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Volume 123 No. 10
$1.00 Nation’s #1 African American Newspaper 2014 Nielsen-Essence Consumer Report
OCTOBER 11, 2014 - OCTOBER 17, 2014
Sportscaster Harold Bell Plans Ali Documentary
Ignorance of the Law No Excuse for Police By Gloria J. Browne-Marshall AANIC Supreme Court Correspondent
By James Wright Special to the AFRO
One of the District and the country’s earliest Black sportscasters plans to release a film in the near future on boxing legend Muhammad Ali on the noted anniversary of one of the pugilist’s greatest fights. Harold Bell, who coined the term “Inside Sports,” showed a 30-minute documentary titled Ali’s Words of Wisdom on Oct. 4 at Tony’s Boxing Gym in Northeast Washington and a shorter version on Oct. 5
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Harold Bell with “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali at Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street, N.W. Bell worked on the film with noted actor Robert Hooks, who served as a commentator, and said the timing is right to re-air the interview. “I interviewed Ali right after the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ fight that took place in Zaire,” Bell said. “We are coming on to the 40th anniversary of the fight and I decided to revisit the interview he granted to me. I was the first person to interview him after that fight.” The fight between Ali and
George Foreman, which had an unprecedented worldwide audience, took place on Oct. 30, 1974 at the 20th of May Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Ali won the fight by knocking out Foreman at the end of the eighth round. Sports media experts and promoters have called it the greatest sporting event of the 20th century. From 1960-1990, Bell was a prominent fixture on the sports media scene on television and the Continued on A3
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even the smallest cancers.” Natalie Williams, the foundation’s founder and chair, is a 2012 survivor who chose to have a double mastectomy to battle breast cancer. She has become a leading voice for breast care support, advocating regular mammograms for women of color, specifically those who live east of the river where lack of awareness and resources have been reported as the highest in the area. As a hospital spokesperson at United Medical Center, she also serves as the president of the Ward 8 Democrats and
By Andrea “Aunni” Young Special to the AFRO A sea of women in pink celebrated breast cancer survivors during an artsy and culture-rich brunch Oct. 4 at the Howard Theatre in Northwest D.C. The second annual “Bustier Brunch: An Afternoon with the Girls” is a signature event for the Natalie Williams Breast Care Foundation, the leading voice in the promotion of breast care awareness among women of color. Lynn Whitfield, an award-winning actress, was the keynote speaker. “This weekend Ms. Whitfield visited UMC and had a mammogram to kick off the NWBCF campaign,” Williams said. “The mammography unit took great care of her and she was encouraged by our state-of-the art MicroDose machine that detects
See more event photos on B1.
By Christina Sturdivant Special to the AFRO More than 150 minority business owners serving Washington, D.C. residents had details of the proposed merger of Chicago-based energy company Exelon and parent company of D.C.-based utility Pepco shared with them on Oct. 7, at the Carnegie Library at Mt. Vernon Square in Northwest. The forum was co-hosted by The President’s Roundtable and Capital Region Minority Supplier Development Council. The $6.8 billion merger consists of Exelon’s 3 utilities –
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Photo by Rob Roberts
Continued on A4
Natalie Williams welcomes actress Lynn Whitfield
Pepco Merger Seeks Engagement for Minority Businesses
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“A police officer does not have to be perfect.”
Bustier Brunch Promotes Breast Health Awareness
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Like most people, Sgt. Matt Darisse said he believed driving with a broken tail light was against the law, but he was wrong. On Oct. 6 the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments that ignorance of the law is no excuse for police officers or well as private citizens. This was the first case of the Supreme Court’s new term. Sgt. Darisse was on the look-out for guns and drugs in April 2009, when he spotted a Ford Escort with a broken brake light. Maynor Javier Vasquez and Nicholas Heien were on I-77, in Surrey County, N.C. Vasquez drove. Heien, the car’s owner, slept in back. Darisse pulled them over and wrote a ticket for the tail light. But, he said the men struck
him as suspicious. Darisse asked to search the car. Heien and Vasquez agreed. That is when the officer found a cellophane wrapper with white powder residue in the driver’s door panel and burnt marijuana seeds in an ashtray. It was a duffel bag in the back hatch area containing cocaine that resulted in a sentence of two consecutive prison terms of 10 to 12 months for drug trafficking. Heien appealed. One broken brake light is not against the law in North Stock Carolina. Image Allowing Darisse’s legal mistake to stand – Robert Montgomery would “vastly expand police powers,” said Jeffrey Fisher, attorney for Heien. Darisse, sporting a six-inch saltand-pepper goatee, sat in the far corner of the courtroom as attorneys argued over his Continued on A3
Sheila Brooks, moderator, William Von Hoene, senior executive vice president and chief strategy officer, Exelon; Bridget Reidy, senior vice president and chief supply officer, Exelon; Emmett Vaughn, director of Diverse Business Empowerment, Exelon; and Calvin Butler Jr., CEO, BGE Photo by Rob Roberts BGE, ComEd and PECO – and Pepco Holdings Inc.’s (PHI) 3 utilities – Atlantic City Electric, Delmarva Power and Pepco, which will create a leading mid-Atlantic electric and gas utility. Since the announcement that the two companies Continued on A4
TIE Protests Legalization of Marijuana in D.C.
By Christina Sturdivant Special to the AFRO
Concerned Washingtonians have banned together to protest the legalization of marijuana, which will appear as Initiative 71 on the Nov. 4 ballot. Removing all legal ramifications of usage can lead to a myriad of issues for communities of color, said opponents of the initiative. “As an African American myself, I’m really concerned with the impact we’ve seen from alcohol and tobacco in our tiedc2014.com communities,” William Jones III, founder of Two is Enough DC, said. Two is Enough DC is a movement of District residents concerned about the scourge of a third legal recreational drug in the city. “Do we want to introduce a third industry that’s going to follow the same patterns of alcohol and tobacco in disproportionately targeting our communities and our youth?” The movement is focused on examining costs in health care, education, accidents, lost productivity, and law enforcement as a result of substance use and sharing this information with District residents. “You’re not going to get arrested or have a criminal record because of marijuana use, so they’re completely ignoring the fact that decriminalization has already been passed and they’re portraying legalization as an effort to deal with that,” said Jones. “In a year from now, prisons are still going to be full of our young men – they’re just going to find another reason to put us in,” he said. Legalization will have an effect on commercialization by – Williams Jones
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“…we’re really concerned about protecting our communities from the threat of a third legal recreational drug.”
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