WINNER OF SIX SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS D.C. AWARDS FOR 2022
Celebrating 58 Years - Vol. 58, No. 40 • July 20 - 26, 2023
Stage Domination Conference
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Solar Industry Trainees Install Money-Saving Panels on Two Petworth Homes By Kayla Benjamin WI Climate & Environment Reporter
5 How are you beating the heat? A mother and children enjoy cooling off on a hot day after the fire department opened a hydrant in in front of a market in Southeast. (Marckell Williams/The Washington Informer)
Pamela A. Smith Tapped as Acting MPD Chief
Pending Council Confirmation, Smith is MPD’s First African-American Woman Chief By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer With D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s selection of Pamela A. Smith as the next chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), there are now four women who play pivotal roles in shaping the District’s response to violent crime. On July 17, Bowser announced Smith as acting MPD chief during a public safety meeting at Martin Luther King Memorial Library in Northwest. Joining Smith were Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsey
Appiah and Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto, chair of the D.C. Council Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary. Smith, a 25-year law enforcement veteran, will now undergo a council confirmation process to become the first African-American woman chief in MPD’s nearly 162-year history. Shortly after Bowser’s announce-
SMITH Page 48 4 Chief Pamela A. Smith (Courtesy photo/Metropolitan Police Department)
On a sweltering July day, solar installation trainees—under the watchful eyes of multiple supervisors—lifted a solar panel to the roof of a two-story Petworth home. The panel, which was thin and more than five feet in length, rose smoothly upward along a ladder, held by a single rope. For some of the trainees, that afternoon—July 13—was only their second time actually working on a solar installation after spending the first two weeks of the Solar Works DC paid training program learning in the classroom. The people handling the panel at the top and the bottom of the ladder looked intently focused. “I've worked in construction a lot—I've done roofing jobs, I've worked for a masonry company, I've cut bricks,” said trainee Malachi Nicholson, 41. “That's a lot more tedious work, and more rough on your body. This
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River Terrace Community to Soon Receive Affordable Housing
Finalized Plans for 34Fifty Apartments Demonstrate Community Organizing Power By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer Developers, government officials and residents recently broke ground on what will soon become dozens of affordable housing units in the heart of the River Terrace community in Northeast. The construction of this new building, known as 34Fifty, culminates years of meetings, zoning commission hearings, and as developer Adrian Washington described it, an arduous journey to secure the buyin of concerned and deeply skeptical residents. “This project…em-
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