District of Columbia

DC’s Attorney General Race: A Serious Impact on District Youth

HUFFINGTON POST 11/03/14 By Michael Shank and Erica Marshall On November 4 the voters in the District will turn out to choose our City’s next mayor. On the same ballot, after casting a vote for David Catania, Muriel Bowser or Carol Schwartz, voters will be asked to choose between five […]

Why D.C. Should Take Youth Court Program Off Life Support

WASHINGTON POST 05/14/14 By Michael Shank The Youth Court of the District of Columbia, one of the only organizations dealing with juvenile delinquency in Washington, is currently on life support, writes Michael Shank, associate director of legislative affairs for the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Here’s his post about why […]

Saving District of Columbia’s Youth Court

CDN 02/12/14 By Michael Shank and Erica Marshall WASHINGTON, February 12, 2014 —This April, when the District of Columbia begins its public debate over the draft budget for fiscal year 2015, there is an opportunity to give many of the District’s youth a second chance on life – literally.  All […]

Minimum Wage War Reaches Tipping Point

WASHINGTON TIMES 12/09/13 By Michael Shank and Ed Lazere WASHINGTON, December 9, 2013 —As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pushes for a national minimum wage increase this Congressional session – and as the Seattle area suburb of SeaTac, Washington passes the highest minimum wage in the country last week at […]

Why NFL’s Washington Redskins Needs Renaming

WASHINGTON TIMES 11/05/13 By Michael Shank WASHINGTON, November 5, 2013 —  The escalating conflict between the Washington Redskins football franchise, its owners and fans, and the growing community of concerned citizens, tribal leaders and District of Columbia City Councilmembers who want the football team to change its name is reaching […]

DC Defunds Youth Courts, Pushes Kids Into Criminal Justice System

HUFFINGTON POST 10/21/13 By Michael Shank A damning report, released this week by Opportunity Nation, says that 6 million young people – or 15 percent of American youth — are neither in school nor working. This shocking statistic has particular importance for Washington, D.C. This coming fiscal year, which began […]

Adopting a Better Approach for Foster System Youth

ROLL CALL 08/30/13 By Michael Shank and John Fair Something happened on the Hill recently that was pretty unusual for a congressional fair. Fifteen congressional interns presented policy recommendations to a packed room in the Capitol Visitor Center. Even Sens. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Rep. […]

Advertising Against Muslims? Not With My Tax Dollars

WASHINGTON POST 08/02/13 By Michael Shank That the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or any other entity for that matter, thinks we can defeat terrorism through an advertising campaign has no clue about how to undermine extremism, let alone prevent, manage, or transform violence. Yet, the FBI took out bus ads […]

Doing Away With Food Deserts in the District

WASHINGTON POST 05/17/13 By Michael Shank It’s hard to believe that so many in America — over 50 million people — live in food insecurity.  This is the unfortunate reality all too common in Somalia or Pakistan, but America? What’s worse is that this food insecurity is most apparent in […]