One of the bills would see the property tax rate jump to five times the normal rate for properties left vacant and dormant.

Council Chair Krystal Oriadha, the lead sponsor of the legislation, said the current system gives property owners little reason to act. Some of the current fines for code violations can be as low as $1,000 a year, which in her words is 鈥渘othing鈥� for the banks that might own the property.

A second bill increases penalties for owners whose vacant properties become run down or blighted.

Oriadha gave two examples of blighted properties in her own district.

In Temple Hills, a former bar has been vacant and boarded up for a decade despite its proximity to a Metro station.

“But they are not motivated to do anything with it to sell it, to renovate it,” Oriadha said.

And across from her own home, she said a fire-damaged, boarded-up house has attracted drug activity for years.

“There’s nothing anyone can do about it,” she said.

The goal of the legislation, Oriadha told 草莓传媒, isn’t to collect more tax revenue. It’s to push owners to sell, renovate, or find tenants for properties that drag down surrounding home values and leave commercial corridors looking neglected.

“Sometimes we understand that we need to have stricter rules, regulations and laws to move the businesses in that way and motivate them to be partners in the community,” Oriadha said.

Another bill seeks to reward county residents who take a picture of code violations and alert the Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement to problems.听They would receive a share of the fines collected by the county on that property.

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Nearly 100 acres of woods and parking lots near the Bowie State MARC station are about to get a dramatic makeover aimed at reshaping Maryland’s oldest historically Black university and the surrounding community.

Area leaders gathered at the train station Tuesday to to remake the county- and state-owned land next door.

“New housing, retail and future commercial development adjacent to the Bowie State MARC station means more affordable places for Marylanders to live and work and more ways to grow the state’s economy,” Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller said.

鈥淏ut the greatest impact won’t be measured in dollars alone,鈥� Miller said. 鈥淚t’ll be measured by what becomes possible. Local economies will grow, communities become more connected, emissions decline, less time is spent stuck in traffic. So that means Marylanders will have more time for family, more time for life.鈥�

The project is split between two parcels. Mosaic Development Partners will lead the redevelopment of nearly five acres of state-owned land west of the MARC station.听

That site alone could support more than 400 new housing units, officials said, and will include space for businesses, generating an estimated $108 million in state and local tax revenue.

D.C.-based developer Gragg Cardona Souadi is leading the build-out of the other parcel, a 93-acre “campus village” between the railroad tracks and Laurel-Bowie Road.

Renderings released by the state show new buildings on the Bowie State campus and significant development on the west side of the train tracks, where a small parking lot and not much else sits now.

鈥淵ou’re going to see a whole new innovative community bringing businesses here, small and larger scale businesses, to partner with our university on research, on keeping our curriculums current,鈥� Bowie State President Aminta Breaux said. 鈥淏ut most importantly, you’re going to see a number of amenities connecting us to the larger community.”

Breaux said she has been pushing for this development since her 2017 arrival. She called the housing component especially critical.

“We hope that it will provide housing for our students, especially for our graduate students who need more apartment-style housing,” Breaux said. “But also, we hope it will serve the community because affordability and housing 鈥� these are issues that we are facing today.”

“This is about investing in our long-term economic future, expanding housing opportunities, creating new jobs, attracting private investment and growing our commercial tax base,” Prince George鈥檚 County Executive Aisha Braveboy said. 鈥淏owie State will be cemented as the epicenter for progress, innovation and economic empowerment.鈥�

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At the Insp墨r on Embassy Row in Northwest D.C., residents of the hotel-turned-senior living apartments get their meals delivered by Ralph, who wears a tuxedo 鈥� sort of.

You see, Ralph is a robot, and the tuxedo is a design on a screen where the torso would be on a human. Four shelves on its back hold food and drinks from the kitchen, which it carries to dining rooms separated by a long hallway.

鈥淚 think it’s cute,鈥� said Joel Hirsch, one of the many residents who have taken to the robot, according Insp墨r staff.

鈥淚t’s actually very helpful, however, because it saves the serving staff a lot of having to go back and forth themselves. So they’re able to take care of the people in the dining room without having to go back and forth to the kitchen,鈥� he said.

Residents named the robot Ralph, but the idea of having the robot server came from chef Richard McCreadie.

鈥淚 actually had gone to a Chinese restaurant and they had a fleet of robots and they were doing exactly the same,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey were picking it up from the expediting station, taking it to the table and let the waiter know that they were there, and the waiters would come and serve it to the table. And I thought it was a great idea.鈥�

That鈥檚 how it works at Insp墨r too.

鈥淚t saves me a lot of running because usually if there’s nobody to spare, I have to run back and forth,鈥� McCreadie said.

Ralph’s “face” is a touch screen with different table numbers. When a cup of coffee or bowl of yogurt is ready to go out, McCreadie or someone else on staff labels the dish and tap the table or room it鈥檚 being delivered to.

The robot begins to play classical music as it rolls down the hallway 鈥� with the occasional 鈥渉ere comes the robot, pretty and smart鈥� coming from the speaker too.

Ralph moves at a little less than half its top speed, but the audio warnings are a necessity.

鈥淲e have residents who may have low vision, and if they hear something coming, they know to move rather than just see the robot,鈥� Insp墨r General Manager Amanda Glendinning said.

When the robot reaches its programmed destination, it announces itself by saying, 鈥淵our delicious meal is here. Please take the dishes on the first tray.鈥�

Once it senses that something has been picked up off its shelf, it begins to go back to the kitchen area, saying 鈥淓njoy your meal. I’m leaving to complete a new task.鈥�

Insp墨r began using the robot last fall. Early into the two-month trial period, the staff realized this was something that would work.

鈥淭he residents just get such a kick out of him,鈥� Glendinning said. 鈥淭hey were the ones who really pushed for us to keep Ralph 鈥� chef did, but also the residents. So that’s where I really saw 鈥極K, let’s keep him. Let’s make it work.鈥欌��

Hirsch said the first time he saw it, he thought it was just like R2-D2. Even a year ago he never would have imagined seeing such a thing.

鈥淓verybody loves the robot,鈥� Hirsch said. 鈥淚t’s cute, but it actually does fulfill a useful function.鈥�

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The agency tasked with overseeing the design and aesthetics of buildings 鈥� a board filled with appointees by President Donald Trump 鈥� is particularly interested in the Commanders鈥� new stadium in part because of its location along East Capitol Street, with renderings showing the U.S. Capitol and Washington Monument both part of the visual backdrop.

The last time the team presented its designs, they were told to make improvements to the entrances along the east and west sides of the stadium.

鈥淲e’re framing the opening for this entry for the thousands of people that are coming into this stadium,鈥� said Lance Evans, of HKS Architects. 鈥淲e are breaking the colonnade at this framed entry and this symbolically aligns with that monumental axis.

鈥淲e’ve also added a series of horizontals replacing the concave arches,鈥� he continued. 鈥淲e did this, one, to signify the strength of the entry at the west end of the monumental axis. We did it in a series of elements up at the top of the roof fascia. We also added a projected balcony that’s tied back into a fantastic space on the inside of the stadium.鈥�

The balcony looked out to the west with a view of the U.S. Capitol straight ahead. The vice chair of the commission, James McCrery, still wasn鈥檛 satisfied.

鈥淚’ll repeat what I said to you last time, is that your building is weakest where it needs to be its strongest,鈥� he said.

鈥淚t doesn’t hold up to your neighbors,鈥� he added, before making clear he didn鈥檛 mean the D.C. Armory or the row houses nearby. 鈥淵our neighbors are the United States Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial.鈥�

McCrery called it 鈥渁lmost great鈥� before encouraging the team to do more to the entrances on each side. He said inspiration might be found from the likes of Soldier Field in Chicago or the stadium known as The Horseshoe where Ohio State University plays football.

鈥淚 think they鈥檙e providing a really thoughtful review,鈥� said Brian Hanlon, who is the project lead for the city. 鈥淭he design of the stadium and the concept is, in their words, it鈥檚 almost great, it鈥檚 almost there.鈥�

The board did manage to give the stadium concept approval, though only for the stadium itself. Hanlon also said the team and the city were looking at ways that the site of the D.C. Armory can be redeveloped after the National Guard vacates that facility.

鈥淚t鈥檚 being looked at now,鈥� said Hanlon. 鈥淚t鈥檚 too early to right now say what it might be but there鈥檚 multiple things that we can consider. I think it just makes the site stronger and more exciting.

鈥淚t鈥檚 opened up new possibilities,鈥� he added.

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The county council unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that doubles the first fine for non-residential property maintenance violations from $1,000 to $2,000. After that, the county can fine a property owner up to $5,000 every day the violation continues. In a month鈥檚 time, the fine could end up reaching six figures.

The new law takes effect at the end of the summer.

District 2 Council member and bill cosponsor Wanika Fisher said she was inspired in part by persistent problems on land owned by utilities and private companies on University Boulevard near Riggs Road in Hyattsville.

“I’ve been dealing with a homeless encampment for years, and it’s really, really difficult. And one of the things that would help us sort of clean up that area is fencing that off,” Fisher said of the University Boulevard property.

Fisher said she also gets complaints about a shopping center in Hyattsville where open green space has become a spot for public drinking and dumping.

“You can’t have people bring actual furniture, drinking and public urination all day right near single family homes,” Fisher said.

She also said the old $1,000 fine gave property owners little incentive to act.

“You have to almost fine, sadly, some of our stakeholders to a point that they’ll actually step up and put their property correctly,” she told 草莓传媒.

“And those two properties are not owned by the county at all. All we can do is fine them into compliance.”

The county’s Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement will need to consistently show up and issue the daily fines for the law to have real impact, she said.

The agency has come under criticism for a number of reasons, including its enforcement efforts, but Fisher said she thinks it will respond to this law.

“When something doesn’t have teeth, it’s hard for people to want to do it because they don’t see the result,” Fisher said. “With this, they will actually see the result.”

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A former Prince George鈥檚 County, Maryland, firefighter who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing four boys in the 1990s, was sentenced Tuesday in an emotional hearing that left a judge angry about the terms of the plea deal.

Under the deal reached with prosecutors, John Inman’s 45-year sentence was suspended, meaning the time he served after his arrest is the only time he would spend behind bars.

John Inman, who spent decades working with the Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Station, pleaded guilty Friday.

During the sentencing hearing, Inman faced forward and never acknowledged the victims who spoke. At the hearing’s conclusion,聽Judge Gladys Weatherspoon said she regretted accepting the plea deal.

After the hearing, Prince George’s County State鈥檚 Attorney Tara Jackson defended the deal, which was agreed to by the victims in the case, though one said this wasn鈥檛 justice.

鈥淎ll of the circumstances in this case are circumstances that the prosecutors had to analyze, and they had to make a decision,鈥� Jackson said. 鈥淚t’s not unusual for victims to have mixed feelings in cases like this, and to not feel like justice was served 鈥� that’s not unusual. But I can tell you that the prosecutors did their very best with the evidence that they had.鈥�

Asked if she thought this was justice, Jackson said it was accountability.

鈥淗e has pled guilty to four charges, to include felony charges,鈥� she said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 been placed on five years supervised probation, and he’s a lifetime sex offender. So I feel like we were able to hold him accountable.鈥�

Two of the four victims, who were abused between 1990 and 1996, addressed the court.

The first ripped a group of retired firefighters, which included a current Maryland state trooper, who were there in support of Inman. He asked, rhetorically, how many more victims there were, and he wasn鈥檛 the only one to suggest there were more than four victims.

鈥淚 hope you see your victims’ faces every night,鈥� he told Inman, who stared straight ahead and never looked at the victim. 鈥淗ell has a special place for you.鈥�

Jackson addressed that matter outside the courthouse.

鈥淚f there are victims,鈥� she said, 鈥淚 want them to come forward and reach out to the police department, and we’ll handle those cases accordingly.鈥�

When Inman鈥檚 lawyer started speaking, reading off statements of praise from a list of people who were inside and outside the courtroom, victims who had already poured out their hearts were left bewildered. When Inman himself refused to say anything, the judge took her turn.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 care at all,鈥� Weatherspoon said. 鈥淚 wish I hadn鈥檛 taken this plea.鈥�

She also warned him that if anything happened to any of the victims, she would assume he had something to do with it.

She then apologized to the victims. She was the only person at Tuesday’s hearing to do so.

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“It’s not easy when it’s either really hot or it’s really rainy, or anything in between, to get kids outdoors, getting them excited about doing non-digital activity,” Dr. Anisha Abraham, chief of adolescent medicine at Children’s National Hospital, said.

But summer is actually a great opportunity to reset your family’s relationship with technology, she said. And that doesn鈥檛 have to mean throwing devices out the window.

鈥淢any young people use screens during the school year because there’s an educational purpose, and then a lot of young people during the summer lose that structure,鈥� Abraham said. 鈥淚t’s really thinking about what are those devices doing right now and how we can be more thoughtful.鈥�

The bigger concern, she said, is what screens are replacing. If they’re crowding out sleep, exercise, sports or face-to-face time with friends, that’s when it becomes a problem.

鈥淭hink of it as a wellness check for your family when it comes to their digital life,鈥� Abraham told 草莓传媒. 鈥淜ids that are on screens a lot could have higher rates of things like depression or anxiety or sleep-related issues.鈥�

Her advice? First, carve out screen-free moments during the day. She suggested it could be easy to make meals or car rides screen-free events.

Second, and especially important, is to keep devices out of bedrooms at night. Abraham said some kids are staying up late during the summer because they’re on their phones at the expense of sleep. Charging the devices outside the bedroom can help.

And if the kids complain, so be it.

鈥淎 little bit of boredom isn’t going to hurt someone,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t does, I think, help in terms of creativity.鈥�

It鈥檚 also a chance for you to engage with your kids. Alternatives like camp-like activities, volunteer work, family game nights or cooking together can fill that space.

And then there’s the part parents might not want to hear 鈥� your kids are watching and emulating what you do.

鈥淚f parents and adults are on their devices, guess what? Kids are more likely, too,鈥� Abraham said. 鈥淲e need to make that change ourselves.鈥�

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Anthropic announced the creation last week of its new Claude Science tool, which aims to help scientists conduct research and experiments faster than before.

The company also said it will be using the tool.

鈥淲e’ve decided to start running some drug programs ourselves,鈥� Eric Kauderer-Abrams, head of life sciences at Anthropic, said.

鈥淲e’ve chosen to do this by running drug programs in the preclinical stage, so the earlier stages of discovery, and choosing indications for neglected disease.”

By neglected, Kauderer-Abrams said he meant diseases considered less attractive targets for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries because drugs to treat them would be less profitable.

A spokesman for Anthropic told 草莓传媒 the company is starting with a small number of early-stage, preclinical drug programs.

鈥淲e have two primary objectives that we’re pursuing,鈥� Kauderer-Abrams said.

鈥淭he first is accelerating scientific discovery as an end in itself, pure pursuit of basic research, and the second is accelerating, alleviating the burden of disease and aging.鈥�

By engaging in the research, Anthropic said the company can assess and evaluate its new Claude Science tool and provide instant feedback about what will work and what won鈥檛 for scientific customers.

鈥淲e’re doing this because we believe, first and foremost, that to build the right models and products and tools that accelerate the whole industry, we need to live it along with all of you,鈥� Kauderer-Abrams said.

He also said Anthropic鈥檚 business classification means it can do things that big drugmakers might not be able to. Because Anthropic is considered a public-benefit company, it鈥檚 able to balance profits with the public good.

鈥淲e are fortunate due to our public benefit mission to be able to go after these neglected diseases that otherwise wouldn’t be addressed,鈥� Kauderer-Abrams said.

The Anthropic spokesman told 草莓传媒 that the company could not yet provide specifics about its research since it was in the early stages.

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David Peterson was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2019 after he sought treatment for a cough that wouldn’t go away.

While he was a smoker, the softball-sized tumor growing in his lung was the result of a gene mutation 鈥� 鈥渢he luck if the draw鈥� is how he described it.

Surgeons removed the cancerous lobe but the cancer came back. He went through chemo and immunotherapy at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. The cancer returned again, more aggressively.

By mid-2023, Peterson had a pulmonary embolism, was on home oxygen and, by his own account, had about two to three months to live. He was fooling himself, he said, but not the cancer.

鈥淚’m going to get through this, no matter what,鈥� Peterson said of his mindset at the time. 鈥淎nd I wasn’t. I was going downhill.”

He was also running out of options.

“I had gone through very end-of-the-line trials, just grasping at straws,” Peterson said.

In a last-ditch effort, he traveled to Chicago in 2023 to undergo a double lung transplant at Northwestern Medicine, the only hospital in the country that performs the procedure on patients like Peterson.

The program Peterson entered is called DREAM 鈥� which stands for Double Lung Transplant Registry Aimed for Lung Limited Malignancies.

Northwestern Medicine performed the first surgery in 2021.

“These patients were so hopeless at the time and they just dreamed for just some extra time,” said Dr. Ankit Bharat, the executive director of Northwestern Medicine鈥檚 Canning Thoracic Institute.

Courtesy Northwestern Medicine

Courtesy Northwestern Medicine

Courtesy Northwestern Medicine

Courtesy Northwestern Medicine

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The concept grew out of Northwestern’s COVID-era work. The hospital was among the first in the country to perform lung transplants on patients whose lungs had been destroyed by the virus.

In those cases, surgeons had to remove severely infected lungs without spreading dangerous bacteria into the bloodstream. Bharat said the lessons learned translated directly to lung cancer cases.

“We thought that for at least a cohort of patients that have disease confined to the lungs, we can carefully take those cancer-ridden lungs out and put new lungs in,” Bharat said.

A puts hard numbers behind that approach. Among the 17 Stage 4 lung cancer patients who qualified for transplant and received one, survival at one year was 100%, Bharat said. Among the 81 patients who met the criteria but did not receive a transplant, the one-year survival rate was roughly 40%.

“There is really no treatment out there that can increase the one-year survival by 60 percentage points,” Bharat said. “There is literally nothing out there in the lung cancer space.”

The study also found transplant outcomes for lung cancer patients were comparable to outcomes for patients who received transplants for other reasons. Bharat said the results put to rest a long-standing concern about whether giving lungs to cancer patients was justified when donor organs are scarce.

Lung transplants聽are among the most complex surgeries performed anywhere, Bharat said, noting only about 3,500 of the operations were performed last year, compared to more than 50,000 kidney transplants.

Transplanted lungs also carry a higher rejection risk, partly because they are the only organs directly exposed to the outside environment courtesy of every breath we take.

Adding to the difficulty for cancer patients is the requirement that they stay in the Chicago area for a year after the surgery so they can be monitored. Insurance approval is also a hurdle.

Peterson got through it all and said it鈥檚 changed his life. He said for 15 years, he found it increasingly difficult to breathe, and assumed it was because he was a smoker.

Now, “I can breathe so incredibly well,” he said. “It sounds funny to say.”

鈥淲hen I inhale, I can inhale. For me, in my head, I’m like amazed how deeply I can inhale, and it feels terrific.鈥�

Since his surgery, Peterson said he has traveled to Australia, gone skiing in Utah, visited Budapest and attended his daughter’s college graduation.

And the advice he offers to others in the same bind as he once was: “Northwestern. Get there as fast as you can,” he said. “Don’t hang out and try to figure out alternatives when you’re so close to imminent death.”

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Emma Harrington, assistant professor of economics and author of the upcoming book “In Person,” studied how the rise of remote work has affected people’s mental well-being.

People in jobs that can be done remotely, such as software engineer or economist, saw much larger increases in mental distress than people in jobs that require in-person contact, such as nursing or mechanical engineering. The difference, she said, tracks closely with rising isolation.

“This rise of remote work has had some mental health costs for people who are most exposed to that increase in the ability to work from home,” Harrington said.

The impact is greatest for people who live alone.

鈥淚f you think about someone who’s living alone and in one of these jobs that can be done remotely,鈥� Harrington said, 鈥渁bout one in four of their days on average they’ll have no contact with another person. No meaningful contact beyond maybe a hello or nod.鈥�

Harrington also said there are real benefits to remote work, including commute savings and extra time with family. Those perks are easy to see when choosing a job, Harrington said, while the slow erosion of workplace connections is harder to anticipate.

A well-structured hybrid schedule, she said, may offer the best of both worlds.

鈥淵ou can get meaningful in-person time with colleagues, but then also have more time to spend with your family,鈥� Harrington said.

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The decision followed nearly an hour of public input and about half an hour of discussion among council members. The moratorium is an extension of previous and similar actions by the council.

Public testimony varied widely, with supporters and opponents of data centers arguing about utility rates, environmental damage, jobs and economic impact.听A coalition of more than two dozen data center supporters, wearing neon green shirts and hats, tried to sway the council with testimony focused on fact and fiction. They left en masse before the hearing ended.

But the real debate happened among the council members. There was talk of reducing the two-year moratorium to a shorter time period, and at one point the council rejected a proposal to hold the resolution for more discussion.

鈥淭here are too many unanswered questions,” council member Wala Blegay said. 鈥淚 did serve on the qualified data center task force, and what I found from it was unanswered questions. How does it impact our water? We don’t know. We don’t have all of the answers.鈥�

Council member Sydney Harrison spoke about the potential benefits to county revenues, but also the trade-offs from the “health, environmental and utility strain perspectives.”

鈥淚 am a proponent of diversifying our tax base,鈥� Harrison said. 鈥淣eighboring jurisdictions with over 200 data centers derive more than 42% of their local tax base from these facilities. I’ve observed the construction of these data centers in close proximity to residential and commercial areas, amongst commerce areas. The long-term impacts of these data centers, particularly over the next two decades, have not been fully vetted or understood yet.鈥�

He said any green light for the construction of new data centers needs to take energy consumption into account. He also said zoning changes that allow for data centers to generate their own energy need to be discussed further, and argued for the creation of a community benefit task force, something other jurisdictions have also started doing.

鈥淚 believe this is part of the negotiation with the data center companies, and I believe the county sets the rules, not the data center companies,鈥� Harrison said.

After it was clear the measure was going to pass, three members of the council abstained from voting.听Council member Tim Adams voted no on the moratorium, primarily because of the two-year length.

As the council moved closer to a vote, council chair Krystal Oriadha said all of that was going to be taken into account in the weeks and months ahead. Council member Shayla Adams-Stafford is working on a bill that would address data centers for good, and the council chair, who is against data centers, said the bills will be heard later this year.

鈥淚f we pass comprehensive legislation, it lifts the moratorium,鈥� Oriadha said. 鈥淭he onus is on us, and the onus is that we can still have that conversation with the community.”

The moratorium is not necessarily a signal that the council won’t allow data centers in the future.

鈥淭o me, it was simple. It makes sense to pause it while we continue to have those conversations, not let it lapse, so projects can move forward that are harmful,” Oriadha said.

She pointed to the data center project proposed for the old Landover Mall site, which the county is trying to stop, as one she considered harmful.

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One bright spot is the reduction in the number of so-called 鈥渉ot cars鈥� 鈥� train cars where the air conditioning isn鈥檛 working and people are packed together and roasting. Steps are being taken to make sure that if it does happen, the problem is quickly solved.

鈥淲e have mechanics riding the system and actively using their temperature guns to check temperature to ensure we’re monitoring reports of hot cars,鈥� said Metro Deputy General Manager Andy Off. 鈥淎nd if you do experience a hot car, certainly we want to hear from you.”

Sometimes you鈥檒l see another Metro workers riding shotgun with the train operators.

鈥淲e do what’s called heat rides, looking for any anomalies in the track,鈥� said Off. Usually in places where the track might turn or be on a hill, those who are familiar with the rails can tell if an issue might be developing.

鈥淭hey are looking for a potential warp in the rail or things of that nature,鈥� said Clarke. 鈥淲ith this type of heat the track expansion can be real, so that’s what they’re looking for, and then we could put a speed restriction in place.鈥�

Slow downs will occur when rail temperatures hit 135 degrees.

鈥淕enerally doesn’t mean there’s necessarily a safety issue,鈥� Clarke added.

鈥淚t could be just a maintenance issue that we鈥檝e got to work on. But it might mean that we got to get people out there that are specialized, and that might mean 鈥� for safety’s sake, we’ll put a speed restriction. It’s safe to run over, but hey, we’re going to reduce the speed to 35 mph in that section just to reduce the force and load and the potential of something going wrong.鈥�

Metro has also started trying another way to keep those track segments a little bit cooler. About 6,000 feet of track throughout the system have been painted white, an idea used in other parts of the world too.

鈥淥ur rails, like most materials, if they’re black, they tend to absorb heat,鈥� Off said. 鈥淚f they’re lighter, they tend to reflect heat. So that same general principle applies in this scenario.

鈥淲e’re giving it a trial run to see if painting the rails white drives down the temperature of the rail during these heat events,鈥� he added.

鈥淓arly indications are positive. We鈥檝e seen about, I believe, six to eight degree drop lower when they are painted white.鈥�

It鈥檚 not to the point where Metro will be painting all of its outdoor tracks white 鈥� the program is still being evaluated, but those 6 to 8 degree differences can still be significant.

鈥淭hat can be the difference between something bad happening and not,鈥� Off said. 鈥淪o we’ll take it.鈥�

While the infrastructure is the biggest concern during a heat wave, that doesn鈥檛 mean passenger safety isn鈥檛 also on the minds at Metro. Medical emergencies happen every day throughout the system, and crews will be ready for it if anyone spends too much time outside.

鈥淲e need people to be hydrated, we need people to be prepared,鈥� Clarke said. 鈥淲e are very concerned and will be watching closely if someone has any medical issues on the system. We鈥檒l closely with D.C. Fire, but when that happens, it can have serious impacts to service, especially if it happens on the train.

鈥淲e have a lot of station staff that are trained in CPR, and some first aid,鈥� he added. 鈥淲e have a lot of police out there. It’s just hot, and we just need people to be prepared, stay in the shade. But we’re also very worried about our employees. We have a lot of employees that are out working, so we’re trying to rotate them and say, hey, every 15-20 minutes, get in, get the air conditioning, drink some water.

鈥淟isten, it’s hot,鈥� Clarke also said. 鈥淚t’s not the end of the world, but just 鈥� some basic common sense here. We’ll keep everyone safe for the next few days.鈥�

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鈥淲e’ll have all hands on deck, like we do every year, including myself and the management team,鈥� Metro General Manager and CEO Randy Clarke said. 鈥淭here should be no lacking of uniformed personnel on the system. What we ask people is, if you see something, say something, and you can again do that directly to any uniformed personnel at Metro, or you could do a text to tip line to police, or you could do live chat with us.鈥�

But even if you don鈥檛 see someone in uniform, Metro also has about 30,000 cameras trained on nearly all corners of the system, be it inside stations or on trains and buses. Some of those were on display at Metro鈥檚 offices in Alexandria, Virginia.

On the fifth floor, Metro鈥檚 Incident Command Center is closely monitoring the bus system on one end and the rail system on the other, both by camera and by radio. They鈥檙e connected to operators and maintenance staff, and everyone else who helps make the system go every day. On the Fourth of July, a representative from D.C. Fire and EMS will also be there in case there鈥檚 a public safety incident of some kind.

鈥淲ithin seconds to minutes, we have all that information flowing between all relevant parties,鈥� Clarke said. 鈥淲e can respond very quickly and with the appropriate kind of resources.鈥�

There’s another Metro Incident Command Center on the floor above where the focus is strictly on the video elements, providing real time coverage of passengers and operators throughout the system.

鈥淲hat that allows is for our video technicians to be able to access different video feeds across all different modes. So that will be trains, buses, our stations,鈥� said Maurice McKinney, deputy chief of patrol operations for Metro Transit Police. 鈥淥ur system has the ability to track individuals, or we can search by clothing or track individuals going through our station and through trains without the ability of facial recognition.鈥�

The Fourth of July celebrations are only the latest in what have been several high security events Metro has had to navigate this year. Work is already underway for more of them in the future, such as the IndyCar race happening next month.

鈥淲e have a lot of resources to keep people safe for this event, and of course, every day out on the system,鈥� Clarke said.

Trains will be running until 2 a.m. July 5, and Clarke was insistent that everyone who wants to ride Metro home will be able to catch a train or a bus.

鈥淛uly Fourth is kind of our annual Super Bowl kind of test here for the region,鈥� Clarke said. 鈥淏ut especially at Metro, when everyone else is kind of happy that the event, kind of, in their mind is over, it really just really ramps up pretty heavily for us.”

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The work will impact far more than the single, cramped Metro station nearby.

During a roundtable discussion with District leaders, Metro General Manager and CEO Randy Clarke laid out the need for improvements to the existing Stadium-Armory Metro stop, and touted a new rapid bus transit line with dedicated lanes.

In tandem, those will be key to getting tens of thousands of people to events at the coming stadium, Clarke said.

鈥淚 absolutely believe the first couple of experiences that people have going to a Commanders game, going to some of the first big events, is going to dictate how people feel about taking transit,鈥� D.C. Council member Charles Allen, who chairs the committee that oversees transportation projects, said. 鈥淪o, we don’t have an option to get it wrong. We have to get it right.鈥�

That’s why Clarke and other District leaders agreed that reaching a memorandum of understanding that lays out the roles, responsibilities and financials of these projects by July 23, the next Metro board meeting, is crucial.

鈥淚 think we’re all working towards that, and pretty optimistic,鈥� Clarke said. 鈥淭hen we鈥檝e got to work really hard on design, we鈥檝e got to work really hard on procurement, we鈥檝e got to work really hard on construction.”

Clarke said the stadium’s ability to attract blockbuster events will depend on the transit agency and its ability to move people in and out of the complex.

鈥淲e’re not going to try to get, hosting the Super Bowl, we’re not going to try to host women’s World Cup, we’re not trying to get Taylor Swift and Beyonc茅 back here. I mean, at the end of the day, Metro is going to be the key to the success. We understand the pressure on us,鈥� he said.

For the Stadium-Armory station, that means renovating the mezzanine and adding elevators to handle the increased demand. Clarke also talked about new street-level infrastructure to help manage the flow inside the station.

鈥淪o it’s very Disney-esque, where people feel like they’re constantly moving without actually going too far, if you know what I mean,鈥� Clarke said. 鈥淭hen we filter them where we need to go. That is a good example of what we need to do at the surface.鈥�

But Metro won鈥檛 rely entirely on its trains. The roundtable also discussed what鈥檚 been dubbed the Gold Line, which would run buses from Union Station to the stadium.

Construction estimates for bus line are in the $75 million range, District Department of Transportation Director Sharon Kershbaum said

The Gold Line is to run through the heart of the H Street corridor, and transportation leaders said the impact will be everything the streetcar was supposed to be.

鈥淭his is now going to be the east-west corridor that we never were able to accomplish on the streetcar,鈥� Kershbaum said.

鈥淭his is going to have frictionless service, because it will be center-running. So all of the issues 鈥� when a car double-parked and it stopped streetcar service 鈥� all of those things, we’ll be immune from. We are going to see the transportation service that was really never ever reached by streetcar achieved with this,鈥� she said.

The vision for the Gold Line goes beyond the handful of weekends when NFL football is played at the stadium, and beyond initial Union Station-stadium route. Transportation officials see the buses eventually traveling between the Benning Road Metro Station and Rosslyn, Virginia.

鈥淲e want the Gold Line to solve the cross-town problem we’ve had in this community for a long, long time,鈥� Clarke said.

That means providing access to the convention center and also solving the gridlock that fills up K Street NW every day. Clarke said coming up with dedicated lanes on K Street would actually be the most pivotal part of this new transit line.

鈥淭he downtown core of D.C. does not move, especially during p.m. rush hour,鈥� Clarke said. 鈥淚f you want people in Benning Road that may work, say on K Street, to have better transportation, solving K Street is equally as important, if not more important, because of time savings and reliability.鈥�

Officials did not specify a timeline for the full expansion, but it would not be completed by 2030.

Where it does run, Gold Line buses would travel in the middle lanes, to avoid what caused problems for the Streetcar, which could grind to a halt when cars would double park. Building out the Gold Line would mean more changes to the way cars move along H Street in Northeast.

鈥淵ou can’t do what you want to do and also keep all the parking,鈥� At-Large Council member Christina Henderson said.

鈥淭here’s intersections where we’re going to have to take turns away at certain intersections, maybe parking in certain places,鈥� Clarke said. 鈥淚n other places parking could be kept, because we’re looking at putting platforms.鈥�

Stadium-related transit construction will run far beyond H Street and the Stadium Armory stop.

鈥淲e do want to minimize outages, but there’s going to be significant outages to do this project,鈥� Clarke said.

鈥淚t’s all about where we can turn trains around and how to manage that,鈥� he added. 鈥淪o if we do an outage to Stadium Armory, what that really means is we’re impacting customers from New Carrollton and Largo all the way through the system, and some people that are west of the system that want to go east of Stadium Armory won’t be able to.鈥�

But with the project not even really in the design phase yet, it鈥檚 hard to plan out how and when those impacts will happen.

鈥淲e’ll be doing obviously overnight work,鈥� Clarke said. 鈥淲e’ll probably do some, what we call, early outs. Sometimes we’ll start at 10 o’clock at night. We might be able to do some single tracking on certain types of work. Other work is going to be complete shutdowns.”

鈥淎nd the question is, is that going to be X amount of weekends or is it going to be like a two-, three-, four-week block at a time,” he added. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got to work through all of that.鈥�

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If a match is tied after 90 minutes, teams play 30 minutes of extra time. If they’re still tied, the match is decided by penalty kicks. Those can be tense and exciting, but if you鈥檙e the one taking the kicks, it should be super easy, right?

Think about it: The soccer goal measures 24 feet wide across and 8 feet high. The ball is shot from 36 feet away, which looks stoppable when you鈥檙e standing on the goal line and don鈥檛 know better. But Maryland Terrapins midfielder Albi Ndrenika, who made the All-Big Ten Second Team last fall, provided a reality check.

鈥淚t’s really you versus you in that moment,鈥� he said while standing in front of a goal at the University of Maryland鈥檚 Ludwig Field. 鈥淭en times out of 10, you should be scoring from that distance, you know? If you hit a good shot, the goalie can’t really do anything about it.鈥�

A well-placed shot gives goalkeepers less than a second to react, often forcing them to guess where the ball is headed. Ndrenika agreed the odds are 鈥渧ery much鈥� in the shooter’s favor.

鈥淚t’s a kick you’ve done thousands of times since you were a kid, as you grow up,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o nothing inherently changes but the pressure around you in the situation, so as long as you don’t let that get to you.鈥�

When a penalty kick misses or a goalkeeper makes a save, Ndrenika said pressure is often the deciding factor.

鈥淵ou start imagining, like, 鈥極h, what if I miss? I’m gonna get clowned, my team’s gonna lose,鈥� this and that,鈥� he said. 鈥淜eeping that thought out of your head, and just saying, ‘You know, I’ve done this kick many times, this is no different.鈥� 鈥� The goalie can dance, the crowd behind can holler and do all that stuff, but you pick your spot out, and you trust in your ability that you hit that spot every time you kick the ball.鈥�

So what does he look for when a player steps up to take a penalty kick?

Body language is key, Ndrenika said. Sometimes, he can tell a player lacks confidence before the shot is even taken.

鈥淎re their shoulders up? Do they look confident? Do they look sure of themselves?鈥� he asked. 鈥淚f their head is down, they’re looking away, they’re kind of not stepping up to the moment. That鈥檚 a big tell that they might not have the confidence.鈥�

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