House Passes Bill to Make DC a State

The House of Representatives passed a bill Friday that would make Washington, D.C., a state amid increasing congressional support for the nation’s capital to be granted statehood.

The “Washington, D.C. Admission Act,” which had 227 Democratic cosponsors, was originally introduced by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s nonvoting at-large representative in Congress, in October of last year. It passed Friday 232-180 without any Republican support.

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More Active-Duty Troops Leaving D.C., Others Remain on Alert

Nearly 500 of the active-duty troops brought in to help if needed with the civil unrest in the nation’s capitol have been given orders to leave Washington after a fourth day of largely peaceful protests, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and other officials said Friday.

But a number of other active-duty soldiers remain on alert in the region, prepared to respond if needed.

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American Inventor Series: Benjamin Banneker, a Black Tobacco Farmer Who Surveyed the Nation’s Capital

Benjamin Banneker was much more than just an inventor. As a mathematician, astronomer, landowning farmer, writer, and surveyor, Banneker was one of the most influential African Americans alive during America’s infancy.

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