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December 7, 2007 THE METRO HERALD NEWSPAPER The Metro Herald, a resource of Davis Communications Group, Inc., is published weekly. The Metro Herald is a member of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the Virginia Press Association, and the Newspaper Association of America. PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR/ MANAGING EDITOR Paris D. Davis ART DIRECTOR/WEBMASTER Glenda S. King EXECUTIVE MANAGER Gregory Roscoe, Jr. ASSISTANT TO THE EDITOR Daisy E. Cole SENIOR BUSINESS & SECURITY CORRESPONDENT Rodney S. Azama Regular subscription rate: $75/year for home delivery. Single issue price: $.75 For advertising information and rates, call (703) 548-8891, or visit www.MetroHerald.com. Copyright ©2007 by Davis Communications Group, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without prior written consent from the publisher. All unsolicited manuscripts should be accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. The Metro Herald is certified by the Maryland Department of Transportation. Its corporate headquarters is located at 901 North Washington Street, Suite 603, Alexandria, VA 22314. Davis Communications Group, Inc., is certified as a small and minority business. For additional information, call (703) 548-8891. Circulation: 42,000 copies per week Certified by Dasai Group, CPA To obtain a one-year subscription, please send a check or money order for $75 to: The Metro Herald 901 North Washington Street, Suite 603 Alexandria, VA 22314 Name: _________________________________ Address: _______________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ Phone (optional): ________________________ Editorial Istopped to buy gas, but the pumps were momentarily down. The guy in the next aisle just started talking. He said that America was really lucky in having Albert Einstein as one of its most celebrated citizens. He went on to say that Einstein was probably the smartest man, ever, in America. I countered by saying that the IQ of Willie Mays, the great centerfielder for the San Francisco Giants, or that of the great Celtic basketball center Bill Russell was comparable to Einstein’s in physics. Einstein, I went on to say, conducted all of his experiments from a stationary position, whereas both Mays and Russell changed the outcome of a game motion theory; that is, sizing up an opponent and altering his behavior to his advantage . . . using, I added, all of Einstein’s theory of relativity. He walked away, when he heard the pumps click back on, with a sort of wonderment on his face: It takes a while to see what’s always there . . . America is perhaps in the middle of its greatest identity crisis ever. We preach power but wear our insecurities in the things we say and the decisions we make. We have become so inward that we are almost looking backward. We have no friends to confide in overseas . . . we have become the eye in the storm . . . little motion on our part, while clouds gather and thunder and lightning persist. We have become a world of one while nations abroad try to hang on to what we say and do by their fingernails. Perhaps the reasoning for this is that at the departments of State, Defense, Agriculture, and Justice, and at the EPA, these agencies are building up their own personal fiefdoms with drawbridges. In the case of State and Justice, both have worldwide reach and are able to influence or change policy through their diplomatic pouches without the rest of us knowing: Pieces of who we are as a nation anchored to the drawbridges of our national pastime of politics . . . You have to wonder out loud why it is necessary to change policies when most were working just fine. Part of the answer is that Clinton was intellectually a very smart president. The world, for the most part, enjoyed and was engaged fully in his politics. The politics in South America is the spread to the butter that Clinton made. In Europe it was the in-youreye politics that did not require either side to blink. It was like Bill Russell altering a shot but not blocking it. Willie Mays could turn his back on a baseball hit to centerfield and make the catch—as he did in the 1954 World Series against the Cleveland Indian—while ignoring all odds. Politically up until this point America has not been willing to show such political skills. Africa loved him because he listened without being argumentative; in Israel and Palestine, he created a deal that neither should have refused. Somehow they locked themselves inside their minds. PDD 2 THE METRO HERALD
POTPOURRI December 7, 2007 In response to the Bush Administration’s plan to help families avoid foreclosure, tens of thousands of homeowners are refinancing their exotic subprime loans with HUD’s new government-backed mortgage product. HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson recently announced that more than 33,000 borrowers have already refinanced their subprime home loans with FHASecure, a government-insured foreclosure avoidance initiative created in September. An additional 20,000 are in the pipeline for approval this month, bringing the total to more than 53,000 in a four month period. “FHASecure is providing tens of thousands of families with a powerful incentive to obtain affordable and safe home loans,” Jackson said during his keynote address to the Office of Thrift Supervision’s National Housing Forum. “Homeowners finally have an opportunity to save their American Dream without risking their financial future, and they’re taking advantage of it everyday.” On August 31, 2007, President Bush announced the creation of FHASecure. TEN FINALIST MARCHING ENSEMBLES ANNOUNCED FOR 2008 HONDA BATTLE OF THE BANDS The curtain is all set to be raised once again for ten of America’s top Historically Black College and University (HBCU) marching bands, as the sixth annual Honda Battle of the Bands gets ready to roll into Atlanta’s Georgia Dome on January 26, 2008. At center stage will be each band, their superstar drum majors, sultry dance teams and, of course, synchronized drumlines. All will be moving together in unison as Honda’s sixth annual showcase prepares to bring down the house. The Honda Battle of the Bands Invitational Showcase continues to stand alone as “the Super Bowl for Black College Bands,” a singular showcase of ten Black college marching bands in one place, at one time. Now in its sixth year, the producers continue to keep it fresh by honoring a variety of music, marching and playing styles from various Historically Black College and University marching bands and incorporating themes that are relevant to the African American community. The 2008 Invitational Showcase has a bevy of surprises in store for fans of all ages. The 10 bands, nominated from a field of 42 participating HBCUs during the fall Celebration Tour, will tear the roof off of the Dome with all new routines, scintillating choreography and contemporary R&B, funk, Hip-Hop, classical and jazz music stylings. The lineup of colleges set to march at the Dome, in the largest and only national scholarship program showcasing the pageantry, heritage and showmanship of Black college bands for 2008 is: • Virginia State University and Shaw University, representing the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA); • Bethune-Cookman College and Norfolk State University, representing the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC); • Tuskegee University and Albany State University, representing the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC); • Texas Southern University and the University of Arkansas At Pine Bluff, representing the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC); and • North Carolina Central University and Winston-Salem State University, both independents. Estimates are that more than 2,000 BUSH ADMINISTRATION ’S FHASECURE PLAN HELPING TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FAMILIES KEEP THEIR HOMES HBCU student-musicians will be spotlighted in this unique show. Four firsttime bands are on tap to appear in the 2008 Invitational Showcase, they include: Shaw University Texas Southern, University of Arkansas At Pine Bluff and Winston-Salem State University. “Bringing the Honda Battle of the Bands to the big stage for the past five years has been our privilege,” said Marc Burt, Sr. manager, Office of Inclusion and Diversity for American Honda. “We’re proud to be associated with these students, with HBCUs, and with their music and academic programs.” HBCU commissioners, presidents, band directors and fans judged the 42 participating bands on showmanship, musicianship and fan interaction during the Celebration Tour, which took place during this fall’s college football season. School officials were not permitted to vote for their own school. As sponsor of the Honda Battle of the Bands, American Honda Motor Co. will award $142,000 in grants to the HBCU bands. All 42 institutions received a $1,000 grant for their performances during the Celebration Tour, while each of the 10 participating Invitational Showcase schools additionally will receive a $10,000 grant for their music programs’ scholarship funds. Fans, current HBCU students, alumni and administrators are rapidly reserving tickets to witness the unique facet of American culture found only in Black college music programs, and on display here like nowhere else. Tickets to the Honda Battle of the Bands are $10 for reserved seating, and can be purchased at Ticketmaster or via the Georgia Dome box-office. To learn more about the nation’s Black colleges, their music programs, scholarships and admissions requirements, interested high school students and their parents are invited to visit the Honda Battle Of the Bands recruitment fair. The recruitment fair will take place from 10:00a.m.–2:00p.m., the day of the event, at the Georgia World Congress Center. Honda’s long-term commitment to the HBCUs was first made more than 18 years ago when it established the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge, a program designed to showcase the academic gifts and prowess of HBCU students. For more information on the Honda Battle Of the Bands visit www.hondabattleofthebands.com. Backed by the government, FHASecure is enabling homeowners who have a history of on-time mortgage payments under their original interest rates, but missed payments after their rates reset, to refinance into FHA’s mortgage insurance program. Families with high-cost mortgages and mortgages that are due to reset, but are still current on their loan, also continue to refinance through FHASecure. This is a more viable option because FHA-backed loans are less likely to result in foreclosure. HUD’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is on target to insure over 240,000 FHASecure home loans in Fiscal Year 2008, nearly two and one-half times the number served in Fiscal Year 2007. Since the creation of FHASecure three months ago, FHA has received more than 113,000 refinance applications from families whose loans are current or past due. FHA refinancing has increased 125 percent over the past year, and is expected to increase further next year as more homeowners examine their mortgage options. FHASecure will save the average subprime homeowner Governor Timothy M. Kaine has announced Virginia’s largest wastewater treatment facilities and industries within the Chesapeake Bay watershed expect to meet their nutrient reduction goals by the end of 2010. Facilities will reduce the amount of nutrients in wastewater by participating in Virginia’s nutrient trading program and installing pollution control technology. Nutrient reduction goals will be met through a combination of aggressive state cost-share funding, innovative legislative tools and efficient local government planning. “This will be a huge step forward for Virginians and the Chesapeake Bay,” Governor Kaine said. “I am pleased that industry and state and local government officials have worked together to meet this important commitment. We have made a significant investment to protect the Bay, we have spent the money wisely and we are accomplishing what we set out to do.” The goal of nutrient reduction is to improve water quality to support plants and animals throughout the Bay and its tidal tributaries by meeting and maintaining water quality standards. This requires a combined effort to reduce point source—or discharge points from wastewater treatment plants and industry—and nonpoint sources of nutrients and sediment. Facilities will reduce the amount of nutrients in wastewater by participating in Virginia’s nutrient trading program. Nutrient trading allows for the transfer of “credits” among existing facilities to meet their required nutrient limits and is anticipated to save the Commonwealth and the localities up to $200 million. Trading will also reduce the costs of upgrading pollution control technology, which are estimated at about $1.4 billion to install by the end of 2010. Wastewater treatment plant improvements installed before 2011 are expected to reduce the annual amount of nutrients discharged by about 8 million pounds of nitrogen and 1 million pounds of phosphorus, as compared with 1998. about $400 a month, or $30,000 over the expected life of the loan. As a result of extensive nationwide consumer outreach, more subprime borrowers recognize they have a choice and are turning to FHA for assistance. FHA’s toll-free call center has received more than 137,000 calls over the past three months. Nearly 900 FHA-approved lenders around the country are participating in FHASecure by helping families refinance with home loans insured by FHA. “This is a decisive moment in the economic history of our country...We must turn the housing market around, and create greater stability and predictability...In the near future, homeownership should continue to be the bedrock of our economy, this time with affordable loans that won’t implode,” Jackson added. Jackson also said FHA could reach more borrowers who need safe and affordable financing alternatives if Congress approves bipartisan legislation to further modernize the 74- year old agency. HUD estimates 200,000 more first-time homebuyers and current homeowners who need ac- GOVERNOR KAINE ANNOUNCES PROGRESS IN BAY CLEANUP EFFORTS “The nutrient trading program is one of the most comprehensive efforts ever conducted in Virginia to reduce nutrient pollution,” Secretary of Natural Resources L. Preston Bryant Jr. said. “It also will strengthen an important partnership between wastewater facilities and agricultural producers that will lead to nutrient reductions from several sources.” “We recognize that meeting the 2010 deadline is a significant challenge,” Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Director David K. Paylor said. “The municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities have answered the call to reduce nutrient pollution in Virginia’s watersheds, and the result certainly will be a healthier Bay.” DEQ oversees point sources to ensure that wastewater treatment plants and industry meet specific limits on the amount of nutrients entering each Bay tributary, including reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the Bay watershed. DEQ expects that the scheduled deadline of December 31, 2010 will be met based on plans developed by these facilities. “The Chesapeake Bay Foundation applauds Governor Kaine and the General Assembly for their commitment and leadership in funding pollution reductions from local sewage treatment plants to meet 2010 Bay cleanup goals,” said Ann F. Jennings, Virginia Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “CBF looks forward to working with the Kaine administration and the legislature to continue this positive momentum to fully restore Virginia rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.” “The treatment facilities from local government and industry, as members of the Virginia Nutrient Credit Exchange Association, are showing their combined commitment to a cleaner Bay by joining in partnership and helping conserve state grant monies while improving water quality by making the needed plant improvement to remove nutrients. It’s been a real team effort, between the Virginia Association of Municipal Wastewater Agencies and DEQ,” said Mark Haley, President of cess to capital could obtain FHA-insured mortgages next year if Congress expedites passage of FHA reform legislation. Higher FHA loan limits and flexible downpayment requirements would help more subprime borrowers refinance, particularly in high-cost areas such as California and the Northeast United States. Expanded FHA activity will also stabilize local real estate markets by reducing foreclosures. “Each day of delay by the Congress unnecessarily places thousands of families at risk of foreclosure. These families are in danger of losing their homes. Think of what this means to them,” Jackson added. The House overwhelmingly approved The Expanding American Homeownership Act on September 18, 2007. The Senate Banking Committee approved similar legislation the following day. Yet, the full Senate has delayed passing this critical legislation. For more information about FHASecure or to find the nearest FHA approved lender, phone 1-800-CALL- FHA (225-5342) or visit www. FHA.gov. Tim Kaine (D) Governor of Virginia the Exchange Association and Director of the Hopewell Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility. In addition to nutrient trading, facilities will reduce the amount of nutrients in wastewater by installing pollution control technology. The Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund (WQIF) provides grants to assist localities with plant improvement construction costs. The Fund’s point source program has received a total of $380 million for grants since its inception in 1997, which includes about $205 million proposed by Governor Kaine and former Governor Mark R. Warner, and which the General Assembly supported, for wastewater treatment projects in the current biennium. The WQIF provides grants ranging from 35 percent to 75 percent, depending on need, for designing and installing nutrient reduction technology at publicly owned wastewater plants. The fund also will sell credits from nutrient reductions to facilities that cannot find trading partners. Lawmakers and Governor Kaine authorized issuance of an additional $250 million in bonds to support technology upgrades after July 1, 2008. In addition, the Virginia Resources Authority complemented these initiatives by issuing more than $240 million in bonds this year for upgrades to 10 facilities in the Bay watershed. THE METRO HERALD 3
Page 1: VOLUME XVI, NUMBER 49 IN THIS ISSUE
Page 5 and 6: AFRICA UPDATE December 7, 2007 ARMY
Page 7 and 8: AROUND THE REGION December 7, 2007
Page 9 and 10: CAPITAL COMMENTS December 7, 2007 C
Page 11 and 12: HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS 2007 December 7,
Page 13 and 14: EDUCATION December 7, 2007 MONTGOME
Page 15 and 16: HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS 2007 December 7,
Page 17 and 18: ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT December 7, 20
Page 19 and 20: SPORTS & RECREATION December 7, 200
Page 21 and 22: CLASSIFIED ADS/BIDS & PROPOSALS Dec
Page 23: December 7, 2007 24 THE METRO HERAL

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