WASHINGTON (AP) — Amtrak is celebrating its 40th birthday with a year-long celebration that begins this week. Gladys Knight kicks off the festivities Thursday with a concert at New York City’s Beacon Theatre. She’ll also perform Saturday at Union Station in Washington. Amtrak is calling Saturday “National Train Day,” and the rail carrier is holding […]
Author Archives: Associated Press
Posted inAfro Briefs
Norfolk Principal Apologizes for Mock Slave Auction
NORFOLK (AP) — A Norfolk school principal has apologized for a classroom activity last week in which a teacher staged a mock auction of Black and mixed-race students as part of a Civil War history lesson. The Virginian-Pilot reports that Sewells Point Elementary School Principal Mary B. Wrushen wrote the students’ parents this week to […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Rhee Says She Welcomes Erasure Probe
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee says she welcomes a probe by the District’s Inspector General into erasures on standardized tests during her tenure. USA Today reported last week that some high-scoring schools touted by Rhee had extraordinarily high numbers of erasures correcting wrong answers. Rhee said Monday in an appearance on […]
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Obama Re-election Launches with E-mail, Website
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama formally launched his re-election campaign today. And he’s urging grass-roots supporters central to his first White House run to mobilize again to protect the change he’s brought over the past two years. The official start of his second White House bid comes amid three wars, a budget fight with […]
Posted inNational News
Immediate End To ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Urged
San Francisco (AP) — Gay rights advocates on Monday filed a challenge to a request by the Obama administration to keep the repealed “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in place while the Pentagon prepares for an end to the ban on allowing gays to serve openly in the military. In a brief filed in the […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Pepco Issues Apology in Full-page Ad
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pepco is apologizing to customers in the Washington region for widespread power outages and pledges to make improvements in a full-page newspaper advertisement. Pepco Chairman and CEO Joseph Rigby issued a letter Feb. 7 in The Washington Post. The apology comes as D.C. Council member Tommy Wells holds a hearing on winter […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Panel to Advise Mayor on Next D.C. Schools Chief
WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington Mayor Vincent Gray is forming a panel of teachers, students and community members to help select the city’s next schools chancellor. At a news conference Feb. 8, Gray said he expects the panel to be named by the end of the week. He says it will include representatives of the Washington […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Arbitrator Reinstates 75 D.C. Teachers Fired by Rhee
WASHINGTON (AP) — An arbitrator has ruled that former Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee improperly fired 75 new District of Columbia teachers in 2008 and is ordering them reinstated with two years of back pay. Arbitrator Charles Feigenbaum found that the school system never told the teachers why they were being fired and gave them no […]
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Sudan Divides, a New Nation is Born
Election officials say the final results from last month’s vote in Southern Sudan show that more than 98 percent of the ballots were cast for independence. The results mean that Southern Sudan will become the world’s newest country in July. Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir said Monday he accepts the outcome of the vote. President Barack […]
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Suspects in Shooting at Omega Psi Phi Frat House to Face Murder Charges
Two men suspected of injuring 11 people and killing one at an Omega Psi Phi Fraternity house in Youngstown, Ohio, will face murder charges, according to Reuters. They have been denied bail. Braylon L. Rogers, 19, and Columbus E. Jones Jr., 22, will face aggravated murder, assault and felony charges for unloading a barrage of […]
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Slavery Museum Property in Jeopardy
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder could be on the verge of losing the 38-acre property in Fredericksburg where he had planned to build a slavery museum. According to the city treasurer’s office, the 38-acre property would be eligible for a tax sale Dec. 31, which would allow the city to collect […]
Posted inNational News
Louisiana Purged Dems from Vote Rolls– 2/3rds Black
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Blacks made up nearly two-thirds of the Democrats removed from Louisiana’s voter rolls because they hadn’t voted in at least two years. State election officials tell The Advocate it’s a result of Hurricane Katrina’s displacement of people from heavily Democratic and Black New Orleans. After the hurricane in 2005, the […]