Government

DMV Leaders Call for End to Government Shutdown

THE AFRO — Residents from D.C., Maryland and Virginia (DMV) are adversely being affected by the partial government shutdown.

Published

6 years ago

January 8, 2019

Oakland Post

By Micha Green

Residents from D.C., Maryland and Virginia (DMV) are adversely being affected by the partial government shutdown, which President Donald Trump enforced after not receiving funding for his border wall. With the pain and suffering it is causing, major DMV leaders are asking President Trump to end the shutdown as it enters its third week.

“As the chief executives of the State of Maryland, Commonwealth of Virginia and the District of Columbia, we urge you to find a compromise to end the partial government shutdown,” Md. Gov. Larry Hogan, Va. Gov. Ralph Northam and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote in a statement to President Trump and House and Senate leadership.

The three leaders emphasized the negative effects the shutdown inflicts on DMV residents, who account for 360,000 federal workers, many of whom work for those departments and agencies shutdown.

“As federal employees and contractors experience a sudden loss of income, this not only causes financial hardships for families, but also deals a significant blow to our region’s economy,” the leaders explained in the letter.

The DMV head leadership pointed out that families are getting caught up in a partisan political issue. “Hardworking federal employees and those who depend on them should not have to suffer because of this partisan standoff,” they wrote.

Beyond employees and their families, the DMV leadership also explained the danger the shutdown poses to the nation as a whole.

“A prolonged shutdown not only hurts our local economies and budgets, but also poses a threat to our natural resources, public health and safety,” they wrote. “In particular, the nation’s coasts and waterways are at risk with reduced Coast Guard capabilities and a closed Environmental Protection Agency.”

Further, by nature of the shutdown, there are not sufficient employees to keep federal parks clean, thus, “our national parks are overflowing with trash and visitor safety is compromised,” the leaders wrote.

Despite the fact that certain local governments have stepped in to ensure continued service of the national parks, the leaders explained that the “public safety risk will only increase.”

The leaders warned against the mess of the shutdown piling up, like the trash at national parks. “With 9 out of 15 federal departments and dozens of agencies shuttered, similar disruptions and delays are occurring across the federal government. The longer the shutdown lasts, impacts will be more compounded on state and local budgets, important government services and the economy as possible,” Hogan, Northam and Bowser wrote. “Containing the damage starts with reopening the government as soon as possible.”

The nation’s capital region leaders concluded by asking the President and senior House and Senate leadership to consider the larger impact the shutdown has on the nation and its residents, calling the action an “unnecessary hardship on federal employees,” and said it “represents a failure of leadership.”

“We ask that you reach across the aisle to find an oath forward and end this stalemate today so the federal employees in our region and across the country can get back to work.”

This article originally appeared in The Afro.

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Activism

Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

7 days ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.