The Washington Informer - September 11, 2025

Celebrating Progress, Addressing the Needs of DCPS Students

CAPE Scores Reveal a National Model That Still Needs Work

By Jada Ingleton WI Content Editor

With chronic absenteeism down, citywide investments soaring, and public school enrollment surpassing pre-pandemic levels, District education officials are celebrating achievements and hoping for continued growth at the dawn of the 2025-26 school year.

However, local educators like Tom Pollack note there is still a ways to go for D.C. schools, and it starts with recruiting more tutors and mentors.

“Most people in the education space certainly feel like these things are heading in the right direction, but just

5District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) Chancellor Lewis Ferebee and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser engaging with local students in March 2023. As the District stands in the top 5% of absolute growth across the nation, Ferebee is confident in DCPS holding the “blueprint and recipe” for continued success, which includes doubling down on literacy and math investments. (WI File Photo)

By William Armstead WI Intern

When Jayden Mason walks the streets of Ward 1, he’s not thinking about scenery—he’s bracing for injury.

“I don’t like the sidewalks in D.C. because they’re uneven. I always trip,” said Mason, originally from Chesterfield, Virginia, and now a Ward 1 D.C. resident. “It doesn’t matter where I’m at—I’m always tripping, my ankles [roll]. I

SIDEWALKS Page 41

By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer

More than a dozen bills making their way through the U.S. House challenge District home rule by, among other things, making the D.C. attorney a presidential appointee, extending the congressional approval period for locally approved laws, and allowing 14-year-old offenders to be charged as adults.

Also on the chopping block is the Incarcer-

CITIZENS Page 25

5 Colie “Shaka” Long (second from right), is among those who watched as a congressional committee marked up bills that jeopardize legislation that paved the way for his early prison release and that of other returning citizens who entered the prison system as youth. He plans to keep talking to Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and others about the ramifications of their decisions. (Courtesy Photo)

The Silent Layoff: How Economic Strain is Pushing Small Businesses into Survival Mode

By Dr. Patrise Holden Contributing Writer

Alongside thousands of formerly employed federal and corporate workers lies a second group of Americans hit hard by downsized jobs and lost wages without ever receiving a formal pink slip: small business owners.

The economic downturn is hitting the middle class and entrepreneurs hard. According to the 2025 Wage Reality Report, 73% of U.S. workers are struggling financially, unable to afford

LAYOFF

5 Self-employed professionals and small business owners, such as Dr. Chere Goode, are discovering innovative ways to stay in business despite declining revenue trends. (Courtesy Photo/Media Expertzy)

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wi hot topics

NFL’s

STACY M. BROWN, WI SENIOR WRITER

Billionaire Owners Enjoy Tax Break while Fans Pay Big

As the 2025 NFL season kicks off, a new report from Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) shows the massive divide between billionaire team owners and the fans who pack stadiums and stream games from home.

The study estimates that the average NFL franchise owner pulls in about $600 million annually, or 7,000 times the average fan’s income of $85,000.

That divide will only grow under the Republican tax-and-spending plan enacted this summer. According to the Tax Policy Center, the wealthiest 0.1% of households, where every NFL owner resides, will enjoy average tax cuts exceeding $286,000 in 2026.

Meanwhile, typical fans will see modest cuts erased by higher consumer costs driven by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, leaving them about $700 poorer each year.

“Economic inequality and price gouging are as much on display in the new NFL season as peak athleticism, acrobatic catches, and explosive runs,” said David Kass, ATF’s executive director. “The fans who loyally support their favorite teams through good years and bad, putting up with steadily rising ticket prices, streaming

AmeriStarRail Proposes Libertyliner 250 to Open High-Speed Trains to Coach Riders

Coach passengers, who make up the majority of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor ridership, are being left behind as the railroad launched its new Acela service.

AmeriStarRail, a Delaware-based company, says that exclusion not only discriminates against everyday riders but also risks safety by keeping millions of aging equipment that has been in service for half a century.

Nowhere else will those travelers feel it more than in the District, where Union Station ranks as Amtrak’s second-busiest hub, serving 5.6 million riders a year. About 70,000 people pass through daily, many of them traveling in Coach — the very passengers AmeriStarRail says would benefit most if Amtrak’s new highspeed trains were open to all classes.

AmeriStarRail is calling the exclusion discriminatory and unsafe for millions who rely on aging cars built in the 1970s.

The company has unveiled a plan to team with Am-

trak and operate the incoming fleet of 28 Alstom Avelia Liberty trainsets as the Libertyliner 250.

The name reflects both America’s 250th birthday in 2026 and the first U.S. passenger trains to exceed 250 kilometers per hour, with top speeds of 160 miles per hour.

“This new fleet offers more capacity and more frequent service than the first-generation high-speed trains, helping Amtrak meet growing demand for premium, high-speed travel between Boston and Washington, D.C.,” explained Alstom on the company website.

Millions Left Behind

More than three-quarters of Amtrak’s 14 million Northeast Corridor passengers cannot afford Acela fares and remain confined to Amfleet coaches, some of which turn 50 years old this year.

WI

Read more on washingtoninformer.com.

Suspect in Charlie Kirk Assassination Identified as White Utah Man with Police Ties

The suspect in the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk wasn’t someone from “the radical left,” an “illegal immigrant” or person of color, but is 22-year-old Tyler Robinson— a white, Salt Lake City man, whose father, according to reports, is a law enforcement officer who helped convince his son to surrender.

A day after Kirk was killed, federal investigators and Utah officials released images and videos of the person believed responsible.

The suspect appeared wearing a hat, sunglasses, a long-sleeved black shirt, and a backpack.

Investigators also recovered a Mauser .30-caliber bolt-action rifle wrapped in a towel in nearby woods.

A spent cartridge was still in the chamber, with

three more rounds loaded in the magazine. The weapon and ammunition are now undergoing forensic analysis at a federal lab.

Bullet casings discovered at the scene carried cryptic and mocking engravings.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox said the fired casing read: “notices bulges OWO what’s this?”

Further, three unfired casings bore the messages: “hey fascist! catch!” alongside arrow symbols, “oh bella ciao bella ciao bella ciao ciao ciao,” and “if you read this you are gay lmao.”

Cox said Robinson is believed to have acted alone but described the killing as “an attack on the American experiment.”

5 A new Americans for Tax Fairness report reveals the massive divide between billionaire NFL team owners and the fans who pack stadiums and stream games from home. (WI File Photo/Abdullah Konte)

Trump Threatens to Federalize D.C. Police as Bowser Pushes Back

By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer

President Donald Trump has threatened to once again federalize Washington, D.C.’s police department after Mayor Muriel Bowser said officers will not assist federal immigration agents with enforcement operations.

The clash comes just days after Trump’s 30-day emergency takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) expired. That order, which started Aug. 11 and ended Sept. 10, put the city’s police under federal control, deployed the National Guard, and compelled local officers to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.

Trump claimed the intervention turned Washington into “one of the safest” cities in the world and warned that if Bowser’s stance continues, “CRIME would come roaring back.”

He vowed to declare a national emergency and federalize the police again if the city refuses to cooperate.

Bowser has rejected the president’s demand, saying immigration enforcement is not the role of local police.

“Immigration enforcement is not what MPD does, and with the end of the emergency, it won’t be what MPD does,” she said.

The mayor has walked a tightrope with Trump since he returned to office.

At a press conference in late August, Bowser thanked the administration for the influx of federal officers but added: “What we know is not working is a break in trust between police and community. We know having masked ICE agents in the community has not worked.”

Her approach has drawn criticism from members of the D.C. Council, who argue that crediting federal officers risks legitimizing Trump’s broader attempts to expand control into other cities.

“This is trampling on democracy in real time, on our watch,” Council member Robert White said.

Trump’s CriticismLongtime of D.C.

The president has a long record of disparaging the nation’s capital.

After leaving office in 2021 and launching his bid to return, Trump described Washington as “horribly run” and a “nightmare of murder and crime.”

In August, after a former Doge staffer was assaulted, he cited the incident to justify his declaration of a “crime emergency,” painting the city as mired in “bloodshed, bedlam and squalor.”

He has also insisted that violent crime in D.C. is the “worst it’s ever been,” despite Justice Department figures showing the opposite—2024 marked a 30-year low.

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly vowed to “take over” D.C.

He followed through in early August, sending hundreds of federal agents into the city to work alongside local police. Days later, he declared a “public safety emergency” that placed the Metropolitan Police Department under federal command for 30 days.

He added to that by deploying about 2,300 National Guard troops, several hundred of them brought in from Republican-led states.

The Guardian noted that Bowser refrained from an outright denunciation, though she called the move “unsettling” and told local organizers on a Zoom call that it resembled an “authoritarian push.”

Bowser’s Balancing Act: Showing Cooperation, While Signaling Unease about Trump’s Tactics

Bowser, now the second-longest-serving mayor in the city’s history and weighing a fourth term, has had to navigate Trump’s return with calculated restraint.

That approach contrasts sharply with her posture during the George Floyd protests in 2020.

At the time, Bowser openly called Trump a “scared man” and labeled his deployment of federal officers and the National Guard an “invasion of our city.”

She also ordered that a portion of 16th Street in front of the White House be renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza, with the words painted in massive yellow letters across the roadway.

This year, under renewed pressure from Trump and congressional Republicans, she agreed to remove the plaza designation to avoid threats of losing federal funding.

“We have bigger fish to fry,” Bowser said in March, explaining that her focus was on keeping residents and the local economy afloat.

Her cooperation, including an exec-

AROUND THE REGION

utive order directing the Metropolitan Police Department to work with federal officers on a continuing basis, drew praise from the White House.

Trump celebrated her action online, writing, “Wow! Mayor Muriel Bowser of D.C. has become very popular because she worked with me and my great people in bringing CRIME down to virtually NOTHING in D.C.”

Speaking at the Museum of the Bible, Trump added that Bowser may now be closer to his administration’s outlook than before.

“That’s not her ideology, but now I think that maybe is her ideology,” the president said. “She’s taking a lot of heat from the radical left.”

WI

5 Chief Pamela Smith (left) and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (right) at a December 2024 event. President Donald Trump is threatening to once again federalize Washington, D.C.’s police department after Bowser said officers will not assist federal immigration agents with enforcement operations. (WI File Photo/Robert. Roberts)

AROUND THE REGION

Sept. 18

facts

SEPT. 18 - 24, 2025

1850 – The Fugitive Slave Act, which required that all escaped slaves were to be returned to their masters upon capture, is passed by the U.S. Congress.

1895 – Booker T. Washington delivers the Atlanta Compromise speech. The compromise was a deal struck between Southern Blacks and whites that Blacks would work and submit to white political rule in exchange for basic education and due process in law.

1951 – Ben Carson, retired neurosurgeon and former presidential candidate, is born in Detroit.

1970 – Rock icon Jimi Hendrix is found dead in a London apartment at age 27.

1980 – Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, a Cuban Air Force pilot, becomes the first Hispanic and first person of African ancestry to travel in outer space.

Sept.

19

1893 – Black inventor Elbert R. Robinson receives patent for the electric highway trolley.

1931 – Singer Brook Benton of “Rainy Night in Georgia” fame is born in Camden, South Carolina.

Sept. 20

1958 – Martin Luther King Jr. is stabbed during a Harlem book signing by Izola Ware Curry, an African American woman later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

1984 – “The Cosby Show” debuts on NBC, beginning an eight-year run as one of television’s all-time most beloved and successful shows.

Sept. 21

1872 – John H. Conyers becomes the first African American admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

1891 – Inventor F.W. Leslie is issued a patent for the envelope seal.

1989 – Colin Powell is confirmed by the Senate as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first African American to hold the position.

Sept. 22

1828 – Shaka Zulu, monarch of Africa’s Zulu Kingdom, is assassinated.

1862 – President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which sets a date for the freedom of more than 3 million Black slaves in the United States.

1950 – Civil rights icon Ralph Bunche becomes the first African American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 1960 – African nation Mali gains its independence from France.

Sept. 23

1863 – NAACP charter member Mary Church Terrell, who was the first African American woman appointed to a school board of a major U.S.city as a member of the D.C. board of education, is born in Memphis.

1884 – Judy W. Reed receives a patent for the bread kneading machine, becoming the first African American woman known to receive a U.S. patent.

1926 – Pioneering jazz saxophonist John Coltrane is born in Hamlet, North Carolina.

1930 – Music legend Ray Charles is born in Albany, Georgia.

1998 – President Clinton presents Nelson Mandela with the Congressional Gold Medal for his anti-apartheid efforts.

Sept. 24

1957 – Nine Black students integrate Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas.

1964 – The Executive Order 11246, which enforces affirmative action, is signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. WI

Jimi Hendrix (left)

Colin Powell (center) Ray Charles (right)

P INT

BY SARAFINA WRIGHT

In recognition of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, what are some practices that you used to maintain your mental health?

WATTS A. / PINE BLUFF, ARK.

Faith in myself and believing in me. As I’ve matured, I realized it’s all a mindset. Time heals all wounds and those tables do turn.

SHARON BROWN / COMPTON, CALIF.

Knowing that God has my back. Knowing that I put my trust in Jesus Christ, not people. We always think that if we’re good to people, they’ll be good to us too, or if we support you, you’ll do the same. But it doesn’t always turn out that way. But when you give that trust to Jesus, he’ll never let you down.

CHRISTOPHER DAVIS / WASHINGTON, D.C.

The almighty and the state of mind that I’m stronger than anything life throws at me.

SAM JOHNSON / DETROIT, MICH.

My kids for sure! They motivate me to be my best even when I’m at my worst. Always remember, on a scale from 1 to 10, your 2.8 effort is a 10 in their eyes.

DONALD LINDSEY / DETROIT, MICH.

God, looking forward to the next album from my favorite music artists, the next new coaster at an amusement park, listening to a lecture from Minister Farrakhan, going to the zoo, and talking to an understanding family member.

Our staff is made up of writers, just like you. We are dedicated to making publishing dreams come true. Trusted by authors for nearly 100 years, Dorrance has made countless authors’ dreams come true.

AROUND THE REGION

D.C. Public Relations Guru Masters Bando Walls Talks Passion for

By James Wright WI Staff Writer

Lon Walls, the president of Walls & Associates Inc. and former president of the Capital Press Club, is known in the District as a public relations entrepreneur who has worked with some of the top political and business leaders in the country. However, a lesser known aspect of the communications guru is his mastery of martial arts, a passion turned source of strength and income.

Walls is a student, instructor and practitioner of Bando, a martial art that has been practiced for several thousand years, primarily in Myanmar, where it was founded.

He began studying Bando in 1970 while a college student at Ohio University.

“Dr. U. Maung Gyi was a major influence for me at Ohio University,” Walls, 75, said of Bando’s grandmaster in the U.S., where he was studying in Athens, Ohio. “He impressed me so much. This is a man that has triple Ph.Ds, a law degree and was an advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and was active in the civil rights movement. It is because of him that I investigated Bando.”

Gyi introduced Bando to the U.S. at American University in 1960. He also founded the American Bando Association as a vehicle to publicize and support the martial art.

Martial Arts, Shift in Career

Thousands of people have practiced Bando throughout the country, and including other countries such as Canada, Mexico, Panama, Kuwait, Dubai, Jordan, St. Maarten and France.

Navigating the shifting economy and feelings of safety under the Trump administration, Walls is happy to use his Bando skills as means of earning an income, while also empowering his students in the process.

“We are living in a time of chaos and personal safety has become very important for many people,” Walls said. “While I don’t want to profit off of the times we live in, personal safety is something that people want to invest in.”

Although investing in personal safety and self defense may sound strange to some, Walls believes growth in those fields will increase over the years.

“There are a lot of opportunities for people and those fields may not be lucrative at first,” Walls said, “but the finance part will come when it is realized that the need is there.”

The global martial arts entrepreneurship and instruction market is projected to reach $171 billion by 2028, and in the U.S. $19.4 billion by the end of this year, according to an Aug. 15 post on the Yahoo Finance website.

“Key factors contributing to this growth include interest in fitness and discipline, especially among families and children, as well as the booming popularity of combat

sports and technological advancements in training facilities and fan engagement,” the post said.

However, for Walls, teaching Bando is more than an opportunity to make money, but also make a difference in other’s lives.

“I have young men who are students and Bando has allowed me to influence and mentor them,” Walls said. “With the young women, I influence and mentor them but I help them feel more secure through self defense.”

Walls’s Success in PR and Bando

Walls started competing in martial arts in 1975 and presently holds a sixth degree Black Belt in Bando. His fighting career includes more than 200 freestyle fighting matches and 30 kickboxing bouts from the 1970s-1990s.

His title wins include: the national Bando light-heavyweight champion in Black Belt Free Style in 1985, 1987, 1992 and 1995; the light-heavy weight Kickboxing champ in 1987 and 1988; as well as the middleweight Kickboxing winner in 1977. Additionally, he placed second among hundreds of competitors as the White Belt middleweight in the inaugural Battle of Atlanta Karate Tournament in 1976 and took third place as the middleweight Green Belt in the previously mentioned Atlanta tournament in 1977.

5 A six-degree Black Belt, Bando master Lon Walls poses with his students after a successful Bando-Combat Aerobics class on Sept. 6 at Gold’s Gym in Northwest, D.C. (Ja’Mon Jackson/The Washington Informer)

BANDO from Page 8

Walls has penned articles on Bando for such publications as Black Belt Magazine and Inside Kung Fu. He has also been the editor of Crossed Swords, the American Bando Association’s national newsletter.

With quite a successful career in public relations, Walls has also earned the Washington Association of Black Journalists Excellence in Communications Award.

The communications and martial arts expert has taught Bando for years and presently instructs students on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Gold’s Gym on Connecticut Avenue in Northwest, as well as other times when approached to do so.

The instructor said he sees it more than just a pastime.

“For me, this is a way of life,” he said. “I know many people are familiar with me and my work in public relations, but Bando is a strong part of my life. The fundamentals that it stresses apply to life. Bando is a means of discipline, and I can accomplish things professionally because of it.”

Walls Instructs Students on Bando

In a Sept. 6 special Saturday class at Gold’s Gym, Walls had several students– both men and women–

NFL from Page 4

costs, and concession-stand gouging, have little in common with the billionaires who own their franchises.”

Rising Costs for Fans

The ATF study shows the growing financial burden for fans.

Average ticket prices across the league now sit at $125, with some teams charging more than double that.

In Detroit, the average ticket runs $254, while in Las Vegas it’s $243. Even basic stadium staples cost more: beers top $12 in San Francisco, hot dogs go for $8.49 in Los Angeles, and tariffs on Canadian pork and Mexican beer add another $2.23 and $2.29, respectively, to game-day concessions.

Beyond stadium walls, costs to follow the sport from home have soared. Fans must now subscribe to multiple streaming services to watch every

anxious to learn Bando techniques.

He emphasized to the new students that “you will not learn self-defense in an hour.”

“But you can have a good workout and have fun,” he said.

For the next hour, Walls and the students perform exercises involving their arms, legs, elbows and shoulders. He works on their stance and exercise techniques.

Walls said his efforts with female students in particular is paying off, and there is a body of literature to back his his assertions.

“The woman who learns martial arts becomes a better decision maker,” according to an August 2021 post on The Martial Arts Woman, noting that this is often overshadowed by the more commonly known benefits such as fitness, confidence and defense.

Further, training in martial arts can also provide women with a basis of self-importance and selfworth.

Most women who practice martial arts learn to recognize that their decisions are important and that they deserve respect, opportunity, and to be in control of their own destiny.

While Walls’ students are practicing Bando, they listen to music such as “Before I Let Go” by Frankie Beverly, the band Maze, and “Dazz” by Brick. Kerina Antoine, a resident of Takoma Park, Maryland, came

game, a bill that can exceed $1,000 annually.

“The NFL experience has [turned into a] $400 plus dollar package and you don’t even get all of the games. You have to have Prime, Peacock , and a YouTube tv subscription totaling over $600 bucks worth for 3-4 months of TV,” social media user Chris (GMIsOnPt360) wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Greed has continued to rot a once great product.”

Billionaire Owners and Tax Breaks

Billionaires dominate NFL ownership – the mean average wealth of team owners is $10.6 billion. Rob Walton of the Denver Broncos, heir to the Walmart fortune, holds an estimated $77.4 billion in net worth. ATF noted that 29 owners collectively stand to gain tax breaks large

AROUND THE REGION

to the Saturday session with her husband and son and enjoyed the workout.

“I always liked the martial arts,” Antoine, 44, said. “As we get older, it is important that we move around more.”

“You lose so much mobility and bone density as you get older,” author and epidemiologist Gabrielle A. Perry, wrote on X, in a post emphasizing the importance of women building muscle, stretching and staying active— all parts of martial arts-- throughout their lives.

Leah Boston, a District resident who is an attorney, said the session was productive and is regular with Walls regarding Bando.

“I support Lon as my Bando instructor,” Boston, 32, said. “I think it is important that young women understand that Bando is not just for men. This activity is empowering for women, too.” WI

@JamesWrightJr10

NFL Page 44

5 Lon Walls, a public relations expert and Bando Master, teaches his Band-Combat Aerobics class at Gold’s Gym in Northwest, D.C. on Sept. 6. (Ja’Mon Jackson/The Washington Informer)

AROUND THE REGION

Howard academic leaders Dr. Raquel Monroe, dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts and Dr. Kenyatta Gilbert, dean of the School of Divinity read The Washington Informer at the exhibit opening for “Temples of Hope, Rituals of Survival: Gordon Parks and Black Religious Life” at Howard University on Sept. 9. (Roy Lewis/The Washington Informer)

Sara Beckwith from DC Health, entrepreneur Yonas Haile, DC Central Kitchen’s CEO Michael Curtin Jr, D.C. At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson, Healthy Corners Program Manager Kapi Berhanu, and DC Central Kitchen’s Director of Healthy Corners Yael Reichler gather to cut the ribbon for Stanton Supermarket’s full-scale produce department. The Howard Road SE market, owned by Haile, is a longtime member of DC Central Kitchen’s Healthy Corners program. (Courtesy Photo/DC Central Kitchen)

District Sues Bitcoin ATM Operator Athena Over Fraud, Hidden Fees Targeting the Elderly

By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer

Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb filed a lawsuit on Sept. 8 against Athena Bitcoin, Inc., one of the nation’s largest operators of Bitcoin Automated Teller Machines (BTMs), accusing the company of knowingly profiting from scams that overwhelmingly target elderly residents in the District of Columbia.

The complaint, filed in D.C. Superior Court, charges Athena with violating the District’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act and the Abuse, Neglect, and Financial Exploitation of Vulnerable Adults and the Elderly Act.

According to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), Athena’s machines, seven of which operate in the District, have become a preferred tool for international fraud rings because of inadequate safeguards, hidden fees as high as 26%, and a strict “no refunds” policy that denies victims restitution even when scams are reported immediately.

“Athena’s bitcoin machines have become a tool for criminals intent on exploiting elderly and vulnerable District residents,” Schwalb said. “Athena knows that its machines are being used primarily by scammers yet chooses to look the other way so that it can continue to pocket sizable hidden transaction fees.”

OAG Investigation Findings

The Office of the Attorney General’s investigation found that 93% of all deposits made at Athena BTMs in the District during the company’s first five months of operation were the direct result of scams.

Nearly half of all deposits were flagged to Athena as fraudulent.

The median age of victims was 71, and the median amount lost per transaction was $8,000.

In one case, a victim lost $98,000 over 19 separate transactions within days.

Athena markets its machines as a way to quickly buy cryptocur-

rency but conceals the high fees in misleading “exchange rates.” While online exchanges typically charge between 0.24 and 3%, Athena’s fees run up to 26%.

A District victim who deposited $10,000 in cash into a machine in August 2024 received only $7,463 in Bitcoin. Athena pocketed $2,537 as an undisclosed fee.

“One of the reasons life in America is exhausting for so many people is that someone is always trying to scam you,” social media user and communications professional Alex Taliadoros wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Allegations of Exploiting the Elderly

The lawsuit alleges that Athena deliberately avoided implementing fraud protections, allowing elderly residents to pour life savings into scam wallets already used in previous frauds.

Athena customer service logs show representatives repeatedly told victims there was no way to reverse transactions and directed them to law enforcement, all while keeping thousands of dollars in hidden fees.

Even when the company is-

sued partial refunds, it capped reimbursements at $7,500 and required victims to sign legal releases waiving future claims.

In one case, a District resident who lost $98,000 and paid nearly $26,000 in hidden fees was refunded only $7,500.

“This thread is infuriating,” social media user Mya May wrote in response to Schwalb’s announcement of the suit on X. “Athena has a financial incentive to look the other way while meemaw and pawpaw get scammed.”

Relief Sought

The District seeks restitution for victims, penalties, and a permanent injunction requiring Athena to disclose its fees, overhaul its refund policy, and implement fraud prevention safeguards such as transaction limits.

The lawsuit also seeks to bar Athena from operating in the District until it secures a money transmission license, which officials said it currently lacks.

“We’re suing to get District residents their hard-earned money back and put a stop to this illegal, predatory conduct before it harms anyone else,”Schwalb declared. WI

5 D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb says the District is suing one of the nation’s largest operators of Bitcoin Automated Teller Machines (BTMs). (WI File Photo/Roy Lewis)

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY

Gov. Wes Moore Announces Reelection Bid

By Richard Elliott WI Contributing Reporter

Following months of speculation regarding rumored presidential ambitions, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) announced he is seeking reelection and firmly asserted he is not running for president of the United States.

“Yes, I’ll be serving a full term. I’m excited about reelection. I’m excited about what I’m going to

be able to do for the people of Maryland,” Moore told The Hill on Sept. 7.

The governor touted Baltimore’s historic reductions in violent crime and funding secured to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge as highlights of his current term.

“While Trump’s reckless policies make everything cost more, we are showing Marylanders from across the state and party lines that there’s a better way forward to make our

economy stronger and everyday life more affordable,” said Moore in his reelection announcement.

He also partnered with state legislators to pass a balanced budget that makes Maryland’s tax structure fairer for working families and low-income Marylanders.

“I’m asking Marylanders to re-

Identifying the Value Gap: An Opportunity for Growth

In today’s competitive business environment, organizations are measured not just by what they deliver, but by how well they meet the evolving needs of their stakeholders. For chambers of commerce and similar institutions, this often reveals a value gap—the difference between the benefits members and partners currently receive and the full potential impact available to them.

This gap isn’t a weakness; it’s an opportunity. Businesses increasingly look for measurable returns on their investments—whether through visibility, advocacy, or access to resources. When expectations exceed delivery, the challenge becomes how to close that distance in ways that are both strategic and sustainable.

The solution lies in listening and adapting. By surveying stakeholders, tailoring services to unique business needs, and clearly communicating the measurable outcomes of membership or sponsorship, organizations can strengthen retention, attract new partners, and deliver undeniable impact.

Closing the value gap doesn’t just satisfy expectations—it fuels growth, deepens trust, and positions an organization as an indispensable partner in the region’s economic success. In the end, the question isn’t whether the value gap exists, but how effectively we choose to address it.

3 Gov. Wes Moore is running for re-election and will face perennial candidate Ralph Jaffe in the Democratic primary. (WI File Photo/Robert R. Roberts)

federal government and mass firings of government employees during his most recent State of the State speech. While criticizing Trump, he believes that his sense of urgency is needed among liberal politicians.

“I want to be clear: We can, and we must condemn Donald Trump’s reckless actions. But we would also be foolish not to learn from his impatience.”

Marylanders Inspired by Moore’s Leadership

elect Lt. Governor Aruna Miller and I so we can continue the progress we’ve seen throughout Maryland to make our public schools the best in America, to end childhood poverty once and for all, and to make sure more Marylanders can afford to live here, buy a home, create wealth for their families, and live a secure middle-class life,” he continued. “Together we will keep building a state where we leave no one behind.”

Moore called out his list of likely challengers by name during his announcement, including John Myrick (R), the only candidate who has filed for the seat, and Baltimore businessman Ed Hale (R), who recently switched his party affiliation.

Former Gov. Larry Hogan, who lost to Moore in 2022, has increasingly postured towards running in the 2026 election cycle. Hogan tweeted an image of an RV from his 2024 Senate campaign and hinted that he might “get on the road again” in early August.

Moore was invited to speaking engagements in South Carolina and Detroit earlier this year, providing additional national spotlight for America’s sole Black governor.

“We must be the party of action. Urgency is the instrument of change. And do you know who understands that really well? Donald Trump,” Moore said during June’s Blue Palmetto Dinner, a gathering of South Carolina Democrats.

Moore has been a steadfast voice against the Trump administration, particularly criticizing cuts to the

Tiffany Cardova, a Maryland commentator on liberal politics, is supporting Moore’s reelection.

“The haters will be out in full force lying today but this state is infinitely better under Wes Moore’s leadership. He has made me proud to be a Marylander and inspired me to get more involved in politics,” she said via X.

The Rev. Leslye Dwight, minister of Social Justice at Community of Hope AME Church, who is running for the District 9 seat on the Prince George’s County Council in the 2026 election cycle, said she is motivated by Moore, and encouraged others to step up for democracy.

“This is a pivotal time because our nation is under siege and our democracy under attack. Bills have been passed that threaten to take food out of our children’s mouths and shut the doors of health care access to some of our neighbors. Decisions have been made that cut thousands of jobs across the federal, nonprofit, and private sectors,” she told The Informer.

She cited rising homelessness as one of the issues she plans to address if elected to the Prince George’s County Council and expressed disappointment in the actions of the Trump administration.

“This is not the time for silence but it is the time for civic minded residents to rise up. The stakes are too high to sit on the sidelines,” Dwight emphasized. “We have to organize and mobilize to ensure we have a government that reflects the values of the people, not just the politics of the moment.”

WI

Hoyer Hosts 23rd Annual Women’s Equality Day Luncheon

By Richard Elliott WI Contributing Reporter

Guests flocked to The Hotel at the University of Maryland in College Park on Sept. 12 for Rep. Steny Hoyer’s (D-Md.) 23rd annual Women’s Equality Luncheon, celebrating the work of barrier-breaking ladies and the critical contributions of women across the state and nation.

A native Marylander, California Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi served as the keynote speaker, while Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D), Maryland’s first African-American senator, and Comptroller Brooke Lierman (D), the first woman to serve in her role in the state, were also present for the occasion.

“Thanks to all of you for being here,” said Pelosi to a seated crowd during her keynote address. “Thank

you, Steny Hoyer, for your great leadership in the Congress. I’m honored to be partnering with you on very, very important work.”

Both Pelosi and Hoyer worked in the office of Senator Daniel Brewster (D-Md.) during the mid-1960s. In the 2006 election, they partnered to retake Democratic control of the House of Representatives, which they held since the 1994 “Republican Revolution.”

“It was amazing to meet Speaker Nancy Pelosi today at Congressman Steny Hoyer’s Women’s Luncheon. Her presence was a true reminder of what it means to be a woman warrior and leader,” said Councilmember Wala Blegay (D- District 6) in a social media post. “I left inspired by her courage, vision, and lifelong commitment to paving the way for women in leadership.” WI

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY

5 Rep. Steny Hoyer speaks at his annual Women’s Equality Day Luncheon. First elected in 1981, he has hosted the event for the last 23 years, honoring the contributions of women to American history. (Robert R. Roberts /The Washington Informer)

5 Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi speaks at Rep. Steny Hoyer’s 23rd annual Women’s Equality Day Luncheon at The Hotel at University of Maryland in College Park. Pelosi served as keynote speaker. (Robert R. Roberts/The Washington Informer)

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY

Prince George’s Residents Speak Out Against Proposed Landover Data Center

Locals Question Transparency, Warn of Environmental and Health Risks

By Mya Trujillo WI Contributing Writer

The proposed construction of a data center at the former Landover Mall site has left many Prince George’s County residents and organizers outraged due to the potential health and environmental implications the project could bring.

The $5 billion data center campus, dubbed Brightseat Tech Park and proposed by Lerner Enterprises, would comprise five facilities, spanning 4.1 million square feet of the 87-acre site, which could utilize up to 820 megawatts of power. Because of its size and the numerous facilities within, this project would be considered a “hyperscale” data center.

“The community is watching.”

This rally was held outside the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission just before the Prince George’s County Qualified Data Center Task Force met for its regular public meeting to discuss the proposed site.

Despite the rainy weather, the rally attracted dozens, with many making their way inside to observe the meeting.

Even though the task force meeting was not a forum where the public could provide testimonials, organizers and participants were determined to use their overwhelming quantity to show officials their concern regarding the project.

“No matter how many billions of dollars they have, they are not more powerful than the people,” said Eugene Puryear of the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition to the crowd. “They’re not more powerful than you.”

Data Centers’ Toll on Environment, Resources

Researchers from the Environmen-

5 Toya Beacham addresses the crowd of community members and media personnel during a rally and press conference condemning a proposed

5 County Councilmember Krystal Oriadha with Prince George’s County Qualified Data Center Task Force co-chairs Council Chair Edward Burroughs III and Acting General Counsel Anthony Jones. The Qualified Data Center Task Force met on Sept. 10 to discuss a proposed site in Landover, Maryland, which advocates note is bad for the environment and public health. (Robert R. Roberts/The Washington Informer)

DATA CENTER from Page 14

tal Systems Research Institute, Harvard University, University of Pisa and University of California, Los Angeles, reported that between Sept. 2023 and Aug. 2024, data centers in the U.S. accounted for more than 4% of the nation’s total energy consumption— with 56% of the needed energy coming from fossil fuels.

The Congressional Research Service recently published a report stating that data center energy consumption in the U.S. is projected to account for up to 12% of the country’s energy use by 2028. With a larger demand on the energy grid, an increase in these facilities could mean a spike in consumers’ energy bills, as much as 8% by 2030, according to an analysis by the Open Energy Outlook (OEO) Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University.

Per the OEO analysis, “Traditional utility planning assumes predictable 1%-2% annual demand growth over decades, but data centers are driving regional growth rates of 20%-30% annually.”

An increase in energy demand could lead to the use of more fossil fuels, adding to the greenhouse gases emitted due to the operations of a data center.

In a place like Prince George’s that already faces problems with air pollution— garnering the locale a failing grade for ozone pollution in the American Lung Association’s 26th annual State of the Air report— the increased air pollution from a data center the size of the proposed Brightseat Tech Park could put vulnerable communities in the area at risk.

“From a health perspective, from a quality of life perspective, there are many potential negative problems that can come in,” Puryear told The Informer. “So people really should look very closely at this and look very closely at the promises that are being made that I think have a lot of holes in them.”

Another potential implication that comes with the construction of data centers is the effect on the water supplies in the area surrounding them. To avoid chip overheating, these facilities require extensive amounts of water to cool down their servers. According to the Environmental and Energy Study Initiative, large data centers can use up to 5 million gallons of water a day, which is the amount of water needed to sustain a town with a population of 10,000 to 50,000.

If the proposed facility at Landover Mall is built without the proper con-

sideration for residents’ well-being, such a large quantity of water needed daily could cause water pressure issues and affect people’s access to the resource, especially in Prince George’s County, which has experienced several water main breaks across the region in the last year.

In May, the Montgomery and Prince George’s County Councils unanimously approved the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) Water’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget, which supports the upgrading of aging pipes and replacement of customer-owned lead water service lines.

District Heights resident Jumoke Ayodeji told The Informer that professionals have been in her community for the last few months, replacing water pipes. While she said this maintenance is needed, sometimes residents’ water gets shut off in the process.

Now, she fears that the construction of a data center would either make this maintenance more difficult or worsen the water quality across the county and surrounding areas.

“To say [they’re] going to build a data center would completely undermine any type of environmental work that they’ve been doing,” Ayodeji told The Informer. “What is the purpose of building a data center? Just for you to pollute the same area that you’re supposed to be cleaning up? It’s such an oxymoron, in my opinion.”

‘This is the Future of the Planet’: The Fight Extends Beyond PG County

Other communities around the country are already facing the negative effects that come with living in proximity to a large data center.

Many regions, like Northern Virginia and Southern Memphis, are victims of increased air pollution due to the utilization of methane gas to power these facilities.

Prince George’s residents don’t want to see that same fate.

“Massive data centers in the hands of the capitalist class, dunked in the middle of our precious Black and brown communities, will always be entirely too destructive, too dangerous, too detrimental for us to consider,” Beacham said at the rally. “What kind of human beings would have us exchange the fresh air we breathe for tax revenue?” WI

Read more on washingtoninformer.com.

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY

BUSINESS

anything beyond basic living expenses. This financial strain leads to reduced discretionary spending, directly impacting small businesses that rely on middle-class consumers.

“Some of us are scaling back, opening fewer days to cut overhead, or collaborating with others to share costs,” said Owings Mills, Maryland-based entrepreneur Dr. Chere Goode. Founder of Total Harmony Enterprises, she continued, “Other entrepreneurs are going back into the workforce because they just can’t make ends meet anymore.”

Nicole Flanagan, owner of Earth Born Beauty, an Elkridge, Maryland, plant-based skincare company, emphasized that entre-

preneurs from every background have been affected.

“I’ve done about 10 festivals this year. Sales were low at every single one,” said Flanagan. “People are more hesitant about spending money and are reconsidering anything that may not be a direct necessity.”

The Trickle-Down Effect on Small Businesses

Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, accounting for 44% of economic activity. However, the current economic climate is challenging their survival.

Inflation, rising interest rates, and decreased consumer spending are creating a perfect storm of economic instability. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports

5 Entrepreneurs, such as Dr. Chere Goode (seated center), emphasize the importance of

and collaboration for economic survival in the current challenging economic climate.

that 58% of small business owners cite inflation costs as a significant challenge, with 35% concerned about declining revenue.

Business experts indicate that financial stress is reaching critical levels amongst many entrepreneurs, affecting both personal well-being and business sustainability.

“Just not knowing how you are going to afford overhead and necessities or how to pay business expenses can be overwhelming,” Goode explained. “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is real. Heightened economic stress affects everything, including sleep, energy, and health.”

A recent survey revealed that 76% of Americans feel alone in managing money-related worries, and one in five reports a decline in their mental health over the past year due to financial stress.

“When I talk to people at events, the conversation always turns to the economy. They’re worried about their jobs or helping their families survive,” Flanagan recounted. “Even if people are not directly affected, they’re providing economic support for someone who is.”

Resilience in Reinvention

In response to economic hardship, entrepreneurs are finding innovative ways to survive, with many adapting, getting creative, and leaning on community.

Community based organiza-

tions such as Congress Heights Community Training and Development Corporation (CHCTDC) are experiencing a marked increase in demand for professional training, support, and access to capital.

Stephanie Campbell, the organization’s executive director, encourages local business owners to attend community events in the District, such as D.C. city council meetings, in order to learn what resources may be available.

She also stressed the value of building relationships.

“More than anything, learn to work together and partner with other business owners in your community,” Campbell indicated.

“Ask yourself, how can I combine resources with other businesses to reduce overhead and expand my target audience?”

Entrepreneurs like Flanagan note that strategies such as building relationships have been a key component in keeping their businesses afloat.

“You have to diversify,” Flanagan said. “When I couldn’t afford to purchase products from other Black-owned businesses for a raffle, I pivoted. I interviewed Black entrepreneurs on my Instagram every Friday night instead. Those points of connection proved invaluable.”

Goode also offered practical advice for small business survival in an uncertain economy.

“Be frugal when times are good, so you have reserves when crises hit. When times are slow, use it

to your advantage and learn new skills that allow you to become more marketable and offer new services,” she advised.

The District’s Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD) has recently expanded access points for education and support. Through its Small Business Assist hub at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, entrepreneurs can receive one-onone guidance to secure grants, capital, and technical assistance every Wednesday. The agency is also taking its services “into the neighborhood,” bringing in-person support directly to libraries across all eight wards, such as its upcoming stop at the Southwest Library on Sept. 25.

Rosemary Suggs-Evans, director of the D.C. Department of Small and Local Business, urged the District’s more than 70,000 business owners to take advantage of the programs offered by CHCTDC and DSLBD, many of which are provided at no cost to small business owners.

“Lean into your community,” said Suggs-Evans, giving gentle encouragement to residents, “Shop small, shop local, and help our businesses not only survive, but lead our city forward.”

For business owners struggling to remain viable, Flanagan advised: “Do it scared.”

“Every step is unknown,” she said, “but if your dream is rooted in passion, keep moving forward.” WI

cultivating relationships

(Courtesy/Dr. Chere Goode)

LAYOFF from Page 1

Yeleen Beauty Makerspace Officially Cuts Ribbon

By James Wright WI Staff Writer

Yeleen Beauty Makerspace Celebrates Shared Manufacturing Hub

Yeleen Beauty Makerspace in Northeast celebrated the official ribbon cutting of the District’s first shared manufacturing hub for independent beauty brands on Sept. 8.

The standing room only event brought together city leaders, including D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, small-business champions, and local entrepreneurs to mark an important step toward greater access to beauty manufacturing.

A 2022 McKinsey & Company report found that while the beauty industry is worth $60 billion, only $2.5 billion goes to Black-owned businesses— even though Black consumers spend $6.6 billion each year on beauty products.

Yeleen Beauty Makerspace is a 3,000-square-foot co-manufacturing and tech hub designed to reduce timeto-market and upfront capital needs for small and indie brands, made possible with generous support from Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, Wacif, JPMorganChase, Inspire Access, BRED, and SEED Commons.

Members of Yeleen Beauty Makerspace can use manufacturing equipment to make and package their products, plus safe storage for materials. They also get access to business classes, connections to suppliers, and

4 Rahama Wright is the founder and president of Yeleen Beauty Makerspace.

(Courtesy Photo/ Rahama Wright)

programs that help them confidently price, package, and sell their products.

In addition, Bowser announced the launch of the Fast Beauty Initiative, which will reduce training hour requirements for cosmetology and barbering licenses, making it faster and less costly for aspiring professionals to start their careers. Approved by the Board of Barber and Cosmetology, the new rules will move into formal rulemaking this fall.

Rahama Wright, founder and CEO of Yeleen Beauty Makerspace said “manufacturing access is the missing bridge for so many promising beauty founders.”

“Today, we turned that bridge into a runway—where production equipment, technical support, and training meet a community committed to inclusive growth,” she said. “This is about jobs, ownership, and fair supply chains. By lowering barriers to manufacturing, we can help hundreds of founders grow revenue, hire locally, and bring more clean, effective products to market.”

Bowser highlighted the importance of the makerspace for the District’s economy.

“This is what investing in and believing in our community looks like—a hub where beauty entrepreneurs and small beauty companies can manufacture locally, collaborate, and scale beyond their home kitchens,” the mayor said. “This is exactly the kind of innovation we’re proud to support through our DC Locally Made Manufacturing Grant, and we can’t wait to see all the D.C. success stories that begin at Yeleen Beauty Makerspace.” WI

Talented Ten Named for Raymond James Conference Scholarship for the 2025 National Black MBA Conference

By DC Black MBA

The transformation that happens every year in September occurs at the annual national conference executed by the National Black MBA Association. For over half a decade, the Washington, DC Chapter of the National Black MBA Association with the support Raymond James have underwritten nearly 100 students conference experience. This year, the 2025 cohort of Raymond James Conference Scholarship recipients is ten dynamic MBA students, recent graduates, and early-career professionals who will travel to Houston, Texas for the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) National Conference and Career Expo. Fittingly named the Talented Ten, the group reflects both excellence and diversity with six women and four men representing the next wave of leadership in business.

The scholarship, sponsored by Raymond James, provides financial assistance and access to one of the largest gatherings of Black business professionals in the world. For the recipients, the opportunity goes far beyond conference registration represents affirmation, connection, and a launching pad for greater impact.

Monica Arrington, one of this year’s scholars, expressed her, “I am most looking forward to connecting with accomplished professionals and peers who share similar goals of leadership and excellence in business. The conference provides a unique opportunity to gain insights from industry leaders and expand my network.” Inspired to attend after hearing Interim NBMBAA CEO, Orlando Ashford at a chapter meeting, Arrington sees this as both a career boost and a personal milestone. “Professionally, this opportunity will expand my network, enhance my leadership skills, and expose me to new perspectives that will strengthen my career trajectory. Personally, it serves as an affirmation of the hard work and resilience I’ve invested in my journey.”

For Leigh Masakara, the conference represents a rare chance to sit among peers and leaders who are shaping industries across the country. “I’m most excited to engage with Black business leaders and peers who are shaping industries across the country. The conference offers a unique chance to exchange ideas, find mentors, and collaborate on solutions that drive innovation and equity,” Masakara said. With a professional background in sustainable finance and insurance innovation, he hopes to leverage the conference to broaden his reach. “Professionally, it positions me to pursue leadership roles where I can advance inclusive finance and technology. Personally, it reminds me of my journey and fuels my responsibility to uplift and open doors for the next generation.”

Fungai M. Mukundiwa echoed the theme of access and acceleration. “I’m looking forward to connecting with industry leaders and employers at the national conference. It’s a unique chance to learn from seasoned professionals, expand my network, and explore opportunities that align with my career goals in finance and investment,” Mukundiwa shared. He sees the scholarship as a vital resource for emerging leaders like himself. “Professionally, this experience accelerates my transition into full-time employment by providing exposure to firms and mentors I wouldn’t meet otherwise. Personally, it reinforces the importance of community and support systems reminding me to pay it forward for those who come after me.”

The Talented Ten exemplifies why scholarships like this are essential. They reduce barriers, affirm talent, and ensure that a new generation of Black leaders are prepared to thrive in business and beyond. “We recognize the importance in providing opportunities like these, as they are key to giving future Black leaders the leverage they need to excel and elevate to the next level,” explains Dr. Carletta S. Hurt, President of the DC Chapter. “The Talented Ten represent the brilliance, resilience, and promise of Black leadership within the organization and I am proud to see these scholars get this opportunity.”

The National Black MBA Association’s annual conference is the premiere conference for Black professionals. With thousands of attendees, hundreds of exhibitors and schools, panels, and corporate networking, it’s a career-shaping, transformative experience.

NATIONAL

HUD Secretary Scott Turner Trumpets Homeownership, Rejects Program for Black Homeowners

By James Wright WI Staff Writer

During the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s 2025 Innovative Housing Showcase that took place on the National Mall from Sept. 6-10, Secretary Scott Turner talked about the benefits of homeownership.

However, Turner made it clear that he has no interest in setting up a special program to assist African Americans in becoming homeowners.

“It’s not just Black homeownership, I represent all Americans,” Turner, 53, said to The Informer.

“Not just Black people, but white people, Asian people, Indian people, Democrats, Republicans, saved, unsaved, that’s my job. I’m the HUD Secretary.”

Turner made his comments as he toured a display by Aevolve Green Solutions, a Black-owned public benefit corporation headquartered in Douglassville, Georgia with a significant operation in Detroit, Michigan and projects in Madison, Florida and Douglassville and San Diego, California, utilizing environmentally sensitive materials to build housing particularly for those who are homeless and of low-income.

The secretary’s reluctance to

commit to a specific program supporting Black homeownership comes as the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reports that African Americans own homes at a rate of 43.9% in the second quarter of this year as opposed to non-Hispanic whites similarly situated at 74%.

Turner said he will work to make it easier for anyone who wants to buy a home to be able to do so.

“One thing I want to do is to take down burdensome regulations, in order to free up development so developers and owners can build homes for all the American people, for this generation and the generation behind us and to look out for our homeless friends and neighbors,” the secretary explained, “not just helping people out in housing but holistically.”

The Showcase’s Purpose, Goals

The Innovative Housing Showcase, under Turner’s leadership, operated under the theme of “The American Home is the American Dream.”

The Showcase was started by one of Turner’s predecessors, Dr. Ben Carson, who served as the HUD secretary from 2017-2021. Carson launched the first showcase in 2019 with the support of President Donald Trump, then in his first term.

While the showcase was suspended in 2020 and 2021 due

to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration picked up on the showcase with presentations in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Aevolve founder and CEO Dr. Les Snead said his company was intentional in participating in this year’s event.

“We want to let people know that we want to bring affordable housing to the nation,” Snead told The Informer. “We want to help produce safe, cost-efficient housing that is reasonable to purchase and is earthquake-resistant, hurricane-resistant, and wildfire-resistant. Materials that we use come from the ground and are the material that the pyramids were built with.”

HUD Deputy Secretary Andrew D. Hughes, speaking at the Opening Ceremony on Sept. 6, said companies like Aevolve are why the showcase exists: to offer solutions to the country’s housing crisis.

“There is a shortage of housing, of about 7 million units and rising prices, with the median price of a house at $450,000,” Hughes said.

“We believe the private sector innovation and the free market is the way for more Americans to own homes.”

At a panel on homeownership with Turner on Sept. 9, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, spoke about a bipartisan bill, “The ROAD To Housing Act 2025” that he said

will increase more homeowners.

The bill would address the housing crisis by expanding housing supply, reducing barriers to development, making homeownership more accessible, supporting manufactured housing, and helping communities recover faster from disasters. Key provisions include grants for zoning reform and home building, modernization of lending for manufactured homes, streamlining environmental reviews, and improvements to the appraisal process.

“That bill reported out of committee with a 24-0 vote,” Scott said. “That does not happen in the Senate. It was done because we got input from each senator from both sides of the aisle. Senator Elizabeth Warren and I worked together on this. This was not my bill; this was our bill.”

Turner said that homeownership translates to independence from the government.

“HUD works best when we are empowering people,” he said. “It should never be an endless flow of funds for people. I spoke to a lady who lives (at a facility) at the Atlantic City Housing Authority and her family has lived there for three generations. That should not be. Poverty is not Black or white, nor is poverty Democratic or Republican. We at HUD want to help people buy a home so they can reach their American Dream.”

WI @JamesWrightJr10

5 South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott and HUD Secretary Scott Turner participating in a panel discussion on “The American Home is the American Dream,” held Tuesday, Sept. 9 on the National Mall. (D.R. Barnes/The Washington Informer)

KIRK from Page 4

Security Questions

The assassination has ramped up concerns over vulnerabilities in political event security.

Experts interviewed by the Associated Press said the shooting was an example of how ordinary precautions can be bypassed in an era of escalating political violence.

They questioned whether Kirk’s campus event had sufficient staffing but noted the limitations of university police forces and openair venues.

In addition, people have taken to social media to question security measures during Kirk’s event.

“For the life of me I don’t understand with all the hateful speech and death threats to folks like Charlie Kirk and with today’s technology how the security

at these events can’t put a couple hundred dollar drone up to make sure there are no people crawling around on roofs,” social media user Danny wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Kirk’s Views and Polarization

Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was on a college debate tour when he was shot.

He often dared students to “prove me wrong” in public debates and argued that when “people stop talking, that’s when you get violence.”

But his career was defined by a stream of incendiary remarks about race, gender, immigration, and religion that drew fierce criticism and loyalty in equal measure.

On race, Kirk said in January 2024, “If I see a Black pilot, I’m

going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified,” and in May 2023, he declared: “Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.”

He also was very outspoken on gender and reproductive rights.

“Reject feminism. Submit to your husband,” Kirk said in August 2025. “You’re not in charge.”

Asked about a 10-year-old victim of rape seeking an abortion, he answered, “The answer is yes, the baby would be delivered.”

Further, on his show in April 2024, he demanded “a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor.”

In addition, Kirk defended firearm access even at the cost of lives.

“I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” he said at a Turning Point USA Faith event in April 2023.

Kirk also lamented that Ameri-

ca is “less white,” saying in March 2024 that Democrats “love it when America becomes less white.”

He promoted the “great replacement” conspiracy theory and, in August 2025, praised America’s early 20th-century decision to halt immigration for 40 years.

On Islam, Kirk insisted, “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America,” in a September 2025 social media post. And on religion, he repeatedly rejected the principle of church-state separation, calling it “a fabrication” on his show in July 2022.

A Nation on Edge

While Robinson was still at-large, many conservative critics projected Kirk’s killer to be a left-wing extremist, immigrant, or member of the LGBTQIA community, per the messages found on the bullets.

Thus, many people took to social media to emphasize Robinson’s conservative upbringing and denounce gun violence.

“WAKE UP PEOPLE !!!!! [Tyler Robinson] is not trans, is not a

Democrat, is from a conservative, Republican-leaning household in Utah described as a “white Christian, conservative” who had become increasingly political with disdain for [Charlie Kirk],” one social media user wrote on X. “Quit sowing division [and] stop [gun violence].”

Still, many politicians are speaking out against political violence due to opposing views.

“This was an attack on the American experiment,” Cox said, urging young people to “choose a different path.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders also took to X to warn people against resorting to violence.

“The murder of Charlie Kirk is part of a disturbing rise in political violence that threatens to hollow out our public life,” Sanders wrote in conjunction with a video posted to his X account. “A free society relies on the premise that people can speak out without fear or humiliation. No more political violence.”

WI

5The suspect in the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk is Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old white man from Salt Lake City, Utah, who grew up in a conservative, Republican-leaning household. (Courtesy Photo/FBI)

OAS Introduces Roadmap for Peace in Haiti Five-Pillar Plan Aims

to Restore Stability, Security Amid Growing Violence, Humanitarian Crisis

By Mya Trujillo WI Contributing Writer

n Booklets

n Brochures

n Business Cards

n Banners

n Canvas Bags

n Color Copies

n Contracts & Vouchers

n Church Fans

n Fax & Scan

n Posters & Signs

n Tithe Envelopes

n Tickets & Flyers

n T-Shirts n Mugs & Glassware

n Notary

With Haiti facing one of the most severe security crises in the Western Hemisphere due to gang rule and political instability, causing mass displacement and death, experts note the Caribbean country needs cooperation between its government and global actors to create a strategy toward instilling peace and stability on the island.

According to the most recent quarterly report from the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), as of June 30, 1.3 million people have been forced to flee their homes.

Per the report, 1,520 people were killed and 609 were injured due to gang-led attacks, the initiatives of unorganized self-defense groups and security forces’ operations. Deaths and injuries in Port-au-Prince, where 90% of the city is under gang rule, accounted for 77% of these deaths.

“This is a moment that demands unity and coordination among international organizations as we seek to work hand in hand with Haiti to help address the web of political security and humanitarian challenges facing its people,” said Miroslav Jenča, U.N. assistant secretary-general for political affairs, during the Aug. 27 meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) Group of Friends of Haiti.

In this series of meetings, Haitian government representatives, OAS member states and their stakeholders discussed the plan titled “Towards a Haitian-Led Roadmap for Stability and Peace,” which was introduced by OAS Secretary General Albert Ramdin on Aug. 20.

Members of the international community in support of Haiti hope that the country’s government will use this Roadmap as a tool to regain and sustain political stability and economic development. This plan intends to empower Haitian leadership while also emphasizing the importance of security to create an ideal environment and ensure progress.

“Time is critical in Haiti, especial-

ly when it comes to security,” Ramdin said during an OAS meeting on Aug. 26. “The ultimate goal– shared by all– is to see Haiti reach the point where it can safeguard its own people, govern effectively and deliver essential social and economic services without external support.”

Five Pillars for Stability

The proposed Roadmap is organized into five pillars of action: security stabilization and peace restoration, political consensus, electoral legitimacy, humanitarian response and sustainable development accompanied by economic progress.

To mend Haiti’s deteriorated security and, in turn, reestablish peace, the first pillar is divided into two phases. The first phase, a short-term emergency response, is focused on securing institutions like police stations and justice-related infrastructure to be centers for the deployment of the Haitian National Police (HNP) to regain gang-controlled areas and halt the influx of firearms into the country.

One way the OAS intends to achieve this is by supporting and complementing Multinational Security Support (MSS) initiatives, a measure that directly aligns with UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s wish to strengthen the MSS and authorize an international force supported logistically, operationally

and financially by the UN. “Voluntary contributions to the MSS Trust Fund remain essential, but assessed support would ensure impact and sustainability,” Guterres said in his Aug. 28 remarks to the Security Council regarding Haiti’s crisis. “Security measures must go hand-in-hand with increased pressure on those fueling the violence.”

The first pillar’s second phase is a medium- to long-term approach to sustain the safety recovered under the measures of the first phase. This motion would rebuild Haiti’s law enforcement by professionalizing the HNP through establishing a clear chain of command, efficient recruitment and prioritizing emergency training. If the HNP can improve these areas and replace international troops, then Haiti would be better equipped to rely on its national institutions, pushing it toward true independence from global actors.

Both the political consensus and electoral legitimacy pillars are intended to establish the foundation for a functioning government and sustain it through restoring an efficient democratic pathway ahead of the Feb. 7, 2026, deadline to replace the current Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) with a new constitution and leadership.

WI Read more on washingtoninformer.com.

5 Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General Albert Ramdin presents the strategy for securing peace in Haiti to the OAS Permanent Council. He emphasized the need for Haitian leadership’s involvement in the process of ensuring stability. (Courtesy Photo)

How Washington D.C. Homebuyers Can Save On a Down Payment

Sponsored by JPMorganChase

While there is a lot of uncertainty around the housing market in 2025, affordability still remains a top challenge for homebuyers – especially first-time home buyers who, according to a 2025 Bankrate survey, often cite the upfront costs of homeownership as the biggest barrier to homeownership. And a 2023 study from LendingTree shows that while 39% of homebuyers nationwide use financial assistance, around 22% look to their friends and family for help vs. tapping into available local resources.

Here’s how those in Washington D.C. can access assistance programs and how they can address some of the upfront costs of homeownership.

What are my down payment assistance program options?

Down payment assistance programs aim to make housing more affordable and can be used to address the upfront costs of homeownership. Some down payment assistance options, which span government, municipalities, non-profits, local lenders and so on, include:

• Grants: Homebuyers can

receive funds to put toward their down payment—which can be available at the local, state and lender-level. Homebuyer grants may also cover closing costs if you already have the full down payment amount, and may be stacked with other forms of assistance. For example, Chase offers a homebuyer grant of up to $5,000 when purchasing homes in 15,000 eligible areas in the country, including qualifying neighborhoods in Washington D.C.

• Forgivable loans: Also known as second mortgage down-payment assistance programs, these are low-interest or no-interest down payment loans that may be forgivable. In order to qualify for forgiveness, you may have to satisfy certain requirements. In most cases, borrowers may have to continue to own and live in the home after a period of time to avoid repayment of the loan.

• Deferred-payment loans: These tend to be zero- or low-interest loans that offer a fixed rate to help cover down payment and closing costs. Typically, payments are not due unless you sell the home or refinance your mortgage. If you decide to sell and have a zero-interest deferred-payment loan, you might only have to pay back the amount that you borrowed, regardless of

how much time has gone by.

• Low-down payment loans: Outside of down payment assistance, there are a variety of low down payment mortgage options available with flexible credit requirements. These can be offered by the lender, such as Chase’s DreaMaker mortgage, or through government agency loans such as FHA, Standard Agency, etc. These loans may be as little as 3% down for a qualifying borrower.

How do home buyers know if they qualify?

Eligibility depends on a variety of factors. While each program has different eligibility requirements, some of the elements that determine how much help you can receive and on what terms include your credit score, debt-to-income ratio, income, number of people in your household and completion of a homebuyer education program. In some instances, the home purchase price cannot exceed the maximum limitations set by the agency offering assistance.

Each down payment assistance program requires its own application forms and process. By working with a local real estate or mortgage professional, you can gain insight and understanding on local programs offered by Washington D.C. Additionally, prospective buyers can use the Chase Homebuyer Assistance Finder to research and identify assistance programs at the local, state and lender-level they may be eligible for.

Using mortgage calculators can help you estimate what you can afford, and consulting with mortgage professionals can provide tailored advice and alternative financing options to fit your situation. For more information, visit chase.com/afford.

For informational/ educational purposes only: Views and strategies described in this article or provided via links may not be appropriate for everyone and are not intended as specific advice/recommendation for any business. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but

JPMorgan Chase & Co. or its affiliates and/or subsidiaries do not warrant its completeness or accuracy. The material is not intended to provide legal, tax, or financial advice or to indicate the availability or suitability of any JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. product or service. You should carefully consider your needs and objectives before making any decisions and consult the appropriate professional(s). Outlooks and past performance are not guarantees of future results. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its affiliates are not responsible for, and do not provide or endorse third

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1. Bankrate survey: https://www. bankrate.com/mortgages/home-affordability-report/#change-for-affordable-housing

2. LendingTree study: https:// www.lendingtree.com/home/mortgage/down-payment-help-survey

HEALTH

The Battle Unseen: How Mental Health Care, Holistic Medicine, and Hope Could Change Sickle Cell Disease

By Dr. Patrise Holden WI Contributing Writer

For decades, sickle cell disease (SCD) has been defined by what doctors could measure: blood counts, countless hospital visits, surgical procedures, and tracking the crippling, sharp, relentless pain.

What often goes unseen is the mental and emotional cost to the estimated 100,000 individuals in the United States affected by the illness. The enormous psycholog-

ical impact of the disease is birthing a new movement in health care that encourages treatment beyond the pain, extending to the entire person.

“Chronic pain, especially throughout a lifetime, can cause depression, hopelessness, and anxiety,” said Dr. James G. Taylor VI, director of the Howard University Center for Sickle Cell Disease.

Sickle cell disease is a genetic blood disorder characterized by abnormal red blood cells that are rigid and sickle-shaped, disrupting

blood flow and depriving organs and tissues of oxygen. This disruption of blood flow causes blockages in blood vessels, leading to frequent episodes of excruciating pain.

“People talk about the pain, but the underlying cause is a lack of oxygen to the muscles, organs, and tissues,” Taylor explained. “Over time, the lack of oxygen to the cells causes damage to organs and tissues, eyes, brain, lungs, and heart. It is a multisystem disorder that affects the entire body.”

The hallmark of sickle cell disease is excruciating pain. However, the physical pain is often compounded by a complex mix of social and economic challenges that can negatively affect both medical treatment and quality of life for those living with the illness.

Recognizing the need for holistic care, Cayenne Wellness Center, a leader in sickle cell education and advocacy for 25 years, is spearheading a national movement to transform the delivery of medical care for individuals with sickle cell disease.

Enduring a lifetime of pain, hospitalizations, and medical complications, the condition often leaves deep psychological and emotional scars. For those with sickle cell, much of the pain is not always visible.

3Leaders in sickle cell disease research and treatment, such as Howard University, indicate that early education and testing not only increase quality of life but also improve life expectancy. (Courtesy of Cayenne Wellness Center

tations for living successfully with the disease.

“The mindset psychology of a child with sickle cell is akin to that of a child with leukemia. Sickle cell is a chronic disease,” Taylor related. “We can treat the symptoms, but there is no universal cure. The psychological impact on patients over a lifetime is tremendous.”

The university also employs early screening in order to educate and treat the illness at the earliest stages possible, and creates care plans that treat the whole person.

“We look at vaccines, economics, and screen kidney functions to identify not only health but the way that life impacts health,” Taylor said.

To highlight the often unaddressed mental toll of the disease, Cayenne Wellness Center will host its 17th annual summit, “Let’s Talk About Pain: The Seen and Unseen,” in San Jose, California, Sept. 17-20.

“We have to talk about the pain not just as it relates to the body, but the multifaceted layers of pain surrounding quality of life,” said Carley Cole-Cavins, marketing manager for Cayenne Wellness Center. “Job loss, housing insecurity, mental anguish, and difficulties receiving medical treatment. All of these things take a mental toll that can negatively affect patient care and impact overall health.”

Addressing the Overlooked Psychological Impact of Sickle Cell

Organizations such as Howard’s Center for Sickle Cell Disease and Cayenne Wellness Center provide wraparound care that also addresses the enormous psychological effects of the disease.

Howard University has adopted a holistic approach to treating the more than 300 SCD patients in their care.

The pediatric department utilizes a genetic counselor who teaches social and lifestyle skills and adap-

He also emphasized the importance of doctors asking questions beyond symptoms and traditional medicine.

“We want to know if you’re homeless or need meal assistance, if you’re depressed, because those things shape health as much as any lab result,” Taylor continued. “Some patients have more of the loud symptoms, some have the silent symptoms. As a medical provider, you need to ask, because the two are equally serious.”

Based in Glendale, California, Cayenne Wellness Center provides respite care for parents hospitalized due to pain, financial assistance for rent and utilities, transportation, and even holistic therapies such as stretching, reflexology, and nocost counseling.

“Providing wraparound holistic care is one of the most effective ways to improve quality of life, both mental and physical, for those with sickle cell disease,” said Cole-Cavins.

The Hope, the Dream, the Promise

For many, the hope for the future of sickle cell care is one centered on prevention and innovation. Although there is no universal cure, new FDA-approved treatments show promise.

Adakveo, a prescription intrave-

Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month

HEALTH from Page 22

nous medication used to reduce the frequency of vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) or pain, has been found to reduce hospitalizations by 60%, according to the Center for Sickle Cell Disease at Howard University.

In addition, Howard notes that L-glutamine, an amino acid, has been found to reduce pain episodes by 25%.

Taylor said that medications like these, when combined with hydroxyurea, help discourage red blood cells from becoming misshapen and blocking blood flow. As a result, many patients are beginning to imagine lives less defined by emergency rooms and hospitals.

“We need to change how we approach hospitalization in sickle cell,” Taylor said. “How can we make your life better and intervene before a crisis? Preventative therapies should be the central focus of a healthy sickle cell regimen.”

For a rare few, like Chris Lundy, the dream of a cure has already been realized. At just 16 years old, 25 years ago, Lundy underwent a bone marrow transplant that cured him of sickle cell disease.

“I’ve learned that the process varies from person to person,” Lundy said. “Some don’t make it through the bone marrow transplant.”

However, in Lundy’s case, the transplant proved transformative.

“I’ve lived more of my life without sickle cell than with it,” he recounted. “That bone marrow transplant, my little brother as donor,

changed the trajectory of my life.”

Nonetheless, as there is no universal cure for sickle cell disease, Lundy’s cure remains rare even today.

In 2000, Lundy recalled that his bone marrow transplant cost an estimated $100,000. In 2025, he estimates the cost to be between $1,000,000 to $1,300,000. Still, his story embodies what is possible when medical science, access to care, and forward thinking medical providers align.

Today, Lundy is thriving, working as an academic advisor at Georgia Tech. He counsels youth and advocates for changes in health care, much of it centered around direct patient education.

Both physically and psychologically, he noted that his recovery, post transplant, was a process that took years.

“There was also the fear that somehow the sickle cell would come back,” Lundy recalled. “To this day, I still consider myself a sickle cell warrior. I wear several surgical scars that show I did battle with the illness and survived.”

This reporter has genotype SS, the most aggressive form of sickle cell disease. She lectures and advocates nationally for inclusion of mental health support and holistic and alternative medicine as treatment for those with chronic illnesses. The proud facilitator of a free virtual support group, Dr. Holden teaches coping and life skills to those affected by chronic illness and their families. WI

Date: Saturday, OCTOBER 4 Time: 1:00 - 4:00 pm

5Chris Lundy, cured of sickle cell disease at age 16 through a bone marrow transplant, enjoys an afternoon of good health, laughter, and great food. (Photo Courtesy/ Chris Lundy)

EARTH OUR

The EPA’s Ability to Kill Climate Justice Gets New Life

An Appeals Court Ruling Clears Path to Block $20b in Funding for Low-Income, Black Communities

By Willy Blackmore Word in Black

This article was originally published online with Word In Black, a collaboration of the nation’s leading Black news publishers (of which The Washington Informer is a member).

When the Green House Gas Reduction Fund was established under the Inflation Reduction Act, lawmakers not only earmarked a dollar amount that would be invested through the so-called green bank program, but where investments from the $20 billion fund should be made.

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The bulk of the money, some 70%, was supposed to be spent in low-income and disadvantaged communities — communities where there are likely to be many Black people.

It now seems unsurprising, then,

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that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under its Trump-appointed Administrator Lee Zeldin, has gone after this huge environmental investment fund focused on frontline communities, moving to cancel it entirely earlier this year, despite all the funds having already been awarded to various nonprofit groups.

But last week, the EPA won a significant court ruling that says the agency was, in fact, justified in freezing the $20 billion in already obligated funds.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 in favor of the EPA, with the majority decision by two Trump-appointed judges framing the issue as a contract dispute that belongs in federal claims court — which can only award monetary damages at most, and would not be able to restore access to the $16 billion in obligated grants that the plaintiffs were cut off from.

“In sum, district courts have no jurisdiction to hear claims that the federal government terminated a grant agreement arbitrarily or with impunity. Claims of arbitrary grant termination are essentially contractual,” Judge Neomi Rao wrote in the decision, which was also supported by Judge Gregory Katsas, both appointed during the first Trump administration.

It’s a big change in tone compared to earlier discussions of the lawsuit, which was framed more in terms of the EPA undermining Congress’ power of the purse by

attempting to claw back billions of dollars in funds that were appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act back in 2022. But a dissent written by the third member of the court, Judge Cornelia Pillard, an Obama appointee, argued that this is far larger than a contract dispute.

“The majority allows the government to seize plaintiffs’ money based on spurious and pretextual allegations and to permanently gut implementation of major congressional legislation designed to improve the infrastructure, health, and economic security of communities throughout the country,” she wrote in her dissent.

The EPA under Zeldin has made claims of widespread waste and abuse under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund program as the basis for freezing the funds. But in April, a lower court found that the Justice Department did not substantiate those claims, and a ruling required Citibank, which was holding the funds granted by the EPA, to make them available to the nonprofit group to which they had been awarded.

The Trump administration then appealed, leading the way to this new ruling in favor of the EPA.

The ruling, however, is not the final word in the case, and the nonprofit groups can and will appeal again.

As Beth Bafford, CEO of Climate United, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement: “This is not the end of our road.” WI

5 The Environmental Protection Agency, under Administrator Lee Zeldin, has gone after a huge environmental investment fund focused on frontline communities, moving to cancel it entirely earlier this year, despite all the funds having already been awarded to various nonprofit groups. (Courtesy Photo)

CITIZENS from Page 1

ation Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA), a bill the D.C. Council passed nearly a decade ago to allow those convicted as juveniles to petition for early release after serving at least 15 years of their federal prison sentence. During a mark-up session conducted in the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last week, Congressional Republicans opted to proactively nullify the law, which erases any possibility for future juvenile offenders to petition for their early release.

As James Carpenter explained, such an outcome, if approved and signed in law, would unfairly target a population of D.C. residents eager to improve their communities.

“They just don’t understand the support that we give one another, how we provide resources for one another,” said Carpenter, one of several District returning citizens who reduced his sentence through IRAA. “I wish they could just come and just see how this whole process goes and just see some of the work that a lot of us are doing so they can appreciate our presence in the community.”

In 2020, Carpenter returned home after serving nearly half of a 54-year prison sentence that started when he was 17 years old. He told The Informer that, while incarcerated, he thought about his turbulent upbringing and circumstances of his conviction, all while maintaining contact with his sister who, after testifying before the D.C. Council in support of IRAA, told him about the law.

Since leaving the federal prison system, Carpenter has reacclimated himself to life on the outside. He’s also been a constant figure at D.C. Superior Court, where he supports IRAA petitioners at hearings where a judge determines whether their sentence will be reduced.

Such was the case on Friday, two days after the 10-hour committee mark-up that threw IRAA to the wind.

As he walked into D.C. Superior Court, Carpenter lambasted congressional Republicans for, as he described it, tipping the scale in criminal justice matters that District residents have examined at length. IRAA, he said, represents an acknowledgement among local lawmakers that punitive law enforcement, like what the Trump administration is demanding, doesn’t address the root causes of crime.

“We’re trying to have a type of law enforcement that’s more in line with

the modern sentencing structures that factors in all aspects of a person’s crime, not just the crime itself, but their life, how they grew up, their upbringing, and whatever else,” Carpenter told The Informer.

As House leaders prepare to bring some of the bills up for a vote in the coming weeks, activists and local officials are leveraging their influence and proximity to Capitol Hill to counter these attempts to control the District.

Carpenter predicted that such efforts won’t go in vain.

“I’m just hoping that through the democratic process, we can push back on this and just be let alone,” Carpenter told The Informer. “Let us deal with our local laws the way we deem necessary. If we feel like the sentencing structure is weaker, then we have people in place that will address that on the city council. And if they don’t, then we can vote them out.”

The Ill-Fated House Committee Mark-up, as Recounted by Advocates

Throughout much of Sept. 10, several D.C. residents and activists flooded the halls of Congress and later the room where, for more than 10 hours, members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform approved more than a dozen bills aimed at further consolidating congressional and executive control of the District’s public safety ecosystem.

Tracy Velazquez, one of several people who attended, and later watched the online stream of the committee markup said D.C. residents, by virtue of their physical presence, pleaded their cause before a legislative body largely unfamiliar with the nuances of local laws.

“It just shows the level of concern [about] the current situation,” Velazquez told The Informer. “We hope that as these bills move forward, that congresspeople listen to the individuals and [those] who are talking about what they believe is in the best interest of the District.”

In her role as policy director of Council for Court Excellence, Velazquez has been circulating fact sheets on some of the local policies that congressional Republicans are targeting. She expressed concern about legislation that eliminates the D.C. Judicial Nomination Commission and gives the president the sole power to nominate judges for D.C. courts.

5 After his release from prison in 2020 as a result of the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA), James Carpenter supports IRAA petitioners at hearings where a judge determines whether their sentence will be reduced. (Courtesy Photo/More Than Our Crimes)

“No other city or state has their local judiciary determined in such a manner,” Velazquez said. “To have these judges who have 15-year terms appointed a president, that means

OUR EARTH

5 Robert Barton, an IRAA beneficiary who helps others navigate the petition process and founder of More Than Our Crimes, credits the law with giving D.C. residents in the federal prison system hope about their situation. (Courtesy Photo/More Than Our Crimes)

long-term consequences in decision making for people in the District, not just on criminal justice, but for other matters as well.”

On Thursday night, votes fell along

party lines with only one Democrat, Rep. David Min of California, supporting the mostly Republican-introduced measures.

Bills that passed included legislation that D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced to allow the D.C. Council chairperson to transmit locally approved bills to Congress in any form of their choosing, including electronic.

Other measures coming out of the House committee change the congressional review process and expand the local processes that would be subject to it. House Republicans also threw their support behind a repeal of comprehensive policing legislation the D.C. Council passed after George Floyd’s murder and a measure Rep. John McGuire (R-Va.) introduced to codify President Donald J. Trump’s “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful” executive order. Meanwhile, Rep. Will Timmons (R- S.C.) successfully advanced a bill criminalizing sleeping in public spaces, while committee members approved a bill introduced by Texas Rep. BranCITIZENS from Page 41

EDUCATION

from Page 1

way too slowly, is the bottom line,” said Pollack, executive director of the DC Tutoring & Mentoring Initiative (DCTMI). “There are a lot more people that could rearrange their schedules to be able to help the one to two hours a week that can make a difference.”

In the months following the March expiration of COVID relief funds that supported the District’s high-impact tutoring program, Pollack issued a call for volunteers who can support classroom sizes of up to 30 students. As some youth continue to experience literacy challenges, Pollack said he’s focused on ensuring a path to academic success that extends beyond a child’s formative years.

“[When] students start their school career reading below grade level and struggling at math, they can easily become discouraged,” Pollack told The Informer. “When they become discouraged, they don’t work as hard, they fall further and further behind, and that’s when they start disengaging from school. That’s when ‘problem kids’ become problem kids.”

Established in 2016, DC Tutoring & Mentoring Initiative works

to shape academic equity through partnerships with more than 50 regional nonprofits, and recently, some District public schools, including Malcolm X Elementary School in Southeast, where DCTMI is diverting much of its resources this school year.

As DCPS officials focus on learning acceleration, student safety and well-being, and forging college and career pathways, Pollack said that DCTMI will embark on its scaling recruitment efforts, via attracting more bilingual tutors, mentors, and volunteers across all wards.

“The more we can push volunteers into classrooms and help students learn after school, the more success they’ll have, the better able teachers will be to do their jobs, and the happier they’ll be,” Pollack told The Informer. “We can create this upward spiral of success instead of what feels like…a modest upward trajectory.”

Test Scores Show Students Still Struggling as D.C. Officials Tout Growth

Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also

I Dream Public Charter School 2220 Branch Ave SE Washington, DC 20020

known as NAEP, shows more than 60% of District students are still reading below grade level, and three out of four students are behind in math.

In Ward 1, an enclave for English language learners, students haven’t seen much progress, with English and language arts (ELA) and math proficiency decreasing by less than a percentage point.

District fourth graders remain five percentage points behind their peers nationwide, and one percentage point behind young people living in major cities. This is in spite of a 23

percentage point increase from what the National Assessment of Education Progress reported more than 20 years ago.

Even so, District education officials continue to extol what they call significant strides made in local education.

“The NAEP results tell the story of how D.C. became the fastest improving urban school district in the country, and now, how we are relentless in our work to get students back on track,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote on X earlier this year.

On Sept. 4, Bowser and members of her education team converged on Stuart Hobson Middle School in Northeast for a “State of D.C. Schools” presentation that highlighted the District as a national model for urban education.”

the direct result…of two decades of mayoral control with council oversight and our investments,” Kihn said. “It is a reminder that when we invest strategically, we get the governance right, we hold ourselves accountable, we can build one of the strongest public education systems in the nation.”

During the latter part of last month, Kihn, Ferebee, Walker-Davis, and Mitchell unveiled the most recent results of the the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessments of Progress in Education, also known as DC CAPE.

September 11, 2025

I Dream Public Charter School has closed as of June 18, 2025. I Dream Public Charter School is a publicly funded public charter school in the District of Columbia that operates via a charter granted by the DC Public Charter School Board. (DC PCBS) and is subject to their authority. The I Dream Public Charter School Board of Directors has decided it is necessary to relinquish our charter. We are required to dissolve the school organization in accordance with the policies and guidelines of the DC Public Charter School Board.

Sincerely,

Lanette Dailey-Reese Director of Operations

Bowser— flanked by Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn, State Superintendent of Education Dr. Antoinette Mitchell, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Dr. Lewis Ferebee, and Dr. Michelle Walker-Davis, executive director of D.C. Public Charter School Board— touted increased ELA and math proficiency, a 15-point surge in the citywide graduation rate over a 12-year period, and parent satisfaction standing at well above the national average.

For Kihn, the data was nearly 20 years in the making for a school system unique from that of other jurisdictions.

“This remarkable achievement is

The results, which officials described as the best in 15 years, showed student improvement in English and language arts, mathematics and science. Economically disadvantaged students across the District had higher English and language results than in years past, while more than 40% of schools also experienced an increase of at least 5% in either ELA or math. Results also showed 57.7% of students in third through eighth grades designated as proficient and approaching proficiency.

ELA proficiency increased by 3.6% percentage points from what was reported (37.5%) in 2019, while the proportion of struggling students (26.4%) dropped by 2.4 percentage points.

“We’ve got a lot to be proud of as we’ve stayed focused on this work,” Kihn said. “The future of our city de-

5 District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) Chancellor Lewis Ferebee, Deputy Mayor of Education Paul Kihn, District Mayor Muriel Bowser, State Superintendent of Education Dr. Antoinette Mitchell and Dr. Michelle Walker-Davis, executive director of D.C. Public Charter School Board, discuss the state of D.C. education at Stuart Hobson Middle School in Northeast on Sept. 4. (Jada Ingleton/ The Washington Informer)

STUDENTS

Federal Cuts Strip $350 Million Minority-Serving Institutions, Administration Redirects $435

Million to HBCUs

UNCF Celebrates Funding, Offers Call to Action for More Support

By Stacy M. Brown and Micha Green WI Senior Writer and WI Managing Editor

The U.S. Department of Education has announced the cancellation of $350 million in federal grants that had been designated for minority-serving institutions, and redirected hundreds of millions of funds to support historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

In a Sept. 10 announcement, Education Secretary Linda McMahon stated that the department will “no longer award Minority-Serving Institution grants that discriminate by restricting eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas.”

HBCUs were not initially included in the cuts, as they are open to all students, regardless of race, with McMahon adding in her announcement that the administration intends to redirect the money toward programs “that advance administration priorities.”

As minority-serving institutions reel from last week’s announcement, concerned about critical funding to support students and campuses, the administration announced $435 million in previous discretionary funds to bolster HBCUs.

“This additional funding is nothing short of a godsend for HBCUs,” Lodriguez V. Murray, UNCF’s senior vice president for public policy and government affairs, said in a statement. “We are grateful to have worked with the Trump administration, Secretary McMahon, and her Department of Education team in achieving this one-time infusion of grant funding.”

A Major Blow to Minority-Serving Institutions

The funding minority-serving institutions have supported initiatives including laboratory

Advancing care in our communities.

Together, we are a force for good. That’s why we invest in partnerships that advance equity in local Black communities by improving access to educational opportunities, healthcare and mental health support.

Rising Unemployment Rate for Black Women Sparks Outrage

Black women are facing the highest jobless rate of any group in America — 6.7% in August — and the toll is mounting. For Black Americans overall, the 7.5% jobless rate is double that of white workers and the highest it’s been since 2021.

The percentages may seem abstract, but the reality is staggering: more than 300,000 Black women have lost their jobs since February.

Some point to artificial intelligence as a looming threat to job security. But right now, the sharpest blows are coming from the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and deep cuts to the federal workforce, including government contractors — sectors where Black women have long played crucial roles.

Layer on the persistence of racism and the daily drumbeat of insults from far-right figures like Charlie Kirk, who used his platform to sneer that leaders such as Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson “stole a white person’s

slot,” and it’s clear the message to many Black women is: You do not belong.

And while many have expressed sorrow over Kirk’s untimely and violent death, his words continue to echo — and wound — long after he is gone.

The stakes could not be higher. Black women are disproportionately single mothers — 47% in 2023, up from 29.5% in 1970. Every lost paycheck magnifies the risk of poverty, housing instability, food insecurity and the erasure of hard-won economic gains for Black families.

And yet, Black women continue to rise. They are launching businesses, learning new skills and forging pathways out of crisis. Their resilience is a blueprint — but resilience alone is not enough. If we truly value Black women, our community must do more than applaud their strength. We must invest in it. Support Blackowned businesses. Mentor women entering new fields. Demand equitable workplace policies. Push

lawmakers to protect DEI efforts instead of dismantling them.

Black women have carried our families, our churches, our schools and our movements. Now, they deserve to be carried — with opportunity, respect and unwavering support. Let’s answer their resilience with our resolve.

WI

The stakes could not be higher. Black women are disproportionately single mothers — 47% in 2023, up from 29.5% in 1970.

The Death of Political Discourse in America

Mixed Signals from the White House on Political Violence

Political violence in the United States is no longer a distant threat — it is becoming a disturbing reality.

From the assassination of Charlie Kirk, to the tragic killing of a Jewish couple leaving an event in Washington, D.C., to recent political murders in Minnesota, and the shoot-

What makes this moment even more damaging is the hypocrisy of our national leadership.

ings at a Roman Catholic school, the evidence is clear: our civic space is being tainted by rage and hatred.

Kirk promoted ideas rooted in division, bigotry, and exclusion, but no matter how much someone disagrees with his views, no one deserves to be killed for their political beliefs. Taking a life for ideology is not just an attack on an individual; it’s an attack on democracy itself.

What makes this moment even more damaging is the hypocrisy of our national leadership.

President Donald J. Trump has ordered flags to be flown at halfstaff and is posthumously awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Kirk. Still, he publicly mocked the 2022 brutal attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in his home.

Violence cannot be condemned when it affects allies and celebrated—or dismissed—when it impacts opponents. That double standard undermines the moral foundation on which democracy must stand.

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-

AZ), who was severely injured in a 2012 assassination attempt, reacting to Kirk killing, said, “Both parties have been targeted, and both parties share a moral and patriotic duty to take meaningful action to stop gun crime from taking more lives.”

The decline of political discourse in America happens not only when guns are fired but also when leaders normalize violence, when rhetoric dehumanizes opponents, and when citizens start viewing fellow Americans as enemies instead of neighbors.

If we fail to condemn political violence consistently, we become part of its spread.

The actual test of democracy is not just how we defend those we agree with but how we protect the rights—and lives—of those whose beliefs we oppose.

To honor our republic, we must denounce violence in all its forms and recommit ourselves to debate, persuasion, and the peaceful exchange of ideas.

WI

TO THE EDITOR

“It has been refreshing to see an HONEST report on this event!” (In reference to the article: “Suspect in Charlie Kirk Assassination Identified as White Utah Man with Police Ties.”) - Jay Hansen

What a great Man (In reference to the article: “Rohulamin Quander, Retired Judge and Family Historian, Dies at 81”)! My sincere condolences to Carmen and the family. My sincere condolences to Carmen and the family. My fraternity brother and mentor, he was an inspiration. Rest in peace, brother. God bless his wife and family.” -Steven Coles

Readers’ Mailbox The Washington Informer welcomes letters to the editor about articles we publish or issues affecting the community. Write to news@washingtoninformer.com. or send to: 3117 Martin Luther King Jr Ave., SE, Washington, D.C. 20032. Please note that we are unable to publish letters that do not include a full name, address and phone number. We look forward to hearing from you.

OPINIONS/EDITORIALS

Guest Columnist

The

Black Press:

The Black Press is two years away from its 200th anniversary. Two centuries of carrying our story when others denied us a voice. Two centuries of fighting mobs, resisting Jim Crow, surviving fire and standing against lies. And now, in its hour of need, as corporate America cuts ties and Washington turns away, the silence of Black America’s billionaires is as loud as the

Stacy M. Brown

Two Centuries of Truth— But Who Will Save It?

betrayals of history.

We know their names. David Steward, Robert F. Smith, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Jay-Z, Rihanna, LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Tyler Perry, Tope Awotona, Sheila Johnson and Tiger Woods. Add to them Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Patrice Motsepe, Strive Masiyiwa, Abdulsamad Rabiu — giants whose fortunes shape nations. Together, they command nearly $100 billion in wealth. Yet the institution that once defended their very humanity now struggles to keep its doors open. We are not begging for

handouts; we are asking you to stand with the very press that once stood for you. When you unveil a new film or a book, when you seek to raise a cause, when your friends or your ventures deserve the light, do not look only to the white press. Bring your ads here, bring your stories here. Share us as you share yourselves, for the truth is simple: If the Black Press falls, the story of who we are falls with it.

White men like Mark Cuban have reached into their pockets. Organizations like the New York Islanders have stepped forward. But the very

Wilmer Leon

institution that gave this nation Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells, Ethel Payne and Daisy Bates, the Chicago Defender, the New Pittsburgh Courier, the Baltimore Afro, Ebony and the Amsterdam News — now gasps for breath without the lifeline it deserves.

The Black Press has never been an abstraction. It has always been the front line. In 1921, when white supremacists torched Tulsa, they burned down Black-owned newspapers to silence the truth. During Jim Crow, it was the Black Press that funneled guidance to families navigating terror.

Charlie Kirk’s Racist/Xenophobic Rants Are Not Protected Speech

“I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.” — Charlie Kirk, April 5, 2023

Political flamethrower Charlie Kirk was shot dead Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at a political event at Utah

I want to start this week’s column by validating your anxiety about the state of our country. The violence we see morning, noon and night is not normal.

To date, America has seen 357 mass shootings in 2025 alone — a rate that exceeds one per day.

In the last two weeks alone, we witnessed a mass shooting at a Catholic

Valley University in Orem, Utah. Authorities have arrested Utah resident Tyler James Robinson, 22. He allegedly confessed to the shooting to a family member.

Kirk’s shooting has triggered a national discussion about the political significance and/or impact that it will have moving forward. There are two basic elements of analysis of this event for me — the human element and the political.

From the human perspective, very simply put, this was first-degree mur-

der. It was the unlawful, intentional killing of one human being by another, with malice aforethought. Murder is wrong. I cannot condone it nor advocate for it in any circumstance. I believe even though it is not always apparent to us, the Creator will set things right. The scales will be balanced, but we must always work diligently and do everything in our power to balance them as well.

From the political perspective, we must be very clear. Charlie Kirk was no martyr. He was an angry, igno-

rant, intolerant, xenophobic, racist, hate-spewing white supremacist. There are far too many in mainstream media and politics who are doing everything in their power to turn Tyler James Robinson’s horrific act into a referendum or validation of whatever agenda they are trying to promote. Trump has ramped up his attacks on “the radical left.” According to him, “We’re dealing with a radical left group of lunatics, and they don’t play fair, and they never did.” Kirk’s widow Erika has said, “Those evildoers

When Mamie Till thrust her son’s mutilated body before the world, it was the Black Press that carried the pictures. When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X needed their words to reach their people, when the white press dismissed them as agitators, it was the Black Press that published their vision.

And today, it is still more than 200 family-owned newspapers, many of them run by Black women. These women carry the weight of history,

school in Minneapolis that claimed the lives of two children and injured 21 others, and the violent murder of an influencer. Both incidents have spread like wildfire on social media platforms that have repeatedly failed to curb hate speech and violent rhetoric.

Some users have called for organizing and bringing retribution to their perceived enemies. This content has generated millions of views and likes within days. And rather than quelling anger and anxiety and uniting our nation, political leaders have taken mis-

information and divisive ideals — at times racist, xenophobic, misogynistic and homophobic — mainstream. These have resulted in threats of gun violence, bombings and hate speech that forced historically Black colleges across the country to close their doors for the safety of their students and staff.

One of the most significant risks of allowing this targeted hatred is the dismantling of our Constitution and democracy.

In the wake of the mass shooting in Minneapolis, outrage quickly shifted

from the act of violence itself to the identity of the shooter. This has led to dangerous recommendations to limit Second Amendment rights to one group of Americans, opening the door to legalized discrimination at the federal level.

That, combined with the defunding of gun safety programs, background checks and federal mental health programs, including shutdowns of national suicide hotlines, will no doubt lead to more gun violence and public fears.

Let’s call these attacks what they are:

responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done. They should all know this …” By all official accounts, Robinson was a lone wolf with no known political affiliation. How does he become part of “the radical left” or Erika Kirk’s contrived group of evildoers?

Others like Utah Gov. Spencer Cox are trying to turn this into a discussion about political speech without examining the content and nature of that

domestic terrorism. Students should be able to walk their hallways without being gunned down at any moment. Parents should be able to drop off their children at school, malls and movie theaters without wondering if it is the last time that they’ll see them. Church parishioners should be able to attend houses of worship without the threat of a mass shooter bursting through the doors and taking their lives. People should be able to shop for groceries and leave

Marc H. Morial

Guest Columnist

Guest Columnist

Guest Columnist

The Killing of Charles James Kirk: Violent Speech Leads to Violence

There are so many words and cliches condemning the killing of Charles James Kirk, and none of the refrains are unique. “We need to dial back our discourse,” “we need to be tolerant of different opinions,” and “there is no room in American politics for political violence.”

Are people blind to the realities that have been swirling all around

us? The language has been violent. The discord has been great. There has been a consistent invitation to dine at the table of heated racist discussion posing as legitimate political speech.

The killing of Charlie Kirk fits within this arena of speech that is racist and hate-filled but is designed to pose as rational and logical political speech. In his rhetoric and socalled debate style, this 31-year-old evangelical firebrand of the right has stated that black pilots were incompetent, gays should be stoned,

Guest

ironically he was opposed to gun control, abortion, LGBTQ rights, criticized the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Martin Luther King Jr., promoted Christian nationalism, advanced COVID-19 misinformation, made false claims of electoral fraud in 2020, and is a proponent of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory.

This Chicago-born suburbanite brought all of the racial innuendo to political speech and rhetorically violated the safety and security of blacks, people of color, the

LGBTQIA community, perverted the history of race and racism in America, attempted to legitimize the nation as a white bastion of civilization and Christianity, and in general perfected the use of racial and hateful language and molded it into a form of acceptable and legitimate political debate and viewpoint.

But the legitimate debate aspect was far from legitimate historical benign speech, nor was it nonviolent in character. In fact, it touched all of the refrains of the vile language of the past that resulted far too many

Chicago’s Streets Still Moving to America’s Historic Rhythms

I started out this year, 2025, in Chicago, honored to give the Martin Luther King Jr. Day address at the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s big gathering.

The timing was unforgettable. As I stepped to the podium on the South Side, Donald Trump was taking the oath of office in Washington, D.C. His inaugural speech

was a drumbeat for a new era of hostility toward immigrants and people of color. Mine, at that very moment, was a call for Chicago’s Black middle class to choose solidarity with recent immigrants in resisting such hatred and violence.

That juxtaposition has stayed with me, and it came back into focus when I returned to Chicago more recently. This city has always been a stage for America’s great struggles. From the marchers for labor rights at Haymarket in the 1880s, to the rallies for civil rights

in the 1960s, to the immigration raids and protests of this year, Chicago has a way of putting our unfinished business right in front of our eyes.

Walking its streets in 2025, I was reminded of the 1920s. Then, too, Chicago was alive with both promise and peril. Jazz poured from clubs in Bronzeville, poetry from the pens of the Harlem Renaissance, and industrial might from the stockyards. But alongside all that creativity came the sting of exclusion — Prohibition raids,

Bias Embedded in Algorithms

ing on Instagram; spend more time using the AIs,” Srinivas said.

“That’s your way to add value to the new society.”

As artificial intelligence continues to transform and reshape our traditional workplaces, Aravind Srinivas, CEO of the AI search platform Perplexity, has a direct message for the younger generation of workers: It’s time to put down Instagram and start mastering AI tools.

“Spend less time doomscroll-

Srinivas, who has become one of the most vocal advocates of AI literacy among young users, emphasized that individuals who are fluent in using AI will be significantly more employable and relevant in an AI-first economy, while those who are not risk being left behind.

“The human race has never been extremely fast at adapting. This is

testing the limits,” Srinivas noted, referring to the speed at which AI capabilities are evolving. “There are new breakthroughs every few months. Everyone will have to adapt fast.”

AI is overtaking most people in an increasingly automated world; it has already become a key factor in employability. According to SignalFire, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, the hiring of new graduates at big tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia

times in lynchings and other forms of racial violence and upheaval.

Don’t get me wrong — I am sorry for the death and killing of Charlie Kirk. I have stood over many coffins of people I did not agree with and said words of comfort to the families during my 40-plus years of ministry.

In doing so I have looked at a person’s life to find something to say about their character, worthiness, and contributions they have made in their lifetime. Sometimes the task

gangland violence and the rise of a Ku Klux Klan that, for a time, had as many members in Indiana as in Mississippi.

A century later, the echoes are unmistakable. Today, Chicago is once again in the headlines as federal agents sweep through immigrant neighborhoods, as protests spill onto Lake Shore Drive, as tensions around race, belonging and identity bubble to the surface. And just as in the 1920s, the people in the streets are not simply “angry mobs” as the headlines

often portray them. They are families fighting to be seen, communities demanding dignity and young people refusing to inherit a broken status quo.

This is part of a longer American rhythm. Our centuries often rhyme decade by decade. The 1820s, for example, saw Andrew Jackson’s populist movement rise to power. It promised more democracy for white men, but it also unleashed brutal racism. Jackson’s

and Tesla has declined by more than 50% since 2022. The report titled “State of Tech Talent: 2025” states that the reason for the collapse in entry-level hiring is related to the rise of AI.

Therefore, Srinivas’ warning is clear. Adapt or fall behind. The battle is not simply a fight for workers’ futures, but a fight for the basic welfare and investment in human beings. Artificial intelligence has not only become another means of eliminating the human factor from the workplace to

achieve greater corporate profits, but it will also make it harder for people to find means of survival. When Srinivas refers to adding value to a new society, it highlights how new eras of technology drove societal changes in America’s past. We can never ignore how America has always been obsessed with exploiting labor for financial prosperity. This fixation on cheap labor results in paying unskilled workers next to nothing while

David W. Marshall

Guest Columnist

Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler

Ben Jealous

Columnist

LIFESTYLE

Resilience Through

Storytelling:

How

3 Authors are Fighting Cultural Erasure

By Jada Ingleton WI Content Editor

Amid hurdles of cultural erasure and attempts to minimize African American history, DMV-based authors A’lelia Bundles, Juanita Tolliver and Dr. Dana Williams are respectively leveraging truth and storytelling to set the record straight on four formidable Black sheroes: A’Lelia Walker, Toni Morrison and the dynamic duo of Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carroll.

This year’s releases of “Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance,” “A More Perfect Party: The Night Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carroll Reshaped Politics,” and Williams’ “Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship” honor these women with a counter to decades of misinformation and lack of recognition – all the while reintroducing readers to some of the nation’s most pivotal changemakers.

“The marching order is first and foremost, accept history about Black people in this nation to be U.S. history, and to challenge anybody who’s trying to erase it,” Tolliver told The Informer ahead of her June District of Columbia Public Library author talk. “Shirley Chisholm is U.S. history, Diahann Carroll is U.S. history. I’m documenting that and it deserves to be right there; without it, this nation doesn’t exist.”

As September’s Black Reading Month unfolds— a month-long recognition for Black authors— check out these three novels celebrating truth, women empowerment, and the stroke of Morrison’s pen.

“You can’t put it back in the bottle–they’re trying to make it illegal and improper to tell these stories, and I’m just going to keep telling them,” Bundles told The Informer, “and I know that there are others like me who are committed to that as well.”

Correcting the Record on the 1920s ‘Joy Goddess’

As the great-granddaughter of A’leila Walker, daughter of African American entrepreneur Madam CJ Walker, Bundles took a personal note in correcting a legacy tainted with misconceptions.

Originally released on June 10, “Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance” is the product of more than 50 years of research, drawn from private letters, family papers and first-hand recounts that attest to one of the leading figures of the 1920s and 30s.

“Some of the most well known books about the Harlem Renaissance really almost caricatured and diminished her,” Bundles said, highlighting common beliefs that Walker squandered her mother’s inheritance and “spent the ‘20s playing bridge.”

“While I would say that she enjoyed a good game of bridge and a good game of poker, that is not how she spent her life,” Bundles said with a laugh.

Born Leila Walker (prior to changing her name in 1922), the arts patron emerged as the founder and host of Dark Tower, a cultural salon where ideas flourished and worlds collided in a new age of Black liberation.

Among the list of regular attendees included household activists, artists, musicians and writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, and Langston Hughes, who dubbed the name of the 2025 novel when he attributed Walker as “the joy goddess of the 1920s.” Bundles exemplifies a common theme of misrepresentation in women’s history, pointing to her own great-great-grandmother, Madam CJ Walker, whom many attribute as the inventor of the hot comb–a falsity corrected by the historian through previous publications such as “Madam C.J. Walker: Entrepreneur;” “On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker;” and “Madam Walker Theatre Center: An Indianapolis Treasure.”

Thus, she touts the importance of women telling each other’s stories, lauding her own graduate school advisor, Phyllis Garland of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, for encouraging the author to tap into her own lineage while circling a dissertation in 1975.

“It took someone else who understood and who valued Black women to tell me that the story that I had, that I was sitting on, was important,” Bundles shared. “In general, women’s stories have not been valued, but now there are two and three generations of women historians and journalists who want to tell our stories. It ab-

solutely makes a difference when you see yourself in a book and when you can tell the sermon.”

Empowering Women Through a ‘More Perfect Party’

Tolliver also resonates with themes of sisterhood and leadership, as depicted through “A More Perfect Party: The Night Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carroll Reshaped Politics.”

Following an interview with then-California Congressional Rep. Barbara Lee, now mayor of Oakland, Tolliver recognized some truths untold in the story of the first Black woman to run for president, including noting Lee’s support in securing the Black Panther Party’s endorsement.

Set to the backdrop of April 29, 1972, the book chronicles the night celebrated actress and singer Carroll, credited as the first Black woman to star in a network sitcom, hosted a fundraiser soiree for Chisholm’s presidential campaign. Each chapter takes a journey through the lens of party attendees, probing into the logic, documented actions and perspective of various individuals in an attempt to understand what led them there.

“I’m talking about people like Berry Gordy, Goldie Hawn, David Frost, individuals who [Carroll] invited into her home on that night in April 1972, and the beauty of what it meant,” said Tolliv-

er, “for two women who carved through the steel of discrimination and sexism and racism in completely different fields.”

While capturing the breadth of Chisholm’s legacy beyond politics, the author says “A More Perfect Party” acts as a model to correct generational strife to women’s success.

She highlights Carroll’s support in a time where Chisholm was being denied space on the debate stage and “mocked and heckled” in coverage “if they chose to cover her at all,” while addressing the need to uplift young voices–such as Lee, who was a student at Mills College in 1972–and recognize what’s possible if “we listen to women, especially Black women…the first time we [say] things.”

“[Chisholm] was ahead of her time, calling for corporate money to get out of politics…calling for the creation of a national network of child care systems,” Tolliver explained. “She had ideas that were rejected to some degree because she–this petite, fearless Black woman–was the messenger.”

Additionally, Tolliver, a political analyst, noted a “surprising parallel” to the modern electoral reality, citing the 107-day presidential campaign of former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

“Whether it was the attacks on identity that Chisholm faced compared to Vice President Harris,

Black Reading Month Spotlight

5Amid September’s Black Reading Month, three Black women authors – A’leila Bundles, Juanita Tolliver, and Dr. Dana Williams – are respectively leveraging truth and storytelling to set the record straight on four formidable Black sheroes. (Courtesy Photos, Collage by Jada Ingleton/The Washington Informer)

from Page 32

whether it was the lack of willingness by some to consider a woman a leader who was capable of leading this country, it was jarring,” Tolliver told The Informer. “But one thing that really shines in this text is that history provides guideposts for how we can shift and evolve our reactions in real time.”

Tolliver noted recognition for the generational power of storytelling and that “history is surrounding all of us,” adding hopes to see readers take away themes of authenticity and not compromising oneself “when it comes to the truth and values.”

The target ranges from emerging politicians and activists looking to challenge systems, to folks interested in serving others, reminding all to do so “consistently in the name of the people.”

“[Chisholm] wasn’t going to shrink herself or put on an act, whether that was in the halls of Congress or among these celebrities clinking champagne glasses… at Diahann Carroll’s home,” Tolliver said. “Be authentic and be clear. You can’t equivocate in those situations, in the situation we’re experiencing right now in this country.”

A Legacy Rooted in ‘Black Life, Black Culture’

While Bundles and Tolliver work to correct historic records, Howard University’s Dean of the Graduate School Dana Williams is lending her admiration on expanding societal views–notably emphasizing why Morrison the editor, and not just the writer, deserves a spotlight in American history.

“If you think about fiction in the 1960s and 70s, you can kind of characterize what the literature looked like as a function of its time…but [after the Black Arts Movement began to decline], somebody had to make those decisions to say, ‘These are the authors that we want to publish. This is the kind of literature that represents the full swath of African American life, literature and culture,’” said Williams, “and Morrison was one of those editors.”

“Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship” charts Morrison’s contributions

to the broader literary landscape, chronicling her time as an editor for Random House Publishing Group, where she lended a hand in legendary works such as “Angela Davis: An Autobiography” (1974), Muhammad Ali’s 1975 “The Greatest: My Own Story,” among others.

An alumni and former professor of Howard University, Morrison’s ability to deepen cultural connections takes center stage through personal conversations and recounted memories, with Williams sharing that much of the story came directly from the source, who even gave the best-seller its title years before her death in 2019.

In reflecting on prevalent themes in the book, the dean exemplified Morrison’s strength in showing “Black people are not monolithic” through a diverse array of works. Further, she highlighted the value of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), attributing the “level of trust” and freedom in their exchanges to their institutional connections.

“I don’t think I could have written this book from anywhere else,” said Williams, who earned her master’s and Ph.D from Howard University. “I hope it will make clear to people…that she doesn’t emerge in a vacuum, but she emerges in a culture that’s rooted deeply in Black life and Black culture.”

After crediting Morrison for forging paths to “write for Black audiences without apology,” the African American literature scholar reflected on the muse as an advocate for all aspects of Black life, honing in on her ability to connect with institutions and networks “beyond her own writing.”

Similar to Bundles, who will be honoring the Dark Tower legacy amid D.C.’s March On! Film Festival (Sept. 15-21), Williams shared a desire to see people understand a deeper scope of someone she considers “one of the most remarkable novelists and thinkers of our time.”

“I hope [this book] will help us to think about [her] in a really rounded way,” Williams told The Informer. “To think about all of the things that come into the making of Toni Morrison.”

Meanwhile, Tolliver told The Informer readers can seek inspiration from authors challenging African American erasure from history,

emphasizing “that there is no distinguishing difference” as its “all foundational to this nation.”

“Call it out, contest it and confront it at every turn,” Tolliver said. “Every single voice matters, and I want people to feel empowered to use their own.”

WI

4Culminating this week’s March On! Film Festival, with festivities planned through Sept. 21, historian and author of “Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance” A’lelia Bundles will host a Dark Tower Day Party in honor of her great-grandmother and the book’s namesake, who established the Dark Tower of the 1920s. (Courtesy Photo)

LIFESTYLE

Buy one or more eligible produce items at participating Healthy Corners stores using your SUN Bucks or SNAP/EBT benefits, and receive a $5 coupon to buy more produce!

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.

Beyond the Mound: Joe Black’s Legacy of Brotherhood and Resistance Cosby Remembers Black’s Inspiring Words: ‘Let’s Go!’

By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer

There are men whose names ring louder than the game they played, and who carried history on their backs as if it were stitched into the uniform. Joe Black was one such man.

A boy from Plainfield, New Jersey, who became the first Black pitcher to win a World Series game, Black walked onto the mound in Dodger blue with the eyes of the country fixed upon him, and later worked his way into classrooms, corporate suites, and pulpits with the same quiet force.

Bill Cosby remembers him not as a figure in the record books, but as the brother he never had.

“Joe Black pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers during the time Jackie Robinson was on the team and so

was Roy Campanella” Cosby recalled. “His daughter asked me to write a preface about him; I wrote it, and then all these accusers came up and, I was told, they no longer wanted to use my preface in the story.”

That daughter is Martha Jo Black, who wrote “Joe Black: More Than a Dodger.”

“I wanted to keep my dad’s legacy [going]—I loved my father so much, I wanted to share his story with the world,” the daughter said in an interview with Deborah Kalb’s Book Q&A’s. “He went through so much—he fought for his daughter [in a custody battle that he won] in the 1970s.”

While he was no longer included in the book, Cosby explained how his bond with the celebrated athlete began.

“He came on the Dodgers and became known as a relief pitcher; but [I was] entertaining the Black baseball players in Las Vegas during a convention and he made himself known to me,” Cosby stated. “I found him to be a strong guy with a great sense of humor. I took him on as a big brother. When Rachel Robinson asked me to be the emcee for the Jackie Robinson Foundation, Joe was then working for Greyhound, and he made sure that he had a table.”

Cosby remembered that even then the late Black carried humor like a shield.

“Joe had a great sense of humor and had control of it. Meaning he didn’t throw things out just to see if he was funny,” Cosby reminisced. “So she says ‘Daddy it’s Bill on the phone, he wants to say something to you.’ He said, in a very faint voice, ‘Hey.’ I said, ‘How are you doing? I know it’s a stupid question, but how are you doing?’ He said, ‘They’re trying to make it easier for me to go wherever I’m going.’

After a bit of back and forth and the athlete talking more about his impending mortality, Cosby sat in silence before Black asked: “I want you to do me a favor.’”

Cosby tried to answer the call with laughter.

“I said, ‘Before I do you a favor I’m out at your house and I got the map you gave me... and I walked it in the backyard and I found the tree you’re talking about and I started to dig, and I dig and I dig and I dig and my back hurts. The money is not there,’” Cosby told the player in jest to make him laugh. “And he said, ‘wrong house!’”

The faint laughter in that hospital room turned into a covenant between two men.

Cosby spoke of their brotherhood in the language of fraternity and

“Joe also is a Que (a member of Omega Psi Phi). In terms of fraternity, he’s my brother, but in my soul also,” he explained. “Nobody else had the humor and my feeling is that if I ever had a big brother, Joe Black

The bond deepened near the end of the athlete’s life, when his daughter reached out to Cosby.

“We talked on the phone. He had a house, and his daughter was taking care of him because he had problems with his prostate,” the comedian recalled. “She called me one day and she said ‘Daddy was on the ladder, and he fell.’... She said, ‘I’m in the hospital with Daddy and it doesn’t look good for him. You want to talk to him?’ My heart dropped. I knew he was going, but when you get the notification certain things happen.”

“He said, ‘I want you to do me a favor.’ I said ‘OK,’” Cosby recalled. “He said, ‘I’m on the mound, I want you on the hot corner.’ And I said, ‘Now before you put me on the hot corner, I’m going to go, but I want you to know I played sandlot baseball and I played second base and I want you to know that I was always afraid of a hot ground ball coming to me and as I bend over to catch it, it hits something and jumped up and hit me in the face. I never wanted that, I always turned my head.’”

After humoring him more, he made a promise to Black.

“I said, ‘Joe, for you I’m on the hot base and if anything comes to me, I don’t care who hits it, I’m going to look it in.’ He said, ‘Let’s go!’ that was the last words from him,” Cosby remembered. “Joe passed that same day,” Cosby sadly recounted.

Page 35

5 Joe Black, the first Black pitcher to win a World Series game, is being remembered beyond his contributions to baseball. Comedian Bill Cosby says Black was a dedicated father and committed to preserving Black history. (Courtesy Photo)

BLACK from Page 34

Using Black’s Words as Inspiration

Since Black’s death in May 2002, the comedian has carried Black’s words with him and even into his own storm.

“Sitting through the trial, the hatred, sitting through all of that and when that judge read all of ‘Dante’s Inferno,’ and I’m listening, and he says ‘You have any regrets?’ I shook my head, because Joe’s voice said, ‘Let’s Go,’” Cosby explained.

There was more to Black than statistics and the World Series victory that newspapers still cite.

He had been an officer in the Army, a teacher in Plainfield, a Greyhound executive who opened doors for Black workers and students, a columnist who urged young people to value education, a man who carried his daughter through childhood with devotion when courts seldom granted fathers custody.

Black was also the man who told Jackie Robinson’s story in ways the

4Actor Bill Cosby remembers the last words baseball player Joe Black told him: “Let’s go,” as a reminder to keep pushing, even through hard times. (Courtesy File Photo/The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia)

white press did not record. He spoke of teammates holding Robinson back from fights, of players forming a wall to keep him from stepping into violence, of the toll carried by those chosen to be symbols.

Black was determined that history must be guarded, a lesson Cosby has carried with him to this day.

Considering the history behind Negro League player Josh Gibson and Washington, D.C.’s Dunbar High School, Cosby insisted that these stories must be kept with a clenched fist, placed in the hands of the next generation, and stored in historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), where young people could know the truth of who they were.

At 88, Cosby holds fast to Black’s last words. Not a farewell, not resignation, but a call to action: “Let’s go.” WI

LIFESTYLE

Washington Informer Weekend Checklist

WASHINGTON INFORMER'S

Things To Do, DMV!

By Keith Golden Jr. WI Intern

From art exhibits, to comedy shows, sporting events and chances to showcase one’s skills, there are plenty of events happening in the Washington metropolitan area the last true weekend of summer, which officially ends Sept. 22.

Check out a handful of the many events happening in the DMV this weekend and to keep up with all the fun, don’t forget to check out the Washington Informer Calendar.

Thursday, Sept. 18

Streets of Solidarity Mural & Neighborhood Revitalization Project

5 a.m. - 8 p.m. | Free Colmar Manor Community Center, 3701 Lawrence Street, Colmar Manor, MD 20722

The Town of Colmar Manor, in collaboration with local organizations Operation ARTS Foundation and We Are Limitless Studios are leading their Streets of Solidarity Mural & Neighborhood Revitalization Project.

Artistic designers Brandon Bell, Chyna Mae and Renee Ackerson created a unifying message for Colmar Manor and are teaching 10 upcoming artists how to paint murals through their guidance.

These 10 local artists will receive a stipend for their participation, in addition to gaining invaluable experience, mentorship and merchandise.

The word “solidarity” refers to people coming together to stand in support of one another and in this project they are working together to unify the neighborhood through art. This community-driven project was funded

5 The annual Truth and Service Classic football game, played by Howard University and Hampton University— often called “The Battle of the Real HU”— is happening at Audi Field on Saturday, Sept. 20. (WI File Photo/Abdullah Konte)

by a grant award from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.

This 5,000 sq. ft. roadway mural will engage local residents in painting a vibrant message of cultural unity and anti-gun violence at the four-road intersections of 38th Avenue, 37th Avenue, Newmark Street, and Newton Street, that is also adjacent to Colmar Manor’s historic Dueling Grounds site.

WIN Exhibit Reception + Regional Business Forum

DC Improv, 1140 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington D.C. 20036

A true comedy superstar, DL Hughley has conquered the worlds of stand-up, television and radio.

Having packed concert halls, hosted talk shows, and starred in his own sitcom, this show at DC Improv is a fantastic opportunity to see this Original King of Comedy and celebrated comedian in action, and enjoy a great laugh.

and intensity of Howard University versus Hampton University. Often called “The Battle of the Real HU,” the matchup is about more than the scoreboard — it’s about pride, legacy and tradition.

The schools, both founded shortly after the Civil War, have faced off in football and basketball for decades, with fans packing the stands to witness one of the most anticipated games of the season.

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6 p.m. - 9 p.m. | Free Gallery O on H, 1354 H Street NE Washington, D.C. 20002

Come out for The Washington Informer’s “WIN 60 Exhibit Reception & Regional Business Forum”— an evening of culture, history, and business insight.

Tour the powerful and engaging Washington Informer Visual Legacy Photo Exhibit, produced in partnership with CareFirst and Events DC, celebrating six decades of The Informer’s impact.

In addition, hear from regional chamber of commerce leaders on how DMV businesses can navigate change and position themselves for growth in this economy.

Friday, Sept. 19

DL Hughley

2 Hours of fun, picking veg at THEARC Farm 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. | Free THEARC Farm, 1901 Mississippi Avenue SE Washington, D.C. 20020

Want time in a peaceful, outdoor space, learn more about gardening, or help grow food for the neighbors? Come harvest vegetables, fruits and herbs for a food giveaway in the afternoon.

Adults of all skill levels are welcome and young people under 16 should be accompanied by an adult.

Saturday, Sept. 20

Truth and Service Classic

4 p.m. | $30+

Audi Field, 100 Potomac Avenue SW Washington, D.C. 20024

Few rivalries in historically Black college athletics carry the history

Bragging rights for “the Real HU” shift with every contest, but the rivalry has stood the test of time, uniting generations of alumni and students on both sides.

Whether played in the nation’s capital or Hampton, Virginia, this game serves as a celebration of Black educational excellence, school spirit and the enduring bond between two of the nation’s most storied institutions.

Exploring the Equinox 7 p.m. - 8 p.m. | Free Montgomery College Planetarium in the Catherine and Isiah Leggett Math and Science Building, 7615 Fenton Street, LB 103 Takoma Park, MD 20912

Go check out the new Montgomery College Planetarium, where there is a presentation that will explore the September equi-

THINGS Page 37

nox, its astronomical cause, its effects on the seasons, its role in calendars and cultural traditions around the world.

With the help of the astronomy faculty, who will be on hand to answer questions about the universe, guests will leave with a star chart and the ability to find celestial objects on their own.

The planetarium is a state-ofthe-art facility offering an immersive experience under a tilted 30foot dome.

It features stars, nebulae, galaxies, layered Earth simulation software, and 360-degree virtual reality video and sound.

The minimum age requirement is 5 yrs, and youth must be accompanied by an adult.

Sunday, Sept. 21

MLK Open Mic

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. | Free Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library - Central Library , 901 G Street NW Washington, D.C. 20001

Do you have a song or poem that you would like to perform?

Come out to MLK’s Open Mic to share it!

An event that takes place each month, sign up begins at 3:15 p.m. at the Information Desk in the New Books area on the first floor for performers to take the stage and showcase their talents! ASL interpretation available upon request.

Please note that the library only supplies a speaker and microphone. If additional equipment is needed, it must be supplied by the performer.

For special requests, including interpretation, please email adultservices.dcpl@dc.gov at least one week prior to the event for consideration.

Film Legacies of the Black Arts Movement

2 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. | Free National Gallery of Art, 6th and Constitution Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20565

Programmed in conjunction with the exhibition “Photography and the Black Arts Movement: 1955-1985,” this film series approaches the movement’s legacy, featuring key cultural figures like Sonia Sanchez, Gordon Parks, Barbara McCullough, and many others.

This series also highlights the influence of the Black Arts Movement on today’s media artists and filmmakers, who exercise self-determination and expression through cinema.

This selection of short videos includes four titles by Ulysses Jenkins. A video griot, Jenkins’ video and media work is remarkable for its fusion of forms to conjure vibrant expressions of how image, sound and cultural iconography inform representation.

For more information and to register, visit nga.gov. Registration is required. WI THINGS from Page 36

5 The new Montgomery College Planetarium will explore the September equinox, its astronomical cause, its effects on the seasons, its role in calendars and cultural traditions around the world. (Courtesy Photo/Montgomery College Planetarium)

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Art All Night Highlights Local Business, Brings D.C. Community Together

By Demarco Rush WI Contributing Writer

As the nation’s capital still rallies post the surge of federal officers, and continues to navigate the presence of the D.C. National Guard, Washingtonians came together across all eight wards for Art All Night — a citywide celebration of the arts and local creatives Sept. 12-13— presented by District Mayor Muriel Bowser.

“We know that Washington, D.C. is the capital of creativity. Artists and makers across D.C. help us celebrate the history and culture of our community, and this weekend, we celebrate them,” said Bowser.

Art All Night— and Dine All Night on Sept. 13— is a collaboration between the D.C. Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD), D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH), D.C. Public Library (DCPL), D.C. Main Streets programs, and the city’s Business Improvement Districts (BIDs).

Beginning as Art All Night: Nuit Blanche D.C. in 2011 by Shaw Main Streets, 14 years later, the event features more than 150 artists across 28 neighborhoods, BIDs and Main Streets, highlighting music, visual, literary, and performing arts, while activating public spaces and helping bring an increase in foot traffic to small and local businesses.

With new technology and even more programming, this year truly allowed people to tap into the arts across the whole city.

“Art All Night has always been about celebrating community, creativity, and connection,” said Rosemary Suggs-Evans, director of DSLBD. “This year, we’re making it even easier for residents and visitors to be part of the experience with our new mobile app. It’s a tool that puts the festival in your hands—helping you explore incredible artists, small businesses, and cultural activations that make D.C. such a vibrant place to live, work, and visit.”

The festive weekend showcased painting, photography, sculpture, crafts, fashion, music, dance, theater, film, poetry and featured live performances from celebrated local artists such as R&S Band, Major League, 911, Danjalé, DC Vybe, the celebrated Black Alley, and legendary Backyard Band.

“It’s so important for people to build community around art because of freedom of expression and freedom of speech,” hip-hop artist Danjalé Williams, who performed at Sycamore and Oak on Friday, Sept. 12, told The Informer.

‘It

Opens Up the Doors’: Highlighting Local Business Across the River

For Rosalind Gallmon, owner of The Soy Chick, Art All Night is important beyond showcasing the arts, but also uplifting local entrepreneurs.

“[This event] is important because they’re highlighting Black businesses in Southeast, D.C., and [especially in] Ward 8 where they say that we can’t do this,” Gallmon said. “We want to show them that this is what we do on a regular basis.”

As residents went across the city, they were able to tap into the District’s many Black-owned businesses, which has a much higher concentration (35%) than the national average (3%).

Ramzy Richardson, co-founder of Back to Nature, was thankful for the opportunity to showcase his products— aluminum-free deodorant—- to the many attendees.

“It opens up the doors and possibilities for all young business owners, small business owners and people trying to make it in this industry, and in this life,” he told The Informer.

While they presented their own wares, Trevor Rodgers, Richardson’s business partner and fellow

5 Attendees dance to music at Sycamore and Oak’s Art All Night celebration in Southeast, D.C. (Demarco Rush/The Washington Informer)

ART from Page 38

co-founder, said he was excited to participate in Art All Night to witness all it offers to the community.

“We’re here for the art, we’re here for the culture, we’re here for the business,” Rodgers said. “We’re here for everything.”

‘Art Is the Glue That Holds Us Together’

As an Art All Night performer, Williams emphasized the importance of showcasing the arts throughout the city, creating an outlet for artists to express themselves, and providing residents the access to tap into local arts and their own creativity.

“The arts are vital to D.C.’s community because it’s a melting pot of culture and art is the glue that holds us together,” she said. “So many people use their artistry as a way to voice the things that they normally wouldn’t be able to say.”

Shalay Briscoe, Williams’ mother, was thrilled to experience Art All Night in action.

“It’s absolutely amazing [and] such a family vibe,” she told The

Informer. “The people are great, the energy is great and the ambiance is great. I love it.”

For Briscoe, who wrote lyrics for her daughter early in her career, taking in the city’s booming arts scene was wonderful, but watching Williams shine and joining her on stage was a true highlight and moment she will cherish forever.

“To have her follow in my footsteps, then surpass me, then turn around and pull me forward with her,” said Briscoe, “it’s absolutely amazing.”

The exciting artistic energy was palpable, offering inspiration for hip-hop and R&B artist Eddie Lee, who also performed at Sycamore and Oak on Friday night.

“l’m happy to be here, the energy is great, dancing, rapping, everything,” Lee told The Informer.

As the area still adjusts to life post the federal officers surge, the artistic takeover provided a moment of unity and highlighted the healing power of the arts.

“Art All Night is important because creative expression is what [energizes] the community,” Lee said.

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5 Hip-hop artist Danjalé brings the heat to Southeast’s Sycamore and Oak on Friday, Sept. 12, as part of the citywide Art All Night festival. (Demarco Rush/ The Washington Informer)

pends on the success of our students, and we will keep pushing…until every family in every ward has access to the education they deserve.”

Maintaining Progress: Absenteeism, Volunteers, and More

As the District stands in the top 5% of absolute growth across the nation, Chancellor Ferebee expressed confidence in DCPS holding the “blueprint and recipe” for continued success, which includes doubling down on literacy and math investments.

Plans include establishing task forces and math bootcamps, training more than 750 teachers on “the science of reading,” providing High-Impact Tutoring (HIT), developing materials and resources for instruction material, and more, along with the already adjusted curriculums and course offerings in elementary and middle schools.

“[We’re] thinking about every transition in the journey for students in DCPS,” said Ferebee. “For 3 year olds’ and 4 year olds’ transition into kindergarten, [ensuring] they have the prerequisite skills, ensuring that our middle school experience is strong as students transition into high school…[and] the points around career and technical education.”

Additional DCPS plans to ensure student success throughout the school year include expanding safety squads, including a rollout in charter schools; “reimagining” high school to prepare students for fulfilling, sustainable careers; and fueling a chapter of growth within the charter sector.

The local officials shared a goal to reduce chronic absenteeism by 50% from SY 21-22, utilizing investments such as High-Impact Tutoring, EveryDay Labs attendance nudge technology, and a truancy pilot program in partnership with the D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS).

Additionally, Walker-Davis eased some looming concerns on cuts to the Department of Education, assuring that special education has received its funding for the year, and the public charter school board doesn’t anticipate any problems.

She also boosted the launch of ASPIRE, a new academic accountability system that will provide a “more granular look” at schools performance.

“This particular version of our framework allows us to look not just

(Courtesy Photo)

at the high level, but at performance at particular student groups, and also emphasize where we’re seeing the greatest growth,” Walker-Davis explained. “I’m excited about that happening, and you’ll see the first public reports on that yet this school year. “

Engaging DC Students Amid Current Challenges

Hannah Hong, connected schools manager at Malcolm X Elementary School, touted the significance of hands-on and one-on-one attention that programs like DCTMI provides, noting its role in supporting the underserved students coming from “very, very traumatic and violent backgrounds” in the heart of Ward 8.

In its third year partnering with DCTMI, the impact across the Southeast institution exceeds test scores and core subjects, said Hong, as many students benefit from mentorship that rebuilds confidence in academic abilities, personal goals, and instills themes of consistency and transparency particularly needed in the 2025-2026 school year – which kicked off amid a federal occupation and heightened law enforcement throughout D.C.

“We haven’t seen the armed forces in our neighborhood, but we know that it’s out there,” Hong said, while emphasizing the role of social media in what elementary students are exposed to. “They might not be able to understand the full depth of the scope of it, so our staff is willing to have those conversations and try to communicate and explain in a way that the students can understand.”

During the Sept. 4 briefing, Kihn and Bowser noted that, as of now, attendance is “about the same level” as

FEDERAL

CUTS from Page 27

equipment purchases, classroom improvements, student tutoring services, and endowment growth.

Last week’s cuts immediately drew criticism from leaders of colleges and universities who said the loss would harm students and damage institutions that depend on the resources.

“Without this funding, students will lose the critical support they need to succeed in the classroom, complete their degrees on time, and achieve social mobility for themselves and their families,” said Mildred García, chancellor of the California State University system.

this time last year across the District, with no signs of increased absences due to concerns of ICE agents infiltrating minority neighborhoods – or academic institutions.

Kihn further clarified that DCPS does not track data on whether “students are documented or not,” making it unlikely to ever directly correlate an increase in absences to the presence of ICE.

“I think it stands to reason that if people are concerned about ICE, then they’re making decisions every day about their daily lives,” Bowser added, noting that principals and staff are continuously reaching out to “any families that we expect to see at school.” “I think we might expect to see different activities at schools – I don’t know, however, if that also means students.”

A longtime education advocate, Pollack told The Informer molding future leaders is a task best served in the classroom, but the mission holds part of the solution “to what ails the country now.”

In doing his part, the DCTMI director shared plans for weekly appearances at festivals, farmers markets, and other large gatherings in hopes of recruiting more “changemakers” directly in the neighborhoods, while amplifying the path to a brighter future for all communities.

“If ordinary people take a little more responsibility for their community, recognize how interconnected we all are, it will be a different world politically, economically, environmentally, socially,” he explained. “We can create a just, a much kinder and wiser civic culture that can help sustain us through what could prove to be a couple difficult decades ahead.”

WI

David Mendez, interim CEO of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities also emphasized the cut as a major blow to supporting students’ educational experiences and goals.

“These funds strengthen entire campuses, creating opportunities and resources that benefit all students, especially those pursuing STEM fields, as well as enhancing the communities where these colleges and universities are located,” said Mendez.

University of Hawaii president Wendy Hensel added that the cuts will affect “all of our students, the programs that support them and the dedicated staff who carry out this work.”

UNCF Celebrates Funding, Emphasizes Need for More

Murray said the redirected funding is part of the president’s promise to support historically Black colleges and universities.

“When President Trump released his executive order for HB-

CUs during his first 100 days of this term,” Murray said, “many said that it did not produce funding. That is no longer the case. His order called for strengthening HBCUs by adding fiscal stability. These funds will begin that process.”

Despite the additional funding, the UNCF senior vice president emphasized that the support for HBCUs cannot stop with the Trump administration’s one-time grant funding.

“No one should be confused: HBCUs are currently and have been underfunded since their inception. While we are grateful for these funds, we are still under-resourced,” Murray continued.

The federal funding is through Title III of the Higher Education Act, which supports institutions with a high percentage of low-income enrollees or other disparities that make it challenging to serve students’ needs.

“Title III is considered the most essential out of all federal grants for HBCUs,” Murray said. “To nearly double that funding will have unprecedented positive impacts on our institutions this year. The additional funding will be used for acquiring property, construction, campus maintenance, laboratory equipment, faculty support, student services and more as authorized by the Higher Education Act.”

While the funds are helpful, he offered a call to action for other entities to support HBCUs.

“With the right investment and partners, our past, and present, does not have be our future,” Murray declared. “We hope the private sector will see this as a prime opportunity to invest in our going enterprise.” WI

5 With the support of the DC Mentoring and Tutoring Initiative, students at Malcolm X Elementary School in Southeast, D.C., benefit from individualized learning and mentorship from volunteers across the DMV, including Howard University students.

3 Lodriguez V. Murray, UNCF’s senior vice president for public policy and government affairs, is celebrating the Trump administration’s decision to redirect $435 million in funds to historically Black colleges and universities.

(Courtesy Photo/ UNCF)

don Gill, the youngest Republican in Congress, allowing the sentencing of 14-year-old youth as adults for murder, first degree sexual abuse, armed robbery and other violent offenses.

Another bill introduced by Rep. Elise Stefenik (R-N.Y.) requires pre-trial detention and post-conviction before sentencing for a violent crime, while a bill by Rep. Ray Higgins (R-La.) allows for the vehicular pursuit of a suspect fleeing in a motor vehicle.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform also approved Rep. David Kustoff’s (R-Tenn.) bill, aimed at IRAA and the Second Chance Amendment Act of 2022, by a 24-20 vote. As Velazquez recounted, congressional Republicans, in the hours leading up to the votes on the measures, highlighted perspectives not of the local community.

“It would be nice to believe that they have visited all eight wards, thought about these policies and talked with people— not just our D.C. Council and mayor, but also folks across the District,” Velazquez said. “It seemed like many of the people that they talked to were those in the downtown area who may not be representative of all District residents.”

On the day of the committee markup, at least one returning citizen had the chance to speak with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a congressional committee member who, according to Politico, referred to the District as a city of crime during the hours-long hearing.

That returning citizen, Colie Long, told The Informer that he took a moment to remind Greene about their 2022 encounter when she and other congressional members visited D.C. Jail in response to concerns that Jan. 6 defendants raised about conditions.

As Long recounted, Greene reacted positively in the halls of Congress upon learning that Long, the man she saw in an orange jumpsuit, is living a productive life as a free man.

“When I reminded her [about] that conversation [at D.C. Jail], I saw that spark of recognition,” Long told The Informer. “I [asked her] to allow her conscience to [take her back] to when she met me and what she told me versus what she’s saying now in Congress.”

These days, Long, known to many as Shaka, serves as a program associate at the Georgetown University Prisons and Justice Initiative. He’s also a safe passage worker who operates in the area surrounding Maya Angelou

Public Charter School on East Capitol Street.

In 2022, when he met Greene at D.C. Jail, Long counted among those in the federal prison system scheduled for early parole due to COVID-era sentencing guideline changes.

Though he petitioned for an early release through the Second Look Amendment Act, legislation that expanded the age of IRAA eligibility to 25, a judge denied him that type of relief, instead opting to grant him regular parole with what Long called more stringent guidelines.

Two years later however, Long appealed the judge’s decision, becoming the first returning citizen to benefit from the Second Look Amendment Act after coming home from prison. That decision, he said, set the stage for at least three other returning citizens to be granted early release under the Second Look Act, rather than through the parole board.

“My argument was that even though you see a parole examiner, that doesn’t guarantee that you come home,” Long told The Informer. “Even if you have a Second Look [petition], that doesn’t guarantee as well, but your chance is better coming home with the IRAA or Second Look, versus arbitrary decisions from one parole examiner.”

Republican House leadership expressed plans to bring some of the measures up to a vote in the coming weeks. While passage in the House seems imminent, it remains uncertain whether the bills would advance in the Senate. In the interim, Long said he and others who came home through IRAA and the Second Look Act will continue to make an appeal to congressional leaders that keeping the laws as is ensures the best outcome for generations still reeling from the crack epidemic.

“The overall strategy for us is to have each individual that comes home have agency over the narrative about their journey and the collective journey of justice-impacted people to show that we’re actually a liability in the struggle to reduce crime,” Long said. “The reality is that a lot of these crimes that happen in the first place come from a state of poverty, whether it’s physical poverty, the lack of money or stability. We’re in a position to be cycle breakers.”

Velazquez echoed Long’s sentiments, telling The Informer that, without a holistic perspective on public safety in the District, congressional Republicans stand to upend the progress collectively made by local officials, returning citizens and several others. WI

Read more on washingtoninformer.com.

broke my hip at 17 years old, and every time I walk down some of these sidewalks, I feel it down the side of my body.”

As the Howard student walks by a campus dormitory, there is one spot that is particularly concerning for his on-foot commute.

“There’s this one part on Georgia Ave by Cook Hall—it’s all brick, and it shifts under your feet,” Mason, 20, told The Informer. “It hurts so bad.”

Mason is not alone.

Washingtonians and visitors of the nation’s capital alike note that damaged sidewalks are more than an inconvenience—it’s a public safety issue that city agencies have struggled to resolve.

From cracked pavement to treeroot upheaval, the city’s 1,500 miles of sidewalks are riddled with hazards that disproportionately affect seniors, disabled residents, and lower-income communities.

“I know for sure that it’s the D.C. sidewalks that are making me experience pain because when I go back to see my family in Virginia and walk on the sidewalks there, my hip feels perfectly fine,” Mason said.

Delays That Last Years

Scott Price has been tracking sidewalk complaints for years as a member of the Capitol Hill Village Sidewalk Safety Task Force. The group advocates for safer infrastructure for seniors aging in place—many of whom face even greater risk when sidewalks go unrepaired.

“D.C. does extraordinarily well on fixing potholes,” Price told The Informer, “but much less well on fixing sidewalk problems. Some of these issues extend over multiple years and never get resolved.”

The official average repair time listed by the D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT) is 270 days, but Price said that figure doesn’t reflect what residents actually experience.

“In some cases, it’s over a year. In a third of all sidewalk cases, the city misses that 270-day deadline,” he said. “If it takes over a year, people forget where the issue even was.”

Funding Without Follow-Through

In 2023, the D.C. Council approved an additional $5 million for sidewalk repairs, but the funding’s impact remains unclear.

“In the first two months of Fiscal Year 2025, when they added new money, they closed out more sidewalk

requests than they had in the prior two years combined,” Price said. “So we were hopeful.”

However, Prince explained that sidewalk repair crews later told the task force they never saw that money.

“We raised the issue during the oversight hearings,” Price continued.

“But there’s no back-and-forth with DDOT. We testify, and then weeks later, they testify. There’s no dialogue.”

He also said council oversight is limited.

“DDOT has never disclosed how much they actually spend on sidewalk repair,” Price added.

Community Takes the Lead

In the absence of clear city action, community members are stepping up with initiatives like Sidewalk Palooza, a resident-led effort launched by Greater Greater Washington and now organized by Erin Palmer, who formerly served as the 4B Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC). Palmer mentioned that Sidewalk Palooza, launched in 2021, was the brainchild of Nick Sementilli with support from Greater Greater Washington. The two partnered up the first year to bring the event to the community, and since then, Palmer has taken on the effort to keep it going.

“Sidewalk Palooza was kind of a light roast of the mayor’s Pothole Palooza and AlleyPalooza,” Palmer told The Informer. “It was our way of saying: ‘Hello? We have sidewalks, too.”

The events gather neighbors to walk through their communities and submit requests for sidewalk hazards to 311, which, through the Office of United Communications, allows D.C. residents and visitors to request city services and report non-emergency police issues.

While casual and community-driven—sometimes even including parties—Sidewalk Palooza participants are strategic in their goal: spotlight sidewalk neglect.

“We just walk, and when there’s an issue, you submit a 311 request,” Palmer explained. “It’s just designed to put a little bit of pressure on the city.”

The Limits of 311s

While 311 allows residents to reach out in order for the city to address their needs, Price and former advisory neighborhood commissioner Erin Palmer raised concerns about over-relying on the 311 system to fix what they see as structural issues in city infrastructure.

“One of my pet peeves about 311 is that you’re relying on residents: A) to know how to file a request, B) to understand the impact, and C) to actually take the time to do it,” Palmer told The Informer. “There are disparities in who’s submitting 311 requests and how often. DDOT needs a more proactive approach to identifying sidewalk issues.”

Price noted that the delays in response can intimidate residents from even wanting to work toward change.

“If 311 response took one or two months, people would believe in it,” he said. “But when it takes a year or longer, it discourages participation.”

Inequities in Repair

While Sidewalk Palooza is a fun way for the community to come together to address needs, Palmer said the programming has revealed stark differences in sidewalk quality across wards.

“I’m not analyzing the data, but it sure seems like the sidewalks are in worse shape in the neighborhoods that are always disinvested in,” she said. “There’s one stretch on Morris Road in Anacostia that has missing sidewalks, tripping hazards, and even a bus stop area where the sidewalk is just six inches wide. I saw someone in a wheelchair riding in the street because there was no other option.”

Having served as a commissioner for six years, Palmer, a Ward 4 resident, said sidewalks must become as important as other city services. WI Read more on washingtoninformer.com.

5 A sidewalk on Georgia Avenue NW near Cook Hall, where student Jayden Mason says he always trips. (Will Armstead/The Washington Informer)

review wi book

Kids Books for Fall by Various Authors

c.2025, Various publishers

$14.99-$18.99

Various page counts

Terri Schlichenmeyer WI Contributing Writer

School’s in session and you like that a lot.

You have a nice teacher and you’re making new friends, doing things you’ve never tried before, and you’re learning, which is your job now. But sometimes, you just want something fun to read, so try these great books …

Think about your grandma or grandpa. Are they quiet and calm? Or are they more like the grandparents inside “My Grandma and Grandpa ROCK!” by Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, illustrated by Tiffany Everett (Sourcebooks Jabberworky, $18.99)?

Everybody’s grandparents are different. Some “wear funny clothes and have funny hair.” Most like music and they can sing a lot of songs. Ask them about Led Zeppelin or Garth Brooks. Ask them about Tupac. If you’re 4-to-8-years old, ask them to read this book to you.

It may be hard for a kid to believe, but we are all made of stars and in “Together, United” by Tami Charles, illustrated by Bryan Collier (Scholastic, $18.99), will see that we are not as different as we may seem.

Even kids ages 4 to 8 can make change. They can be a part of a team because they are talented and capable of making dreams come true. This book helps them understand that and it’s quite empowering, even for grown-ups.

If there’s a pet in the house, it’s natural to want to know what they want and in “My Dog Smudge” by Sujean Rim (Atheneum, $18.99), a little girl asks around.

What is Smudge trying to say? For smaller kids, ages 3-to-5, this interactive book will be a hit, with its open-the-door flaps and nonsense words that you’ll want to sound out, for extra giggles. And the ending? Sweet as can be.

New parents will absolutely want to see “Love Stays Strong” by Paula Schneider, illustrated by Nicole Wong (Philomel, $18.99) among the shower gifts this fall. It’s a soft, quiet book about love, how it stays, how it grows, and how a child can count on love being around forever. For the littlest reader ages 1-to-3, this book is like wrapping up in a cozy blanket.

And finally, if you remember how much fun those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books were back when, look for “The Curiosity Chronicles: Time Machine Trouble” by Chris Ferrie, Byrne Laginestra and Wade David Fairclough (Sourcebooks Explore, $14.99).

Uh-oh. The possibly-evil Norvax Corporation may be planning to use their secret time machine for nefarious purposes. Can your 8-to-12-year-old and their friends stop them? This book is part of a series, an update on those choose-your-own books of your childhood, and your preteen will find them just as much fun as they always were.

And if these books aren’t enough for your young reader, head to your favorite bookstore or library. The staff at both places will be able to figure out what book is perfect for even the most reluctant reader. They’ll find the next book in a series, or a whole new series to enjoy. They can help make reading something your kid likes a lot.

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horoscopes

LIFESTYLE

SEPT.

18 - 24, 2025

ARIES Dynamic partnerships accelerate career advancement as Mars energizes your collaboration sector, bringing breakthrough success when assertive communication combines with diplomatic strategy to secure lucrative agreements. Technology ventures prosper when innovative thinking challenges outdated systems creating competitive advantages. Professional networking intensifies midweek when confident presentation attracts influential mentors enabling rapid skill development. Lucky Numbers: 8, 24, 49

TAURUS Resource optimization builds sustainable wealth as Venus stabilizes your security sector, bringing prosperity through careful analysis identifying undervalued assets positioned for steady appreciation. Real estate opportunities mature when detailed market research reveals emerging neighborhoods with strong growth potential. Lucky Numbers: 13, 32, 45

GEMINI Information mastery creates educational influence as Mercury sharpens your knowledge sector, bringing recognition through expertise enabling authoritative consultation across multiple industries while maintaining clear communication standards. Lucky Numbers: 5, 27, 38

CANCER Domestic ventures generate family security as lunar cycles illuminate your nurturing sector, bringing stability through protective planning creating comfortable environments where shared resources enable individual growth. Childcare enterprises flourish when compassionate attention transforms natural abilities into profitable services supporting community needs. Lucky Numbers: 16, 21, 53

LEO Creative leadership commands professional respect as solar energy radiates through your authority sector, bringing acclaim through inspiring direction motivating team excellence while establishing industry reputation. Entertainment ventures multiply when natural charisma transforms routine presentations into memorable experiences. Lucky Numbers: 2, 36, 54

VIRGO Systematic excellence drives operational improvement as earth energy perfects your efficiency sector, bringing advancement through methodical analysis demonstrating measurable results inspiring increased organizational responsibility. Research projects expand when detailed investigation uncovers practical solutions to complex problems. Lucky Numbers: 18, 30, 43

LIBRA Aesthetic harmony creates profitable partnerships as Venus balances your alliance sector, bringing success through elegant collaboration transforming diverse perspectives into unified strategies benefiting multiple stakeholders. Design projects flourish when visual sensibility enhances functional requirements creating beautiful practicality. Lucky Numbers: 9, 25, 40

SCORPIO Investigative insight reveals hidden opportunities as Pluto intensifies your research sector, bringing transformation through persistent analysis uncovering profitable possibilities within overlooked market segments. Psychological consulting grows when deep understanding guides systematic evaluation revealing organizational improvement strategies. Lucky Numbers: 4, 19, 56

SAGITTARIUS International connections expand educational markets as Jupiter broadens your exploration sector, bringing global success through cultural adaptation applying universal principles while respecting local customs. Publishing ventures advance when comprehensive research creates practical training materials serving diverse professional markets. Lucky Numbers: 12, 28, 47

CAPRICORN Executive authority establishes lasting influence as Saturn fortifies your leadership sector, bringing recognition through reliable performance creating stable frameworks supporting sustainable organizational development. Lucky Numbers: 6, 23, 41

AQUARIUS Technological innovation serves collective progress as Uranus revolutionizes your community sector, bringing advancement through creative applications addressing social needs while encouraging individual creativity. Digital platforms strengthen when ethical principles guide collaborative development demonstrating responsible innovation practices. Lucky Numbers: 11, 33, 48

PISCES Therapeutic wisdom deepens emotional connections as Neptune refines your healing sector, bringing fulfillment through compassionate methodologies strengthening relationships while maintaining professional boundaries. Holistic practices gain recognition when intuitive understanding guides evidence-based approaches respecting individual healing journeys. Counseling opportunities expand midweek when empathetic communication creates supportive environments honoring client dignity. Spiritual techniques integrate when meditative practices complement traditional therapeutic methods. Lucky Numbers: 1, 15, 52

SPORTS

The Blake Bozeman Foundation Hosts Inaugural Basketball Coaches Clinic and Networking Brunch

By Richard Elliott WI Contributing Reporter

In an event highlighting the DMV area’s sense of pride and strong basketball tradition, The Blake Bozeman Foundation hosted the inaugural Twenty2 Basketball Coaches Clinic & Networking Brunch on Sept. 14 at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Maryland from 9 a.m.5 p.m., to connect coaches with mentors.

Featuring NBA executive Ed Tapscott, sports commentator Lawrencia Moten, and several NBA and college coaches, the Blake Bozeman Founda-

tion is promising to support the development of all those in attendance–from student-athletes, to coaches, educators, and people working to grow in all areas of life.

“While we’ll certainly talk X’s and O’s, the clinic is really about life skills and leadership. I want attendees to walk away with a deeper understanding of how relationships, communication, and character can shape their careers and their impact on others,” said Todd Bozeman, the foundation’s founder. “I also want to highlight the incredible talent from the DMV in the industry. Basketball teaches discipline, teamwork, and perseverance but those same qualities are what make you successful in business, in family, and in community.”

For Bozeman, this event not only helps build others, but furthers the work and mission of his son— the foundation’s namesake, a celebrated local athlete and community leader who was shot and killed in September 2023 on H Street NE.

“Blake was a connector at heart, with a gift for bringing people together across basketball, business, and community,” Blake’s father continued, “and The TWENTY2 is a platform built for connection.”

The late Bozeman played at St. Albans and Bullis Prep before attending Morgan State University on a basketball scholarship to play for his father, who was the head coach at the historically Black institution from 2006-2019. While at the Baltimore school, the young athlete had an outstanding career and also received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the university.

He then ventured into real estate and entrepreneurship– owning 10 vending machines and starting

his own organization, Pivot Group, which provided counseling and guidance to former athletes as they transitioned from sports and athletics to other careers, allowing him to tap into his commitment to helping others.

“Blake was the type of person that strived to make everyone around him better. He was more than an athlete, he was a leader, a mentor, and a loyal friend,” the father and celebrated coach explained. “He cared deeply about people, about community, and about helping others find their path.”

Since his death, his family and those who knew him have worked

NFL from Page 9

enough to buy more than 66,000 game-day tickets.

The financial gulf also extends to players, who earn an average of $860,000 annually with careers lasting only about three years. Income players make is taxed at up to 37%, while owners’ investment income faces only a 20% top rate.

IRS records reviewed by ProPublica previously showed that some billionaire NFL owners paid effective tax rates in the low teens, or even single digits despite billions in income.

“It’s the owners who will benefit from Trump-GOP economic policies in the form of huge tax cuts for billionaires and economic elites like themselves,” said Kass, “while fans will lose money from a combination of cuts to vital public services like Medicaid and SNAP and Trump’s chaotic tariff regime.”

to keep the young athlete, father and entrepreneur’s legacy alive, particularly using basketball as a way to combat gun violence and promote positivity in the community.

“We have to all do our best to address this problem,” said American University Head Coach Duane Simpkins during a 2023 basketball game held in Bozeman’s honor. “We are glad to be a part of establishing this legacy for Blake.”

Nearly two years after his death on September 23, 2023, the foundation continues to work to inspire through basketball, such as the HBCU in DC

A Different Model in Green Bay

Billionaire owners are not essential to a team’s success.

The Green Bay Packers, the NFL’s only publicly owned franchise, are operated by more than 500,000 fan-shareholders.

No individual can own more than 4% of shares, and ownership yields no dividends.

Yet the Packers are among the most profitable and competitive teams in the league, valued at $6.3 billion and ranking 12th in revenue in 2024.

“The entire concept of rich guys owning sports teams is an antiquated idea from when players worked day jobs and needed someone to pay for train tickets to away games,” social media user PanasonicDX4500, who often weighs in on sports, wrote on X. “With rare exceptions every team

Further, the foundation furthers his legacy by building programs that reflect his values: resilience, generosity, and the belief that you can use your gifts to uplift others.

“At the end of the day, Blake’s story is about living with purpose,” his father told The Informer, “and we want to honor that by giving back to the community he loved so much.”

Tickets for the brunch and clinic are available at theblakebozemanfoundation.org . WI

is capable of operating on the Packers model of being a publicly owned nonprofit.”

Policy Debate

Democratic leaders have offered proposals aimed at narrowing the divide.

Former President Joe Biden called for taxing investment income at the same rates as wages, while Vermont Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders has proposed lowering the estate-tax exemption to ensure massive family fortunes contribute more. Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden also has pushed for an annual tax on billionaires’ unrealized gains.

“The contrast between billionaire owners and working-class fans couldn’t be clearer,” Kass explained. “The tax code should work for everyone, not just the wealthiest few.”

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5 The late Blake Bozeman is still inspiring others through basketball, including his foundation’s Twenty2 Basketball Coaches Clinic & Networking Brunch on Sept. 14, as well as other programming throughout the year. (Courtesy of The Blake Bozeman Foundation) Tip-Off Experience in November and the Blake Bozeman Classic in December.

5 TThe Blake Bozeman Foundation’s inaugural Twenty2 Basketball Coaches Clinic & Networking Brunch on Sept. 14 continues the work of the organization’s namesake (pictured), who was killed in September 2023. (Courtesy of The Blake Bozeman Foundation)

CAPTURE the moment

Residents throughout the District flocked to Pennsylvania Avenue East Main Street (PAEMS) on Friday, Sept. 12, as part of Art All Night, a weekend-long celebration highlighting D.C. artists and entrepreneurs across all eight wards. (Cleveland Nelson/The Washington Informer)

During Second Trump Presidency, Union Wesley AME Zion Church Stands Up for Community RELIGION

By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer

By the time President Donald J. Trump federalized the Metropolitan Police Department, the Rev. Dr. Brian Scott Relford, Sr. and other members of Union Wesley African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church had already spent weeks planning for an annual event that connects residents to various resources.

For Relford, the event known as Unity in the Community served a much greater purpose this year for congregants and community members, many of whom were blindsided by federal government furloughs, cuts to Medicaid, and more recently, the surge of federal law enforcement agents and National Guard members in District neighborhoods.

“We understand that in order for the community to be safe, in order for the community to be better for all of us, then we have to work together,” Relford told The Informer. “I don’t think we [the church] have to lead everything, but I think we have to kind of be the place where we can gather and we can assemble and we can talk about whether it’s mental health or education.”

During the latter part of August, hundreds of community members converged upon Union Wesley AME Zion Church for its third iteration of Unity in the Community.

During the pandemic, this annual event started as Park and Praise, an outdoor service at The Fields at RFK Campus that congregants attended from the comfort, and safety, of their vehicles. Once the District and other jurisdictions made the full return to normalcy, Union Wesley AME Zion Church moved the fes-

tivities to the church grounds.

The tradition continued on Aug. 24 when Relford gave the sermon and congregants later received backpacks and school supplies while connecting with various local organizations. Those organizations included: College Bound, Inc., Win with Black Women; and the Rho Mu Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the latter of which provided blood pressure screenings. Other entities present at Unity in the Community were D.C. Fire and EMS; the Red Cross; American Diabetes Association; the Salvation Army, and DC. Department of Behavioral Health.

The Leadership Council for Healthy Communities also provided health screenings, while members of the National Pharmaceutical Association answered health-related questions. Patrons received dental screenings, courtesy of Howard University’s Delta Mu Chi fraternity, along with resources that Relford said aims to encourage civic engagement during these precarious times.

“There’s a lot of information [to be] shared,” Relford told The Informer, “a lot of communication when it comes to the midterms and voting. These are partnerships that help us to do so many things when it comes to ministry and not just focus on a Sunday worship service.”

For Relford, such an atmosphere lays the foundation for a relationship rooted in trust, which he said benefits young people, a demographic that’s been targeted by federal agents since Trump evoked Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act.

“I’m even more concerned about the National Guard,” Relford told The Informer. “We’re talking about Black and brown children. I’m con-

cerned when I’m hearing on the news that there is this push to treat juveniles like adults. These are our kids.”

Union Wesley AME Zion, as Community Members

See It

Trump’s evocation of the D.C. Home Rule Act’s Section 740 at midnight on Sept. 11.

However, there’s consideration of 14 bills in the House that, if approved, allows for the prosecution of 14 year olds as adults, gives Congress a line-item veto in the D.C. budget, allows Trump to choose the D.C. attorney general, and paves the way for the rehiring of Metropolitan Police Department officers who commit serious crimes.

As D.C. government officials— and residents for that matter— prepare for what comes next, Charlotte Lewis of the Queens Chapel Civic Association said she and her colleagues continue to keep a pulse on how neighbors in their quaint community feel about recent events.

“There’s some hopefulness with the fact that the House of Representatives did not vote to extend the federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department,” Lewis told The Informer. “People aren’t speaking too publicly about their concerns, but there’s just an air of waiting that exists.”

For nearly 60 years, the Queens Chapel Civic Association and Union Wesley AME Zion Church have enjoyed a relationship that Lewis said has allowed the church community and Queens Chapel residents to unite around issues of concern.

As Lewis recounted, such a phenomenon occurred in April when,

amid furloughs and Medicaid cuts, D.C. Council members Christina Henderson (I-At large) and Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) spoke before Queens Chapel community members during the civic association’s monthly meeting at Union Wesley AME Zion Church.

Lewis expressed plans to bring D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, a regular at Union Wesley AME Zion, to a future civic association meeting as a keynote speaker.

“Of course that meeting will be held in person at Union Wesley,” Lewis told The Informer about the Oct. 20 event. “I told his chief of staff that should that date not work out, that the civic association will be flexible… because we think it’s important for him to come back…to the community to talk about the issues at hand.”

In recent years, as the Queens Chapel community increased in diversity, the Queens Chapel Civic Association has expanded its religious outreach beyond Union Wesley AME Zion. In doing so, the entity has created opportunities for Union Wesley to collaborate with St. Anselm’s Abbey and the Carmelite Community of WhiteFriars Hall, both also located in Northeast.

The civic association also engages families of elementary and middle schoolers who live in the community. However, Lewis acknowledges the work left to be done to bring older youth into the fold, even if they only make weekly visits to the neighborhood.

She said such efforts will continue in the lead up to the Queens Chapel Civic Association’s annual Community Day, which is scheduled for Sept. 13.

3 Congregants and other community members receive bookbags, school supplies, and other resources during Union Wesley AME Zion Church’s annual Unity in the Community event on Aug. 24. (Ja’Mon Jackson/The Washington Informer)

“Union Wesley does a fantastic job reaching out to youth, but those youth and families do not live in the Queens Chapel community,” Lewis said. “We do have some residents that are members of Union Wesley, but they don’t necessarily have young children. They are welcome to come [to Community Day] and I want the young people to come.”

Last month, during Union Wesley AME Zion’s Unity in the Community, Kimberly King counted among those who brought their children to the event.

A Northwest parent of a District high school student, King told The Informer that, since Trump federalized the local police force, they have spoken at length about the perils of traveling around the District.

The experience, as she explained, has been eye-opening.

“It’s even scarier for the parents because you just don’t know when it’s going to be, where it’s going to be,” King told The Informer. “But I think it’s interesting that my teenager kind of tells me where the checkpoints are going to be. They are very good now about learning to avoid them and learning where they’re supposed to be.”

During the pandemic, King attended the annual events that eventually turned into Unity in the Community. She said Unity in the Community has grown exponentially in the post-pandemic era, and at a time when community members could use the information the most.

“When everything finally settled, we decided that we would just go back to having it at the church… where we could really be together,” King told The Informer. “Each year we’ve added new vendors, new opportunities, new things for families and children and seniors and everybody to try and to be able to be engaged.” WI Read more on washingtoninformer.com.

A new statue of President Abraham Lincoln was installed in front of the African American Civil War Museum on Sept. 5. Sculpted by Stan Watts, the bronze artwork depicts Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation and will be formally unveiled Monday, Sept. 22. The dedication ceremony is expected to include guest speakers, live music and Civil War re-enactors. This date marks the anniversary of the preliminary proclamation issued in 1862.

The Lincoln statue is a new feature for the museum, located in the historic Grimké School, which is undergoing an extensive multiyear renovation. The dedication event on Sept. 22 will serve as a prelude to the museum’s grand reopening, now scheduled for Veterans Day, Nov. 11.

The statue’s placement symbolically connects Lincoln’s act of freeing slaves with the heroism of the United States Colored Troops, whose courage and sacrifice are honored by the museum and the adjacent Spirit of Freedom monument. The monument was unveiled in 1998. It pays tribute to the 209,145 USCT soldiers and sailors.

The seated President Abraham Lincoln is shown signing the key document that declared freedom for enslaved people in Confederate states. The story of Lincoln’s critical role in freeing enslaved people during the

WITH LYNDIA GRANT

Museum Unveils Lincoln Statue Honoring Freed Slaves’ Fight the religion corner

Civil War symbolizes the connection between his legacy and the Spirit of Freedom, a national monument maintained by the National Park Service. This monument has stood as a testament to the history of these soldiers for 27 years, with millions of visitors coming to take tours from around the world, but now the museum is being expanded.

The Spirit of Freedom Monument is located adjacent to the museum, just a few feet away, across the street. The monument to the USCT was graced by the presence of its sculptor, along with a delegation of elected officials, friends and family of Ed Hamilton, all from his home of Louisville, Kentucky. It was unveiled in front of 30,000 people and was seen around the world. A first-class museum now on the entire first floor of Grimké School will include this new statue of Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation, which will welcome all visitors and guests to see this history for themselves.

The dedication event will mark the beginning of the museum’s grand reopening after a multiyear renovation, which is scheduled for later in the fall.

The statue’s placement links Lincoln’s significant act of freeing slaves with the courage and sacrifice of the African American soldiers who fought for their liberation and the Union. This decree famously gave seceded states an ultimatum and paved the

way for the USCT to officially join the Union Army, a central focus of the museum. The inclusion of Lincoln’s act with the USCT memorial solidifies the link between the Emancipation Proclamation and the sacrifices of the African American soldiers who helped secure freedom.

Allow me to share a bit of history about the African American Civil War Museum. The museum has been undergoing a significant rebuilding and expansion project and will move to a larger location in the same neighborhood, and plans are underway for an exciting reopening and ribbon-cutting ceremony which will be held Nov. 11 (Veterans Day).

The public is invited to attend both events. Mark your calendar and come out and join former D.C. Councilman Frank Smith Jr. and the board of directors and staff of the African American Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation. I’m proud of my legacy of having served as the project director for the Spirit of Freedom monument. It feels almost like it was yesterday, but that was in 1998, more than 27 years ago, on July 18 when the District of Columbia had been experiencing a heat wave of over 100-degree weather for several days. That was a wonderful, but hot summer day!

Come on out Monday, Sept. 22, for the dedication ceremony of the Lincoln statue!

WI

RELIGION

1st Sunday

School: 9:00 AM Bible Study: Wednesday, 12 Noon

Church with a past to remember – and a future to mold” www.mtzbcdc.org

Bottom - Founded in 1867 728 23rd Street, NW - Washington, DC 20037 Church office: 202-333-3985 Fax : 202-338-4958 Service and Times Sundays: 10 a.m. Holy Eucharist with Music and Hymns Wednesdays: 12:10 p.m. - Holy Eucharist www.stmarysfoggybottom.org Email: stmarysoffice@stmarysfoggybottom.org

All are welcome to St. Mary’s to Learn, Worship, and Grow.

Rev Kevin A. O'Bryant

401 Van Buren St., NW, Washington D.C. 20012 Office (202)-882-8331

Service and Times Sunday Worship 10:30 am Zoom: zoom.us/;/2028828331 Bible Study: Wednesday 7:00pm Communion Every First Sunday "Serve, teach and Live by precept and example the saving grace of Jesus Christ."

Website: Theplbc.org Email: churchclerk@theplbc.org

Mt. Horeb Baptist Church

Rehoboth Baptist Church

First Rising Mt. Zion Baptist Church

Historic

Church Promised

Baptist Church

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

2025 ADM 000816

Venita M. Jacobs aka Venita Millicent Jacobs Decedent

Graner S. Ghevarghese

600 14th Street NW, 5th Floor Washington, DC 20005

Attorney

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

Del Trazell Singh, whose address is 2408 Pomeroy Rd., SE, Washington, DC 20020, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Venita M. Jacobs aka Venita Millicent Jacobs who died on 2/23/2024 without a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/4/2026. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 3/4/2026, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address, and relationship.

Date of first publication: 9/4/2025

Del Trazell Singh Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY

Nicole Stevens Register of Wills Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

2022 ADM 001440

James D. Vass Decedent

Kevin Judd, Esq. 601 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Suite 900-South Building Washington, DC 20004 Attorney

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

Kevin Judd, Esq., whose address is 601 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 900-South Building, Washington, DC 20004, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of James D. Vass who died on August 11, 2021 with a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment (or to the probate of decedent’s Will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/11/2026. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 3/11/2026, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address, and relationship.

Date of first publication: 9/11/2025

Kevin Judd, Esq. Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY

Nicole Stevens Register of Wills Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

2025 ADM 219

Wanda Ruggiero aka Wanda Sochanski Ruggiero Decedent

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

Jeffrey K. Gordon, Esq. & Stanley Sochanski, whose addresses are 5335 Wisconsin Ave., NW, #400 Washington, DC 20015 & 30 Cherry Street, Walnutport PA 18088, were appointed

Personal Representatives of the estate of Wanda Ruggiero aka Wanda Sochanski Ruggiero who died on February 13, 2024 without a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment (or to the probate of decedent’s Will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/4/2026. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 3/4/2026, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address, and relationship.

Date of first publication: 9/4/2025

Jeffrey K. Gordon, Esq. Stanley Sochanski Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY

Nicole Stevens Register of Wills Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

2025 FEP 000109 9/22/1994 Date of Death

Thomas Rudolph Harley Name of Decedent

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT OF FOREIGN PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Kendra Harley (Administatrix-DBN) whose address is 4340

Gault Place NE, Washington, DC 20019 was appointed personal representative of the estate of Thomas Rudolph Harley, deceased, by the Orphans Court Division Court of Common Pleas Court for Philadelphia County, State of Pennsylvania, on 7/29/2025.

Service of process may be made upon Kendra Harley 4340

Gault Place NE, Washington, DC 20019 whose designation as District of Columbia agent has been filed with the Register of Wills, D.C.

The decedent owned the following District of Columbia real property: 724 44th Street, NE, Washington, DC 20019 and 4340

Gault Place NE, Washington, DC 20019. Claims against the decedent may be presented to the undersigned and filed with the Register of Wills of the District of Columbia, 515 5th Street, NW, Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001 within 6 months from the date of first publication of this notice.

Date of first publication: 9/11/2025

Kendra Harley Personal Representative

Nicole Stevens Register of Wills

Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

2025 ADM 000806

Ulysses Benjamin Decedent

Stephanie L. Royal, Esq. The Royal Legal Group, PLLC 5335 Wisconsin Ave., NW Washington DC 20015

Attorney

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

Twayna Benjamin Winston, whose address is 16299 Catenary Dr., Woodbridge, VA 22191, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Ulysses Benjamin who died on November 12, 2024 with a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment (or to the probate of decedent’s Will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/4/2026. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 3/4/2026, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address, and relationship.

Date of first publication: 9/4/2025

Twayna Benjamin Winston Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY

Nicole Stevens Register of Wills

Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

2025 ADM 000916

Ann L. Quinn aka Ann L. R. Quinn aka Ann Lees R. Quinn Decedent

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

Peter G. Quinn & Heather Quinn, whose addresses are 5240 Ridge Ct., Fairfax, VA 22032 & 1217 McKinley St., Annapolis MD 21403, were appointed Personal Representatives of the estate of Ann L. Quinn aka Ann L. R. Quinn aka Ann Lees R. Quinn who died on 1/23/2025 with a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment (or to the probate of decedent’s Will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/18/2026. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 3/18/2026, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address, and relationship.

Date of first publication: 9/18/2025

Peter G. Quinn Heather Quinn

Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY

Nicole Stevens Register of Wills

Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

2025 ADM 000653

Deborah Harrison Decedent

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

Emone Jones, whose address is 5348 James Pl. NE, Washington, DC 20019, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Deborah Harrison who died on November 17, 2015 without a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/4/2026. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 3/4/2026, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address, and relationship.

Date of first publication: 9/4/2025

Emone Jones

Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY

Nicole Stevens Register of Wills

Washington Informer

Copyright Notice for Publication

Copyright Notice: All rights reserved regarding common-law copyright of trade-names/trade-marks, not excluding any and all derivatives and variations in spelling of any of said names, Stephanie Marcia Sanders ©; STEPHANIE MARCIA SANDERS ©; Stephanie M. Sanders ©; STEPHANIE M. SANDERS ©; Stephanie Sanders ©; STEPHANIE SANDERS ©; SANDERS STEPHANIE ©; Sanders Stephanie ©; SANDERS STEPHANIE M ©; Sanders Stephanie M ©; Sanders, Stephanie Marcia ©; SANDERS, STEPHANIE MARCIA ©; Ms Stephanie M Sanders ©; MS STEPHANIE M SANDERS ©; Ms Stephanie Marcia Sanders ©; MS STEPHANIE MARCIA SANDERS © Ms Stephanie Sanders ©; MS STEPHANIE SANDERS ©; Miss Stephanie M Sanders ©; MISS STEPHANIE M SANDERS ©; Miss Stephanie Marcia Sanders ©; MISS STEPHANIE MARCIA SANDERS ©; Miss Stephanie Sanders ©; MISS STEPHANIE SANDERS ©; Monique Danielle Whitney © MONIQUE DANIELLE WHITNEY ©; Monique D. Whitney ©; monique danielle whitney ©; monique d. whitney ©; MD WHITNEY ©; md whitney ©; MONIQUE WHITNEY ©; Monique Whitney ©; WHITNEY MONIQUE DANIELLE©; WHITNEY MONIQUE D ©; Whitney Monique D ©; Whitney M ©; WHITNEY M ©; Miinerva Ra El Bey ©; MIINERVA RA EL BEY ©; miinerva ra el bey ©; Miinerva Ra Bey ©; MIINERVA RA BEY ©; miinerva ra bey ©; Manerva Ra El Bey ©; MANERVA RA EL BEY ©; manerva ra el bey ©; SYLVESTER WRIGHT JR. ©; SYLVESTER WRIGHT ©; Sylvester Wright Jr. ©; Sylvester Wright ©; sylvester wright jr. ©; sylvester wright ©; S. WRIGHT JR. ©; S. Wright Jr. ©; s. wright jr. ©; S.Wright Jr. ©; S.Wright jr. © s. Wright Jr. ©; s. Wright ©; S. WRIGHT ©; S. Wright ©; s. wright © ©, respectively-Common Law Copyright © 1973, 1985, and 1990, respectively, by Stephanie M. Sanders ©, Monique Danielle Whitney ©, Miinerva Ra El Bey © and Sylvester Wright Jr. ©.

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SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

2025 ADM 000377

Dorothy M. Jackson

Decedent

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

Lawrence B. Jones, whose address is 419 Bailey Court, Sterling, VA 20164, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Dorothy M. Jackson 2015B 38th Street, SE, Washington, DC 20020 who died on October 31, 2024 with a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment (or to the probate of decedent’s Will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/4/2026. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 3/4/2026, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address, and relationship.

Date of first publication: 9/4/2025

Lawrence B. Jones

Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY

Nicole Stevens Register of Wills

Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

2025 ADM 000911

Cecilia Keller Denslow aka Ana Cecilia Keller Vargas aka Cecilia Ana Keller aka Cecilia Vargas Decedent

Graner S. Ghevarghese

600 14th Street, NW, Fifth Floor

Washington, DC 20005

Attorney

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

Bruce Edward Denslow, whose address is 3700 North Capitol Street, NW, Scott Room #2081, Washington, DC 20011, respectively, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Cecilia Keller Denslow aka Ana Cecilia Keller Vargas aka Cecilia Ava Keller aka Cecilia Vargas who died on 12/27/2024 without a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/18/2026. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 3/18/2026, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address, and relationship.

Date of first publication: 9/18/2025

Bruce Edward Denslow Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY

Nicole Stevens Register of Wills Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

2025 ADM 000953

Ruth Dorsey Decedent

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

Evangeline Brown, whose address is 911 47th Place, NE Washington, DC 20019, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Ruth Dorsey who died on 3/25/2019 without a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/18/2026. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 3/18/2026, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address, and relationship.

Date of first publication: 9/18/2025

Evangeline Brown Personal Representative

TRUE

Nicole Stevens Register of Wills Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

PROBATE DIVISION Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

2025 FEP 000111

5/15/2012

Date of Death

Kimberly Jeter aka Kimberly Marie Vereen Name of Decedent

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT OF FOREIGN PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Aaron Jeter aka Aaron Emmanuel Jeter whose address is 8859 Bennington Blvd., Lorton VA 22079 was appointed personal representative of the estate of Kimberly Jeter aka Kimberly Marie Vereen, deceased, by the Fairfax Circuit Court for Fairfax County, State of Virginia, on 8/13/2025. Service of process may be made upon Arthur Banks 1777 Lyman Place NE, Washington, DC 20002 whose designation as District of Columbia agent has been filed with the Register of Wills, D.C.

The decedent owned the following District of Columbia real property: 1779 Lyman Place NE, Washington, DC 20002. Claims against the decedent may be presented to the undersigned and filed with the Register of Wills of the District of Columbia, 515 5th Street, NW, Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001 within 6 months from the date of first publication of this notice.

Date of first publication: 9/18/2025

Aaron Jeter aka Aaron Emmanuel Jeter Personal Representative

Nicole Stevens Register of Wills

Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131 2025 ADM 000948

Sherelene P. Thomas aka Sherelene Powell Thomas Decedent

Stephanie L. Royal, Esq. The Royal Legal Group, PLLC Washington, DC 20015 Attorney

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

Gina Thomas Mitchell, whose address is 6 East Weald Ave., Bear, Delaware 19701, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Sherelene P. Thomas aka Sherelene Powell Thomas who died on 11/7/2024 with a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment (or to the probate of decedent’s Will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/18/2026. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 3/18/2026, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address, and relationship.

Date of first publication: 9/18/2025

Gina Thomas Mitchell Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY

Nicole Stevens Register of Wills Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

2025 ADM 000658

Florice T. Roper aka Florice Tillman Roper Decedent

NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT, NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS

Denise K. Roper & Charice F. Roper-Williams, whose addresses are 6532 7th Street. NW, Washington, DC 20012 & 1624 Portal Drive NW, Washington, DC 20012, were appointed Personal Representatives of the estate of Florice T. Roper aka Florice Tillman Roper who died on 3/11/2024 without a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment (or to the probate of decedent’s Will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., 515 5th Street, N.W., Building A, Third Floor Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before 3/18/2026. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 3/18/2026, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address, and relationship.

Date of first publication: 9/18/2025

Denise K. Roper

Charice F. Roper-Williams Personal Representative

TRUE TEST COPY

Nicole Stevens Register of Wills

Washington Informer

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Probate Division Washington, D.C. 20001-2131

2025 ADM 00994

Estate of Paul F. Wood aka Paul Frederick Wood

NOTICE OF STANDARD PROBATE

Notice is hereby given that a petition has been filed in this Court by Tycia Haight for standard probate, including the appointment of one or more personal representatives. Unless a responsive pleading in the form of a complaint or an objection in accordance with Superior Court Probate Division Rule 407 is filed in this Court within 30 days from the date of first publication of this notice, the Court may take the action hereinafter set forth.

Admit to probate the will dated April 11, 2013 exhibited with the petition upon proof satisfactory to the Court of due execution by affidavit of the witnesses or otherwise Appoint an unsupervised personal representative

Date of first publication: 9/18/2025

Augusto Macedo 1629 K Street, NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006

Petitioner/Attorney:

TRUE TEST COPY

Nicole Stevens Register of Wills

Washington Informer

Copyright Notice for Publication

Copyright Notice: All rights reserved regarding common-law copyright of trade-names/trade-marks, not excluding any and all derivatives and variations in spelling of any of said names, Jaron N. Dandridge ©; JARON N. DANDRIDGE ©; Jaron Dandridge ©; JARON DANDRIDGE ©; Jaron Neal Dandridge ©; JARON NEAL DANDRIDGE ©; Jaron N. Dandridge Sr. ©; JARON N. DANDRIDGE SR. ©; Jaron Dandridge Sr. ©; JARON DANDRIDGE SR. ©, Jaron Neal Dandridge Sr. ©; JARON NEAL DANDRIDGE SR. ©; Mr. Jaron N. Dandridge ©; MR. JARON N. DANDRIDGE ©; Mr. Jaron Dandridge ©; MR. JARON DANDRIDGE ©; Mr. Jaron Neal Dandridge ©; MR. JARON NEAL DANDRIDGE ©; Mr. Jaron N. Dandridge Sr. ©; MR. JARON N. DANDRIDGE SR. ©; Mr. Jaron Dandridge Sr. ©; MR. JARON DANDRIDGE SR. ©, Mr. Jaron Neal Dandridge Sr. ©; MR. JARON NEAL DANDRIDGE SR. © and Kennecia Dandridge ©; KENNECIA DANDRIDGE ©; Kennecia M. Dandridge ©; KENNECIA M. DANDRIDGE ©; Kennecia Mekeba Dandridge ©; KENNECIA MEKEBA DANDRIDGE ©; Kennecia M Dandridge ©; KENNECIA M DANDRIDGE ©; Kennecia M. Easley ©; KENNECIA M. EASLEY ©; Kennecia Mekeba Easley ©; KENNECIA MEKEBA EASLEY ©; Kennecia Easley ©; KENNECIA EASLEY ©; Kennecia M Easley ©; KENNECIA M EASLEY ©; Mrs. Kennecia Dandridge ©; MRS. KENNECIA DANDRIDGE ©; Mrs. Kennecia M. Dandridge ©; MRS.KENNECIA M. DANDRIDGE ©; Mrs. Kennecia Mekeba Dandridge ©; MRS. KENNECIA MEKEBA DANDRIDGE ©; Mrs. Kennecia M Dandridge ©; MRS. KENNECIA M DANDRIDGE ©; Mrs. Kennecia M. Easley ©; MRS. KENNECIA M. EASLEY ©; Mrs. Kennecia Mekeba Easley ©; MRS. KENNECIA MEKEBA EASLEY ©; Mrs. Kennecia Easley ©; MRS. KENNECIA EASLEY ©; Mrs. Kennecia M Easley ©; MRS. KENNECIA M EASLEY ©; Ms. Kennecia Dandridge ©; MS. KENNECIA DANDRIDGE ©; Ms. Kennecia M. Dandridge ©; MS. KENNECIA M. DANDRIDGE ©; Ms. Kennecia Mekeba Dandridge ©; MS. KENNECIA MEKEBA DANDRIDGE ©; Ms. Kennecia M Dandridge ©; MS. KENNECIA M DANDRIDGE ©; Ms. Kennecia M. Easley ©; MS. KENNECIA M. EASLEY ©; Ms. Kennecia Mekeba Easley ©; MS. KENNECIA MEKEBA EASLEY ©; Ms. Kennecia Easley ©; MS. KENNECIA EASLEY ©; Ms. Kennecia M Easley ©; MS. KENNECIA M EASLEY ©; and Christy Curry ©; CHRISTY CURRY ©; Christy Ann Curry ©; Christy A. Curry ©;  Ms. Christy Curry ©; Ms. CHRISTY CURRY ©; Miss. CHRISTY CURRY ©; Miss. Christy Curry ©; Christy A. Curry ©; CHRISTY A. CURRY ©; MS. CHRISTY A. CURRY ©; Ms. Christy A. Curry ©; Miss. Christy A. Curry ©; Miss. CHRISTY A. CURRY ©; Christy Ann Curry ©; Ms. Christy Ann Curry ©; Miss Christy Ann Curry ©; CHRISTY ANN CURRY ©; Ms. CHRISTY ANN CURRY ©; Miss. CHRISTY ANN CURRY ©; MS. CHRISTY ANN CURRY ©; Christie Curry ©; Christie Currie ©; Christy Currie ©; Christy A. Currie ©; Christy Ann Currie ©; Christie A. Curry ©; Christie Ann Curry ©; Ms. Christy Currie ©; Miss. Christy Currie ©; CHRISTIE CURRY ©; CHRISTIE CURRIE ©; MS. CHRISTIE CURRY ©; MS. CHRISTIE CURRIE ©; Miss. CHRISTIE A. CURRIE ©; MISS. CHRISTIE Ann CURRIE ©; MS. CHRISTIE ANN CURRIE ©; MISS Christie A. Currie ©; Miss. Christie Ann Currie ©; Chrissy Curry ©; CHRISSY CURRY©; Chrissy A. Currie ©; Chrissy Ann Curry ©; Chrissy Ann Currie ©; CHRISSY CURRIE ©; CHRISSY ANN CURRIE ©; CHISTIE ANN CURRIE ©; Christie Ann Curry ©; CHRISTY Ann CURRY ©; MS. Chrissy Ann Curry © ; Miss. CHRISSIE A. CURRY ©; christy curry ©; christy A. curry ©; Christy curry ©; Christy Ann curry ©; chrissy curry ©; chrissie currie ©; Khristy Curry ©; Kristy Curry ©; Kristie Curry ©; Kristy A. Curry ©; Khristie Currie ©; Kristie Ann Currie ©; KRISTY CURRY ©; KHRISTY CURRY ©; KRISTIE A. CURRY ©; KHRISTIE A. CURRIE ©; KRISTY Ann CURRIE ©; C. Curry ©; C. A. Curry ©; c. curry ©; c.a. curry ©; curry,christy ©; curry, a. c.  ©; Curry, Christy ©; Ms. Curry, A. Christy ©; Ms. Curry, Christy ©; Ms. Curry A. Christy ©; Ms. Curry©, respectively-Common Law Copyright © 1973, 1985, and 1990, respectively, by Jaron N. Dandridge ©, Kennecia M. Dandridge © and Christy Ann Curry©.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners in red ink, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Copyright Notice: All rights reserved regarding common-law copyright of trade-names/trade-marks, not excluding any and all derivatives and variations in spelling of any of said names Krystal Tibbs ©; KRYSTAL TIBBS ©; Krystal V. Tibbs ©; KRYSTAL V. TIBBS ©; Krystal Veronica Tibbs ©; KRYSTAL VERONICA TIBBS ©; K. Veronica Tibbs ©; K. VERONICA TIBBS ©; K. Tibbs ©; K. TIBBS ©; K.V. Tibbs ©; K.V. TIBBS ©; K.V.T. ©; K.T. ©; k.v.t ©; k.t. ©; Tibbs, Krystal ©; TIBBS, KRYSTAL ©; Tibbs, Krystal V. TIBBS, KRYSTAL V. ©; Tibbs, Krystal Veronica ©; TIBBS, KRYSTAL VERONICA ©; Tibbs, K.T ©; TIBBS, K.T. ©; Tibbs, K. Veronica ©; TIBBS, K. VERONICA ©; Ms. Krystal Tibbs ©; MS. KRYSTAL TIBBS ©; Ms. Krystal V. Tibbs ©; KRYSTAL V. TIBBS ©; Ms. Krystal Veronica Tibbs ©; MS. KRYSTAL VERONICA TIBBS ©; Ms. K. Tibbs ©; MS. K. TIBBS ©; Ms. K. Veronica Tibbs ©; MS. K. VERONICA TIBBS ©; Ms. K.V. Tibbs ©; MS. K.V. TIBBS ©; Ms. K.T. ©; MS. K.V.T. ©; ms. k.v.t. ©; ms. k.t. ©; Ms. Tibbs, Krystal ©; MS. TIBBS, KRYSTAL ©; Ms. Tibbs, Krystal V. ©; MS. TIBBS, KRYSTAL V. ©; Ms. Tibbs, K. ©; MS. TIBBS, K. ©; Ms. Tibbs, Krystal Veronica ©; MS. TIBBS, KRYSTAL VERONICA ©; Ms. Tibbs, K.V. ©; MS. TIBBS, K.V. ©; Ms. Tibbs, K. Veronica ©; MS. TIBBS, K. VERONICA ©; and Anthony M. OBrien Jr. ©; Anthony Mathew OBrien Jr. ©; Anthony Matthew OBrien Jr ©; Anthony M. O’Brien Jr. ©; Anthony Mathew O’Brien Jr. ©; Anthony Matthew O’Brien Jr. ©; Anthony M. Obrien Jr. ©; Anthony Mathew Obrien Jr. ©; Anthony Matthew Obrien Jr. ©; Anthony M. O’Brien Jr. ©; Anthony Mathew O’Brien Jr. ©; Anthony Matthew O’Brien Jr. ©; ANTHONY M. OBRIEN JR. ©; ANTHONY MATHEW OBRIEN JR. ©; ANTHONY MATTHEW OBRIEN JR ©; ANTHONY M. O’BRIEN JR. ©; ANTHONY MATHEW O’BRIEN JR. ©;ANTHONY MATTHEW O’BRIEN JR. ©;ANTHONY M. OBRIEN JR. ©; ANTHONY MATHEW OBRIEN JR. ©; ANTHONY MATTHEW OBRIEN JR. ©;ANTHONY M. O’BRIEN JR. ©;ANTHONY MATHEW O’BRIEN JR. ©; Anthony O Brien ©; anthony o brien ©; O BRIEN, ANTHONY ©; o brien, Anthony ©; O Brien, Anthony ©; ANTHONY M. OBRIEN ©; anthony m. obrien ©; Anthony M. Obrien ©; and MR. FRANK FOSTER SMITH JR© FRANK FOSTER SMITH JR© MR. FRANK FOSTER SMITH© FRANK FOSTER SMITH© MR. FRANK F SMITH© FRANK F SMITH© MR. FRANK SMITH© FRANK SMITH© Mr. Frank Foster Smith Jr© Frank Foster Smith Jr© Mr. Frank Foster Smith© Frank Foster Smith© Mr. Frank F Smith© Frank F Smith© Mr. Frank Smith© Frank Smith© SMITH, FRANK FOSTER© SMITH, SMITH, FRANK FOSTER MR.© Smith, Frank Foster Mr.© Smith, Frank F ©. Respectively- Common Law Copyright © 1973, 1985, and 1990, respectively, by Krystal V. Tibbs ©, Anthony M. O’Brien ©, Frank Foster Smith Jr.©.

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Copyright Notice for Publication   Copyright Notice: All rights reserved regarding common-law copyright of trade-names/trade-marks, not excluding any and all derivatives and variations in spelling of any  of said names, Michelle Bland ©; MICHELLE BLAND ©; Michelle R. Bland ©; MICHELLE R. BLAND©; Michelle Renee’ Bland ©; MICHELLE RENEE’ BLAND ©; M. Renee’ Bland ©; M. RENEE’ BLAND ©; M. Bland©; M. BLAND©; M. R. Bland©; M. R. BLAND ©; M. R. B. ©; M. B. ©; and Devren D. Carrington ©;names Devren Derrell Carrington ©; Devren D. Carrington ©; Devren D Carrington ©; Devren Carrington ©; Derrell Carrington ©; Derrell Devren Carrington ©; Derrell D. Carrington ©; Derrell D Carrington ©; D. Derrell Carrington ©; D Derrell Carrington ©; D. Devren Carrington ©; D Devren Carrington ©; D. D. Carrington ©; D D Carrington ©; D. Carrington ©; D Carrington ©; D. D. C. ©; D.D.C. ©; D D C ©; D.C. ©; DC; Carrington, D. Devren ©; Carrington, D Devren ©; Carrington, D. D. ©; Carrington, D D. ©; Carrington, D ©; DEVREN DERRELL CARRINGTON ©; DEVREN D. CARRINGTON ©; DEVREN D CARRINGTON ©; DEVREN CARRINGTON ©; DERRELL DEVREN CARRINGTON ©; DERRELL D. CARRINGTON ©; DERRELL D CARRINGTON ©; DERRELL CARRINGTON ©; D. DERRELL CARRINGTON ©; D DERRELL CARRINGTON ©; D. DEVREN CARRINGTON ©; D DEVREN CARRINGTON ©; D. D. CARRINGTON ©; D D CARRINGTON ©; D. CARRINGTON ©; D CARRINGTON ©; D.D.C. ©; D D C ©; D.C. ©; DC ©; CARRINGTON, DEVREN DERRELL ©; CARRINGTON, DEVREN D. ©; CARRINGTON, DEVREN D ©; CARRINGTON, DEVREN ©; CARRINGTON, DERRELL DEVREN ©; CARRINGTON, DERRELL D. ©; CARRINGTON, DERRELL D ©; CARRINGTON, DERRELL ©; CARRINGTON, D. DERRELL ©; CARRINGTON, D DERRELL ©; CARRINGTON, D. DEVREN ©; CARRINGTON, D DEVREN ©; CARRINGTON, D. D. ©; and Charles Foster©; CHARLES FOSTER©; Charles E. Foster©; CHARLES E. FOSTER©; Charles Eddy Foster©; CHARLES EDDY FOSTER©; Charles Eddy Foster, Jr.©; CHARLES EDDY FOSTER JR.©; C. Foster©; C. FOSTER©; C. E. Foster©; C. E. FOSTER©; C. E. Foster, Jr.©; C. E. FOSTER, JR.©; C.E.F.©; C.F.©; c.e.f.©; c.f.©; C.E.F.JR.©; c.e.f.jr.©; C.F.JR.©; c.f.jr.©; Foster, Charles©; FOSTER, CHARLES©; Foster, Charles E.©; FOSTER, CHARLES E.©; Foster, C.©; FOSTER, C.©; Foster, Charles Eddy©; FOSTER, CHARLES EDDY©; Foster, C. E.©; FOSTER, C. E.©; Foster, C. Eddy©; FOSTER, C. Eddy©; Foster, Jr., C .Eddy©; FOSTER, JR., C. EDDY©; Mr. Charles Foster©; MR. CHARLES FOSTER©; Mr. Charles E. Foster©; MR. CHARLES E. FOSTER©; ©; Mr. Charles Eddy Foster©; MR. CHARLES EDDY FOSTER©; Mr. Charles Eddy Foster, Jr.©; MR. CHARLES EDDY FOSTER JR.©; Mr. C. Foster; MR. C. FOSTER©; Mr. C. E. Foster©; MR. C. E. FOSTER©; Mr. C. E. Foster, Jr.©; MR. C. E. FOSTER, JR.©; MR.C.E.F.©; MR. C.F.©; Mr. c.e.f.©; MR. c.f.©; MR. C.E.F.JR.©; Mr. c.e.f.jr.©; MR. C.F.JR.©; Mr. c.f.jr.©; Mr. Foster, Charles©; MR. FOSTER, CHARLES©; Mr. Foster, Charles E.©; MR. FOSTER, CHARLES E.©; Mr. Foster, C.©; MR. FOSTER, C.©; Mr. Foster, Charles Eddy©; MR. FOSTER, CHARLES EDDY©; Mr. Foster, C. E.©; MR. FOSTER, C. E.©; Mr. Foster, C. Eddy©; MR. FOSTER, C. EDDY©; Mr. Foster, Jr., C. Eddy©; MR. FOSTER, JR., C. EDDY©;respectively Common Law Copyright © 1973, 1985, and 1990, respectively, by Michelle R. Bland ©, Devren D. Carrington ©, and Charles E. Foster ©.

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BROWN from Page 30

fighting to keep their presses alive. Yet in President Donald Trump’s America, while policies drive Black women’s unemployment to the highest levels in modern history, their institutions are being starved of the resources that sustain them. That double assault — on their livelihoods and their legacies — should haunt this nation.

To our billionaires: This is not a call to shame, but a call to conscience. You rose from the communities that these pages sustained. Your names and

LEON from Page 30

speech, and too many on the so-called “left” are allowing them to do this. Cox said, “Political violence is different than any other type of violence … the very act that Charlie championed, of expression … that is enshrined in our founding documents, having his life taken in that way … makes it more difficult for people to believe they can share their ideas.”

In theory, Cox is correct but political speech is not what this should be about. As citizens, we cannot afford to be lulled into this trap equating racist rhetoric and hate with protected political speech. Yes, the First Amendment protects our right to free speech, but not all speech is protected. The phrase, “You can’t falsely shout fire in a crowded theater” comes from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’s opinion in the 1919 Supreme Court case Schenck v. United States. That’s what Trump and Kirk and the others are doing within our crowded political theater.

Remember Trump’s comments about Mexicans? He claimed that they are “bringing their worst people to America, including criminals and rapists. … They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing their problems,” he said. “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some I assume are good people, but I speak to border guards, and they tell us what we are getting.” Following Trump’s racist rants, Kirk said on May 19, 2023, “It’s happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go

MORIAL from Page 30

with food for their dinner table and for their lives.

Gun violence and terror are ripping our communities apart. It’s tearing families apart, separating parents from their children. And without the proper leadership and legal measures in place to ensure that these crimes

fortunes live because the Black Press fought to keep the truth alive when no one else would. And while some may ask, “Where are you?” — we instead ask, “Will you stand with us now?”

Because if the Black Press falls, so too falls the memory of our people. This is not charity. It is survival. It is legacy. It is standing on the right side of history. Those who wish to answer this call can do so today — through our sponsorship opportunities as the Black Press prepares for its 200th anniversary, or directly through a GoFundMe at https://gofund.me/240152783.

around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more often.” That’s not political speech, that’s unprotected racist hate speech. Isn’t it ironic that Kirk’s accused assassin, Tyler James Robinson, is not one of those “prowling Blacks” and is from Orem, Utah?

It is also important to remember that fighting words are not protected speech. This concept was established in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire. The legal concept of “fighting words” refers to words that, “by their very utterance, inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace,” prompting the listener to throw a punch. They are considered to have very little social value, and the government can prohibit them to prevent immediate violence and disorder. Charlie Kirk said on May 19, 2023, “MLK was awful. He’s not a good person.” That’s not political speech. Those comments have no social value. Those are fighting words.

Again, in theory, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is correct, but he fails to put any of Kirk’s “political speech” into any real context. On Jan. 23, 2024, Kirk said, “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified.” Does Cox agree with this? Does he support this? Will Cox defend this? He makes no mention of the hate-filled racist nature of Kirk’s diatribes.

As Cox champions the right of free speech, where was he when Mahmoud Khalil, the Algerian-Palestinian student who is known for his leading role in the 2024 Columbia University

never happen again, our country is being torn apart by misplaced anger, unjustified blame and extremist rhetoric.

No one should lose their life in a senseless act of violence, and our country should not lose its soul to the damage done in their wake. Solving this issue is not a game of football where one side wins and the

The door remains open. The need is urgent.

If the Black Press dies, no tribute, no hashtag, no brand campaign will erase the record: that when the institution that carried Black America for two centuries cried out, those with the power to save it stayed silent.

And so, the question remains: Who among you will step forward? Or will the flowers laid on the Black Press’ grave be bought with the coins of indifference?

WI

pro-Palestinian protests. was arrested, sent to ICE detention and nearly deported? What about Turkish doctoral student Rumeysa Öztürk, who was arrested by federal immigration agents and had her visa revoked in connection with her pro-Palestinian activism at Tufts University? Did he stand for their First Amendment rights?

Dr. Ronald Walters wrote in “White Nationalism, Black Interests,” “… given a condition where one race is dominant in all political institutions, most policy actions appear to take on an objective quality, where policy makers argue they are acting on the basis of “national interests” rather than racial ones.” There are way too many on both sides of the aisle who want to protect the right to speak in a political context while ignoring the fact that their racist nature serves no valuable democratic purpose.

Kirk’s widow said he was killed because he spoke for patriotism and faith. Well, there could be some truth relative to the patriotism part if you understand American history, white nationalism, and the racist and xenophobic realities of American history. But the faith part? Not at all. What God does she pray to and follow? Not the one who told us to love our neighbor as ourselves, do unto others, all are created in the image of God, and we must care for the least of us. Those ideals were never championed by Charlie Kirk.

WI

Read more on washingtoninformer.com.

other loses. If we don’t get this right, if we don’t invest the tools to get to the root of the mentality that causes this violence, and put in the safeguards to ensure this never happens again, we all lose.

Now is the time to demand that our leaders replace platitudes with policy and sow unity, not division. WI

HAGLER from Page 31

is easier than at other times. As I look at the life of Kirk, he was a husband, a father, and what else I do not know. He had friends, I am sure. He played a significant role in his connection with community that was personal and also collective.

But the problem I would have in affirming this life at an end-oflife ceremony is that he evidently did not care in his living about the security and comfort of others. He did not show empathy. Whether he believed what he espoused, or it was simply a marketing ploy for influence and money, I don’t know, and no one will ever know for sure.

But Charlie Kirk expanded hatred, marketed the vile speech of old racisms in new wineskins, and fur-

JEALOUS from Page 31 appeal rested on dispossessing Native Americans through forced removal and fanning hostility toward Mexicans and free Black people. That brand of populism was intoxicating for some, but devastating for others. A hundred years later, the 1920s played a similar tune: new cultural freedoms for some, paired with an immigration crackdown and a Klan resurgence. And here we are, in the 2020s, facing our own battles over who truly belongs.

It is tempting to despair — to think the cycle means we are trapped. But history shows something else. The ‘20s are turbulent,

MARSHALL from Page 31

paying highly skilled workers less than their true value. America thrived on cheap labor in the past and continues to do so throughout all eras of technology. Throughout our nation’s business-oriented society, low wages often result in a combination of reduced losses and higher profits, often at the expense of workers’ financial and safety interests. We are a nation built on the foundation of maintaining profits over people. The progression is clear. While our nation moved from one era of technology to another, the common denominator is the combination of increased profits and a lack of concern for the human factor. In the past, cheap labor was most evident through the institution of slavery. When the Industrial Revolution transformed society in the

ther jeopardized the lives and security of others.

The right wing is working hard to make a political martyr of him. The president has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff ahead of any remembrance of 9/11.

Donald Trump talked about lowering the temperature of the political language that is used, but in the next breath criticized “the radical left” for castigating the hate language of Kirk.

If we are going to be truthful in this moment, the hate that Kirk put out came back on him, and the violent political language that continues to fly in this country will continue to manifest itself in ways where we will continually be praying for victims and their families.

WI

but they force the country to face its contradictions. The ‘30s bring reckonings, the ‘40s wars of ideas and arms, the ‘50s fresh anxieties, the ‘60s bursts of reform. And the ‘70s? Oddly enough, the ‘70s tend to be the decades when the nation exhales and reimagines itself. The 1770s gave us the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming that all men are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The 1970s saw the end of the Vietnam War, the fall of Jim Crow and the rise of new movements for women’s rights, environmental protection and inclusion.

18th and 19th centuries, it marked an era in which the nation shifted from mainly agrarian and craftbased economies to mechanized production, mass urban labor and industrial factories. The corporation became the dominant form of business. The Gilded Age was a period of rapid industrialization, economic growth and immigration, but it was also marked by political corruption and wealth inequality. Driven by the desire for excessive profits, the era was rife with the inhumanity of child labor and sweatshops where employees endured long hours, low pay and unsafe or unhealthy conditions. By way of these cruel working conditions, industrialists like Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller amassed great fortunes while immigrants lived in total poverty. We know that the sins of the Industrial Revolution led to a rise

Donald Trump talked about lowering the temperature of the political language that is used, but in the next breath criticized “the radical left” for castigating the hate language of Kirk.

If the pattern holds, the 2070s could be the moment when our grandchildren inherit a democracy closer to the promise in our founding documents.

Each American century moves to a similar rhythm. The ‘20s are always turbulent — testing our patience and our faith. But they also call forth courage, creativity and the determination to build something better.

As I tell my son, all the rising generations must do is make sure American democracy survives to the 2070s. After all, in America, the ‘70s tend to be much better than the ‘20s.

WI

in labor unions and the fight for workers’ rights, along with the abolition of child labor. As people were devalued as workers and as human beings, the fruits of the fight for human beings resulted in laws allowing collective bargaining, setting federal standards for wages, hours and safe working conditions. Despite the gains, the combination of cheap labor and excessive profits still prevails. We see cheap labor achieved by way of illegal immigration, guest workers and outsourcing, by sending American jobs overseas. Greed will always find a way. The technological era brought about by the internet in the late 20th century has transformed society into a more digital one, resulting in online marketplaces and global services. Job opportunities are now lost due to the decline in brick-and-mortar retail in favor of e-commerce. WI

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