— Metro may raise fares ten cents on buses and trains this spring to help balance its budget.  Other options include cutting service, which may mean half-hour waits for trains on weekends.  Right now, the agency faces a $40 million budget gap.  Click here for a WAMU audio clip that explains what’s going on.

— Fairfax County schools are about to undergo a round of deep spending cuts as they face historic revenue shortfalls.  The superintendent has “proposed a $2.3 billion budget that would increase class sizes, gut summer school, and eliminate freshman sports and foreign language instruction for elementary students.”  You can read the details of the proposed cuts by clicking here.

— According to the Washington Post other local school systems are also facing cutbacks.  $22 million has been cut from D.C. Schools’ budget.  Prince George’s County school officials are mulling a plan that would cut hundreds of jobs and increase class sizes.  Montgomery County faces similar changes.

— The Labor Department announced earlier today that 85,000 jobs were lost last month, although unemployment rate remained at 10%.  The number of lost jobs was higher than expected, “tempering hopes of a swift and sustained recovery from the Great Recession.”  Click here for more.

Got an opinion or a suggestion?  Leave your comment below or join the conversation at Facebook: www.Facebook.com/TheWomensFoundation!

Photo from Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

— If you live or shop in the District, you’ve probably already had to shell out a few nickels to buy bags since the five cent bag fee went into effect on January 1st.  However, there are still some opportunities to get free bags.  Through today, Giant will be providing customers with free resuable bags.  Through the end of the month Harris Teeter will give you a free reusable bag if you use your VIC card and spend $20.  Safeway is distributing about 10,000 resuable bags through nonprofits.  Target will give you five cents if you bring your own bag.  And CVS pharmacies are also giving away reusable bags.

— Jill Biden stopped by Banneker Senior High School this week to promote the new shorter, more user friendly version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.  More high school seniors are being encouraged to fill out the FAFSA because of the economy.  Click here to read more.

— The New York Times is reporting that the South has become the first region in the country where more than half the students in public schools are poor and more than half are minorities.  The article, based on a study by the Southern Education Foundation, says the statistics are due to an influx of ethnic groups, the return of blacks to the South, and higher birth rates among black and Latino families.  In 2008, 53% of Maryland students and 43% of Virginia students were minorities.  Click here to read more.

— Less than 25% of women say they are “very well prepared” to handle their finances.  Financial guru Suze Orman tackles the issue with this easy money to-do list.  How prepared are you to manage your finances?

There’s a saying that “everything’s better in Texas.”  I’ve never been, so I don’t know about everything, but I do know that the Dallas Police Department has a new way of dealing with prostitution that every other law enforcement agency in the country should take a look at.

Rather than nabbing prostitutes and throwing them in jail (while their customers go free), the police in Dallas treat prostitutes as the victims of sex crimes, recognizing that sex work is either about survival or supporting an addiction, and offering them a chance to get counseling and rehab.

Once a month, the police run the Prostitution Diversion Initiative near a group of truck stops in an area that is called the national epicenter of syphilis.  It’s estimated that more than 1,300 women work as prostitutes in the immediate vicinity.  More than half have children and almost all of them abuse drugs.  If these women are arrested by police, they’re taken to a mobile command center where they are interviewed by officers.  They also speak with social service workers and are offered STD testing and medical care.  After that, they’re taken to a mobile courtroom where a judge gives them the option of going to jail or entering rehab.  If they choose rehab, after 45 days of inpatient counseling, they get assistance for childcare, housing, and education.

The program has only had moderate success so far – of nearly 400 women who have been offered the option of rehab, only half have chosen to get clean.  21 have been able to stay clean and turn their lives around.  But the Dallas police also see the long term benefits.  They say the women are beginning to trust them and have given them several leads on unsolved murders.  The women also tip them off when pimps are running underage prostitutes.

Dallas’s model doesn’t seem completely perfect – their innovative program is only used once a month, and direct evidence of success is minimal – but they’re doing a lot more than most police departments.  In the Washington metropolitan area, prostitutes are arrested, fined hundreds of dollars, possibly jailed, and often go right back to what they were doing.  There are a number of programs and organizations in our area that can help women deal with the issues that led them to sex work, so why don’t we connect the dots?  Law enforcement could be a better bridge between those who need help, and those who can provide help.

A handful of other cities have expressed interest in the Dallas model, and I think we should encourage agencies around the country to consider changing their tactics, too.  It seems like everyone benefits: officers develop relationships with people who know what’s happening on the street, STD testing and education benefit the public as a whole, and the women have an opportunity to change their lives.

Do you think the Dallas model sounds doable?  Are there any similar programs you’ve heard of or worked with in the D.C. metro area?

To read more about the Dallas Police Department’s Prostitution Diversion Initiative and watch a video about it click here.

— The D.C. region’s unemployment level dipped slightly in November from 6.2 percent to 6.1 percent.  For more details, including how our area compares with others, click here.  And click here to read what The Women’s Foundation’s Program Officer Gwen Rubinstein thinks should be done to ensure economic justice for women in 2010.

— The D.C. Council has unanimously passed a Safe Haven Law that gives the parents of newborns 7 days to leave an infant at a “safe haven” location.  A temporary version of the bill was passed last year, after authorities tried to prosecute an 18-year-old who dropped her newborn off at a hospital.  The bill goes through one more vote later this month.  Click here to listen to this story on WAMU.

— According to a blog post on Change.org, women will become 50% of the U.S. workforce this year.  Yet, they’re still finding themselves stuck below a glass ceiling.  The blog questions the veracity of some articles in the Economist that blame motherhood for the limitations.  You can read more by clicking here.

Photo: Jahi Chikwendiu/the Washington Post

— Students at an all-girls school in Montgomery County are getting hands-on experience in the male-dominated field of engineering.  Teachers at Holton-Arms School in Bethesda hope the course will make girls’ interest in the field last longer.  Click here to read more.

— As temperatures remain low this week, many organizations across the region are working to make sure the homeless are able to get in out of the cold.  This WAMU story features some of the hypothermia shelters that help the DC area’s 12,000 homeless.

— The D.C. City Council is having its first meeting of 2010 today.  There are two interesting items on the agenda.  Up for a final reading and final vote is a temporary bill that would keep the mayor from making grants of more than $1 million from general funds.  You can read more about the bill by clicking here.  Also on the agenda is a proposal to have a first reading of the Newborn Safe Haven Act of 2009, which allows a parent to drop off an infant less than seven days old at a hospital, police or fire station, or emergency medical facility.  You can read the details of the bill by clicking here.  If this bill sounds familiar, it’s because an emergency version of the legislation was passed in 2009.

— Why do gropers grope?  The Sexist blog on the Washington City Paper site is investigating to find out why some men (and women!) fondle strangers.  There are some interesting comments so far from gropers and victims.  You can read them by clicking here — but beware, some of the language is strong!

Got a comment or news tip?  Post below, or join the conversation on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TheWomensFoundation

— What can we do to help the District’s at-risk children?  Children’s Law Center’s Judith Sandalow calls for the city to make room in the budget to protect its most vulnerable residents.  She also asks for all of us to take action.  You can listen to her WAMU commentary by clicking here.

— FAIR Fund, one of our Grantee Partners, was recently featured on ABC7 in a story about battling sex trafficking.  You can watch the story by clicking here.

— A Maryland man has pleaded guilty to taking four underage girls across state lines for prostitution.  Police say the man met the girls on the streets of Washington and Maryland.  He faces up to 20 years in prison.  You can read more about this story by clicking here.

— The Washington Post is previewing the book Notes From the Cracked Ceiling: Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin and What It Will Take for a Woman to Win.  The book takes a look at the 2008 election along with the careers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.  Click here to read more about Anne E. Kornblut’s book.

— A Pentagon-appointed task force has released a report that criticizes the military’s efforts to prevent sexual abuse.  The report points out that deployment involves “unique stresses” that may make victims reluctant to report abuse, or that allow predators to believe that they won’t be held accountable for misconduct.  Click here to read more.

— A Washington Post writer took some kudos and criticsm from readers after a story about how working moms handle child care.  Click here to find out why some readers were so upset.

— Earlier today the Senate voted “to reinvent the nation’s health care system, passing a bill to guarantee access to health insurance for tens of millions of Americans and to rein in health costs as proposed by President Obama.”  Click here to read more about the vote.

— The District’s largest needle exchange program is running out of funds.  At times, Prevention Works has been unable to provide its clients with new, clean needles.  This Washington Post article details how the cash flow problem has been “simmering” for awhile now.

— After a D.C. street proves impassable even for snow plows, a city employee arrives with a Christmas tree and gifts for a snowbound family.  The Washington Post has more on the “random act of kindness” here.

— To perform your own act of kindness, or give a last-minute gift, please make an end of year donation to Washington Area Women’s Foundation.  Click here to change the lives of women and girls in our community.

— Parents consider cutbacks but still feel compelled to fill kids’ stockings.  Read about their choices by clicking here.

— Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says job growth should resume by springtime.  Click here to watch his latest interview.

— President Obama visited a Boys & Girls Club in Northeast D.C., where he was schooled on what kids really want for Christmas (for many, iPods and video games are more desirable than bikes). Click here to read more.

Please feel free to comment below, or join the conversation on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TheWomensFoundation.

Well, the final countdown is here!  We’re way past 12 days ’til Christmas (although there’s still a little time left until Kwanzaa) and, if you’re like me, that “monster snowstorm” we just had put you way behind in the gift-gathering process.  If you’re still looking for the perfect gift, I have a suggestion: contribute to Washington Area Women’s Foundation on behalf of someone on your gift list.  No book, or sweater, or fruitcake, or gift card could possibly be better than giving someone the knowledge that they inspired you to make a donation on their behalf.  Your gift will let that person know that she/he is the reason that someone’s life will change in the New Year.  Just click here to get started and be sure to fill out the “tribute name” field.

Your donation could help a woman buy a home for her family with a little help from Capital Area Asset Builders.  It could help Interstages give middle school girls the support and the confidence they need to become outstanding women.  Your donation could go to an organization like Vehicles for Change, which helps families get cars so they can go to work and school and doctor’s appointments.  That donation could make sure A Wider Circle continues to provide the “health, hope, and human connection” that gets a homeless woman and her children out of a shelter, and furnishes their home with beds and a crib.

A donation to Washington Area Women’s Foundation is not the kind of gift that is available at the mall, or that is wrapped up and placed under a tree.  But it is the type of gift that embodies the spirit of the holidays and gets us all a little closer to peace on earth.

We realize this is a difficult year for some people to make donations, no matter how badly they might want to.  That’s why we’re also offering you the opportunity to tell someone how much she means to you and educate her about what The Women’s Foundation does.  Based on our Be That Woman video, our free holiday eCards are a way for you to show your appreciation to someone who has been an inspiration in your life.  And by bringing someone new into The Women’s Foundation family, you might inspire her to learn more about what we do and how she can help.

Please click here to make a donation.

Click here to send holiday eCards.