VOL. 54, NO. 25 • APRIL 4 - 10, 2019
Cherry Blossoms Add Beauty Throughout the DMV! Lottery Results Spark Thoughts on School Choice By Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer @SamPKCollins Ward 5 resident and DCPS graduate Sarah Jackson entered the My School DC lottery this year, hoping for an outcome much different from her prior attempts to secure a proximate and quality public education for her daughter. But when the lottery results were made public last week, Jackson’s fears came to fruition. Her daughter, now a rising kindergartener enrolled in a Catholic school, once again counted among an untold number of children waitlisted by their most preferred school choices. Currently, 18 candidates stand between her daughter and a highly coveted spot at Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School in Northwest.
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Missing & Forgotten: D.C. Black Girls Lost
Blossom Kite Festival
By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer @StacyBrownMedia
5 The National Mall served as the backdrop as thousands of kites took flight during the annual Blossom Kite Festival in Washington, DC on March 30. (Michael A. McCoy/The Washington Informer)
Budget Concerns Cast Shadow over Sports Betting By Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer @SamPKCollins When the first sports betting kiosks open in the coming months, the District stands to collect what’s estimated to be $90 million over the next four years. In December, the D.C. Council voted to legalize the sports betting industry, dedicating a portion of those funds to early childhood education and violence prevention programs. But Mayor Muriel Bowser’s fiscal
WI Spelling Bee Supplement Center Section
2020 budget nullified that arrangement, moving the $7 million earmarked for early childhood education and violence prevention to the city’s general fund — a move that some elected officials say betrays the trust of city residents. “Everyone who testified who didn’t have a business interest in sports betting came to talk about the importance of the investments in early childhood education and crime prevention,” said Council member Robert White (D-At Large). “Selling sports
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5 Relisha Rudd (Courtsey photo)
A year ago, District residents were in an uproar, as the story of missing Black and Latina girls was met with near-silence from the media and apparent ignorance from the Metropolitan Police Department as officials attempted to rationalize the dozens of disappearances. Today, the missing in D.C., like those around the nation, receive little attention — even as young African-American women and girls disappear at an alarming rate. Among the many from the District listed as missing by the nonprofit Black and Missing Foundation are Pamela J. Butler, missing since Feb. 14, 2009, Unique Harris, missing since Oct. 10, 2010, and Relisha Tenau Rudd, missing since March 1, 2014. While police have few — if any — leads or answers, these girls join an ever-growing list of Black girls who are gone and sadly forgotten by mainstream media where coverage is manipulated by the latest thong or see-through attire worn by a Kardashian or the most recent tantrum thrown by President Donald Trump. And as Trump cries that a border wall is needed to eliminate an imaginary crisis, organizations such as the Black and Missing But Not Forgotten, the Black and Missing Foundation
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