“Melancholy and sadness are the start of doubt... doubt is the beginning of despair; despair is the cruel beginning of the differing degrees of wickedness.” – Isidore Ducasse Lautreamont
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C e l e b r a t i n g 4 9 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. 49, No.23 Mar. 20 - Mar. 26, 2014
Spring Finally Arrives!
Despite moderate snowfall that blanketed the region on Monday, March 17, signs of spring are everywhere. The trees on the grounds of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Northwest signal warmer days to come. /Photo by Khalid Naji-Allah
Possible Indictment Clouds Gray Re-election Bid By Barrington M. Salmon WI Staff Writer @bsalmondc Management consultant Dionne Brown remembers working on the Gray campaign in 2010. At the time, she recalled, she felt good about volunteering to get Mayor Vincent C. Gray
elected. At one point, Brown recalls, it became apparent that a great deal of money was flowing through the campaign with new staffers getting paid, as well as other evidence of large amounts of money being spent on the campaign. In retrospect, said Brown, a
former Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in Ward 8 who has intimate knowledge of D.C. politics, Gray is guilty of financial misdeeds. “There are no surprises. I think Gray did it. I know he did it,” she said. “There are a lot of other people who’re defending him in the press. I think he did
it because of greed. He was outpolling (former Mayor Adrian) Fenty. He’s not the first one to do it. But he did it on a scale not seen in the city. I couldn’t have imagined that that much money was coming in. I was a volunteer. When the shadow campaign ramped up, the new people were getting paid.”
Visit us online for daily updates and much more @ www.washingtoninformer.com Greater Washington Urban League Receives Huge Contribution Page 4
Children’s Health Program in Jeopardy Page 19
On March 10, the District of Columbia’s U.S. Attorney Ron Machen, Jr., announced a plea deal with Jeffrey Thompson, a founder of the accounting firm Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio, and former owner of the D.C. Chartered Health Plan which had a
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