Karl Racine is leading a pack of 18 attorneys general who has filed a federal brief saying the law is unconstitutional.

They also contend that the Florida Act is causing, by example, significant harm to students, parents and teachers in other states.

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The Act was designed to protect children and preserve parental choice around the teaching of LGBTQ+ issues.

It outlaws 鈥渃lassroom instruction鈥� on those issues through the 3rd grade.

A group of students, parents, teachers and organizations are challenging the Act in federal district court. They say it violates the Equal Protection Clause and the First Amendment.

鈥淢y office has a strong track record of fighting for LGBTQ+ rights in the District and across the country to make sure that everyone can simply be who they are and love who they love,鈥� Racine said. 鈥淔lorida鈥檚 law offers no benefit to anyone and in fact puts children and families in harm鈥檚 way. We will continue to use all of our authority to help strike down this law and any other hateful, discriminatory policies that threaten people鈥檚 fundamental freedoms.鈥�

The law requires that the state education agency write new classroom instructions for standards that must be followed by Grades 4 through 12, but the law does not define many of its key terms, like 鈥渃lassroom instruction,鈥� so, Racine said in a statement, that Florida teachers are already 鈥渃ensoring themselves out of fear of the law.鈥�

Racine said in a statement that the law is 鈥渃ausing significant harms to students, parents, teachers, and other states鈥� and that 鈥渘on-inclusive educational environments have severe negative health impacts on LGBTQ+ students, resulting in increased rates of mental health disorders and suicide attempts.鈥�

Racine is leading the amicus brief with New Jersey AG Matthew J. Platkin, according to a release. They are joined by Attorneys General from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington.

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The most recent was Tuesday, when a at the jail’s infirmary.

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Sheriff Beth Arthur said the man, Paul Thompson, should not have been there, pointing out he had no criminal history.

But she admits he did suffer from mental illness like most of the county’s inmates. As the head of law enforcement for the area, Arthur said she wants to know why so many of them are there.

Of the 280 current inmates, some 170 have mental health challenges; 66 of them are serious. Even the longtime sheriff wants to know why the county is “dumping these people in jail when they need serious care.”

Arlington’s chief public defender is exasperated. Brad Haywood said everyone knew Thompson had serious mental illness, but he was arrested for trespassing anyway. Haywood said Thompson wasn’t hurting anyone, damaging property or causing any acts of violence. But he was still “put in a cage.”

鈥淭he system is so broken鈥� that the jail has become Arlington鈥檚 mental health hospital, said Arthur, who鈥檚 been on the job for 21 years.

Haywood agrees and takes it a step further, saying Arlington has “a disproportionate number of people with mental illness who are involved in the local criminal justice system.”

Arthur points to the lack of resources and space for those who need substance abuse and mental health treatment.

At the Virginia Hospital Center, she said that people sometimes have exceptionally long waits in the emergency room because there are no beds for mental health. That’s one reason they become inmates.

But Julius Spain with the Arlington NAACP said there is another layer. There is an overwhelming number of Black and brown inmates, and six of the seven who have died in the jail over the last seven years were also people of color.

Haywood wonders whether the police and the community鈥檚 wealthy urban profile have something to do with it. Spain is looking for something more concrete; he is talking to the FBI and thinks it may warrant a federal investigation because 鈥渢his pattern of people dying鈥� in the jail has to stop.

“When is enough, enough?” Spain said. He hopes the FBI will take a look at the facts and the culture, which he says needs to change.

Spain said the “sheer number of dead” should cause alarm on its own.

There’s “a total lack of oversight and accountability” from leadership, Spain said.

Arthur pushed back, saying her staff is diligent about checking on inmates twice an hour and checking on infirmary patients every 15 minutes. She also pledges to follow through if an investigation finds otherwise.

Corizon was the county’s last health contractor and it ran the infirmary for more than 15 years, which included six inmates deaths.

In October 2020, an inmate named Darryl Becton died. A year later, a former Corizon with falsifying records linked to his death.

Public defender Haywood is deeply troubled by that and thinks most health contractors at jails aren’t up to the job. Especially in a place such as the Arlington jail, where mental health needs are paramount. When it comes to the infirmary, Haywood thinks the county should run it, not a contractor.

Thompson’s death on Tuesday happened under a different contractor, which has聽been running the infirmary since mid-November. The county made the change after terminating聽it’s contract with Corizon several years early.

The new contractor, , inked a contract with the county on Wednesday, the day after Thompson’s death.

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But on Wednesday, a short, auburn-colored suspect strutted onto the Pentagon Reservation in Arlington, Virginia, catching the police off guard. They were so surprised by the breach, they made a call for help.

“The whole thing was definitely not a normal occurrence,” said Chelsea Jones, spokesperson for the .

Yes, Pentagon Police called the welfare league for backup because the squat, clucking intruder was a hen. Jones said they were as amazed as the police. She laughed while explaining that the animal shelter doesn’t normally make chicken rescues at a high-security government building.

The league made an exception but don’t ask Jones where the rescue happened. She’s not allowed to say “for actual security reasons.”

After the rescue, Jones did her job, and creating a viral sensation by asking for possible chicken names. The winning submission was Henny Penny.

Our officers have chosen the name Henny Penny for our , and she will be going to live at a local animal sanctuary very soon!

鈥� AWLArlington, VA (@AWLAArlington)

That stroke of social media brilliance was followed by even more exposure as “The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon wrote a song for the bold bird. It began with the lyrics “Are you just a clucker or an undercover spy?” We do not expect the Pentagon to answer.

Tiny Song: 鈥淐hicken at the Pentagon鈥�

鈥� The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight)

With all the attention, Henny Penny has become a superstar. She’s been in papers from the U.S. to the U.K. She’s been a late-night sensation. And now that’s already raised more than $1,000 for the Animal Welfare League.

“It’s great to see people supporting our little chicken and telling the story about animal welfare and rescue,” Jones said.

Henny Penny has a promising future after that Pentagon escapade. Another worker at the league is taking the chicken to her Virginia farm 鈥� where she can freely strut without breaching security.

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Today the Washington Football Team 鈥� previously known by a wildly offensive name 鈥� became “The Commanders.”

Crystal Echo Hawk calls it “a win against racism.”

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• Read More: History of WFT controversy 鈥� What鈥檚 in a name?

Echo Hawk is the founder of dedicated to changing the country’s deeply ingrained views of Native Nations and Native Americans.

This change “a first step,” she said, because there is so much damage to correct and so much healing to be done.

Brandon Yellowbird Stevens agrees. He said he believes the continents’ Indigenous people are victimized by a narrow and belittling view of their lives and history when many Native communities are thriving and successful. He and Echo Hawk want to celebrate those positive images instead of perpetuating聽the negative ones.

Yellowbird Stevens explains that some people’s view of Native Americans is “stuck in a moment of time,” like back when the West was one.

He says the era of John Wayne movies always painted the cowboys and settlers as good guys 鈥� and his people as bad. Even today, he said he thinks many Americans don’t understand what really happened as Manifest Destiny displaced and killed so many of his ancestors.

The Oneida Nation man and Crystal Echo Hawk believe this name change is just one act to address hundreds of years disrespect and inequities. And even though the fight for it started in the 1960s, Yellowbird Stevens says it was seriously jump-started by the Black Lives Matter movement.

Echo Hawk calls it “a new chapter” too. But she wants the football team to work on repairing “the harm that it perpetuated by having ” for a name. And she also wants it to recognize “the harm it caused to Native Americans for such a long time.”

Yellowbird Stevens was on the committee to choose the new name. And yet he says it won’t mean much without follow through. That starts with education.

He says if we change the school systems and what they teach, “we will have students who will be voters” and who’ll be part of school boards and legislatures.

And if they’ve learned the honest history, Yellowbird Stevens said they’ll understand that “marginalizing native communities into one stereotypical sports image” doesn’t do Native American communities justice.

However, as far as he’s concerned, sports leagues like the NFL and MLB still have a long way to go with improving the image of Native Americans because of the use of names like the Kansas City Chiefs and the Atlanta Braves.

In Yellowbird Stevens’ opinion, those names enable schools across the country with racist mascots or logos to keep them because those leagues continue to embrace them.

Echo Hawk hopes the Washington Commanders will build on this first step. She says it now has the “opportunity to really share its story and help eliminate all Native American mascots in sports.”

She also said the team should give a public apology about the because saying you’re sorry behind closed doors isn’t the same as saying it in front of the public.

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Under Pittman鈥檚 proposal, a pool of public money would be set aside for candidates who meet certain criteria. They would have to limit the size of contributions and encourage community engagement by cultivating small donors instead of big ones.

Candidates would have to opt in, and would have to prove a certain amount of community support to get money from the public finance system.

Pittman said it was the best way to ensure that candidates and officeholders are beholden to their constituents instead of deep-pocketed donors, and 鈥渕akes it possible for the regular, everyday person to engage residents and run for office.鈥�

A number Maryland counties, including Montgomery, Prince George’s and Howard, have resolutions in place, or are pursuing them.

Pittman said the idea is gaining popularity even among those who didn’t like it: 鈥淚n Howard County right now we have a former county executive running using the public finance option who actually opposed it when it was proposed.鈥�

There鈥檚 already a public finance option for Maryland’s top job; Gov. Larry Hogan used it in his own campaign.

Pittman said he was confident the issue draws bipartisan support: 鈥淭here’s broad consensus among both political parties in this state that having a public finance option makes our democracy work better.鈥�

The council votes on the resolution Monday. If five of the seven members agree with Pittman, the proposal will make the November ballot.

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WASHINGTON — Montgomery Blair High School’s winning “It’s Academic” quiz championship team were recognized at Nationals Park on Sunday.

“It’s Academic” host and 草莓传媒 anchor Hillary Howard joined winning team members, Montgomery Blair Principal Renay Johnson, and — of course — Screech on the field to be recognized by the Nationals and NBC Washington.

The Guinness World Book of Records lists “It’s Academic” as the longest running TV quiz show in the world, having premiered in 1961.

Its 58th season is set to start this fall.

Courtesy Jimmy Johnson

Courtesy Jimmy Johnson

草莓传媒/Hillary Howard

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