treatment etc.' Cont.

Story from - Daily Mail

Rotten Bananas And Obscene Drawings Left Outside American University Black Student's Dorm Room

Story out of Washington, DC:

A black female freshman at American University in Washington D.C., Neah Gray, told the Washington Post on Friday that on September 8 she found a rotten banana had been left just outside her dorm room and obscene drawings made on the whiteboard attached to her door. Another black student on her floor reported that on the same night someone threw a banana at her on campus.

“I wouldn’t let people drive me out, but it’s kind of sad that this kind of thing still happens,” Gray told the Washington Post.

The college administration is investigating two white male freshmen in connection with these incidents, but has so far refused to acknowledge the possibility that racism played a part in what occurred.

The college’s Black Student Alliance also issued a statement on Friday, that called the incidents “acts of hate,” and condemned the university for taking “little to no action,” adding that, “similar instances have been happening for years.” The letter references racist Yik Yak posts from last year that “called for a slave auction of Black students.” Cont.

Story from - Jezebel

DC Metro Transit Cop Arrested For Assisting ISIL

Mostly in trying to teach them how to use the turnstiles. :P Story out of Washington, D.C.:

A veteran police officer with one of the nation's most prominent transit systems appeared in federal court today in connection to charges that he tried to help ISIS.

Authorities believe that officer Nicholas Young, while working for the Metro Transit Police Department in Washington, D.C. — a community he swore to protect — was trying to assist ISIS operatives find more ways to communicate in secret.

Young allegedly purchased technology-related items to send to the ISIS operatives so they could evade authorities when contacting one another.

Instead of allegedly engaging with true ISIS associates, however, Young was actually in touch with FBI informants and agents from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Washington, which has been conducting a long undercover investigation in the case, officials said.

There was "no pending threat to the D.C. transportation system," a source emphasized to ABC News, which first reported the arrest. Cont.

Story from - ABC News

DNC Employee Shot And Killed In Washington

Conspiracy theories started flying soon after, claiming he was murdered for going to see the FBI about Hillary Clinton. Story out of Washington, DC:

Seth Conrad Rich, a Democratic National Committee employee, was shot and killed Sunday in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Northwest D.C.

Police arrived at the scene and found Conrad conscious and breathing. He was suffering from gunshot wounds. Conrad was taken to the hospital where he later died from his injuries.

Officials said they are looking into the possibility that Rich’s murder is connected to other recent robberies in the area.

"We will see if there are common factors we can relate to our case [and] we are still exploring the other cases to look," said Acting Captain Anthony Haythe of the MPD homicide unit.

Conrad’s roommate told WUSA9 that he was probably walking home from his girlfriend’s apartment when he was robbed and then shot.

The 27-year-old was the Voter Expansion Data Director at the DNC. He had been with the organization since 2014. Cont. (Video/Autoplay)

Story from - WUSA9
Image from - Yumi Kimura - Wikimedia Commons

Murderer Walks Freely After Inept Technician Places Tracking Device On Prosthetic Leg

He'll be back, the leg is where he keeps his gun. Story out of Washington, DC:

A DC man with a lengthy criminal history eluded authorities after a technician incorrectly placed a GPS tracking device on his prosthetic leg.

“I’m just so hurt and I just hope I can deal with it,” said the victim’s mother, Lillie Hamilton. “It’s just really getting to me.”

The 34-year-old suspect, Quincy Green, appeared to be at his South Capitol Street apartment when he allegedly gunned down an Oxon Hill man in May. According to the Director of Pre-Trial Services at DC Superior Court, “It was human error. Plain and simple.” Now the blame has shifted to the California-based government contractor who incorrectly installed the device.

“This is the worst that’s really happened to me all my life and I’m 72 years old,” Hamilton said.

Her only son, Dana, was murdered on May 14 on a Southern Avenue sidewalk in Southeast DC. He was 44 years old and lived with his mother. After a gun possession charge in April, Dana Hamilton’s alleged killer was confined to his home while awaiting trial. He was equipped with a GPS tracking device. But somehow, the technician from Sentinel, the California-based government contractor, placed it on Green’s prosthetic leg.

Charging documents reveal Green simply removed his prosthetic leg and used a spare, allowing him to leave his apartment at his own will.

This unprecedented incident has frustrated law enforcement too.

“Not putting the device skin to device like they’re supposed to, now we have this young man that goes out and eventually kills someone. What do you say to the family?” Said Russ Mullins, an Executive Shop Steward at the Fraternal Order of Police. Cont. (Video)

Story from - WUSA9

Security Guard Charged With Simple Assault After Physically Removing Transgender Woman From Washroom

Story out of Washington, DC:

D.C. police have charged a security guard at a Giant grocery store with simple assault after a transgender woman said the guard forced her out of the women's restroom.

Ebony Belcher, 32, said she went to the Giant in northeast D.C. with a friend to pick up a delivery from the Western Union.

While at the Giant, she asked a store employee to point her to the restroom and passed a female security officer standing in the hallway.

The officer came into the restroom and told her to get out, according to Belcher.

"She opened the door and came in and started calling me derogatory names," Belcher said.

She said the officer put her hand on her shoulder and arm, grabbed her and pushed her out of the store.

Belcher said the guard told her, "You guys cannot keep coming in here and using our women's restroom. They did not pass the law yet."

She said she called police and reported the incident after she left the store. According to a police report, officers arrested the guard at the Giant after the confrontation. Cont.

Story from - NBC 4 Washington

Man Hijacks Bus, Runs Over And Kills Pedestrian

Story out of Washington, DC:

A man attacked a Metrobus driver with needle-nose pliers Tuesday morning and took control of the bus, D.C. police said. The hijacker then crashed the bus into a gas station parking lot, hitting a man who later died.

Over the course of just three minutes, the hijacker boarded the bus in Northeast D.C., attacked the driver and ran over the pedestrian, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said.

The victim, Anthony Payne, 40, of northwest Washington, was rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead.

Police said the hijacker, Keith Loving, 30, of northeast Washington boarded the bus in the 3800 block of Jay Street in Northeast D.C. about 10:30 a.m. When the bus arrived at its next stop, Loving got up and attacked the driver with the tool, police said. Cont. (Video/Autoplay)

Story from - NBC Washington

Train Derails In Washington DC Spilling Hazardous Material

Story out of Washington, DC:

A CSX freight train derailed near a Metro stop in Washington, D.C., on Sunday morning, sending about 10 cars off the tracks and spilling hazardous material from one of them, officials said.

No injuries were reported and no evacuations were ordered. 

The train derailed Sunday about 6:40 a.m. near the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station and one of the derailed leaked sodium hydroxide, which is used to produce various household products including soap and detergents, CSX spokesperson Kristin Seay said.

Sodium hydroxide, also known as corrosive lye, is a chemical that can irritate and burn the skin and eyes. CSX says it is working with first responders to contain the chemical.

It was not immediately clear what caused the derailment. Crews were inspecting the tracks, which are used by CSX, the MARC commuter rail system and Amtrak, and working to restore service. Photos tweeted by D.C. Fire and Emergency after the derailment showed cars in a zigzag line across the tracks. Cont.

Story from - The Hamilton Spectator
Image from -  Cliff Owen,The Associated Press

Two Men Get Into Physical Confrontation At White House Correspondents Dinner

I have no idea where Larry Wilmore would have got the idea that media is incompetent. 

Two journalists got into an actual brawl at the White House correspondents dinner party, the first and last time coverage of the event will ever involve a discussion of any reporter’s physical prowess.

According to reports, Huffington Post Washington bureau chief Ryan Grim and Fox News’ dedicated ambush guy Jesse Watters were both guests at the MSNBC afterparty when they started fighting like a pair of idiots.

Watters, incredibly, was minding his own business when Grim approached him, camera phone in hand, to demand Watters explain an on-camera ambush of Amanda Terkel. (Terkel describes the confrontation in a 2009 article, “I Was Followed, Harassed and Ambushed By Bill O’Reilly’s Producer.”)

Watters, who really, really doesn’t like being filmed, grabbed the phone and stuck it in his pocket. Then the two grown men started fighting each other. Cont.

Story from - Gawker

Watch Man Break Into Restaurant And Cook Hamburgers

What? No fries? Story out of Washington, D.C.:

D.C. Police are looking for a man who was caught on camera cooking himself a hamburger when a restaurant was closed.

A suspect followed a delivery man into the restaurant and waited until the delivery man left. He then rummaged through the establishment, cooked food and stole bottled water before leaving the restaurant, police said. Cont. (Video)

Story from - WUSA 9
Video from - BBC Urdu - YouTube

Man Who Claims To Be 'Prophet Of God' Shot On Capitol Hill After Pulling Gun On Tourists

Story out of Washington, D.C.

U.S. Capitol Police shot a Tennessee man Monday afternoon after he pulled out what appeared to be a weapon at the Capitol Visitor Center, law enforcement officials said.

A female civilian bystander was injured by shrapnel, but no U.S. Capitol Police officers were injured.

Police said the suspect, Larry Russell Dawson, faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon and assault on a police officer while armed. He underwent surgery and was in stable but critical condition Monday.

Dawson was arrested on a charge of assaulting a police officer in October after an outburst in the chamber of the House of Representatives. Court documents from that 2015 incident describe Dawson as a 66-year-old man from Tennessee. In that incident, the documents state, Dawson "loudly stated to Congress he was a 'prophet of God.' " Cont.

Story from - CNN