Baltimoreans were loud and clear from the polling booths Nov. 6, endorsing same sex marriage, casino gambling, higher education benefits at in-state tuition rates for immigrant children, and the redrawing of congressional districts in the state. Baltimore voters approved the same-sex marriage question in a 126,244 to 94,666-vote, cleared casino gambling in a 119,059 to […]
Author Archives: Alexis Taylor
AFRO Staff Writer
Posted inBaltimore News
Baltimore Residents Rejoice in Election Results
BALTIMORE–Screams and laughter split the tension in the air as a single image of a Black man flashed onto television screens in downtown Baltimore on Election Night. Words next to the photo showed that President Obama had been re-elected. The news sent the 200-plus people gathered inside M&T Bank Stadium’s South East Club Lounge into […]
Posted inARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Months After Death, “The Jeffersons” Star Hemsley Still Unburied
Months after his death from lung cancer on July 25 at age 74, the body of sitcom actor Sherman Hemsley has yet to be buried. The popular sitcom icon’s remains are currently locked away inside the San Jose Funeral Home in El Paso, Texas, where a refrigerator is keeping the actor’s body cold until a […]
Posted inHealth
Blood Donations Needed as Hurricane Sandy Cancels Planned Drives
More than 300 blood drives throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions were cancelled after Hurricane Sandy forced thousands out of their homes and into shelters. Red Cross officials said that 14 states lost more than 9,000 donations of blood and platelets during the storm, which flooded Manhattan, caused blizzard-like conditions in West Virginia, and left […]
Posted inHealth
New Study: Women Who Quit Cigarettes Live 10 Years Longer
Women hooked on a daily routine of puffing cigarettes are three times more likely to die before their time, according to a new study. According to a report released Oct. 27 by the University of Oxford, women who quit in their 30s can reverse the damage and add back the portion of their lifespan that […]
Posted inPrince George's County News
Prince George’s Community College Hosts Women’s Legislative Conference
Hundreds of women convened on the campus of Prince George’s Community College Oct. 28 for the first Women’s Legislative Conference, for an opportunity to rub elbows with policy makers while learning about the legislative process and getting information on everything from education to local, state and federal economic concerns. The conference, entitled “Women Educated, Women […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Early Voters Converge on Polls
Voters started queuing up at 6 a.m. outside the Wayne K. Curry Sports and Learning Complex in Landover on the first day of early voting in Maryland on Oct. 27, even though polls didn’t open until 10 a.m. Two hours later, lines were hundreds of people long, as they were in downtown Silver Spring, Baltimore […]
Posted inHealth
HIV Home Test Now Available
More than three decades after the first cases were recognized and diagnosed, a new wave of technology has evolved in the global fight to stop HIV/AIDS. More than 30,000 stores nationwide last month began selling the OraQuick In-Home HIV Test, manufactured by the Bethlehem, Pa.-based OraSure Technologies. The new test, which is also available for […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Debt Collection Firms Face Tougher Scrutiny in 2013
The nation’s largest debt collection firms will be under federal scrutiny for the first time, as the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) swings the full force of a federal financial protection law at bill collectors in 2013. As of Jan. 2, the first business day of 2013, 175 debt collection companies, each of them […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Barnes & Noble Customers Hit by ID Skimmers
Customers of 63 Barnes & Noble stores across the nation might have been victims of a security breach compromising the way purchases by credit or debit cards were processed. The Fortune 500 company said on Oct. 24 that scam artists “planted bugs,” also known as skimmers, in the PIN pad machines to pull information from […]
Posted inHealth
Parental Stress Linked to Obesity in Their Offspring
Parents who are stressed out could be negatively impacting their children’s health, according to a new study published in the journal, Pediatrics, for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The report followed 2,119 parents or caregivers of children ages three to 17 in the Philadelphia area for the 2006 Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Health Survey/Community Health […]
Posted inHealth
A Male Breast Cancer Victim Speaks Out
James Pipkin never imagined his name would be on paperwork for a mammogram. He had showed up at the doctor’s office, at his wife’s direction, to check out the “pebble-like” lump in the right side of his chest. Pipkin was even less prepared for the diagnosis that was confirmed by the mammogram: Breast cancer. That […]