Martin Austermuhle
Martin Austermuhle is a reporter in WAMU’s newsroom. He covers politics, development, education, social issues, and crime, among other things. Austermuhle joined the WAMU staff in April 2013 as a web producer and reporter. Prior to that, he served as editor-in-chief for DCist.com. He has written for the Washington City Paper, Washington Diplomat and other publications.
Born in Switzerland, Austermuhle lived throughout Latin America before coming to the U.S. to attend Pennsylvania State University. He received a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University. He lives in the Washington neighborhood of Michigan Park with his wife Carolina, a school teacher, and their two daughters.
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Critics say the U.S. is one of the few industrialized nations not to offer any paid leave for new parents, but now the Washington, D.C., Council is considering a bill that would grant workers in the nation's capital 16 weeks of paid leave — more than anywhere else in the U.S.
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It's now legal to smoke pot in the nation's capital, but you can't do so in public and you still can't buy it legally. Despite the restrictions that are greater than other jurisdictions that have legalized marijuana, many advocates of the voter-approved law say it is symbolic in many other ways.
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Beginning Thursday, residents of Washington, D.C. will be free to smoke marijuana recreationally. D.C.'s new law allows people over 21 to possess, grow and smoke pot, but not sell it.