Latest news with #PaulStrauss
Daily Mail
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
White House silent on deadly tragedy rocking Trump's military parade
The White House was mum Wednesday about the tragic death of a Washington, DC woman who was hit by a truck carrying an M1-Abrams tank that took part in the Army parade President Trump attended Sunday. The truck was part of a convoy transporting military vehicles back to Fort Hood, Texas from the parade, which celebrated the Army's 250th anniversary and fell on Trump's 79th birthday. The woman, identified as Sierra Nichole Smith, 39, died at the intersection of New York Avenue and Bladensburg Road in the city's Northeast quadrant en route to Jessup, Maryland on June 16. Emergency personnel performed lifesaving measures but were unsuccessful. Police who conducted a preliminary investigation said Smith ran into the road and stumbled in front of a truck carrying the 70-ton tank. According to the Metropolitan Police Department she was dragged for several blocks, then got hit by a 2007 Chevy Suburban that was driving behind the truck in the convoy. The drivers were private contractors and not members of the military. No one has been charged with a crime. One local official called it 'just a tragedy.' 'These tanks did not need to be on local streets and consequently they didn't need to be hauled away in a big convoy,' DC's 'shadow senator' Paul Strauss told the Daily Mail. 'In some ways it's a very random accident that could have occurred with another vehicle. But it really begs the question: Why was this necessary to have all this equipment here? We don't know if enough precautions were taken. It's not an everyday occurrence that military hardware takes over the city in the way it did,' he said. He called it an 'unneccssary exercise done for the sole purpose of appeasing the president's ego on his birthday. And it's unfortunate.' 'The details that have been made public are just horrific. She was dragged for blocks. It's horrific for so many reasons,' Strauss said. A Washington Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman said officers responded to 'an adult female, unconscious and not breathing, suffering from life-threatening injuries,' according to local media reports. USA Today, after reviewing an Army document on the incident, reported that an initial police investigation cleared the truck driver and said no military personnel were involved. The tanks were part of a parade costing up to $45 million and consisting of 120 vehicles, 6,000 soldiers, flyovers and a parachute jump. Trump was highly attuned to the parade, touting it beforehand and delivering a short speech at the event while accompanied by first lady Melania Trump. trip to Canada for the G7, and denying the celebration had to do with his birthday.
New York Times
13-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
D.C. families, facing lost jobs and a gutted city budget, beseech Republican lawmakers.
Facing widespread layoffs from the city's biggest employer and what amounts to a billion-dollar budget cut over the next six months, residents of the District of Columbia expressed frustration at a Capitol Hill rally on Thursday morning, declaring themselves denizens of a city under siege. A Republican spending bill to fund the federal government through Sept. 30 would inflict major fiscal pain on the city where much of that government resides. 'This'll just be an absolute economic disaster,' said Paul Strauss, one of the district's nonvoting 'shadow' senators, at a protest in the Senate office building attended by hundreds of defiant district residents. The spending bill, which must pass the Senate by Friday to avoid a federal government shutdown, would essentially strip the district's ability to spend more than $1 billion in revenue it already has on hand. That would include more than $300 million from the city's education system, according to district officials. 'My school would probably go out of business,' said Mateo Roberts, 11. He was one of many students in the district's public schools, which had the day off for parent-teacher conferences, who joined their parents to protest the Republican spending plan. Sitting in the towering atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building, they made signs with crayons and colored markers in an attempt to appeal to senators — none of whom represent them. One read: 'You cut my dad's job and now you want to cut my school,' punctuated by four sad faces. Many of the parents at the protest on Thursday morning have already seen their livelihoods threatened by the Trump administration's government shake-up, which has put thousands of federal employees who live in the city out of work. The current government spending bill could force layoffs at district schools, the Police Department and other critical city agencies, local officials say, compounding the economic troubles incited by the administration's federal work force cuts. Mingo Roberts, Mateo's father, is among those who lost their jobs when Elon Musk's effort to shrink the federal government targeted his employer, the U.S. Agency for International Development, in late January. 'It feels kind of like the city is under siege,' said Mr. Roberts, who has lived in the district for nearly 40 years. Under federal law, Congress has to approve the district's spending. That's usually a routine step. But in their stopgap spending bill, House Republicans treated the city like a federal agency and forced it to keep its spending at 2024 levels, 7 percent below its budget for this year. The move wouldn't save the federal government any money, said Mr. Strauss. It would simply prevent the city from spending its own dollars raised from taxes, fees and 'even the unpopular parking tickets that D.C. may be known for,' he said. Senate Democrats have said they can't support the House measure and have introduced a shorter-term spending bill that wouldn't touch the district's budget. Around 11 a.m., a group of about 10 protesters walked into the office of Senator Steve Daines, Republican of Montana. A staffer asked if any Montana residents were among them, and then directed them to the hallway. 'We are residents of the District of Columbia,' said Miriam Goldstein, a parent of twin 9-year-olds. 'We have no senators, so we are here to talk with you anyway.' Her son, Solomon Wolff, flashed a handmade sign that read, 'I like to play baseball,' and said the spending bill could mean cuts to youth sports. He was also worried about safety: 'There will be less firefighters and police when fires start.' His sister, Diana, pointed out that the money wouldn't be redirected elsewhere if it wasn't spent. 'It's from us,' she said. 'They don't have a right to take it away.'
