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VOLUME XVII, NUMBER 24<br />

IN THIS ISSUE . . .<br />

COVER: HAPPY FATHER’S DAY <strong>2008</strong> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 12–14<br />

Africa Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3<br />

Around the Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4–5<br />

Capital Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6<br />

Around the Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7<br />

Health & Wellness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8–9<br />

Community News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10<br />

Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11<br />

Arts & Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15–18<br />

Business News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 23<br />

Sports & Recreation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20–21<br />

Classified Ads/Bids & Proposals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22–23<br />

Imaging the Politics, Culture, and Events of Our Times<br />

Fauquier<br />

County<br />

Carroll County<br />

Howard County<br />

Loudoun<br />

County<br />

Fairfax<br />

County<br />

Prince<br />

William<br />

County<br />

Arlington County<br />

Richmond<br />

Baltimore<br />

Montgomery<br />

County<br />

D.C.<br />

Alexandria<br />

Spotsylvania<br />

County<br />

Stafford<br />

County<br />

Fredericksburg<br />

Annapolis<br />

Anne<br />

Arundel County<br />

Prince George’s<br />

County<br />

Westmoreland<br />

County<br />

Charles<br />

County<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

HAPPY<br />

FATHER’S<br />

DAY<br />

<strong>2008</strong><br />

God took the strength of a mountain,<br />

<strong>The</strong> majesty of a tree,<br />

<strong>The</strong> warmth of a summer sun,<br />

<strong>The</strong> calm of a quiet sea,<br />

<strong>The</strong> generous soul of nature,<br />

<strong>The</strong> comforting arm of night,<br />

<strong>The</strong> wisdom of the ages,<br />

<strong>The</strong> power of the eagle's flight,<br />

<strong>The</strong> joy of a morning in spring,<br />

<strong>The</strong> faith of a mustard seed,<br />

<strong>The</strong> patience of eternity,<br />

<strong>The</strong> depth of a family need,<br />

<strong>The</strong>n God combined these qualities,<br />

And then there was nothing more to add,<br />

He knew His masterpiece was complete,<br />

And so, He called it—Dad.<br />

Author Unknown<br />

Father’s Day is a holi<strong>day</strong> to celebrate fatherhood and parenting by males. Father’s Day exists almost all over<br />

the world to honor and commemorate fathers or forefathers. It is celebrated at differing times through the year,<br />

in different countries. In the Roman Catholic tradition, Father’s Day is celebrated on Saint Joseph’s Day,<br />

March 19, though in most countries Father’s Day is a secular celebration.<br />

Countries that observe Father’s Day on the third Sun<strong>day</strong> of June include Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba,<br />

France, Hong Kong S.A.R., India, Pakistan, Ireland, Japan, Macao S.A.R., Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands,<br />

Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and<br />

Venezuela. Some of the countries with other celebration dates include Austria—second Sun<strong>day</strong> of June; Australia—first<br />

Sun<strong>day</strong> of September; Belgium—St Joseph’s <strong>day</strong> (March 19), and the second Sun<strong>day</strong> of June (Secular); Finland—<br />

second Sun<strong>day</strong> of November; New Zealand—first Sun<strong>day</strong> of September; South Korea: May 8 (Parents’ Day); and<br />

Taiwan—August 8.<br />

In the United States, the driving force behind the establishment of the celebration of Father’s Day was Mrs. Sonora<br />

Smart Dodd, born in Creston, Washington. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, as a single parent<br />

raised his six children in Spokane, Washington. She was inspired by Anna Jarvis’s efforts to establish Mother’s Day.<br />

Although she initially suggested June 5, the anniversary of her father’s death, she did not provide the organizers with<br />

enough time to make arrangements, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sun<strong>day</strong> of June. <strong>The</strong> first Father’s Day<br />

was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane.<br />

Unofficial support from such figures as William Jennings Bryan was immediate and widespread. President Woodrow<br />

Wilson was personally so feted by his family in 1916. President Calvin Coolidge recommended it as a national holi<strong>day</strong><br />

in 1924. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson made Father’s Day a holi<strong>day</strong> to be celebrated on the third Sun<strong>day</strong> of June.<br />

<strong>The</strong> holi<strong>day</strong> was not officially recognized until 1972, during the presidency of Richard Nixon. See page 12–13 for more<br />

area Father’s Day celebration information.<br />

Visit us on the web at www.metroherald.com


June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

THE<br />

METRO HERALD<br />

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Editorial<br />

Iremember as if it were yester<strong>day</strong>:<br />

everything left me—humans, dogs,<br />

and nature; the sun which had been<br />

smiling brightly over my<br />

neighborhood ducked behind a cloud<br />

mass for cover; the skin-cooling<br />

breeze that warm summer night, found a oneway<br />

freeway and jettisoned; my brothers and<br />

sisters protruded the arrogance of a Pontius<br />

Pilate just before washing his hands and<br />

seconds before he asked for a towel . . . even<br />

my dog abandoned me in my crisis.<br />

Sympathy was as rare as rubbing two<br />

rocks together and getting a stereo sound. My<br />

mother—my last court of appeals—dismissed<br />

my religion, my God, and my reminders to her<br />

that I was in her womb for almost nine full<br />

months and that she was the only mother that I<br />

had ever known . . . like the Supreme Court<br />

does without comment in letting a lower court<br />

ruling stand.<br />

As I contemplated my fate, an hour-and-a<br />

half before my dad would get home, I decided to<br />

kill all my brothers and sisters. I could beat<br />

them up and then commit suicide—and my<br />

family would be sorry, my surviving brothers<br />

and sisters and my mom (maybe) and my father,<br />

who now in just a little over an hour would be<br />

offering me a choice of imperceptibles; the belt,<br />

the switch, or his shaving strap . . . although he<br />

once asked me if I would rather have someone<br />

else spank me. My reply was my year-and-ahalf-old<br />

brother, who had problems just<br />

gripping a straw.<br />

With less than a half-hour before my dad<br />

would be home and no personal reply from<br />

God, I was really down on this particular <strong>day</strong>,<br />

bleak by definition.<br />

At about four minutes before my dad<br />

was due home, I thought that if he beat me like<br />

he did the last time, that I would go back into<br />

remission. I don’t think that would have<br />

bothered him since he didn’t know what it<br />

meant . . .<br />

Unconsciously, I was hoping that if not<br />

God, someone else—a lesser, nameless saint<br />

with power remitted on my behalf and possibly<br />

coming out of the pack, if not with a name,<br />

make a name for himself . . . at least a<br />

number—like “23” for Michael Jordan … or<br />

footwear—inscribed “on your side.” Of<br />

course, I had no such luck.<br />

My plan B was to greet my dad in the<br />

driveway and explain to him how I had<br />

accidentally burned my little sister’s hair and<br />

that even though her skin texture was grayishbrown,<br />

that was due entirely to dampness of the<br />

soil I buried her in, and if the weather turned<br />

sunny for the next few <strong>day</strong>s and if we hung her<br />

out to dry on the clothesline, she would be okay.<br />

If not, having a brownish-gray-skin-colored<br />

sister would be cute while she was small and a<br />

jump on her competition for a Fri<strong>day</strong> the<br />

Thirteenth horror movie when she became<br />

unrecognizable by the family as an adult.<br />

As for her hair—which caught fire while<br />

she was watching me trying to light a cigarette<br />

made out of dried corn silk—it would grow<br />

back. As I was striking the match to try and<br />

light that cigarette in the field behind our house<br />

at the exact moment of impact—the match<br />

head to the rock—my brother called my name.<br />

After answering him, I first smelled something<br />

burning like wool, and then I saw a ball of fire:<br />

large at first, then the size of the matchstick I<br />

had just struck. This fireball was shrilling like<br />

a meteorite crossing the galaxies.<br />

It wouldn’t have been that bad had not<br />

my neighbor, who had arthritis in her pitching<br />

elbow, tried to throw water on my sister but had<br />

her elbow to lock in the yaw position and was<br />

frozen in pain in the position of a sailor pitching<br />

water from a bucket; and our other neighbor<br />

was indecisive between calling nine-one-one<br />

and the fire department and finally ended up<br />

calling the Environmental Protection Agency.<br />

Luckily for my sister, she ran out of hair before<br />

breath and started yelling and pointing at me<br />

before my mom could ask her what happened.<br />

When my mom looked up, I had the<br />

lighted cigarette in my hand and immediately<br />

put it in my pocket. Within seconds I had<br />

vapors coming from me like gas fumes from a<br />

car tank on a hot <strong>day</strong>. Because of the humidity,<br />

the vapor hung over my head like a dark cloud.<br />

When I saw my dad, instead of asking<br />

him about his <strong>day</strong>, I blurted out that I was<br />

contemplating running away from home before<br />

he talked to Mom and suicide immediately<br />

afterwards . . . and especially before he could<br />

rationally narrow his options.<br />

As my dad kissed my mom hello, and as<br />

she whispered something in his ear—I noticed<br />

his knuckles were turning white—I felt<br />

betrayed and somewhat in harm’s way. When<br />

he turned and looked at me, I knew: one, my<br />

threats of suicide had not worked, and two, I<br />

needed more time to plan it.<br />

As my dad examined my sister, who had<br />

never stopped pointing when the fire<br />

department hosed her down nor when the<br />

police department asked, “Who could do this<br />

to a cute little girl like you”, to my dad, he<br />

asked: “Where is he”<br />

It never occurred to me until after my<br />

release from the hospital (only kidding) that it<br />

was Sun<strong>day</strong>—Father’s Day—and how blessed<br />

he was to have had me.<br />

PDD<br />

2 THE METRO HERALD


AFRICA UPDATE<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

ATTACK ON CAMEROON BORDER REGION<br />

<strong>The</strong> remote Bakassi peninsula has been<br />

the subject of a lengthy international<br />

dispute<br />

ACameroonian government official<br />

has been abducted and<br />

several policemen killed in an<br />

attack on a village in the border region<br />

of Bakassi.<br />

Unidentified gunmen killed at least<br />

three police officials in the attack, security<br />

sources told the BBC.<br />

<strong>The</strong> attack happened in the northern<br />

part of the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula,<br />

which Nigeria handed over to<br />

Cameroon in 2006. <strong>The</strong> rest of the area<br />

is due to be handed over in August.<br />

Meanwhile, a challenge to the ICJ<br />

decision brought in the Nigerian courts<br />

by Bakassi residents who wanted to remain<br />

in Nigeria was turned down.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Cameroonian deputy-governor<br />

of the region, Felix Morfan, was reportedly<br />

abducted by a group of armed<br />

men on Mon<strong>day</strong> night.<br />

<strong>The</strong> police had earlier arrested a<br />

number of people accused of being<br />

arms dealers, Cameroonian security<br />

sources told the BBC.<br />

Local journalists said the bodies of<br />

three policemen had been recovered.<br />

<strong>The</strong> BBC’s Randy Jo Sa’ah in the<br />

Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, says<br />

the attack has caught people by surprise.<br />

It comes at a time when the government<br />

has been vocal about peace in<br />

the region and development projects<br />

that have been supported by the European<br />

Union, he says.<br />

ANigerian former local government<br />

chairman from Bakassi, Emmanuel<br />

Etene, told the BBC that women and<br />

children were fleeing the area because<br />

they feared reprisal attacks.<br />

<strong>The</strong> northern part of the Bakassi<br />

peninsula was handed over to<br />

Cameroon following a ruling by the International<br />

Court of Justice in the<br />

Hague in 2006. But some residents<br />

have said they do not want to give up<br />

being Nigerian.<br />

PROBE INTO SUDAN’S PLANE INFERNO<br />

Plane on fire at Khartoum airport<br />

<strong>The</strong> authorities in Sudan have<br />

begun an investigation into the<br />

cause of a fire on an Airbus<br />

A310 airliner that killed at least 29<br />

people on Tues<strong>day</strong> night. Most of the<br />

214 on board escaped when the Sudan<br />

Airways plane burst into flames after<br />

landing in bad weather at Khartoum<br />

airport, officials say. Fourteen passengers<br />

are still missing - officials say<br />

they may have left the scene immediately<br />

after the crash. Witnesses say<br />

more bodies were removed from the<br />

charred plane on Wednes<strong>day</strong>.<br />

<strong>The</strong> plane landed in bad weather<br />

and witnesses say an engine then exploded.<br />

<strong>The</strong> fire quickly spread to the<br />

cockpit and forward fuselage as the<br />

passengers and crew made desperate<br />

efforts to escape down emergency<br />

slides.<br />

TV footage showed the wreckage at<br />

Khartoum airport consumed by flames<br />

as emergency crews tried to fight the<br />

fire in the darkness.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Sudan Airways flight had<br />

flown from Jordan’s capital, Amman,<br />

via Damascus and most of the passengers<br />

were Sudanese. One of the survivors,<br />

Hassan Jakuma, said his experience<br />

had strengthened his Muslim<br />

faith. “I went [to Amman] for medical<br />

treatment, and then this accident happened.<br />

What does that tell you” he<br />

asked. “It tells you that nothing can<br />

kill you, not illness, not an accident,<br />

not a burning plane, nothing can kill<br />

you until it is your time to go.<br />

Sudanese officials say the plane<br />

had tried to land at Khartoum earlier<br />

on Tues<strong>day</strong>, but was unable to do so<br />

because of a sandstorm and heavy rain,<br />

the BBC’s Amber Henshaw in Khartoum<br />

reports. <strong>The</strong> plane was diverted<br />

to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan. It<br />

later returned to Khartoum, landing at<br />

approximately 2000 (1700 GMT), the<br />

BBC correspondent says.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re are then conflicting reports<br />

about what exactly happened.<br />

A spokesman for Sudan Airways<br />

said poor weather had led to the accident.<br />

“We put the cause of the crash<br />

down to the bad weather conditions,<br />

and the plane sliding off the runway,”<br />

Jamal Osman said. “Thankfully, there<br />

was a fast response to the accident and<br />

to removing as many passengers as<br />

possible.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> Civil Aviation Authority says<br />

the plane was taxi-ing to its parking<br />

bay when a fire started in one of the engines.<br />

Some eyewitnesses say they<br />

had a bad landing and that the pilots<br />

had to brake hard. Experts believe this<br />

could have caused the cylinders to<br />

blow, sparking an explosion.<br />

<strong>The</strong> director of Khartoum’s airport,<br />

Yusuf Ibrahim, told Sudanese national<br />

television that the plane had landed<br />

“safely” and the pilots were in contact<br />

with the control tower about which<br />

gate to dock at when the fire occurred.<br />

“<strong>The</strong>re was an explosion in one of<br />

the engines and the plane caught fire,”<br />

Mr Ibrahim said.<br />

Abbas al-Fadini, a member of<br />

Sudan’s parliament who was on the<br />

plane, told al-Jazeera television that<br />

the fire started in the right engine before<br />

spreading throughout the plane.<br />

He said crew members had guided<br />

people towards the plane’s exits.<br />

Witnesses said they had seen some<br />

passengers escaping via emergency<br />

chutes after they deployed. “<strong>The</strong>re<br />

was this huge explosion,” one eye-witness<br />

told the BBC. “More than half the<br />

plane was engulfed in a ghastly fire. It<br />

was a horrendous sight.” “I saw a big<br />

fireball and then fast flames,” said another.<br />

Sudan Airways operates a fleet of<br />

Airbus A300 and A310 jets.<br />

Subscribe to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Herald</strong>!<br />

Kipkalya Kones, 56, was planning to<br />

campaign in by-elections<br />

DEATHS OVERSHADOW<br />

KENYA ELECTIONS<br />

Kenya is holding by-elections<br />

in five constituencies, less<br />

than six months after the<br />

country was gripped by violence following<br />

disputed polls.<br />

Two of the seats in question were<br />

held by MPs killed after December’s<br />

polls. But the voting will be overshadowed<br />

by the deaths of two government<br />

ministers in a plane crash on Tues<strong>day</strong>.<br />

Roads Minister Kipkalya Kones<br />

and Assistant Home Affairs Minister<br />

Lorna Laboso were on their way to assist<br />

with the by-elections.<br />

A pilot and a security guard were<br />

also killed when the Cessna plane the<br />

ministers were flying in crashed near<br />

the western town of Narok, Kenyan<br />

police told the BBC.<br />

<strong>The</strong> BBC’s Kevin Mwachiro in Embakasi<br />

says there was a low turn-out in<br />

the morning, although by-elections typically<br />

do not attract high numbers of<br />

voters. He says Electoral Commission<br />

of Kenya officials were hopeful that<br />

turn-out would improve later.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re are fears that the underlying<br />

tensions that sparked clashes after the<br />

polls have still not been resolved and<br />

Opposition leader Morgan<br />

Tsvangirai says Zimbabwe “is<br />

effectively being run by a military<br />

junta”. He said 66 opposition<br />

supporters had been killed in political<br />

violence since March’s disputed presidential<br />

elections and 200 more were<br />

unaccounted for.<br />

Mr. Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic<br />

Change says he beat President<br />

Robert Mugabe outright. Officials<br />

say there must be a run-off on 27 June.<br />

Mr. Tsvangirai said he would not<br />

<strong>The</strong> president of Uganda says he<br />

is “very <strong>happy</strong>” about the food<br />

crisis. “Why Because we produce<br />

a lot of food . . . We are stuck with<br />

food,” President Yoweri Museveni told<br />

Commonwealth heads of government.<br />

<strong>The</strong> president hopes the food crisis<br />

will prompt the removal of trade barriers,<br />

allowing countries like Uganda to<br />

profit from food surpluses. A BBC correspondent<br />

says most benefits are<br />

going to large, commercial farms,<br />

while poor Ugandans are suffering.<br />

could resurface, the BBC’s Karen<br />

Allen in Nairobi says.<br />

Kenya’s grand coalition government—which<br />

has set up a number of<br />

commissions to investigate the violence—has<br />

been looking decidedly<br />

fragile, the BBC correspondent says.<br />

<strong>The</strong> results could also upset the delicate<br />

balance of power in parliament.<br />

Should the Orange Democratic Movement<br />

lose its majority in parliament,<br />

party leader Raila Odinga’s position as<br />

prime minister in the coalition government<br />

could be uncertain.<br />

<strong>The</strong> ODM will hope to retain the<br />

seats of Embakasi in Nairobi, as well<br />

as Ainamoi and Emuhaya in the Rift<br />

Valley, scene of the worst violence earlier<br />

this year. But President Mwai<br />

Kibaki’s Party of National Unity is<br />

putting up a spirited fight.<br />

“<strong>The</strong> numbers are very tight in terms<br />

of who controls parliament. With the<br />

death of the minister and the assistant<br />

minister now the ODM has 100 MPs<br />

and the PNU coalition has 102 MPs,”<br />

says analyst Kwamchetsi Makokha.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re have also been reports of hate<br />

leaflets being circulated in the Kilgoris<br />

constituency, raising the specter of ethnic<br />

violence, which was blamed for<br />

some of the post-poll violence.<br />

Supporters of President Kibaki and<br />

Mr. Odinga have locked horns over<br />

several key areas, including whether<br />

those held after the elections should be<br />

given amnesty or be subject to the full<br />

force of the law.<br />

More than 1,000 people were killed<br />

and some 300,000 displaced after the<br />

polls.<br />

ZIMBABWE RUN BY MILITARY JUNTA<br />

accept a victory for Mr. Mugabe in the<br />

run-off.<br />

BBC Southern Africa correspondent<br />

Peter Biles says this is not the first<br />

time Mr. Tsvangirai has claimed that<br />

Mr. Mugabe’s security officials are in<br />

charge. Mr. Tsvangirai has alleged that<br />

Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri<br />

is responsible for favoring the ruling<br />

Zanu-PF party in creating a partisan<br />

culture of policing.<br />

Mr. Tsvangirai said the MDC was<br />

sure to win the run-off vote and dispelled<br />

UGANDA “HAPPY” ABOUT FOOD CRISIS<br />

I think out of all these hiccups we may get<br />

a more rationalized interaction . . . by<br />

removing trade barriers, by removing<br />

subsidies—President Museveni<br />

<strong>The</strong> BBC’s Sarah Grainger in<br />

Uganda says most of the population are<br />

subsistence farmers, who do not export<br />

their crops but are affected by the rising<br />

cost of fuel and other inputs. But overall<br />

food production has risen in recent<br />

years. Uganda’s growth rate is expected<br />

to reach 8.9% later on this year, up from<br />

6.5% last year, partly due to debt relief.<br />

“Our problem has been marketing...<br />

We produce 10 million metric tones of<br />

bananas and 40% of it rots because we<br />

have nowhere to sell it,” President Museveni<br />

told delegates.<br />

President Museveni said milk production<br />

had risen so rapidly, it had<br />

been poured away.<br />

That was until Uganda set up a recent<br />

agreement with an Indian processor<br />

plant: excess milk is now being<br />

shipped to India. And he thinks<br />

Uganda can continue turning the food<br />

crisis to its advantage:<br />

“I think out of all these hiccups we<br />

may get a more rationalized interaction<br />

in terms of the use of our resources,<br />

through trade, by removing trade barriers,<br />

by removing subsidies,” he said.<br />

TOP SOMALI AID<br />

WORKER KILLED<br />

Aprominent Somali aid worker<br />

has been shot dead in the capital,<br />

Mogadishu just <strong>day</strong>s after<br />

a ceasefire agreement was signed. <strong>The</strong><br />

head of the local Woman and Child<br />

Care aid agency, Mohamed Mahdi,<br />

was killed by unidentified gunmen.<br />

<strong>The</strong>y opened fire on his car, as he was<br />

traveling through Mogadishu.<br />

In a separate incident, five people<br />

were shot dead when gunmen carried<br />

out a hit-and-run attack on a police station<br />

in the city. On Tues<strong>day</strong>, Somali Islamist<br />

leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir<br />

Aweys rejected the UN-brokered,<br />

three-month ceasefire deal signed by<br />

Somalia’s government and an opposition<br />

bloc in neighboring Djibouti. He<br />

promised to continue fighting until all<br />

foreign troops had left the country.<br />

<strong>The</strong> peace deal was signed by another<br />

top Islamist leader, Sheikh Sharif<br />

Sheikh Ahmed, and Prime Minister Nur<br />

Adde. Aimed at ending years of conflict,<br />

the deal provides for Ethiopian troops to<br />

leave Somalia within 120 <strong>day</strong>s. But the<br />

deal did not include many of the armed<br />

Somali groups fighting the transitional<br />

government and its Ethiopian backers.<br />

Correspondents say they were not<br />

surprised by these latest killings. At<br />

least 28 people died in clashes between<br />

Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian<br />

troops backing the Somali government<br />

over the weekend.<br />

On Satur<strong>day</strong>, BBC Somali service<br />

reporter Nasteh Dahir was killed by<br />

suspected Islamist militants in the<br />

southern port of Kismayo. Somalia has<br />

experienced almost constant civil conflict<br />

since the collapse of Mohamed<br />

Siad Barre’s regime in January 1991.<br />

Morgan Tsvangirai<br />

rumors of discussions about a possible<br />

unity government with Zanu-PF.<br />

“<strong>The</strong> MDC is focused on the runoff,<br />

our victory is certain,” the party<br />

leader told a news conference in the<br />

capital Harare. Mugabe will lose. It’s<br />

just a formality to go and campaign,<br />

the people have already decided.”<br />

He added that “the issue of a government<br />

of national unity before the<br />

run-off does not arise”. He was referring<br />

to comments made earlier by the<br />

defeated third presidential candidate,<br />

Simba Makoni, who said supporters of<br />

Mr. Tsvangirai and Mr. Mugabe were<br />

in contact to try to resolve the crisis.<br />

Mr. Tsvangirai said a total of 3,000<br />

MDC supporters had required hospital<br />

treatment through state-sponsored violence,<br />

with 25,000 displaced.<br />

<strong>The</strong> New York-based Human<br />

Rights Watch organization said on<br />

Mon<strong>day</strong> that free elections were not<br />

possible because of the Zanu-PF-organized<br />

violence.<br />

Mr. Mugabe blames his rivals for<br />

the bloodshed. <strong>The</strong> government has<br />

said those suspected of violence will<br />

now be refused bail.<br />

Visit us on the web at<br />

www.metroherald.com<br />

THE METRO HERALD 3


AROUND THE REGION<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

FAIRFAX COUNTY<br />

PUBLIC LIBRARY<br />

RECEIVES GRANT<br />

Chantilly Regional Library,<br />

a branch of the Fairfax<br />

County Public Library, is<br />

one of 34 libraries nationwide that<br />

has received “<strong>The</strong> American<br />

Dream Starts @ your library” grant<br />

to help increase literacy services to<br />

adult English language learners.<br />

Each of the winning libraries receive<br />

a one-time award of $5,000.<br />

<strong>The</strong> grants are funded by the Dollar<br />

General Literacy Foundation<br />

and implemented by the American<br />

Library Association (ALA).<br />

Chantilly Regional Library will<br />

use the grant to provide books,<br />

workbooks and materials for students<br />

in its Tues<strong>day</strong> morning conversations<br />

for recent immigrants to<br />

the U.S. <strong>The</strong> Tues<strong>day</strong> morning<br />

program is designed to ease their<br />

transition to the U.S. and help them<br />

develop their language skills and<br />

understanding of American culture.<br />

Currently 15-18 adults participate.<br />

“<strong>The</strong>se non-traditional students<br />

are so eager to learn and are extremely<br />

appreciative of the opportunity<br />

this class affords them,” says<br />

Jaye Lahlou, Adult Services Librarian<br />

for Chantilly Library. “<strong>The</strong> library<br />

is now a place where they meet<br />

to learn, share and feel respected in<br />

their community. It has been a privilege<br />

to be a part of this process.”<br />

Public libraries have long been<br />

a cornerstone of the American<br />

dream, providing equal access to<br />

information. It is one of the first<br />

places to which many immigrants<br />

turn for help in learning to read,<br />

write and speak English.<br />

“As a longtime supporter of literacy<br />

and education, the Dollar<br />

General Literacy Foundation is<br />

proud to fund the ‘American<br />

Dream’ grant initiative,” said Rick<br />

Dreiling, Dollar General’s CEO.<br />

“Public libraries are in a unique position<br />

to directly reach immigrants<br />

and help them assimilate into a new<br />

community. <strong>The</strong>se grants will enable<br />

local libraries to provide the<br />

English language literacy services<br />

most needed in their area.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> National Assessment of<br />

Adult Literacy (NAAL) recently<br />

found that 11 million U.S. adults or<br />

approximately one in 20, many of<br />

whom are immigrants, have such<br />

limited English skills that they<br />

can’t read a newspaper, understand<br />

the directions for medication or<br />

help their children with schoolwork.<br />

“<strong>The</strong> American Dream<br />

Starts @ your library” grant was<br />

founded by the Dollar General Literacy<br />

Foundation and ALA to meet<br />

the growing demand for English<br />

language literacy services.<br />

A complete list of the winning<br />

libraries is available at www.<br />

ala.org.<br />

Archive issues<br />

are available at<br />

www.metroherald.com!<br />

LEGGETT HIGHLIGHTS<br />

DISABILITY HIRING PROGRAM<br />

Montgomery County Executive<br />

Isiah Leggett has praised the<br />

County’s Office of Legislative<br />

Oversight (OLO) report on County<br />

Government Hiring of Persons with Disabilities,<br />

and highlighted a unique public<br />

internship program designed to create<br />

flexible work opportunities in County<br />

government for individuals with significant<br />

disabilities. Challenged to help alleviate<br />

the high unemployment rate of<br />

people with disabilities, this program is<br />

at the leading edge of what other County<br />

and State agencies are doing to provide<br />

work opportunities for people with disabilities.<br />

Since October 2007, the program<br />

has created nearly two dozen parttime<br />

jobs in County departments.<br />

“We commend OLO for their thorough<br />

review of the County government’s<br />

practices regarding the hiring of<br />

persons with disabilities,” Leggett<br />

said. “<strong>The</strong> recommendations are useful<br />

and we look forward to more discussion<br />

of the findings and recommendations<br />

at an upcoming Council session.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> County Customized Employment<br />

Program is administered through<br />

the Montgomery Works One Stop<br />

Workforce Center. An employment<br />

specialist meets with County department<br />

managers to prepare a list of tasks to be<br />

created for a specific job. <strong>The</strong> job tasks<br />

are advertised via emails to community<br />

support organizations and a variety of<br />

interview methods, including work trials,<br />

are used to find the best candidate<br />

for the position. <strong>The</strong> career specialist<br />

works in coordination with the Department<br />

and the County’s Office of Human<br />

Many battles have been fought<br />

over the centuries, but none<br />

more delicious than the one<br />

now simmering just below Capital Hill<br />

in Washington. <strong>The</strong> BBQ sauce will be at<br />

full boil the first weekend of summer,<br />

June 21st and 22nd, <strong>2008</strong>, when the<br />

Safeway Barbecue Battle transforms historic<br />

Pennsylvania Avenue into a colossal<br />

arena of food, music, interactive exhibits,<br />

cooking demonstrations, and<br />

sensory pleasures fit for an Emperor!<br />

<strong>The</strong> Barbecue Battle is not only a<br />

Washington tradition, but one of the<br />

world’s largest contests of its kind, challenging<br />

local, regional, national and international<br />

barbecue enthusiasts to battle<br />

or behold the National Barbecue<br />

Championship contest. Both locals<br />

and visitors can follow the savory smell<br />

of barbecue downtown to enjoy a weekend<br />

of free food samples in the Safeway<br />

Sampling Pavilion, celebrity chefs, and<br />

on-going cooking demonstrations on<br />

multiple stages. Top barbecue restaurants<br />

and caterers from across the country<br />

will offer every type of lip-smacking,<br />

multi-napkin barbecue, while 30<br />

Ike Leggitt<br />

Resources to complete the hiring<br />

process. <strong>The</strong> career specialist coordinates<br />

initial on-the-job training, as well<br />

as any necessary accommodations and<br />

job coaching. Ongoing job coaching<br />

and support, when needed, is provided<br />

by community support organizations.<br />

Follow up is provided throughout the internship<br />

to ensure success.<br />

Total fiscal year <strong>2008</strong> funding for<br />

the project is $150,000, of which<br />

$50,000 is used for job identification,<br />

matching tasks to individual interns<br />

and coordinating the overall effort<br />

through a contract with TransCen, Inc.<br />

Interns work between one and 18 hours<br />

per week, with the number of hours determined<br />

by the needs of the department<br />

and the abilities and interests of<br />

each applicant. Interns are paid $7.20<br />

per hour and do not accrue leave or receive<br />

health benefits. <strong>The</strong> project is<br />

overseen by the County’s Department<br />

of Health and Human Services. <strong>The</strong><br />

goal is to provide interns with an opportunity<br />

to learn and refine skills so<br />

that they can compete for merit positions<br />

within the County and elsewhere.<br />

Subscribe to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Herald</strong>!<br />

RIDE ON TO CELEBRATE<br />

NATIONAL “DUMP THE PUMP” DAY<br />

To promote awareness of the<br />

role public transportation plays<br />

in improving the environment<br />

and conserving fuel, Ride On will observe<br />

National “Dump the Pump” Day<br />

on Thurs<strong>day</strong>, June 19 by promoting<br />

Ride On and transit use.<br />

“More than 28 million Ride On bus<br />

passengers last year got the message<br />

that Ride On is a great way to save gas<br />

and reduce the stress of commuting,”<br />

said Montgomery County Executive<br />

Isiah Leggett. “And, with Ride On’s<br />

SAFEWAY’S 16TH ANNUAL NATIONAL<br />

CAPITAL BARBECUE BATTLE<br />

VIRGINIA LAUNCHES<br />

CLICK IT OR TICKET<br />

In an effort to save more lives on Virginia’s roadways, the Department<br />

of Motor Vehicles’ (DMV) Virginia Highway Safety Office is partnering<br />

with law enforcement across Virginia and the nation to increase seat<br />

belt and child safety seat use with the Click It or Ticket enforcement mobilization.<br />

According to preliminary numbers from the Highway Safety Office,<br />

1,026 people died on Virginia roads in 2007, and 749 of those deaths occurred<br />

in vehicles equipped with safety restraints. Sixty percent (452) of the<br />

749 people who died were not wearing restraints.<br />

“Virginia experienced the highest number of roadway fatalities in a<br />

decade in 2007, and far too many of these tragedies were due to someone<br />

not buckling up,” said D. B. Smit, Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner,<br />

the Governor’s highway safety representative. “Clearly, this needs to<br />

change, and that is why we are joining with law enforcement to enforce all<br />

traffic laws so that needless deaths will be prevented.”<br />

“<strong>The</strong> goal for seat belt use in Virginia for <strong>2008</strong> is 82 percent, which will<br />

require all of us to remember to buckle up. If you don’t, our law enforcement<br />

community will be out in force to remind you,” Smit said. “Virginians<br />

are known for taking a challenge and exceeding expectations. I challenge<br />

everyone in Virginia to make the commitment to this goal that will reduce<br />

the number of fatalities on our roads.”<br />

In Virginia, law enforcement can cite drivers of vehicles where occupants<br />

under age 16 are not wearing seat belts or are not properly restrained in a child<br />

safety seat. Drivers stopped for other violations can be cited if they are not<br />

buckled up. This law also applies to all front seat passengers 16 years and older.<br />

fantastic rock, R&B, jazz, and blues<br />

bands perform on three state-of-the-art<br />

stages. This year’s musical entertainment<br />

includes rock icon Leon Russell,<br />

popular jazz star Roy Ayers, Washington’s<br />

own “Godfather of Go-Go” Chuck<br />

Brown, boogie-woogie master Deanna<br />

Bogart, and young rockers Fools &<br />

Horses and Jimmies Chicken Shack.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Battle also hosts scores of thrilling<br />

interactive exhibits like the NBA Nation<br />

Basketball Tour and Disney premiere<br />

movie tours, along with magicians,<br />

games and surprises to round out the<br />

family fun. <strong>The</strong>re’s so much to eat, see<br />

and do at the Battle you’ll need two<br />

<strong>day</strong>s to experience it all!<br />

For the first time ever this year, the<br />

nation’s two largest competition barbecue<br />

organizations-<strong>The</strong> Kansas City<br />

Barbecue Society (KCBS) and the<br />

Memphis in May world barbecue contest<br />

(MIM)—will pit teams against<br />

each other to vie for the title of National<br />

Barbecue Champion. Tens of<br />

thousands of cheering spectators will<br />

watch the Nation’s bravest and best<br />

barbecue battalions battle for over<br />

$40,000 in cash and prizes. Safeway’s<br />

“duel” sanctioned clash of the smokers<br />

will pit northern and southern camps<br />

against each other right on our country’s<br />

historic Mason-Dixon Line.<br />

On Satur<strong>day</strong>, June 21, teams will<br />

cook in the KCBS Barbecue Challenge<br />

Contest. Categories include beef<br />

brisket, chicken, and pork, with a special<br />

prize going to the “Rancher’s Reserve<br />

Beef Champion.” Satur<strong>day</strong>’s<br />

winner will also receive guaranteed<br />

entry into the prestigious American<br />

Royal BBQ Contest in Kansas City,<br />

Missouri. On Sun<strong>day</strong>, June 22, contestants<br />

in the pork-centric Memphis in<br />

May world barbecue contest will be<br />

chomping at the smoker to compete in<br />

pork shoulder, rib, and whole hog categories<br />

for the enviable title of “National<br />

Pork Champion.” <strong>The</strong> winner<br />

of this contest will be awarded entry<br />

into the 2009 Memphis in May World<br />

Barbecue Championship, the pinnacle<br />

of the competition pork-cooking<br />

world. Past Safeway Barbecue Battle<br />

teams have traveled from as many as<br />

twenty-nine states to compete for the<br />

National Pork Champion title.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Safeway Barbecue Battle has<br />

been voted a “Top 10 BBQ Event” by<br />

<strong>The</strong> Travel Channel and Discovery.<br />

com and has been featured on broadcasts<br />

all over the world. <strong>The</strong> Battle is<br />

the largest annual fundraiser for the<br />

Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington<br />

<strong>Metro</strong>politan Police Clubhouses,<br />

and has raised almost a million<br />

dollars for this vital organization.<br />

Event tickets are only $10/adults,<br />

$5/kids 6-12, and free for children under<br />

6. Admission includes a donation to the<br />

Boys & Girls Clubs, lots of free food<br />

samples, all the great live music, six<br />

cooking stages, celebrity chefs and other<br />

fun family entertainment. Visit www.<br />

bbqdc.com for more details or call the<br />

event info line at (202)828-3099.<br />

commitment to environmentally<br />

friendly buses, passengers are thinking<br />

globally and acting locally by helping<br />

reduce greenhouse gas emissions that<br />

contribute to global warming.”<br />

Nearly one-third of Ride On’s fleet<br />

of buses is environmentally-friendly,<br />

running on compressed natural gas or<br />

using hybrid diesel-electric technology.<br />

<strong>The</strong> County has been aggressively acquiring<br />

a multi-technology fleet of alternative-fueled<br />

vehicles so it can benefit<br />

from expected improvements in operations,<br />

costs, and environmental impacts<br />

as different technologies evolve.<br />

<strong>The</strong> celebration is sponsored by the<br />

American Public Transportation Association<br />

(APTA). According to APTA,<br />

American public transportation systems<br />

help to create a healthier environment<br />

by reducing smog-producing pollutants<br />

and greenhouse gases. Public transportation<br />

produces nearly 50 percent<br />

less carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide<br />

per passenger mile, compared to private<br />

vehicles, and saves 1.4 billion gallons<br />

of gasoline every year—the equivalent<br />

of 108 million cars filling up in a year.<br />

So far this summer, the Washington<br />

D.C. region has had two Code Orange<br />

and two Code Red Air Quality Action<br />

Day alerts when regional ozone levels<br />

were expected to exceed Federal air<br />

quality standards. Cars account for 30 to<br />

40 percent of the pollutants that cause<br />

ozone in the Baltimore/Washington<br />

area. Residents can reduce this impact<br />

on air quality by carpooling, telecommuting,<br />

or taking mass transit to work.<br />

Ground-level ozone is an air pollutant<br />

that damages human health, vegetation,<br />

and many common materials<br />

and is the key ingredient of urban<br />

smog. Repeated exposure to groundlevel<br />

ozone may cause permanent<br />

damage to the lungs. Inhaling ozone<br />

may trigger a variety of health problems<br />

including chest pains, coughing,<br />

nausea, throat irritation, and congestion.<br />

It can also aggravate bronchitis,<br />

heart disease, emphysema, and asthma,<br />

and reduce lung capacity.<br />

For more information about<br />

Ride On bus routes, visit www.<br />

montgomerycountymd.gov/RideOn,<br />

or call 240-777-RIDE (7433).<br />

4 THE METRO HERALD


AROUND THE REGION<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

METRO URGES BUS RIDERS TO SWITCH<br />

FROM CASH TO SMARTRIP®<br />

<strong>Metro</strong> wants more people to<br />

pay for their bus trips with<br />

SmarTrip® and has<br />

launched an advertising campaign<br />

that reminds passengers that paying<br />

their <strong>Metro</strong>bus fares with SmarTrip®<br />

saves 10¢ a ride, eliminates the search<br />

through purses and pockets for exact<br />

change and cuts boarding times on<br />

buses.<br />

“Join the Revolution,” one ad says.<br />

“Get to your seats faster. Be on your<br />

way sooner. Save 10¢ every time you<br />

ride <strong>Metro</strong>bus.” <strong>The</strong> advertisements<br />

aim to heighten bus riders’ awareness<br />

about SmarTrip®, tout the benefits of<br />

SmarTrip® and increase usage of the<br />

plastic, rechargeable farecard on<br />

<strong>Metro</strong>buses to speed the boarding<br />

process.<br />

<strong>The</strong> ad campaign includes three<br />

creative executions in both English<br />

and Spanish. <strong>The</strong>y are appearing on<br />

the exteriors and interiors of buses,<br />

bus stop information cases and<br />

<strong>Metro</strong>rail stations. In addition, radio<br />

ads in English and Spanish will run<br />

through the end of the month.<br />

To get information to passengers<br />

as they wait for buses, “SmarTrip®<br />

Street Teams” are targeting busy bus<br />

stops in Maryland, Virginia and the<br />

District of Columbia through June<br />

12, and handing out SmarTrip®<br />

brochures and a limited quantity of<br />

mints in a SmarTrip® tin.<br />

When <strong>Metro</strong> raised fares in January,<br />

the cost of bus fares paid by cash<br />

increased 10¢ to $1.35, but riders<br />

using SmarTrip® paid the same<br />

$1.25 fare. In addition, as part of the<br />

fare increase package approved by<br />

<strong>Metro</strong>’s Board of Directors last year,<br />

<strong>Metro</strong>bus plans to eliminate paper<br />

transfers in January 2009. Only riders<br />

who pay with SmarTrip® will be<br />

able to transfer from one <strong>Metro</strong>bus to<br />

another for free beginning next year.<br />

Currently, about 25 percent of<br />

trips on <strong>Metro</strong>bus and 65 percent of<br />

trips on <strong>Metro</strong>rail are made by customers<br />

using SmarTrip® cards.<br />

<strong>Metro</strong> first introduced the SmarTrip®<br />

card in 1999 as a fast and convenient<br />

way to pay for <strong>Metro</strong>rail fares. In<br />

2004, all <strong>Metro</strong>buses accepted Smar-<br />

Trip® as a form of payment.<br />

In addition to <strong>Metro</strong>rail and<br />

<strong>Metro</strong>bus, passengers can use Smar-<br />

Trip® to pay for travel on regional<br />

bus systems including ART, CUE,<br />

DASH, Ride On, Fairfax Connector,<br />

Loudoun County Transit, PRTC and<br />

the DC-Circulator, and for parking at<br />

<strong>Metro</strong> parking facilities. SmarTrip®<br />

can be purchased on <strong>Metro</strong>’s Web<br />

site, at <strong>Metro</strong> sales offices at <strong>Metro</strong><br />

Center, the Pentagon and <strong>Metro</strong><br />

headquarters, at the<br />

Northern, Western, Landover,<br />

Royal Street and Four Mile Run<br />

<strong>Metro</strong>bus divisions, from vending<br />

machines at <strong>Metro</strong>rail stations that<br />

have parking facilities, at regional<br />

transit stores and at select Giant<br />

stores.<br />

VIRGINIA AUTHOR RELEASES LATEST IN<br />

“POSSUM” CHILDREN SERIES<br />

Virginia author Jamey M. Long<br />

returns to the literary scene<br />

after previously releasing several<br />

books in the “Possum” series.<br />

Three new children’s books, all published<br />

by Tate Publishing & Enterprises,<br />

release nationwide this week.<br />

“A Possum’s Night on the Titanic”<br />

was written to help children discover<br />

the history and importance of the Titanic’s<br />

maiden voyage to New York<br />

during the night of April 14, 1912. A curious<br />

possum named Opie learns all<br />

about the “ship of dreams” as he explores<br />

the Titanic and meets some of the<br />

most famous people on board the ship.<br />

In “A Possum’s Pot of Gold,” Opie<br />

the possum chases a rainbow in search<br />

of the pot of gold and meets a mischievous<br />

leprechaun who teaches him<br />

truths that are much more valuable<br />

than any monetary gain. Opie learns<br />

the love, fun and trickery that the annual<br />

celebration can bring.<br />

“A Possum’s Happy Halloween”<br />

follows Opie as he bobs for apples<br />

with the boy and his friends, goes<br />

Trick-Or-Treating through the neighborhood<br />

and eats lots of candy on Halloween<br />

night.<br />

Long says his passion is to help<br />

children learn so their dreams can be<br />

made possible.<br />

<strong>The</strong> books are available at any<br />

bookstore nationwide or can be ordered<br />

through the publisher at orders@<br />

tatepublishing.com, or by visiting barnesandnoble.com,<br />

amazon.com or target.com.<br />

Tate Publishing also offers<br />

the eLIVE feature for these titles,<br />

meaning each printed copy contains a<br />

code to redeem a free audio download<br />

from their website, TatePublishing.<br />

com. eLIVE—Listen, Imagine, View,<br />

Entertain.<br />

Long is the author of A Possum’s<br />

Christmas Tale, A Possum’s Happy<br />

Easter, A Possum’s Happy Thanksgiving,<br />

A Possum’s Pot of Gold, A Possum’s<br />

Happy Halloween, and A Possum’s<br />

Happy Valentine’s Day. He<br />

earned a bachelor’s degree from George<br />

Mason University, an MBA from the<br />

University of Mary Washington and is<br />

currently employed at the University of<br />

Mary Washington, George Mason University<br />

and Northern Virginia Community<br />

College as an operations manager<br />

and adjunct instructor.<br />

DRIVER’S LICENSES ISSUED BEGINNING JULY 1 VALID FOR<br />

EIGHT YEARS COST REMAINS SAME, $4 PER YEAR<br />

Starting July 1, <strong>2008</strong>, driver’s licenses<br />

issued by the Virginia<br />

Department of Motor Vehicles<br />

(DMV) will be valid for eight years<br />

instead of five. However, the validity<br />

period for identification cards will remain<br />

the same, five years. <strong>The</strong> cost of<br />

a driver’s license, $4 per year, will<br />

not change. An eight-year driver’s license<br />

renewal will cost $32.<br />

“Reducing the frequency of customer<br />

visits to DMV is the goal of<br />

this new law that is cost-effective for<br />

both customers and Virginia,” said<br />

DMV Commissioner D.B. Smit. “<strong>The</strong><br />

legislation will lower DMV’s operational<br />

costs and produce a future savings<br />

for taxpayers.”<br />

Instead of visiting a DMV customer<br />

service center (CSC), eligible<br />

customers may renew driver’s licenses<br />

through the Internet (www.<br />

dmvNOW. com), telephone (1-888-<br />

Just as the official start of hurricane<br />

season began on Sun<strong>day</strong> the<br />

Montgomery County Department<br />

of Parks announced the completion of<br />

construction on the Lake Needwood<br />

Dam in Rock Creek Regional Park.<br />

“We are <strong>happy</strong> to welcome trail users<br />

back to the park this summer now that<br />

construction on the dam is complete,”<br />

said Department of Parks Rock Creek<br />

Regional Park Manager Jim Humerick.<br />

A portion of the park’s Westside<br />

Trail has been closed since last March<br />

as the Department of Parks began the<br />

first phase of the remedial measures<br />

program initiated for the dam following<br />

the significant storms of June 2006,<br />

which included having a specialty contractor<br />

install a grout curtain below the<br />

Fairfax County officials announced<br />

that the Burke VRE<br />

parking garage opened recently,<br />

offering 1,292 spaces for commuters.<br />

<strong>The</strong>se are helpful hints for using the<br />

new garage:<br />

• <strong>The</strong> entrance is at the east end of<br />

the building, with the exit at the<br />

west end.<br />

• <strong>The</strong> station platform can be accessed<br />

through the garage’s second<br />

level.<br />

• Spaces for people with disabilities<br />

are on the first and second levels.<br />

Although the garage is now open,<br />

construction will continue on the two<br />

parking lots outside that will offer an<br />

additional 300 spaces. New sidewalks<br />

are still being installed, and the “kiss<br />

and ride” drop-off area is also under<br />

construction.<br />

Fri<strong>day</strong>, June 13, will be the last<br />

<strong>day</strong> of service for Fairfax County’s<br />

free shuttle bus service between the<br />

VRE station and the Burke Centre<br />

Library and Saint Mary’s Church.<br />

<strong>The</strong>se two sites provided commuters<br />

with additional parking while the<br />

garage was under construction.<br />

However, EZ Bus will continue to<br />

operate its north and south routes to the<br />

Burke Centre station. <strong>The</strong>se buses are<br />

337-4782) or mail. Customers must<br />

visit a DMV CSC every other renewal<br />

for a vision screening and new<br />

photograph. Other important changes<br />

regarding driver’s licenses and ID<br />

cards include:<br />

TEENS<br />

Driver’s licenses issued to 16- and<br />

17-year-olds will expire at age 20. State<br />

law says that anyone under 21, who is<br />

convicted of a moving violation, must<br />

take the written knowledge exam again<br />

when renewing their driver’s license.<br />

SEX OFFENDERS<br />

Convicted sex offenders are an exception<br />

to the new eight-year driver’s<br />

license validity period. <strong>The</strong>se customers<br />

must visit a CSC to renew their<br />

driver’s license at least every five years.<br />

PARKS DEPARTMENT COMPLETES<br />

NEEDWOOD DAM CONSTRUCTION<br />

Needwood Dam to reduce seepage<br />

through the dam’s rock foundation. Additional<br />

repairs included upgrades to<br />

the outlet control tower and the dam<br />

monitoring system. <strong>The</strong> last major<br />

phase of the project involved installation<br />

of a sand and gravel blanket drain<br />

on the downstream face of the dam to<br />

collect and control any residual seepage<br />

through the bedrock foundation.<br />

Now all phases are complete and as<br />

a result public access to Rock Creek<br />

Regional Park and its popular Lake<br />

Needwood is no longer restricted.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re will be some minor clean-up<br />

work and parking lot repairs in the<br />

coming weeks, but that work will be<br />

scheduled to minimize any disruptions<br />

for park users.<br />

FAIRFAX COUNTY OPENS<br />

BURKE VRE GARAGE<br />

free and subscriptions are no longer<br />

necessary. In the mornings, EZ Buses<br />

arrive at the station five to 10 minutes<br />

before VRE trains 324, 326, 328, 330<br />

and 332 depart. In the afternoon, EZ<br />

Buses leave the station five minutes<br />

after VRE trains 325, 327, 329, 331,<br />

333, 335 and 337 arrive.<br />

<strong>The</strong> county also recently completed<br />

two trails to allow pedestrian access to<br />

the garage. Residents from the adjacent<br />

Burke Shire Commons and Walnut<br />

Woods neighborhoods can now<br />

walk or bicycle to the garage.<br />

Fairfax County officials worked<br />

closely with the surrounding neighborhoods<br />

to develop a design consistent<br />

with the area. For example, the garage<br />

incorporates inlays of red brick, a common<br />

building material used throughout<br />

Burke. Two clocks were built into the<br />

main elevator tower to make the<br />

garage reflect Burke’s rural character.<br />

<strong>The</strong> stair and clock towers were designed<br />

to complement the Victorian architecture<br />

of the VRE station.<br />

Fairfax County’s Department of<br />

Public Works and Environmental Services<br />

was responsible for the overall<br />

project management and construction<br />

administration for the garage. <strong>The</strong> total<br />

cost of the project is approximately<br />

$28 million.<br />

COMMERCIAL DRIVERS<br />

Commercial driver’s licenses<br />

(CDL) will be valid for eight years<br />

beginning July 1. However, CDL<br />

holders with a HAZMAT endorsement<br />

must continue to follow federal<br />

guidelines and renew their HAZMAT<br />

endorsement every five years.<br />

LIMITED DURATION<br />

For customers with limited duration<br />

identification, their driver’s license<br />

or ID card will continue to be<br />

valid only for the amount of time they<br />

are legally authorized to be in the U.S.<br />

This new law also encourages customers<br />

to renew vehicle registrations<br />

(decals) online, over the phone or<br />

through the mail. Customers are urged<br />

to avoid renewing vehicle registrations<br />

at DMV customer service centers<br />

where a $5 fee will be added. Internet<br />

renewals are discounted by $1.<br />

“During recent rain events the dam<br />

has responded well,” added Humerick.<br />

“We routinely monitor levels at both<br />

lakes Needwood and Frank using a<br />

newly installed remote monitoring<br />

system.”<br />

In coming years, park visitors can<br />

expect expanded boating and fishing<br />

areas within Lake Needwood as the<br />

County Council recently approved<br />

$3.8 million for a much-needed project<br />

to dredge the lake. In December, the<br />

Montgomery County Planning Board<br />

approved preliminary engineering designs<br />

for the dredging project, which<br />

includes structural improvements to<br />

the lake’s existing forebay and upper<br />

portion of the main lake. Lake Needwood<br />

was regularly dredged until<br />

about 1990 when funding constraints<br />

discontinued regular dredging. Since<br />

that time, continued siltation has impacted<br />

the function of the forebay and<br />

limited boating and fishing within the<br />

main body of the lake. <strong>The</strong> timing of<br />

the dredging project will be coordinated<br />

with the completion of ICC construction<br />

in the area and is expected to<br />

occur over the winter of 2010, 2011.<br />

For more on recreational opportunities<br />

at Rock Creek Regional Park including<br />

boat rentals at Lake Needwood,<br />

visit www.MontgomeryParks.<br />

org.<br />

BLACK FACT<br />

On June 13, 1967,<br />

Thurgood Marshall,<br />

U.S. solicitor<br />

general, was<br />

named to the<br />

Supreme Court by<br />

President Johnson.<br />

He was confirmed<br />

by the Senate on<br />

August 30 and<br />

became the first<br />

black Supreme<br />

Court justice.<br />

THE METRO HERALD 5


CAPITAL COMMENTS<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

MCCAIN SAYS GAS PRICES<br />

WON’T DROP<br />

AND COULD RISE<br />

Record high prices for gasoline<br />

probably won’t drop before<br />

the November election, Republican<br />

John McCain said.<br />

“I don’t think it’s going much<br />

lower, and it could go higher,” McCain<br />

said on NBC’s “To<strong>day</strong> Show.” “I don’t<br />

think so, not when you’ve got a finite<br />

supply, basically, and a cartel controlling<br />

it.”<br />

Although the GOP presidential candidate<br />

didn’t address the question of<br />

raising taxes on oil companies, he said<br />

the companies “absolutely” should return<br />

some profits to consumers. “And<br />

they should be embarking on research<br />

and development that will pay off in<br />

reducing our dependence on foreign<br />

oil,” he said.<br />

“<strong>The</strong> point is, oil companies have<br />

got to be more participatory in alternate<br />

energy, in sharing their profits in a<br />

variety of ways, and there is very<br />

strong and justifiable emotion about<br />

their profits,” McCain said.<br />

<strong>The</strong> issue of oil company profits<br />

came up this week in the Senate, where<br />

Republicans stopped the Democrats<br />

from imposing a tax on windfall profits<br />

and taking away billions of dollars<br />

in tax breaks in response to the $4-agallon<br />

price of gas.<br />

In the past McCain has indicated he<br />

would consider such a tax proposal,<br />

saying he didn’t want to see companies<br />

making “obscene profits” that distort<br />

the market.<br />

McCain used the opportunity to<br />

bring up his proposal for a gas tax holi<strong>day</strong><br />

that would suspend the federal tax<br />

of 18.4 cents per gallon, a proposal that<br />

Democratic rival Barack Obama dismisses<br />

as a gimmick. Critics say that<br />

cutting the price<br />

would only increase<br />

demand,<br />

which would<br />

lead to higher<br />

prices again.<br />

“Look what’s<br />

happened to<br />

Americans who<br />

are on a fixed in-<br />

Senator<br />

John McCain<br />

come, particularly<br />

low-income<br />

Americans—that’s why I wanted to<br />

give them a little break,” McCain said.<br />

“<strong>The</strong>y drive the furthest. <strong>The</strong>y drive<br />

the automobiles that use the most gasoline.<br />

I wanted to give them a little<br />

break for the summer.”<br />

In the interview, McCain said President<br />

Bush’s strategy to increase the<br />

number of troops in Iraq last year is<br />

working. McCain has been an ardent<br />

supporter of the Iraq war, but he criticized<br />

the early handling of the war, saying<br />

Bush did not send enough troops<br />

initially. In fact, he challenged the characterization<br />

that the strategy of increasing<br />

troop levels was Bush’s: “May I<br />

correct that statement I advocated the<br />

surge policy before President Bush.”<br />

McCain was asked if, since he argues<br />

the strategy is working, he has a<br />

better estimate for when U.S. troops<br />

could leave Iraq.<br />

“No, but that’s not too important,”<br />

McCain said. “What’s important is casualties<br />

in Iraq.<br />

“Americans are in South Korea.<br />

Americans are in Japan. American troops<br />

are in Germany. That’s all fine. American<br />

casualties, and the ability to withdraw.<br />

We will be able to withdraw.... But the<br />

key to it is we don’t want any more<br />

Americans in harm’s way.”<br />

Obama wants to begin withdrawing<br />

troops from Iraq, which McCain<br />

opposes.<br />

JOHNSON RESIGNS FROM TEAM<br />

VETTING OBAMA VEEP<br />

Jim Johnson, a manager of Democrat<br />

Barack Obama’s vice presidential<br />

search team, resigned amid<br />

criticism over his personal loan deals.<br />

“Jim did not want to distract in any<br />

way from the very important task of<br />

gathering information about my vice<br />

presidential nominee, so he has made a<br />

decision to step aside that I accept,”<br />

Obama said in a statement. “We have a<br />

very good selection process under way,<br />

and I am confident that it will produce<br />

a number of highly qualified candidates<br />

for me to choose from in the weeks<br />

ahead. I remain grateful to Jim for his<br />

service and his efforts in this process.”<br />

Johnson, the former chairman of<br />

mortgage lender Fannie Mae, received<br />

loans with the help of the CEO of<br />

Countrywide Financial Corp., which is<br />

part of a federal investigation in the<br />

midst of the subprime mortgage crisis.<br />

<strong>The</strong> story was first reported by the<br />

Wall Street Journal.<br />

Republican presidential candidate<br />

John McCain had accused Obama of<br />

hypocrisy for speaking out against<br />

Countrywide’s tactics while his vetter<br />

got favorable rates on three home<br />

mortgages totaling $1.7 million.<br />

Johnson served on Obama’s vetting<br />

team with two prominent Democratic<br />

attorneys—former Deputy Attorney<br />

General Eric Holder and Caroline<br />

Kennedy, the daughter of the late President<br />

John F. Kennedy.<br />

Johnson brought the most experience<br />

to the vetting team, having filled<br />

the same role for Democratic nominees<br />

John Kerry in 2004 and Walter Mondale<br />

in 1984. He and Holder had been holding<br />

meetings this week with lawmakers<br />

on Capitol Hill to seek their input on<br />

possible running mate candidates.<br />

<strong>The</strong> campaign declined to answer<br />

questions about whether Johnson<br />

would be replaced or the vetting<br />

process will be left to Holder and<br />

Kennedy, who have not been involved<br />

in a vice presidential search before.<br />

On Tues<strong>day</strong>, Obama said Johnson<br />

had a “discrete task” and was performing<br />

it well. He suggested the Countrywide<br />

connection was not a problem<br />

since Johnson was an unpaid volunteer<br />

and hadn’t been assigned to work in a<br />

future administration.<br />

“I am not vetting my V.P. search<br />

committee for their mortgages,”<br />

Obama said at the time.<br />

Democrats say the nation should<br />

be ashamed of its ban on gays<br />

serving openly in the military.<br />

It discourages qualified people from<br />

joining the ranks at a time when the<br />

armed forces are stretched by two<br />

wars, they say, and is degrading to<br />

those willing to serve their country.<br />

So what have the Democrats done<br />

about it Nothing, really.<br />

Since taking control of Congress in<br />

January 2007, Democrats have not<br />

convened hearings on the matter or<br />

taken up legislation that would let gays<br />

serve openly, although most party<br />

members favor repealing the prohibition.<br />

Instead, Democrats have focused<br />

their efforts on bringing troops home<br />

from Iraq and other issues that have<br />

broad appeal among voters, such as<br />

lowering gas prices.<br />

In a recent interview with <strong>The</strong> Advocate,<br />

a gay newsmagazine, Democrat<br />

Barack Obama stopped short of<br />

promising to lead the way for change,<br />

saying only that he can “reasonably<br />

see” a repeal of the current ban if<br />

elected president.<br />

Indeed, the gays-in-the-military<br />

issue has slid from being a top campaign<br />

pledge of President Clinton’s to<br />

a footnote on the Democratic agenda<br />

even as some of its staunchest opponents<br />

soften their rhetoric and acknowledge<br />

that the nation’s attitudes<br />

are changing.<br />

“Politics is often driven by risk<br />

aversion and fear and that’s big,” said<br />

Nathaniel Frank, a senior research fellow<br />

at <strong>The</strong> Michael D. Palm Center in<br />

Santa Barbara, Calif., who supports<br />

eliminating the ban. “<strong>The</strong>re are people<br />

FEDERAL METRO FUNDING<br />

MEASURE PASSES HOUSE<br />

Under the leadership of Congressman<br />

Steny H. Hoyer (D-<br />

MD), Congressman Tom Davis<br />

(R-VA) and members of the Washington<br />

regional delegation, the U.S.<br />

House of Representatives to<strong>day</strong> approved<br />

a key regional and national<br />

transportation priority to provide $1.5<br />

billion in matching dedicated funding<br />

for the Washington <strong>Metro</strong>politan Area<br />

Transit Authority (WMATA). <strong>The</strong><br />

funding is deemed as essential to maintaining<br />

and improving WMATA infrastructure<br />

and services for area residents,<br />

federal workers and visitors to<br />

the Nation’s Capital.<br />

“<strong>The</strong> Washington Area <strong>Metro</strong> system<br />

is a critical national and regional<br />

asset that serves area residents, employees<br />

of the federal government and<br />

millions of annual visitors to the Nation’s<br />

Capital,” stated Congressman<br />

Hoyer. “<strong>The</strong>re is a clear federal interest<br />

in ensuring that ‘America’s Subway,’<br />

which was created by Congress, is able<br />

to operate safely and efficiently for<br />

years to come.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> <strong>Metro</strong> funding measure was<br />

approved as an amendment offered by<br />

Rep. Hoyer along with Reps. Tom<br />

Davis and Chris Van Hollen to the Amtrak<br />

reauthorization bill. <strong>The</strong> amendment<br />

is very similar to legislation introduced<br />

by Rep. Davis to authorize<br />

$1.5 billion over ten years to help finance<br />

capital and preventive maintenance<br />

projects and require matching<br />

dedicated funds from Maryland, Virginia<br />

and the District of Columbia.<br />

“A world capital deserves a worldclass<br />

transit system, and this will ensure<br />

we have one,” said Congressman<br />

Davis. “It will ensure the federal government<br />

can continue to function in<br />

case of natural or man-made disaster,<br />

and it will ensure the system can meet<br />

increased demands placed on it by the<br />

high cost of energy.”<br />

Securing a joint federal-state commitment<br />

to WMATA has long been<br />

seen as essential to providing overdue<br />

capital improvements and maintenance<br />

for the system’s aging infrastructure.<br />

<strong>Metro</strong> officials recently estimated that<br />

the system needs approximately $489<br />

million in urgent and outstanding infrastructure<br />

repair work. <strong>The</strong> system<br />

has been stressed every further with a<br />

rapidly growing ridership, in part due<br />

to rising energy costs in the region.<br />

According to a recent Washington Post<br />

story, “In April, <strong>Metro</strong>’s ridership increased<br />

4.3 percent over the same period<br />

the year before.”<br />

“<strong>Metro</strong>’s value to the region and the<br />

DEMOCRATS RELUCTANT TO TAKE ON<br />

“DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL”<br />

who don’t want to be out front on this.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> reluctance is in large part a result<br />

of Clinton’s painful experience. As<br />

one of his first acts as president, Clinton<br />

sought to make good on his 1992<br />

campaign pledge to open the military<br />

to gays. His effort to change the law<br />

eventually gave way to the current<br />

“don’t ask, don’t tell” policy—but not<br />

before debate on the issue divided his<br />

party, awakened a fierce social conservative<br />

movement and helped GOP critics<br />

cast Clinton as a social liberal who<br />

was woefully out of touch with the<br />

military.<br />

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” is intended<br />

to keep the military from asking recruits<br />

their sexual orientation. In turn,<br />

service members can’t say they are gay<br />

or bisexual, engage in homosexual activity<br />

or marry a member of the same<br />

sex.<br />

No doubt Obama and congressional<br />

Democrats want to avoid Clinton’s<br />

fate. If elected, Obama’s primary task<br />

would be trying to end the Iraq war<br />

without severing his ties to the military<br />

or appearing to the American public as<br />

weak on national security issues.<br />

“Many (party) members underestimate<br />

where Americans are on this,”<br />

said Marty Meehan, the former Massachusetts<br />

Democratic congressman who<br />

last year introduced a House bill to repeal<br />

the current policy. His attempts to<br />

advance the legislation met quiet resistance<br />

among the more conservative<br />

Democrats on the House Armed Services<br />

Committee who feared the issue<br />

would prove too divisive among their<br />

constituents, particularly those on military<br />

bases.<br />

Rep. Steny Hoyer<br />

(D-MD)<br />

nation is immeasurable,”<br />

stated Rep.<br />

Hoyer. “Not<br />

only is it indispensible<br />

as a<br />

transit system<br />

for residents of<br />

and visitors to<br />

the Nation’s<br />

Capital, it is an<br />

essential component<br />

of the region’s emergency<br />

evacuation plans. Now that this measure<br />

has passed the House, we will work<br />

with our colleagues in the Senate to<br />

overcome the hurdles in that body.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> federal commitment to the<br />

Washington <strong>Metro</strong> system dates back<br />

to 1960, when Congress passed and<br />

President Eisenhower signed into law<br />

legislation to provide for the development<br />

of a regional rail system serving<br />

the Nation’s Capital, funding $6.2 billion<br />

of the approximately $10 billion<br />

needed to construct the original 103-<br />

mile system. Congress has since<br />

passed <strong>Metro</strong> authorization bills in<br />

1965, 1969, 1979, and 1990.<br />

Senate action on the measure is<br />

pending due to the objections of Senator<br />

Tom Coburn (R-OK) who has<br />

blocked consideration.<br />

DC BLACK<br />

REPUBLICAN<br />

COUNCIL<br />

FORUM<br />

MEETING<br />

<strong>The</strong> DCBRC Monthly Informational<br />

Discussion<br />

Forum on Tues<strong>day</strong>,<br />

June 17th will be an interesting<br />

and informational event that you<br />

should mark on your calendar.<br />

<strong>The</strong> guest speaker will be<br />

Shannon Reeves who is the<br />

Republican National Committee’s<br />

head of African American<br />

Outreach. <strong>The</strong> event is an excellent<br />

opportunity to determine<br />

what the RNC is doing<br />

toward African Americans in<br />

the <strong>2008</strong> General Elections and<br />

to provide input on what<br />

African American want in this<br />

campaign season and in the<br />

winning candidate’s White<br />

House Administration.<br />

Make plans to join the<br />

DCBRC at Duke’s City Restaurant<br />

(1208 U Street, NW) on the<br />

17th and to bring: announcements<br />

and inside information to<br />

share with other active Black<br />

Republicans. And, bring a list<br />

of suggestions for Mr. Reeves<br />

and the RNC to take notice of in<br />

regards to impacting and influencing<br />

the Black Vote.<br />

Please RSVP to 202-547-<br />

4125 (Bill Reed) Busxchng<br />

@his.com, 202-583-3524<br />

(Bob Richards) RbRchrds@<br />

cs.com by 06/13/08.<br />

UNITED WE STAND<br />

6 THE METRO HERALD


AROUND THE NATION<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL<br />

PUBLIC POLICY ANNOUNCES<br />

FELLOWSHIP CLASS FOR <strong>2008</strong><br />

<strong>The</strong> Institute for International<br />

Public Policy (IIPP), a program<br />

of the UNCF Special Programs<br />

Corporation (UNCFSP) announced<br />

that 32 outstanding young men and<br />

women from across the country have<br />

been selected for the 14th Cohort of<br />

the IIPP Fellowship—one of the nation’s<br />

most prestigious programs for<br />

minority students interested in pursuing<br />

careers in international affairs.<br />

Each of the 32 IIPP Fellows will receive<br />

scholarships and services totaling<br />

nearly $100,000 over a five-year<br />

period, a commitment of $3.2 million.<br />

<strong>The</strong> IIPP <strong>2008</strong> class represents 26<br />

different colleges and universities, including<br />

seven Historically Black Colleges<br />

and Universities: Dillard University,<br />

Johnson D. Smith University,<br />

Spelman College, Wilberforce University,<br />

Howard University and Jackson<br />

State University. Selection as an IIPP<br />

Fellow is highly competitive and based<br />

on a record of remarkable academic<br />

achievement, evidence of leadership<br />

potential and commitment to a career<br />

in global affairs. A complete list of the<br />

Fellows, their educational institutions<br />

and hometowns is below.<br />

“<strong>The</strong> incoming Fellows are one of<br />

the most diverse groups the IIPP has<br />

ever had,” said Darryl Crompton, Director<br />

of the IIPP. “Our students are<br />

from almost every region of the country<br />

and come from small liberal arts<br />

colleges, Ivy League universities, Hispanic-Serving<br />

Institutions and Historically<br />

Black Colleges and Universities.<br />

What brings them together is their interest<br />

and commitment to a career in<br />

international affairs.”<br />

Over the next seven weeks, the students<br />

will participate in the rigorous<br />

seven-week Sophomore Summer Policy<br />

Institute (SSPI) hosted at Spelman<br />

College in Atlanta, Georgia. <strong>The</strong> SSPI<br />

introduces Fellows to the basics of international<br />

policy development, foreign<br />

affairs, cultural competence, careers<br />

in these fields, and options for<br />

graduate study. Over the next five<br />

years the Fellowship will include study<br />

abroad during their junior year, intensive<br />

foreign language training, internships<br />

tied to their areas of interest and<br />

graduate study<br />

US LIFE EXPECTANCY TOPS 78<br />

AS TOP DISEASES DECLINE<br />

For the first time, U.S. life expectancy<br />

has surpassed 78<br />

years, the government reported,<br />

although the United States continues to<br />

lag behind about 30 other countries in<br />

estimated life span.<br />

<strong>The</strong> increase is due mainly to<br />

falling mortality rates in almost all the<br />

leading causes of death, federal health<br />

officials said. <strong>The</strong> average life expectancy<br />

for babies born in 2006 was<br />

about four months greater than for<br />

children born in 2005.<br />

Japan has the longest life expectancy—83<br />

years for children born<br />

in 2006, according to World Health Organization<br />

data. Switzerland and Australia<br />

were also near the top of the list.<br />

“<strong>The</strong> international comparisons are<br />

not that appealing, but we may be in the<br />

process of catching up,” said Samuel<br />

Preston, a University of Pennsylvania<br />

demographer. He is co-chairman of a<br />

National Research Council panel looking<br />

at why America’s life expectancy is<br />

lower than other nations’.<br />

<strong>The</strong> new U.S. data, released<br />

Wednes<strong>day</strong>, come from the National<br />

Center for Health Statistics. It’s a preliminary<br />

report of 2006 numbers, based<br />

on data from more than 95 percent of<br />

the death certificates collected that year.<br />

Life expectancy is the period a child<br />

born in 2006 is expected to live, assuming<br />

mortality trends stay constant.<br />

<strong>The</strong> 2006 increase is due mainly to<br />

falling mortality rates for nine of the 15<br />

leading causes of death, including heart<br />

disease, cancer, accidents and diabetes.<br />

“I think the most surprising thing is<br />

that we had declines in just about every<br />

major cause of death,” said Robert Anderson,<br />

who oversaw work on the report<br />

for the health statistics center.<br />

<strong>The</strong> overall death rate fell from 799<br />

per 100,000 in 2005 to about 776 the<br />

following year.<br />

Health statisticians noted declines<br />

Visit us on the web at<br />

www.metroherald.com<br />

of more than 6 percent in stroke and<br />

chronic lower respiratory disease (including<br />

bronchitis and emphysema),<br />

and a drop of more than 5 percent in<br />

heart disease and diabetes deaths. Indeed,<br />

the drop in diabetes deaths was<br />

steep enough to allow Alzheimer’s disease—which<br />

held about steady—to<br />

pass diabetes to become the nation’s<br />

sixth leading cause of death.<br />

<strong>The</strong> U.S. infant mortality rate<br />

dropped more than 2 percent, to 6.7 infant<br />

deaths per 1,000 births, from 6.9.<br />

Perhaps the most influential factor<br />

in the 2006 success story, however,<br />

was the flu. Flu and pneumonia deaths<br />

dropped by 13 percent from 2005, reflecting<br />

a mild flu season in 2006, Anderson<br />

said. That also meant a diminished<br />

threat to people with heart<br />

disease and other conditions. Taken together,<br />

it’s a primary explanation for<br />

the 22,000 fewer deaths in 2006 from<br />

2005, experts said.<br />

U.S. life expectancy has been<br />

steadily rising, usually by about two to<br />

three months from year to year. This<br />

year’s jump of fourth months is “an<br />

unusually rapid improvement,” Preston<br />

said.<br />

Life expectancy was up for both<br />

men and women, and whites and<br />

blacks. Although the gaps are closing,<br />

women continue to live longer, almost<br />

to 81, compared to about 75 for men.<br />

Among racial categories, white women<br />

have the highest life expectancy (81<br />

years), followed by black women<br />

(about 77 years), white men (76) and<br />

black men (70). Health statisticians<br />

said they don’t have reliable data to<br />

calculate Hispanic life expectancy, but<br />

they hope to by next year.<br />

Increases in female smoking are a<br />

major reason that men’s life expectancy<br />

is catching up with the women’s, Preston<br />

said. Improvements in the care of<br />

heart disease—a major health problem<br />

for black Americans—helps explain an<br />

improving racial gap, he said.<br />

About 2.4 million Americans died<br />

in 2006, according to the report.<br />

PRISONWORLD MAGAZINE OPENS ITS DOORS TO ADVERTISERS<br />

Dawah International, LLC has<br />

introduced and released its one<br />

of a kind magazine for prisoners.<br />

Prisonworld Magazine is published<br />

on a seven-issue basis in order<br />

to communicate with those behind the<br />

wall. It is very unique in conception<br />

and the only magazine especially for<br />

the prison system that showcases poetry,<br />

letters of inspiration, thoughts,<br />

comments, and opinions, individually<br />

and collectively, of inmates.<br />

<strong>The</strong> magazine is tailored for the incarcerated,<br />

but is available to the general<br />

public for purchase and participation.<br />

Dawah has formulated a pen pal<br />

service where men and women across<br />

the United States who have a desire to<br />

communicate with someone in prison<br />

can do so in anonymity. As well, inmates<br />

can communicate with one another<br />

through free pen pal ads. Inmates<br />

can become VIP members with special<br />

privileges. <strong>The</strong> magazine also offers<br />

trivia and scrabble contests, surveys,<br />

religious content, and much more.<br />

Prisonworld Magazine now ships<br />

to over 400 institutions, state and federal,<br />

in 32 states. “Since it is free to the<br />

institution’s libraries, we can estimate<br />

our readership at approximately<br />

350,000 per month,” says Rufus<br />

Triplett Jr., Editor. <strong>The</strong> magazine also<br />

has a large “free world” subscriber<br />

SAFEWAY’S EASTERN DIVISION OFFERS<br />

$4 GENERIC DRUGS FOR THE MOST<br />

COMMONLY PRESCRIBED MEDICATIONS<br />

Safeway to<strong>day</strong> announced a discount prescription program that will price<br />

more than 300 of the most commonly prescribed generic medications at<br />

$4 for a 30-<strong>day</strong> supply. <strong>The</strong> $4 Generic Drug Program—effective at all<br />

Safeway in-store pharmacies in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia and<br />

Delaware—offers a savings to customers purchasing medications that treat<br />

the most common conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, chronic pain, thyroid<br />

and heart health issues.<br />

<strong>The</strong> program began recently at 115 in-store Safeway pharmacies throughout<br />

the region.<br />

Generic drugs contain the same active ingredients as their name-brand<br />

counterpart, but cost less. A complete list of prescriptions available under the<br />

$4 Generic Drug Program can be obtained at Safeway pharmacies or by calling<br />

the Safeway Customer Service Center at 1-800-723-3929.<br />

Current Safeway pharmacy customers will realize the new pricing with<br />

their next refill. New customers can bring a written prescription or transfer a<br />

prescription by simply calling their local Safeway pharmacy. Customers can<br />

also transfer a prescription online at Safeway.com in the “Wellness Center”<br />

section under “Pharmacy.”<br />

For more information, visit www.safeway.com.<br />

base. Many people find the magazine<br />

interesting because of its positive messages,<br />

humor, resources and trivia. <strong>The</strong><br />

magazine is highly demanded and anticipated<br />

in all of the institutions.<br />

<strong>The</strong> magazine has recently opened<br />

its publication to advertisers. In keeping<br />

with the attitude of giving its readers<br />

what they want, the magazine is<br />

seeking typing services, gift stores,<br />

greeting card wholesalers, pen pal/<br />

MYSPACE services, lawyers/paralegals,<br />

jewelry stores, audio books/bookstores,<br />

authors (self-published, African-<br />

American, self-help, etc) and entrepreneurial<br />

services as advertisers.<br />

Jenny Triplett, Editor-in-Chief, says,<br />

“We receive several letters every week<br />

requesting all kinds of services. Even<br />

though we would like to, we cannot<br />

handle all of the prisoners needs. We<br />

know there are people out there who<br />

are willing to think outside the box.”<br />

Prisonworld Magazine offers better<br />

than competitive rates and an extremely<br />

unique target market. With over 2.2 million<br />

incarcerated, anyone who advertises<br />

in the magazine has a direct link to<br />

a community with its own market share.<br />

Dawah is a family owned and operated<br />

company established to bring a<br />

positive vibe to the prison community.<br />

<strong>The</strong> owners are originally from Michigan,<br />

with ties in Toledo, Ohio and<br />

Florida, and have been based in the Atlanta<br />

area for over 15 years. When<br />

asked the question what would make<br />

you start a magazine like this, the owners<br />

respond intelligently “We hope to<br />

bring new and different ideas to the<br />

multimedia game as well as enlighten<br />

views and perceptions of an uninformed<br />

and forgotten society.”<br />

THE METRO HERALD 7


HEALTH & WELLNESS<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

Weiman Products, makers of<br />

leading home care products,<br />

will support the National<br />

Ovarian Cancer Coalition<br />

(NOCC) and its efforts to educate and<br />

inform women about ovarian cancer<br />

risk factors and symptoms starting<br />

June 2, <strong>2008</strong>. Weiman will make a<br />

generous corporate donation to the<br />

NOCC and implement a multi-channel<br />

campaign that supports NOCC’s mission—to<br />

raise awareness and promote<br />

education about ovarian cancer—and<br />

its commitment to improving the survival<br />

rate and quality of life for women<br />

with ovarian cancer.<br />

“We are honored to contribute substantial<br />

funding to NOCC—an organization<br />

that is fully committed to<br />

spreading awareness and conducting<br />

education about ovarian cancer,” said<br />

Carl DeMasi, Weiman Products president<br />

and CEO. “To solidify Weiman’s<br />

dedication to the cause, we will use our<br />

WEIMAN PRODUCTS TO AID FIGHT AGAINST OVARIAN CANCER<br />

product packaging, Web site, e-<br />

newsletter and additional marketing<br />

tools to increase awareness about ovarian<br />

cancer among Weiman’s national<br />

consumer and retail base.”<br />

Weiman’s awareness and education<br />

campaign will include the following<br />

elements:<br />

• Weiman will introduce teal-colored<br />

product caps on six of its top-selling<br />

products (Cook Top Wipes,<br />

Leather Wipes, Granite Wipes, E-<br />

tronic Wipes, Stainless Steel Wipes,<br />

Stainless Steel Cleaner & Polish)<br />

during September <strong>2008</strong> to honor<br />

and increase awareness for Ovarian<br />

Cancer Awareness month. <strong>The</strong> teal<br />

caps will appear in retailers nationwide,<br />

including Wal-Mart, Target,<br />

True Value, Kroger, Safeway, Publix<br />

and Kmart.<br />

• Product packaging for all of<br />

Weiman’s products will be updated<br />

to include an ovarian cancer awareness<br />

ribbon and NOCC Web site<br />

address to help consumers access<br />

information and facts about ovarian<br />

cancer online.<br />

• <strong>The</strong> Weiman Web site will feature<br />

an enhanced, dedicated web page<br />

with information about ovarian<br />

cancer and details about Weiman’s<br />

partnership with NOCC.<br />

• <strong>The</strong> September <strong>2008</strong> edition of<br />

Weiman’s e-newsletter, Weiman<br />

News, will include educational information<br />

that supports NOCC’s<br />

mission.<br />

• Weiman Products will provide opportunities<br />

and encourage employee<br />

investment and involvement<br />

in supporting the NOCC mission.<br />

<strong>The</strong> National Ovarian Cancer Coalition<br />

is a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization<br />

that provides help and hope about<br />

ovarian cancer with public education<br />

and awareness, state divisions, a tollfree<br />

Help Line, comprehensive web<br />

site, peer support, publications and special<br />

projects. <strong>The</strong> National Ovarian<br />

Cancer Coalition’s mission is to raise<br />

awareness and promote education<br />

about ovarian cancer. <strong>The</strong> Coalition is<br />

committed to improving the survival<br />

rate and quality of life for women with<br />

ovarian cancer. For more information<br />

on the “Break the Silence” campaign<br />

and to contact one of the local NOCC<br />

local divisions, visit www.ovarian.org<br />

or call 1-888-OVARIAN.<br />

Weiman Products, LLC manufactures<br />

specialty home care products that<br />

Montgomery County Executive<br />

Isiah Leggett recently joined<br />

the Latino Health Steering<br />

Committee of Montgomery County for<br />

the release of the “Blueprint for Latino<br />

Health in Montgomery County, Maryland<br />

<strong>2008</strong>-2012”. <strong>The</strong> health status report<br />

outlines the most pressing issues<br />

facing the more than 120,000 Latinos<br />

living in Montgomery County and recommends<br />

strategies for improving the<br />

health of Latinos in the community.<br />

“We are concerned about the health<br />

status of all of our county residents and<br />

the Blueprint will be invaluable in providing<br />

guidance and direction in developing<br />

programs that will improve the<br />

health and human service outcomes for<br />

Latinos in our community,” said Leggett.<br />

<strong>The</strong> report found that 50 to 60 percent<br />

of Latinos in the community lack<br />

access to health care services. In a<br />

clean, protect and prolong the life of<br />

appliances and surfaces throughout the<br />

home. Weiman’s product lines include:<br />

Weiman products, Wright’s® Metal<br />

Care products and its newest product<br />

line of environmentally-friendly cleaners,<br />

Perfect Planet. Headquartered in<br />

Gurnee, Il, Weiman products are available<br />

nationwide through mass merchandisers,<br />

grocery stores, hardware<br />

stores and other retail outlets including<br />

Wal-Mart, Target, Publix, Kroger, True<br />

Value, Kmart, Ace Hardware, <strong>The</strong><br />

Home Depot, Expo Design Center and<br />

Costco. Products are also available<br />

through Weiman’s website www.<br />

weiman.com or by phone 888-281-<br />

6400.<br />

LEGGETT JOINS LATINO HEALTH<br />

STEERING COMMITTEE TO RELEASE<br />

BLUEPRINT FOR LATINO HEALTH REPORT<br />

2005 Montgomery County Latino Cancer<br />

Survey, only 50 percent of the respondents<br />

indicated that they have a<br />

primary health care provider. Results<br />

from focus groups conducted among<br />

low-income Latinos reveal that the top<br />

health issues include the lack of health<br />

insurance and the cost of heath services,<br />

the limited number of bilingual<br />

and bicultural health care services staff,<br />

the limited number of early detection<br />

and prevention services, the need for a<br />

continuum of care and better coordination<br />

between services, the unavailability<br />

of adequate transportation and the<br />

limited hours of operation. Other top<br />

concerns included the lack of dental<br />

services and culturally and linguistically<br />

competent mental health services.<br />

<strong>The</strong> influx of Latinos into the county<br />

over the last two decades has trans-<br />

Continued on page 9<br />

8 THE METRO HERALD


HEALTH & WELLNESS<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

PHYSICIAN GAINSHARING PROGRAMS REDUCE HOSPITAL SPENDING<br />

Giving physicians cash payments<br />

for reduced hospital<br />

spending can help control costs<br />

without sacrificing quality or access to<br />

care, researchers report in a study released<br />

recently in the May/June <strong>2008</strong><br />

issue of the journal Health Affairs. <strong>The</strong><br />

issue is a thematic volume on health reform<br />

supported by a grant from the<br />

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.<br />

In a five-year study of more than<br />

220,000 patients, Arizona State University<br />

researchers showed that “gainsharing”<br />

programs, in which physicians are<br />

paid for reducing hospital spending, cut<br />

costs by 7.4 percent or $315 per patient.<br />

If these experiences are representative,<br />

nationwide use of gainsharing would<br />

cut hospital costs for coronary stent patients<br />

by about $195 million a year, the<br />

researchers say.<br />

Jonathan Ketcham and Michael Furukawa,<br />

assistant professors at the Arizona<br />

State University School of Health<br />

Management and Policy, looked at six<br />

cardiac catheterization labs that implemented<br />

gainsharing programs and<br />

compared them to 123 non-gainsharing<br />

labs in 31 states. <strong>The</strong>y examined the<br />

effect that financial incentives had on<br />

the cost of devices and drugs, as well<br />

as the volume of patients per physician<br />

in each hospital. <strong>The</strong>y also measured<br />

whether gainsharing programs led doctors<br />

to select healthier patients.<br />

<strong>The</strong>y found that the majority of<br />

savings from gainsharing programs<br />

could be attributed to lower prices for<br />

coronary stents. <strong>The</strong> researchers found<br />

that these savings came without altering<br />

referral patterns via cherry picking,<br />

steering, or increased caseloads. <strong>The</strong>y<br />

also found that the gainsharing programs<br />

did not increase the risk of inlab<br />

complications and were associated<br />

with significant decreases in three specific<br />

types of complications.<br />

“We found no evidence that gainsharing<br />

prompted physicians to avoid<br />

patients with existing health problems<br />

or pick the healthiest patients,” said<br />

Ketcham. “Gainsharing reduces costs<br />

for coronary stent patients while apparently<br />

leaving quality and access unharmed,”<br />

the authors write. Ketcham<br />

adds that analyzing gainsharing’s effects<br />

on additional quality measures<br />

and understanding how gainsharing influences<br />

physicians’ decisions would<br />

be valuable. <strong>The</strong> authors also note that<br />

widespread adoption of gainsharing<br />

could alter how device makers decide<br />

which types of products to develop and<br />

market.<br />

Other issue highlights:<br />

Study Shows No Malpractice Premium<br />

Crisis For Massachusetts Physicians.<br />

Although Massachusetts has the<br />

fourth-highest median malpractice settlement<br />

payments in the nation, and<br />

therefore should have the fourth-highest<br />

premiums, nearly all Bay State<br />

physicians paid lower inflation-adjusted<br />

malpractice premiums in 2005<br />

than in 1990. <strong>The</strong> study—which provides<br />

the most comprehensive analysis<br />

of premiums to date—clashes with<br />

popular perceptions and assumptions<br />

underlying legislative proposals to cap<br />

damages awards.<br />

Suffolk University Law School researchers<br />

Marc Rodwin and colleagues<br />

analyzed malpractice premiums from<br />

1975 to 2005 using data from the stateregulated<br />

mutual insurer, known as<br />

Pro-Mutual. In 2005, malpractice premiums<br />

were $17,810 for the coverage<br />

level and policy type that physicians<br />

most frequently purchased, compared<br />

with $17,907 in 1990. Despite premium<br />

increases since 1995 or 2000 for<br />

all physicians, premiums were still<br />

lower in 2005 than in 1990, when they<br />

reached a 30-year peak. Mean premiums<br />

increased only in three specialties<br />

comprising 4 percent of physicians:<br />

obstetrics, neurology, and orthopedists<br />

performing spinal surgery.<br />

<strong>The</strong> study furthermore documents<br />

increased variation among premiums<br />

paid within each practice specialty<br />

since 1990, when insurers began to adjust<br />

rates for each practice specialty by<br />

discounting low-risk physicians and<br />

surcharging those with high risks. By<br />

2005, there was a threefold difference<br />

in premiums for physicians within OB-<br />

GYN, the highest-risk specialty, as a<br />

result of rate discounts and surcharges<br />

based on an individual physician’s risk<br />

factors. As a result, although mean<br />

OB-GYN premiums increased significantly<br />

since 1990, nearly one-third of<br />

physicians in OB-GYN paid lower premiums<br />

in 2005 than in 1990.<br />

<strong>The</strong> authors note that OB-GYN premiums<br />

are higher than for most other<br />

physicians because infants injured during<br />

birth sometimes require lifelong<br />

custodial care. <strong>The</strong>y therefore recommend<br />

that patient safety and quality efforts<br />

should focus on OB-GYNs and<br />

the two other high-risk specialties to reduce<br />

injuries. When similar efforts<br />

were undertaken in anesthesiology in<br />

the 1990s, injuries fell dramatically,<br />

and premiums did as well.<br />

<strong>The</strong> authors also propose alternative<br />

means to compensate injuries.<br />

For infants injured during birth, they<br />

recommend no-fault compensation<br />

systems such as those used in Virginia<br />

and Florida. Alternatively, they suggest<br />

shifting liability from physicians<br />

to hospitals for all injuries that occur in<br />

hospitals. Both proposals would reduce<br />

the malpractice premiums for<br />

high-risk physicians while still compensating<br />

patients.<br />

Study Examines Relationship Between<br />

Health Care Spending And<br />

Physician Practice Patterns. Primary<br />

care physicians in high-spending health<br />

care regions see patients back more frequently<br />

for return visits, are more likely<br />

to recommend screening tests of uncertain<br />

benefit, and opt for more resourceintensive<br />

management strategies than<br />

physicians who practice in low-spending<br />

health care regions, a survey of<br />

more than 800 physicians found.<br />

Researcher Brenda Sirovich of the<br />

Veterans Affairs Medical Center in<br />

White River Junction, Vermont, and<br />

colleagues measured local health care<br />

spending using Medicare data. <strong>The</strong>y<br />

then compared the spending figures<br />

with the physicians’ survey responses<br />

about how often they typically see patients<br />

back with well-controlled hypertension;<br />

whether they routinely screen<br />

patients for three types of cancer; and<br />

how likely they are to recommend<br />

tests, referrals, or hospitalization for<br />

patients with three common clinical<br />

conditions.<br />

Primary care physicians in highspending<br />

regions were more likely to<br />

recommend discretionary treatments<br />

than were physicians in lower-spending<br />

areas, the researchers found. Compared<br />

with physicians practicing in<br />

low-spending regions, those in the<br />

highest-spending regions would recommend<br />

an additional 80 hypertension<br />

follow-up visits per year, 14 screening<br />

spiral computed tomography (CT)<br />

scans (for smokers), 25 echocardiograms<br />

(for exertional chest pain), 24<br />

cardiac care unit admissions (for endstage<br />

congestive heart failure) and 29<br />

gastroenterology referrals (for heartburn)<br />

per 100 patients seen. Physicians<br />

in high- and low-spending regions<br />

were equally likely to recommend<br />

guideline-supported interventions.<br />

“Current policy efforts to improve<br />

the quality of care and address disparities<br />

in spending have focused largely<br />

on fostering adherence to clinical<br />

guidelines,” the researchers write.<br />

“This study suggests that greater attention<br />

to clinical judgment—and to the<br />

local factors that are likely to influence<br />

physician practice—will be required,”<br />

they conclude.<br />

BLACK FACT<br />

On June 13, 1910,<br />

William D. Crum<br />

(1859–1912),<br />

a South Carolina<br />

physician, was<br />

appointed<br />

minister<br />

to Liberia.<br />

LEGGETT JOINS LATINO HEALTH STEERING COMMITTEE TO<br />

RELEASE BLUEPRINT FOR LATINO HEALTH REPORT<br />

Continued from page 8<br />

formed Montgomery County into the<br />

most diverse community in Maryland.<br />

Latinos represent nearly 14 percent of<br />

the county’s population. More than 65<br />

percent of Latinos in Montgomery<br />

County are recently arrived immigrants<br />

of Central and South American origin.<br />

According to the Community Foundation<br />

for the National Capital Area, nationally,<br />

immigrants are a net fiscal benefit<br />

to the country’s economy, pay more<br />

in taxes than they consume, contribute<br />

to the social security system and create<br />

jobs. As the Latino population continues<br />

to grow, its contributions to the<br />

county’s economic, political, social and<br />

cultural landscape will continue to increase<br />

and accordingly, County services<br />

must reflect evolving demographics and<br />

related health trends.<br />

In 2002, the Latino Health Initiative,<br />

a program of the County’s Department<br />

of Health and Human Services,<br />

released the “Blueprint for<br />

Latino Health in Montgomery County,<br />

Maryland, 2002-2006.” <strong>The</strong> report<br />

formed the basis for the development<br />

of medical care and public health systems<br />

to address basic health needs of<br />

the Latino community. <strong>The</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />

Blueprint updates the original report<br />

and reflects current concerns and needs<br />

of multiple Latino populations.<br />

“<strong>The</strong> Latino community is vibrant,<br />

young and fast growing with an enormous<br />

capacity to enrich the county and<br />

strengthen basic institutions,” said<br />

Steering Committee Member Olivia<br />

Carter-Pokras, associate professor at the<br />

University of Maryland School of Public<br />

Health, Department of Epidemiology<br />

and Biostatistics. “<strong>The</strong> limited data<br />

available on the incidence and prevalence<br />

of disease among Latinos suggest<br />

that Latinos have higher rates of diseases<br />

that compromise health and quality<br />

of life, such as asthma, chronic obstructive<br />

pulmonary disease, HIV/<br />

AIDS, obesity, suicide and liver disease.<br />

Higher morbidity rates among Latinos<br />

point to the need for improved chronic<br />

disease prevention, treatment and management,<br />

particularly because Latinos<br />

are disproportionately uninsured and<br />

have limited access to linguistically and<br />

culturally competent care.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> <strong>2008</strong>-2012 Blueprint marks the<br />

culmination of an eighteen-month<br />

process that engaged more than100<br />

members of the community, stakeholders<br />

from public and private health entities,<br />

and community-based organizations.<br />

<strong>The</strong> <strong>2008</strong>-2012 Blueprint offers<br />

data on Latinos, identifies ongoing<br />

challenges, proposes solutions and is<br />

designed to be used as a tool to get involved<br />

and act to improve individual<br />

and community health in Montgomery<br />

County. <strong>The</strong> report outlines seven action-oriented<br />

priority areas, such as ensuring<br />

access to and quality of health<br />

care and enhancing community participation<br />

in decisions that affect the<br />

health of Latinos.<br />

For more information, contact<br />

Sonia Mora, Latino Health Initiative<br />

manager at 240-777-3221. <strong>The</strong> report<br />

is found online at http://lhiinfo.org/<br />

english/docs/LHI_blueprint<strong>2008</strong>_<br />

2012.pdf.<br />

THE METRO HERALD 9


COMMUNITY NEWS<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

ALEXANDRIA<br />

JUNE GENEALOGY<br />

PROGRAM<br />

On Tues<strong>day</strong>, June 17, <strong>2008</strong>, the<br />

Mount Vernon Genealogical<br />

Society (MVGS) will meet in<br />

room 112 of the Hollin Hall Senior<br />

Center in Alexandria, Virginia. <strong>The</strong><br />

meeting will start at 1:00p.m. and is<br />

free and open to the public. <strong>The</strong> meeting<br />

will feature a presentation entitled<br />

“Digital Reference, Digital Resources<br />

and Digital Maps at the Library of<br />

Congress.” <strong>The</strong> program will be presented<br />

by Ed Redmond.<br />

As Geography and Map Reference<br />

Specialist, Ed Redmond provides library<br />

members, Congressional staff,<br />

national and international scholars,<br />

other federal agencies, and the general<br />

public with access to the Library of<br />

Congress’ cartographic collections. He<br />

has held this position for 19 years. Previously,<br />

Ed has served as a map librarian<br />

and a social studies and history<br />

teacher at the primary, secondary and<br />

university levels. He has served as<br />

President of the Washington Map Society<br />

and is a member of the Association<br />

of American Geographers.<br />

<strong>The</strong> discussion will focus on family<br />

history resources available on various<br />

Library of Congress web sites with<br />

specific focus on the Library’s cartographic<br />

collections www.loc.gov/rr/<br />

geogmap.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Hollin Hall Senior Center is located<br />

4 miles south of Alexandria just<br />

off Fort Hunt Road at 1500 Shenandoah<br />

Road in Alexandria, Virginia.<br />

MVGS is a nonprofit organization<br />

and has over 260 members residing in<br />

Alexandria, Fort Belvoir, the counties<br />

of Fairfax, Prince William, Montgomery,<br />

and Prince Georges, as well as<br />

several states.<br />

Additional information about the<br />

meeting and MVGS can be found at<br />

www.MVGenealogy.org/. Any questions<br />

about the program should be directed<br />

to Harold McClendon at 703-<br />

360-0920 or haroldm@erols.com.<br />

ALEXANDRIA’S FIRST HALF<br />

OF <strong>2008</strong> REAL ESTATE TAX<br />

DUE MONDAY, JUNE 16<br />

<strong>The</strong> City of Alexandria reminds<br />

property owners that payment<br />

of the first half of their <strong>2008</strong><br />

Real Estate Tax and Refuse Fee is due<br />

BLACK FACT<br />

On June 13, 1937,<br />

Eleanor Holmes (later<br />

Eleanor Norton) is<br />

born in Washington,<br />

DC. A graduate of the<br />

Yale University School<br />

of Law, Norton will<br />

become chairperson of<br />

the New York City<br />

Commission on<br />

Human Rights, and a<br />

Georgetown University<br />

law professor before<br />

being elected a<br />

non-voting delegate<br />

to Congress<br />

representing the<br />

District of Columia.<br />

Mon<strong>day</strong>, June 16. To avoid late payment<br />

penalty and interest charges, payment<br />

must be received by the City or<br />

postmarked by the U.S. Postal Service<br />

no later than June 16.<br />

Real estate tax bills were mailed on<br />

Tues<strong>day</strong>, May 13. Property owners<br />

who have not received a tax bill in the<br />

mail and do not have their real estate<br />

tax paid by a mortgage company<br />

should call the City’s Treasury<br />

Division at 703-838-4777 or e-mail<br />

payments@alexandriava.gov to request<br />

a duplicate bill. Failure to receive<br />

a tax bill in the mail is not<br />

grounds for waiving the late payment<br />

penalty and interest or extending the<br />

June 16 due date.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Finance Department urges<br />

Alexandria property owners to avoid<br />

waiting in line at City Hall by using<br />

one of the following convenient payment<br />

options:<br />

Pay by eCheck online at<br />

alexandriava.gov/payments to have<br />

the payment deducted from a specified<br />

checking or savings account. <strong>The</strong>re is<br />

no additional fee for using this service,<br />

which is available 24 hours a <strong>day</strong>, 7<br />

<strong>day</strong>s a week.<br />

Pay by automatic bank debit. Real<br />

estate tax payments can be automatically<br />

deducted from a specified checking<br />

or savings account in monthly installments,<br />

or in two equal installments<br />

on each of the semi-annual tax due<br />

dates. <strong>The</strong>re is no fee for using this<br />

service. However, registration is required<br />

at least 14 <strong>day</strong>s before the desired<br />

debits are to take effect. Failure<br />

to enroll for the lump sum payment option<br />

by June 1 may result in a late payment<br />

if the tax is not paid by Mon<strong>day</strong>,<br />

June 16. For more information, call<br />

703-838-4777 or visit alexandriava.<br />

gov/payments .<br />

Pay by credit card (Visa, Master-<br />

Card, American Express, or Discover)<br />

24 hours a <strong>day</strong>, 7 <strong>day</strong>s a week, online<br />

at alexandriava.gov/payments or by<br />

calling 1-800-272-9829. Official Payments<br />

Corporation will assess a convenience<br />

fee for using this service. You<br />

will need to reference the City’s jurisdiction<br />

code 1007.<br />

Pay by mail using the envelope enclosed<br />

with the bill or mail the payment<br />

to Treasurer’s Office, P.O. Box<br />

34750, Alexandria, VA 22334-0750.<br />

Checks should be made payable to<br />

“City of Alexandria.” A drop box located<br />

on the Royal Street side of City<br />

Hall is also available 24 hours a <strong>day</strong>.<br />

Pay at any SunTrust Bank branch<br />

located in the City of Alexandria by<br />

5p.m. on Mon<strong>day</strong>, June 16. SunTrust<br />

Bank will only accept payment of the<br />

total amount printed on the real estate<br />

tax bill. <strong>The</strong>re is no fee for this service.<br />

Tax bills can still be paid in person<br />

at the Treasury Division, City Hall,<br />

301 King Street, Room 1510. Office<br />

hours are 8a.m. to 5p.m., Mon<strong>day</strong><br />

through Fri<strong>day</strong>, and 9a.m. to noon<br />

on Satur<strong>day</strong>, June 14. Tax bills may<br />

be paid in person by cash, check, or<br />

Discover Card. Discover will assess a<br />

fee for using this service. You may also<br />

pay by Visa, MasterCard, American<br />

Express, or Discover online at City<br />

Hall, Room 1700, during normal office<br />

hours. Official Payments Corporation<br />

will assess a fee for using this service.<br />

You may utilize the City’s real estate<br />

tax history search and pay at<br />

alexandriava.gov/finance. This program<br />

allows you to verify current and<br />

prior year real estate taxes, 24 hours a<br />

<strong>day</strong>, 7 <strong>day</strong>s a week. In addition, the<br />

program provides property owners<br />

with the option to pay their real estate<br />

taxes online by eCheck or credit card.<br />

For information on real estate assessments,<br />

appeals or to update a mailing<br />

address, please call Real Estate Assessments<br />

at 703-838-4646 or email<br />

realestate@alexandriava.gov. For information<br />

on real estate tax and refuse<br />

fee payments, late payment penalty<br />

and interest, or to request a tax bill,<br />

please call the Treasury Division at<br />

703-838-4777 or email payments@<br />

alexandriava.gov.<br />

Si usted requiere asistencia en<br />

Español, por favor llamar al 703-519-<br />

6506, extension 583.<br />

FAIRFAX COUNTY<br />

FAIRFAX COUNTY SOLID<br />

WASTE DISPOSAL FEES<br />

TO INCREASE<br />

On July 1, the disposal fee most<br />

private trash collection companies<br />

pay to dispose of trash<br />

at one of the Fairfax County disposal<br />

facilities will increase $5.05 per ton.<br />

This increase will offset operational<br />

cost increases and the elimination of<br />

General Fund support for some elements<br />

of the county’s Solid Waste<br />

Management Program.<br />

<strong>The</strong> average household in Fairfax<br />

County generates approximately 2 tons<br />

of trash each year. As a result of the increased<br />

charges at disposal facilities,<br />

the average household can expect its<br />

solid waste collection fees to increase<br />

by about $1 a month.<br />

Most households will see this increase<br />

passed on to them either by their<br />

trash collection service or through their<br />

homeowners associations. <strong>The</strong> Fairfax<br />

County Solid Waste Management Program<br />

does not regulate solid waste collection<br />

fees charged to residents or<br />

businesses. While trash collection<br />

companies may have other legitimate<br />

reasons for increasing their disposal<br />

fees, only about $1 a month is attributable<br />

to the change in the county’s disposal<br />

fees.<br />

Residents who contract with private<br />

solid waste collection companies<br />

should contact their collection service<br />

to discuss any concerns over disposal<br />

fee increases.<br />

For more information about Fairfax<br />

County’s Solid Waste Management<br />

Program, contact Pamela Gratton at<br />

703-324-5498, TTY 711, or visit<br />

www.fairfaxcounty.gov/recycling.<br />

RENTERS FACING<br />

FORECLOSURE SHOULD<br />

KNOW THEIR RIGHTS<br />

Fairfax County officials want<br />

renters to know their rights if<br />

the property where they are living<br />

is being foreclosed.<br />

To learn more, renters should contact<br />

Fairfax County’s Consumer Affairs<br />

Branch to find out their options or<br />

get help negotiating with landlords.<br />

Call 703-222-8435, TTY 711, or get<br />

help in person at 12000 Government<br />

Parkway, Suite 433, Fairfax, between<br />

8a.m. and 4:30p.m.<br />

While a property is going through<br />

foreclosure, landlords and tenants must<br />

follow the terms set forth in the lease.<br />

Once a foreclosure is final, the lease is<br />

terminated. Lenders or new property<br />

owners are not bound by the lease with<br />

the original landlord.<br />

If they must move out before the<br />

end of their lease, renters may be able<br />

to sue their landlords for breach of<br />

contract. However, the best advice for<br />

renters is to take action as soon as they<br />

learn their landlord is facing foreclosure.<br />

<strong>The</strong>y may ask to end their lease<br />

early without penalty, as well as work<br />

out an agreeable date to move out.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re are other important facts for<br />

renters to know:<br />

• Tenants should continue to pay rent<br />

until a foreclosure is final. Otherwise,<br />

a landlord can go to court to<br />

evict a tenant for failure to pay rent.<br />

Any court action, even if not carried<br />

out, can make it difficult to rent<br />

another property.<br />

• Tenants might learn for the first<br />

time that property has been foreclosed<br />

after being contacted by a<br />

lender or new owner. In this case,<br />

tenants should talk directly to the<br />

lender or new owner about an<br />

agreeable date to move out.<br />

• Lenders or new property owners<br />

can’t remove tenants or their belongings<br />

without a court order.<br />

• Tenants do not have a legal right to<br />

continue living in a property that<br />

has been foreclosed.<br />

• Tenants are entitled to the return of<br />

their security deposit based on the<br />

terms of the lease after a foreclosure<br />

is final.<br />

For more information, contact the<br />

Fairfax County Consumer Affairs<br />

Branch at 703-222-8435, TTY 711.<br />

MONTGOMERY COUNTY<br />

UPCOUNTY REGIONAL<br />

SERVICES CENTER<br />

TO HOST FORECLOSURE<br />

SOLUTIONS WORKSHOP<br />

Montgomery County’s Upcounty<br />

Regional Services<br />

Center and the County’s Department<br />

of Housing and Community<br />

Affairs are hosting a Home ownership<br />

and Foreclosure Solutions Workshop<br />

on Satur<strong>day</strong>, June 21 from 10a.m. to<br />

3p.m., at the Upcounty Regional Services<br />

Center located at 12900 Middlebrook<br />

Rd., Germantown.<br />

<strong>The</strong> free workshop is open to the<br />

public and will include a panel discussion<br />

with federal, State and local experts<br />

and housing leaders; a presentation<br />

on what to do when faced with a<br />

home foreclosure; housing resources/<br />

information booths; one-on-one housing<br />

counseling and legal consultations;<br />

and networking opportunities with<br />

housing professionals and service<br />

providers. Individuals interested in the<br />

free legal and housing counseling must<br />

pre-register by calling 240-777-8045.<br />

<strong>The</strong> workshop will provide valuable<br />

information to anyone facing foreclosure<br />

or anyone interested in learning<br />

about buying their first home.<br />

For more information, call the Upcounty<br />

Regional Services Center at<br />

240-777-8000.<br />

ALS MEETING<br />

On Satur<strong>day</strong> June 7 the ALS<br />

Caregiver Resource Support<br />

Group will meet from 1 to<br />

3pm at <strong>The</strong> ALS Association, Administrative<br />

office, 7507 Standish Place,<br />

Rockville. This support group for all<br />

caregivers of ALS patients and interested<br />

friends is sponsored by the ALS<br />

Association. For more information on<br />

this free event, call 301-978-9855 or<br />

visit www.ALSinfo.org. (ALS is also<br />

referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.)<br />

<strong>2008</strong> MONTGOMERY<br />

COUNTY FARMERS<br />

MARKETS READY<br />

FOR BUSINESS<br />

<strong>The</strong> <strong>2008</strong> Montgomery County<br />

Farmers Markets season officially<br />

runs from June through<br />

October, but several of the county’s 13<br />

markets are already open, and will stay<br />

open later through the fall. Each market<br />

offers a wide range of farm fresh<br />

fruits, vegetables, bedding plants,<br />

baked goods, herbs and more.<br />

Farmers markets are located<br />

throughout the county in Bethesda, Potomac,<br />

Gaithersburg, Silver Spring,<br />

Rockville, Wheaton, Kensington and<br />

Takoma Park. Two new markets include<br />

the Olney Farmers Market,<br />

which celebrates its first full-season<br />

this year and the Clarksburg Farmers<br />

Market, in the heart of the Clarksburg<br />

Town Center.<br />

“Farmers markets provide a very<br />

important source of income for local<br />

farmers, while at the same time providing<br />

a relaxed community gathering<br />

place where residents can catch up<br />

with each other as they purchase farm<br />

fresh local products,” said Jeremy<br />

Criss, manager, Agricultural Services<br />

Division, Department of Economic<br />

Development. “Customers really enjoy<br />

having the opportunity to ask farmers<br />

how their products are grown and get<br />

first-hand advice on the best ways to<br />

prepare them.”<br />

For a complete listing of market<br />

locations, <strong>day</strong>s and hours of operation,<br />

and variety of produce and other<br />

goods available, go to www.<br />

montgomerycountymd.gov/<br />

farmersmarkets.<br />

SPRINGFIELD, VA<br />

GREATER SPRINGFIELD<br />

CHAMBER UNVEILS<br />

COMMUNITY FLAG<br />

<strong>The</strong> newly designed Greater<br />

Springfield community flag<br />

will be raised for the first time<br />

on Satur<strong>day</strong>, June 14, <strong>2008</strong> at<br />

10:00AM at the Springfield American<br />

Legion. <strong>The</strong> flag raising ceremony<br />

will be performed by members of Boy<br />

Scout Troop #881 under the direction<br />

of Mr. Bill Swarm. <strong>The</strong> American Legion<br />

is located at 6520 Amherst Avenue.<br />

<strong>The</strong> public is invited to attend.<br />

<strong>The</strong> flag was designed by Matthew<br />

Tiemann in conjunction with <strong>The</strong><br />

Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce’s<br />

50th anniversary celebration<br />

as the Chamber moves into its second<br />

half century of community service.<br />

Matthew, son of Michael and Cindy<br />

Tiemann, of Burke, Va., attended Braddock<br />

Secondary School and received a<br />

$1,000 scholarship for his winning design.<br />

<strong>The</strong> design contest was open to<br />

all school students, elementary through<br />

high school, residing or attending<br />

school in the Greater<br />

Springfield area. Over eighty (80)<br />

students submitted entries in the flag<br />

initiative competition.<br />

Elements of the flag include the<br />

white graphic encircling a blue field<br />

framed in green. <strong>The</strong> center white outline<br />

reflects the Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly,<br />

the official Virginia Commonwealth<br />

symbol, as well as reflecting<br />

the Springfield crossroads and interchange<br />

of 3 major highways. <strong>The</strong> blue<br />

field represents Greater Springfield’s<br />

80 square mile sphere of influence.<br />

Flag colors are blue for fidelity, green<br />

for suburban landscape and white for<br />

purity.<br />

Flags are available at the Greater<br />

Springfield Chamber of Commerce,<br />

6434 Brandon Avenue, Suite 3-A. For<br />

more information call 703-866-3500.<br />

10 THE METRO HERALD


EDUCATION<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

PITNEY BOWES AND WNBA TEAM UP ON<br />

NATIONAL LITERACY PROGRAM<br />

Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI),<br />

the world’s leading mailstream<br />

technology company, and the<br />

Women’s National Basketball Association<br />

(WNBA) are coming together to<br />

raise awareness and funding for literacy<br />

across the United States. Six<br />

WNBA teams will participate in the<br />

season-long initiative to engage fans<br />

while raising funds for local, community-based<br />

literacy programs. Pitney<br />

Bowes’s participation with the WNBA<br />

will help build or renovate a Reading<br />

and Learning Center at the end of the<br />

season in the community of the team<br />

that raises the most funds for literacy.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun,<br />

Los Angeles Sparks, New York Liberty,<br />

Seattle Storm and Washington Mystics<br />

are the six participating WNBA teams in<br />

the national literacy program. Each<br />

team will kick-off a local literacy program<br />

when the WNBA season starts in<br />

May. Fundraising efforts will include a<br />

donation supporting literacy when fans<br />

purchase special tickets, as well as additional<br />

activities. Fans who participate in<br />

the program will be seated in a special<br />

section at designated homegames and<br />

kids will also have opportunities to participate<br />

in reading sessions with WNBA<br />

players at “Reading Time Out” events.<br />

Pitney Bowes will also support the<br />

WNBA’s Read to Achieve events<br />

throughout the season with the six participating<br />

teams. Read to Achieve is a<br />

year-round, league-wide initiative that<br />

promotes the value of reading and online<br />

literacy and encourages families<br />

and adults to read regularly with young<br />

children.<br />

To introduce the national literacy<br />

program, Pitney Bowes and the<br />

WNBA are holding a Youth Reading<br />

Rally in Tampa, Florida to<strong>day</strong> with<br />

young students from Boys & Girls<br />

Clubs of Greater Tampa. Participants<br />

will include a WNBA legend and current<br />

players, local dignitaries, and<br />

WNBA and Pitney Bowes executives.<br />

<strong>The</strong> event will be held at a local Reading<br />

Is Fundamental (RIF) location.<br />

“Reading is the foundation upon<br />

which all other learning is based and<br />

having this foundation can help prepare<br />

children with the skills necessary to succeed<br />

in school and outside of school,”<br />

said Juanita James, Chief Communications<br />

Officer, Pitney Bowes. “We are delighted<br />

to work with the WNBA, its<br />

local teams and RIF to help educate<br />

youth around the country on the importance<br />

of reading and literacy.”<br />

“<strong>The</strong> WNBA is pleased to work<br />

with Pitney Bowes as we align our<br />

commitment to improving the lives of<br />

our youth,” said WNBA President<br />

Donna Orender. “Through this new<br />

literacy program, our young fans will<br />

have a great opportunity to interact<br />

with their favorite WNBA stars and at<br />

the same time, learn about the importance<br />

of education and reading.”<br />

For additional information on the<br />

Pitney Bowes and WNBA literacy program,<br />

visit: www.readingisyourticket.<br />

com. For more information on the<br />

WNBA visit www.wnba.com.<br />

GAR-FIELD HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT<br />

SELECTED TO ATTEND CONGRESSIONAL<br />

STUDENT LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE<br />

Eduardo Vazquez, a sophomore<br />

at Gar-Field High School, has<br />

been selected to attend the<br />

<strong>2008</strong> Congressional Student Leadership<br />

Conference (CSLC) on Defense &<br />

Military Strategy, sponsored by<br />

LeadAmerica. <strong>The</strong> CSLC is a collegeaccredited<br />

invitational leadership program<br />

for academically talented and<br />

promising young leaders from across<br />

the United States and internationally.<br />

Eduardo will join other high school<br />

students with exceptional records of<br />

academic achievement and extracurricular<br />

or community involvement who<br />

are invited to participate.<br />

<strong>The</strong> CSLC on Defense & Military<br />

Strategy is a 10-<strong>day</strong> leadership program<br />

in which students learn to plan<br />

and execute strategic military operations.<br />

In a hands-on learning environment,<br />

Eduardo and fellow students will<br />

put their tactical skills into action in a<br />

paintball simulation in which they will<br />

hone their teamwork and personal<br />

leadership skills.<br />

<strong>The</strong> CSLC on Defense & Military<br />

Strategy is held at the Military College<br />

of Georgia at North Georgia College<br />

and State University in Dahlonega,<br />

GA. <strong>The</strong> conference includes military<br />

and confidence-building exercises and<br />

briefings and discussions with military<br />

leaders, strategists and veterans.<br />

“Leadership can make important<br />

differences in the lives of teenagers - in<br />

their academic and personal performance,<br />

in their acceptance to the college<br />

of their choice, and in their level of<br />

focus, passion and purpose,” says<br />

Chris M. Salamone, Esq., Founder and<br />

Executive Director of LeadAmerica.<br />

“It is the key to what they do with their<br />

lives and how well they do it. In<br />

to<strong>day</strong>’s world, it is imperative that we<br />

nurture leadership potential from a<br />

very young age.”<br />

“Since 1989 I have had the privilege<br />

of seeing more than 60,000 exceptional<br />

students from over 51 countries learn<br />

first-hand about leadership and explore<br />

its role in a variety of educational disciplines.<br />

It’s my sincere hope that<br />

LeadAmerica will give young leaders<br />

the skills to help them along the road<br />

toward a successful and rewarding life<br />

of leadership,” says Salamone.<br />

LeadAmerica is the nation’s premier<br />

youth leadership organization.<br />

With a commitment to providing quality<br />

leadership education, LeadAmerica<br />

empowers teenage leaders and instills<br />

in them ethical and principled leadership<br />

values, attitudes and skills. Each<br />

of its high school conferences is college-accredited<br />

and its programs are<br />

approved activities of the National Association<br />

of Secondary School Principals.<br />

LeadAmerica sponsors the Congressional<br />

Student Leadership<br />

Conference for high school students,<br />

the National Junior Leaders Conference<br />

for middle and junior high school<br />

students, Ambassadors Abroad international<br />

study programs in China, Australia<br />

and Europe, and Washington<br />

Summer Scholars, a college-level academic<br />

program held in partnership<br />

with American University.<br />

Further information on LeadAmerica<br />

and the CSLC can be found at<br />

www.lead-america.org or by calling<br />

866-FYI.LEAD (394-5323).<br />

DDOT SCHOOL TRANSIT SUBSIDY<br />

PROGRAM INFORMATION<br />

<strong>The</strong> District Department of Transportation (DDOT) would like to remind<br />

DC residents of the following with regard to the School Transit<br />

Subsidy Program.<br />

District law mandates that in order for students to receive discounted<br />

travel on <strong>Metro</strong>bus and <strong>Metro</strong>rail they must meet all of the following three<br />

qualifications:<br />

• Be under 19 years of age with the exception of student with disabilities<br />

who are eligible until 22 years of age.<br />

• Be a resident of the District of Columbia.<br />

• Be enrolled in an elementary or secondary public, charter, private or<br />

parochial school that is located in the District of Columbia.<br />

All students and/or parents must obtain a Student Travel Application from<br />

their school before coming to DDOT. (Travel Card Applications are no longer<br />

given at DDOT’s School Transit Subsidy Office.)<br />

Have your Student Travel Application signed, dated and stamped by your<br />

school principal before you arrive at DDOT, Mass Transit Administration.<br />

Bring all completed applications to the following address for processing:<br />

DDOT, Mass Transit Administration; 2217 14th Street NW; 2nd Floor (Near the<br />

intersection of U Street and Florida Avenue NW); 202-673-1740;<br />

Mon<strong>day</strong>–Fri<strong>day</strong> 8:15am–4:45pm; Wednes<strong>day</strong>s 8:15am–7:00pm (June-July)<br />

Students who are working Summer Jobs are not qualified to use the<br />

School Transit Subsidy Program during the summer months.<br />

If you meet the above criteria, follow the steps above and bring your<br />

signed, dated and stamped application to DDOT’s School Transit Subsidy<br />

Office. If you have questions or concerns please contact Ms. Nancy Green-<br />

Johnson at 202-673-1742.<br />

JOIN THE<br />

ADVENTURE AND<br />

EXPERIENCE THE<br />

WORLD WITHOUT<br />

LEAVING<br />

YOUR HOME<br />

Hosting a high school exchange<br />

student is like<br />

bringing the world to your<br />

doorstep. Foundation for Intercultural<br />

Travel (FIT), a State Department<br />

designated exchange visitor<br />

program is currently matching international<br />

students, ages 15 to 18<br />

with host families in this area.<br />

Families of all “types” are eligible<br />

to host, retired couples to single<br />

parent families. Not only two parent<br />

families have enjoyed hosting<br />

an international son or daughter.<br />

Students arrive approximately<br />

one week before your school’s start<br />

date, and bring their own spending<br />

money for clothes, entertainment<br />

and other expenses. <strong>The</strong>y have their<br />

own medical insurance. Most importantly,<br />

they bring a sincere desire<br />

to become part of your family.<br />

Host families agree to include<br />

their student as a family member.<br />

We have one semester, as well as full<br />

academic year students. All students<br />

speak English and will be arriving<br />

from Germany, Brazil, Denmark,<br />

Spain and various other countries!<br />

For more information about<br />

hosting a student, or joining our<br />

team of local area representatives,<br />

without any obligation, please call<br />

Foundation for Intercultural travel-<br />

Maryann at 1-877-439-7862.<br />

THE METRO HERALD 11


FATHER’S DAY <strong>2008</strong><br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

13-YEAR-OLD ALONG WITH SIX SIBLINGS<br />

DEVELOP A WEBSITE<br />

IN HONOR OF THEIR FATHER<br />

“Children’s children are the crown of<br />

old men; and the glory of children are<br />

their fathers”—Proverbs 17:6<br />

Seven children, ranging in age<br />

from 4-17, with one of the middle<br />

children, Danita Whyte, age<br />

13, leading the pack and actually designing<br />

the beautiful website, as a tribute<br />

to their father, national bestselling<br />

author, Daniel Whyte III, are pleased to<br />

announce, just in time for Father’s Day,<br />

the launching of their new website,<br />

www.DearPapa.org. DearPapa. org is<br />

dedicated, not only to their father, but to<br />

the thousands of fathers around the<br />

world who love and sacrifice for their<br />

children and who know the value of<br />

spending quantity and quality time with<br />

their children.<br />

It is their hope and prayer that this<br />

website will help be a voice for the<br />

thousands of other children who love<br />

and honor their fathers as well. <strong>The</strong><br />

seven Whyte children: Daniella, Daniel<br />

IV, Danita, Danae`, Daniqua, Danyel,<br />

and Danyelle believe that the best gift<br />

that you can give your father is a personal<br />

note or letter from your heart.<br />

<strong>The</strong>y believe and their father believes<br />

that those written words mean more to a<br />

father than anything that you can give<br />

him or do for him. Mrs. Meriqua<br />

Whyte, the wife of Daniel Whyte and<br />

the mother of all seven children, states:<br />

“This is truly a labor of love and outpouring<br />

of affection from the hearts of<br />

these children for their father, and he is<br />

very much deserving of their love,<br />

honor, and respect because he is the<br />

most loving, caring, and attentive father<br />

that I have ever seen in my life.<br />

And his love is not always shown by<br />

praising them and giving them what<br />

they want, but admonishing them and<br />

chastising them when they are wrong.”<br />

DearPapa.org is a Christian-based<br />

site that rests upon the scriptures found<br />

in the Old and New Testament of the<br />

Holy Bible: “Honor thy father and thy<br />

mother: that thy <strong>day</strong>s may be long upon<br />

the land which the Lord thy God giveth<br />

thee”—Exodus 20:12. “Honour thy father<br />

and mother; which is the first commandment<br />

with promise; That it may be<br />

well with thee, and thou mayest live<br />

long on the earth”—Ephesians 6:2-3.<br />

With beautifully designed pages and<br />

captivating artwork, the website also includes<br />

several letters and poems that the<br />

children have written to their father<br />

since they have been able to write, tips<br />

on celebrating Father’s Day, quotes, and<br />

gift ideas for Father’s Day other than<br />

the greatest gift of all which is a personal<br />

heartfelt letter to him on Father’s<br />

Day. Other children are also invited to<br />

write a special note to their Father via<br />

the DearPapa.org message board for<br />

their father to read on Father’s Day as<br />

well.<br />

Visit www.DearPapa.org to find out<br />

ways your child can contribute to this<br />

special website in honor of his or her father.<br />

Or visit www.DearPapa. org with<br />

your father or someone else’s father just<br />

to be an encouragement to him.<br />

<strong>The</strong> creators of this website are authors<br />

themselves: Danita (13),<br />

Danae`(11), Daniqua (9) and Danyelle<br />

(4) are the authors of the Amazon.com<br />

bestselling book (in the Girls Nonfiction<br />

category) <strong>The</strong> Virtuous Girl.<br />

Daniella (17) is the author of the new<br />

book <strong>The</strong> Girl God Wants. Daniel IV<br />

(15) and Danyel (6) are the authors of<br />

Letters to Young Boys. All their books<br />

can be bought from Amazon.com or<br />

wherever fine books are sold.<br />

FATHER’S DAY OPEN HOUSE AT<br />

FRIENDSHIP FIREHOUSE<br />

<strong>The</strong> Friendship Firehouse is offering special tours for fathers on<br />

Father’s Day. On Sun<strong>day</strong>, June 15, from 1p.m. to 4p.m.,<br />

Friendship Veterans Fire Engine Association, one of America’s<br />

oldest fire service organizations, will make every visiting father an honorary<br />

Chief of the Friendship Fire Company Bucket Brigade. Every dad,<br />

with his children, will receive a certificate, get to ring the fire bell, and<br />

have his picture taken with the Friendship fire engine.<br />

Friendship Firehouse Museum is located at 107 South Alfred Street<br />

in Old Town Alexandria. Friendship Firehouse is open Fri<strong>day</strong>s and<br />

Satur<strong>day</strong>s from 10a.m. to 4p.m. and Sun<strong>day</strong>s from 1p.m. to 4p.m.<br />

For more information, call 703-838-3891 or visit www.<br />

friendshipfirehouse.org.<br />

FIRST ANNUAL MALE EXHALE HITS NATION’S CAPITAL<br />

AND BALTIMORE ON FATHER’S DAY WEEKEND<br />

Urban Film Series announced recently<br />

that the nation’s First<br />

Annual Father’s Day Weekend<br />

Male Exhale will be held on June 13th,<br />

at Baltimore’s Lyric Opera House and<br />

on June 15th at D.C.’s historic Lincoln<br />

<strong>The</strong>atre. <strong>The</strong> event includes a panel discussion,<br />

the African-American Film<br />

Critics Association’s Top Two Independent<br />

Films, Tim Alexander’s Diary of A<br />

Tired Black Man (top independent) and<br />

Janks Morton’s What Black Men Think<br />

(top documentary), and a special guest<br />

appearance by Celebrity author Jewel<br />

Woods (Don’t Blame It On Rio: <strong>The</strong><br />

Real Deal Why Men Go To Brazil for S-<br />

e-x) which was recently featured in<br />

Essence and Ebony magazines. Ticket<br />

range from $18.50 to $27.50, and are<br />

available at theatre box offices,<br />

TicketMaster.com, and all local TicketMaster<br />

locations. Proceeds of the<br />

event will be used to fund Next Generation<br />

Awareness Foundation’s<br />

(“NGAF”) “Generation Next” children’s<br />

film and education festival and<br />

NGAF’s Health and Wellness Film<br />

Festival.<br />

Filmmakers Tim Alexander and<br />

Janks Morton and author Jewel Woods<br />

are available for interviews and will be<br />

on-hand at the event to sign copies of<br />

their works.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Urban Film Series is a programmatic<br />

arm of NGAF, a 501c3 non-profit<br />

organization whose mission is connect<br />

urban communities with history and<br />

progressive cinema, and provide exposure<br />

of the arts and the motion picture<br />

industry to many communities across<br />

the United States. <strong>The</strong> Urban Film Series<br />

also produces the annual Black<br />

Docs Film Series, Urban Film Series<br />

Tour, and Black History Month Film &<br />

Discussion Series, and has received well<br />

over 700 films from across the world for<br />

its various film-related programs.<br />

Events take place on June 13th at<br />

7pm in Baltimore at the Lyric Opera<br />

House, 140 West Mount Royal Avenue,<br />

Baltimore, Maryland; and on<br />

June 15th at 5pm in Washington, DC<br />

at the Lincoln <strong>The</strong>atre, 1215 U Street,<br />

NW, Washington, DC.<br />

Tickets: MUST purchase in advance<br />

at UrbanFilmSeries.com, for<br />

General ($12), VIP ($16). General admission<br />

tickets will also be made<br />

available at Landmark <strong>The</strong>atre, as<br />

available. Featuring Q&A with the<br />

filmmaker Tim Alexander team and<br />

members of the cast.<br />

REAL MEN COOK® KICKS OFF 19TH ANNUAL<br />

FATHER’S DAY CELEBRATION IN ELEVEN CITIES<br />

Senator Barack Obama serves up a dish<br />

during a recent Real Men Cook celebration.<br />

Real Men Cook, America’s premiere<br />

urban Father’s Day family<br />

tradition that pays tribute to the<br />

family, will be held in 11 cities on Father<br />

Day, June 15, <strong>2008</strong>. Over 30,000 people<br />

are expected to attend the celebrations,<br />

which will be held simultaneously in Atlanta,<br />

Chicago, Benton Harbor (MI),<br />

Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles,<br />

New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and<br />

Washington, DC. Presented by Real Men<br />

Charities, the celebrations provide a platform<br />

where “real men” from all walks of<br />

life are honored for demonstrating extraordinary<br />

commitment to their families<br />

and communities. Since its inception, the<br />

event has raised over $1 million for participating<br />

charities whose missions reflect<br />

Real Men Cook’s resolve to uplift<br />

the community.<br />

Hailed as the “largest, longestrunning<br />

and most anticipated Father’s<br />

Day celebration of its kind,” this muchanticipated<br />

annual food-tasting celebration<br />

features approximately 1,000 volunteer<br />

chefs preparing their favorite dishes<br />

for the more than 30,000 people expected<br />

to attend. <strong>The</strong> cooks are committed<br />

dads and men from all walks of life<br />

and include entertainers, athletes, ministers,<br />

media personalities, politicians and<br />

other hard-working men who are bound<br />

by their resolve to uplift the family.<br />

Senator Barack Obama, National<br />

Urban League President Marc Morial,<br />

the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Eddie and Gerald<br />

Levert, Tom Joyner, J. Anthony<br />

Brown, Congressman John Conyers,<br />

boxing champion Lenox Lewis, TV host<br />

John Salley, music industry icons Isaac<br />

Hayes, and Damon Dash are among the<br />

men who have donned a Real Men Cook<br />

bandana and apron and served at this annual<br />

family celebration and food tasting<br />

fest, which is now in its 19th year.<br />

Real Men Cook is presented by Real<br />

Men Charities, a 501(c)(3) organization<br />

based in Chicago, which is on a national<br />

crusade to positively change the way the<br />

world views men in relationship to their<br />

families and the community and to transform<br />

how Father’s Day is celebrated.<br />

Another highlight of Real Men Cook<br />

events is informational pavilions, including<br />

the highly successful Real Men<br />

Charities Health & Wellness Pavilions<br />

featuring screenings, healthy foods, nutritional<br />

and fitness workshops. <strong>The</strong><br />

events also feature Kids Pavilions and<br />

the Real Men Read Pavilion, promoting<br />

literacy product demonstrations, raffles<br />

and other assorted fun activities for the<br />

entire family.<br />

Conceived and launched in Chicago<br />

in 1989 by entrepreneurs Yvette Moyo<br />

and Kofi Moyo, and produced by the<br />

marketing firm they founded, Resource<br />

Associates International, Ltd., the<br />

growth of Real Men Cook into a national<br />

celebration has also spawned success<br />

of branded products including Real<br />

Men Cook Sweet Potato Pound Cake®,<br />

a boxed gourmet cake mix and Real<br />

Men Cook Coffee, introduced in 2007,<br />

which is available on line at www.<br />

realmencook.com. <strong>The</strong> book, REAL<br />

MEN COOK, published by Simon &<br />

Schuster, is now in paperback, by popular<br />

demand. It features a foreword, including<br />

U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s<br />

memories of attending the events with<br />

his family, and highlights family celebration<br />

memories from participants in<br />

Real Men Cook and a compilation of<br />

100 favorite event recipes.<br />

Among the beneficiary charities of<br />

the <strong>2008</strong> celebration are Community<br />

Mental Health Council, South Side<br />

YMCA, Community in Schools,<br />

FACES Cancer, New York City Mission<br />

Society, Challenger’s Boys & Girls<br />

Club and Real Men Charities, Inc. Past<br />

beneficiary organizations include the<br />

Tom Joyner Foundation, Boys & Girls<br />

Clubs, YMCAs, Museums, Blood<br />

Banks and food shelters.<br />

Tickets are available nationwide<br />

through www.TicketAnnex.com<br />

For more information, contact Real<br />

Men Cook at 773-651-8008 ext 5 or<br />

visit www.realmencook.com<br />

<strong>The</strong> Washington, DC celebration<br />

takes place at the Historical Society of<br />

Washington DC located at <strong>The</strong> Old<br />

Carnegie Library Building on K Street,<br />

NW between 7th and 9th Streets, NW,<br />

Washington, DC. <strong>The</strong> event runs from<br />

3:00-6:00PM on Father’s Day, June<br />

15, <strong>2008</strong>. Tickets are available nationwide<br />

through www.TicketAnnex.com.<br />

Advance ticket prices in all cities are<br />

$20 Adult/$10 child.<br />

BOOKS AVAILABLE AT<br />

WWW.REALMENCOOK.COM<br />

Real Men Cook: 100 Recipes for<br />

Family Celebrations (soft copy)<br />

(shipping and handling included)—<br />

$23.00<br />

Real Men Cook: 100 Recipes for<br />

Family Celebrations with Foreword by<br />

US Senator Barack Obama who has<br />

participated in the event with his family<br />

for years. Some of the remarkable annual<br />

Real Men Cook volunteers have<br />

come forward to express their love of<br />

cooking, family, and community by<br />

sharing more than one hundred delectable<br />

recipes (some handed down over<br />

the generations) and the memories that<br />

inspire them to live as Real Men.<br />

Real Men Cook: Rites, Rituals, and<br />

Recipes for Living (hard copy) (shipping<br />

and handling included)—$29.00<br />

In Real Men Cook, the men share<br />

more than one hundred mouthwatering,<br />

finger-lickin'-good recipes—the kind of<br />

recipes that make the Father's Day event<br />

a must-attend for all who appreciate a<br />

good plate of food. Equally important,<br />

they open their hearts, offering memories<br />

of growing up, tales of Real Men<br />

Cook events, and wisdom for the next<br />

generation. A delicious, heartwarming<br />

collection of soul-stirring stories and<br />

more than one hundred soul-satisfying<br />

recipes from real men who do it in the<br />

kitchen.<br />

PEPSI CELEBRATES AFRICAN AMERICAN<br />

FATHERS IN JUNE<br />

Pepsi is celebrating Father’s Day and the essential role of fathers and father<br />

figures in the African-American community with “Four Weeks For<br />

Father!,” a free booklet available at www.pepsigreatfathers.com. <strong>The</strong><br />

booklet features words of wisdom from notable African-American dads, including<br />

Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker, Grammy Award-winning<br />

musical artist Common, former professional football player Jerry Rice, acclaimed<br />

actor Mekhi Phifer and Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL),<br />

among others.<br />

Pepsi partnered with the Howard University Division of Fine Arts to gather<br />

the four contemporary and engaging images featured in the “Four Weeks For<br />

Father!” booklet. Student artists at the university submitted drawings for the<br />

project and graduating senior, Nia Lindsey, 22, was chosen as the winner. Nia<br />

was awarded the $5,000 grand prize and her designs are featured on the Web<br />

site as well as throughout the booklet. Three first prize winners received a $500<br />

gift certificate and are also highlighted in “Four Weeks For Father!”<br />

“We’re proud to honor the important role of fathers in the community this<br />

month,” said Marcus Minifee, senior manager of multicultural marketing,<br />

Pepsi-Cola North America. “A number of outstanding men contributed to ‘Four<br />

Weeks For Father!’ and we thank them for sharing their thoughts and experiences.”<br />

In recognition of Father’s Day, Pepsi is making a donation to the United<br />

Negro College Fund to help support the dreams of young men and women.<br />

Consumers may also go to www.pepsigreatfathers.com to submit essays<br />

about their own fathers with the chance to win $500, as well as create a unique<br />

Father’s Day e-card.<br />

Pepsi is also partnering with the National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI), an organization<br />

dedicated to ensuring that all children have involved, responsible<br />

and committed fathers in their lives. NFI will help drive awareness of the<br />

“Four Weeks For Father!” booklet through its Web site, fatherhood. org, and<br />

its weekly Dad E-mail.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Pepsi “Four Weeks For Father!” free booklet will also be available at a<br />

number of retail locations where Pepsi products are sold.<br />

For more information, go to www.pepsigreatfathers.com.<br />

12 THE METRO HERALD<br />

THE METRO HERALD 13


FATHER’S DAY <strong>2008</strong><br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

AUTHOR AND POLICE OFFICER PENS HEARTFELT BOOK<br />

FOR HIS DAUGHTER<br />

Demitri Kornegay<br />

Demitri Kornegay, police officer<br />

in the Montgomery County,<br />

Maryland Police Department,<br />

realized that his life was in danger<br />

every <strong>day</strong> and he feared that he would<br />

not be able to share all of the knowledge<br />

that he had accumulated throughout<br />

his life with his daughter, and only<br />

child, Rhonda. Because of that, he<br />

began to write letters to his daughter on<br />

the important subjects of life including:<br />

God, Relationships, Love & Marriage,<br />

Decision Making, Dating, Dealing with<br />

Death, Handling Depression, etc.<br />

By Jane Hampton Cook<br />

As we celebrate Father’s Day,<br />

we can learn a lot about fatherhood<br />

from a man who was<br />

never a biological father yet was a father<br />

to untold millions. When our first<br />

U.S. president married the widow<br />

Martha Custis, he became a father to<br />

her children. However, he never sired<br />

a child, the likely result of small pox<br />

sterility. During the Revolutionary<br />

War, he took on a fatherly role, especially<br />

with three of his generals.<br />

Whether it’s 1778 or <strong>2008</strong>, George<br />

Washington’s relationships with his<br />

“sons” reveal some of fatherhood’s<br />

best qualities.<br />

Fathers know when to turn their<br />

children’s knack into know-how.<br />

Boston was in lock-down in 1775.<br />

Washington’s army surrounded the<br />

British-occupied town by land, but not<br />

by sea. Boston bookstore owner<br />

Henry Knox had read volumes on warfare.<br />

He offered to travel 200 miles in<br />

winter to New York’s Fort Ticonderoga<br />

to acquire weapons. Washington did<br />

what father’s do. He gave Knox a<br />

He compiled these letters into a<br />

book entitled Dear Rhonda: Life<br />

Lessons From a Father to His Daughter.<br />

What is so unique about this book<br />

is that the “chapters” remain in their<br />

letter format, thus keeping its original<br />

personal touch. This book targets<br />

young women ages 12–30. This book<br />

also encourages conversations between<br />

children and parents on the various<br />

topics addressed.<br />

Mr. Demitri C. Kornegay, is currently<br />

a lieutenant and a 25 year veteran<br />

with the Montgomery County Police<br />

Department in Montgomery<br />

County, Maryland. He is an ordained<br />

Baptist Deacon and has been mentoring<br />

young men for 30 years. This author<br />

of three books: <strong>The</strong> Kornegay<br />

Chronicles: From Servitude to Self-Reliance,<br />

Dear Rhonda: Life Lessons<br />

From a Father to His Daughter and<br />

Man Up! No Excuses—Do the Work!<br />

has appeared on such television and<br />

radio broadcasts as: “Good Morning<br />

America”, “<strong>The</strong> View”, “Fox Morning<br />

News”, “<strong>The</strong> Bernie McCain Show”,<br />

“<strong>The</strong> Donnie Simpson Show”, “<strong>The</strong><br />

Tavis Smiley Show”, and TV One’s<br />

“Black Men Revealed”. Mr. Kornegay<br />

is the 2007 recipient of the Gamma Pi<br />

(graduate) Chapter of Omega Psi Phi<br />

chance.<br />

Knox’s knack for inventory proved<br />

an asset. He transported sixty tons of<br />

artillery onto “forty-two exceedingly<br />

strong sleds” and “acquired eighty<br />

yoke of oxen to drag them.” Knox<br />

sent the inventory list ahead to Washington.<br />

<strong>The</strong> plan worked. Washington<br />

mounted the cannons on the highest<br />

point overlooking Boston’s harbor<br />

to control the sea. <strong>The</strong> redcoats retreated.<br />

Washington won.<br />

Fathers care about their children’s<br />

character. Of all his “boys,” Washington<br />

saw more of himself in the biological<br />

son of a Rhode Island iron foundry<br />

owner. Nathanael Greene may have<br />

been a mold-maker by trade, but he<br />

proved to be a mold-breaker in spirit.<br />

He rejected his father’s disdain for formal<br />

schooling and sought out a tutor.<br />

Although he came from a pacifist<br />

Quaker family, Greene readily embraced<br />

a musket. Perhaps because of<br />

his differences with his own dad,<br />

Greene reached out to Washington<br />

with son-like yearning for respect. He<br />

asked Washington for a promotion<br />

after the success in Boston.<br />

“I have ever found myself exceeding<br />

<strong>happy</strong> under your Excellency’s<br />

command. I wish my ability to deserve<br />

[a promotion] was equal to my<br />

inclination to merit. How far I have<br />

succeeded in my endeavors, I submit<br />

to your Excellency’s better judgment,”<br />

Greene humbly wrote.<br />

Washington gave him the promotion,<br />

along with opportunities to prove<br />

his moral fiber. He shared Greene’s<br />

grief over thousands who died or were<br />

captured at Fort Washington, a place<br />

Greene was convinced they could hold.<br />

As the war progressed, Washington realized<br />

Greene’s character was much<br />

like his own, a practical boldness<br />

molded by modesty and good manners.<br />

He finally convinced the Continental<br />

Congress to promote Greene to commander<br />

of the southern forces in 1780.<br />

Washington trusted Greene so much<br />

Fraternity, Inc.’s “Religious Leader of<br />

the Year” award. He resides in Maryland<br />

with his wife and daughter.<br />

For more information visit www.<br />

NeroKorn.com. Dear Rhonda is<br />

available wherever book are sold and<br />

at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.<br />

com, and BlackCBD.com.<br />

SALUTING FATHERHOOD FROM A FOUNDING FATHER<br />

BLACK FACT<br />

On June 13, 1990<br />

Bernadette Locke<br />

becomes the first<br />

female on-court<br />

coach when she is<br />

named assistant<br />

coach of the<br />

University of<br />

Kentucky men’s<br />

basketball team.<br />

that he “willed” Greene as the one to<br />

take over as commander-in-chief if<br />

Washington died. Had Greene not<br />

died of heatstroke a few years after the<br />

revolution, President Washington<br />

might have named Greene as Secretary<br />

of War. <strong>The</strong> nod went to Knox instead.<br />

Fathers are tender protectors.<br />

Washington was no exception. <strong>The</strong> unabashed<br />

zeal of the Marquis de<br />

Lafayette caught Washington’s eye the<br />

moment he saw the nineteen-year-old<br />

at a dinner party in July 1777. This<br />

French musketeer had joined the Continental<br />

Army as an honorary general,<br />

a volunteer who had come to “learn,<br />

not teach.” When Washington heard<br />

that Lafayette snuck out of France<br />

against the king’s personal orders and<br />

paid his own way to join America’s<br />

fight, his protective instincts kicked in.<br />

He immediately invited the lad to stay<br />

in his family’s quarters.<br />

On September 11, 1777, Lafayette<br />

was wounded in battle. Washington<br />

told the doctors to take good care of him<br />

because he “loved him like a son.” <strong>The</strong><br />

son later protected the father. Lafayette<br />

warned Washington of another general’s<br />

plan to take over as commanderin-chief.<br />

Washington put the kibosh on<br />

the cabal.<br />

At war’s end, Lafayette gave Washington<br />

his honest opinion. He knew<br />

“Dad” longed to settle the score with the<br />

British in New York, the place were<br />

Washington had suffered a horrific defeat.<br />

Lafayette and others advised Washington<br />

to try sealing the deal at a different<br />

York—Virginia’s Yorktown. <strong>The</strong><br />

father listened. <strong>The</strong> resulting victory<br />

was the revolution’s last major battle.<br />

Washington may not have been a biological<br />

father, but his ability to listen<br />

and develop his sons’ know-how and<br />

character while keeping a protective<br />

eye on them is the mark of true fatherhood,<br />

a salute to fathers everywhere<br />

from the father of our nation. Happy<br />

Father’s Day.<br />

TWO MARYLAND MEN INCREASE<br />

FATHERS’ INVOLVEMENT<br />

IN CHILDRENS’ EDUCATION<br />

Patrick Gerdes and Morgan<br />

Thomas, co-presidents of the<br />

Fathers’ Circle at Kingsview<br />

Middle School (KMS) in Germantown,<br />

Maryland, are the focus of a<br />

month-long WETA Hometown Heroes<br />

profile airing in June on WETA TV 26.<br />

WETA selected Gerdes and Thomas<br />

for their instrumental work in increasing<br />

the participation of fathers in their<br />

students’ education and demonstrably<br />

improving the academic environment<br />

at KMS.<br />

<strong>The</strong> KMS Fathers’ Circle was born<br />

in January 2006, when school administers<br />

sought to address the situation of<br />

an increasingly high number of black<br />

male students being suspended, becoming<br />

academically ineligible to<br />

graduate, and lagging in scores on the<br />

Maryland State Assessment tests.<br />

Principal Dennis Queen and Assistant<br />

Principal Deborah R. Higdon invited<br />

the fathers of black males to a meeting<br />

to ask for their help; Gerdes and<br />

Thomas attended, and this meeting and<br />

their work led to the formation of the<br />

KMS Fathers’ Circle. This group of<br />

KMS fathers and others are committed<br />

to working with the administration and<br />

staff to improve the performance and<br />

experience of KMS students.<br />

Gerdes and Thomas, through their<br />

work with the Fathers’ Circle, have<br />

raised the academic success of students<br />

at KMS. Since its inception, there has<br />

been an increase in homework completion,<br />

class participation and the number<br />

of black males on the honor roll, and a<br />

decrease in discipline referrals and suspensions<br />

at the schools. <strong>The</strong> Fathers’<br />

Circle encourages a proactive—as opposed<br />

to reactive—philosophy, organizing<br />

monthly meetings for the group to<br />

discuss concerns and planning regular<br />

activities that promote positive paternal<br />

and general familial involvement in education.<br />

<strong>The</strong>se events include Family<br />

Math/Literacy Nights with more than<br />

300 attendees, college visits for the entire<br />

eighth grade class, an 8th Grade<br />

Career Day, tours and field trips, and<br />

the annual Students vs. Parents Basketball<br />

Game/Literacy Event.<br />

“<strong>The</strong> increased presence and involvement<br />

of fathers at Kingsview has<br />

been a key element in reducing conflicts<br />

and the suspension rates of boys,<br />

and most importantly it has reinforced<br />

the positive messages to our kids that<br />

their dads—as well as their moms—are<br />

committed to work with school staff to<br />

give them the best learning opportunities,”<br />

said Gerdes. “<strong>The</strong> Fathers’ Circle<br />

sought to live by the wise saying that ‘it<br />

takes a village to raise a child’ by bringing<br />

some male role models to the<br />

school to impact the environment for<br />

all kids, not just our own.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> Fathers’ Circle has also motivated<br />

attendance at PTSA meetings,<br />

with an 80 to 100% participation increase<br />

this year. Individually, both<br />

Gerdes and Thomas have inspired<br />

other local fathers to join the Fathers’<br />

Circle, and they were both instrumental<br />

in KMS receiving a $10,000 grant<br />

from America Online (AOL) to help<br />

fund Fathers’ Circle, which was one of<br />

the goals first established by the group.<br />

For more information visit<br />

montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/<br />

kingsviewms or weta.org/community.<br />

FREE FATHER’S DAY TOURS<br />

AT GADSBY’S TAVERN<br />

& APOTHECARY MUSEUMS<br />

Two Alexandria museums, Gadsby’s Tavern Museum and the Stabler-<br />

Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, are pleased to offer free tours on<br />

Father’s Day for all visiting fathers! Treat Dad to a tour of these Old<br />

Town historic sites on Sun<strong>day</strong>, June 15, from noon to 5:00PM.<br />

At Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, Dad can tour the historic tavern and City<br />

Hotel made famous by John Gadsby. Notable visitors include the “Father of<br />

our Country” George Washington, as well as Thomas Jefferson and John<br />

Adams. At the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, Dad will enjoy the<br />

outstanding collection of medicinal herbs, shop furnishings, apothecary bottles<br />

and equipment, many still in their original location. Fathers can tour both<br />

museums for free! Admission is $4 for all other adults and $2 for children<br />

(ages 11-17).<br />

And while in Old Town, venture to the Waterfront and experience<br />

HistoricAlexandriALIVE, where history comes to life on the City’s streets.<br />

Visit www.historicalexandria.org for the schedule of the <strong>day</strong>.<br />

Gadsby’s Tavern Museum is located at 134 North Royal Street and the<br />

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum is at located 105-107 South Fairfax<br />

Street. For more information, please call 703-838-4242 or visit www.<br />

gadsbystavern.org.<br />

2ND ANNUAL<br />

FATHER & DAUGHTER DANCE<br />

<strong>The</strong> City’ Parks and Recreation Department will help you celebrate<br />

Father’s <strong>day</strong> this year in a very special way! 6:00–9:00 pm June<br />

14, Old Town Hall, 3999 University Drive, Fairfax will hold its<br />

2nd Annual Father & Daughter dance with games, prizes and good food,<br />

a great evening out—suitable for girls age 4yrs and up—what a special<br />

treat for them to bring their special Dad, Grandad, brother or special fellow<br />

Dress to impress<br />

$20 per couple in advance or $30 at the door. Check www.fairfaxva.gov<br />

or call 703-385-7858 for more information.<br />

14 THE METRO HERALD


ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

SOURCE FESTIVAL’S 10-MINUTE PLAYS<br />

<strong>The</strong> Cultural Development Corporation<br />

(CuDC) is pleased to<br />

announce the 10-Minute Plays<br />

selected for production during the first<br />

week of the Source Festival. <strong>The</strong> festival<br />

runs from June 21 until July 13,<br />

<strong>2008</strong> and the 10-Minute Plays will run<br />

from June 23 through June 29. All<br />

plays will be world premieres directed<br />

by Washington area artistic directors.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Source Festival seeks to unite<br />

DC artists by providing opportunities<br />

for new artistic challenges and collaborations<br />

while presenting timely, cutting-edge<br />

performances for greater DC<br />

audiences. <strong>The</strong> Source Festival offers<br />

audiences the unique opportunity to<br />

experience the synergy between established<br />

and emerging artists of the DC<br />

performing arts community. In addition<br />

to the 10-Minute Plays, the festival<br />

features one-act plays, a 24-hour<br />

performance-building experience and a<br />

range of interdisciplinary work.<br />

Group A Performs June 23rd, 26th<br />

and 28th at 8pm; 29th at 2pm:<br />

Hosted by Master of Ceremonies<br />

Matthew Holtzclaw (Magician)<br />

• <strong>The</strong> Great White Undulating Orb in<br />

the Bed Between Us by Ari Roth<br />

and Directed by Deborah Kirby<br />

• Maintenance by Nathan Mcgaughey<br />

and Directed by Blake Robison<br />

• NOLA by Rick Parker and Directed<br />

by Michael Bobbitt<br />

• Painting a Room by Dano Madden<br />

and Directed by Jenny McConnell<br />

Fredrick<br />

• <strong>The</strong> Two Marys by Heather McDonald<br />

and Directed by Joy Zinoman<br />

• Urashima Taro by Francesca Sanders<br />

and Directed by Chrisopher Gallu<br />

• Urban Legend by Mike Batistick<br />

and Directed by Gregg Henry<br />

• <strong>The</strong> Wild Life by Thomas Higgins<br />

and Directed by Mark Rhea<br />

Group B Performs June 24th at<br />

8pm; 26th at 11pm; 27th at 8pm;<br />

28th at 5pm: Hosted by Master of<br />

Ceremonies Regie Cabico (Slam Poet/<br />

Spoken Word Artist)<br />

• Empties by Matt Mayerchak and<br />

Directed by Howard Shalwitz<br />

• How Much for This by Keith Bridges<br />

and Directed by Karen Berman<br />

• Magnolia Day by Sheri Graubert<br />

and Directed by Jeffery Johnson<br />

• Pentimento by Jon Haller and Directed<br />

by Michael Baron<br />

• Running in Circles Screaming by<br />

Jeni Mahoney and Directed by Paul<br />

Douglas Michnewicz<br />

• What Remains by Libby Leonard<br />

and Directed by John MacDonald<br />

• Warriors by Renee Calarco and Directed<br />

by Christopher Henley<br />

• Writer’s Block by John-Paul Nickel<br />

and Directed by Paata Tsikurishvili<br />

• Yes to Everything by Phillip Dawkins<br />

and Directed by Linda Murray<br />

Group C Performs June 25th at<br />

8pm; 27th at 11pm; 28th at 2pm;<br />

29th at 8pm: Hosted by Master of Ceremonies<br />

Nick the 1 Da (Hip Hop DJ)<br />

• <strong>The</strong> Bed by Allyson Currin and Directed<br />

by Scott Fortier<br />

• First/Last by Aaron Levy and Directed<br />

by Robert McNamara<br />

• Dated: A Cautionary Tale by Ira<br />

Gamerman and Directed by<br />

Michael Dove<br />

• <strong>The</strong> Downtown Daylight Project by<br />

Daniel McCoy and Directed by<br />

Michael Kahn<br />

• <strong>The</strong> Rabbit and the Snake by Randy<br />

Baker and Directed by Mark Ramont<br />

• Tamed by Foster Solomon and Directed<br />

by Eric Schaeffer<br />

• ATaste of Heaven by Estep Nagy<br />

and Directed by Kathleen Akerley<br />

• Without Parachutes by Eric Levitz<br />

and Directed by Jack Marshall<br />

<strong>The</strong> Source <strong>The</strong>atre is located at<br />

1835 14th Street, NW, Washington,<br />

DC<br />

EVENTS AT THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY<br />

OF WASHINGTON, D.C.<br />

Satur<strong>day</strong>, June 21—1–3:30p.m. Family series—Quilting Circle; Historical<br />

Society of Washington, D.C.; 801 K St. NW<br />

Bring the entire family and learn to quilt. Beginners and returning quilters<br />

welcome. Washington’s Daughters of Dorcas (quilting guild) will<br />

teach participants the history and art of quilting. Each participant will<br />

learn basic quilting techniques and receive a start-up quilting kit to take home.<br />

Participants will also learn how to start a quilting circle. (Ages 8 to adults)<br />

Limit 30. RSVP@historydc.org or 202-383-1828. Registration is required:<br />

202-383-1828.<br />

Satur<strong>day</strong>, June 21—2p.m. Film Series—<strong>The</strong>re Was Always Sun Shinning<br />

Someplace: Life in the Negro Baseball League; 57 minutes. Black &<br />

White,1984; Admission free; Historical Society of Washington, DC; 801 K<br />

St. NW<br />

Narrated by James Earl Jones, this documentary features interviews with<br />

baseball Hall of Fame stars—Satchel Paige, James ‘Cool Papa’ Bell,<br />

Buck Leonard, Judy Johnson, Monte Irvin and Ray Dandridge. Praised<br />

by the national press, this compelling film chronicles the rich history of the<br />

Negro Baseball Leagues that flourished before Jackie Robinson integrated the<br />

major leagues in 1947. <strong>The</strong> exploits of these talented athletes during a time<br />

when baseball was a segregated sport are vividly brought to life.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re Was Always Sun Shining Someplace contains rare historical footage<br />

showing the ballplayers as they traveled the back roads of America, the<br />

Caribbean, Mexico, and Latin America. It is an unforgettable journey. (A<br />

program collaboration of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum<br />

and <strong>The</strong> Historical Society of Washington, D.C.) RSVP@historydc.org or<br />

202-383-1828.<br />

For the latest news in<br />

“ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT,”<br />

read <strong>The</strong> <strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Herald</strong>!<br />

<strong>The</strong> City of Fairfax Band, under<br />

the direction of Robert Pouliot,<br />

opened its <strong>2008</strong> Summer Concert<br />

Series on Sun<strong>day</strong>, June 1, at the<br />

Mason District Park in Annandale at<br />

7:30p.m. to an enthusiastic crowd of<br />

concert-goers. This nationally recognized<br />

symphonic band presented a<br />

mixed program of classical pieces,<br />

marches and Broadway tunes. A stirring<br />

rendition of America, the Beautiful,<br />

by Samuel Augustus Ward closed<br />

out the program. All Summer Concerts<br />

are FREE; bring a blanket or chair and<br />

a picnic basket. <strong>The</strong> concerts on this<br />

“Series at Sunset” weather permitting<br />

are as follows:<br />

Thurs<strong>day</strong>, June 19—City of Fairfax<br />

Band’s Alte Kameraden, German<br />

Band; 8:00p.m.; Veterans Amphitheater,<br />

City Hall Lawn; 10455 Armstrong<br />

Street, Fairfax, VA<br />

Thurs<strong>day</strong>, June 26—City of Fairfax<br />

Concert Band; 8:00p.m.; Veterans<br />

Amphitheater, City Hall Lawn; 10455<br />

Armstrong Street, Fairfax, VA<br />

Thurs<strong>day</strong>, July 3—City of Fairfax<br />

Band’s Saxophone Quartet; 8:00p.m.;<br />

Veterans Amphitheater, City Hall<br />

Lawn; 10455 Armstrong Street, Fairfax,<br />

VA<br />

Fri<strong>day</strong>, July 4—City of Fairfax<br />

Concert Band; 7:00p.m.; Independence<br />

Day Celebration; Fairfax High<br />

School Stadium, Fairfax, VA<br />

Thurs<strong>day</strong>, July 10—City of Fairfax<br />

Band’s Rebel Run Dixieland;<br />

8:00p.m.; Veterans Amphitheater, City<br />

Hall Lawn; 10455 Armstrong Street,<br />

Fairfax, VA<br />

Thurs<strong>day</strong>, July 17—City of Fairfax<br />

Concert Band Children’s Concert;<br />

VERIZON CENTER<br />

BRINGS THE<br />

EAGLES INDOORS<br />

Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe<br />

Walsh and Timothy B.<br />

Schmit are playing indoors<br />

this summer at Verizon Center located<br />

at 601 F Street, NW, on Satur<strong>day</strong>,<br />

July 26 at 8:00p.m; 202-661-<br />

5000; www.verizoncenter.com.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Eagles are touring in support of<br />

their double-disc album, Long Road<br />

Out of Eden, released last year. <strong>The</strong><br />

band is expected to feature some of<br />

their new hits on stage along with<br />

some classics, including “Witchy<br />

Woman”, “Take It Easy”, “Desperado”<br />

and “Hotel California”.<br />

Tickets for the Eagles are<br />

$188.00, $88.00 and $53.00 (plus<br />

applicable service charges) and go<br />

on sale Mon<strong>day</strong>, June 9 at<br />

10:00a.m. <strong>The</strong>re will be an eight<br />

ticket limit. A ticket lottery will be<br />

taking place at 8:00a.m. at the Verizon<br />

Center box office only, which<br />

allows each patron an equal opportunity<br />

at buying the best seats<br />

available during the on sale. No<br />

cameras or video taping will be allowed.<br />

Tickets will be available<br />

through all Ticketmaster outlets including<br />

the Verizon Center box office,<br />

online at www.ticketmaster.com<br />

and via Phonecharge at<br />

703-573-SEAT, 202-397-SEAT<br />

and 410-547-SEAT. Accessible<br />

seating is available for patrons<br />

with disabilities by calling 202-<br />

661-5065. For more information<br />

visit www.eaglesband.com or<br />

www.verizoncenter.com.<br />

CITY OF FAIRFAX BAND ANNOUNCES<br />

ITS <strong>2008</strong> SUMMER CONCERT SERIES<br />

8:00p.m.; Veterans Amphitheater, City<br />

Hall Lawn; 10455 Armstrong Street,<br />

Fairfax, VA—Free Ice Cream/Balloons—Guest<br />

Artist, John Lyon<br />

Thurs<strong>day</strong>, July 24—City of Fairfax<br />

Swing Band; 8:00p.m.; Veterans Amphitheater,<br />

City Hall Lawn; 10455<br />

Armstrong Street, Fairfax, VA<br />

Thurs<strong>day</strong>, July 31—City of Fairfax<br />

Concert Band; 8:00p.m.; Veterans<br />

Amphitheater, City Hall Lawn; 10455<br />

Armstrong Street, Fairfax, VA<br />

Coming to<br />

STRATHMORE®<br />

EARL KLUGH, GUITAR<br />

FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 8PM<br />

<strong>The</strong> perfect Fri<strong>day</strong> evening<br />

out: a mellow evening of<br />

fingerstyle jazz guitar with<br />

“one of the most highly<br />

esteemed jazz guitarists in<br />

the world” (Boston Globe)<br />

makes the stresses of the<br />

workweek disappear. Plus,<br />

the “Party on the Patio”<br />

begins at 6pm—beverages<br />

and light fare in the balmy<br />

summer air.<br />

TICKETS $45<br />

Fri<strong>day</strong>, Aug. 22—City of Fairfax<br />

Band’s Alte Kameraden, German<br />

Band; 7:30p.m.; Mason District Park<br />

Amphitheater; 6621 Columbia Pike,<br />

Annandale, VA<br />

Fri<strong>day</strong>, Aug. 29—City of Fairfax<br />

Band’s Alte Kameraden, German<br />

Band; 7:30p.m.; Lake Accotink Park,<br />

Springfield, VA<br />

For more information, visit www.<br />

fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/accotink<br />

SOUTH AFRICAN COMING OF AGE FILM<br />

WINS BEST DOCUMENTARY AT<br />

4TH ANNUAL AFRICAN ACADEMY<br />

AWARDS IN NIGERIA<br />

<strong>The</strong> South African documentary “DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC”,<br />

which tells the poignant coming of age story of two young men from<br />

Cape Town in pursuit of their dreams of becoming stage magicians,<br />

has been awarded Best Documentary at the Fourth Annual African Academy<br />

Awards in Nigeria. “DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC”, which had its North<br />

America premiere at the Pan African Film and Arts Festival in Los Angeles in<br />

February, was directed by Daniel Roth and was filmed in Cape Town, South<br />

Africa as a joint production with Movie Makers International and Jon<br />

Seidman.<br />

“I read an article in the paper about the students, and the College of Magic,<br />

and I just fell in love with the story,” commented the film’s director Daniel<br />

Roth. “I set out to make a hopeful, joyful movie about Africa and am truly<br />

thrilled that the Academy recognized the film.”<br />

Among the judges at this year’s African Academy Awards were African<br />

cinema experts Ayuko Babu, founder of the Pan African Film and Arts Festival,<br />

and Asantewe Olatunji, the festival’s general manager, who accepted the<br />

award on behalf of the Los Angeles based filmmakers.<br />

“We have known Daniel for several years now,” remarked Ayuko Babu.<br />

“In fact, this is his third film that we have had the pleasure of showing at our<br />

festival, the Pan African Film and Arts Festival. He is a committed filmmaker<br />

with a true passion for storytelling.<br />

For more information on the film, visit www.doyoubelieveinmagic.net.<br />

For distribution opportunities, contact Zac Reeder, Circus Road Films:<br />

zreeder@circusroadfilms.com. For more information on the Pan African<br />

Film and Arts Festival, visit: www.PAFF.org.<br />

COMPLIMENTARY<br />

PARKING!<br />

NO FEES FOR<br />

TICKET PURCHASES!<br />

PLUS DOZENS MORE<br />

PERFORMANCES<br />

ON SALE NOW!<br />

www.strathmore.org (301) 581-5100<br />

Ticket Office 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD<br />

M/T/Th/F 10AM–5PM, W 10AM–9PM, SA 10AM–2PM<br />

GROUP TICKETS (301) 581-5199<br />

THE METRO HERALD 15


ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

THE BMA CELEBRATES<br />

20 YEARS OF JAZZ SERIES<br />

Concerts in the BMA Sculpture Garden<br />

Join the Baltimore Museum of Art<br />

in celebrating the 20th anniversary<br />

of its popular Jazz in the Sculpture<br />

Garden concert series. Sit back and listen<br />

to cool jazzy sounds on a warm<br />

summer evening in the BMA’s scenic<br />

sculpture gardens. This one-of-a-kind<br />

summer experience features critically<br />

acclaimed national and regional jazz<br />

talent against a scenic backdrop of modern<br />

art. <strong>The</strong>se casual concerts take place<br />

on select Satur<strong>day</strong>s in July and August<br />

at 7p.m. Tickets are $25.<br />

As part of the festivities this year,<br />

the BMA is offering pre-concert twilight<br />

tours at 5 p.m., exploring aspects<br />

of jazz appearing in works of art such<br />

as rhythm, pattern, and harmony. After<br />

the tour, gain early access to the sculpture<br />

gardens to reserve your seating,<br />

and enjoy a glass of wine. Pre-concert<br />

tour tickets are $10; a concert ticket is<br />

required in order to purchase pre-concert<br />

tickets. Space is limited!<br />

Enjoy the show from intimate concert<br />

seating, picnic with sandwiches<br />

and snacks purchased from the outdoor<br />

bar, or bring your own. For an extraspecial<br />

evening, make reservations at<br />

Gertrude’s for Jazz+Dinner, an elegant<br />

three-course meal served on the terrace<br />

overlooking the sculpture garden.<br />

Jazz+Dinner tickets are $70.<br />

Tickets go on sale Sun<strong>day</strong>, June<br />

15, and are available at the BMA Box<br />

Office in person or by phone at 443-<br />

573-1701, or at artbma.org. Concerts<br />

usually sell out; advance ticket purchase<br />

is recommended.<br />

SPECIAL OFFER! Purchase the<br />

five-concert series by July 3 and save<br />

$10! Tickets for the series are $115 per<br />

person. This summer’s line-up includes:<br />

July 5: T. K. Blue—This dynamic<br />

alto saxophonist is a local favorite.<br />

Billboard Magazine describes him<br />

best: “His saxophone talks in warm<br />

tones that speak of an intense love . . .<br />

with subtle tenderness.”<br />

July 19: Jackie Ryan—Spun like<br />

silk, Jackie Ryan’s sultry voice is absolutely<br />

mesmerizing. This chart-topping<br />

vocalist is sure to delight in the<br />

majestic setting of the BMA’s<br />

renowned sculpture garden.<br />

July 26: Warren Wolf—Baltimore’s<br />

own prodigious vibraphonist returns to<br />

the BMA for another explosive performance!<br />

This artist and his ensemble<br />

are known for mind-blowing performances<br />

that reach unmatched heights.<br />

August 9: Vanessa Rubin featuring<br />

Don Braden—A perfect pairing of<br />

artists perform under the stars on a<br />

warm summer evening. Experience the<br />

soulful vocals of Vanessa Rubin,<br />

paired with the smooth notes of jazz<br />

saxophonist Don Braden.<br />

August 16: Rolando Matias & <strong>The</strong><br />

Afro-Rican Ensemble—A spontaneous<br />

fusion of Afro-Caribbean-Bebop<br />

led by multi-talented percussionist<br />

Rolando Matias. This accomplished<br />

group of musicians will deliver an explosion<br />

of funk, sure to have you up<br />

and out of your seats!<br />

In the event of rain, concerts are<br />

held in the BMA Meyerhoff Auditorium.<br />

Call the BMA Box Office at<br />

443-573-1701 after 3p.m. for an update.<br />

If the concert is held indoors,<br />

Jazz+Dinner ticket holders must call<br />

Gertrude’s at 410-889-3399 to make<br />

reservations for indoor seating or to obtain<br />

a rain check. Please note: children<br />

do not receive Jazz+Dinner discounts.<br />

ABOUT THE BALTIMORE<br />

MUSEUM OF ART<br />

<strong>The</strong> Baltimore Museum of Art is<br />

home to an internationally renowned<br />

collection of 19th-century, modern, and<br />

contemporary art. Founded in 1914<br />

with a single painting, the BMA to<strong>day</strong><br />

has 90,000 works of art—including the<br />

largest holding of works by Henri Matisse<br />

in the world. Throughout the Museum,<br />

visitors will find an outstanding<br />

selection of European and American<br />

fine and decorative arts, 15th- through<br />

19th-century prints and drawings,<br />

works by established and emerging<br />

contemporary artists, and objects from<br />

Africa, Asia, the Ancient Americas, and<br />

Pacific Islands. Two beautifully landscaped<br />

gardens display an array of<br />

20th-century sculpture that is an oasis<br />

in the city. As a major cultural destination<br />

for the greater Baltimore region,<br />

the BMA organizes and presents a variety<br />

of dynamic exhibitions and innovative<br />

programs throughout the year, and<br />

frequently hosts special events with<br />

cultural and educational partners. <strong>The</strong><br />

Museum is located in a park-like setting<br />

in the heart of Charles Village and<br />

adjacent to the main campus of <strong>The</strong><br />

Johns Hopkins University. It is distinguished<br />

by a grand historic building designed<br />

in the 1920s by renowned<br />

American architect John Russell Pope<br />

with an impressive wing for contemporary<br />

art added in 1994.<br />

General admission to the BMA is<br />

free. Special events and exhibitions<br />

may be ticketed. <strong>The</strong> BMA is open<br />

Wednes<strong>day</strong> through Fri<strong>day</strong>, 11a.m.–<br />

5p.m.; Satur<strong>day</strong> and Sun<strong>day</strong>, 11a.m.–<br />

6p.m. <strong>The</strong> Museum is closed Mon<strong>day</strong>,<br />

Tues<strong>day</strong>, New Year’s Day, July 4,<br />

Thanksgiving, and Christmas. <strong>The</strong><br />

BMA is located on Art Museum Drive<br />

at North Charles and 31st Streets, three<br />

miles north of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.<br />

For general Museum information,<br />

call 443-573-1700 or visit artbma.org.<br />

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATER<br />

HOSTING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM<br />

<strong>The</strong> Contemporary American<br />

<strong>The</strong>ater Festival (CATF) has<br />

been awarded a grant from the<br />

West Virginia Humanities Council to<br />

host Act I, the Young Playwrighting<br />

Workshop. Through this program, 10<br />

students ages 16 to 21 will study with<br />

theater professionals from the CATF<br />

staff. “We have wanted to provide an<br />

educational experience for younger<br />

students ever since CATF began,”<br />

stated Ed Herendeen, CATF Founder<br />

and Producing Director. “With our<br />

<strong>2008</strong> season expanding to five plays,<br />

this is the perfect year to introduce the<br />

Young Playwrights experience and expose<br />

younger audiences to the beauty<br />

of creative writing for the theater.”<br />

Act I will be held July 16 to July<br />

30 at Shepherd University, in tandem<br />

with the CATF <strong>2008</strong> season. <strong>The</strong><br />

workshop will be held daily from<br />

9:00am to 5:00pm, with laptops and<br />

lunch provided to the students. <strong>The</strong><br />

Director of Act I will be <strong>The</strong>resa M.<br />

Davis, Associate Professor in the Department<br />

of Drama at the University of<br />

Virginia. She most recently directed<br />

<strong>The</strong> African Company Presents<br />

Richard III and worked closely with<br />

playwright Carlyle Brown to develop<br />

the production. Master Teacher for the<br />

workshop will be David Andrew Snyder,<br />

producing artistic director and<br />

CEO of <strong>The</strong> Young Playwrights <strong>The</strong>atre<br />

in Washington, D.C. He has been<br />

an actor, director, educator, producer<br />

and administrator for over 15 years.<br />

Shepherd University instructors Dr.<br />

Sylvia Shurbutt and Dr. Betty Ellzey<br />

will be guest instructors, and CATF favorite,<br />

playwright Richard Dresser will<br />

participate in the workshop. Dresser’s<br />

play, A View of the Harbor, will complete<br />

his happiness trilogy, with all<br />

three plays premiering at CATF.<br />

“<strong>The</strong> goal of Act I is to help students<br />

become better listeners and communicators,<br />

to improve their writing<br />

skills, and to gain an appreciation for<br />

the arts,” stated Peggy McKowen, Associate<br />

Producing Director of CATF.<br />

At the conclusion of the program, three<br />

public readings of their work will be<br />

held at the Apollo Civic <strong>The</strong>atre in<br />

Martinsburg, the Ice House in Berkeley<br />

Springs, and the Old Opera House<br />

in Charles Town. <strong>The</strong> cost to participate<br />

is $200, with scholarships available<br />

to two students, based on financial<br />

need. Contact Peggy McKowen at<br />

pmckowen@shepherd.edu or 304-<br />

876-5151 for more information about<br />

the Act I program.<br />

<strong>The</strong> <strong>2008</strong> CATF season runs from<br />

July 9 through August 3 with five adventurous<br />

plays in rotating repertory:<br />

<strong>The</strong> Overwhelming by JT Rogers, Pig<br />

Farm by Tony Award-winner Greg<br />

Kotis, Stick-Fly by Lydia Diamond, A<br />

View of the Harbor, a world premiere<br />

by Richard Dresser, and Wrecks by<br />

Neil LaBute. <strong>The</strong> Contemporary<br />

American <strong>The</strong>ater Festival prides itself<br />

on producing and developing new<br />

American theater. Since 1991, CATF<br />

has produced 63 new plays, including<br />

23 world premieres. This year,<br />

“thinktheater” and “thinkfive” with the<br />

Contemporary American <strong>The</strong>ater Festival<br />

. . . five plays, five playwrights,<br />

five unique theatrical experiences.<br />

For more information, visit www.catf.<br />

org or call 304-876-3473 or 800-999-<br />

CATF (2283).<br />

AOL’S BLACK VOICES CELEBRATES<br />

BLACK MUSIC MONTH; ANNOUNCES<br />

NEW VIDEO EXPERIENCE<br />

Black Voices, www.BlackVoices. com, the No. 1 online destination for<br />

African-American news, culture and community, recently debuted its<br />

celebration of Black Music Month, www.BlackVoices.com/blackmusic-month.<br />

<strong>The</strong> special section will run throughout June, highlighting black<br />

music and the incredible range of influence African-American artists have had<br />

on all music genres. In addition, AOL also announced it will be launching a new<br />

video site on Black Voices, www.BlackVoices.com/videos, offering searchable<br />

videos appealing to the interests of the African-American community.<br />

Highlights of the Black Music Month site include:<br />

• Aspecial essay for Black Voices from 18-times GRAMMY® Award-winner,<br />

GRAMMY Legend Award-winner and GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement<br />

Award-winner Aretha Franklin on the importance of Black Music Month.<br />

• R&B band Mint Condition pays tribute to the iconic group Earth, Wind<br />

and Fire in an exclusive online “Jam Session.”<br />

• YoYo, the legendary rap diva and current host of VH-1’s reality TV show<br />

“Miss Rap Supreme,” will be the featured celebrity blogger on the<br />

“Supreme Journey” blog.<br />

• Black Voices users will have the opportunity to vote for the best albums of<br />

all time.<br />

• Online quizzes will test users’ knowledge of Black Music from one hit<br />

wonders to legendary artists to blue-eyed soul phenoms.<br />

• Interactive profiles of hip hop hit-makers, jazz luminaries and icons in the<br />

business of Black Music.<br />

“Black Voices realizes the huge part that music plays in our consumers’<br />

lives, so we’re excited to celebrate Black Music Month by highlighting legendary<br />

artists as well as new artists,” said Tariq Muhammad, Director, Black<br />

Voices. “Through our celebration of Black Music Month, Black Voices will<br />

increase our consumers’ awareness of this genre of music and provide an engaging<br />

experience that not only tests but expands their knowledge of this important<br />

and extremely powerful medium. Our new video site adds more interactivity<br />

and engagement to the overall news and information provided on<br />

the Black Voices site throughout the year.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> Black Voices video site is a uniquely comprehensive aggregated video<br />

experience, powered by Truveo’s video search, http://truveo.com.<br />

Users have the opportunity to search videos in a wide range of categories<br />

of interest focusing on African-American news and issues.<br />

GREAT AMERICAN<br />

SCRAPBOOK<br />

CONVENTIONS<br />

RETURNING TO<br />

CHANTILLY<br />

Fri<strong>day</strong>, June 20 marks the<br />

opening of the 7th Annual<br />

Great American Scrapbook<br />

Convention at the Dulles Expo<br />

Convention Center. Show runs<br />

through Satur<strong>day</strong>, June 21. <strong>The</strong><br />

Convention Center is located at<br />

4368 Chantilly Shopping Center,<br />

Chantilly, VA. Expected to attract<br />

6,000 scrapbookers from Chantilly<br />

and across the country, the show<br />

celebrates one of the fastest-growing<br />

hobbies in the U.S.<br />

Workshops taught by scrapbooking<br />

pros will introduce both<br />

novice and experienced scrapbookers<br />

to new techniques, ranging<br />

from the ever-popular traditional<br />

photo album, to innovative<br />

cardmaking, to the newest trends<br />

in digital scrapbooking.<br />

175 exhibitor booths will provide<br />

ample opportunity for shopping;<br />

vendors will be offering their<br />

newest and most popular scrapbooking<br />

tools and products.<br />

Cropping parties end each <strong>day</strong><br />

with a celebration. Attendees are<br />

invited to gather with their supplies<br />

and any new techniques they’d like<br />

to practice and take some muchneeded<br />

time to work on their scrapbooks<br />

together with friends. Door<br />

prizes add to the festive atmosphere.<br />

Plus, there’s a special all<strong>day</strong><br />

pre-show cropping party on<br />

Thurs<strong>day</strong>, June 19.<br />

<strong>The</strong> 2007 show experienced<br />

sell-out crowds at the cropping<br />

parties and many of the workshops.<br />

As a result, Great American<br />

Scrapbook Convention encourages<br />

attendees to reserve spots early by<br />

registering online. Workshop descriptions,<br />

online registration and<br />

more are available at www.<br />

GreatAmericanScrapbook.com.<br />

MONTGOMERY<br />

COUNTY HOSTS<br />

JUNETEENTH<br />

CELEBRATION<br />

Montgomery County Executive<br />

Isiah Leggett invites<br />

the public to the<br />

County’s 12th Annual Juneteenth<br />

Celebration on Thurs<strong>day</strong>, June<br />

19, at 7p.m., at the BlackRock<br />

Center for the Arts, 12901 Town<br />

Commons Drive, Germantown.<br />

This year’s celebration will include<br />

a musical performance by<br />

Joshua Sommerville, a youth performance<br />

troupe from the City of<br />

Rockville, and performers from the<br />

Sharp Street United Methodist<br />

Church and Mount Calvary Baptist<br />

Church.<br />

Juneteenth was first celebrated<br />

on June 19, 1865, to mark the liberation<br />

of African American slaves<br />

in the United States by President<br />

Abraham Lincoln in 1863.<br />

<strong>The</strong> program is sponsored by<br />

the County Executive’s Office of<br />

Community Partnerships. Admission<br />

is free and light refreshments<br />

will be served. For more information,<br />

call 240-777-2500.<br />

16 THE METRO HERALD


ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY<br />

ANNOUNCES ROMAN REPERTORY<br />

<strong>The</strong> Shakespeare <strong>The</strong>atre Company<br />

season continues with<br />

Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”<br />

and “Antony and Cleopatra” in revolving<br />

repertory at Sidney Harman Hall, a<br />

part of the Harman Center for the Arts.<br />

As swift and enthralling as a political<br />

thriller, “Julius Caesar” portrays the<br />

life-and-death struggle for power in<br />

Rome. Alive with stunning rhetoric,<br />

“Julius Caesar” investigates the intoxicating<br />

effects of power and the dangers<br />

of idealism. Shakespeare <strong>The</strong>atre Company<br />

Associate Artistic Director David<br />

Muse makes his mainstage STC debut<br />

directing Dan Kremer in the title role.<br />

“Julius Caesar” runs through July 6,<br />

<strong>2008</strong>. Company member Andrew Long<br />

will play Mark Antony in both “Julius<br />

Caesar” and “Antony and Cleopatra.”<br />

Artistic Director Michael Kahn directs<br />

“Antony and Cleopatra,” one of Shakespeare’s<br />

last great tragedies, also running<br />

through July 6, <strong>2008</strong>. Featuring<br />

some of the most sublime poetry of love<br />

and loss ever written, “Antony and<br />

Cleopatra” is a dark, intimate portrait of<br />

an ill fated love affair. With civil unrest<br />

roiling Rome, the aging Mark Antony<br />

struggles between his sense of duty and<br />

his consuming love for Cleopatra.<br />

“Antony and Cleopatra” features Royal<br />

Shakespeare Company veteran Suzanne<br />

Bertish as Cleopatra.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Roman Repertory is supported<br />

by an Artistic Excellence Grant from<br />

the National Endowment for the Arts.<br />

“Julius Caesar” is sponsored in memory<br />

of Eric Weinmann. “Antony and<br />

Cleopatra” is sponsored in celebration<br />

of Jackie Feldman’s love of Shakespeare<br />

and her dedication to the Shakespeare<br />

<strong>The</strong>atre Company. Media partner<br />

WAMU provides promotional<br />

support throughout the run.<br />

Venue: Sidney Harman Hall is located<br />

at 610 F Street NW, at the corner<br />

of Sixth and F Streets NW.<br />

Performances for “Julius Caesar”:<br />

Wednes<strong>day</strong>, June 25 at 7:30p.m.;<br />

Thurs<strong>day</strong>s, June 19 at 8p.m.; Fri<strong>day</strong>s,<br />

June 20 at 8p.m.; Satur<strong>day</strong>s,<br />

June 14 and 28 at 8p.m.; Sun<strong>day</strong>s,<br />

June 22 and July 6 at 7:30p.m.; special<br />

noon matinee on June 25; Satur<strong>day</strong><br />

2p.m. matinees on June 21 and<br />

July 5; Sun<strong>day</strong> 2p.m. matinees on<br />

June 15 and 29. Tickets: $23.50-<br />

$79.75 with discounts available for senior<br />

citizens and students. Accessibility:<br />

Sidney Harman Hall is accessible to<br />

persons with disabilities, offering<br />

wheelchair-accessible seating and restrooms,<br />

audio enhancement, and Braille<br />

and large print programs.<br />

On Satur<strong>day</strong>, June 21, following<br />

the 2p.m. matinee, STC sponsors a<br />

Classics in Context discussion titled<br />

“A Roman’s Part.” This lively discussion<br />

features scholars and artists discussing<br />

their connection to both of the<br />

repertory productions. Call 202-547-<br />

1122 and press 4 or visit Shakespeare<strong>The</strong>atre.org<br />

to reserve a space.<br />

All are welcome to the Forum at<br />

Sidney Harman Hall on Tues<strong>day</strong>, July<br />

GADSBY’S TAVERN MUSEUM SOCIETY<br />

HOSTS FIFTH ANNUAL<br />

CARIBBEAN NIGHT<br />

<strong>The</strong> Gadsby’s Tavern Museum Society (GTMS) will host its fifth annual<br />

Caribbean Night on Satur<strong>day</strong>, July 19 at Gadsby’s Tavern Museum<br />

from 6:00pm–8:30pm. Enjoy a fun summer night at this<br />

unique historic site with food, margaritas, and a great silent auction.<br />

Proceeds from the event will go toward the renovation of the City Tavern<br />

Ice Well, located at the corner of North Royal and Cameron streets. Tickets<br />

are $30 for GTMS members, $40 for non-members, $75 for event sponsors,<br />

and $50 at the door, if available. To purchase tickets, visit the online shop at<br />

www.gadsbystavern.org or call 703-838-4242.<br />

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Gadsby’s Tavern was the center<br />

of social and political life in Alexandria and the new Federal City of Washington.<br />

<strong>The</strong> tavern served as the premier gathering place for residents—including<br />

George Washington—and visitors to eat, drink, learn, and influence<br />

history. Gadsby’s Tavern Museum is located at 134 North Royal Street in the<br />

heart of Old Town Alexandria.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Gadsby’s Tavern Museum Society is a non-profit organization dedicated<br />

to the support and preservation of Gadsby’s Tavern Museum. Additional<br />

information is available at gadsbystavernmuseum.us.<br />

1, at 5p.m. as STC continues its <strong>The</strong>ological<br />

Discussion series with “Julius<br />

Caesar: Mastering Fate.” <strong>The</strong> discussion<br />

will be led by Reverend Roger A.<br />

Ferlo, Ph.D., Director of the Center for<br />

Lifetime <strong>The</strong>ological Education at Virginia<br />

<strong>The</strong>ological Seminary. Call 202-<br />

547-1122 and press 4 or visit<br />

Shakespeare<strong>The</strong>atre.org for additional<br />

details.<br />

Audio-described performances of<br />

“Julius Caesar” will be Thurs<strong>day</strong>, June<br />

19 at 8p.m. and Tues<strong>day</strong>, June 21, at<br />

2p.m. Sign-interpreted performances<br />

are Tues<strong>day</strong>, June 24, at 7:30p.m. and<br />

Satur<strong>day</strong>, July 5, at 2p.m.<br />

Parking: Paid parking is available<br />

at the Interpark garage located directly<br />

beneath the Sidney Harman Hall and<br />

AARP Headquarters block; enter from<br />

E or F streets between Sixth and Seventh<br />

streets. <strong>Metro</strong>: Gallery Pl-Chinatown<br />

station (Red, Yellow and Green<br />

Lines): Patrons attending performances<br />

at Sidney Harman Hall should<br />

exit using the Arena/7th Street exit.<br />

Harman Hall is visible one block to<br />

your left. Judiciary Square station (Red<br />

Line): Take the F Street Exit toward<br />

the National Building Museum, turn<br />

left and walk one and one-half blocks<br />

along F Street to Sixth Street.<br />

Performances for “Anthony and<br />

Cleopatra”: Tues<strong>day</strong>s, June 17 and<br />

July 1; Wednes<strong>day</strong>s, June 18 and<br />

July 2; Thurs<strong>day</strong>, June 26 at 8p.m.;<br />

Fri<strong>day</strong>, June 27 at 8p.m.; Satur<strong>day</strong>s,<br />

June 21 and July 5 at 8p.m.; Sun<strong>day</strong>,<br />

June 15 at 7:30p.m.; Satur<strong>day</strong> 2p.m.<br />

matinee on June 14 and 28; Sun<strong>day</strong><br />

2p.m. matinee on June 22 and July 6;<br />

noon matinee on July 2. Tickets:<br />

$23.50-$79.75 with discounts available<br />

for senior citizens and students.<br />

Accessibility: Sidney Harman Hall is<br />

accessible to persons with disabilities,<br />

offering wheelchair-accessible seating<br />

and restrooms, audio enhancement,<br />

and Braille and large print programs.<br />

On Satur<strong>day</strong>, June 21, following the<br />

2p.m. matinee, STC sponsors a Classics<br />

in Context discussion titled “A Roman’s<br />

Part.” This lively discussion features<br />

scholars and artists discussing their connection<br />

to both of the repertory productions.<br />

Call 202-547-1122 and press 4 or<br />

visit Shakespeare<strong>The</strong>atre.org to reserve<br />

a space.<br />

Audio-described performances of<br />

“Antony and Cleopatra” are Satur<strong>day</strong>,<br />

June 14, at 2p.m. and Thurs<strong>day</strong>,<br />

June 26, at 8p.m. Sign-interpreted<br />

performances are Tues<strong>day</strong>, June 17,<br />

at 7:30p.m. and Satur<strong>day</strong>, June 28,<br />

at 2p.m.<br />

NO WORRIES MON . . . HUDSON<br />

PRESENTS ISLAND PATIO HAPPY HOUR<br />

With airplane prices hitting top dollar and the cost of gas over a<br />

whopping $4 a gallon, chances are thirsty citizens may not be hitting<br />

the roads or not-so friendly skies for a weekend jaunt this<br />

year. Not to worry. Stay in town. Use the <strong>Metro</strong>, hoof it or take a short walk<br />

to Hudson every Fri<strong>day</strong> for a hint of the Islands.<br />

Beginning June 27th, and continuing every Fri<strong>day</strong> throughout the summer,<br />

Hudson Restaurant & Lounge brings a hint of the Caribbean to DC’s<br />

West End. Take a seat beneath the oversized beach umbrellas on Hudson’s<br />

patio, and enjoy not only the warmth of the great outdoors, but also island inspired<br />

cocktails such as Jamaica’s own Red Stripe Beer ($5), ‘Dark & Stormy<br />

(Gosling’s Rum and Extra Ginger Beer) at $9 and new island classic Cruzan<br />

Rum 1944 Mai Tais ($9).<br />

Adding to the ambiance will be live steel drum music for the complete island<br />

experience. Sure, there may not be an over abundance of palm trees or<br />

sand on M Street, but the spirit of the Caribbean is alive and well. Complimentary<br />

jerk chicken wings will be served from 6:00–7:00PM—it may be the<br />

next best thing to being there.<br />

Hudson is located at 2030 M Street NW and is open for lunch, dinner, late<br />

night dining and Sun<strong>day</strong> brunch—inside or al fresco, with hours on Mon<strong>day</strong>-<br />

Thurs<strong>day</strong> from 11:00AM to midnight; Fri<strong>day</strong> and Satur<strong>day</strong> from<br />

11:00AM–1:00AM and Sun<strong>day</strong> 10:00 to midnight. For reservations or further<br />

information call 202-872-8700 or visit www.hudson-dc.com or<br />

www.opentable.com.<br />

TICKETS ON<br />

PUBLIC SALE<br />

JUNE 12<br />

Part of Prelude <strong>2008</strong>:<br />

Arts Across America<br />

Produced by Jill Newman Productions<br />

He’s the consummate artist: musician, emcee, vocalist, producer,<br />

and actor of stage and screen. Always bending genres to create<br />

his own sound, Mos Def lithely flows among hip hop, jazz, and soul,<br />

while fronting his orchestra of savvy musicians.<br />

Sun<strong>day</strong>, September 21, <strong>2008</strong> at 7 p.m.<br />

Concert Hall<br />

Tickets $20-$50 at the Box Office or charge by phone (202) 467-4600<br />

Order online at kennedy-center.org<br />

Groups (202) 416-8400 | TTY (202) 416-8524<br />

Prelude <strong>2008</strong>: Arts Across America is sponsored by the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation,<br />

Chevy Chase Bank, and the Kennedy Center Washington Committee on the Arts.<br />

Arts Across America is made possible through the generosity of the Charles E. Smith Family Foundation.<br />

THE METRO HERALD 17


ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

SERRATED EDGE OF MORALS: KANDER & EBB PROVOKE WITH “THE VISIT” AT SIGNATURE<br />

George Hearn and Chita Rivera in <strong>The</strong> Visit (photo by Scott Suchman)<br />

By Rick Sincere<br />

<strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Herald</strong> Entertainment Editor<br />

Arlington’s Signature <strong>The</strong>atre<br />

has midwifed a major new<br />

musical play. Based on the<br />

mid-20th century work by Friedrich<br />

Dürrenmatt, <strong>The</strong> Visit has a book by<br />

Terrence McNally, lyrics by the late<br />

Fred Ebb, and music by John Kander.<br />

Directed by Frank Galati, this production<br />

of <strong>The</strong> Visit follows Galati’s 2001<br />

Goodman <strong>The</strong>atre premiere in<br />

Chicago. Signature now gives us only<br />

the second—and apparently improved—mounting<br />

of this musical, but<br />

it surely will not be the last.<br />

Dürrenmatt conceived his play as a<br />

“tragicomedy” in the Greek theatrical<br />

tradition. (It even had a Greek chorus<br />

to comment on the action.) McNally,<br />

Kander, and Ebb have softened the<br />

edges of Dürrenmatt’s highly cynical<br />

and moralistic work, but even through<br />

the gauze this musical remains sharply<br />

thought-provoking. In plot and theme<br />

it balances on the serrated edge of<br />

morals, showing how society can fall<br />

this way or that when it loses site of its<br />

own ethical center.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Visit is a multi-layered allegory<br />

about the corruption of person<br />

and society, with reference to the general<br />

events of the last century. Individual<br />

events might be inferred, but<br />

nothing specific can be identified. Is<br />

it about Swiss businesses that collaborated<br />

with the Nazis during World War<br />

II Perhaps; but it could also be about<br />

the rise of Nazism itself. Or it could<br />

be an indictment of capitalism; or not.<br />

With thematic parallels to Shirley<br />

Jackson’s short story, “<strong>The</strong> Lottery,”<br />

the arc of <strong>The</strong> Visit is very much like<br />

the Greek tragedy that Dürrenmatt had<br />

in mind. Once the basic exposition is<br />

completed about halfway through Act I<br />

and the central conflict is revealed, the<br />

action hurtles toward an inevitable,<br />

predictable, and unstoppable climax.<br />

(<strong>The</strong> first-act song, “A Happy Ending,”<br />

however, prepares us not at all for the<br />

actual ending.)<br />

<strong>The</strong> Visit is the kind of musical in<br />

which a <strong>happy</strong>-go-lucky song about<br />

“Yellow Shoes” turns menacing. It’s<br />

that sort of darkness.<br />

Not since Alfred Lunt and Lynn<br />

Fontanne debuted <strong>The</strong> Visit on Broadway<br />

has a major production had such a<br />

distinguished pair of leads: septuagenarians<br />

Chita Rivera as Claire<br />

Zachanassian and George Hearn as<br />

Anton Schell. (Rivera made her own<br />

Broadway debut in 1953; Hearn, in<br />

1966.) Rivera and Hearn dominate the<br />

action in Kander & Ebb’s <strong>The</strong> Visit,<br />

even though it is an integrated book<br />

musical in which the members of the<br />

ensemble each play distinguishable<br />

roles—this is emphatically not a theatre<br />

piece that depends on an undisaggregated<br />

mass of “<strong>happy</strong> villagers.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> relationship of Claire and Anton is<br />

at the core of <strong>The</strong> Visit, and it is that relationship<br />

(which appears, on first<br />

glance, to be the basis of a long-delayed<br />

and joyful reunion) that sets the<br />

tragedy in motion.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Visit is unusual among Signature<br />

<strong>The</strong>atre productions in that none<br />

of the regular repertory players from<br />

the theatre’s roster appear on stage. In<br />

fact, the only actor with a previous (but<br />

weak) connection is Hearn, who appeared<br />

in Putting It Together on Broadway<br />

under the direction of Eric Schaeffer,<br />

Signature’s founder and artistic<br />

director.<br />

This is the biggest production in<br />

Signature’s history, with 23 performers,<br />

yet Schaeffer seems to have given<br />

Galati carte blanche in terms of casting<br />

and design. Galati has assembled a<br />

company composed almost entirely of<br />

New York-based actors, and there is<br />

little doubt that a transfer to Broadway<br />

is intended – and deserved. He has<br />

even brought three of the original<br />

(Goodman) cast of <strong>The</strong> Visit with him:<br />

Rivera, James Harms as Rudi, and<br />

Cristen Paige as Ottilie Schell, as well<br />

as choreographer Ann Reinking.<br />

If <strong>The</strong> Visit is Broadway bound, it<br />

may meet some resistance from audiences<br />

of tourists and the legendary<br />

“tired businessmen” who are looking<br />

for light entertainment. <strong>The</strong> Visit is<br />

not <strong>The</strong> Little Mermaid. It is meant for<br />

thoughtful playgoers, who will have<br />

plenty of material to ruminate when<br />

the final chord sounds and the spotlight<br />

irises on the Mayor’s (Mark Jacoby)<br />

troubled visage.<br />

Kander & Ebb and their collaborators<br />

have faced this before. Nobody,<br />

they were told, will sit through a musical<br />

about violent anti-Semitism, sexual<br />

promiscuity, and the rise of fascism in<br />

Germany—yet Cabaret played 1,165<br />

performances in its first Broadway run,<br />

and 2,377 performances in its 1998<br />

New York revival. Chicago was a<br />

“vaudeville” meditation on the link between<br />

celebrity and murder. Kiss of<br />

the Spider Woman (also part of Signature’s<br />

Kander & Ebb Celebration) is<br />

about the brutality of prison life in an<br />

authoritarian state.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Visit is set in Brachen (“broke”<br />

in English), a Swiss town that is down<br />

on its luck in the early post-war era.<br />

(In Dürrenmatt’s play, the town was<br />

called Güllen, which means “liquid<br />

manures” in English—you get the picture.)<br />

As the lights come up on the<br />

stage—not literally, for <strong>The</strong> Visit is<br />

presented in a three-quarter round<br />

thrust stage in the MAX, Signature’s<br />

larger space—we see a platform littered<br />

with refuse. (This reminded me<br />

of the props that populated the set of<br />

King of Hearts, one of those Broadway<br />

flops that Ken Mandelbaum delights in<br />

describing in Not Since Carrie.)<br />

Starting with Anton, however, the<br />

townspeople clear the stage, which remains<br />

essentially empty for the remainder<br />

of the performance. <strong>The</strong> junk<br />

is cleared for the arrival, by train, of<br />

Claire Zachanassian, the world’s richest<br />

woman and a native of Brachen.<br />

(Zachanassian explains that she “married<br />

often and widowed well.”)<br />

Sharp-tongued, regal, attended by<br />

servants, Claire is an elegant stranger<br />

among the impoverished citizens of<br />

Brachen. <strong>The</strong>y all hope, however, that<br />

she has come home after an absence of<br />

50 years to bestow some of her riches<br />

on the town. (What they do not know,<br />

but learn later, is that Claire is, in large<br />

part, the cause of the town’s misery.)<br />

Claire’s reunion with Anton sets the<br />

stage for some of <strong>The</strong> Visit’s finest<br />

songs: “I Know Claire,” “You, You,<br />

You,” and “I Must Have Been Something.”<br />

To single these out, however,<br />

is not to suggest the others are unworthy.<br />

This is one of the strongest scores<br />

for—let’s say it—a Broadway musical<br />

in years. Not one number is out of<br />

place, superfluous, or short of excellent.<br />

It all comes together as an integrated<br />

whole—even when, during intermission,<br />

the audience leaves<br />

humming or whistling the mean-spirited<br />

but infectiously melodious “Yellow<br />

Shoes.” If this is meant as a sly<br />

joke on the part of the composer, it succeeds.<br />

Kander & Ebb’s <strong>The</strong> Visit provides<br />

one of those rare moments in the theatre<br />

for a playgoer to be able to say,<br />

years later, “I was there when . . .” If<br />

<strong>The</strong> Visit finds no home on Broadway,<br />

it will be a shame. Even so, London’s<br />

West End is available—and it, too,<br />

beckons.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Visit continues through June<br />

22 at Signature <strong>The</strong>atre, 4200 Campbell<br />

Avenue,in Arlington, Virginia.<br />

<strong>The</strong> performance schedule is: Tues<strong>day</strong>s<br />

and Wednes<strong>day</strong>s at 7:30p.m.,<br />

Thurs<strong>day</strong>s and Fri<strong>day</strong>s at 8:00p.m.,<br />

Satur<strong>day</strong>s at 2:00p.m. and 8:00p.m.,<br />

and Sun<strong>day</strong>s at 2:00p.m. and<br />

7:00p.m. Tickets to <strong>The</strong> Visit are<br />

$40–$69 and are now on sale at Ticketmaster<br />

by calling (703) 573-SEAT<br />

(7328), or by visiting www.signaturetheatre.org.<br />

MONTGOMERY COUNTY PARKS OFFERS TOP 10 LIST<br />

OF AFFORDABLE SUMMER SOLUTIONS TO YOUR VACATION NEEDS<br />

With gas and food prices<br />

soaring, families might<br />

consider spending this<br />

summer a little closer to home. <strong>The</strong><br />

Montgomery County Department of<br />

Parks offers its top 10 list of affordable<br />

summer solutions in the county’s parks<br />

system for families making summer<br />

vacation plans this year on a budget.<br />

“Families can still ‘get away from it<br />

all’ this summer right here in Montgomery<br />

Parks,” said Director of Parks<br />

Mary Bradford. “And it doesn’t have<br />

to cost an arm and a leg!”<br />

<strong>The</strong> Department of Parks top 10 list<br />

of affordable summer getaways:<br />

Camp at Little Bennett Campground:<br />

<strong>The</strong> campground at Little<br />

Bennett Regional Park offers 91 private,<br />

wooded campsites. Tent sites are<br />

only $21 per night and electric sites are<br />

$29 per night. Activities for all registered<br />

campers include FREE family<br />

film nights, hayrides, ice cream socials<br />

and more. “Camper-ready” camping<br />

for first time or novice campers is also<br />

available-for just $25 per night (twonight<br />

minimum) plus the site fee,<br />

campground staff will set up your<br />

campsite with a four-person tent, two<br />

camp chairs, propane stove and<br />

lantern. See www.LittleBennettCampground.com.<br />

Spend Summer on the Lakes: At<br />

Lake Needwood at Rock Creek Regional<br />

Park and Little Seneca Lake at<br />

Black Hill Regional Park, rent canoes,<br />

kayaks, rowboats and pedal boats; take<br />

guided nature tours on pontoon boats;<br />

and fish for bass, catfish, bluegill,<br />

crappie or trout. Most boat rentals are<br />

$7 per hour or $24 for the <strong>day</strong>, plus tax.<br />

See www.BlackHillBoats.com and<br />

www.LakeNeedwoodBoats.com.<br />

Swing and Splash at South Germantown<br />

Recreational Park: <strong>The</strong><br />

South Germantown Splash Playground<br />

is the place or kids of all ages all summer<br />

long with a 36-foot, computerchoreographed<br />

water maze, massive<br />

waterfall, splashing animals and more.<br />

Admission is just $4.50 for the <strong>day</strong>.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re are also two championship 18-<br />

hole miniature golf courses, with putting<br />

greens, challenging sand traps,<br />

rough turf and natural obstacles. Minigolf<br />

is $4.50 per round per person.<br />

Group rates and birth<strong>day</strong> party rentals<br />

are also available. For more, check out<br />

www.SplashandGolf.com.<br />

Send the Kids to Camp: <strong>The</strong> Department<br />

of Parks offers dozens of<br />

summer camps at its nature facilities,<br />

ice skating rinks, tennis facilities and<br />

public gardens, including the signature<br />

Week in the Park summer <strong>day</strong> camp at<br />

Wheaton Regional Park. New camps<br />

this summer include Camping Camp<br />

and Outdoor Adventure Camp at Little<br />

Bennett Regional Park, Tennis and Ice<br />

Skating Camp at Cabin John Regional<br />

Park and Yester<strong>day</strong> and To<strong>day</strong> on the<br />

Farm camp at the Agricultural History<br />

Farm Park. Quantity discounts, for<br />

multiple children or multiple weeks are<br />

available for all these new parks summer<br />

camps and Week in the Park. Visit<br />

www.ParkPASS.org for more and to<br />

register.<br />

Go Wild in Montgomery: A countywide<br />

program, Wild Montgomery,<br />

identifies 14 of the county’s great<br />

green getaways, including Black Hill<br />

Regional Park (great butterfly watching);<br />

McKee Beshers Wildlife Area<br />

(the place to go see wildlife); and<br />

Northwest Branch Stream Valley Park<br />

(a great urban surprise with its network<br />

of trails). FREE Wild Montgomerythemed<br />

classes and programs are also<br />

being offered this summer through the<br />

department’s four nature centers. Visit<br />

www.WildMontgomery.org for a<br />

map of the county’s great green getaways<br />

and for more on the summer nature<br />

center programs.<br />

Summer Concerts in the Gardens:<br />

Brookside Gardens offers FREE summer<br />

twilight concerts in its beautiful<br />

Gude Garden, Tues<strong>day</strong> evenings in<br />

June from 6:30 pm– 8:00pm. Visitors<br />

can bring chairs or blankets to enjoy<br />

this summer’s artists: the Maryland<br />

Community Band, Ruthie & the Wranglers,<br />

LEA and Incendio. Visit www.<br />

BrooksideGardens.org for more.<br />

Hit the Trail! Hikers, bikers and<br />

equestrians will enjoy more than 200<br />

miles of paved and natural surface<br />

trails in the county’s parks this summer.<br />

Hikers and history buffs alike can<br />

take the FREE 2-mile natural surface<br />

guided Underground Railroad Experience<br />

Trail hike every Satur<strong>day</strong> at<br />

10:00am now and through November<br />

3. <strong>The</strong> Satur<strong>day</strong> hikes begin at the<br />

stone barn at Woodlawn Manor Park.<br />

Discover all the trails this summer,<br />

visit www.MontgomeryTrails.org.<br />

Explore the Past: Several of the<br />

department’s historic sites, including<br />

the Bussard Farm at the Agricultural<br />

History Farm Park, Woodlawn Manor<br />

House and Oakley Cabin will be open<br />

FREE of charge during the county’s<br />

Heritage Days weekend this summer,<br />

June 28 and 29 from 12:00<br />

noon–4:00 pm. Visit www.<br />

ParksCulturalResources.org for a<br />

complete listing of all the historic sites<br />

in the county’s parks and more.<br />

All Aboard! <strong>The</strong> Cabin John Miniature<br />

Train and the Wheaton Miniature<br />

Train and Carousel are open daily now.<br />

Hop aboard for a ride through either<br />

park for only $1.50. Both parks feature<br />

plenty of other amenities to make<br />

a <strong>day</strong> of it. Visit www.<br />

CabinJohnTrain.com and www.<br />

WheatonTrainandCarousel.com.<br />

Give a Helping Hand: <strong>The</strong> department’s<br />

Volunteer Services Office just<br />

launched a new interactive userfriendly<br />

website for current and potential<br />

parks volunteers to learn how to<br />

start volunteering in the parks, check<br />

for openings, apply online and track<br />

volunteer activity. <strong>The</strong>re are dozens of<br />

summer volunteer opportunities in<br />

parks to earn Student Service Learning<br />

hours, develop new skills, network and<br />

make new friends. Check out www.<br />

ParksVolunteers.org to get involved.<br />

“For additional cost savings, we<br />

offer qualifying county residents a 50<br />

percent fee reduction for several of our<br />

facilities and programs,” added Bradford.<br />

“Just call our ParkPASS Help<br />

Desk at 301-495-2580 or visit us online<br />

at www.ParkPASS.org to find out<br />

if you’re eligible.”<br />

18 THE METRO HERALD


BUSINESS NEWS<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

NANDO’S PERI-PERI<br />

SPREADS ITS WINGS TO USA—<br />

OPENING IN PENN QUARTER IN JULY<br />

Having thrilled taste buds across<br />

the globe for more than 20<br />

years, the distinctive taste of<br />

Nando’s Peri-Peri flame-grilled chicken<br />

is now coming to the United States.<br />

Already serving its legendary Afro-<br />

Portuguese flame-grilled chicken at<br />

hundreds of restaurants in Africa, England,<br />

Ireland, Australia, Malaysia,<br />

Canada and the Middle East, Nando’s<br />

Peri-Peri Team knew the time was<br />

right to introduce their exquisite fare to<br />

the U.S. market. “For years, Americans<br />

who’ve visited Nando’s Peri-Peri<br />

in other parts of the world have asked<br />

us to open a U.S. restaurant,” says<br />

Nando’s Peri-Peri Operations Director<br />

Alan Wollenschlaeger. “Now is the<br />

perfect time to do just that, and we<br />

chose downtown Washington because<br />

it’s a city known for its appreciation of<br />

new and exciting dining experiences.<br />

Our customers will feel the same<br />

warmth and hospitality that they would<br />

feel in any Nando’s Restaurant in the<br />

world and we plan to bring that same<br />

passion and unique service style to<br />

Washington, D.C. At Nando’s Peri-Peri<br />

you will be touched by the magic that<br />

is the Nando’s Peri-Peri Way”<br />

Located at 819 7th Street NW, just<br />

one block north of the Verizon Center<br />

in the heart of the District’s Penn Quarter,<br />

the restaurant will create 30 new<br />

jobs and offer seating for 96 guests in<br />

3100 square feet. <strong>The</strong> inviting interior<br />

will feature a contemporary style with<br />

leather upholstered booths and banquettes,<br />

as well as an original brick<br />

wall uncovered in the renovation<br />

process. Impressive design features<br />

include stunning custom-made lighting<br />

and original African artwork.<br />

Deloitte, for the third consecutive<br />

year, has been named one<br />

of the best companies in the<br />

U.S. for multicultural women by Working<br />

Mother magazine. In the June<br />

issue, the publication presents its sixth<br />

annual diversity study, an in-depth<br />

look at the 20 companies that are leading<br />

the way toward gender and race<br />

equality in the workplace.<br />

“We live in one of the most culturally<br />

rich countries in the world, and<br />

Deloitte recognizes that this richness is<br />

a workplace asset,” said Cathy Benko,<br />

chief talent officer, Deloitte LLP. “Utilizing<br />

the wealth of talents and viewpoints<br />

that people of varied backgrounds<br />

bring to the table enables us to<br />

sustain continued growth in an increasingly<br />

competitive and global marketplace.”<br />

Phebe Neely, senior manager, Deloitte<br />

Financial Advisory Services<br />

LLP, is featured on the cover of Working<br />

Mother’s June issue, which profiles<br />

companies that are leading the pack in<br />

supporting the advancement of multicultural<br />

women. Neely joined Deloitte<br />

in 1999. She lives in New Jersey with<br />

her daughter.<br />

“We salute the <strong>2008</strong> Best Companies<br />

for Multicultural Women for leading<br />

by example and providing corpo-<br />

What makes Nando’s Peri-Peri<br />

flame-grilled chicken so unique is its<br />

use of Peri-Peri, a spice passed down<br />

through generations in both Portugal<br />

and Africa. <strong>The</strong> Peri-Peri chili pepper<br />

was discovered by Portuguese explorers—who<br />

loved its dynamic and powerful<br />

flavor—in Mozambique hundreds<br />

of years ago. To<strong>day</strong> millions of<br />

satisfied guests have had the Nando’s<br />

Peri-Peri experience. At Nando’s Peri-<br />

Peri the chickens (always fresh, never<br />

frozen) are marinated for 24 hours, but<br />

diners get to select their own degree of<br />

heat from a range of bastes that are<br />

brushed on at just the right moment<br />

over an open-flame grill. <strong>The</strong>re’s<br />

Lemon & Herb, Medium and Hot<br />

bastes as well as Extra Hot for hardcore<br />

chili enthusiasts.<br />

Grilling the chicken over open<br />

flames radically reduces its fat content—good<br />

news for anyone watching<br />

what they eat. What’s more, Nando’s<br />

Peri-Peri baste has no artificial additives<br />

or preservatives and is loaded in<br />

vitamins A and C.<br />

Tasty Alternatives to the Flame<br />

Grilled Peri–Peri Chicken include<br />

sandwiches, wraps and pitas, vegetarian<br />

options and fresh salads along with<br />

appetizers and side dishes, including<br />

corn on the cob, fries, spicy rice, Peri-<br />

Peri nuts and marinated olives. Menu<br />

choices include individual meals and a<br />

number of platters designed for sharing.<br />

In addition to the fantastic food,<br />

the menu also features an extensive list<br />

of award winning Portuguese wine, as<br />

well as Portuguese beer. At Nando’s<br />

Peri-Peri you’ll find Spice with Life!<br />

For more information about<br />

Nando’s Peri-Peri visit www.<br />

nandosperiperi.com<br />

DELOITTE NAMED A <strong>2008</strong> BEST COMPANY<br />

FOR MULTICULTURAL WOMEN BY<br />

WORKING MOTHER FOR THIRD<br />

CONSECUTIVE YEAR<br />

rate America with a new benchmark<br />

for diversity and inclusion,” said Carol<br />

Evans, CEO, Working Mother Media.<br />

“Just as our nation has made history<br />

with this year’s presidential primaries,<br />

we challenge corporate America to pay<br />

attention to issues of race and gender,<br />

and to benchmark their own work<br />

against our winners.”<br />

Among the initiatives Working<br />

Mother cites is Deloitte’s Breakthrough<br />

Leadership Program, a minority<br />

development program for high-potential<br />

managers and senior managers<br />

that provides participants with coaching,<br />

360-feedback and interaction with<br />

senior leadership. Another example is<br />

the Ellen Gabriel Fellows program,<br />

which develops senior managers who<br />

are on the track for partnership.<br />

Although the <strong>2008</strong> Best Companies<br />

are making great strides, hurdles remain,<br />

as 68 percent of multicultural<br />

women believe that gender and racial<br />

pay-equity issues exist at work, according<br />

to the study. <strong>The</strong> 50-page<br />

study includes interviews and profiles<br />

of this year’s winning companies and<br />

can be accessed at www.workingmother.com.<br />

For more information about deloitte,<br />

visit www.deloitte.com.<br />

OP-ED<br />

“<br />

To be equal in opportunity,<br />

recognition and respect” is<br />

the goal of CITE executive<br />

Jan Richardson. Amid celebrations of<br />

the 25th anniversary of the Consortium<br />

of Information and Telecommunications<br />

Executives (CITE) in Washington,<br />

D.C. Richardson exhibited high<br />

confidence that the African-American<br />

employee resource group (ERG) has<br />

created such an environment at Verizon<br />

Communications Inc.<br />

Verizon Communications Inc. is an<br />

American broadband and telecommunications<br />

company. Just 8 years old,<br />

Verizon was formed in 2000 when Bell<br />

Atlantic’s Regional Bell Operating<br />

Company merged with GTE. Listed<br />

number 17 on the Fortune 100 List,<br />

Verizon is a $100 billion a year company<br />

that operates coast-to-coast,<br />

serves 70 million customers and has almost<br />

a quarter million employees.<br />

Verizon and CITE are real success<br />

stories. CITE represents the interest of<br />

Verizon’s 35,000 African-American<br />

employees. An employee resource<br />

group, CITE has aided and monitored<br />

Verizon’s commitment to excellence in<br />

community service, and personal and<br />

professional development for over 25<br />

years. Black Enterprise magazine says<br />

Verizon “has set the bar in terms of<br />

workforce diversity”. Long-time<br />

members of the company’s senior leadership<br />

CITE activists have had a seat at<br />

the table making company policy and<br />

IT’S OK TO BE<br />

SHELLFISH AT<br />

ASIA NINE<br />

<strong>The</strong>re’s nothing like a plate<br />

full of pristine oysters,<br />

shucked just right, served on<br />

a bed of salt with all the fitting accompaniments.<br />

Asia Nine raises the<br />

(sushi) bar by adding a variety of<br />

fresh-from-the-sea favorites. <strong>The</strong><br />

restaurant’s new oyster bar includes<br />

not only a daily changing choice of<br />

three kinds of oysters ($12 for a half<br />

dozen), but serves them with a<br />

choice of a distinctive Asian seafood<br />

sauce or a zesty Wasabi cocktail<br />

sauce. For true seafood aficionados,<br />

a seafood tower is available featuring<br />

hoards of shrimp, mounds of<br />

King Crab and oodles of oysters<br />

($39.99 for one; $75 for two).<br />

During <strong>happy</strong> hour, 4:30-7 p.m.<br />

week<strong>day</strong>s, Oysters are half price at<br />

the bar; and for late diners, oysters<br />

are half price after 9p.m. daily.<br />

At the bar, the restaurant offers<br />

a wide variety of Asian beers,<br />

sakes, wines and cocktails.<br />

Located in Washington, DC’s<br />

Penn Quarter at 915 E Street, NW,<br />

Asia Nine serves lunch Mon<strong>day</strong>-<br />

Fri<strong>day</strong> from 11a.m. to 3p.m.;<br />

Satur<strong>day</strong> and Sun<strong>day</strong> from<br />

11:30a.m. to 3p.m.; Sun<strong>day</strong><br />

Brunch from noon to 3p.m.; dinner<br />

Sun<strong>day</strong>-Wednes<strong>day</strong> from<br />

3p.m. to midnight; Thurs<strong>day</strong>–<br />

Satur<strong>day</strong> 3p.m.-1a.m., and provides<br />

take out, delivery and valet<br />

parking. For reservations, call<br />

(202) 629-4355 or go to www.<br />

asianine.com.<br />

BLACK TELECOM PROFESSIONALS<br />

CITED FOR VERIZON’S SUCCESSES<br />

William Reed<br />

Special to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Herald</strong><br />

Tisa W. Jackson named vice<br />

president of diversity and inclusion<br />

Union Bank of California, N.A.<br />

has announced that Tisa W.<br />

Jackson has joined the bank as<br />

vice president of diversity and inclusion.<br />

Jackson is responsible for developing<br />

and executing diversity and inclusion<br />

strategies, initiatives, and<br />

programs for the bank.<br />

Prior to joining Union Bank, Jackson<br />

was the vice president of the diversity<br />

and inclusion strategies group at<br />

Countrywide Financial. She also<br />

served as the human resources administrator<br />

for Deloitte & Touche Tax<br />

Technologies and human resources<br />

manager for InfoNXX. Jackson began<br />

kept diversity issues at the forefront of<br />

practices. <strong>The</strong> annual DiversityInc Top<br />

50 Companies for Diversity currently<br />

rates Verizon Number 2 for “recruitment<br />

and retention” and says the company<br />

demonstrates “consistent<br />

strength” in CEO commitment, human<br />

capital, corporate and organizational<br />

communications, and supplier diversity.<br />

<strong>The</strong> CITE model is timely and ongoing.<br />

CITE members arguer for African<br />

American interests inside and out the<br />

company. Prior to its transformation<br />

into Verizon, Bell Atlantic had merged<br />

with another Bell Operating Company,<br />

NYNEX, in 1997 and the CITE concept<br />

evolved with the telecommunications<br />

giant. CITE & Company provides<br />

voice, video and data services to residential<br />

and small business customers in<br />

28 states and Washington, D.C. It is in a<br />

competitive market and operates a<br />

Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network<br />

under the FiOS service mark. FTTP network<br />

offers bandwidth for voice, data,<br />

and video services, and FiOS provides<br />

broadband access speeds and digital<br />

voice services. <strong>The</strong> Verizon network operates<br />

41 million wireline access lines,<br />

8.2 million broadband connections, and<br />

had 943,000 FiOS television customers.<br />

Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon Chairman/CEO,<br />

supports CITE and says,<br />

“Diversity isn’t just a concept at Verizon.<br />

It’s an integral part of our business.<br />

Diversity drives everything<br />

from the best people with the leadership<br />

skills we need, the best products<br />

and services built through our innovation<br />

and customer focus, and the best<br />

network maintained by our ability to<br />

drive results. <strong>The</strong> diverse minds, experiences,<br />

culture and unique perspectives<br />

of our employees are what give<br />

us our competitive advantage. Diversity<br />

and inclusion are a critical link to<br />

our customers, communities and shareholders.<br />

Verizon firmly believes that<br />

developing the right skills and providing<br />

the resources for our employees is<br />

essential to create our winning culture.<br />

Our employees have access and are encouraged<br />

to utilize our training opportunities,<br />

including our diversity leadership<br />

workshops and extensive online<br />

library, connect with a mentor, join one<br />

of our many support networks, and utilize<br />

our work/life tools”.<br />

CITE is a model for all American<br />

enterprises. At its “25 Years of Excellence—Continuing<br />

the Legacy” Conference,<br />

Verizon’s Regional President<br />

Bill Roberts was the host; and as a<br />

CITE member illustrated the employee<br />

resource group’s longevity and legacy.<br />

<strong>The</strong>se types of networks of employees<br />

with common interests increasingly<br />

are being used to strategically advance<br />

businesses by involving and using<br />

members’ ideas for marketing campaigns<br />

targeting fast-growing markets<br />

and as a means of increasing recruitment,<br />

retention and promotion of top<br />

talent. Like many African Americans,<br />

not all black Verizon employees buy<br />

into “that race stuff”. Of Verizon’s<br />

34,000 African American employees,<br />

just 12,000 are active in CITE.<br />

Despite the established recognition<br />

of diversity as a business imperative,<br />

discussions around diversity remain<br />

sensitive, and implementation of such<br />

practices is often met with ambivalence.<br />

<strong>The</strong> fact that most companies<br />

remain largely indifferent to changing<br />

corporate America’s predominately<br />

white status quo makes it all the more<br />

important to laud those who are aggressively<br />

pursuing initiatives for<br />

African Americans’ “opportunities,<br />

recognition and respect”.<br />

• • •<br />

William Reed<br />

www.BlackPressInternational.com<br />

TISA W. JACKSON NAMED VICE PRESIDENT<br />

OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION FOR<br />

UNION BANK OF CALIFORNIA<br />

her career with Advanced Micro Devices,<br />

where she served as the human<br />

resources program manager for the<br />

workforce planning and development<br />

division, and was responsible for creating<br />

and implementing the diversity<br />

work-life balance programs and initiatives.<br />

Jackson is the founder of the Professional<br />

& Technical Diversity Network<br />

and is the program chair of the<br />

Young African American Women’s<br />

Conference. She also is a leadership<br />

council member of the Global Organization<br />

for Leadership and Diversity<br />

and is a member of the Asian Pacific<br />

American Dispute Resolution Center<br />

Dinner Committee. Jackson is a past<br />

recipient of the Urban Financial Services<br />

Coalition’s Philanthropist Award.<br />

She holds a bachelor’s degree from<br />

Emerson College,<br />

Based in San Francisco, UnionBan-<br />

Cal Corporation (NYSE: UB) is a bank<br />

holding company with assets of $57.9<br />

billion at March 31, <strong>2008</strong>. Its primary<br />

subsidiary, Union Bank of California,<br />

N.A., had 334 banking offices in<br />

California, Oregon and Washington,<br />

and 2 international offices at March<br />

31, <strong>2008</strong>. <strong>The</strong> company’s website is<br />

located at www.unionbank.com.<br />

THE METRO HERALD 19


SPORTS & RECREATION<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

OP-ED<br />

SIU-<br />

EDWARDSVILLE<br />

TO JOIN<br />

OHIO VALLEY<br />

CONFERENCE<br />

Southern Illinois University-<br />

Edwardsville is joining the<br />

Ohio Valley Conference, becoming<br />

the 11th school in that<br />

league. <strong>The</strong> conference and the<br />

school announced the move Tues<strong>day</strong>,<br />

as the Cougars transition from<br />

NCAA Division II to Division I.<br />

SIU-Edwardsville will officially<br />

become part of the conference on<br />

July 1.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Cougars will begin regularseason<br />

competition in the OVC<br />

during the 2011-2012 academic<br />

year, and in most cases will be eligible<br />

for postseason play the next<br />

year.<br />

SIU will replace Samford, an<br />

Alabama school that is defecting to<br />

the Southern Conference.<br />

CHINA’S OLYMPIC TRIUMPH: COMING OF AGE IN BEIJING<br />

Carlos Cardozo Campbell<br />

Special to <strong>The</strong> <strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Herald</strong><br />

Months before the opening<br />

ceremonies for the 29th<br />

Olympic Games, the stage<br />

has been set for what may be the greatest<br />

celebration of the modern Olympic<br />

Games in history. It will also mark the<br />

40th anniversary of world wide satellite<br />

based television broadcasting. As<br />

Bill Toomey, the 1968 Olympic Decathlon<br />

Champion said about the 1968<br />

satellite broadcast: “Television and the<br />

Olympics combined to bring the world<br />

together like never before.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> opening ceremonies will take<br />

place on the 8th <strong>day</strong> of the 8th month<br />

of <strong>2008</strong>. <strong>The</strong> number eight is considered<br />

to be the luckiest number of all in<br />

Chinese culture.<br />

Beijing, the centerpiece of the 29th<br />

Olympiad, is the focal point for an urban<br />

development boom with buildings covering<br />

over 10,000 sites representing 1.7<br />

billion square feet of floor space at a cost<br />

in excess of 40 billion dollars.<br />

<strong>The</strong> architectural crown jewels of<br />

the Olympic venues are <strong>The</strong> National<br />

Stadium, referred to as the “Cage” and<br />

the National Aquatic Center referred to<br />

as the “Water Cube.”<br />

In addition there is the National<br />

Center for the Performing Arts,<br />

shaped like an “egg,” and the China<br />

Central Television Headquarters, a 6.5<br />

million square foot, 788 foot structure<br />

which dominates the Beijing skyline.<br />

<strong>The</strong>se buildings, monuments to the<br />

majesty of the Olympic movement,<br />

were designed to inspire and symbolize<br />

China’s new genesis and Beijing’s<br />

debut as a global city.<br />

In addition to the monuments the<br />

Beijing Olympic Games will provide<br />

majestic moments, miracles, and memories.<br />

I was privileged to attend the Montreal<br />

Olympic Games in 1976 when I<br />

was the Deputy Assistant Administrator<br />

of the American Revolution Bicentennial<br />

Administration and the Director of<br />

the Bicentennial Sports Alliance. <strong>The</strong><br />

assemblage of great athletes from all<br />

over the world and the resulting competition<br />

was a powerful experience.<br />

Majestic moments during the<br />

Olympic experience elevate the human<br />

spirit and generate harmony, respect<br />

and dignity for participants as well as<br />

the nations that they represent.<br />

Three words encapsulate the<br />

essence of the Olympic creed: “Citius,<br />

Altius, and Fortius,” which mean:<br />

“Swifter, Higher, and Stronger.”<br />

For the citizens of the People’s Republic<br />

of China, a majestic moment<br />

occurred during the summer of 1992,<br />

at the 25th Olympics held in<br />

Barcelona, Spain. Tens of thousands of<br />

spectators watched a quick striding<br />

diminutive twenty-four year old cross<br />

the finish line in the ten kilometer walk<br />

in forty four minutes and thirty two<br />

seconds. <strong>The</strong> victory was historic.<br />

Chen Yue Ling became the first<br />

woman from China to win an Olympic<br />

Gold medal in track and field as well<br />

as the first Asian woman to accomplish<br />

such a historic feat. She became a national<br />

hero and the subject of a documentary<br />

film. Years later a bronze<br />

statue was erected and displayed in her<br />

hometown of Tieling in the province of<br />

Lianoning, China. With Chen Yue<br />

Ling’s victory, the Chinese women<br />

captured three of the first five places in<br />

the ten kilometer walk.<br />

Four years later, under the sweltering<br />

summer heat of Atlanta, Georgia,<br />

on July 19th 1996, it was well into the<br />

night when the lights were turned off<br />

throughout Centennial Stadium. Earlier<br />

during the <strong>day</strong>, I had celebrated my<br />

birth<strong>day</strong> with some of the greatest<br />

Olympic champions in history. What I<br />

was about to experience would virtually<br />

erode the earlier celebration from<br />

my mind. A capacity crowd of thousands,<br />

watched as a runner with torch<br />

in hand, ascended the last steps to pass<br />

the Olympic flame. <strong>The</strong> identity of the<br />

final recipient was kept secret. This<br />

added to the suspense of the event.<br />

From behind a screen a familiar champion<br />

walked slowly forward and accepted<br />

the torch. I had met the Champion<br />

a quarter of a century earlier and<br />

subsequently at various events including<br />

the Montreal Olympics. Like most<br />

of his admirers I had watched his<br />

health deteriorate from Parkinson’s<br />

disease. Mohammad Ali, with his hand<br />

and arm trembling lit the Olympic<br />

Flame. My face was so awash with<br />

tears that I was embarrassed. When I<br />

turned to my right and then to my left,<br />

I noticed that everyone in sight was<br />

also in tears. For the spectators who<br />

watched in Centennial Stadium and on<br />

television worldwide, this was indeed<br />

a majestic moment.<br />

In the Winter Olympics held at<br />

Lake Placid, New York, an underdog<br />

U.S. Hockey team was defeated by a<br />

professional level Soviet team in an<br />

exhibition match. When the U.S. Ice<br />

Hockey team, which consisted of college<br />

level players, defeated the Soviet<br />

during the semi-finals it was dubbed<br />

the miracle on ice because they overcame<br />

seemingly insurmountable odds<br />

in their triumph. This victory was heralded<br />

as the greatest upset in the history<br />

of sports. <strong>The</strong> U.S. Hockey team<br />

went on to defeat the team from Finland<br />

and capture the Olympic Gold<br />

medal.<br />

In architecture, design is the imperative<br />

for the millennium. China, as the<br />

host nation for the twenty-ninth<br />

Olympics, has set the standard in the<br />

design of venues for various sports.<br />

China is a nation on the rise and is<br />

in the midst of rapid change. During<br />

the last twenty years China has moved<br />

over 250 million people from rural<br />

areas into the cities and is expected to<br />

move a like amount to cities during the<br />

next twenty years.<br />

An Editorial in the May 11, <strong>2008</strong> of<br />

<strong>The</strong> Washington Post “Olympic Gag<br />

Order; Why should China’s repression<br />

of free speech be imposed on athletes<br />

from the rest of the world” is critical<br />

of the International Olympic Committee<br />

for sticking to it’s Charter which<br />

states: “No kind of demonstration or<br />

political, religious or racial propaganda<br />

is permitted in any Olympic<br />

sites, venues or other areas.”<br />

$2M JEWEL HEIST IN MASSACHUSETTS<br />

INCLUDES SUPER BOWL RINGS<br />

Thieves broke into a jewelry company over the weekend and stole up<br />

to $2 million in gold, gems and other valuables, including Super Bowl<br />

rings made for New York Giants staff members, authorities said.<br />

<strong>The</strong> thieves disabled the alarm system at E.A. Dion Inc., cut a hole in the<br />

roof and made off with a safe that weighed at least 1,000 pounds.<br />

<strong>The</strong> loss was discovered Sun<strong>day</strong> by a Dion employee, who went to the<br />

business when she was unable to access her work e-mail from home, apparently<br />

because phone lines had been cut. <strong>The</strong> heist could have taken place at<br />

any time over the weekend, Sgt. Jim Keane said Wednes<strong>day</strong>.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Super Bowl rings made by the company were to be given to the Giants<br />

staff members to commemorate the team’s win over the New England<br />

Patriots, team spokesman Pat Hanlon said.<br />

<strong>The</strong> players and coaches had already received their rings last month. <strong>The</strong><br />

staffers were to receive identical ones—white gold rings with the “NY” logo<br />

is set in diamonds and “World Champions” emblazoned in raised letters. <strong>The</strong>y<br />

were designed by Tiffany and Co. and have a retail value at $25,000 each, the<br />

team said.<br />

<strong>The</strong> company does not discuss specific customer’s orders, President Edward<br />

Dion Jr. said.<br />

“We’ve talked to our major customers and let them know what happened,<br />

and I am confident we’ll be able to fulfill our orders,” he said.<br />

<strong>The</strong> family-owned company, which has been in business for 40 years, was<br />

back up running at full speed and re-evaluating security, Dion said.<br />

<strong>The</strong> case remains under investigation by Attleboro police with assistance<br />

from the FBI.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Post Editorial states, in part,<br />

“No worthy public goal can be pursued<br />

without a measure of controversy, debate<br />

and yes, conflict. Let the struggles<br />

among and within nations be peaceful.<br />

But don’t pretend they don’t existmuch<br />

less try to stamp them out for the<br />

sake of a commercialized extravaganza.<br />

In helping China do just that,<br />

the Olympic “Movement” risks sacrificing<br />

values far more important than<br />

athletic competition.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> Washington Post diminishes<br />

it’s stature by publishing such a self<br />

righteous and sanctimonious editorial.<br />

As much as I love and cherish America,<br />

I find that our system of justice<br />

which incarcerates more than any nation<br />

in the entire world, (approximately<br />

2.3 million which is 800,000<br />

more than China) with an estimated ten<br />

percent or more who are innocent and<br />

whereby hundreds have been exonerated<br />

from death row, has a house in serious<br />

disorder. Moreover the incarceration<br />

of suspected terrorist without<br />

charges and the abuse of “detainees,”<br />

not to mention the conduct of war<br />

based on erroneous intelligence do not<br />

put the United States high on the scale<br />

of credible human rights practices.<br />

Referring to the Olympics as: “A<br />

commercialized extravaganza,” is condescending,<br />

disingenuous and inappropriate<br />

on the part of <strong>The</strong> Washington<br />

Post.<br />

<strong>The</strong> goal of the Olympic Games,<br />

stated in the IOC Charter “Is to place<br />

sport at the service of the harmonious<br />

development of man, with a view to promoting<br />

a peaceful society concerned<br />

with the preservation of human dignity.”<br />

Two times Olympic 800 meters<br />

Gold Medalist (1948 and 1952) and<br />

holder of five Olympic medals, Mal<br />

Whitfied asserts: “<strong>The</strong> Beijing Olympic<br />

will be the most spectacular games ever.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Chinese are great people and they<br />

are going to set the standards to the delight<br />

of the entire world.”<br />

In addition, China appears to be the<br />

most progressive, resourceful and determined<br />

nation in the world in addressing<br />

the challenge of growth management.<br />

China’s GDP of about 10 percent<br />

annually for the past decade is the<br />

longest sustained economic expansion<br />

in history. <strong>The</strong> Chinese government,<br />

like the British after World War Two,<br />

has adopted a policy of building new<br />

or Satellite towns around the periphery<br />

of Beijing and Shanghai. <strong>The</strong>se new<br />

towns are planned to accommodate a<br />

population between 500, 000 and one<br />

million people. <strong>The</strong> new town of Milton<br />

Keynes, about 40 miles northwest<br />

of London, England was originally<br />

planned for 250,000 people when it<br />

was initiated in 1969. When I visited<br />

Milton Keynes in 2005, I found out the<br />

the new town had met it planned population<br />

goal and is slated to add another<br />

250,000 people.<br />

<strong>The</strong> reported modal split for trips to<br />

work in China is approximately as follows:<br />

Walking 29%; cycling 25%; public<br />

transit 24%; electric mobile 6%; motorcycle<br />

5% and private automobile 9%.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Chinese government is implementing<br />

policy initiatives to establish<br />

land use planning and sustainable development<br />

standards to manage urban<br />

growth. <strong>The</strong> Chinese are working with<br />

urban development professionals in the<br />

United States and clearly taking advantage<br />

of lessons learned by this nation<br />

as well as the Europeans.<br />

In recent years I have had the opportunity<br />

to meet with several elected<br />

officials and development executives<br />

from Dalian, China. Through this interaction<br />

I have gained great respect<br />

for their professional standards, dedication<br />

and commitment.<br />

While <strong>2008</strong> will focus largely on<br />

the Olympic Games in Beijing, visitors<br />

would do well to inquire about the<br />

building of six satellite towns, an airport<br />

town and subway that, upon completion,<br />

will be the largest in the world.<br />

In contrast to the construction in<br />

support of the Olympic Games, China<br />

in the province of Sichuan, experienced<br />

a 7.9 magnitude earthquake which left<br />

millions homeless and over 69,000<br />

people dead. While the Foreign Ministry<br />

initially declined the assistance of<br />

rescue personnel , they reversed their<br />

policy and let in specialist from Japan,<br />

South Korea, Taiwan and Russia. President<br />

Hu Jintao expressed thanks and<br />

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao participated<br />

in a photo opportunity with Ban Kimoon,<br />

Secretary General of the United<br />

Nations. International financial contributions<br />

from over 80 nations are in the<br />

tens of millions of dollars.<br />

Fred Kemp, reported on Bloomberg<br />

June 1, <strong>2008</strong> that the Chinese Central<br />

Government has been responsive in<br />

dealing with the Sichuan earthquake<br />

which caused an estimated 20 billion<br />

dollars in damage.<br />

<strong>The</strong> strength of character of the<br />

Chinese has been born out a culture<br />

which is thousands of years old, and<br />

traditions of discipline and unity. Anthropologist<br />

Margaret Mead said:<br />

“When you study others you can learn<br />

about yourself.” We can learn a great<br />

deal from the Chinese. <strong>The</strong> tragedy of<br />

Sichuan has changed the calculus of<br />

diplomacy with an international response<br />

that bridges and strengthens the<br />

bonds of our humanity.<br />

This is the Chinese Century. Come<br />

August 8, <strong>2008</strong>, let the games begin.<br />

• • •<br />

Carlos Cardozo Campbell is a former<br />

Assistant Secretary of Commerce for<br />

Economic Development with the U.S.<br />

Department of Commerce from 1981<br />

through 1984.<br />

When responding to an ad,<br />

tell them you saw it in <strong>The</strong> <strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Herald</strong><br />

20 THE METRO HERALD


SPORTS & RECREATION<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

US WILL ANNOUNCE OLYMPIC HOOPS TEAM BEFORE CAMP<br />

So much for the training camp<br />

competition for the final spots<br />

on the Olympic team. <strong>The</strong><br />

United States will pick its squad without<br />

a tryout.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Americans have changed<br />

their plans and will select the 12 players<br />

headed to Beijing before they report<br />

to Las Vegas later this month.<br />

Originally, the team was to have potentially<br />

16 players in camp and cut<br />

down to 12 on June 30.<br />

“<strong>The</strong> staff really is more interested<br />

in getting down so that they can get to<br />

work in terms of preparation. We<br />

have switched our thinking,” USA<br />

Basketball managing director Jerry<br />

Colangelo told <strong>The</strong> Associated Press<br />

on Tues<strong>day</strong>.<br />

“Our plan is to go ahead and announce<br />

our team sometime before we<br />

get to Las Vegas.” Colangelo said the<br />

announcement likely would come<br />

after the NBA finals end. <strong>The</strong> Americans<br />

are to begin workouts on the<br />

UNLV campus June 28.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re are more than 30 players in<br />

the national team program, but Colangelo<br />

and coach Mike Krzyzewski are<br />

down to about their top 14. <strong>The</strong>y will<br />

decide on the final two spots, probably<br />

at point guard and power forward,<br />

in the coming <strong>day</strong>s.<br />

With the team’s minicamp expected<br />

to last only two <strong>day</strong>s,<br />

Krzyzewski told Colangelo there<br />

wasn’t enough time to make cuts, and<br />

asked to bring in just the Beijingbound<br />

players so they could focus on<br />

the summer ahead.<br />

“That’s basically a plan rather<br />

than a tryout of 16 or 15 or whatever<br />

the number might have been. We’ve<br />

got a pretty good handle on the 13, 14<br />

names, and it’s more about preparation,”<br />

Colangelo said. “<strong>The</strong>y want to<br />

get on with it.”<br />

Colangelo will get to work on one<br />

decision shortly, flying to Chicago to<br />

check on Dwyane Wade, who has<br />

been working out after missing the<br />

final 21 games this season because of<br />

chronic soreness in his surgically repaired<br />

left knee. Wade likely will get<br />

a spot if he’s healthy, but Colangelo<br />

wants to get a “real read” on the Heat<br />

guard’s rehab.<br />

While there, Colangelo also will<br />

get a look at Chris Paul, one of the<br />

players on the bubble, whom Wade<br />

has invited to work out with him. <strong>The</strong><br />

New Orleans point guard, runner-up<br />

to Kobe Bryant in the MVP voting,<br />

might have to beat out Chauncey<br />

Billups, Deron Williams, and perhaps<br />

Wade for a spot.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re could be an opening in the<br />

frontcourt, where Amare Stoudemire<br />

might have talked himself off the<br />

team. <strong>The</strong> Phoenix Suns star said<br />

after his season ended that he needed<br />

to see how his body felt before deciding<br />

to play, and his indecision seems<br />

to have created some doubt in Colangelo’s<br />

mind.<br />

“Amare still may or may not be<br />

under consideration,” Colangelo said.<br />

“We have decisions to make relative<br />

to Amare, and that works both ways.”<br />

Toronto’s Chris Bosh, who played<br />

in the 2006 world championships but<br />

was injured last summer, and Utah’s<br />

Carlos Boozer are the leading candidates<br />

to claim a forward spot.<br />

Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo<br />

Anthony, Jason Kidd and Dwight<br />

Howard were the starters last year<br />

when the Americans went undefeated<br />

in the Olympic qualifying tournament.<br />

Stoudemire, Billups, Williams,<br />

Michael Redd, Tayshaun Prince,<br />

Tyson Chandler and Mike Miller also<br />

were on the team.<br />

<strong>The</strong> deadline to submit the<br />

Olympic roster is July 1. <strong>The</strong> Americans<br />

will return to Las Vegas in mid-<br />

July to train and play an exhibition<br />

game against Canada before departing<br />

for China. <strong>The</strong>y face the host Chinese<br />

in their Beijing opener on Aug. 10.<br />

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THE METRO HERALD 21


CLASSIFIED ADS/BIDS & PROPOSALS<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

Only $250 buys a<br />

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Call: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Herald</strong> at<br />

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OR<br />

Virginia Press Services at<br />

804-521-7571<br />

to place your ad in the<br />

AD NETWORK CLASSIFIEDS<br />

ANNOUNCEMENTS<br />

THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF<br />

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in Federal Transit Administration<br />

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during the federal fiscal year beginning<br />

October 1, <strong>2008</strong> pursuant to the<br />

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on development of this goal is<br />

available for inspection Mon<strong>day</strong>-Fri<strong>day</strong><br />

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virginia.gov. Phone: 804-786-4440.<br />

Comments on the goal will be received<br />

until July 25, <strong>2008</strong> at the above<br />

address.<br />

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATON FUNDING<br />

NOW AVAILABLE—THE VIRGINIA<br />

DEPARTMENT OF RAIL AND PUBLIC<br />

TRANSPORTATON is accepting applications<br />

for federal and state funding for<br />

eligible projects designed to improve<br />

mobility for the elderly and individuals<br />

with disabilities. Funds are available<br />

through the federal New Freedom Program<br />

and a companion state program,<br />

the Senior Transportation Program. <strong>The</strong><br />

New Freedom Program provides funding<br />

for new transportation programs that<br />

go beyond the Americans with Disabilities<br />

Act. <strong>The</strong> Senior Transportation Program<br />

provides funding to improve or expand<br />

transportation services for the<br />

elderly who are unable to operate a<br />

motor vehicle and do not have alternative<br />

transportation available. Applications<br />

will be accepted from June 16,<br />

<strong>2008</strong> to August 15, <strong>2008</strong>. Forms and<br />

instructions for completing the applications<br />

for federal and state funding can<br />

be found on the DRPT Web site at www.<br />

drpt.virginia.gov. For information regarding<br />

the New Freedom Program or<br />

the Senior Transportation Program,<br />

contact Neil Sherman, Specialized<br />

Transportation Program Manager, at<br />

804-786-1154 or Neil.Sherman@drpt.<br />

virginia.gov. For the hearing impaired<br />

only, access is available at 1-800-828-<br />

1120.<br />

AUCTIONS<br />

AUCTION—Construction Equipment &<br />

Trucks, June 13th, Richmond, VA.<br />

Huge, 800+ Lots, Featuring 100+ Piece<br />

Site Contractor Liquidation of Late<br />

Model Equipment & Trucks. Plus:<br />

Virginia Department of Transportation,<br />

Dominion Virginia Power, Sunbelt<br />

Rentals & Others! Motley’s Auction &<br />

Realty Group, 804-232-3300, VAAL<br />

#16, www.Motleys.com.<br />

PUBLIC AUCTION • COMMON-<br />

WEALTH OF VIRGINIA • SATURDAY<br />

6/14/08 • 9:00AM • VIRGINIA TECH,<br />

1411 SOUTH MAIN STREET, BLACKS-<br />

BURG, VA 24061-0310 • VEHICLES •<br />

COMPUTER EQUIPMENT * VARIOUS<br />

OFFICE & HOUSEHOLD ITEMS &<br />

MUCH MORE. http://vbo.dgs.virginia.<br />

gov/VBO/Docs/Auction_Bid_<br />

Schedule.asp.<br />

APARTMENTS FOR RENT<br />

4 bd. 2 ba. Home only $270/mo! More<br />

1-4 bd. HUD Homes from $199/mo!<br />

Financing Referrals Available! For<br />

Listings 800-628-5983 ext. T295.<br />

4 bd. 2.5 ba. HUD Home only $425/<br />

mo! Great Location! More 1-4 bd.<br />

Homes available from $199/mo! 5% dn,<br />

20 yrs @ 8% apr! For info & listings 800-<br />

508-8176.<br />

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES<br />

ALL CASH CANDY ROUTE. Do you<br />

earn $800 in a <strong>day</strong> Your own local<br />

candy route. Includes 30 Machines and<br />

Candy. All for $9,995. 1-888-745-3354.<br />

EDUCATION/HELP WANTED<br />

Southwest Virginia Community College<br />

has the following openings: VP<br />

Administration & Finance—12 month;<br />

History Instructor—9 month. See www.<br />

sw.edu/community/hr/employment.<br />

htm.<br />

GENERAL<br />

HELP WANTED<br />

SECRET SHOPPERS NEEDED—For<br />

Store Evaluations. Get Paid to Shop and<br />

Rate Local Stores, Restaurants &<br />

<strong>The</strong>aters. Flexible Hours, Training<br />

Provided 1-800-585-9024 ext 6976.<br />

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR needed for<br />

non-profit Virginia Coalition for Open<br />

Government. Successful candidate will<br />

work to increase awareness of public<br />

access to government business. Complete<br />

job description: www.vpa.net/<br />

index.php/association/article/vcog_<br />

job_posting/.<br />

Watkins Associates Needed. Flexible<br />

hours. Earn $500-$1000+/month Part-<br />

Time. Start while keeping your current<br />

job. No selling required. Free details.<br />

www.348.com.<br />

TRUCK DRIVERS<br />

DRIVER CDL TRAINING—CLASS “A”<br />

or CLASS “B.” Local or O-T-R Job Placement<br />

Assistance. Guaranteed Financing<br />

Available. $38-45K 1st Year. CDS Tractor<br />

Trailer Training 1-800-646-2374.<br />

C&C Trucking Earn More—Be Home<br />

More. Great Pay, Medical, Dental,<br />

Home Weekends, New Equipment,<br />

Family Atmosphere. Class A Drivers Call<br />

To<strong>day</strong> Toll Free 800-476-8269.<br />

Flatbed Drivers—2007 Model Freightliners<br />

are Here! Per Diem, Excellent<br />

Benefits. Class A-CDL, 22 Years Old,<br />

Good Record. Call Western Express<br />

To<strong>day</strong>!! 866-863-4116.<br />

65 DRIVER TRAINEES NEEDED! NO<br />

CDL NO PROBLEM! LEARN TO<br />

DRIVE A TRUCK WITH US. FT/PT<br />

CLASSES. GREAT PAY. BENEFITS!<br />

CALL NOW 1-800-874-7131.<br />

Our top regional driver made $79,097<br />

in 2007! How much did YOU earn<br />

$.50/mile Make more in <strong>2008</strong>!<br />

Home most weekends! HEARTLAND<br />

EXPRESS 1-800-441-4953. www.<br />

heartlandexpress.com.<br />

DRIVERS: FRESH START. Sign-On<br />

Bonus. 35-42cpm. Earn over $1000<br />

weekly. Excellent Benefits. Need CDL-A<br />

& 3 months recent OTR. 800-635-8669.<br />

Drivers: Martini is Hiring Co. Drivers &<br />

O/Os who want: Weekend Home Time &<br />

a Consistent Customer Base. CDL-A<br />

&1 yr. OTR Exp. Req. 866-460-8464<br />

www.gomartini.com.<br />

HOMES FOR RENT<br />

Affordable HUD Homes! 4 bd. 2 ba.<br />

Home buy for only $650/mo! 3 bd. 1 ba.<br />

Home only $230/mo! For Listings 800-<br />

628-5983 ext. T294.<br />

HOMES FOR SALE<br />

FULKS RUN: near Harrisonburg, VA,<br />

4 bedroom, bath in Country. 3.5 acres,<br />

2 septic systems, carport, 3 outbuildings<br />

& barn. Serious inquires only. 540-867-<br />

5902; 540-867-9497.<br />

Estate Home, 5 Bedroom, Large Family<br />

Room w/Fireplace, Formal Dining<br />

Room, Formal Sitting Room,<br />

Great Trout Stream Visit: www.<br />

TroutStreamEstates.com.<br />

Bank Repo Homes from $199/mo!<br />

3 bd. 1 ba. Home only $300/mo! 4 bd.<br />

2 ba. Only $597/mo! 5% dn, 20 yrs @<br />

8% apr! For Listings 800-628-5983 ext.<br />

T391.<br />

4 bd. 2 ba. Home only $270/mo! More<br />

1-4 bd. HUD Homes from $199/mo!<br />

Financing Referrals Available! For<br />

Listings 800-628-5983 ext. T295.<br />

5 bd. 2 ba. Bank Foreclosure only<br />

$35k! More 1-4 bd. Foreclosure available<br />

from $199/mo! 5% dn, 20 yrs @ 8%<br />

apr! For info & listings 800-508-8176.<br />

LAND FOR SALE<br />

LAND ANNA, VA—Steal My Lakefront<br />

Land! Owner must sell! Reduced 30%!<br />

Large water access $49,900. Direct<br />

Waterfront $199,900. We will match up<br />

to 10% of your down payment, NO<br />

gimmicks! Call 888-838-9019.<br />

VIRGINIA MOUNTAINS—2 acres on<br />

mountaintop near New River State Park,<br />

great fishing, view, private, $29,500<br />

must sell, call owner 866-789-8535.<br />

Pre-Construction Grand Opening<br />

Land Sale on Virginia’s Northern Neck.<br />

Satur<strong>day</strong>, June 21st. Three acre lake<br />

lot from $49,900. Limited availability.<br />

Call 888-743-9502 to<strong>day</strong>.<br />

LOTS AND ACREAGE<br />

Land Bargains—Mountain & Country<br />

Properties with 50 Mile Views, Streams,<br />

Ponds, etc. Visit: www.LandNearDC.<br />

com.<br />

66 Acres, Numerous barns, outbuildings,<br />

office on state road, Special<br />

Financing www.NationalForestLand.<br />

com.<br />

ONLY ONE. $124,900 • Direct Access to<br />

National Forest • Trout Stream • Hear<br />

the babbling stream • Great Views Call<br />

Now 1-877-777-4837.<br />

HANDY MAN SPECIAL—1500 FT.<br />

MOUNTAIN STREAM—1000 FT. ON<br />

NATIONAL FOREST—15+ ACRES<br />

STATE ROAD FRONTAGE—Getaway<br />

needs TLC, with perfect combination of<br />

open pasture, & park- like Hardwoods,<br />

together with unspoiled Valley & Mountain<br />

Views for only $249,900. Special<br />

One Time Financing! ONLY ONE Call<br />

1-877-777-4837.<br />

PUBLIC NOTICE COUNTRY ESTATE<br />

SALE—Rare 20+ Acre property, minutes<br />

to interstate & Potomac River, perc<br />

tested & general warranty deed included.<br />

Absolute steal at $99,900. Call<br />

Now for Special Sale Date! 1-800-888-<br />

1262.<br />

ACREAGE—$79,900—2.4 Acres, Water<br />

access to the James, cul de sac, ready<br />

to build. FREE $100 GAS CARD WITH<br />

TOUR. FREE CANOE OR KAYAK WITH<br />

PURCHASE. Call 866-765-5238, x1919.<br />

LOG CABIN ON 10 ACRES—Only<br />

$149,900. Satur<strong>day</strong>, June 28th.<br />

Gorgeous new 1700 square foot log<br />

cabin kit & 10 acres with private trout<br />

stream access—surrounded by national<br />

forest land. SAVE $10,000 Guaranteed!<br />

Ask how to pay NO closing costs.<br />

Lowest financing in 25+ years! Call<br />

1-877-777-4837.<br />

FREE GIFT WITH PURCHASE—2.4<br />

Acres, Navigable to James River.<br />

Ready to Build, Fully Approved. All<br />

utilities. Only $99,900. Also 5 acres<br />

water access, $99,900. GET A FREE<br />

CANOE OR KAYAK WITH PURCHASE.<br />

Call 866-764-5238 x1919.<br />

MISCELLANEOUS<br />

ATTEND COLLEGE ONLINE from<br />

Home. • Medical • Business • Paralegal<br />

• Criminal Justice. Job placement assistance.<br />

Computer available. Financial Aid<br />

if qualified. SCHEV certified. Call 866-<br />

858-2121. www.CenturaOnline.com.<br />

AIRLINES ARE HIRING—Train for high<br />

paying Aviation Maintenance Career.<br />

FAA approved program. Financial aid if<br />

qualified—Job placement assistance.<br />

SCHEV Certified. Call Aviation Institute<br />

of Maintenance (888) 349-5387.<br />

MISCELLANEOUS FOR SALE<br />

HOMEOWNERS WANTED! Kayak<br />

Pools looking for Demo homesites to<br />

display new maintenance free Kayak<br />

pools. Save thousands of $$. Unique<br />

opportunity! 100% financing available.<br />

1-877-377-7665.<br />

MOUNTAIN LAND FOR SALE<br />

NC WATERFRONT—1 to 5.6 Acre Lots.<br />

Riverfront from $99,900. River Access<br />

from $49,900. Log Cabin Shells from<br />

$149,900. Paved Roads, Underground<br />

Utilities, Public Water. 704-434-5770.<br />

www.broadriverhighlands.com.<br />

1ST OFFERED MOUNTAIN CHALET<br />

$157,777—20.23 ACRE POND—<br />

Ready to finish Retreat on Mountain Top<br />

parcel, w/state road frontage, Hardwoods<br />

& Seasonal Streams. Perfect<br />

Getaway. Call Now 1-800-888-1262.<br />

HANDYMAN SPECIAL — CEDAR<br />

CHALET—20+ ACRES—MOUNTAIN<br />

TOP VIEWS—Ready to finish, NEW<br />

Chalet on level mountain top parcel.<br />

Park-like setting. Close to historical<br />

town. Loaded w/amenities! ONLY ONE<br />

at $167,900 Call for details Now! 1-800-<br />

888-1262.<br />

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES<br />

DIVORCE without Children $95.00,<br />

DIVORCE with Children $95.00. With<br />

FREE name change documents (wife<br />

only) and marital settlement agreement.<br />

Fast, easy and professional. Call 1-888-<br />

789-0198.<br />

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE<br />

Lake Gaston VA/NC—350 miles<br />

shoreline, FREE Lake Map/Buyers<br />

Guide. Tanglewood Realty, Box 116,<br />

Bracey, Virginia 23919. www.<br />

TanglewoodRealty.com 1-800-338-<br />

8816.<br />

Bank Repo Homes from $199/mo!<br />

3 bd. 1 ba. Home only $300/mo! 4 bd.<br />

2 ba. Only $597/mo! 5% dn, 20 yrs @<br />

8% apr! For Listings 800-628-5983 ext.<br />

T391.<br />

SKILLED TRADES/CRAFTS<br />

JOB CRAFTERS, INC. NOW HIR-<br />

ING!!!!! First Class Shipyard Crafts.<br />

Long-Term Work FL & AL. Overtime &<br />

per diem up to $24.00+ per hour. Phone:<br />

1-800-371-7504 or 251-433-1270. Fax:<br />

251-433-0018. EOE.<br />

WATERFRONT PROPERTIES<br />

Coastal Cottage & 1+ acre—$149,900.<br />

Spectacular dockable deep waterfront<br />

setting on NC’s famed Inner Banks!<br />

Boat, fish, ski!!! Lowest financing ever!<br />

Call now 1-800-732-6601, x2170.<br />

RIVERFRONT ON THE JAMES—200’<br />

frontage, secluded building site. Ready<br />

to build, includes all utilities and<br />

approvals. $189,900. Also 5 acres water<br />

access, $99,900. FREE CANOE OR<br />

KAYAK WITH PURCHASE. 866-764-<br />

5238 x1919.<br />

WORK FROM HOME<br />

OPPORTUNITIES<br />

WORK FROM HOME—RECEIVE $5<br />

FOR EVERY LEAD STUFFED WITH<br />

OUR SALES MATERIAL. GUARAN-<br />

TEED! FREE INFORMATION. CALL<br />

TOLL-FREE 1-800-514-5182.<br />

BLACK FACT<br />

On June 13, 1868,<br />

an ex-slave, Oscar J.<br />

Dunn, becomes<br />

lieutenant governor of<br />

Louisiana. It is the<br />

highest executive<br />

office held by<br />

an African American<br />

to date<br />

22 THE METRO HERALD


CLASSIFIED ADS/BIDS & PROPOSALS/BUSINESS NEWS<br />

June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

“AMERICAN<br />

AIRLINES LIVING<br />

YOUR DREAM”<br />

DEBUTS<br />

American Airlines recently<br />

begins a new series of<br />

radio profiles of successful<br />

African-American business people.<br />

Called, “American Airlines<br />

Living Your Dream,” the series is a<br />

collaboration with <strong>The</strong> Michael<br />

Baisden Show, which airs week<strong>day</strong>s<br />

from 3p.m. to 7p.m. EDT on<br />

the ABC Radio Network.<br />

Each month, host Michael<br />

Baisden will interview guests selected<br />

by American Airlines for<br />

their outstanding achievements,<br />

often despite overwhelming challenges.<br />

Many of the people who<br />

are highlighted will be chosen<br />

from among the airlines’ many<br />

African-American customers and<br />

suppliers.<br />

This month, “American Airlines<br />

Living Your Dream” will profile<br />

Gail Warrior Lawrence, the<br />

president and CEO of the Warrior<br />

Group, Inc. Founded in 1997, the<br />

Warrior Group is a multi-million<br />

dollar provider of premiere modular<br />

construction services. Headquartered<br />

in DeSoto, Texas, the<br />

company has 38 employees and is<br />

the largest woman-owned provider<br />

of modular buildings in the United<br />

States.<br />

“In our business, we meet a lot<br />

of people,” said Roger Frizzell,<br />

American Airlines Vice President<br />

of Advertising and Corporate<br />

Communications. “Over the<br />

years, we have found that many of<br />

them have overcome seemingly insurmountable<br />

obstacles to achieve<br />

success. <strong>The</strong>y have remarkable<br />

stories to tell and I know the public<br />

will be inspired by hearing them.”<br />

“Our show is all about promoting<br />

positive, active change by discussing<br />

real topics that resonate<br />

with our listeners and their communities,”<br />

said Baisden. “This new<br />

feature with American Airlines allows<br />

us to build on our message of<br />

hope and inspiration by telling the<br />

stories of individuals who have<br />

achieved personal success and who<br />

motivate others to conquer their<br />

own challenges.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> Michael Baisden Show<br />

was launched in national syndication<br />

by ABC Radio Networks in<br />

January 2005 and is hosted by author,<br />

TV talk show personality and<br />

emerging community leader<br />

Michael Baisden. <strong>The</strong> entertaining<br />

four-hour afternoon radio program<br />

airs Mon<strong>day</strong>–Fri<strong>day</strong> and combines<br />

the best in music, comedy and social<br />

outreach to inspire real change<br />

in local communities across the<br />

country. Heard in 22 of the top 25<br />

urbanUrban radio markets, <strong>The</strong><br />

Michael Baisden Show reaches<br />

more than 4.6 million listeners<br />

each week.<br />

Archive issues<br />

are available at<br />

www.metroherald.com!<br />

YORKSHIRE TERRIER PUPPIES<br />

FOR SALE<br />

Yorkshire Terrier male and female puppies for sale—10 weeks<br />

old—pictures are also available. <strong>The</strong>y are full-breed, AKC Reg.<br />

Price: $500 (shipping Included). Note: they are ready to go with<br />

all the papers. For more details, contact me at: mathew.cross20<br />

@gmail.com<br />

EXTRA INCOME WITH PART-TIME JOB<br />

Earn extra income working a legitmate part-time job while<br />

maintaining your current job. Rapid Parts Store offers you the<br />

opportunity to work as sole a Representative/Cashier, Sales Rep<br />

and Bookkeeper. No educational qualifications are required except<br />

the zeal to work toward the expansion and growth of Rapid Parts<br />

Store. Must be computer literate and should be able to put 2-3<br />

hours in daily. It’s an absolute amazing opportunity to earn<br />

excellent extra income while you keep your current position. For<br />

more details email: Rapidparts@yahoo.com<br />

PART TIME WORKERS<br />

As part of our expansion program, Yash Clothing And Textile<br />

Company is seeking part-time, work-from-home Sales/Account<br />

Representatives. It pays more than $3,000 a month plus benefits.<br />

Depends on your devotion on the job and takes only little of your<br />

time. Please contact us for more details.<br />

Requirements—Should be computer literate<br />

Have 2–3 hours’ access to the internet weekly<br />

Must be over 20 years of age<br />

Must be efficient and dedicated.<br />

If you are interested and need more information, please send e-<br />

mail to annahabhim_0@graffiti.net.<br />

BOOKKEEPING/PAYROLL SERVICES<br />

Arnold Howard Greenhouses Inc. is a wholesale and<br />

distributor of fiber. We are currently seeking individuals to work<br />

on a full time basis (3–4 hours per week) as an “BOOKKEEPING/<br />

PAYROLL SERVICES” Representatives in local chain store<br />

garden.<br />

BOOKKEEPING/PAYROLL SERVICES<br />

On-site/off-site bookkeeping and payroll service for your small<br />

business. Reasonable rates.<br />

BOOKKEEPING<br />

Accounting & record keeping<br />

• Accounts Receivable<br />

• Accounts Payable<br />

• Bank Reconciliation<br />

• Journal Entries<br />

• Government tax calculations and remittances<br />

• Statements<br />

PAYROLL<br />

• Payroll calculations and record keeping<br />

• Payroll remittances<br />

• Government forms (ROE, WSIB, EHT etc)<br />

• T4s and Government Summary<br />

Good communication skills and personal vehicle is required.<br />

General horticultural knowledge is an asset. Compensation: $700-<br />

$3,000 USD per-week plus mileage allowance.<br />

FAX RESUME TO (206) 350-2724 OR RESPOND VIA<br />

EMAIL FOR INTERVIEW at a.howard96@yahoo.com<br />

When responding to an ad,<br />

tell them you saw it in <strong>The</strong> <strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Herald</strong><br />

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT OFFER<br />

M H Consulting Firm needs mystery shoppers from anywhere in<br />

USA. All the needed explanations would be done and all<br />

applicants would be given guides. No application fee.<br />

Requirements—Must be 18 years or above<br />

Must check email 2–3 time a <strong>day</strong><br />

Must be honest<br />

For more details: m.harrison00@hotmail.com<br />

ACCOUNT MANAGERS WANTED<br />

As part of our expansion program, a small company is looking for<br />

part-time, work-from-home account managers and sales<br />

representatives. Job pays 4,000 dollars a month plus benefits and<br />

takes only a little of your time. Please contact us for more details.<br />

Requirements—Should be computer literate<br />

Have 2-3 hours’ access to the internet weekly<br />

Must be over 19 years of age<br />

If you are interested and need more information, please send<br />

e-mail to starpoint_artgallery01@yahoo.com. Contact name:<br />

Mr Stiga Steward.<br />

PART TIME WORK!!!<br />

As part of our expansion program, our company is looking for<br />

part-time, work-from-home account managers and sales<br />

representatives. It pays $2500 a month plus benefits and takes only<br />

a little of your time. Please contact us for more details.<br />

Requirements—Should be computer literate<br />

Have 2-3 hours’ access to the internet weekly<br />

Must be over 19 years of age<br />

Must be efficient and dedicated.<br />

If you are interested and need more information, contact Ralph<br />

Cony at ralph.cony@yahoo.com.<br />

GREAT OPPORTUNITY !!!<br />

As part of my expansion program, COPPACOBANAArt Galleries<br />

and Textures Company is seeking part-time/full-time, work-fromhome<br />

Account Managers, Lady Clerk, Bookkeepers, Computer<br />

Specialists and Sales Representatives. Jobs pay $2500 a month<br />

minus benefits and weekly bonus.<br />

Requirements—Should be computer literate and<br />

dedicated with skills<br />

Have 4 or more hours’ access to the<br />

internet weekly<br />

Kindly send your resume to this email address if you have interest<br />

in this opportunity: ineedmyjobnow@live.com.<br />

GRAPHIC DESIGNER/<br />

LAYOUT ARTIST NEEDED<br />

Immediate opening for experienced graphic designer/layout<br />

artist proficient in QuarkXPress, PageMaker and Photoshop.<br />

Qualified candidate would be responsible for the layout and design<br />

of the newspaper, arranging text, enhancing photos, etc.<br />

Office is located in Alexandria, five blocks from Braddock<br />

<strong>Metro</strong> Station. Salary is negotiable based on experience.<br />

Please send resume with computer and publications experience<br />

via fax to 703-739-1542, or e-mail to greg@metroherald.com, or<br />

mail to: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Herald</strong>, Graphic Designer position, 901 N.<br />

Washington St., Suite 603, Alexandria, VA 22314.<br />

THE METRO HERALD 23


June 13, <strong>2008</strong><br />

24 THE METRO HERALD

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