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MGM Touts Resort, Jobs as Opening Approaches Page 12
Toyota Wins Big at Diversity Leadership Awards Page 16
VOL. 51, NO. 16 JAN. 28 - FEB. 3, 2016
Don’t Miss This Month’s Issue of the WI BRIDGE - Center Section
Local Resident’s Cancer Scare Yolanda Adams,‘Let Freedom Leads to Advocacy Page 18 Ring’ Concert Page 26
D.C. Native Appointed to UMMS Board
WASHINGTON INFORMER EXCLUSIVE
Tavis Smiley Makes ‘A Covenant’ With Blacks
By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer
5 Tavis Smiley / Courtesy photo By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer A decade ago, Tavis Smiley made a covenant with Black America. Now the popular talk show host, advocate and entrepreneur has released a follow-up to his 2006 book, “The Covenant.” Smiley has released “The Covenant With Black America: 10 years later,” in which he presents his original action plan alongside new data from the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs. In an exclusive interview with The Washington Informer, Smiley said the new information underscores missed opportunities and the hard work that remains. “All across America, the vicious assault on the civil and human rights
TAVIS Page 8
5 It is never too cold to stop and help someone along the way as one woman demonstrates in downtown D.C. by generously taking off her gloves and giving a donation to a homeless gentleman at the start of winter blizzard Jonas on Friday, Jan. 22. / Photo by Travis Riddick.
Washington, East Coast Region Walloped by Record Snowfall
Clean Up Efforts Underway but Many Complain of Unplowed Roads
By D. Kevin McNeir WI Editor The blizzard that hit the East Coast last week, with swirling winds measuring up to 50 mph and record-breaking accumulations of 22, 26 and 42 inches in the Washington, D.C., New York City’s Central Park and portions of West
Virginia, respectively, continues to impact millions of citizens. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser lifted the snow emergency on Wednesday, Jan. 27, allowing cars to once again park on snow emergency routes, schools in the District re-opened after being closed since last Friday, and the area’s airports opened more runways in efforts to return to business as usual. Metro
also resumed train and bus services. And the federal and D.C. governments, closed since Monday, said their employees would be back in their offices on Wednesday, although on a slightly delayed schedule. But the blizzard’s impact on
BLIZZARD Page 5
He attended Theodore Roosevelt High School in Northwest and later graduated from Howard University. Now, District native and retired Judge of the U.S. District Court for Maryland, Alexander Williams Jr. has been appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan along with six other veteran community leaders to serve on the University of Maryland Medical System Board Of Directors. “I grew up in Northwest and I love how D.C. has grown and come on,” Williams said. “And, although I get back to D.C. as often as I can, I’m a Marylander now and it is a high honor and a privilege that the governor has appointed me to this board.” Williams, who in 1994 was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the Federal Court, will serve a five-year term on the board that’s already comprised with some of Maryland’s most prolific community members who are charged with helping the hospital grow, raise funds, and find a better way to help city residents with health problems. “These six highly-qualified individuals bring a diverse spectrum of experience and expertise to the UMMS Board of Directors and will be valuable additions as the Board sets the direction for our non-profit health system in the years to come,” Robert A. Chrencik, president and chief executive officer of the University of Maryland Medical System said in a news release. “The Maryland healthcare environment continues to evolve and our system must continue to be flexible in
WILLIAMS Page 11
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