PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY EDITION
Volume 122 No. 8
SEPTEMBER 28, 2013 - OCTOBER 4, 2013
Black Media Slighted as Spending Power Exceeds $1 Trillion By George E. Curry NNPA Editor-in-Chief
Food Stamp Cuts DMV Poor Bleed By Courtney Jacobs AFRO Staff Writer
A vote in the U.S. House of Representatives Sept. 19 to cut funding for federal food stamps by almost $40 billion a year, or five percent, for the next 10 years has triggered concern among food stamp users and low-income advocates. The House bill would have to clear the Senate, where only light cuts are contemplated, and gain approval from President Obama. But the Senate action on the House scale is
Although annual Black spending is projected to rise from its current $1 trillion to $1.3 trillion by 2017, advertisers allot only 3 percent of their $2.2 billion yearly budget to media aimed at Black audiences, a new Nielsen report has found.
“…advertisers allot only 3 percent of their $2.2 billion yearly budget to media aimed at Black audiences…” The study, “Resilient, Receptive and Relevant: The African-American Consumer 2013 Report,” was released at a news conference Sept. 19 at the Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Weekend by Nielsen and the National Newspaper Continued on A4
A vote to cut funding for federal food stamps by almost $40 billion a year has triggered concern among food stamp users and low-income advocates.
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AP Photo
Andrews AFB Welcomes Troops from Southeast Asia family friend. What the children weren’t told was that their father, Sr. Airman Domingo Pena, was returning home from a deployment in Southeast Asia. The children weren’t the only ones in for a surprise. Pena wasn’t told that his family would be at Andrews to welcome him home. It wasn’t until the bus in which Pena and other returning airmen were riding drove past a hanger on the base that he realized his surprise. “I said, ‘Oh! They
By Byron Scott Special to the AFRO Little Elias Pena and his sisters, Vicky and Anne, were told they were going to Andrews Air Force Base on Sept. 23 to pick up a
INSIDE A4
HistoryMakers Places Black Dignitaries in D.C. Classrooms
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CBC Event Photos
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459th Air Refueling Wing arrives at Andrews AFB and soldiers greet each other
are here!’” Pena said of his children, 9, 7 and 5, respectively. It had been a lonely time for the aircraft mechanic without his children and wife. The moment Pena stepped off that bus, his children dashed into his arms. “It was difficult,” said Pena. “I missed the kids everyday and the wife. It was just difficult to be away for so long.” About 40 members of the 459th Air Refueling Wing were welcomed back home
at a ceremony at the Prince George’s County military facility. Their mission to Southeast Asia, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, was to fly and maintain a fleet of KC-135 Stratotankers, the large aircraft that can refuel other planes and jets in-flight. They were deployed for four months. Aaron Snow, 27, works on the plane’s guidance and control systems. The broad smile on his face Sept. 23 said it all. Continued on A7
Shutdown Devastation Major Capitol Hill Concern By Zenitha Prince AFRO Contributing Writer The extreme partisanship that has plagued Washington, D.C., for the past four years is dragging America to the brink of disaster—again. Republicans and Democrats currently are engaged in high-stakes negotiations over the 2014 budget, and if they don’t agree on how the U.S. will pay its bills over the next week, the federal government will shut down come Dec. 16. With the U.S. economy taking its first tentative steps toward recovery,
a shutdown could be devastating. According to the Congressional Research Service, the last two shutdowns, in late 1995 and early 1996, cost about $1.4 billion. “This is no way to run a government,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). “When you think about the main role the federal government plays in this country—paying for air traffic controllers, water security, overseeing national parks and more—everyone in America will feel it if the government goes into shutdown.”
At issue in this year’s budget talks is the Affordable Care Act, the premier legacy of President Obama’s administration. The fiscal year ends Sept. 30, but a shortterm continuing resolution was passed to maintain funding until Dec. 15. However, House Republicans inserted a provision to defund the health care law and Democrats and the President say that’s just not going to happen. “In the 113th Congress, Republicans choose continuously to ignore the Continued on A4
Photo by Webb Zahn/Wikimedia Commons
Crownsville State Hospital
O’Malley Orders Probe of Alleged Abuses at Crownsville State Hospital Del. Braveboy Supports Investigation into Defunct Facility By Lauren Loricchio Capital News Service
Photo by Vinoth Chandar/Wikimedia Commons
Republicans and Democrats currently are engaged in high-stakes negotiations over the 2014 budget.
At the direction of Gov. Martin O’Malley, the Maryland Department of Mental Health and Hygiene announced recently at a Legislative Black Caucus hearing that it will assign a work group to investigate decades of abuse endured by African American patients at the Crownsville State Hospital. O’Malley issued a letter requesting the investigation stating his decision to create a workgroup headed by an academic researcher. Citizens and civil rights activists spoke of a long history of mistreatment of Crownsville patients due to overcrowding, underfunding, and inadequate staffing. The hospital, which was founded in 1911 as the Hospital for the Negro Insane and run by the Maryland Department of Mental Health and Hygiene, closed in 2004. Paul Lurz, a former social worker who worked at the hospital for 40 years, said complaints about poor funding were
Copyright © 2013 by the Afro-American Company
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