Tonight, the ninth season of “The Amazing Race” takes off from the mile-high city of Denver. Our obsession with the show is well-documented, so we wanted to catch up with one of the former contestants to learn about her experience on the race, get the dirt on the other racers that season, and solicit advice for future would-be contestants. Hera McLeod was a contestant during the sixth season of the show. She ran the race…

Too often, the words “Washington, D.C.” and “public schools” are the precursor to another bout of bad press for the District. Not today – for the first time in the contest’s history, a teacher from the District of Columbia has been named Teacher of the Year. The lucky winner is Jason Kamras, 31, math teacher at John Phillip Sousa Middle School. Kamras received his Bachelor’s Degree from Princeton University and his Master’s from Harvard. His…