07-18-08 WEBSITEONLY.qxd

IN THIS ISSUE . . .
Carroll County
COVER: VINTAGE BLACK CINEMA MOVIE POSTER STAMPS
HIGHLIGHT AFRICAN-AMERICAN
CULTURAL EXPERIENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 12, 14
Africa Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Around the Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4–5
Capital Comments/Insights & Viewpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6–7
Health & Wellness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8–9
Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10–11
Arts & Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15–17
Sports & Recreation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Business News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Classified Ads/Bids & Proposals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21–23
VOLUME XVII, NUMBER 29
Imaging the Politics, Culture, and Events of Our Times
Howard County
Baltimore
Annapolis
Montgomery
County
Loudoun
County
Fauquier
County
Fairfax
County
Prince
William
County
Anne
Arundel County
D.C.
Arlington County
Prince George’s
County
Alexandria
Spotsylvania
County
Stafford
County
Fredericksburg
Charles
County
Westmoreland
County
Richmond
July 18, 2008
VINTAGE BLACK
CINEMA MOVIE POSTER
STAMPS HIGHLIGHT
AFRICAN-AMERICAN
CULTURAL EXPERIENCE
V
intage movie posters highlighting
various facets of the AfricanAmerican cultural experience as
represented in early film returned
on postage when the U.S. Postal Service
issued the Vintage Black Cinema stamps. The 42-cent
commemorative First-Class stamps were dedicated July 16 at
the Newark, NJ, Museum during the Black Film Festival and
went on sale nationwide that day.
Explained U.S. Postal Service Vice President and Consumer Advocate Delores Killette: “Whether spotlighting the
talents of entertainment icons Josephine Baker, Duke Ellington, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Fredi Washington, Louis Jordan,
Daniel L. Haynes, Victoria Spivey or King Vidor, or documenting changing social attitudes and expectations—these
posters now serve a greater purpose than publicity and promotion. They are invaluable pieces of history, preserving memories of cultural phenomena that otherwise might have been
forgotten.”
Scheduled to join Killette at the 10 a.m. dedication ceremony Wednesday are Emmy-Award winning Actress Lynn
Whitfield who played the leading role in The Josephine Baker
Story; Josephine Baker’s son Jean-Claude Baker and his
brother, Jarry; Louis Jordan’s widow, Martha Jordan; Paul
Ellington, grandson of Duke Ellington; Newark Mayor Cory
A. Booker, and Gloria Hopkins Buck, chairwoman of the film
festival.
“My adoptive mother,
whose theme song was ‘Two loves Have I,
my Country and Paris,’ would be delighted, thrilled and deeply
moved by this wonderful tribute to African-American culture,”
said Jean-Claude Baker, one of Josephine Baker’s adoptive
sons. “Her legend was global and her heart embraced the
world. But, despite the acclaim in films like Princess Tam-Tam
she never forgot that she was, at heart, a daughter of St
Louis.”
The Vintage Black Cinema souvenir sheet includes 20
stamps in four rows with five different commemorative stamps
featuring posters advertising movies produced for AfricanAmerican audiences prior to 1950. Stamp Art Director and
Designer Carl T. Hermann of Carlsbad, CA, intended to evoke
a strip of film with perforations, or sprocket holes, running
down the left and right edges. This souvenir sheet also includes selvage text.
Remembered as the first screen appearance of Duke Ellington, the 1929 film Black and Tan features three songs by
Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra. In this 19-minute
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short, Ellington, playing himself, is in danger of
having his piano repossessed. When his fatally
ill girlfriend dances at a nightclub, she saves
Ellington’s music—and asks to hear his “Black
and Tan Fantasy” on her deathbed.
In the 1921 silent film The Sport of the Gods,
the family of a wrongfully convicted man flees
disgrace in Virginia only to face immorality and
temptation in New York City. Based on a novel by
Paul Laurence Dunbar, the film was produced by
the short-lived Reol Motion Picture Corporation,
which made several movies for black audiences.
One of only four movies to star American-born
entertainer Josephine Baker, Princess Tam-Tam tells
the story of a novelist who discovers a simple African
woman, played by Baker, and presents her as a
princess to Parisian society. Released in France in 1935, this
French-language feature remains a rare film showcase for
Baker’s singing and dancing.
Highlighting the talents of singer, saxophonist, and “jump
blues” bandleader Louis Jordan, the 1945 short Caldonia is
often cited as a precursor of today’s music videos. The four
musical numbers featured in this 18-minute film also appeared
as individual “soundies,” short films shown on video jukeboxes at nightclubs and restaurants during the 1940s.
Released in 1929, Hallelujah was one of the first majorstudio films to feature an all-black cast. This dramatic story of
a field laborer who is seduced away from his community by
worldly temptations was filmed primarily in Arkansas and
Tennessee. Noted for its portrayal of the rural African-American religious experience, Hallelujah earned King Vidor a
nomination for Best Director.
Continued on page 12
July 18, 2008
THE
METRO HERALD
NEWSPAPER
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2
Editorial
T
here are things that are
happening in America that
don’t even move our meter
of consciousness. People
are moving away from
their roots and towards the
unknown. America has always been
problematic about being nomadic . . . jobs
on the one hand and roots and tradition on
the other. It’s like two people tugging on
both ends of a rubber band, digging in their
heels and pulling as hard as they may. The
tension is great and the release of your grip
on the rubber band is even greater, like
conceding your personal identity to an
amorphous place that has a job with your
name on it.
In the nineteen thirties, when
America was in the middle of the Great
Depression, all or most people appeared to
be on an equal status: few jobs and fewer
prospects for them. Stress carried with it a
sort of fatigue or weariness; people were
anchored to their past, dustbowled in their
present, and blighted about their future.
Towns across America again find
themselves on the edge of extinction.
There are stories being told across rural
America that small towns have to combine
resources to field a boys’ or a girls’
basketball team. Towns, which were very
vibrant just a few years ago, are now
becoming clear candidates for the last man
standing, akin to military tradition.
On the other hand, a part of
Americana is slipping out of the sights and
sounds of the American psyche. Oil prices
and the massive farm conglomerates—
a.k.a. WalMart—are building over
America’s past like a tent that warehouses
relics of our history: the tractor being replaced by the sport utility vehicle. This
attests to the surrealness of a nation pulling
in its tentacles of touching, breathing, and
hearing the sounds of its people.
Rural America isn’t dead; it’s just
dying . . . death or dying could perhaps be
a momentary thing . . . like focusing then
refocusing to make sure we are seeing
what our minds are telling us we are
seeing. It’s like being exposed to partial
resuscitation: the treatment is fine, but we
always end up where we have been.
I know what I feel like when I move
to places that are open, where the sun
seems to be a bit more friendly and people
nod at you even though they don’t know
you . . . where conversation is as freeflowing as the smiles on people’s faces and
where a handshake still has worth and
meaning . . . places where a neighbor will
look after your property when you are
gone, or help you fix your lawnmower
when it is broken. There are still places like
this in America, where solitude is not an
illness and picking your teeth is not
offensive.
There is a reason why rural America
is on life support. It is because people are
leaving and are not coming back; it is the
same reason that only half of America’s
young people are no longer reading books:
they feel they don’t need to read any more
to enhance life, and young people in rural
America feel life is not enhancing for
them.
Middle-age adults account for most
of the moving. They have been caught up
in a bad farm economy, foreclosures, and
the loss of subsidies both at the state and
federal levels. Ironically the areas in
which states are showing gains in
population are on Native American
reservations.
From Maine across America . . . to
Wisconsin . . . to Nevada, Native Americans
are moving back in many cases to reclaim
their lands. They are also moving back
because of the gambling revenues and the
fact that these monies being made off of
games of chance are allowing them to seek
better health and social benefits and, in
many cases, to reconnect with their tribal
past.
Hopefully, America will wake up and
not let our towns and villages die. One
glimmer of hope is retired Americans, who
want to move back to places in America
that are unencumbered by movement over
fifteen miles an hour, where there is only
one stoplight; oneness is still in vogue—
one drugstore, post office, where you have
diners in place of restaurants, where
houses can still be bought for under onehundred thousand dollars, and whole
towns are one community . . . and sunsets
speak volumes with their silence.
PDD
THE METRO HERALD
AFRICA UPDATE
July 18, 2008
A
nti-malaria medication will be
available free to children and
pregnant women in the Republic of Congo. Malaria kills some
21,000 children under five each year,
Mosquito nets are a key part of the fight
the UN says.
But Health Minister Emilienne against malaria
Raoul warned that the medicines were for the sick, and must not end up for
re-sale on the streets or in other countries.
Correspondents say theft and re-sale of medicines is a major problem in
Congo. The medication will be free to children under the age of 15.
Treatment for tuberculosis, one of the infections linked to HIV, is already
free of charge in the country.
TB, malaria and HIV/Aids are the three top killers in Congo. She also announced that children would be entitled to free Aids tests.
SIERRA LEONE POLICE
SEIZE DRUGS PLANE
The UN has warned that West Africa is the
new route for cocaine smugglers
P
olice in Sierra Leone have arrested at least eight foreigners
after seizing a plane loaded
with cocaine at an airport outside the
capital. The plane bore a fake Red
Cross logo, reports said.
The 600kg cargo, worth an estimated $54m, was abandoned on the
runway shortly after arriving in the
dark in the early hours of Sunday.
The BBC’s Umaru Fofana, in Freetown, says the pilots had fled in a vehicle that drove through the perimeter
fence.
The correspondent says it was a
dramatic and daring escape, but they
appeared to experience no resistance
from security at the airport.
Police spokesman Francis Munu
said that a small white aircraft with a
fake Red Cross emblem had landed at
Freetown’s international Lungi airport
without authorization.
“When police searched the aircraft,
some 600kg (1,320lb) of cocaine was
discovered along with gallons of fuel
and several AK47 and AK48 rifles
were discovered with 339 rounds of
cartridges,” he told AFP news agency.
The spokesman said roadblocks
were set up and police later arrested
seven foreign nationals—three Colombians, two Mexicans, a Venezuelan national and a US citizen—in a car 10km
(six miles) from the airport.
On Monday they arrested an eighth
foreigner, described as being “of
Cuban-American origin”, AFP said.
However, another report said that
nine foreigners had been arrested.
A number of Sierra Leonean nationals had also been detained for
questioning, reports said.
The incident comes after a warning
from the US embassy in Freetown that
some members of the police in Sierra
Leone were working with organized
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THE METRO HERALD
ZIMBABWE INFLATION
AT 2,200,000%
THOUSANDS FLEE
NIGERIAN MILITANTS
CONGO
TO GIVE FREE
MALARIA DRUGS
criminals, our reporter says.
The seized drugs are now with the
United Nations and the British-led International Military Advisory Training
Team.
Michael Schulenburg, the head of
the United Nations mission in Sierra
Leone, said it was a very big seizure.
“It’s drawn attention to the fact that we
have to do more. There must be many
more flights like this. It’s something
that governments can lose control
over,” he told Reuters news agency.
Last month, the UN warned that
West Africa was under attack from international gangs seeking new routes
to smuggle cocaine from South America to Europe.
After years of war, Sierra Leone is
one of the world’s poorest countries
and corruption is a major problem.
Guinea-Bissau, another weak West
African state, has also been targeted by
Latin American drugs cartels.
AID GROUPS MULL
H
umanitarian agencies in Somalia are considering suspending
operations after two aid workers were shot dead in less than 24 hours.
Some aid organizations are reported to be reviewing their security
measures following the attacks.
Violence against aid workers in Somalia has increased dramatically in recent weeks. But it is not clear exactly
who is behind the attacks. Two men
were shot in separate incidents on Friday about 13 kilometres from the capital, Mogadishu.
Half of Somalia’s population needs
food aid due to drought and conflict.
Mohamed Mohamud Qeyre, deputy
director of a local aid group affiliated
to the German organization “Bread for
the World”, was killed. “Two men shot
him three times in the head and the
ribs,” a witness said.
Another man who worked for an
organization linked to the United Nation’s World Food Program is said to
be in a serious condition.
In a third incident, another aid
worker was killed in Galharei town in
central Somalia.
“He was going to a mosque and he
stepped out of his home,” said local
clan elder Ahmed Shire Yabar. “Two
men armed with pistols shot him four
times and escaped. He died on the
spot,” he said.
Friday’s shootings bring the total
number of aid workers shot last week
to five.
T
Z
housands of Nigerians have fled the Niger Delta oil
imbabwe’s
town of Bonny after militants threatened to behead
annual rate
of inflation
people who are not originally from the area.
The unknown group attacked soldiers in the town two has surged to
weeks ago, killing nine people including a pregnant woman. 2,200,000%, offiAccording to a newspaper article widely circulated by resi- cial figures have
shown. The figure
dents, the militants said they would return on July 16.
Bonny Island is home to a major oil and gas export ter- is the first official
assessment
of
minal but production has not been affected.
Bonny youth leader Kingsley Adonis Pepple said people prices in the troutook the threat seriously and there was panic on the streets. bled African nation New bank notes have been issued to cope
February, with soaring prices
“They were handing out copies of this article to people in since
the street. There was panic. People packed up their entire when the rate of
family into a boat and fled.” Several boats had capsized and inflation stood at 165,000%.
Zimbabwe, once one of the richest countries in Africa,
people drowned, he claimed.
Mr. Adonis Pepple said he had contacted all the known has descended into economic chaos largely blamed on the
militant groups in the area and had been assured the article policies of President Robert Mugabe.
Mr. Mugabe was re-elected last month in a controversial
was wrong. He tried to tell people but they weren’t taking
one-man
race.
any chances, he said.
The opposition party, the Movement for Democratic
The article said unnamed sources reported the militants’
Change (MDC), pulled out of the run-off election, saying its
demand.
“Another source said that the hoodlums, after the face- supporters were being attacked and killed.
Rising costs are forcing retailers to increase prices a
off with the navy, entered town, shooting and giving ultimatum that all residents of the town who were from other number of times a day for goods purchased with billion dollar bank notes and the number of people falling into poverty
places should leave the town before July 16 or risk being beis on the rise.
headed,” the national Nigerian Tribune paper said. The arIn May, the central bank issued a 500m Zimbabwe dollar
ticle was sent to many people in Bonny by family members
banknote, worth US$2 at the time of issue, to try to ease cash
begging them to get out before the deadline, Mr. Adonis
shortages amid the world’s highest rate of inflation. This is
Pepple said.
in stark contrast with the situation at independence in 1980
Bonny is a city of over 100,000 people, many of whom when one Zimbabwe dollar was worth more than US$1.
work in the oil industry. The new multi-million dollar LiqMr. Mugabe denies that he is ruining the economy, layuefied Natural Gas export terminal is nearby.
ing the blame on international sanctions he says have been
Nigeria has seen several “communal crises” in recent imposed against Zimbabwe.
years, in which one ethnic group attacks another seen as
The US and the EU have imposed targeted sanctions,
being “non-indigenous” to the area.
such as a travel ban and an assets freeze, on Mr. Mugabe and
Hundreds of people were killed in Plateau state in 2004 his close allies.
in clashes between Christian militias and Hausa Muslims.
President Umaru Yar’Adua is meeting British Prime
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Minister Gordon Brown in London to discuss security issues in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
Mr. Brown recently offered to help
Nigeria bring an end to the violence and
NIGERIAN STAMPEDE
increase oil production.
SURVIVOR’S ORDEAL
Many in the region are afraid Mr.
Brown means to send military aid to the
survivor of a fatal scramble for
Delta.
jobs in Nigeria’s immigration
service has told the BBC how
she was trampled by a crowd.
LEAVING SOMALIA
Chikaodili Okeke, a mother of two,
said she was knocked unconscious as
she ran to where applicants in the
south-eastern city of Enugu were due
to take an exam on Saturday.
Four people died in the crush after
the gates to the exam room were
The only thing I remember was that I fell
closed.
“We were told to run from the gov- down—Stampede survivor Chikaodili
ernment secretariat to the college, and Okeke
we had to reach there within 20 min- applied for 1,260 civil servant positions.
utes,” she said from her hospital bed.
Some died during fitness tests that
“The first people to get there were
Somalia has seen a surge in fighting,
allowed to enter the gate, but the sec- were carried out during the hottest part
despite a ceasefire pact last month
ond set were not allowed. “We were of the day.
A senior Somali aid worker for the told to go, but we waited thinking that
“Had it been that there was emUN was kidnapped last month, and an- maybe they would change their mind.” ployment for people this sort of thing
other shot dead a week ago.
But then another group of appli- wouldn’t happen,” she said.
A driver for the World Food Pro- cants in a bus were allowed in, she
Mrs Okeke is a qualified teacher,
gram was killed at a checkpoint on said. People outside began to get but she has not worked in five years.
Monday.
angry, there was a stampede for the “I don’t have anything to do. I’ve been
The BBC’s Mohamed Olad Hassan gate and she was knocked uncon- trying but there are no jobs at all,” she
in Mogadishu says it is not clear who is scious.
said.
behind the killings, since many fac“There are no jobs in government
“I don’t know exactly what haptions in Somalia’s chaotic war stand to pened. I was trying to get into that schools and in private schools the pay
benefit from the violence.
gate. The only thing I remember was is too small.” She said private schools
The BBC correspondent says pow- that I fell down.
only pay around 3000 naira ($25) per
erful local leaders have complained
“The next thing I remember was month.
that aid workers are feeding Islamic in- being in this hospital. Maybe people
The Nigerian civil service is the
surgents who had sworn to fight the were marching on me or fell on me.” largest employer in the country, but in
government, and insurgents have also Mrs Okeke does not know exactly how recent years posts have been cut in
targeted Somalis affiliated with foreign many were in the crowd, but there government reforms. But with little
organizations in the past.
industry or service sector, thousands of
were a lot of people.
He says the problem has been com“Someone said there was 11,000 of graduates emerge from colleges across
pounded by the growth of professional us,” she said. They were applying for the country every year with no
kidnapping rings, who security experts only 100 jobs. “We were just trying prospect of getting a job.
say have been encouraged by the large our luck,” Mrs Okeke said.
Most of Nigeria’s 140m population
cash ransoms paid by foreigners to reAcross Nigeria a dozen people died end up making a living in the informal
lease ships taken by pirates.
at the weekend as over 130,000 people economy.
A
3
AROUND THE REGION
July 18, 2008
TAVERN DAY AT GADSBY’S TAVERN MUSEUM
Gadsby’s Tavern Museum (photo by Anna Frame)
H
ave you passed by Gadsby’s
Tavern Museum hundreds of
times and never gone in? Take
this opportunity and experience life in
the 18th century, as well as learn about
the educational volunteer opportunities
FALLS CHURCH
CITY POLICE
DEPARTMENT
PRESENTS
“TEEN TRUTH: AN
INSIDE LOOK AT
BULLYING AND
SCHOOL
VIOLENCE”
A
re our schools safe? What
can be done to protect our
youth? What drives a teen
to bring a gun to school and open
fire on his classmates? The Falls
Church City Police Department
will answer these questions and
more at the “Teen Truth: An Inside
Look at Bullying and School Violence” seminar.
This free seminar is open to educators, parents and students.
“Teen Truth” examines the phenomenon of school violence and
bullying through hard-hitting
footage, interviews with real teens,
and a dramatic look inside the
mind of a violent teenager. Participants will be ready to discuss how
to change the alienating culture of
high school, stop bullies, and make
school a safe and supportive place
for all young people.
Teen Truth Seminars will take
place on Monday, Aug. 11:
9:00–10:30AM, 1:00–2:30PM, or
6:00–7:30PM Friday, Aug. 22:
9:00–10:30AM at Falls Church
City Hall Training Center, 300
Park Ave., Level G, Falls Church,
VA 22046
Space is limited; all participants
must pre-register with Officer Derrica Wilson at 703-248-5056 (TTY
711) or dwilson@fallschurchva.
gov.
The City of Falls Church is
committed to the letter and spirit of
the Americans with Disabilities
Act. To request a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability, call 703-241-5053 (TTY
711).
4
at Gadsby’s Tavern Museum on Saturday, August 2, from 1 to 5 p.m. at
Gadsby’s Tavern Day. Admission is free!
This year’s Tavern Day Open
House at Gadsby’s Tavern Museum
will include continuous tours of the
historic site by costumed guides, the
opportunity to learn to dance like
George and Martha Washington, and
much more. Light refreshments will be
served. Combine this with the Friendship Firehouse Festival and Railroad
Days at The Lyceum, and have a great
day in Old Town Alexandria!
As America began as a nation during
the late 18th century and emerged in the
19th century, Gadsby’s Tavern was the
center of social and political life in
Alexandria as well as the new Federal
City of Washington. The tavern served
as the premier gathering place for residents —including George Washington—and visitors to eat, drink, learn,
and influence history. Tavern keepers
John Wise and John Gadsby hosted
balls, performances, and meetings, and
their accommodations were known as
the best by travelers near and far.
Gadsby’s Tavern Museum is located at 134 North Royal Street in the
heart of Old Town Alexandria and is
owned and operated by the City of
Alexandria. For more information,
please call 703-838-4242 or visit
www.gadsbystavern.org.
FAIRFAX COUNTY TO HOST
HAZARDOUS WASTE CLEAN-UP DAY
FOR BUSINESSES
T
he Fairfax County Solid Waste Management Program will host a hazardous waste clean-up day for those businesses that qualify as a
“Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generator” on Wednesday,
July 23, at the I-66 Transfer Station Complex, 4618 West Ox Road, Fairfax,
from 9a.m. until 2p.m.
Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generators are classified by Virginia regulation as businesses that generate less than 220 pounds or less than
27 gallons of hazardous waste per calendar month. The most common
CESQGs in Fairfax County include print shops, auto repair shops, building
contractors, exterminators, landscape contractors and property management
companies.
Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generators often have difficulty
with disposing of small quantities of hazardous waste. Hazardous waste disposal companies usually have a minimum amount of waste they will pick up
or charge a minimum fee for service. Typically, the minimum fee exceeds the
cost of disposal of the hazardous waste.
The Fairfax County CESQG Clean-up Day Program provides these businesses with an economical way to manage small quantities of hazardous
waste. Disposal charges are based on the amount of material to be disposed
of and include all consolidating, packaging, manifest paperwork, and shipping preparations.
A complete list of participation rules, materials accepted and associated
disposal costs can be found at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/recycling. Participating businesses may pay with cash, check, Visa or MasterCard. For more information, contact the Fairfax County Solid Waste Management Program at
703-324-5230, TTY 711.
ALEXANDRIA TRANSIT COMPANY
(DASH) ANNOUNCES SERVICE
IMPROVEMENTS AND PEAK PERIOD
FARE ADJUSTMENT
T
he Alexandria Transit Company (ATC) announces DASH service improvements and a peak period fare adjustment that will take effect on
July 20, 2008.
The AT5 route will improve frequency during peak periods to every 20
minutes (to Old Town in the morning and from Old Town in the afternoon).
The AT2 and AT5 routes will have improved schedules to provide coordinated 10-minute service from King Street Metro to Old Town in the morning
peak period and from Old Town to King Street Metro in the afternoon peak
period. The changes also include minor timetable adjustments on several
routes to improve schedule adherence.
The DASH fare structure will change to provide a separate peak period
fare. This is the first change in DASH fares since 1999. The new peak period
fare will be $1.25 on weekdays, from 5:00a.m. to 9:30a.m. and from 3p.m.
to 7:00p.m. The base fare will remain $1.00 at all other times during the
week, and on weekends and holidays. The $30 monthly DASH Pass will remain the same.
For more information, call 703-370-3274 or visit www.dashbus.com.
WWII VETERAN PARTICIPATES
IN NATIONAL PROJECT AT
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
I
n 1945 when Wilfred J. Doerfler,
18, boarded the USS General John
Pope Troopship, he had no idea
what lay in store. He was on his way
to the mountains near Baguio on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.
After 33 days on the ship, he arrived at
his destination where he manned machine guns and guarded the perimeter.
His work involved looking for Japanese soldiers in caves in the mountains.
He was later among the first U.S.
troops to land and occupy Japanese
soil. He was awarded the Combat Infantry Badge and Asiatic Luzon Campaign Ribbon with a bronze star.
On Monday, July 21, Doerfler will
travel from Ohio to join more than 350
volunteers who will come to Arlington
National Cemetery to participate in a
large annual gift, not only in honor of
those who are buried there, but also a
gift to the American people. Each
year, the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET), the national association of lawn care and landscape professionals, holds the annual “Renewal &
Remembrance” project at Arlington
National and Historic Congressional
cemeteries. The event begins at 7a.m.
and continues until approximately
1p.m. on the 21st. This is the event’s
12th year.
Approximately 70 children will
also be attendance with their families.
They will lay a wreath at the Tomb of
the Unknown Soldier at 9:15a.m. on
the 21st and will then plant flowers
near to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from 9:30a.m. to 10:30a.m. Doerfler, and the company he will volunteer with (Wheeler Landscaping), will
work with the children planting and
will teach them proper planting techniques.
Hundreds of landscape and lawn
care specialists from across the nation
will bring their crews to Arlington National and Historic Congressional
cemeteries to spend the day mulching,
caring for and cabling trees with lightening protection, pruning, liming,
planting, aerating, and installing an irrigation system at Arlington National
Cemetery. This gift is valued at more
than $350,000 in products and services. To date, PLANET has contributed almost $2 million to the care
of these historic landmarks.
Despite the economic crunch that
many businesses are feeling, the
turnout for this year’s day of service is
expected to be even larger than in past
years. “There are definitely companies
in this industry that are feeling the
crunch from a lack of workers, increased gasoline prices, and other economic pressures; however, this opportunity to give back to the many
Americans who have served our country is too great for these companies to
pass up.” states Tom Shotzbarger, a
PLANET member and the chairman of
the event.
Just like Doerfler, other PLANET
members have special connections at
Arlington National Cemetery either
through relatives and friends who are
buried there or through their own military service. Brian Hylan from
Roswell, Georgia served in Iraq. He
will work among some of his fallen
comrades in Section 60.
“I consider it an honor to be able to
give back by improving the grounds at
Arlington National Cemetery,” said
Dan Cheslock, PLANET member and
owner of Mountaineer Lawn Care in
Morgantown, West Virginia. “We basically close down the company and
bring our staff members here to work
at Arlington and they love to participate. It is a small way that we can
make a difference and support military
families.”
The event, which began 12 years
ago as a small, one-day event, has
grown to involve more than 300 companies, many of whom work over the
weekend before the event to oversee
delivery of equipment and supplies,
and to perform some installation of the
many trees and shrubs. As the day of
service has grown, more and more
PLANET members bring their families
as well as their company employees.
The event now includes special
projects for children of PLANET
members.
On Tuesday, July 22, 2008,
PLANET members will visit their congressional and senate leaders on Capitol Hill and speak with them about issues facing the green industry,
including the H-2B guest-worker program. This Legislative Day on the
Hill event is held by PLANET and
TCIA and its lead sponsors include
Bayer Environmental Science, Husqvarna, and Syngenta.
For more information, visit
LandcareNetwork.org, or to find a
PLANET professional in your
area, visit LandcareNetwork.org/
findaprofessional, or call the
PLANET office at (800) 395-2522.
BLACK
FACTS
On July 18, 1863,
Sgt. William H.
Carney won the
Congressional Medal
of Honor for his
bravery and became
the first black soldier
to receive the
coveted award.
On July 18, 1899 L.C.
Bailey was granted
patent #620,286 for
the folding bed.
THE METRO HERALD
AROUND THE REGION
July 18, 2008
SUMMER 4EVER HIP HOP STOP
MAKES DONATION TO WASHINGTON
YOUTH RECREATION CENTERS
S
unny Delight Beverages Co., makers of SunnyD juice drinks, rolled
into Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, July 8 as part of the SunnyD Summer 4Ever Hip Hop Stop, a national tour that started in Cincinnati on
June 6 focused on celebrating the contributions recreation centers make to
communities. Washington, DC is one stop in a 12-week tour focused on donating supplies that encourage an active lifestyle.
The Summer 4Ever Hip Hop Stop visited the Boys & Girls Club Richard
England Clubhouse #14, the Anthony Bowen YMCA and the Calomiris
YMCA to donate 100 items that youth recreation programs need to keep kids
active all summer, including games, basketballs, puzzles and more. These
items promote SunnyD’s philosophy of encouraging kids to Move, Laugh and
Think with physical activity, learning and social interaction.
“The 2008 Road Trip gives us the opportunity to recognize the important
role youth centers play in our communities, and to support an active lifestyle
for kids,” said Jennifer Cottle, associate marketing director for Cincinnatibased Sunny Delight Beverages Co. “We’ve reached millions of families
over the past two years with our active lifestyle message, and we have many
fun activities planned for families that see us along the way in 2008.”
In addition to making a donation, the Sunny D Summer 4Ever Hip Hop
Stop features professional dancers who offer dance clinics to teach children
the basics of hip hop dance as a way to get active. To learn more about the
Summer 4Ever Hip Hop Stop, or to request that the tour visit an event or for
more information, visit www.sunnyd.com.
COUNTY IN TOP 10 OF PROVIDING RESIDENTS ACCESS
THROUGH IMPROVED TECHNOLOGY
T
he National Association of
Counties and the Center for
Digital Government placed the
Prince George’s County Government
in the top 10 of the “Digital Counties
Survey” for providing residents greater
accessibility to county services
through the use of technology.
The Center for Digital Government
award recognizes Prince George’s
County Government as 9th place among
the top 10 counties nationally in the
2008 Digital Counties Survey for the
outstanding use of technology in the category of counties with 500,000 or more
in population. Prince George’s County
has been judged by the center during the
last four years. This is first year the
county has been placed in the top 10.
Tanya Gott, director of the county’s
Office of Information Technology and
Communications, said that the award
recognizes the commitment of County
Executive Jack Johnson to improving
technical services by “Going Digital”
and providing residents with the best
technology.
“We are dedicated to aligning technology efforts to support the business
goals of the county,” Gott said. “OITC
provides leadership, expertise, and resources in the development and deployment of innovative technologies to
improve government efficiency and
citizen access to government information and services.”
Johnson said he remains committed
to improving technology services to all
county departments to improve the delivery of services to all residents.
“Prince George’s County Government continuously reviews and considers technology alternatives to support
the missions and initiatives of the
agencies and branches of Prince
George’s County Government,” Johnson said. “We are pleased to be acknowledged in the top tier among digital governments.” In April, thousands
of U.S. counties were invited to participate in the 2008 Digital Counties Survey. County officials responded to
questions that included more than 100
measurements and data points about
online service delivery, infrastructure,
architecture, and governance models.
“We are seeing county governments
utilizing the efficiencies of technology
to deliver services to Americans,” said
NACo Executive Director Larry E.
Naake. “Across a broad spectrum of
service delivery needs and budgetary
challenges, counties continue to develop improved service delivery options made possible by technology.”
The Center for Digital Government
considered the multiple web-based
technology services provided by OITC
including: Internet And/Or Automated
Telephone Related Services; Legislative Information System (LIS) for
County Council activity and information; all Hazard Alerts; Webcasts; Data
Mapping Utilities and Geographical Information Systems; building permit information, status, and inspection sched-
uling; public procurement document
and information; Parks and Recreation
services access; applications for various licenses and information; county
records information and request; court
services information; library services
information; tax-related information
and services; ticket, citation, and impounded vehicles information and services; citizens request and complaints
information; voting related information; refuge and recycling information
and services; intranet expansion; emergency preparedness information and
planning; law enforcement alerts, bulletins and useful information; employee electronic timesheets and guest
and visitors’ internet access
The Center for Digital Government
also considered OITC’s accomplishments in internal operations in setting
the award. Those accomplishments include: strategy planning; establishing
the Technology Coordinating Council;
Information Technology Project Management Growth; Website Content
Management Improvements; IT Architecture Development Expansion; IT Infrastructure Development including
broadband and Going Green Initiatives; IT Contracting and Outsourcing
Management; IT Asset Management
and Inventory Tracking Improvements; IT Budgeting and Expenditure
Cost Saving Efforts and IT Customer
Support Efforts Optimization.
For more information visit www.
centerdigitalgov.com.
2ND YEAR IN A ROW BLACK HILL HOSTS
MD JR. DUCK STAMP WINNERS DISPLAY
F
or the second year in a row, Black Hill Regional Park is hosting the exhibit of winning entries to the Maryland Junior Duck Stamp competition. This year’s winning entries are on display inside the Black Hill
Visitor Center, 20926 Lake Ridge Drive in Boyds, now through Monday,
July 28, 2008.
“We are pleased to be selected again this year as one of the host sites for
this display,” said Montgomery County Department of Parks Black Hill Regional Park Manager Jim McMahon. “Last summer’s visitors loved seeing the
exceptional works of art by these very talented young people.”
The Junior Duck Stamp Program is sponsored by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and teaches children about the importance of wetlands and
waterfowl conservation. Locally, several of the Maryland entrants are students of Rulei Bu, AA Studio, Inc. in Boyds, who also taught last year’s
Maryland “Best of Show” winner Richard Zhao. Bu’s students often use Little Seneca Lake at Black Hill Regional Park as inspiration for their illustrations.
“The lake is the feature here at Black Hill and we offer park patrons a couple ways to enjoy it,” added McMahon.
Black Hill Boats offers rowboat, canoe and kayak rentals at hourly or daily
rates for exploring the 505-acre Little Seneca Lake. The ADA-accessible
Kingfisher pontoon boat also offers 60- to75-minute tours of the lake, Saturdays and Sundays. Visit www.BlackHillBoats.com for more information
about boat rentals at Black Hill.
Park naturalists also take advantage of Little Seneca Lake in the classes
and programs offered through the Black Hill Visitor Center. Programs this
July include early evening pontoon boat cruises to find beaver lodges and detect bats; morning and afternoon pontoon boat cruises to learn about the
American Bald Eagle and search the lake for great blue heron, green heron,
kingfishers and hawks; and a delicious tour of the lake to see summer flowers, butterflies and birds while enjoying a hot fudge sundae. For more on
these and other classes and programs at Black Hill Visitor Center, see
www.ParkPASS.org.
When responding to an ad,
tell them you saw it in The Metro Herald
THE METRO HERALD
5
CAPITAL COMMENTS
July 18, 2008
POTENTIAL VEEPS
JOINING OBAMA
FOR SECURITY TALK
D
emocratic presidential candidate Barack Obama called on
two potential running mates
and a host of foreign policy experts
Wednesday as he pushed his agenda
for Iraq and his views for U.S. foreign
policy elsewhere.
Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., were
scheduled to join Obama for a national
security roundtable at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.
“Sen. Obama understands that the
threats we face in a 21st century go far
beyond the wars of today,” the Obama
campaign said in a statement. “In order
to be fully prepared, we must begin to
implement effective strategies now
that reduce the risk of three particu-
MCCAIN PLEDGING TO
NAACP MORE EDUCATION
OPTIONS
J
ohn McCain is telling the
NAACP he will expand education opportunities for children in
failing schools.
McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, addressed
the annual convention of the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, the nation’s oldest
civil rights organization.
In excerpts released in advance of
the speech, McCain says that the worst
educational problems in the country
are often found in schools in black
communities and that as president he
will provide greater school choices and
scholarships for such students.
McCain also asks the group to excuse his absence from their convention
last year, saying he was “a bit distracted” dealing with his then-faltering
presidential campaign.
“If I am elected president, school
choice for all who want it, an expansion of opportunity scholarships and
alternative certification for teachers
will all be part of a serious agenda of
education reform,” McCain said in the
excerpts.
“After decades of hearing the same
big promises from the public education
larly catastrophic
events—a nuclear
attack, a biological
attack or a cyber attack.”
The event continued the buildup
for Obama’s upcoming visit to Iraq
and Afghanistan. Senator
He also plans to Barack Obama
visit Jordan, Israel,
Germany, France and Britain during
his overseas trip. Visiting Purdue also
brings Obama back to Indiana, a pivotal electoral state.
Bayh has demurred when asked
about running on a ticket with Obama.
Nunn, a defense expert, is viewed as a
senior statesman who could offset the
relative youth of Obama, a freshman
senator.
establishment,
and seeing the
same poor results, it is surely
time to shake off
old ways and to
demand new reforms,” he said.
“That isn’t just
my opinion. It is Senator
the conviction of John McCain
parents in poor
neighborhoods across this nation who
want better lives for their children.”
Ahead of the speech, campaign
aides expected the Arizona senator to
touch on his support for expanding
merit-pay programs for teachers who
improve students’ performance and
more money for tutoring poor kids.
The national teachers’ unions oppose linking student test scores to
teacher pay. McCain’s rival for the
presidency, Democrat Barack Obama,
supports the idea when teachers help
negotiate and craft the merit-pay plans.
Last week, aides to McCain said he
would increase the choices kids have
when they are in schools that are failing to meet academic benchmarks and
that he would support a school voucher
program for poor children in failing
schools under some circumstances.
KERRY LEGISLATION
PUSHES END TO
SHARK FINNING
R
ecently, Sen. John Kerry introduced the Shark Conservation
Act of 2008 to reduce shark
finning and preserve marine ecosystems.
“Shark finning fueled by the fin
trade has led to serious population decline and a disruption of natural
ecosystems. The Shark Finning Prohibition Act hasn’t gotten the job done.
We need much stronger solutions.”
In the face of increasing exploitative shark finning practices, scalloped
hammerhead, white, and thresher
sharks have each declined an estimated
75% in the past 15 years. Sen. Kerry’s
act strengthens the provisions of the
Shark Finning Prohibition Act of 2000
by closing a loophole for shark fin
transport and strengthening enforcement measures to ensure sharks are
transported with their fins attached.
ISIAH LEGGETT REPORTS:
THE NEW RECYCLING “IN”
WORD IS “PLASTICS”
As a County Council member back
in the 1980s, I was proud to co-sponsor
the bill that created our state-of-the-art
Recycling Center. Now, more than two
decades later, as County Executive, I
am proud to announce that Montgomery County residents can now recycle more types and sizes of plastics
than ever before.
Under the expanded program that
became effective July 1, residents of
single-family homes can recycle all
empty plastic bottles, containers and
lids, jars, pails/buckets and food grade
plastic tubs.
Among the specific plastic items
that can be recycled are: yogurt containers; peanut butter and mayonnaise
jars; butter, margarine and ice cream
tubs; beverage containers and plastic
beverage cups; laundry detergent and
kitty litter containers with plastic or
metal handles; deli containers; flower
pots; and plastic lids.
The plastic materials should be
rinsed and then placed in the blue recycling bin with the commingled materials, such as aluminum cans and foil
Companion legislation passed Tuesday
afternoon in the House.
Below are details on the Shark
Conservation Act of 2008:
Congress enacted the Shark
Finning Prohibition Act of 2000 to prohibit U.S. fishermen from removing
the fins of sharks and discarding the
carcass at sea, and from landing or
transporting shark fins without the corresponding carcass. The Shark Conservation Act of 2008 includes several
measures to strengthen the implementation and enforcement of that prohibition and ensure that the original intent
of Congress is achieved.
First, the bill eliminates an enforcement loophole related to the transport
of shark fins by prohibiting any vessel
from having custody, control, or possession of shark fins without the corresponding carcass.
Second, the bill strengthens enforcement by deleting the rebuttable
presumption that any shark fins landed
were taken, held,
or landed in violation of the law if
the total weight of
shark fins landed
or found on board
exceeds 5 percent
of the total weight
of shark carcasses.
Third, the bill
specifies that all Sen. John Kerry
sharks be landed with their fins naturally attached.
Finally, the bill amends the High
Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act to allow the Secretary of
Commerce to identify and list nations
that have fishing vessels that have not
adopted a regulatory program for the
conservation of sharks that is similar to
the U.S. This bill promotes the conservation of sharks internationally and
provides a more equal playing field for
U.S. fishermen.
products, steel/tin cans and glass bottles and jars.
This expanded program is an example of what I spoke about in my inaugural address when I said that we will not
stand still and rest on our past successes.
While our recycling program has been
among the tops in the country, we’ve
found a way to make it even better.
I commend the County’s Division
of Solid Waste Services (DEP) and
their contractor/ partner, Maryland Environmental Services, for the role they
played in bringing about the expan-
sion. Thanks to
their
continual
monitoring of the
recycling markets,
we’re able to significantly expand
the services we
offer our residents.
For more de- Ike Leggett
tails on the expanded plastics recycling program, call
240-777-6400
or
visit
www.
montgomerycountymd.gov/recycling.
UNITED
WE
STAND
MONTGOMERY COUNCIL APPROVES DOMESTIC WORKERS BILL
T
he Montgomery County Council on Tuesday, July 15, unanimously approved a bill that will
require employers of certain domestic
workers to negotiate and offer a written
contract that specifies the terms and
conditions of the employment. Bill 208, whose chief sponsors were Councilmembers Marc Elrich and George
Leventhal, is believed to be the first legislation nationally of this type to regulate employers of domestic workers.
The bill passed by a 9-0 vote after
the Council approved several amendments to the original wording. An
amendment offered by Councilmember
Roger Berliner requires that the employer obtain an employment contract
signed by both the employer and the
employee or a disclosure statement
signed by the worker stating that while
a written contract was offered, the employee preferred to be employed without a written contract. An amendment
offered by Councilmember Leventhal
requires that for a worker who is employed by an agency, the domestic
worker’s employment contract must be
between the agency and the employee.
6
An amendment offered by Council Vice
President Phil Andrews excludes from
the provisions of the bill a companion
worker for a disabled individual or an
individual over age 67 who is unable to
take care of himself or herself—unless
the worker is employed by an agency.
The bill will go to County Executive Isiah Leggett for his signature on
Friday. If he signs it, the bill’s provisions will go into effect in 180 days.
The Council Committee on Health
and Human Services sponsored a study
of domestic workers in the County that
was released on May 10, 2006. The
study found that domestic workers in
the County have limited access to information about their rights under state
and county law and very few have
written employment contracts. Consequently, many domestic workers in
the County are paid less than the minimum wage required by state law and
do not receive overtime pay for work
in excess of 40 hours per week.
The bill requires an employer to present the domestic worker written notice of
their legal rights guaranteed under state
law and a written contract specifying the
terms and conditions of employment. It
does not mandate any term or condition
except for certain living accommodations for live-in workers. The employee
can sign a contract with acceptable terms
or must sign a waiver stating that a written contract was presented, but the employee chose not to sign it.
“I find it incredible that some people will trust others with their most
precious possessions—their families
and their homes—but then not fairly
treat the employees who perform these
domestic services,” said Councilmember Elrich. “This legislation will take a
major step to ensure that domestic
workers in Montgomery County are
addressed more equitably in regard to
the terms of their employment.”
The legislation defines a domestic
worker as an individual who cares for
a child or provides housekeeping,
cooking, cleaning or laundry service in
a home located in the County. The bill
only covers those who work more than
20 hours each week for a period of 30
days or more.
Excluded from the bill are individuals working as a registered nurse, a li-
censed practical nurse or a certified
nursing assistant. The bill also excludes a child, parent, spouse or other
member of the immediate family of the
recipient of the service and a person
working as an au pair. It also excludes
companions to the elderly or disabled
who are not employed by an agency.
“In 2006, the County Council’s
Health and Human Services Committee commissioned a study that showed
that domestic workers are frequently
underpaid and overworked and have
no mechanism to protect their rights,”
said Councilmember Leventhal. “This
legislation will provide a fundamental
protection—a contract—that should be
a basic entitlement for every worker.”
Bill 2-08 requires that the dwelling
unit that includes the living accommodations for the employee meet the requirements of the County Housing
Code. It requires a separate bedroom
with a door that can be locked and reasonable access to a kitchen, bathroom
and laundry facility.
The bill will not authorize individuals to work in the County without
proper immigration status.
Domestic workers already are covered by provisions of Maryland law
that pertain to terms such as minimum
wage, worker’s compensation and
overtime. However, most domestic
workers are not covered by the federal
National Labor Relations Act and
therefore do not have the same protections to organize and bargain collectively concerning wages and terms of
conditions of employment.
The bill will prohibit retaliation
against a domestic worker who requests a written contract, attempts to
enforce the terms of a contract, files a
complaint or participates in an investigation of a complaint.
The bill authorizes Montgomery
County’s Office of Consumer Protection to investigate complaints and refer
a complaint or violation to a hearing
officer for enforcement. The Office of
Consumer Protection must prepare and
publish a model employment contract
and a model disclosure statement after
consulting with the County’s Commission for Women.
THE METRO HERALD
INSIGHTS & VIEWPOINTS/CAPITAL COMMENTS
July 18, 2008
OP-ED
T
he big spotlight is on how the
Obama/Clinton rift is being
healed. As expected, the Democratic Party is coming together. After
all, it has a White House to win.
Personally, I’m more concerned
with the Black Home than with the
White House—the Black Home being
black America—which has just been
through a game-changing experience.
It began with marked splits at the leadership level, including within the Congressional Black Caucus, and involving
Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the black
clergy and the black media. But as ordinary African Americans repudiated
the Democratic Party “old guard,” and
as black independents and insurgents
came to play a new and important role,
the black establishment was forced to
follow the lead of the community in
backing Obama and forsaking the Clintons. It was by no means a smooth ride.
The Congressional Black Caucus
went into the Democratic primary season with some of its heaviest hitters
lined up with Hillary. Congressman
Charles Rangel of New York, Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California
and Congresswoman Sheila JacksonLee of Texas were front and center (the
center’s the only place to be in Clintonland) on the Hillary bandwagon.
Not everyone in the CBC agreed.
Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama,
a “young gun” came out early and
strong for Obama as did Illinois Con-
gressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina
was neutral until the end of the primaries when he endorsed Obama. But the
message from the black establishment
THE BLACK
HOME
Lenora B. Fulani
Special to The Metro Herald
was unmistakable: Black America is
vested in the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party belongs to the Clintons.
If the Clintons want the White House,
black America best line up behind them,
Barack Obama notwithstanding.
There were problems, however, with
this proposition, and not just because
Obama was an attractive challenger.
There were hundreds of local black
elected officials from South Carolina to
California, from Georgia and Alabama
to New York, who saw the Obama candidacy as an opportunity to leverage
against their own local Democratic machines. These “new guard” politicians
felt that the Clintons’ claim on black
voters was overrated and undeserved. In
addition to that insider insurgency, there
are growing numbers of African Americans who have become independents
and are not stakeholders in preserving
an old guard status quo, some of
whom—myself included—had born the
brunt of Clintonian racial politics and
supported the Obama challenge. The
situation was pretty combustible.
Whenever there is a fault line of
this kind in black politics, Al Sharpton
is invariably navigating it. An outsider
and civil rights leader, Sharpton is also
a consummate insider with ties to the
Clintons. Beginning in the summer of
2007, he publicly questioned Obama’s
credentials. On the one hand, Sharpton
raised important issues about the extent to which Obama’s post-racial politics would honor the history of the
civil rights movement and the black
empowerment surge of the 1960s and
1970s it engendered. At the same time,
though, Sharpton was echoing the “Is
he black enough?” drumbeat strongly
encouraged by the Clintons.
But in the Black Home, the question
was never whether Obama was black
enough. It was whether or not he was just
an Establishment Democrat. Circumstances became much hotter than Sharpton—and the black establishment—expected. In New York, where Clinton had
lined up 400 elected officials to endorse
her in April 2007, the point was to signal
that the die was already cast—for her.
But it wasn’t. My independent posse
went to the streets with a simple question: “Who Decided Hillary Was Best
For the Black Community?”
Before long, black New Yorkers
were sporting bright yellow tee-shirts
with that slogan and at the end of last
summer, several hundred people, wearing the challenge to Hillary, marched in
the African American Day Parade.
Our message in the Harlem march
had a special resonance because the
old guard Democratic machine’s grip
on the black community was already
loosening. In 2005, a coalition of black
voters and white independent voters
gave Michael Bloomberg a landslide
reelection victory. We’d run a vigorous
campaign for Bloomberg, the independent mayor, in the black community. Half of African Americans had
voted for him and against the Democratic Party candidate. The Clintons, in
particular, were incensed by this, and it
fueled their longstanding vendetta
against me and against the Independence Party. While Obama’s 61% of
the black vote in New York on Super
Tuesday was a smaller share than that
of some other states (88% in Georgia,
93% in Illinois, 84% in Alabama and
Missouri, 86% in Delaware, 82% in
New Jersey), it was still a dramatic default in the Clinton coalition.
That wasn’t supposed to happen, according to the Clinton game plan. Before Super Tuesday, South Carolina
was to be the Clinton firewall with
black voters. Early on the Clinton campaign put black political operatives on
payroll and projected itself into the
black churches. Pastors and deacons
circulated the seemingly scriptural idea
that “It’s Hillary’s Time.”
Wayne Griffin, a black elected official in Greer, a small businessman and
a longtime independent, who chairs the
South Carolina Independence Party,
was hearing the Clinton rumblings and
thought the odds were in her favor. But
as an independent Griffin was repelled
by the Clinton style of partisan politics. He set up the first committee of its
kind—Independents for Obama—and
as South Carolina is an open primary
state, began to popularize the idea that
Obama’s call to “turn the page” fit with
independents’ desire to overcome partisanship and reform the political system, running radio commercials across
the state promoting that message.
When black support for Obama—
driven by independents and insurgents—began to creep up, the Clintons
were forced to come out swinging. Bill
Clinton called Obama’s campaign “the
biggest fairy tale I’ve ever heard” and
repeatedly reminded reporters that
Jesse Jackson had won South Carolina
twice—suggesting that a black noncontender could easily carry the state.
The response was thunderous. The
Clintons were playing the race card,
demeaning a political vision based on
hope, and insulting voters in the
process. Obama won the South Carolina primary handily, and it was a shot
heard round the world. He polled 78%
of the black vote. The Clinton firewall
had collapsed. The character of the
black electorate was changing. The
Black Home had spoken.
After South Carolina, exit polling
picked up a new trend for the first time
in a number of Super Tuesday states. In
Massachusetts 33% of black voters
who cast ballots in the Democratic primary self-identified as independents.
In Missouri it was 18%. In Connecticut
the number was 22%, in California
14%, in New Jersey 13%, in Tennessee
17%. Among black independents, the
support for Obama appears to have
been astronomical. For example, in
Georgia, where 12% of all African
American voters in the Democratic primary were independents, 97% of those
cast ballots for Obama.
Obama now turns his attention to the
general election. For its part, black leadership needs to come together to discuss
the changes that have occurred. It is no
longer sufficient to equate being black
with being a Democrat. Black independents—at the base and at the leadership
level—played a vital role in turning the
page. And the emerging electoral coalition between black voters and independents of all hues is a powerful new component of American politics. Make note
of this black and independent alliance.
This election season produced more
than a “turn the page” candidate and perhaps a “turn the page” president. It
brought forth a “turn the page” political
partnership, the power of which has only
just begun to make itself felt.
•
•
•
Dr. Lenora Fulani is America’s leading black political independent. Based
in New York, where she has been a key
figure in the insurgent and independent
scene, Dr. Fulani is also a developmental psychologist and innovator in
the field of supplemental education.
DEMOCRATS PLAN SECOND
ECONOMIC STIMULUS BILL
D
emocrats controlling Congress
ratcheted up expectations for
additional legislation to jumpstart the dragging economy.
“We will be proceeding with another stimulus package,” House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said
after meeting with several economists.
Pelosi said that recently issued tax
rebate payments of $600 to individuals
and $1,200 for married couples have
helped the economy but that more is
necessary to offset the drag of higher
gasoline prices and other costs. But
President Bush cautioned in a White
House press conference that lawmakers
should “wait for the stimulus package
to fully kick in” before passing another.
The Democratic effort is still in its
formative stages, but most of the proposals mentioned by Democrats were
rejected by Bush during negotiations
that produced the earlier stimulus
measure. A new package probably
won’t be acted on before Congress returns in September from its annual
summer vacation.
New legislation could include: additional tax rebates, heating and air
conditioning subsidies for the poor, infrastructure projects, higher food
stamp payments and aid to the states.
Pelosi told reporters that she
“would hope that (tax rebates) would
be part of any package” but that some
of the Democratic elements need to be
attached. Pelosi said later Tuesday that
she hopes proposals such as boosting
food stamps and home energy subsidies would have more GOP support
now, considering the sharp spikes in
THE METRO HERALD
gasoline and food prices.
For his part, Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., sounded
less than enthusiastic about another
round of tax rebates.
“The first thing we need to look at
before we look at tax rebates is, what
can we do to stimulate the economy?”
Reid said. “And that’s infrastructure
development. That’s bridges, highways, dams, and to put massive
amounts of money into an infrastructure for renewable energy.”
The discussion over a new economic stimulus bill comes as Congress
is working to complete a broad housing rescue package to give new mortgages to hundreds of thousands of
homeowners facing foreclosure.
And a voter revolt over record gas
prices has generated heated debate
about further opening up the Outer
Continental Shelf to oil exploration.
“To my Democratic colleagues who
want this Congress take up a massive,
taxpayer-funded ‘stimulus’ package, I
offer them this piece of simple advice:
the best way to stimulate our economy
would be to take meaningful steps to reduce the price at the pump,” said House
GOP Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri.
Bush called for Congress to focus
first on housing and energy legislation
before turning to a new economic stimulus bill. “Let’s see how this stimulus
package works and let us deal with the
housing market with a good piece of
housing legislation, and the energy
issue with good energy legislation, and
the trade issue with good trade legislation,” Bush said.
7
HEALTH & WELLNESS
July 18 2008
PATHOLOGISTS BELIEVE THEY HAVE PINPOINTED ACHILLES HEEL OF HIV
H
uman
Immunodeficiency
Virus (HIV) researchers at
The University of Texas Medical School at Houston believe they
have uncovered the Achilles heel in the
armor of the virus that continues to kill
millions.
The weak spot is hidden in the HIV
envelope protein gp120. This protein is
essential for HIV attachment to host
cells, which initiate infection and
eventually lead to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS. Normally the body’s immune defenses can
ward off viruses by making proteins
called antibodies that bind the virus.
However, HIV is a constantly changing and mutating virus, and the antibodies produced after infection do not
control disease progression to AIDS.
For the same reason, no HIV preventative vaccine that stimulates production
of protective antibodies is available.
The Achilles heel, a tiny stretch of
amino acids numbered 421-433 on
gp120, is now under study as a target
for therapeutic intervention. Sudhir
Paul, Ph.D., pathology professor in the
UT Medical School, said, “Unlike the
changeable regions of its envelope,
HIV needs at least one region that must
remain constant to attach to cells. If this
region changes, HIV cannot infect
cells. Equally important, HIV does not
want this constant region to provoke
the body’s defense system. So, HIV
uses the same constant cellular attachment site to silence B lymphocytes - the
antibody producing cells. The result is
that the body is fooled into making
abundant antibodies to the changeable
regions of HIV but not to its cellular attachment site. Immunologists call such
regions superantigens. HIV’s cleverness is unmatched. No other virus uses
this trick to evade the body’s defenses.”
Paul is the senior author on a paper
about this theory in a June issue of the
journal Autoimmunity Reviews. Additional data supporting the theory are to
be presented at the XVII International
AIDS Conference Aug. 3-8 in Mexico
HEALTH TIP:
TODDLER-PROOF
YOUR HOME
A
s your baby grows and
learns to walk, it’s important to prepare your home
to keep your toddler safe and injury-free.
The U.S. National Library of
Medicine suggests how to toddlerproof your home:
• Use safety devices such as electrical outlet covers, baby gates,
window guards, and toilet seat
and cabinet locks.
• Never leave your toddler alone,
even for a short time. More toddlers have dangerous accidents
than do children of any other
age.
• Prevent falls by keeping doors
closed, stairs gated off, and
keep chairs and ladders away
from your toddler.
• Keep all medications and
household cleaning products
locked up and out of your toddler’s way.
• Keep your child out of the
kitchen to prevent burns and
other injuries
8
City in two studies titled “Survivors of
HIV infection produce potent, broadly
neutralizing IgAs directed to the superantigenic region of the gp120 CD4 binding site” and “Prospective clinical utility
and evolutionary implication of broadly
neutralizing antibody fragments to HIV
gp120 superantigenic epitope.”
First reported in the early 1980s,
HIV has spread across the world, particularly in developing countries. In
2007, 33 million people were living
with AIDS, according to a report by the
World Health Organization and the
United Nations.
Paul’s group has engineered antibodies with enzymatic activity, also
known as abzymes, which can attack
the Achilles heel of the virus in a precise way. “The abzymes recognize essentially all of the diverse HIV forms
found across the world. This solves the
problem of HIV changeability. The
next step is to confirm our theory in
human clinical trials,” Paul said.
Unlike regular antibodies, abzymes
degrade the virus permanently. A single abzyme molecule inactivates thousands of virus particles. Regular antibodies inactivate only one virus
particle, and their anti-viral HIV effect
is weaker.
“The work of Dr. Paul’s group is
highly innovative. They have identified antibodies that, instead of passively binding to the target molecule,
are able to fragment it and destroy its
function. Their recent work indicates
that naturally occurring catalytic antibodies, particularly those of the IgA
subtype, may be useful in the treatment
and prevention of HIV infection,” said
Steven J. Norris, Ph.D., holder of the
Robert Greer Professorship in the Biomedical Sciences and vice chair for research in the Department of Pathology
and Laboratory Medicine at the UT
Medical School at Houston.
The abzymes are derived from HIV
negative people with the autoimmune
disease lupus and a small number of
HIV positive people who do not require
treatment and do not get AIDS.
Stephanie Planque, lead author and UT
Medical School at Houston graduate
student, said, “We discovered that disturbed immunological events in lupus
patients can generate abzymes to the
Achilles heel of HIV. The human
genome has accumulated over millions
of years of evolution a lot of viral fragments called endogenous retroviral sequences. These endogenous retroviral
sequences are overproduced in people
with lupus, and an immune response to
such a sequence that resembles the
Achilles heel can explain the production
of abzymes in lupus. A small minority
of HIV positive people also start producing the abzymes after decades of the
infection. The immune system in some
people can cope with HIV after all.”
Carl Hanson, Ph.D., who heads the
Retrovirus Diagnostic Section of the
Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory of the California Department of
STUDY: AS THEY GET OLDER,
KIDS DO LESS EXERCISE
C
hildren turn away from exercise in droves in their early
teen years after getting much
more exercise when they are younger,
according to a study spotlighting a factor in the rise of youth obesity.
The research, published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association, documented a steady decline
in physical activity in 1,032 children in
10 places around the United States
who were followed from ages 9 to 15.
Less than a third got the recommended levels of physical activity at
age 15, the study found.
The findings do not bode well for
the health of this generation in the
decades ahead, the researchers said.
“We’re dealing with an obesity epidemic,” pediatrician Dr. Philip Nader
of the University of California at San
Diego, who led the study, said in a telephone interview. “I don’t know what it
will take for society to wake up and
say, ‘What’s happening here and what
can I do?”’
The researchers had each child in
the study, which ran from 2000 to
2006, wear a small device called an accelerometer, which monitors physical
activity, for one week at a time when
they were ages 9, 11, 12 and 15.
At ages 9 and 11, more than 90 percent of the children met the recommended level of at least an hour per
day of moderate or vigorous exercise.
But by age 15, only 31 percent hit the
recommended level on weekdays—
and just 17 percent met the mark on
weekends, the researchers found.
Boys did better than girls, but both
showed the same pattern of declining
activity as they got older.
Girls fell below the recommended
level of an hour a day on average at age
13 for weekdays and age 12-1/2 for
weekends. On average, boys slipped
below the recommended amount of exercise at age 14-1/2 for weekdays and
age 13-1/2 on weekends.
If a person fails to establish good
patterns in physical fitness early on, it
is much harder to do so later in life, according to James Griffin of the U.S.
National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health, which
backed the study.
“The concern is not only obesity,
but also the lost opportunity to build
muscle and bone. Those are both happening right around puberty. If you
don’t build it then, it’s that much
harder to do it later,” he said in a telephone interview.
Exercise helps a person maintain a
healthy weight, delay or prevent the
most common form of diabetes and
ward off heart problems and some
types of cancer, according to experts.
Previous research has shown a drop
in exercise by American children in recent decades. U.S. youth obesity rates
have tripled since 1980, although they
leveled off this decade.
The government says 32 percent of
U.S. children are overweight and 16
percent are obese.
Changes in diet—more fatty and
sweetened foods—and less exercise
have helped fuel the trend. More TV
watching, video games and computer
time has also contributed.
Nader saw plenty of blame to
spread around, from schools that have
cut back on physical education, to
local governments that may not support recreational facilities, to parents
who themselves are couch potatoes
and not good exercise role models.
Public Health, has shown that the
abzymes neutralize infection of human
blood cells by diverse strains of HIV
from various parts of the world.
Human blood cells are the only cells
that HIV infects.
“This is an entirely new finding. It
is a novel antibody that appears to be
very effective in killing the HIV virus.
The main question now is if this can be
applied to developing vaccine and
possibly used as a microbicide to prevent sexual transmission,” said David
C. Montefiori, Ph.D., director of the
Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine Research
& Development at Duke University
Medical Center. The abzymes are now
under development for HIV immunotherapy by infusion into blood.
They could also be used to guard
against sexual HIV transmission as
topical vaginal or rectal formulations.
“HIV is an international priority because we have no defense against it,”
Paul said. “Left unchecked, it will
likely evolve into even more virulent
forms. We have learned a lot from this
research about how to induce the production of the protective abzymes on
demand. This is the Holy Grail of HIV
research—development of a preventative HIV vaccine.”
Major contributors to the research
from the UT Medical School include
Yasuhiro Nishiyama, Ph.D., and Hiroaki Taguchi, Ph.D., both with the
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Miguel Escobar,
M.D., of the Department of Pediatrics.
Maria Salas and Hanson, both with the
Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory, contributed.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the
Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board.
STD RATES
SKYROCKET
AMONGST
SENIOR CITIZENS
T
here’s a new medical concern for certain people who
take sexual performance
drugs, with new research showing
an alarming number of senior citizens who have been treated for
sexually transmitted diseases.
One man WAAY-31 spoke with
is 83 years old, with a 42-year-old
girlfriend. He said drugs like Viagra and Cialis have given him a
new lease on life.
“Without it, there’s nothing left
in life,” he said. But now a byproduct no experts expected has been
cropping up across the country.
“Older men are coming up with
more cases of VD than younger
men and that’s due to the fact that
they’ve been restored,” Dr. Amit
Chakrabarty. “You’re
talking
about STD’s and sexual promiscuity in older people.”
Chakrabarti said he has seen
old flames rekindled and marriages
saved by drugs like Viagra. But
he’s also seen a spike in elderly
men cheating on their wives after
getting their sexual ability back.
Prostitution and hookups in
bars are the kind of promiscuous
lifestyle that’s hard for many to believe. But the problem for many is
reality.
When asked if he worries about
getting an STD, the 83-year-old
told WAAY-31 News, “Yeah,
definitely.”
Sales for the three top-selling
performance-enhancing drugs total
about $3 billion a year.
STUDY: OBESITY INCREASES
A WOMAN’S PANCREATIC CANCER RISK
O
bese women who carry most
of their extra weight around
the stomach are 70 percent
more likely to develop pancreatic cancer, an international team of researchers reported.
The findings suggest are some of
the first evidence that the link between
obesity and pancreatic cancer is as
strong in women as in men, Juhua Luo
of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and
colleagues reported in the British Journal of Cancer.
“We found that the risk of developing pancreatic cancer was significantly
raised in obese postmenopausal
women who carry most of their excess
weight around the stomach,” she said
in a statement.
“Obesity is a growing and largely
preventable problem, so it’s important
that women are aware of this major increase in risk.”
Pancreatic cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. It
accounts for only about 2 percent of
the cancers diagnosed each year but
the first-year survival rate is less than 5
percent, according to Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore.
Until now, smoking and chronic
pancreatitis were the most well established risk factors for the disease in
men and women, with much of the evidence also pointing to a stronger obesity link for men.
As part of a large study known as
the Women’s Health Initiative, Luo
and colleagues followed more than
138,000 menopausal women in the
United States for more than seven
years to investigate the links between
obesity and pancreatic cancer.
They found that 251 women developed the disease, and of these, 78 had
the highest waist-to-hip ratios. After
factoring in other risk factors, this was
70 percent more than the 34 women
with the lowest excess stomach weight
who got pancreatic cancer.
The findings also suggest that excess weight around the stomach may
better predict the disease than the traditional Body Mass Index, or BMI,
measurement for obesity, the researchers said.
They also suggested that obesity
could increase the risk of pancreatic
cancer by affecting insulin levels, and
that diabetes may also play a role. Obesity is one of the main risk factors for
diabetes.
“We know that carrying a high proportion of abdominal fat is associated
with increased levels of insulin, so we
think this may cause the link between
obesity and pancreatic cancer,” the researchers said.
Several studies have shown that
obesity raises the risk of several types
of cancer including breast and colon as
well as heart disease and other conditions.
THE METRO HERALD
HEALTH & WELLNESS
July 18, 2008
STUDY: WHEN KIDS BECOME TEENS,
THEY GET SLUGGISH
O
ne of the largest studies of its
kind shows just how sluggish
American children become
once they hit the teen years: While 90
percent of 9-year-olds get a couple of
hours of exercise most days, fewer
than 3 percent of 15-year-olds do.
What’s more, the study suggests
that fewer than a third of teens that age
get even the minimum recommended
by the government—an hour of moderate-to-vigorous exercise, like cycling,
brisk walking, swimming or jogging.
The sharp drop raises concerns
about inactivity continuing into adulthood, which could endanger kids’
health throughout their lives, the study
authors said.
“People don’t recognize this as the
crisis that it is,” said lead author Dr.
Philip Nader, a pediatrician and professor emeritus at the University of California at San Diego.
Inactivity is linked with greater
risks for many health problems, including heart disease, obesity, high
blood pressure and diabetes.
The new findings come just a week
after an influential pediatricians group
recommended that more children have
their cholesterol checked and that
some as young as 8 should be given
cholesterol-lowering drugs. That advice was partly out of concern over future levels of heart disease and other
ailments linked to rising rates of childhood obesity.
The latest study, appearing in
Wednesday’s Journal of the American
Medical Association, tracked about
1,000 U.S. children at various ages,
from 2000 until 2006.
Special gadgets were used to record
their activity. Average levels of moderate-to-vigorous activity fell from three
hours a day at age 9 to less than an
hour at age 15.
Nader said he was “surprised by
how dramatic the decline was,” and
cited schools dropping recess and gym
classes and kids’ increasing use of
video games and computers as possible
reasons.
The National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development
funded the research, calling it one of
the largest, most comprehensive studies of its kind to date.
James Griffin, science officer for
the study, said that as children mature,
“You would expect somewhat of a decline (in activity), but nothing of this
magnitude.”
He noted that the study coincided
with the rise in popularity of video
games, DVDs and Internet use—“all
of the types of things that take children
from outside and put them on a couch
or in front of a computer.”
Griffin said the results send a message to parents that it’s important to
teach their kids to balance computer
time with more active pursuits, like
walking the dog or shooting some
hoops.
Study participants were children involved in agency research on youth development, recruited from 10 hospitals
around the country. Family income,
race and ethnic background closely
matched the U.S. population.
The researchers tracked the children’s activity levels starting at age 9,
using an accelerometer—a device
about the size of a small belt buckle
that attached to a belt around the waist
and recorded movement. Activity levels were counted at ages 9, 11, 12 and
15 during the school week and on
weekends.
That method isn’t foolproof because the device isn’t worn during
swimming and contact sports. But the
researchers said it’s unlikely that such
activity happened often enough among
the children studied to skew the results.
Through age 12, well over half the
children got at least the governmentrecommended amount of activity every
day. By age 15, less than one-third
were that active on weekdays, and only
about 17 percent were on weekends.
Boys were more active than girls at
every age. But by age 15, even boys’
average activity levels fell short of recommendations, particularly on weekends.
Dr. Samuel Klein, director of Washington University School of Medicine’s human nutrition center in St.
Louis, said the research provides a
more powerful snapshot than previous
studies.
The rapid drop-off in exercise by
age 15 shows that the preceding years
are “really an area we should target,”
said Klein, who was not involved in
the study.
Mary Lee, 13, said the results ring
true.
The suburban Cleveland teen said
she spends more time on the computer
now than she did a few years ago, particularly with online social networking
sites. She also didn’t have physical education class every day last year, and
will only have it for half the upcoming
school year in eighth grade.
Lee recently took part in a health
program at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland. The
classes promote exercise and healthy
eating.
She said she stays pretty active with
volleyball and track, and has been able
to avoid gaining weight with help from
the program at the Cleveland hospital.
Making exercise fun is important,
because if you do, you won’t even realize if you’re exercising,” she said.
“It really helps and it makes you
feel better about yourself,” she said
CDF FREEDOM
SCHOOLS’
NATIONAL DAY
OF SOCIAL
ACTION
C
hildren’s Defense
Fund (CDF) President Marian Wright
Edelman and more than 500
students from CDF Freedom
Schools march from Union
Station to the U.S. Capitol on
Friday, July 11. The students marched to rally in
support of CDF’s Healthy
Child Campaign—a campaign to provide health coverage for all children in Marian Wright Edelman leads children in march on U.S. Capitol (photo by Vivian Ronay)
America. The march
was part of CDF Freedom Schools’ National
Day of Social Action.
Freedom Schools from
the Washington, DC,
Silver Spring, Md.,
Baltimore, and Richmond, Va., areas participated in the march.
Across the nation,
more than 9,000 children participated in the
National Day of Social
Action. To learn more
about CDF’s Healthy
Child Campaign, visit:
www.
childrensdefense.
org/healthychild.
Freedom Schools Children march to U.S. Capitol for health coverage (photo by Vivian Ronay)
A
t Narconon Arrowhead,
we understand that drug
and alcohol addiction can
be overwhelming. We are here to
help stop the downward spiral that
is affecting so many Americans
today. Narconon Arrowhead offers
free addiction counseling, assessments and referrals to centers nationwide and in your local area by calling
1-800-468-6933 or logging onto www.stopaddiction.com. Call today to get
a free video and information packet on the Narconon Arrowhead Drug and
Alcohol Rehabilitation and Education Services Program.
THE METRO HERALD
9
EDUCATION
July 18, 2008
PRINCE GEORGE’S COMMUNITY COLLEGE
CELEBRATES INAUGURATION OF
DR. CHARLENE MICKENS DUKES
Dr. Charlene Mickens Dukes
P
rince George’s Community
College hosts the Inauguration
of Dr. Charlene Mickens
Dukes, eighth president of the college,
Friday, Oct. 3, 1p.m. in Queen Anne
Fine Arts building. The community is
invited to share in the celebration of
the first woman president in the college’s 50-year history.
“The board of trustees is honored to
announce the inauguration of President
Charlene M. Dukes,” said William
Dean Frazier, chairman for the board
of trustees. “Her passion for student
success expresses her commitment to
providing quality education to the
community,” he added.
In addition to the inaugural ceremony, the college is hosting the following week-long series of inaugural
activities, which are free and open to
the public.
The 16th Annual Bluebird Festival
is Sunday, Sept. 28, noon to 6 p.m., in
front of Novak Field House and the
High Technology Center and in Queen
Anne Fine Arts building, Hallam Theatre. The festival features live entertainment, food and fun for the entire
family.
Conversations with Dr. Dukes, a
student reception, is Wednesday, Oct.
1, 1-3 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. in Marlboro
Gallery. Students are invited to interact
with President Dukes and share their
aspirations.
The Inaugural Gospel Concert is
Thursday, Oct. 2, 7 p.m. in Queen
Anne Fine Arts building, Hallam Theatre. Local and regional artists will perform.
Immediately following the inaugural ceremony on Friday, Oct. 3, an Inaugural Reception begins in Largo Student Center, Community Rooms A, B
and C.
“President Dukes wants to include
community members, faculty, staff and
students in the inaugural events,” says
Lynda Logan, dean of learning resources and co-chair of the inaugural
subcommittee. “This is about Prince
George’s Community College and its
contributions to Prince George’s
County and for Dr. Dukes, the focus
must be broad and inclusive.”
Inaugural activities are one of a series of educational, cultural, arts and
dance events that Prince George’s
Community College is hosting
throughout the year in celebration of
its 50th Anniversary, culminating with
a gala on Sept. 17. For more information on inaugural activities, call (301)
322-0853.
SCHOLARSHIPS AWARDED
TO FUTURE LIBRARIANS
T
he Fairfax Library Foundation
proudly announces the 2008
Friends Scholarship Fund
awardees. Four merit-based academic
scholarships were awarded to outstanding students pursuing a Masters
degree in Library Science. The
Friends Scholarship Fund was established to deliver expert library services
to County residents by attracting
highly qualified future librarians to the
Fairfax County Public Library.
Four Master of Library Science students have been awarded $12,500 in
academic scholarships. Congratulations to Adrienne Leo, Fairfax County
Public Library volunteer and Library
Assistant at the Reston Regional Library, studying at the University of
Michigan; Mary T. Saulsgiver, Library
Aide at Lane Elementary School, attending the University of Maryland;
and Matthew Vavrina, Library Aide at
Tysons-Pimmit
Regional Library,
studying at the University of Mary-
BLACK FACT
On July 18, 1753
Lemuel Haynes, the
first black minister
to serve for a
white congregation
was born.
10
land. Each was awarded a $3,000
scholarship.
Additionally, Young
Adult Information Assistant, Pohick
Regional Library and Catholic University of America student, Constance Osborne earned special recognition of the
Edwin S. ‘Sam’ Clay, III Scholarship.
This $3,500 scholarship is named in
honor of more than 25 years of service
by the Fairfax County Public Library
Director. Constance Osborne received
a plaque before the Fairfax County
Public Library Board of Trustees on
June 11, 2008.
“Passionate librarians are the ones
that will chat with you about the books
you are reading and recommend more;
or are relentless in searching for the
answer to your question or finding the
materials you need”, stated Osborne, “I
look forward to becoming a librarian
of Virginia and putting my passion and
heart into its libraries.”
To date, over $60,000 has been
awarded to meritorious individuals
pursuing a Masters in Library Science
degree through the Fairfax Library
Foundation’s Friends Scholarship
Fund. In an effort to maximize existing resources, nearly $17,000 more has
supported the continuing education of
Fairfax County Public Library staff
and volunteers.
Information about the Fairfax Library Foundation’s Friends Scholarship fund may be found at www.
FairfaxLibraryFoundation.org or by
calling 703-324-8300.
MCPS STUDENTS ACHIEVE SIXTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR OF
HIGHER SCORES ON MARYLAND SCHOOL ASSESSMENT
M
ontgomery County Public
Schools (MCPS) students in
elementary and middle
school posted significant gains on the
Maryland School Assessment (MSA)
while achievement gaps between
African American and Hispanic students and their white and Asian American peers continued to narrow, according to Maryland State Department of
Education data released Tuesday. All
student subgroups have shown substantial increases in scores over the last
six years.
Among elementary students, 89.9
percent scored at the proficient or advanced level for reading and 87.2 percent for mathematics. Among middle
school students, 86.3 percent scored at
the proficient or advanced level for
reading and 76.9 percent for mathematics. All grade levels and all subgroups achieved positive growth in
student performance, indicating that
MCPS is well-positioned to meet the
No Child Left Behind Act 2014 proficiency targets.
“The Board of Education has focused intensely on closing the achievement gap and increasing performance
for all students so it is gratifying to see
our students scoring so well on the
MSAs,” said Board of Education President Nancy Navarro. “It is clear that
our reform efforts over the last nine
years are showing significant results.”
“It is extraordinarily encouraging to
see our students’ continued progress
every year and to see the achievement
gap shrink,” said Jerry D. Weast, superintendent of schools. “We have
much more work to do to ensure that
every student achieves at high levels,
but today’s news along with numerous
other measures show that we are putting more students on the path to success than ever before.”
The most notable gains by grade
level in reading proficiency occurred
in Grades 5, 7, and 8:
• In Grade 5, proficiency rates increased 7.8 percentage points over
last year, to 91.2 percent proficient.
• In Grade 7, rates increased 8.0 percentage points, to 88.2 percent.
• In Grade 8, rates increased 6.1 percentage points, to 83.2 percent
The mathematics proficiency rates
also increased for all grade levels since
last year, most notably in Grades 7 and
8.
• Grade 7 proficiency rates increased
3.7 percentage points to 77.2 percent.
• In Grade 8, proficiency rates increased 5.7 percentage points, to
73.1 percent.
• Proficiency rates in Grades 3 through
6 also increased in 2008 ranging
from a high of 89.9 percent in Grade
4 to 80.4 percent in Grade 6.
Overall, while the test data show
that performance gaps continue for
racial/ethnic groups, the gap has significantly narrowed since 2003 between the highest and lowest scoring
subgroups. In some cases, the gap in
proficiency rates shrank as much as 24
percentage points. The narrowing of
the gap is due to the accelerating rate
of proficiency for African American
and Hispanic students over the last six
years. For example, since 2003, the
performance of Hispanic and African
American students in third grade read-
ing increased 36.2 and 27.8 percentage
points, respectively.
While the six-year gains for African
American and Hispanic students are
impressive, even the gains over last
year (2007) are noteworthy. For example, in 2008, while there was an
overall increase of 3.7 percentage
points in reading, the largest gains
were seen by Hispanics (6.5 percent)
and by African-Americans (5.8 percent). In Grade 5, Hispanics saw the
largest gain in reading with an increase
of 14.8 percentage points followed by
African-Americans with a 12.4 percentage point increase.
In middle school, there was an
overall 6.0 percentage point increase in
reading with the largest gains seen by
Hispanics with a 10.3 percentage point
increase and by African-Americans
with a 10.0 percentage point increase.
In Grade 7, Hispanics saw the largest
gain in reading with a 13. 9 percentage
point increase followed by Grade 7
African-Americans with a percentage
point increase of 13.7.
In elementary school, there was an
overall 1.7 percentage point increase in
math with the largest gains seen by
African-Americans (3.3 percentage
points) and by Hispanics (2.6 percentage points). In Grade 5, AfricanAmericans saw the largest gain in math
with an increase of 6.4 percentage
points.
In middle school, there was an
overall 3.8 percentage point increase in
math with the largest gains seen by
Hispanics and African Americans, both
with a 6.1 percentage point increase.
In Grade 7, African-Americans saw a
gain of 7.5 percentage points and Hispanics gained 6.5 percentage points.
In Grade 8, Hispanics gained 9.8 percentage points and African-Americans
gained 8.1 percentage points.
The patterns of performance among
students who receive Free and Reduced-price Meals System (FARMS),
special education, or limited English
proficiency (LEP) support services
also reflect continued gains overall,
most often at a rate greater than that of
students not receiving special services.
Disparities in performance remain between students who receive such services and those who do not, although
this gap continuing to narrow at several levels. Most striking are the performance gains in reading made by
Grade 5 elementary LEP students
whose performance increased 24.5
percentage points. In math, the largest
gain made by LEP students came in
Grade 8 where the performance of
these students increased by 9.2 percentage points.
Among students served in special
education programs, reading proficiency increased by 7.0 percentage
points at the elementary level with the
biggest jump among Grade 5 students
(13.4 percentage points). At the middle
school level, special education students’ reading proficiency increased by
13.2 percentage points with the largest
gain in Grade 7 (21.8 percentage
points).
HAMPTON UNIVERSITY NAMED SITE
FOR VA EDUCATION POLICY
FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
H
ampton University’s College of Education and Continuing Studies
has been named the state site for the Virginia Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP). Sponsored by the Institute for Educational
Leadership (IEL) in Washington, D.C., the program is a 10-month professional development program for emerging leaders in education and related
fields.
The goal for Virginia’s EPFP is to develop strategic, executive leaders in
public and private organizations who have the capacity to create and implement sound public policy to improve educational outcomes for children,
youth and adults.
Along with the national EPFP program strands of leadership, public policy and professional networking, the Virginia EPFP curriculum has a unique
focus addressing the nexus of ethics, diversity and educational empowerment.
Across a 10-month program, from September through June, Fellows will
meet once per month for approximately four hours.
“This program is to help train and advance individuals into key roles,”
stated Dr. Cassandra Herring, dean of the HU College of Education and Continuing Studies. “These really are the people that will shape education policy.”
Dr. Maurice Berube, eminent scholar emeritus of educational leadership
and counseling for Old Dominion University, has been named the site coordinator for Virginia’s EPFP.
EPFP was created in 1964 with funding from the Ford Foundation in anticipation of the explosive growth of the federal role in education under the
1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act and related Great Society legislation.
In total, EPFP operates at 19 sites throughout the United States and organizes two annual conferences—the Leadership Forum and the Washington
Policy Seminar. More than 6,400 EPFP alumni now work and lead in all sectors of American life: K-12 and higher education organizations; local, state,
and federal government agencies; public policy groups; foundations and nonprofits; and corporations.
A statewide recruitment for Virginia Fellows is underway through July 30
with the program commencing in September. Applicants should be mid-career professionals with experience or interest in education or educational policy.
For more information, please contact Dr. Cassandra Herring at (757) 6372072 or Dr. Maurice Berube at (757) 637-2200. To apply visit www.
virginiaEPFP.org.
THE METRO HERALD
EDUCATION
July 18, 2008
HOWARD UNIVERSITY DIVISION
OF NURSING RECEIVES $750,000 FROM
THE HELENE FULD HEALTH TRUST
FOR STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS
Beatrice Adderley-Kelly
W
ith a gift that will help alleviate the nation’s persistent
nursing shortage, the Helene Fuld HealthTrust has awarded
Howard University’s Division of Nursing a $750,000 grant for nursing scholarships. The grant will be used to establish the Helene Fuld Health Trust
Scholarship Fund for Baccalaureate
Nursing Students.
“This is fantastic,” said Beatrice
Adderley-Kelly, Ph.D., RN, dean and
professor of the College of Pharmacy,
Nursing and Allied Health Sciences.
“We are so pleased to receive this
award from the Helene Fuld Health
Trust.
“This generous scholarship fund
will help the Division of Nursing recruit the best and the brightest students
to Howard University. It will also support deserving students who are currently enrolled.”
A total of $450,000 is earmarked
for endowment. Meanwhile, $300,000
will be awarded over the next three
years in scholarships to students enrolled in the division’s baccalaureate
nursing program.
“This is going to assist in adding
more nurses to the nursing workforce,
and it will particularly help increase
the number of underrepresented minority nurses,” Adderley-Kelly said.
The United States is in the midst of
a nursing shortage that is expected to
intensify as baby boomers age and the
need for health care grows. The Council on Physician and Nurse Supply, an
independent group of health care leaders, reported in March that 30,000 additional nurses should be graduated annually to meet the nation’s healthcare
needs, an expansion of 30% over the
current number of annual nurse graduates.
VIRGINIA’S HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
LEARN BASICS OF ACADEMY LIFE AS A
VIRGINIA STATE POLICE TRAINEE
WARD 4 CHARTER SCHOOL BUZZES WITH STUDENTS,
SUCCESS AND SUMMER CAMP
I
t was a normal day during the
summer at Paul Public Charter
School on July 12. 120 students
were performing well in the summer
school; 100 students in the sports and
technology camp were in the middle of
their first week of fitness and learning;
and, orientation for 200 in-coming students was underway. All in all, hundreds of Paul kids were teeming
through the building, participating in
these three large summertime projects
at the school on 8th Street.
In the midst of this normal summer
activity—not the closed-for-the-summer school practices of long ago—arrived the news from the State Office of
Education that Paul Public Charter
School passed AYP with flying colors.
AYP achievement had not been an issue
with the general school population;
they had passed AYP in years prior in
very good measure. But, the No Child
Left Behind Act legislation holds the
same yardstick to the challenged learning populations of Special Education
and English as a Second Language. In
other words, according to the law, a
Special Education or ESL student must
complete academic achievements in the
same way as a student from the general
population without language challenges or learning disabilities.
As curious as this yardstick is, Paul
Public Charter School managed to exceed the benchmark, and has once
again secured its place as a premier
middle school in the District’s offerings of public and public charter
schools. Many parents and students
alike refer to Paul as, ‘The real middle
school experience.’
When asked to comment on this latest success, Head of School Barbara B.
Nophlin stated, “Focus and hard work.
Faculty and even students focused on
testing data. Everyone knew where
they stood every step of the way. The
roadmap to this success was teamwork,
leadership and dedication. It was the
hard work and dedication of teachers
and families that really paid off.”
Having been slated as number 8 in
a list of the top 20 charter schools in
DC in 2007, Nophlin added, “This new
data should push us up a notch or two.”
Paul Public Charter School is Wash-
ington, D.C.’s only public school to convert to charter status in 1999. It opened
as a D.C. Junior High School in 1928.
Under its Charter, Paul is governed by a
board of trustees, and is located in the
Brightwood neighborhood of Northwest
(but serving all four quadrants of DC).
Paul offers college-bound instruction
and after school programs in grades 6-8,
and has a student population of 600 students: 75% black, 25% Hispanic. The
faculty consists of 51 professionals of
diverse backgrounds. Learn more at
www.Paulcharter.org
STUDENTS EARN HIGH SCHOOL
DIPLOMAS AT DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS
S
even residents at the Prince George’s County Department of Corrections
earned their high school diplomas this month through the Maryland high
school diploma program. Graduates received the diplomas at a formal
commencement ceremony held at the Correctional Center on July 14, 2008.
“I’m always pleased to see our residents who have worked hard to earn a
high school diploma while they’re here succeed,” said Interim Corrections
Director Mary Lou McDonough. “Studies have shown that earning their high
school diploma makes it less likely they’ll be incarcerated in the future.”
The day-long, state-administered examination is given every other month
at the Correctional Center. Residents are required to demonstrate proficiency
in mathematics, science, social studies, English grammar and word usage. In
addition, they must complete an essay using correct grammar, word usage,
spelling and organization.
Residents who have not earned high school diplomas prior to incarceration are
invited to apply for entry into the Department of Corrections’ education program.
While enrolled in the program, students are housed in an education unit where
they receive diagnostic testing, tutoring, test preparation, counseling and instruction. When the Correctional Center’s education staff feels the student is ready to
take the examination, he or she is scheduled for the next test. Prince George’s
County Department of Corrections applicants historically have posted one of the
highest passing percentages among correctional institutions in Maryland.
T
hirty-seven high school students from across the Commonwealth are
the newest graduates of the Junior Law Cadet program co-sponsored
by the Virginia State Police and the American Legion, Department of
Virginia Inc. On Friday, July 11, the young men and women were presented
their graduation certificates at the Virginia State Police Academy in Chesterfield County.
The 19th annual Junior Law Cadet program is a weeklong training program for high school students who have completed their junior year. Cadets
experience a life similar to a trooper-in-training, complete with daily room inspections and training by state police instructors on Department operations,
tactical team operations, officer survival, undercover operations, driver improvement, defensive tactics and firearms safety.
As part of their training, the cadets also undergo a variety of physical
agility exercises used in the Virginia State Police applicant testing process.
“This is an excellent opportunity and practical experience for students to
learn first-hand what it’s like to be a State Police trooper,” said Colonel W.
Steven Flaherty, Superintendent of the Virginia State Police. “The Junior Law
Cadet program is one of the best ways for our Department to make contact
and build positive relationships with Virginia’s youth, especially for those interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement.”
The American Legion selects and sponsors the students to represent the organization’s Virginia districts. Attached is a list of all participating students
and their hometowns.
Cadet Julia Ganoe, of Prince William, Va., was selected for the Jessica J.
Cheney Spirit Award. The annual award is presented in memory of Trooper
Jessica J. Cheney who was the first cadet to graduate from the program and
go on to become a trooper. Trooper Cheney died of injuries suffered Jan. 17,
1998, after being struck by a vehicle as she directed traffic at a crash scene on
Route 1, north of Fredericksburg. The award is presented to the cadet who
demonstrates the same motivation, drive and enthusiasm that Trooper Cheney
displayed as a cadet.
Additional award recipients include:
•
•
•
•
Outstanding Female Award: Rebecca McCartney of Chesterfield, Va.
Outstanding Male Award: Sam Green of Goochland, Va.
Physical Training Award: Shannon Knight of Norfolk, Va.
Physical Training Award: Trae Mann of Chesterfield, Va.
For the latest news in “EDUCATION,”
read The Metro Herald!
THE METRO HERALD
11
VINTAGE BLACK CINEMA MOVIE POSTER STAMPS
July 18, 2008
THE SPORT OF THE GODS
eleased in 1921, the silent film
The Sport of the Gods tells the
story of a man who loyally
serves a prison sentence for a
crime committed by a friend. When
his wife and children move from Virginia to New York City to escape disgrace, their moral fiber is tested by
the demands of survival in their new
northern home.
The Sport of the Gods was produced by the Reol Motion Picture
Corporation. Formed after World
War I, Reol produced several movies
for black audiences. The company
survived only briefly, but it is sometimes credited with being one of the
first companies to adapt literary
works by African Americans for the
silver screen.
The film was based on the 1902
novel of the same name by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906). Remembered primarily as a poet, Dunbar
also wrote four novels. At the turn of
the 20th century, he was one of the
most widely read American poets and
one of the first popular AfricanAmerican writers. Dunbar was honored on a 10-cent U.S. stamp in 1975.
The poster for The Sport of the
Gods depicts Jim Skaggs, played by
Edward R. Abrams, embracing a reluctant Kitty Hamilton, played by
Elizabeth Boyer. The logo for the Reol
Motion Picture Corporation appears in
the upper left corner. The poster artwork was obtained from the collection
at the University of California, Los
Angeles. The artist is unknown.
R
his girlfriend—actress Fredi Washington, also playing herself—manages to hold them off by offering
them gin. Later, at the nightclub, an
ailing Washington performs in an enthusiastic dance number despite her
ill health. On her deathbed, she asks
him to perform “Black and Tan Fantasy,” secure in the knowledge that
she has helped Ellington continue to
make music.
The poster for Black and Tan depicts Duke Ellington in silhouette
conducting caricatured representations of his orchestra. The Texasbased company Sack Amusement
Enterprises was a producer and distributor of features and short films
for African-American audiences during the 1930s and 1940s. The poster
artist is unknown.
playing big band swing jazz music
during the 1930s but later became one
of the leading players of “jump
blues,” a hybrid of jazz, blues, and
other elements that included a smaller
band, humorous lyrics, and a strong
rhythm section. A celebrity who appeared in numerous movies, Jordan
was one of the top American recording artists of the 1940s and 1950s. He
was known as “the father of rhythm
and blues.” He is also remembered as
one of the first black recording artists
to achieve “crossover” appeal with
white audiences.
Although first shown together,
the musical performances in Caldonia were also separated into individual “soundies.” Soundies were short
films that were played on video jukeboxes in nightclubs and restaurants
during the 1940s. Today they are especially remembered for featuring
performances by African-American
artists, and Louis Jordan is often
cited for his prominent role in these
precursors to today’s music videos.
The poster for Caldonia features a
photograph of Louis Jordan carrying
his saxophone around his neck and
wearing a top hat and a zoot suit with
a bow tie, pink topcoat, and burgundy-and-yellow striped pants.
Three smaller photographs of women
appear in the lower right. The title of
the film appears at the bottom of the
poster. The poster slogan “HERE
COMES MR. LOUIS JORDAN” is a
humorous reference to the film Here
Comes Mr. Jordan, an Oscar-winning
1941 film about a saxophone-playing
boxer who returns from Heaven for a
second chance to win the championship.
CALDONIA
princess tam-tam
eleased in 1945, the 18-minute
short film Caldonia showcased
the talents of singer, saxophonist, and bandleader Louis Jordan (1908-1975).
In Caldonia, Louis Jordan, playing himself, is lured to New York by
Felix Paradise, who promises him a
film career. In the process, Jordan
loses a promising Hollywood contract and Caldonia, his girlfriend.
The short film features four songs by
Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five:
“Buzz Me,” “Caldonia,” “Honey
Chile,” and “Tillie.”
Known as “King of the Jukeboxes” or “King of the Bobby Sox
Brigade,” Jordan began his career
R
society in an attempt to arouse the
jealousy of his wife, while also hoping to use the resulting story as the
plot for his next book.
A
renowned
entertainer,
Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was
born in St. Louis, MO. After touring
the United States with traveling road
shows, she soon became known for a
style of dancing marked by a comic
touch. When she performed in Paris
during the 1920s, her career thrived,
and she was soon one of the most
popular performers in Europe. She
became a French citizen in 1937.
Princess
Tam-Tam
featured
Baker’s exuberant dancing and her
performances of two songs. Although
the French-language film was little
known in the U.S. at the time, it is now
considered a rare film-length showcase for Baker’s talents.
The poster for Princess Tam-Tam
was used to promote the release of
the movie in Denmark. It features an
illustration of a glamorous Josephine
Baker casting a large shadow behind
her. Baker’s name appears prominently at the top of the poster, while
red, white, and blue stripes run at angles down the left and right margins.
At the bottom of the poster, the title
of the film is given as “Prinsesse
Tam-Tam.” The title is in Danish, as
is all cast and credit information that
follows it.
hallelujah
eleased by MGM in 1929, Hallelujah was one of the first
films from a major studio to
feature an all-black cast.
Hallelujah starred Daniel L.
Haynes as Zeke, a field laborer who
is seduced away from his family and
community by the temptations of the
world. Producer-director King Vidor
hoped to create an authentic portrayal of rural African-American life,
especially religious experience, by
filming on location in Arkansas and
Tennessee despite the technical challenges involved in doing so.
Enhanced by spirituals performed
by the Dixie Jubilee Singers, Hallelujah also starred blues singer Victoria
Spivey as Zeke’s hometown love interest and Nina Mae McKinney as
the city woman who cons and seduces him. Later billed in Europe as
R
black and tan
eleased in 1929, the 19-minute
film Black and Tan features
Duke Ellington and his Cotton
Club Orchestra performing “The
Duke Steps Out,” “Black Beauty,” and
“Black and Tan Fantasy.”
Black and Tan is chiefly remembered as the first film appearance of
composer, pianist, and bandleader
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington
(1899-1974). The film was written
and directed by Dudley Murphy, who
later directed the 1933 film The Emperor Jones starring Paul Robeson.
In Black and Tan, Duke Ellington
plays himself, but as an impoverished musician. When two bumbling
movers arrive to repossess his piano,
R
12
eleased in France in 1935 and
later in the United States, the
French-produced
Princess
Tam-Tam was one of only four
movies to feature an acting performance by American-born entertainer
Josephine Baker.
Filmed in France and Tunisia,
Princess Tam-Tam tells the story of a
famous novelist, played by French
actor Albert Prejean, who travels to
Africa after an argument with his socialite wife. While attempting to
overcome writer’s block, he is
charmed by a simple African woman,
played by Baker. He subsequently
presents her as a princess to Parisian
R
Hallelujah art © Al Hirschfeld,
licensed by the Margo Feiden
Galleries Ltd., New York.
“The Black Garbo,” the 16-year-old
McKinney performs the Irving Berlin
song “Swanee Shuffle” in Hallelujah.
Although not free of stereotypes,
Hallelujah was praised by black and
white critics alike and found many
black defenders. In the October 1929
issue of the NAACP magazine The
Crisis, W.E.B. DuBois wrote that the
film offered “the sense of real life”
and concluded that “everybody
should see Hallelujah.” More recently, film historian Thomas Cripps
wrote in 1993 that Hallelujah “neatly
caught the piety and enthusiasm of
rural religion, while only occasionally lapsing into stereotyped gamblers and mammies.”
King Vidor received an Academy
Award nomination for Best Director
for Hallelujah. He would later direct
the black-and-white scenes in The
Wizard of Oz as well as the 1956
film War and Peace.
The poster for Hallelujah shows a
drawing of a female dancer above
several musicians. The movie title
runs across the top of the poster, and
a caption to the left reads: “A KING
VIDOR PRODUCTION.” The original poster artwork for this 1929 film
was created by prominent caricaturist Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003),
whose work also appeared on the
five Comedians stamps in 1991 and
the ten Stars of the Silent Screen
stamps in 1994. The poster was used
with permission of the Margo Feiden
Galleries Ltd., New York.
HOW TO ORDER THE FIRST
DAY OF ISSUE POSTMARK
Customers have 60 days to obtain
the first-day-of-issue postmark by
mail. They may purchase new stamps
at their local Post Office™, at
www.usps.com/shop, or by calling
800-STAMP-24. They should affix
the stamps to envelopes of their
choice, address the envelopes to themselves or others, and place them in a
larger envelope addressed to: Vintage
Black Cinema Stamp; Customer Relations Coordinator; 2 Federal Square
Rm 211; Newark NJ 07102-9998.
After applying the first-day-ofissue postmark, the Postal Service
will return the envelopes through the
mail. There is no charge for the postmark. All orders must be postmarked
by Sept. 17, 2008.
Stamp Fulfillment Services also
offers first-day covers for new stamp
issues and Postal Service stationery
items postmarked with the official
first day of issue cancellation. Each
item has an individual catalog number and is offered in the quarterly
USA Philatelic catalog. Customers
may request a free catalog by calling
800-STAMP-24 or writing to: Information Fulfillment; Dept 6270; US
Postal Service; PO Box 219014; Philatelic Products.
There are six philatelic products
available for this stamp issue:
• 463163, First-Day Cover, Set/5,
$4.00.
• 463174, Commemorative Folio
w/ Pane, $12.95.
• 463176, Diary Page and Pane,
$12.95.
• 463184, Uncut Press Sheet,
$50.40.
• 463191, Ceremony Program w/5
stamps, $6.95.
• 463193, First Day Cover Keepsake w/5 First Day Covers,
$12.40.
THE METRO HERALD
July 18, 2008
THE METRO HERALD
13
July 18, 2008
14
THE METRO HERALD
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
July 18, 2008
TICKETS AND PASSES FOR
12TH ANNUAL AMERICAN BLACK
FILM FESTIVAL ON SALE NOW
F
ilm Life’s 12th annual American Black Film Festival
(ABFF) opens Thursday, August 7, in Los Angeles. Festival passes
and tickets can be purchased now at
Ticket Web (www.ticketweb.com) or
www.abff.com. “We are excited to be
back in Los Angeles for our second
year. We have worked very hard to
make our festival accessible to everyone and hope that the Los Angeles
community comes out to experience
the best new work by and about people
of African descent,” said Jeff Friday,
founder/CEO of Film Life, Inc., and
the ABFF.
This year’s festival will feature the
ABFF Signature Events including: Off
The Record: A Conversation with
Young Hollywood; ABFF Remembers—Waiting to Exhale; Can We Get
Some Love?—Exploring Black Sexuality & Romance in American Cinema;
as well as the HBO® Short Film Competition, which is celebrating its 11th
year at the Festival. Actor Dennis
Haysbert has signed on to preside over
the ABFF Grand Jury, Angela Bassett,
Lela Rochon and Loretta Devine have
been confirmed to attend ABFF Remembers and Lauren London and Anthony Mackie have been confirmed to
participate on the Young Hollywood
panel. The HBO Documentary, The
Black List, written by film critic Elvis
Mitchell, will close this year’s festival.
The Black List provides a unique view
into the zeitgeist of Black America,
and features interviews with Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar,
Sean
“P-Diddy”
Combs, Vernon Jordan, Toni Morrison,
Al Sharpton, Russell Simmons and
Serena Williams, among others.
Founded in 1997, the mission of the
ABFF is to strengthen the Black filmmaking community through resource
sharing, education, artistic collaboration and career development. Since its
inception, over 500 independent films
have been screened, seventy per cent
of which have gone on to secure theatrical or DVD distribution. Festival
alumni include director Sylvain White
(Stomp the Yard) and producers Rob
Hardy and Will Packer (This Christmas and Stomp the Yard), producer
Roger M. Bobb (Tyler Perry’s Why
Did I Get Married and Daddy’s Little
Girls) and writer/director Frank E.
Flowers (Haven). The ABFF was born
out of the need to generate distribution
opportunities for independent Black
films and promote cultural diversity
within the motion picture industry. It is
widely considered the premier Black
film market. Festival attendance is expected to exceed 5,000 people.
The ABFF’s four film sections—
Shorts, Narrative Features, Documentary Features and World Showcases—
will provide increased visibility to the
films that will be screened this year.
Filmmakers will be recognized and rewarded with cash and other prizes at
the ABFF Awards Presentation on Sunday, August 10h at the WGA Theatre.
Prices for tickets are: Festival Passes
$500, WGA West Writers Workshop
Passes $200, Opening Night Cocktail
Reception & Film Screening $75,
Movie Tickets $12, Allstate and
Nielsen Symposiums $30, Signature
Events (HBO Short Film Competition,
Black Sexuality and Young Hollywood
panels) $45, Closing Night Gala
(Awards Presentation and Film) $150.
To purchase passes or tickets visit
www.abff.com or www.ticketweb.com
“The support of our corporate partners, led by presenting sponsor Allstate(R), founding and premiere sponsor HBO(R), along with our other
premiere level sponsors: luxury automaker Lincoln, Target, and BET J,
allows the festival to continue to grow
and nurture artists in a variety of disciplines,” said Friday.
Other 2008 festival sponsors include: Blockbuster, Heineken (Official); Nielsen Media Research, One
Village Entertainment, Fox Searchlight
Pictures, Codeblack Entertainment,
Nickelodeon, Fox Entertainment
Group, FOX Searchlight, Grey Goose
(Supporting); SAG Indie, Writers
Guild of America West, Greater
Philadelphia Film Office, Illinois Film
Office, Foxx King Entertainment (Industry); Black Enterprise, Uptown,
Upscale, Black Noir, Heart&Soul, Precious Times, Automotive Rhythms,
Toy Box, Monarch, Hope Today Magazine, NV, Save the Date, KJLH-FM
and EUR Web (Media).
The ABFF is a property of Film
Life, Inc., a New York-based film marketing and distribution company. Its
mission is to spearhead the global distribution of quality Black films and be
the leading American brand producing
Black movies, television, events and
digital content. Film Life’s key properties include the American Black Film
Festival (abff.com); The Black Movie
Awards (blackmovieawards.com); and
the ABFF DVD Series (thefilmlife.
com), a partnership with Warner Home
Video.
The Allstate Corporation (NYSE:
ALL) is the nation’s largest publicly
held personal lines insurer. Widely
known through the “You’re In Good
Hands With Allstate®” slogan, Allstate
helps individuals in approximately 17
million households protect what they
have today and better prepare for tomorrow through approximately 14,900
exclusive agencies and financial representatives in the U.S. and Canada.
Customers can access Allstate products
and services such as auto insurance
and homeowners insurance through
Allstate agencies, or in select states at
allstate.com and 1-800 Allstate®, Encompass® and Deerbrook® Insurance
brand property and casualty products
are sold exclusively through independent agents. The Allstate Financial
Group provides life insurance, supplemental accident and health insurance,
annuity, banking and retirement products designed for individual, institutional and worksite customers that are
distributed through Allstate agencies,
independent agencies, financial institutions and broker-dealers.
Festival and registration information
is
available
online
at
www.abff.com, or by e-mail:
[email protected].
Visit us on the web at www.metroherald.com
THE METRO HERALD
ANNOUNCING NEW CASTING FOR THE KENNEDY CENTER
PRODUCTION OF BROADWAY: THREE GENERATIONS
T
he John F. Kennedy Center for
the Performing Arts announces
new casting for Broadway:
Three Generations, a three act evening
featuring condensed versions of Girl
Crazy, Bye Bye Birdie, and Side Show.
Lonny Price will direct staged concert
performances featuring an award-winning cast, including Brooks Ashmanskas, Lisa Brescia, Jenn Colella, Randy
Graff, Michael McElroy and Max von
Essen. The production will officially
re-open the renovated Eisenhower Theater and will track the development of
the Broadway musical over three overlapping generations of composers.
The early generation, marked by
the musicals of Kern, Rodgers, and
Porter, is represented by George & Ira
Gershwin’s musical comedy Girl
Crazy. Featuring such popular songs
such as “Embraceable You” and “I Got
Rhythm,” the classic 1930s musical
tells of the son of a wealthy Manhattanite who is shipped to an all-male
southwestern university to forestall his
playboy ways. There, he falls for a
pretty but uninterested local girl and
saves the university from financial ruin
by making it co-ed. Max von Essen
will play the role of Danny Churchill
and Tony Award® winner Randy Graff
will play Kate Fothergill, the role that
launched Ethel Merman’s career.
Brooks Ashmanskas will perform the
role of Slick Fothergill and Jenn
Colella will play Molly Gray, a role
originally played by Ginger Rogers.
The second generation, marked by
the work of Styne, Sondheim, Herman,
and Kander, will be represented by
Bye Bye Birdie. With music by
Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams
and book by Michael Stewart, the musical opened on Broadway April 14,
1960 and won four Tony Awards® including Best Musical, Best Choreography and Best Direction. The musical
follows rock and roll superstar Conrad
Birdie and the complications that arise
when his agent stages a publicity stunt
on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in which
he will kiss one lucky girl from Sweet
Apple, Ohio before being drafted into
the Army. Casting for the Kennedy
Center performances will include
Brooks Ashmanskas as Albert Peterson, Lisa Brescia as Mrs. MacAfee,
and Randy Graff as Mae Peterson.
Broadway’s current generation of
songwriters—Guettel,
Flaherty,
LaChiusa, and Yazbeck—is represented by Henry Krieger & Bill Russell’s Side Show. Telling the story of
conjoined twins Violet and Daisy
Hilton, the musical earned five Tony
Award® nominations after its opening
on October 16, 1997. Jenn Colella will
play Daisy Hilton and Lisa Brescia
will play Violet Hilton. Michael McElroy will play the role of Jake and Max
von Essen will play Terry Connor.
Brooks Ashmanskas will play the
roles of Slick Fothergill in Girl Crazy
and Albert Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie.
His Broadway credits include The
Ritz, On the Twentieth Century,
Gypsy, The Producers, Little Me,
Dream, How to Succeed in Business
Without Really Trying and Martin
Short: Fame Becomes Me, which
earned him a Tony® nomination for
Best Featured Actor.
Lisa Brescia will play the roles of
Mrs. MacAfee in Bye Bye Birdie and
Violet Hilton in Side Show. Her
Broadway credits include The Times
They are A-Changin, The Woman in
White, Wicked, Jesus Christ Superstar
and Aida. She is currently performing
the role of Elphaba in the Chicago production of Wicked.
Jenn Colella will play the roles of
Molly Gray in Girl Crazy and Daisy
Hilton in Side Show. She recently
started in the title role of the OffBroadway play Beebo Brinker Chronicles. Her Broadway credits include
High Fidelity (Laura) and Urban Cowboy, where she earned an Outer Critics
Circle Award nomination for the role
of Sissy. She is performing the title
role in Annie Get Your Gun this summer at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera.
Randy Graff will play the roles of
Kate Fothergill in Girl Crazy and Mae
Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie. Her
Broadway credits include Fiddler on the
Roof, A Class Act (Tony® nomination),
High Society, Moon Over Buffalo,
Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Falsettos
and Les Misérables. Ms. Graff won the
1990 Tony Award® for Best Featured
Actress for City of Angels and last appeared at the Kennedy Center in the
2002 Sondheim Celebration production
of A Little Night Music.
Michael McElroy will perform the
role of Jake in Side Show and will be
featured in the quartet from Girl Crazy.
McElroy’s Broadway credits include
Big River (Tony® nomination), The
Wild Party, Rent, The Who’s Tommy,
High Rollers, Miss Saigon and Candide. In 2006, he won the Helen Hayes
Award for Outstanding Lead Actor,
Resident Musical for his portrayal of
Jim in Big River at Ford’s Theatre.
Max von Essen will play the roles
of Danny Churchill in Girl Crazy and
Terry Connor in Side Show. His
Broadway credits include roles in Les
Misérables, Dance of the Vampires and
Jesus Christ Superstar. Mr. von Essen
made his Kennedy Center debut in the
role of Patrick during the 2006 production of Mame.
The new Kennedy Center production of Broadway: Three Generations
will feature an award-winning design
team, including sets by James Noone,
lighting by Ken Billington, and sound
design by Peter Hylenski. James
Moore is the Music Director and Tom
Briggs serves as adaptor.
The concert performances of Broadway: Three Generations are part of the
Kennedy Center’s season-long initiative
Broadway: The Third Generation, celebrating the current generation of Broadway musical composers. The season
will include a new Kennedy Center production of Ragtime; a free concert in the
Opera House to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the Millennium Stage
hosted by Stephen Schwartz and featuring Scott Frankel, Michael Korie, Jeanine Tesori, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn
Ahrens followed by a full week of performances by up-and-coming Broadway
composers; a co-production of Michael
John LaChiusa’s Giant to appear at
Alexandria’s Signature Theatre as part
of the Kennedy Center Fund for New
American Plays; and the nationally touring production of Spring Awakening.
Performances for Broadway: Three
Generations will run October 2-5,
2008 with performances Thursday
through Saturday at 7:30PM and
Saturday and Sunday at 1:30PM.
Tickets from $25 to $90 will go on sale
August 11, 2008 and will be available
for purchase at the Kennedy Center box
office or by calling Instant Charge at
(202) 467-4600. Patrons living outside
the Washington metropolitan area may
dial toll-free at (800) 444-1324 or visit
us online at www.kennedy-center.org.
THE LYCEUM PRESENTS A WEEKEND OF
“RAILROAD DAYS”
J
oin The Lyceum, Alexandria’s History Museum, for a fun-filled weekend of model trains journeying through miniature towns, scenic hills
and valleys. The Potomac Division of the National Model Railroad Association returns to The Lyceum, 201South Washington Street, with running
HO gauge trains and a state-of-the-art digital command system. Railroad
Days will be open Saturday, August 2, from 11a.m. to 5p.m. and Sunday,
August 3, from 1p.m.
to 5p.m. This event is
free and great for all
ages!
The Lyceum is
happy to announce
several new additions
to Railroad Days this
year, including a
hands-on Thomas the
Tank Engine area for
toddlers and a display
of Lego toy and hobby
trains. Also joining
Railroad Days in 2008
are Whistle Stop Hobbies to discuss the fun
of miniature trains and
Operation Lifesaver, a
national railroad safety
program
headquartered in Alexandria.
For more information,
visit
www.
alexandriahistory.org
or call 703-838-4994.
15
July 18, 2008
16
THE METRO HERALD
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
July 18, 2008
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DANCE CLASSES
AT GADSBY’S TAVERN MUSEUM
MOVIEMAKER MAGAZINE SUMMER 2008 CONTEST
E
nter to win signed prizes in
MovieMaker’s latest contest.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Roman Polanski’s 1968
SIGNATURE
THEATRE HOLDS
FREE OPEN
HOUSE
S
Gadsby’s Tavern Museum
L
earn the dances of Jane Austen,
George Washington, and Abigail Adams in Gadsby’s Tavern
Museum’s historic ballroom. Dance
master Corky Palmer will lead this fun
and educational series of 18th-century
AFRICAN
PRINCESS
BECOMES AND
AN UNITED
STATES QUEEN
T
iffany Poku-Sarkodee, 26,
of Washington, DC was
crowned Queen Leah II at
the 2nd Annual Queen Leah Literacy Achievement Pageant on July
5, 2008 held at the Clinton-Surratts
Library in Clinton, MD. Joyce
Louis Killebrew, founder of MLK
Academy and author of the book
Queen Leah: An African American
Fairy Tale created the pageant to
recognize young female leaders
pursuing and achieving their personal and educational goals. She
said, “There are a lot of girls striving and straining to be all they can
be, and the community is not doing
enough to recognize them.”
Poku-Sarkodee,
volunteer
Mentor at Community of Hope,
community activist, and an undergraduate student majoring in Psychology at University of Maryland
University College, won a $1,500
scholarship for her participation in
the pageant. She was among two
other contestants; each were required to read the book Queen
Leah, write a 500-word essay and
raise money for the pageant by
selling t-shirts. The contestants
were judged by three panelists who
critiqued poise, diction, essay writing, and achievements.
Last year’s winner Queen Leah
I, Tashia Patrice Chambers, Bowie
State and Howard University graduate was there to crown PokuSarkodee as she was announced
Queen Leah II.
In her essay, Poku-Sarkodee attributed her success to her grandparents, but ultimately won the
crowd and judges over with the
concluding statement, “Yesterday a
leading Princess is who I was, but
today a leading Queen is who I am.
THE METRO HERALD
English country dance classes in
preparation for the Jane Austen Ball on
August 9.
Dance classes will be held at
Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, 134 North
Royal Street, on Thursdays, July 24,
July 31, and August 7, from 7:30p.m.
to 9:30p.m. Singles or couples are
welcome at this beginner-level series.
The cost for lessons is $30 for the
series or $12 per class. Classes can also
be purchased online at the Gadsby’s
shop at www.gadsbystavern.org or by
calling 703-838-4242.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Gadsby’s Tavern was the center
of social and political life in Alexandria
and the new Federal City of Washington. The tavern served as the premier
gathering place for residents—including George Washington—and visitors
to eat, drink, learn, and influence history. Gadsby’s Tavern Museum is located at 134 North Royal Street in the
heart of Old Town Alexandria.
ignature Theatre celebrates
the best in musical theater
and drama with its 3rd annual
Open House on Saturday, August
2 from noon to 9:30pm. Free and
open to the public, this special Signature event is a full schedule of
performances, master classes,
demonstrations, contests, and exhibits in Signature’s swanky twotheater complex. Headline performers will include R&B and
Broadway Dreamgirl Julia Nixon
and from Broadway and Signature’s
Witches of Eastwick star Emily
Skinner. Open House attendees can
go behind the scenes of the awardwinning Theatre, hear musical highlights of the upcoming season,
show off their skills in musical
madlibs, Sondheim sing-alongs,
and name-that-Signature-tune contests, learn new dance steps from a
Helen Hayes-wining choreographer, and more. Special children’s
activities include a moon bounce,
snow cones, and library offerings.
Signature Theatre is just 12
minutes from downtown Washington, DC in Arlington’s Shirlington
Village. The new theater complex
is located at 4200 Campbell Avenue (22206) off I-395 at the
Shirlington exit. Free parking is
available in the adjacent public
garage. For more information
visit www.signature-theatre.org.
horror movie classic, Rosemary’s Baby.
To celebrate, MovieMaker Magazine’s
Summer 2008 issue features an interview with the film’s cinematographer,
William Fraker, who together with
Polanski created some of the most unnerving scenes in horror cinema history.
Contestants are being asked to name
a person in the public eye who could
have been spawned by the devil and email their responses to rosemary
@moviemaker.com. Two lucky winners will be chosen. One randomly selected person will receive a lobby card
signed by Fraker, while the submission
chosen as the editor’s favorite will win
a signed poster. Winners will be announced September 1st.
All prizes are courtesy of Posterati,
www.posterati.com, one of the
world’s leading retailers of both classic
and new movie posters.
For 15 years, MovieMaker Magazine, the world’s most widely-read in-
dependent movie magazine, has featured insight into the marquee cinema
names of today, the giants of yesterday
and the trendsetters of tomorrow, all in
a glossy full-color package designed to
entertain as well as instruct. From
commentary, how-to information and
new product reviews to humor, criticism and personal interviews with industry trailblazers and behind the
scenes craftspeople, MovieMaker’s
editorial focuses on the art and business of making movies. It is always
geared not only to movie industry insiders but to all fans of quality motion
pictures.
For more information on this contest or to request a review copy of
MovieMaker’s Summer 2008 edition,
contact Mallory Potosky at mallory@
moviemaker.com.
Subscribe to The Metro Herald!
17
July 18, 2008
18
THE METRO HERALD
SPORTS & RECREATION
July 18, 2008
COACH TREVOR GRAHAM
GETS LIFETIME BAN
• Trafficking in any prohibited substance or prohibited method.
• Administration or attempted administration of a prohibited substance or prohibited method to any
athlete or assisting, encouraging,
aiding, abetting, covering up or any
other type of complicity involving
an anti-doping rules violation or
any attempted violation.
Trevor Graham
T
rack coach Trevor Graham received a lifetime ban from the
U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for
his role in helping his athletes obtain
performance-enhancing drugs.
Graham has been banned from participating in any event sanctioned by
the U.S. Olympic Committee, the
IAAF, USA Track and Field or any
other group that participates in the
World Anti-Doping Agency program.
He was convicted in May of one
count of lying to federal investigators
about his relationship to an admitted
steroids dealer. He’s still awaiting sentencing and has asked a judge to toss
out his conviction. “As greater
progress is being made in the fight
against doping in sport, accountability
is extending beyond athletes to include
coaches, agents and others who are
complicit,” USOC spokesman Darryl
Seibel told the AP in an e-mail.
“For athletes, this announcement
underscores the importance of making
good decisions in choosing who to associate with.” Graham already was
banned from all USOC-sponsored facilities and had essentially become a
pariah in his sport, connected with too
many athletes involved in doping—
Marion Jones and former 100-meter
world-record holders Justin Gatlin and
Tim Montgomery to name a few.
“There has been a belief out there
that coaches, doctors and other people
who support athletes were somehow
outside the long arm of the rules,”
USADA CEO Travis Tygart said in a
phone interview. “This is a strong reminder that they’re not, and that we’ll
use our authority to hold coaches accountable if they assist and aid athletes
in doping.” It was Graham who anonymously provided a vial of “the clear,” a
then undetectable steroid to USADA,
blowing the whistle on what became
known as the BALCO case. At the
2004 Athens Olympics, Graham acknowledged mailing the drug, saying:
“I was just a coach doing the right thing
at the time.” He did not say why he
turned in the syringe or how he got the
material. That act would seem to merit
a break from anti-doping authorities.
“He certainly could have (gotten a
break) but instead of being truthful
with us and the feds he decided to lie
about his involvement,” Tygart said.
USADA began its case against Graham
in November 2006. He was found to
have committed four violations of the
WADA code:
• Tampering with or attempting to
tamper with any part of doping
control.
• Possession of prohibited substances
and methods.
THE METRO HERALD
The case against him included testimony from Michelle Collins and a
number of other athletes. Collins recently was reinstated after serving
three-plus years of a BALCO-related
suspension. Her ban, set to expire in
July, was reduced for cooperating with
USADA and federal investigators.
Few of Graham’s former athletes are
still in track and field. Montgomery,
who was banned for life, was sentenced
in May to nearly four years in prison for
his role in a New York-based check-kiting conspiracy and pleaded guilty July 3
to distributing heroin. Gatlin is serving
a four-year doping ban, and Jones is
serving a six-month prison sentence for
lying to investigators about a checkfraud scam and using steroids.
The most notable survivor is Shawn
Crawford, the defending Olympic gold
medalist in the 200 meters. Crawford
will run the 200 in Beijing and now
trains with Bob Kersee, who also
coaches sprinter Allyson Felix.
Though Crawford wasn’t ever involved in the doping scandal, his name
came up because Graham was a key
player. “Whatever he did with anybody
else, I’m not worried about it,” Crawford said recently. “I know what I did.
I can’t hold that against a person. People make mistakes.”
Graham was the second person
from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative scandal to be convicted at trial.
Former elite cyclist Tammy Thomas
was found guilty in April of lying to a
federal grand jury when she denied
taking steroids.
MYSTICS TO
HOST GOSPEL
NIGHT
T
he Washington Mystics
will host its third annual
gospel night on Sunday,
July 27th at 4:00p.m. when the
team plays conference rival, the
Connecticut Sun. Immediately
after the game, 2008 Stellar award
winner for “Praise and Worship
CD of the Year” Maurette Brown
Clark, will hold a concert for the
fans attending the game. In addition, the team, in partnership with
Praise 104.1, will hold a contest allowing fans to perform at halftime.
Fans wishing to participate need to
write an essay in 104 words or less
stating why their choir should be
chosen to perform at the July 27th
game. All entries must be received
by July 21st. The winning choir
will be chosen by panel of Praise
104.1 judges. Choir limit is 100.
Each entry must send a tape/cd/dvd
of the choir to: Praise 104.1 c/o
Bobby Burwell; 5900 Princess
Garden Parkway; 8th Floor; Lanham, MD 20706.
Tickets can be purchased by
calling the 1-877-DC-HOOP1 or
at www.washingtonmystics.com.
PACKER OUT, KELLOGG IN AS CBS LEAD ANNOUNCER
B
illy Packer didn’t sound like a
man who found out his 34-year
run as part of the Final Four
broadcast had ended. On Monday,
CBS announced that Clark Kellogg
would replace Packer after 27 years as
the network’s lead college basketball
analyst. Including his earlier years at
NBC, Packer had done every Final
Four since 1975, an unparalleled run
for a national sports championship.
“These are really good circumstances,” Packer told The Associated
Press by phone. “This decision was
made with myself and CBS over a year
ago. Their timing to announce it is their
business. I have nothing to do with that.
I was working on a series of 1-year contracts for several years. ... I did say there
would be no mention during the season
so as not to detract from the games and
the guys involved.” Kellogg, a game
and studio analyst for CBS for 16 years,
will be the man next to Jim Nantz on the
2009 Final Four broadcasts.
“With his unquestioned popularity
and performance over the years, Clark
Kellogg earned all rights to this top
spot,” Sean McManus, president of
CBS News and Sports, said in a statement. “Like Billy Packer, Al McGuire
or any of the most highly regarded
broadcasters, Clark is an original voice
with his own style and perspective.”
The 68-year-old Packer said he was
“happy” for Kellogg, who played at
Ohio State and then in the NBA.
“I think he has worked his trade and
certainly as a player was a student of
the game. His work at CBS and the fact
he is such a smart guy should serve
him well,” Packer said. “I wish him
nothing but the best.”
Packer also will end his long run as
an analyst for Raycom, a regional network that covers the Atlantic Coast
Conference.
“I have had a chance to broadcast
most of the great games since college
basketball got on national television
and I’m not interested in broadcasting
any more games,” he said. “I enjoyed
doing that but I won’t be any more.”
He said he is involved in a college
basketball project that he’ll discuss in a
few months. Packer was able to stay
one of sports’ top analysts without
changing much over more than three
decades. He spoke his mind about
coaches, players, the NCAA tournament and the influx of foreign athletes
into American college sports.
“His understanding of men’s college
basketball, his analysis of the game, and
his love for its place in higher education
has ensured a legacy that anyone can
envy,” NCAA president Myles Brand
said in a statement. “He is a friend of intercollegiate athletics, and I want to thank
him for the enormous contributions he
has made to the NCAAs Final Four tournament, as well as on many, many other
occasions over several years.”
Packer’s criticism of the tournament
committee became standard fare on Selection Sunday and it often turned into
a public battle with the likes of Saint
Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli when his
team received a No. 1 seed in 2004. His
reputation took a hit when he made insulting comments to two female Duke
students when he was asked for a credential at a game at Cameron Indoor
Stadium, and years earlier when he referred to former Georgetown guard
Allen Iverson as a “tough little monkey.” He apologized for both remarks.
There wasn’t much flash to his
style, just a lot of basketball expertise
from a coach’s son who played in the
Final Four for Wake Forest in 1962 and
briefly coached on the college level.
His serious, basketball-first approach was clearly sedate compared to
that of Dick Vitale, the bombastic
ESPN and ABC analyst who came on
RADOMSKI GIVES FEDS
EVIDENCE ON CLEMENS
C
onvicted steroid distributor Kirk Radomski handed over shipping receipts to federal investigators for a package of human growth hormone
that he claims he sent to Roger Clemens’ home in Texas in 2002 or 2003.
Clemens, the seven-time Cy Young Award winner, is under investigation
for perjury after telling Congress he never used steroids or human growth hormone. Brian McNamee, Clemens’ personal trainer, told Congress that
Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs and that he provided them to the
300-game winner.
The Daily News reported, according to sources with close knowledge of the
investigation, that Radomski is also believed to have provided the government
with new information and receipts for drug shipments to other players.
Radomski is a former New York Mets clubhouse employee whose allegations formed much of former Senate majority leader George Mitchell’s report
on steroid use in major league baseball. Radomski was sentenced to five years
of probation in February after cooperating with government investigators.
McNamee’s allegations about Clemens in the Mitchell Report led to Senate hearings with Clemens.
The Daily News reported, according to the sources, that the package
Radomski sent was addressed to William Roger Clemens, in care of Brian McNamee. The Daily News’ sources said McNamee did not sign for the package.
According to the sources, the timing of the shipment to Clemens’ Houston
home coincides roughly with the dates when Clemens’ wife, Debbie, used
human growth hormone in preparation for her participation in a pictorial in
the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. They also expect the evidence to corroborate McNamee’s claims that Clemens was behind his wife’s use and was
present when McNamee injected her just after the drugs arrived at the couple’s home.
Clemens’ attorney, Rusty Hardin, said he wasn’t aware of the government
receiving the receipts from Radomski. “I can’t imagine that there’s any truth to
that at all,” Hardin said. “We’ll find out one day Roger never received or took
the stuff.” Matthew Parrella, an assistant U.S. Attorney from San Francisco,
declined comment to The Daily News when contacted about the receipts.
McNamee’s attorney, Richard Emery, told The News on Tuesday he had
heard that Radomski found new evidence. “He found a receipt, and from what
I’m told, he’s turned it over to the feds,” Emery said. “I don’t think there’s any
question of its validity. It confirms the story Brian described on the occasion
when he was asked to inject Debbie and Clemens presented him with the HGH.”
Clark Kellogg
the broadcast scene about a decade
after Packer began his run.
“The only word to describe Billy is
a giant,” said Big East commissioner
Mike Tranghese, whose conference has
a working relationship with CBS. “His
passion for the game and presenting it
the way he presented it is, I think unrivaled. This creates an incredible void.
Those of us who have a passion for the
game of college basketball are really
going to miss him.” Including Kellogg.
“His excellence as an analyst is Hall
of Fame worthy,” he said. “His knowledge of the game and its history is unparalleled. That, along with his passion
and keen insights, enabled him do his
work as an analyst better and longer
than anyone in the game’s history. His
legacy is one of enduring excellence
and keeping the focus on the game. That
is the foundation I aspire to build on.”
Don’t ask Packer to reflect on his career
and pick a favorite game or personality.
“I basically have spent my whole
life looking forward. I really haven’t
spent any time looking back,” he said.
“I am involved in a lot of different
projects outside of sports. I haven’t
spent, and don’t anticipate spending,
any time looking back.”
T.C. WILLIAMS
WRESTLING TEAM
SPECIAL EVENTS
T
.C. Williams High School
will host both a wrestling appreciation night and a sanctioned wrestling tournament this
weekend. Two American University
wrestlers will hold Alexandria’s
Wrestling Appreciation Night, a free
wrestling clinic for all ages and experience levels, from 6 to 9p.m. on
July 18 at the school, 3330 King St.,
Alexandria. Four full-size wrestling
mats will be available for open mat.
The team would like to document
the achievements of past T.C.
Williams coaches and wrestlers to
create a wrestling “wall of fame.”
The Wrestling Club will host a
USA Wrestling Sanctioned event
on July 18 and 19. Weigh-ins will
take place from 6 to 9p.m. on July
18 or from 7:30 to 9a.m. on July
19. Wrestling starts at 10a.m. on
July 19. A USA Wrestling card is
required to participate; cards will
be sold at the door. Visit www.
virginiawrestling.com or www.
themat.com, for a registration
form. The cost per participant is
$20 for early registration, $25 at
the door. Admission is $5 for
adults and $2 for students, free for
children younger than 10 and
coaches with USA wrestling cards.
Contact Jason Perkins at jason.
[email protected]. va.us or 703623-4036 for more information.
19
July 18, 2008
20
THE METRO HERALD
BUSINESS NEWS/BIDS & PROPOSALS
July 18, 2008
FREE WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS NOW AVAILABLE
IN DOWNTOWN BETHESDA
M
ontgomery County announces the arrival of Downtown Bethesda Wireless Internet service. Bethesda Wi-Fi
was made possible through a collaboration between Montgomery County and Atlantech Online, Inc. (AOI).
The Bethesda Urban Partnership also closely assisted this initiative.
The Bethesda service area is located in the area of Bethesda Row, roughly bounded by Woodmont Avenue, Bethesda
Avenue, Arlington Road and Elm Street. An additional hot spot is located at Veterans Park at the corner of Norfolk and
Woodmont avenues. This means that anyone with a laptop computer equipped with a Wi-Fi adapter can have free access to the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week from these areas.
“Bethesda Wi-Fi is an example of the County’s continuing commitment to enhance Bethesda,” said County Executive Isiah Leggett. “It will give residents and visitors to Bethesda easy access to information about local shopping, entertainment, dining and county services.”
Wireless Internet access will be available free 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Bethesda Wi-Fi welcome
page will greet users when they connect to the Internet. The welcome page summarizes services available and offers
links to the Bethesda Wi-Fi Internet User Policy, Setup Guide, FAQ’s and Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services
Center and the Bethesda Urban Partnership web pages. There are no approval requirements, encryption settings, user
names or passwords required and no guarantee of performance privacy or reliability.
In addition to Bethesda, free County-provided Wi-Fi is available in all of the public libraries and regional services
centers, Circuit Court jury waiting room, and Silver Spring in the area around Wayne, Ellsworth and Georgia avenues.
REGISTERED NURSE I, #02296
ALEXANDRIA HEALTH DEPARTMENT
Hiring Range: $45,000–Negotiable
(local govt. will supplement salary)
Attractive Benefits Package
Job Close Date: 07/23/2008 @ 5pm EST
Agency Website:
http://www.vdh.virginia.gov
Job Description: Primarily, provides nursing case management
to high risk pregnant women, infants, and children. Also, provides
occasional secondary staffing for direct clinical services, including
immunizations, well child, family planning, TB, and STI clinics.
Case management may include arrangements for referrals, health
education and counseling, problem follow-up via phone and/or
home visits.
Minimum Qualifications: Licensure or eligibility for licensure
as a Registered Nurse in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Knowledge of principles and practices of public health nursing, maternity
nursing, pediatrics/child health, family dynamics, and health education strategies. Valid driver’s license required.
Special Requirements: A criminal record check and background investigation are required.
How to Apply: VDH accepts ONLY online applications. Faxed,
mailed, and/or emailed applications will NOT be considered. A
thoroughly completed application, including employment and
salary history, must be submitted to receive consideration.
The Virginia Department of Health
is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
REGISTERED NURSE I, #02303
ALEXANDRIA HEALTH DEPARTMENT
Hiring Range: $44,000–Negotiable
(local govt. will supplement salary)
Attractive Benefits Package
Job Close Date: 07/23/2008 @ 5pm EST
Agency Website:
http://www.vdh.virginia.gov
Job Description: Primarily, provides nursing case management
to high risk pregnant women, infants, and children. Also, provides
occasional secondary staffing for direct clinical services, including
immunizations, well child, family planning, TB, and STI clinics.
Case management may include arrangements for referrals, health
education and counseling, problem follow-up via phone and/or
home visits.
Minimum Qualifications: Licensure or eligibility for licensure
as a registered nurse in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Knowledge of principles and practices of public health nursing, pediatrics/child health, family dynamics, and health education strategies. Valid driver’s license required.
THE METRO HERALD
THE MARYLAND-NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK
AND PLANNING COMMISSION (M-NCPPC)
hereby invites sealed bids from interested parties for Bid No. B29-101
Supply & Installation of HVAC System at Barnett Building in
accordance with specifications to be furnished by the Purchasing
Division, 6611 Kenilworth Ave., Suite 300 Riverdale, MD 20737.
There will be no charge for the bid. A pre-bid conference will be held
onsite, Friday, July 25, 2008 at 10:00 am, 10611 New Hampshire
Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20903. Attendance is not mandatory, but
is strongly encouraged. Each bid must be submitted to the Purchasing
Office at the above address. Bids must be received before 11:00 am,
Tuesday, August 5, 2008. Questions regarding this bid may be
directed to Mechelle T. Myers, CPPB at (301) 454-1604, TTY (301)
454-1493. All bids and associated documents will become the
property of the M-NCPPC and will be considered public information.
The Commission is an E.O.E. with special procurement rules for
Minorities, Females, and the Disabled.
MEDICAL RECORDS SUPERVISOR, #04763
ALEXANDRIA HEALTH DEPARTMENT
Hiring Range: $36,000–DOQ • Job Close Date: 07/18/2008
Agency Website: http://www.vdh.virginia.gov
Job Description: Supervises medical records staff at 2 Alexandria Health Dept locations. Also, is
Deputy Registrar for Vital Records. Manages and follows medical records policy and procedures to ensure accuracy, confidentiality, accessibility and efficiency. Hires staff, conducts performance reviews,
plans and manages the records retention activities serving the public and clinical staff. This position is a
working supervisor. This is a state position with local government salary supplement. Attractive state
benefits package offered
Minimum Qualifications: Medical records, supervisory and computer system experience. Knowledge of office procedures. The ability to communicate both orally and in writing. High school diploma
or equivalent.
Preferred Qualifications: Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) certification, HIPPA
training, familiar with MS Office software applications including Word, Excel and/or Access.
Special Requirements: A successful criminal record check and background investigations are required. Ability to do light physical labor in relation to the duties. For example, lifting boxes, pushing
records cart and being on your feet for periods.
Special Instructions to Applicants: VDH accepts ONLY online applications. Faxed, mailed, and/or
emailed applications will NOT be considered. A thoroughly completed application, including employment
and salary history, must be submitted to receive consideration.
The Virginia Department of Health is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
EPIDEMIOLOGIST-EP064
$49,151–$84,062
THIS IS A READVERTISEMENT. PREVIOUS APPLICANTS MUST REAPPLY FOR
CONSIDERATION. Coordinates delivery of epidemiologic and emergency preparedness and response
(EP&R) services in the Northern region through working directly with multi-district and multi-state
medical and program staff. Serves as the lead epidemiologist addressing surveillance issues and provides
supplemental coverage with regard to investigation issues. Characteristic duties include public health
response planning; EP&R services; development and implementation of regional surveillance and
investigation systems; maintaining electronic databases; analysis of epidemiological data to identify
disease trends and outbreaks; evaluating reports of notifiable conditions from physicians, hospitals, and
laboratories; generating statistical reports; disseminating data and information to health care providers
and others; coordination of outbreak investigation and communicable diseases control; design and
leadership of epidemiologic investigations and studies; technical consultation and training at
state/region/district/community levels; program quality assessment and assurance; and policy and
procedure development. Serves as a liaison for the epidemiology/ EP&R program, planning and
collaborating with districts, central office, other states, and federal partners. Knowledge of
communicable diseases; principles and methods of epidemiology; public health surveillance activities;
and laws, regulations, and policies on disease reporting and control. Strong oral and written
communication, analytical and computer skills. Ability to apply epidemiologic principles, develop plans
and policies, analyze and interpret statistical information, train staff, act independently, manage a
statewide program, develop goals and evaluate progress. Masters or doctorate degree in public health or
related field and/or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience preferred.
Experience as an epidemiologist working in disease surveillance, disease control, outbreak
investigations, and emergency preparedness and response preferred. Applicants must successfully
complete a national criminal background investigation. Position requires 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
availability; willingness to travel; and possession of a valid driver’s license. Applicants needing
sponsorship need not apply. A completed application must be submitted on-line at www.
vdh.virginia.gov for consideration no later than 5:00 p.m. on July 23, 2008. Refer questions to Diane
Becken at (804) 864-8142 or [email protected].
An Equal Opportunity Employer.
21
CLASSIFIED ADS/BIDS & PROPOSALS
July 18, 2008
Only $250 buys a
25-word classified ad in
98 newspapers across Virginia.
Call: The Metro Herald at
703-548-8891
OR
Virginia Press Services at
804-521-7571
to place your ad in the
AD NETWORK CLASSIFIEDS
EQUIPMENT FOR SALE
SAWMILLS FROM ONLY $2,990.00—
Convert your LOGS TO VALUABLE
LUMBER with your own Norwood
portable band sawmill. Log skidders also
available.
www.norwoodsawmills.
com/300N—FREE information: 1-800578-1363-Ext:300-N.
HELP WANTED
ANNOUNCEMENTS/NOTICES
DIVORCE without Children $95.00,
DIVORCE with Children $95.00. With
FREE name change documents (wife
only) and marital settlement agreement.
Fast, easy and professional. Call 1-888789-0198.
APARTMENTS FOR RENT
3 bd. Bank Foreclosure only $375/mo!
1-4 bd. Homes Available from $199/mo!
5% dn, 20 yrs @ 8% apr! For listings
800-508-8176 ext. 1219.
4 bd. 2 ba. Home only $345/mo! More
1-4 bd. HUD Homes from $199/mo!
Financing Referrals Available! For Listings 800-628-5983 ext. T391.
AUCTIONS
Auction—Turn Your Assets into
Ca$h! Sell with VDOT, Dominion VA
Power & Others, Receive top dollar,
August 8th 8 AM, Richmond, Virginia.
Brochure & Discount Deadline July
17th. Motley’s Auction & Realty Group,
804-232-3300, VAAL #16. www.
Motleys.com.
PUBLIC AUCTION • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA • SATURDAY •
JULY 19, 2008 • 9:00 AM • VIRGINIA
POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE & STATE
UNIVERSITY, 1411 SOUTH MAIN
STREET, BLACKSBURG, VA 240610310 • VEHICLES • COMPUTER
EQUIPMENT • VARIOUS OFFICE &
HOUSEHOLD ITEMS & MUCH MORE.
http://vbo.dgs.virginia.gov/VBO/Doc/
Auction_Bid_Schedule.asp.
Absolute Auction, Wednesday, July
30th, 10:00 AM—Final liquidation of
Scott Cabinets, Ferrum, Virginia.
57,000+/- sq. ft. industrial building on
32+ acres, woodworking and cabinet
manufacturing equipment, tools, lumber,
cabinetry, inventory and numerous other
items. Everything sells individually, at
your price! Boyd Temple, 800-551-3588,
www.woltz.com. Woltz & Associates,
Inc. Brokers & Auctioneers, VA#321.
AUCTION—Chrysler Financial, South
Hill, Va. Sat., July 19, 9AM. Complete
Shop Equipment, Tools, Office Inventory, New Parts, Tires, Vehicles! www.
carwileauctions.com, (434) 547-9100,
VAAR 392.
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
ALL CASH CANDY ROUTE. Do you
earn $800 in a day? Your own local
candy route. Includes 30 Machines and
Candy. All for $9,995. 1-888-745-3354.
COMPUTERS
SECRET SHOPPERS NEEDED—For
Store Evaluations. Get Paid to Shop and
Rate Local Stores, Restaurants &
Theaters. Flexible Hours, Training
Provided 1-800-585-9024 ext 6976.
MECHANICS: Up to $20,000 bonus.
Keep the Army National Guard Rolling.
Fix Humvees, Strykers, etc. Expand
your skills through career training. Be
a Soldier. 1-800-GO-GUARD.com/
mechanic.
Watkins Associates Needed. Flexible
hours. Earn $500-$1000+/month PartTime. Start while keeping your current
job. No selling required. Free details.
www.K738.com.
PROFESSIONAL/INSURANCE
INSURANCE—GENERAL AGENTS
NEEDED—New Medicare Advantage.
$0 Premium MA & MAPD, $405
Commission & Bonus, Will Consider
Agents With Track Record. (800) 5329653, code 66.
TRUCK DRIVERS
HOMES FOR RENT
Never Rent Again! Buy 1-4 bd. Homes
from $199/mo! Tax lien/deed homes buy
from $500! 5% dn, 20 yrs @ 8% apr! For
Listings 800-508-8176 ext. 1225.
Affordable HUD Homes! 4 bd. 3 ba.
Home buy for only $380/mo! 3 bd. 1 ba.
Home only $230/mo! 4% dn, 30 yrs @
8%. For Listings 800-628-5983 ext.
T294.
HOMES FOR SALE
5 bd. 2 ba. Foreclosure only $45k!
3 bd. 2 ba. Only $28k! Great Deals! For
Free Foreclosure Listings 800-508-8176
ext. 1270.
4 bd. 2 ba. Home only $345/mo! More
1-4 bd. HUD Homes from $199/mo!
Financing Referrals Available! For Listings 800-628-5983 ext. T295.
LAND FOR SALE
75 DRIVER TRAINEES NEEDED! NO
CDL? NO PROBLEM! LEARN TO
DRIVE A TRUCK WITH US. FT/PT
CLASSES. GREAT PAY. BENEFITS!
1-800-874-7131.
LAKE ANNA, VA—Steal My Lakefront
Land! Owner must sell! Reduced 30%!
Large water access $49,900. Direct
Waterfront $199,900. We will match up
to 10% of your down payment, NO
gimmicks! Call 888-838-9019.
DRIVER CDL TRAINING—CLASS “A”
or CLASS “B.” Local or O-T-R Job
Placement Assistance. Guaranteed
Financing Available. $38-45K 1st Year.
CDS Tractor Trailer Training 1-800-6462374.
VIRGINIA MOUNTAINS—2 acres on
mountaintop near New River State Park,
great fishing, view, private, $29,500
must sell, call owner 866-789-8535.
Flatbed Drivers—2007 Model Freightliners are Here! Per Diem Pay, Excellent Benefits. Class A-CDL, 22 Years
Old, Good Record. Call Western
Express Today! 866-863-4116.
C&C Trucking Earn More—Be Home
More. Great Pay, Medical, Dental,
Home Weekends, New Equipment,
Family Atmosphere. Class A Drivers Call
Today Toll Free 800-476-8269.
Driver-CDL-A. The Grass is Greener at
PTL. Students with CDL Welcome—excellent training. Co. Drivers Earn up to
46cpm. Owner Operators Earn 1.41cpm
22yrs of age, 12 months OTR. No
Forced Northeast! Co. Drivers call: 800848-0405; O. Operators call: 877-7743533; www.ptl-inc.com.
DRIVERS: 13 DRIVERS NEEDED.
Sign-On Bonus. 35-42 cpm. Earn over
$1000 weekly. Excellent Benefits. Need
CDL-A & 3 months recent OTR. 800635-8669.
BIG G EXPRESS INC is expanding!!
Drivers living in a 50 mile radius of
Roanoke, Waynesboro or Winchester,
VA. Call today for more information 800684-9140 x2.
THE ONLY CALL YOU NEED TO
MAKE! OTR Drivers wanted. Prepass
EZPass. Every 60K miles raises! 2006
newer equipment. Passenger/Pet
Policy. 100% No Touch. Butler Transport
1-800-528-7825.
EMPLOYMENT LISTINGS
Independent contract drivers needed
to transport trucks from Dublin, VA to
within a 400 mile radius. Net income
potential of $40,000 per year. Visit us at
www.qualitydriveaway.com or contact
Richard at 1-866-764-1603 or Mindy at
1-866-764-1601.
22
Drivers: Martini is Hiring Co. Drivers &
O/Os who want: Weekend Home Time &
a Consistent Customer Base. CDL-A &
1 yr. OTR Experience 866-460-8464
www.gomartini.com.
GENERAL
A NEW COMPUTER NOW!!! Brand
Name laptops & desktops. Bad or No
Credit—No Problem. Smallest weekly
payments available. It’s yours NOW—
Call 800-816-2643.
EARN UP TO $550 WEEKLY Helping
the government. PT No Experience.
Excellent Opportunity. Call Today!!
1-800-488-2921 Ask for Department
J19 (cost).
WANT HOME MOST WEEKENDS
WITH MORE PAY? Heartland’s GREEN
MILE$ program! $.54/mile company
drivers and $1.38 for operators! 12
months OTR required. HEARTLAND
EXPRESS 1-800-441-4953 www.
heartlandexpress.com.
LOTS AND ACREAGE
20+ ACRES & MOUNTAIN LOG
CABIN kit just $159,900. Beautifully
wooded mountain setting with spectacular new 1800’ log cabin kit. Enjoy private
access to Potomac River & C&O Canal.
Close to town. Perfect for vacation/
retirement. Low rate financing. Call now
1-800-888-1262.
MISCELLANEOUS
ATTEND COLLEGE ONLINE from
Home. • Medical • Business • Paralegal
• Criminal Justice. Job placement assistance. Computer available. Financial Aid
if qualified. SCHEV certified. Call 866858-2121. www.CenturaOnline.com.
AIRLINES ARE HIRING—Train for high
paying Aviation Maintenance Career.
FAA approved program. Financial aid if
qualified—Job placement assistance.
SCHEV Certified. Call Aviation Institute
of Maintenance (888) 349-5387.
WATERFRONT PROPERTIES
Smithfield, VA Deepwater Creekfront!
3.9 ACRES—$95,000 Wooded estate
w/ 170’ shoreline. Paved roads, water,
sewer, much more. Free Kayak or
Canoe with Purchase. Call Patty 866764-5238, x1919.
RIVERFRONT ESTATE 5 ACRES—
$183,000—Boater’s heaven! Prime,
deep, dockable frontage on James
River. Close to Chesapeake Bay. Must
see. Lowest financing in 25 years.
Priced way below market to sell NOW!
Call 866-764-5238x 1919.
WORK FROM HOME
OPPORTUNITIES
WORK FROM HOME—RECEIVE $5
FOR EVERY LEAD STUFFED WITH
OUR SALES MATERIAL. GUARANTEED! FREE INFORMATION. CALL
TOLL-FREE 1-800-514-5182.
PUPPIES FOR SALE
Bulldog & Teacup Yorkie Terrier 9-10 weeks old for sale—Male
and Female. Pictures available. AKC Reg. For more details,
contact [email protected].
PART-TIME ONLINE BOOKKEEPER/
PAYROLL MANAGER NEEDED
As part of our part-time programs our company, PC
TECHNOLOGY, is currently taking applications for an Online
Bookkeeper, Payroll Manager and Online Receivables person.
You must be a self-motivated individual, as you will be
responsible for all functions of the office, and will often be
working alone. This temp-to-hire position pays $13-15 dollars per
hour and includes an excellent benefits package once you are
taken on permanently with the company. To see if your
background aligns with our needs, please submit your resume to
[email protected].
Other requirements:
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word and Excel
• Must have collections experience
• Knowledge of methods used and remedies available for
collection of delinquent accounts
• Excellent customer service skills.
• Please note: We will only respond to administrative candidates
who meet the criteria above.This position offers a lot of room
for growth.
This would be a great position for an executive administrative
assistant with accounts receivable and collections experience.
PAYMENT COLLECTION POSITION
We are currently looking to fill a Payment Collection Position. Job
comes with great benefits. For more information and to sent
resumes, applicants should email [email protected].
MISCELLANEOUS FOR SALE
HOMEOWNERS WANTED! Kayak
Pools looking for Demo homesites to
display new maintenance free Kayak
pools. Save thousands of $$. Unique
opportunity! 100% financing available.
1-877-377-7665.
STEEL BUILDINGS FOR SALE
POLE
BUILDINGS:
24x32x10;
30x40x10, 40x60x12, 50x100x14.
BEST PRICES AROUND! Many
other sizes available. Painted steel.
Fully erected on you site. www.
fettervillesales.com 800-331-1875.
Sales Representation Needed.
THE METRO HERALD
BIDS & PROPOSALS
July 18, 2008
REGISTERED NURSE I, #05237
ALEXANDRIA HEALTH DEPARTMENT
Hiring Range: $45,000–Negotiable
(local govt. will supplement salary)
Attractive Benefits Package
Job Close Date: 07/23/2008 @ 5pm EST
Agency Website: http://www.vdh.virginia.gov
Job Description: Experienced nursing position to serve as Clinic Coordinator for prenatal clinical
programs at the Casey Health Center. Assists with planning and development of programs and, in cooperation with the Public Health Nursing Supervisor and Senior Nurse for Operations, is responsible for
day-to-day management of prenatal clinical functions at the Casey Health Center. Assures quality care
and case management of complex patients and provides for coordination of services with the local hospital, clinic physicians, nurse midwives, and community partners. Provides direct patient care as needed
in prenatal clinic and works with Prenatal Case Manager to assure prompt entry into care for women applying for prenatal clinical services.
Minimum Qualifications: Graduation from accredited school of nursing and eligible for licensure in
the Commonwealth of Virginia. Knowledge of principles and practices of Public Health Nursing, case
management, family dynamics, women’s health and/or OB/GYN. Skills in nursing assessment and
health care service delivery. Ability to prioritize and work independently, time management and organizational skills, good interpersonal skills and problem solving abilities, demonstrated leadership skills.
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
The Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services
(DMAS) is soliciting proposals from qualified firms to establish a
contract for Chronic Care Management Services. Proposals will
be due by 2:00 p.m., August 27, 2008. Copies of the RFP 200801 can be obtained from the DMAS web site www.dmas.virginia.
gov or eVA web site at www.eva.virginia.gov.
PART-TIME ACCOUNT MANAGERS
NEEDED
As part of our expansion program, Millennium Magic LLC is in
need of people to work as part-time account managers, and
payment and sales representatives. It pays a minimum of $3000 a
month plus benefits and takes only little of your time. Please
contact us for more details.
Requirements—Should be computer literate
Have 2-3 hours’ access to the internet weekly
Must be honest and loyal
Must be efficient and dedicated
If you are interested and need more information, contact Michael
J Sloan, Email: [email protected].
ONLINE AUCTION
It Made Me Smile . . .
Fairfax County Public Schools • Springfield, VA
Bandsaw, Table Saw & Computer Equipment!
Closes 6/27, 6% BP • www.LSA.cc
A
young man of 18
years becomes a
monk in a
monastery that requires a
vow of silence. He can
only speak 2 words every
5 years. At the end of
year 5 the head monk
calls the kid in and says,
“My boy you now can
say 2 words.” To which
the kid replies, “food
stinks.”
Five more years go by
and the head monk says,
“My boy you may now
say 2 words.” The boy
says, “bed hard.”
At the end of the next
5 years the head monk
calls the boy in and says,
“You may now say 2
words.” The kid says, “I
quit.”
The head monk
replies, “I’m not
surprised, you’ve been
complaining ever since
you got here.”
YORKSHIRE PUPPIES
CUTE yorkshire, PURE BREED, MALE AND FEMALES
AVAILABLE WITH PICTURES, 9 WEEKS, PRICE $700
(SHIPPING INCLUDED). FOR MORE DETAILS, SEND
EMAIL TO: Katrina Smith at [email protected].
ACCOUNT MANAGERS WANTED
As part of our expansion program, a small company is looking for
part-time, work-from-home account managers and sales
representatives. Job pays 4,000 dollars a month plus benefits and
takes only a little of your time. Please contact us for more details.
Requirements—Should be computer literate
Have 2-3 hours’ access to the internet weekly
Must be over 19 years of age
If you are interested and need more information, please send
e-mail to [email protected]. Contact name:
Mr Stiga Steward.
BOOKKEEPING/PAYROLL SERVICES
Arnold Howard Greenhouses Inc. is a wholesale and
distributor of fiber. We are currently seeking individuals to work
on a full time basis (3–4 hours per week) as an “BOOKKEEPING/
PAYROLL SERVICES” Representatives in local chain store
garden.
BOOKKEEPING/PAYROLL SERVICES
On-site/off-site bookkeeping and payroll service for your small
business. Reasonable rates.
BOOKKEEPING
Accounting & record keeping
•
•
•
•
•
•
Accounts Receivable
Accounts Payable
Bank Reconciliation
Journal Entries
Government tax calculations and remittances
Statements
•
•
•
•
PAYROLL
Payroll calculations and record keeping
Payroll remittances
Government forms (ROE, WSIB, EHT etc)
T4s and Government Summary
Good communication skills and personal vehicle is required.
General horticultural knowledge is an asset. Compensation: $700$3,000 USD per-week plus mileage allowance.
FAX RESUME TO (206) 350-2724 OR RESPOND VIA
EMAIL FOR INTERVIEW at [email protected]
PART TIME WORK!!!
As part of our expansion program, our company is looking for
part-time, work-from-home account managers and sales
representatives. It pays $2500 a month plus benefits and takes only
a little of your time. Please contact us for more details.
Requirements—Should be computer literate
Have 2-3 hours’ access to the internet weekly
Must be over 19 years of age
Must be efficient and dedicated.
If you are interested and need more information, contact Ralph
Cony at [email protected].
GRAPHIC DESIGNER/
LAYOUT ARTIST NEEDED
Immediate opening for experienced graphic designer/layout
artist proficient in QuarkXPress, PageMaker and Photoshop.
Qualified candidate would be responsible for the layout and design of the newspaper, arranging text, enhancing photos, etc.
Office is located in Alexandria, five blocks from Braddock
Metro Station. Salary is negotiable based on experience.
Please send resume with computer and publications experience
via fax to 703-739-1542, or e-mail to [email protected], or
mail to: The Metro Herald, Graphic Designer position, 901 N.
Washington St., Suite 603, Alexandria, VA 22314.
Subscribe to The Metro Herald!
THE METRO HERALD
23
July 18, 2008
24
THE METRO HERALD