VOL. 52, NO. 13 • JANUARY 12 - 18, 2017
Bowser: ACA Repeal Could Cost City over $500 million a Year - Hot Topics / Page 4
Talladega Band Agrees to Perform at Inauguration By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer It took much debate and endless soul-searching, but in the end, the historically black Talladega College's marching band will perform at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Friday, Jan. 20. "We respect and appreciate how our students and alumni feel about our participation in this parade," Talladega President Billy Hawkins said in a news release announcing the decision to participate. "As many of those who chose to participate in the parade have said, we feel the inauguration of a new president is not a political event but a civil ceremony celebrating the transfer of power." To a number of Talladega alumni, the announcement late last month that the band would march in the parade was an insult to the very principles of
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John Lewis Asserts the Right to Dissent GOP Creates Rule to ‘Muzzle’ Objections By D. Kevin McNeir WI Editor The right to reasonably and peacefully dissent has long been one of our country’s most guarded and fundamental ways of life. But now it appears that House Republicans want to control what the means by which other members of
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MLK Day! Page 5
Yes, He Did!
Obama Rallies America in Farewell Speech By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer
5 President Barack Obama delivered his final speech on Tuesday, Jan. 10 as the leader of the free world during his visit to Chicago, the city in which he cut his teeth as a young Congressman. / Photo by Travis Riddick
SECURITY IS THE NAME OF THE GAME:
Mayor Muriel Bowser, along with local and federal law enforcement agencies, most notably the Secret Service, met with members of the media on Friday, Jan. 6, answering questions about public safety plans for the upcoming presidential inauguration. Officials emphasized that from Jan. 19 to Jan. 21, a wide section of downtown D.C. will be closed, as will several Metro stations: Archives, Mount Vernon Square, Federal Triangle, Smithsonian and Pentagon. However, Metro will offer extended hours of service. Dozens of groups have applied for permits to participate in a march the day after the inauguration to voice their opposition to the President-elect. And there will be several protests on the day of the inauguration as well. Law enforcement officials and the Mayor say they’re confident that they’ll be able to maintain the peace. National Guard troops, 5,000 in total, and 3,000 extra police will be deployed to the District joining law enforcement already stationed in the Greater Washington Area. / Photo by Khalid Naji-Allah
“Yes, we did!” Those were the words that Barack Hussein Obama ended his farewell speech to America on Tuesday, Jan. 10 – eight years after he captured the presidency, campaigning on the slogan, “Yes, we can!” For nearly an hour, the nation’s 44th commander-in-chief reminded everyone that history will not only show him to be the first – and perhaps only – Black president, but time will reveal just how well a job Obama did after inheriting a nation at war, reeling in debt and cowering in fear every time Homeland Security raised the threat level. Just the passing of the baton to Donald Trump has revealed a large swath of Americans who already understand that they’ll miss Obama. “It’s easy to lose sight of that in the blizzard of our minute-to-minute Washington news cycles. But America is a story told not minute to minute, but generation to generation,” Obama told the more than 4,200 spectators who crammed into Chicago’s McCormick Place Lakeside Center to see him deliver his farewell address, while tens of millions more watched on television. “We’ve made America a better, stronger place for the generations that will follow. We’ve run our leg in a long relay of progress, knowing that our work will always be unfinished,” the president said. Obama noted that he fulfilled his goal of making quality, affordable health care not a privilege, but a right.
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