“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” – Maya Angelou Julianne Malveaux Confronts The Onion See Page 24
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C e l e b r a t i n g 4 8 Ye a r s o f S e r v i c e
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Serving More Than 50,000 African American Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area / Vol. 48, No. 21 Mar. 7 - Mar. 13, 2013
Delta Sigma Theta 100 Years Later!
Danielle King, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., marches along Pennsylvania Avenue during the reenactment of the 1913 Women’s Suffrage March on Sunday, March 3. See story on Page 26. /Photo by Khalid Naji-Allah
America Grapples With Sequester Fallout By Barrington M. Salmon WI Staff Writer One day before $85 billion worth of automatic, across-theboard cuts to domestic and defense programs kicked in, a panel of five policy experts painted a dire picture of the effects on communities of color, includ-
ing Latinos, Native Americans, Asians and African Americans. One specialist, Ellen Nissenbaum, senior vice president for Government Affairs at the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities in Northwest, said sequestration could have been avoided. “This is absolutely a manmade creation. We didn’t ever
foresee sequestration which is the victory of their goals,” she said of the Republicans in Congress who refused to come to an agreement with President Barack Obama and their Democratic counterparts. “Everyone agreed to 10 years with a hammer. But the hammer is so attractive to some representatives.”
The effects of the sequester will not be felt immediately but experts expect it to begin to bite in the next few months. In 2011, Congress passed a law putting the onus on both parties to agree on a plan to implement $4 trillion in budget cuts. The Budget Control Act of August 2011 required $1.2
Visit us online for daily updates and much more @ www.washingtoninformer.com. Community Speaks Out on New Medical Center Page 12
Marcia Fudge Leads Black Caucus Page 14
trillion in automatic cuts divided equally between domestic and defense programs over the next 10 years. Failure to forge an agreement would trigger an additional $1 trillion in arbitrary budget cuts. A Super Committee appoint-
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