Prince Georges Afro American Newspaper May 30 2015

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16, 2015 - May 16, 2015, The Washington/PG Afro-American A1 PRINCEMayGEORGE’S COUNTY EDITION

Volume 123 No. 43

MAY 30, 2015 - JUNE 5, 2015

Cleveland, U.S. Justice Department MGM National Harbor Supports Announce Police Settlement Black Businesses

By Mark Gillispie Associated Press

CLEVELAND (AP) — Cleveland agreed to sweeping changes in how its police officers use force, treat the community and deal with the mentally ill, under a settlement announced Tuesday with the federal government that will put the 1,500-member department under an independent monitor. The settlement was made public three days after a white Cleveland patrolman was acquitted of manslaughter for his role in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire that left two unarmed black suspects dead in a car in 2012. Mayor Frank Jackson said the ambitious plan that was worked out over five months of negotiations with the U.S. Justice Department will be expensive and will take years to put in place. But he said he sees it as a chance to set an example for other cities. The proposed reforms come amid tension around the U.S. over a string of cases in which blacks died at the hands of police. “As we move forward, it is my strong belief that as other cities across this

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By Melanie R. Duncan Special to The AFRO MGM National Harbor casino and resort, currently under construction in Prince George’s County, Maryland, has surpassed its goal of employing minority participation. “It isn’t something were just doing because we decided to open a property in Prince George’s County,” said Logan Gaskill, vice president of Human Resources at MGM National Harbor, told AFRO. “This is one of our core values... We take it very seriously, our relationship with the community here in Prince George’s County and making sure we bring just a world class resort to this area and were excited to do it.” Currently, MGM is surpassing some of the mandated minority business participation goals established in a Community Benefits Agreement. According to a press release, there was 31 percent of Minority Business Enterprise participation, including a local and minority businesses in the Continued on A4

Baltimore Recovers Marches To Address Rising Violence In Baltimore

AP Photo

Protesters stand outside the courthouse after the Michael Brelo verdict May 23, 2015, in Cleveland. Brelo, a police officer charged in the shooting deaths of two unarmed suspects, Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. country address and look at their police issues in their communities, they will be able to say, ‘Let’s look at Cleveland because Cleveland has done it right,’” Jackson said. In December, after an 18-month investigation prompted in part by the

2012 shooting, the Justice Department issued a scathing report accusing Cleveland police of a pattern of excessive force and other abuses. The settlement is an expansive list of items aimed at easing tensions between the police and the city’s residents,

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especially in the black community. Cleveland is 53 percent black. About twothirds of its police officers are white. The mayor and the police chief are Black. The reforms were outlined in a 105-page consent decree filed in federal court. It calls Continued on A4

Iyanla Vanzant Heads 3-Day Healing Seminar at Empowerment Temple By Zenitha Prince Senior AFRO Correspondent Inspirational speaker and life coach Iyanla Vanzant visited Baltimore’s Empowerment Temple to lead the first of a three-day “Fix My City” healing service May 26. The host of OWN’s hit TV show, “Iyanla: Fix My Life,” in which she helps people to overcome difficult situations in their lives, visited the Iyanlavanzant.com city at the behest of Empowerment Iyanla Vanzant visited Baltimore’s pastor Jamal Bryant to be part of Empowerment Temple. the city’s recovery efforts after recent riots in the wake of 25-yearold Freddie Gray’s death while in police custody. The violent tumult was a manifestation of the Black community’s frustration and pain with decades of Baltimore

Baltimore NAACP Plans Expungement Clinics By Kamau High Special to the AFRO Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP, said the organization has talked to West Baltimore residents and many said having a record of non-violent minor arrests prevented them from getting and keeping jobs. “Some people get hired, work for a month and then when the background check happens. A month later they Tessa Hill-Aston is get let go, even though they were president of the doing a good job,” Hill-Aston said. Baltimore chapter of To help those people the NAACP the NAACP. offers to expunge their records for free and will begin offering a class on the expungement process in Sandtown-Winchester. The exact location and date were not Continued on A3

social and economic inequities in the city, Bryant and other leaders have said. “Tonight is a night of healing. It’s not necessarily about cancer, or leukemia or necessarily about tumors, but there is in fact a lot of emotional illness,” Bryant said. “There is a lot of pain that a lot of us are harboring and holding on to…. “It is by no accident that Black people have high blood pressure, it’s by no accident that a whole lot of us have trouble going to sleep at night, it’s by no accident that a lot of us, even in teen years, have had anxiety attacks. But I’m believing that peace is getting ready to hit your lives tonight.” –Vanzant Taking to the stage as the choir sang the hymn “It Is Well with My Soul,” Vanzant asked members of the audience to breathe deeply, essentially breathing peace and “wellness” into their spirits. “Call the thing that is not as though it were and it will be. Every single aspect

“Tonight is a night of healing.”

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McDonald’s Restaurant Re-Opens in Fort Washington, Md. By LaTrina Antoine Washington D.C. Editor Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III, along with other county dignitaries, Crossland High School, patrons, employees and Ronald McDonald gathered on May 24 to celebrate the grand re-opening of the rebuilt McDonald’s restaurant at 7100 Allentown Road. In 2014, the restaurant burned down, but nearly a year later, employees and Continued on A3

Courtesy photo

The grand re-opening celebration of the rebuilt McDonald’s restaurant on Allentown Road in Fort Washington was held May 24.

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