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Democrats amplified their complaints Thursday morning ahead of an afternoon congressional hearing on a bill that would ban all abortions in the District after 20 weeks.

Rep. Trent Franks’ (R-Ariz.) bill, the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, would prohibit all D.C. abortions beyond 20 weeks, based on the much-debated idea that fetuses beyond that point are capable of feeling pain. The measure will be the subject of a 4 p.m. hearing before the House Judiciary subcommittee on the
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) speaks at a hearing by the House Committee on Oversight and Government D.C. subcommittee on the District's fiscal 2012 budget. (Sarah L. Voisin - THE WASHINGTON POST) Constitution, which Franks chairs.

District leaders are fiercely opposed to the measure, and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) has complained that she asked to testify at the hearing and was rejected. Norton and D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray will further emphasize their opposition to the bill at a 2:30 p.m. press conference outside the Capitol.

The District will get $70,349 of the record $45 million that Skechers is paying to settle charges that its line of toning shoes were hyped with unsubstantiated health-related claims, including weight loss and toning muscles.

The city was included in the class-action lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission and 43 states against Skechers, which denied the wrongdoing but agreed to settle.

D.C. residents bought about $2 million worth of the shoes and will get about $80,000 in restitution from the settlement, according to the city attorney general’s office.

Neighboring Virginia will get $115,000 from the settlement.

Consumers of the Shape-Ups, Tone-Ups or Skechers Resistance Runner can get information about filing a claim for a partial refund at www.ftc.gov/skechers.

Mayor Vincent C. Gray announced Wednesday that 3,000 District residents have now found jobs through the One City One Hire program, an aggressive effort to put 10,000 unemployed residents back to work in a year’s time.

Gray (D) used his biweekly news conference to give an update on the program that launched in September 2011 and is modeled after a similar initiative in Atlanta.

The District Department of Employment Services program matches unemployed residents with jobs available, mostly in the private sector. The city lures employers with tax credits, wage subsidies and money for on-the-job training. When the program began last year, 15 businesses signed up. Gray said the city now has 655 employer participants.

Mayor Vincent C. Gray is heading for a final showdown Tuesday with D.C. Council member David A. Catania over city funding for a health insurance program that pays for hospital care for thousands of undocumented immigrants.

When he unveiled his fiscal 2013 budget this spring, Gray (D) proposed a $20 million cut to the D.C. Healthcare Alliance, which insures an estimated 19,000 residents, the vast majority of whom are undocumented immigrants.

But Catania (I-At Large), the chairman of council’s Health Committee, is fighting to restore the money. When he marked up the Health Committee budget this month, Catania found $20 million in savings from Medicaid and other health programs to restore the funding.

Whether you’re a frustrated motorist, resident or business owner, you may soon get a chance to sound off about the future of how much, and at what cost, parking is available in the increasingly dense District.

D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) said Monday she plans to convene a round table meeting or summit this summer to gather feedback on how policy makers should address the growing debate over parking.

Parking meters in the District. (Michael Williamson) As part of Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal, the council is expected to give the Department of Transportation greater flexibility to implement so-called performance parking in certain neighborhoods. Modeled after similar initiatives in Capitol Hill and Columbia Heights, the program authorizes the Department of Transportation to increase meter rates to force more rapid turnover of vehicles in metered spaces.

The goal of the program is to ensure that no more than 85 percent of spaces in a targeted area remain occupied at a given time.

But Cheh, chairwoman of the Committee on Environment, Public Works and Transportation, said the city also needs a broader conversation about the city’s uneasy relationship with cars and trucks.