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Vol. 56, No. 32 • May 27 -June 2, 2021
Protests Against Liquor Stores Licenses Continue in Ward 8 James Wright WI Staff Writer
5 Asa Gordon, Sec. Gen. Sons & Daughters of the United States Colored Troops, salutes re-enactor Private Marquett Milton after the wreath laying in honor of U.S.C.T. Freedom Fighters Founders Day on Saturday, May 22 in Northwest. (Roy Lewis/The Washington Informer)
Programs Established to Reduce Disproportionate Number of Youth Offenders
Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer
ATHELETICS Page 16
PROTEST Page 34
Regional Task Force Seeks Solutions to Disturbing Rise in Area Carjackings
Post-Quarantine, College Recruitment Top Priority for HS Basketball Coaches In the months preceding the pandemic, William Langford entered his role as the girls basketball coach at Bard High School Early College DC eager to shed light on the talented athletes coming out of the District’s public schools that don’t often catch the attention of recruiters from prominent college athletics programs. Much to Langford’s chagrin, and that of other D.C. Public Schools [DCPS] coaches, doing so during a cancelled season and the District-mandated shutter of schools’ athletics facilities has proven difficult. Langford said the circumstances, and the lack of com-
Ward 8 Advisory Neighborhood Commission 8C Chairman Salim Adofo continued his quest to limit the number of liquor stores in the ward with a recent demonstration in front of a wellknown retail outlet two blocks south of the St. Elizabeth’s East campus. The Informer reported in its Nov. 18, 2020 editions Adofo’s work in rallying residents to deny liquor licenses to corner stores in the ward. Adofo continued his efforts on May 19 by holding a roughly four-hour protest in front of the Mart Liquor
Store, located at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X Avenues, S.E. “The protest went extremely well,” Adofo said. “We had 268 people sign a petition to deny The Mart a renewal of their liquor license. As a matter of fact, we closed them down for a while but we didn’t intend to do that.” Adofo said efforts to curtail the number of liquor licenses in Ward 8 are based on data and conclusions of the D.C. Health Equity Report issued in 2018. Additionally, a number of studies have been conducted by various organizations and think
William J. Ford WI Staff Writer
5 Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy addresses the community. (Courtesy photo)
A regional task force composed of federal and state prosecutors and law enforcement agencies has been established to combat the surge of carjacking which has been reported in the D.C. region. Jonathan Lenzer, acting U.S. attorney for Maryland, said the criminal offense occurred more than double last year from what the region experienced in 2019 in
Prince George’s and Montgomery counties in Maryland and the District of Columbia. If the current trend continues, the number of carjackings this year could match or exceed the total reported in 2020. “One challenge we are facing is the transient nature of these crimes,” Lenzer said during a press conference outside of the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt. “Criminals are committing a series of
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