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AUGUST 30 – SEPTEMBER 5, 2019
VOLUME 27 NO. 35
WE’LL TAKE A HIT Erratic and powerful, Dorian takes aim at Florida after spooking Puerto Rico. BY JIM WYSS MIAMI HERALD / TNS
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Erratic and unpredictable, Dorian made the leap from tropical storm to hurricane Wednesday afternoon as it raked over the U.S. Virgin Islands. Initial reports suggest there were power outages and gusts in excess of 100 mph, but it was unclear if there was additional damage in the U.S. territory. By day’s end Wednesday – the Florida Courier’s press time – the Category 1 storm had spared much of Puerto Rico, even as it
gathered steam in the Atlantic and took aim at Florida.
Coming our way The storm lashed Puerto Rico’s eastern islands of Vieques and Culebra before heading northwest into the Atlantic, where it was forecast to turn into a dangerous Category 3 hurricane as it churns toward Florida, where it may make landfall as early as Monday. “All indications are that by this Labor Day weekend, a powerful hurricane will be near or over the Florida peninsula,” the National Hurricane Center said. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency Wednesday afternoon for 26 counties that could potentially be on the storm’s path, from Nassau to Monroe, along the Atlantic seaboard. But the order also extends inland to places like Orange County.
COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER
This is the National Hurricane Center’s forecast for the track of Hurricane Dorian as of the Florida Courier’s press time late Wednesday night. It is subject to change. Nearly all of the intensity models show Dorian becoming a stronger hurricane in the next couple of days, when it passes near the Turks and Caicos Is-
lands and the Bahamas by Friday and Saturday. By the time Dorian nears Florida’s east coast, it could be packing maximum sustained winds
of 115 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Florida could start seeing tropical storm force winds Saturday night. See DORIAN, Page A2
Finding their way
STAR WARS / WALT DISNEY WORLD
A new ‘Galaxy’ in Orlando
All eyes on Gauff, Osaka BY HELENE ELLIOTT LOS ANGELES TIMES / TNS
NEW YORK – Although she’s only 21, Naomi Osaka has already acquired two Grand Slam singles titles and acute powers of observation. The defending U.S. Open champion sees glimpses of herself in 15-year-old Coco Gauff, tennis’ newest young darling, though Osaka never faced the lofty expectations being heaped on Gauff’s still-maturing shoulders.
An adult world Early fame has contributed to the destruction of more than a few tennis prodigies, leading the women’s tour to limit the number of tournaments young teenagers can play. That reduces their physical stress but not the psychological pitfalls of working in an adult world and facing new and often overNaomi whelming demands on Osaka their time. Osaka can guide her through that and reached out to Gauff as one self-contained and introspective soul hoping to connect with another. “I don’t think anyone would want advice from me though,” Osaka said with a smile, underselling herself after she fought off early jitters and battled for a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2 first-round victory over unseeded but impressive Anna Blinkova of Russia on Tuesday.
COURTESY OF WALT DISNEY WORLD
A Walt Disney World cast member shows off a Kowakian monkey-lizard at Black Spire Outpost during a sneak peek for invited guests of the “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge” attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The Star Wars-themed land officially opened on Thursday.
Dads talk “She seems to be doing fine,” Osaka See TENNIS, Page A2
Lawmakers reject special session on guns
SNAPSHOTS NATION | A6
FROM THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
US becoming more diverse – and quickly FLORIDA | A3
Court backs Snipes on voting rolls Education commissioner shakes up disabilities organization
ALSO INSIDE
Why trying to nuke a storm is a bad idea
TALLAHASSEE – With a 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline for casting votes, the Republicancontrolled Florida Legislature overwhelmingly rejected a Democratic proposal to hold a special session to address gun violence. The Senate rejected the idea by a 20-14 margin, while the House turned it down by a 68-38 margin, according to a tally released Tuesday evening by the Florida Department of State. The votes were almost along straight party lines, with only three Democrats crossing over
to oppose the proposed special session. Those Democrats were Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee; Rep. Bruce Antone, D-Orlando; and Rep. Al Jacquet, D-Riviera Beach, according to the Department of State. House Democrats called for the special session in the wake of mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, this month but were quickly opposed by Republicans leaders in both chambers. Democrats needed 72 of 120 votes in the House and 24 of 40 votes in the Senate to force a special session.
COMMENTARY: GLEN FORD: BLACKS DON’T BLAME IMMIGRANTS FOR BOSSES’ CRIMES | A4 COMMENTARY: DR. WILMER J. LEON III: JAY-Z DIDN’T SELL OUT; HE BOUGHT IN | A5
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FAMU must unify to end athletics woes Finger-pointing, discord and feuding is widespread in some areas of the Rattler Nation. Years ago, these feuds would go practically unnoticed before eventually dying out. With today’s social media networks, even small “family” battles can explode. That is the case today. Folks are upset. They have every right to be about what’s happening at the university.
Strategic goal Specifically, the Department of Athletics has had its share of issues dating back to 2004. Until then, former Rattler Head Football Coach Ken Riley was serving as the athletics director. He managed to maintain fiscal balance, leaving his final year with a near-$2 million surplus. His goal was to purchase two new Prevost buses to help the department save money from the expense of constant charter buses it rents to this day. The Athletics Department spends nearly $150,000 annually on bus travel
VAUGHN WILSON GUEST COMMENTARY
alone. Riley was ousted shortly thereafter in what, today, still strikes dissonance with alumni. The administration, it appears, was forced by trustees to pursue NCAA Division I-A status at that time. That single but critical blunder began a snowball effect from which FAMU Athletics has not recovered.
Surplus wasted The $2 million that Riley left behind was spent recklessly. With neither proper evaluation nor a strategic plan for funding the step up to Division I-A, the department ended up more than $2 million in debt in only one year.
TENNIS from A1 said of Gauff, adding that their fathers “are cool” and know each other. “I think everyone is different in the way they process things. I have actually been trying to talk to her recently because I feel she’s a little bit like me. I saw her in the locker room and she just had her headphones on. I was like, ‘Oh, looks familiar.’ I just went up and talked a little bit. She’s super sweet. Yeah, and, like, I have actually hit with her back when she was 13.”
Moving forward “She seems to be doing great,” Osaka said, a notion Gauff reinforced Tuesday night by pounding out a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over 18-year-old Anastasia Potapova of Russia. There were so many requests from media to cover the match that tournament officials invoked a ticket-only rule to control the numbers. Gauff, an imposing 5 feet 11, was a two-time junior Grand Slam winner and at 13 was the youngest U.S. Open junior women’s singles finalist two years ago. She made her biggest splash to date when she defeated Venus Williams at Wimbledon this year and advanced to the fourth round before she lost to eventual champion Simona Halep. She’s in demand for endorsements and is represented by Team8, the agency co-founded by Roger Federer and his agent, Tony Godsick. She has deals with a pasta company, a shoe company and a racket maker, and she was featured on the cover of a special issue of Teen Vogue gazing fearlessly at the camera.
A slow start She started slowly against Potapova on Tuesday but found her footing in the second set, ripping backhands and expanding the variety of her shots. She later credited the crowd that jammed into Louis Armstrong Stadium for giving her energy and inspiration. “After the first set, I was kind of like, I
DORIAN from A1 Where will it land? The biggest threat from Dorian remains the uncertainty over where it will land, said state emergency management director Jared Moskowitz: “The intensity seems pretty baked in. The only thing consistent about the track is its inconsistency.” State officials started moving hundreds of thousands of bottles of water to counties in the storm’s path, Moskowitz said, and emergency management leaders are coordinating where to send equipment in the next few days ahead of the response and recovery process. “You don’t want to start moving equipment in case that’s exactly where the storm is,” he added. They are aiming to stage equipment and supplies outside the possible affected zones, but close enough to quickly move in after the storm passes.
Watery storm Even as the storm was mov-
Just as a snowflake from the top of the Swiss Alps can grow into a dangerous boulder rolling downhill with devastating potential, so did the financial shortcomings of the FAMU Athletics Department build exponentially. Without a clear path to recovery, without stability at the positions of athletics director or president, that singular decision to move to 1-A has escalated to the embarrassing black eye that exists today. That boulder still accumulates kinetic energy as athletic directors, presidents, boosters organizations, trustees and other officials continue their 15-year game of musical chairs. The recent independent audit report on athletics points to the instability in oversight of both the Athletics Department and the university presidency as major contributors to the incoherence of athletics. If a university president thinks an athletics director can find the cure, he or she is misguided. If alumni think the president can cure this issue, they are misguid-
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ed. If the athletics director thinks the trustees can cure it, then the director has no clue.
Roadmap is necessary There really is only one solution: An overall collaboration of athletics policy to include funding, operations, fundraising, oversight and communications. This can’t be done with a focus group, a consultant or an advisor. The president and his cabinet, the director of athletics and his staff, the Rattler Boosters, the FAMU National Alumni Association, the FAMU Foundation and the FAMU Board of Trustees need at least a three-day retreat to begin the development of a plan to chart a direction for a successful athletics department. Right after the retreat, they need to dedicate a 90-day window to make the roadmap for success attainable; ensure that it can be monitored; and make sure it is sustainable. If knee-jerk reactions continue to be the only way policies are developed, the failures of athletics will continue. The carousel of athletics directors will continue, and so will the rotation of university presidents. Instability of the two positions has not been mutually exclusive.
Historic and systemic problem In recent history, FAMU presidents have sunk athletics directors; athletic directors have sunk presidencies. Without a dedicated effort to solidify the department that is one of the most visible departments at most colleges and universities, we will continue to have discord, blunders and outright failures. The tension between alumni and other stakeholders is all about frustration. While the FAMU National Alumni Association has clearly gone above and beyond to try to mediate the issues, it has now become the target of the frustrations. It won’t end there, and that is the danger of the irreparable damage that is occurring. Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University was founded in 1887. She has been through trials and tribulations, and its storied leaders have resorted to unconventional techniques to navigate the institution’s future. Today’s dysfunction in athletics must be addressed accordingly, or the story of FAMU Athletics will be irreparably damaged.
Vaughn Wilson is the former sports information director at FAMU.
have to reset, stop thinking about what would happen after the match, just think about what I need to do to win the second set,” Gauff said. Osaka too was tested sternly Tuesday, but she had enough resilience to carry her when her finesse was missing. She saved three set points at 4-5 in the second set and had a match point at 6-5 and 40-30 but couldn’t convert it and eventually lost the tiebreaker. But she broke Blinkova’s serve for a 3-1 lead in the third set and rolled from there.
Shocking win A year ago Osaka came to the U.S. Open with a three-match losing streak and the modest goal of winning once. It was as much a shock to her as to everyone else that she won it all, dominating Serena Williams in a final turned chaotic by Williams’ reaction to chair umpire Carlos Ramos’ calls. Osaka followed her victory at Flushing Meadows by winning this year’s Australian Open and taking over the No. 1 world ranking. Soon after that she parted with her coach, Sascha Bajin, and later flailed a bit, losing in the first round at Wimbledon and the third round at the French Open. She also injured her left knee and wore a brace on it Tuesday. She also wore a target, of sorts, as she tries to become the first woman to win backto-back U.S. Open titles since Williams won three in a row from 2012-14.
Very nervous “I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous in my life. I don’t think I ever really found my rhythm, but I fought as hard as I could and managed to win,” Osaka said. “I definitely didn’t want to lose in the first round.” She advanced to a second-round match Thursday – after the Florida Courier’s press time Wednesday night – against Magda Linette, continuing a journey whose course she compared to a book. “It’s not quite done yet. But, I mean, it’s, like, currently being written,” she said. “I don’t know how the ending is going to be. I only know what the chapters are. For me, I’m just reading it, you know?”
ing away from Puerto Rico late Wednesday, authorities warned that it was carrying heavy rains in its wake, and that the island could see 4 to 6 inches of rain and face potential flash flooding. Even tropical storm winds have the potential to create lasting damage here, as Puerto Rico’s electrical and telecommunications infrastructure are still weak after a devastating 2017 storm season, when Hurricane Maria swept in as a Category 4, killing almost 3,000 people.
No direct hit Even as it became clear that Puerto Rico had escaped the worst, Gov. Wanda Vazquez urged the island’s 3.2 million residents to stay indoors and not let their guard down. “Stay calm, this is a moment to stay home,” she said Wednesday. “This isn’t Maria. … We need to wait for this to pass.” Almost two years after Maria, more than 25,000 people are still living without permanent roofs. For them, even a minor storm can be trouble. Ernesto Irizarry, the mayor of Utuado, which was hit hard during Maria, said his community still has about 80 families that
STEPHEN SMITH/SIPA USA/TNS
Delray Beach resident Coco Gauff participated in Arthur Ashe Kids Day at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York on August 24.
don’t have roofs on their homes and are living under plastic sheeting. “For people under tarps this isn’t a tropical storm,” he told local radio. “This is like a Category 5 hurricane for them.” Even in the capital the electrical grid seems vulnerable, amid leaning electrical poles and tangled and overgrown wires. Stop lights at some intersections of the city’s congested center were never repaired after Maria.
Trump spouts off President Donald Trump used the oncoming storm to highlight the U.S. commitment to the island – but also to blast the local leadership. “Puerto Rico is one of the most corrupt places on earth,” he wrote on Twitter Wednesday, as Dorian was churning toward the island. “Their political system is broken and their politicians are either Incompetent or Corrupt. Congress approved Billions of Dollars last time (after Maria), more than anyplace else has ever gotten, and it is sent to Crooked Pols. No good!” He also wrote that he was “the best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico!”
Puerto Rico’s nonvoting member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Jennifer Gonzalez – who is also the head of the island’s Republican Party – shot back at the president. “Hurricanes are no one’s fault,” she wrote. “This is the time for all of us to stand shoulder to shoulder to help our fellow Americans suffering from a natural disaster, like those in the U.S. Virgin now. Thank you 4 promptly deploying personnel & declaring an emergency for” Puerto Rico.
Unpredictable path Dorian’s zigzagging path has made it an unpredictable foe. By Wednesday morning the storm had strengthened and its trajectory had moved north, threatening Puerto Rico’s entire eastern seaboard and the capital, San Juan. But then it seemed to skirt the big island altogether. In the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, video showed bending trees and driving rain. The storm also sideswiped Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous “Pedophile Island,” where the wealthy hedge fund manager allegedly trafficked girls for sex and entertained politicians and businessmen. The storm’s shifting trajectory
– missing large population centers on Puerto Rico’s big island – was little consolation for communities in Dorian’s path.
Hit unexpectedly The mayor of Vieques, Víctor Emeric, told local media that he and the island’s estimated 9,300 residents had been caught by surprise by the storm’s shifting trajectory. “There’s little we can do right now,” he told Telemundo on Wednesday morning. “The shelters are open and residents have taken their precautions.” Public schools remained closed Thursday, and more than 100 incoming and outgoing flights had been canceled Wednesday. And the storm had already claimed a fatality. Authorities said an 80-year-old man in Bayamon had fallen off his roof and died as he tried to clear his gutters ahead of the storm.
Miami Herald staff reporters Taylor Dolven, Michelle Marchante, Doug Hanks, Elizabeth Koh and Adriana Brasileiro contributed to this story.
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are required to conduct a general program of list maintenance that makes a reasonable effort to remove voters who become ineligible on account of death or change of residence, and only on those two accounts.” “What ACRU (the American Civil Rights Union) really has asked us to do is to rewrite the statute so as to treat all of the categories of ineligibility in the same way,” added Marcus, who was joined in the ruling by judges Britt Grant and Frank Hull. “It would have us read the statute as imposing on the states a general program of list maintenance that makes a reasonable effort to remove any ineligible voter, regardless of the basis of ineligibility. But we may not rewrite the unambiguous text, where Congress has been crystal clear in treating different categories of ineligibility in different ways.”
Suspended by Scott
AMY BETH BENNETT/SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL/TNS
Brenda Snipes walks the aisles as hand counting began in the Senate race at the Broward County Supervisor of Elections office in Lauderhill on Nov. 16, 2018.
Federal appeals court backs Snipes on voting rolls BY JIM SAUNDERS NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – A federal appeals court has sided with a controversial former Broward County elections supervisor in a legal battle about whether she took proper steps to remove ineligible voters from election rolls. A three-judge panel of the 11th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week upheld a lower-court decision that said former Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes had adequately complied with requirements in federal elections laws. In doing so, the panel ruled against the Virginia-based American Civil Rights Union, which filed the lawsuit in 2016 and con-
tended that Snipes had not properly made efforts to remove ineligible voters such as people who had felony convictions. The 39-page ruling focused heavily on a federal law known as the National Voter Registration Act, which includes requirements for elections officials to remove ineligible voters. The ruling said the law only re-
quires elections officials to remove voters who become ineligible because of death or change of address – though it allows them to remove ineligible voters for other reasons such as criminal convictions or mental incapacity.
Judge explains statute The Atlanta-based appeals court said the American Civil Rights Union incorrectly argued that Snipes was required by the federal law to go beyond removing voters because of death or change of address. Writing for the court on Aug. 22, Judge Stanley Marcus said the “statute could not be clearer: the states and their subsidiaries
Removing ineligible voters has long been a controversial issue in Florida and other states, with many Republicans warning about fraudulent voting – and Democrats contending that little evidence exists of improprieties. The American Civil Rights Union, whose board includes Reagan administration officials such as former Attorney General Edwin Meese, said in a news release last year after filing the appeal that rampant voter fraud was possible because Snipes had not properly maintained voter lists. Snipes and Broward County, a Democratic stronghold, have repeatedly been in the middle of controversies about elections processes. Then-Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, issued an executive order in November that suspended Snipes because of problems during the 2018 elections and replaced her with a Scott ally, Pete Antonacci. Snipes filed a federal lawsuit challenging the suspension. That litigation ended after Scott’s successor, Gov. Ron DeSantis, issued a subsequent executive order that accepted Snipes’ resignation in January.
Education commissioner shakes up disabilities organization BY ANA CEBALLOS NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran has threatened a criminal investigation into a state organization that helps Floridians with disabilities, after learning about potential misuse of millions of dollars and alleged “incompetence” on the part of its leadership. His threats, outlined in an Aug. 15 letter obtained by The News Service of Florida, have already prompted a leadership shake-up at The Able Trust, a non-profit organization for the state education department’s Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Corcoran said he would move to shut down the organization unless The Able Trust met 10 demands, which included the resignations of its officers and board of directors, as well as the exit of president and chief executive officer, Susanne Homant, who held the post since 2007. “Should the terms herein not be fully complied with by The Able Trust, the department intends to immediately sever any contractual or other similar relationships with The Able Trust,” Corcoran wrote.
‘Egregious concerns’ The education commissioner added that he would “subsequently direct this matter to the appropriate law enforcement agency or state attorney and if necessary the Internal Revenue Service,” if his demands were not met. Numerous attempts by the News Service to reach The Able Trust for comment were unsuccessful. Corcoran pointed to “several egregious concerns” at The Able Trust, which helps more than
45,000 individuals with disabilities get and maintain jobs every year. In his letter, he said the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation “has not received the full benefits of a functioning [direct-support organization] for several years.” Corcoran said the organization should undergo a full audit by the state auditor general, “to include findings regarding potential malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, or incompetence on the part of board members.”
Salary dispute Some of the organization’s issues were outlined in a June audit conducted by Corcoran’s inspector general. In that report, auditors flagged issues with “inaccurate reporting of administrative costs,” singling out discrepancies in how Homant’s annual $224,975 salary was reported. State auditors said The Able Trust inaccurately reported that its administrative costs made up 12 percent of the organization’s expenditures. But the audit found expenditures accounted for 18 percent of the non-profit’s expenses. Homant insisted that not all of her salary should be considered an administrative cost. However, auditors said, failing to accurately report administrative costs “could lead to non-compliance with the statutes.”
Reporting defended The Able Trust management “generally disagreed” with auditors’ interpretation of a state mandate that says “administrative costs shall be kept to the minimum amount necessary … and are limited to 15 percent of the total expenditures in any calendar year.” In a June 17 response to the audit, The Able Trust defended its
“The mission of the organization is absolutely worthwhile. I do feel that new leadership was needed and I am optimistic that the new CEO is a good first step.”
NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
Amid concerns that the 850 area code will “exhaust” in 2022, state regulators are considering a proposal that could lead to an additional area code in North-
west Florida. Staff members of the state Public Service Commission will hold a workshop Sept. 6 after receiving a petition aimed at addressing a shortage of remaining phone numbers in the region served by the 850 area code. That region in-
Governor’s response Jim DeBeaugrine,
former executive director of the Florida Agency for Persons with Disabilities reporting by saying the organization is managed by a “very small staff,” which required its leaders to take on more than one job. “It was estimated by Able Trust that her (Homant’s) time was 75 percent to programs and 25 percent to administrative.” The organization added that auditors did not adjust for the time Homant “spent directly on programs, fundraising, business interaction to encourage placement for people with disabilities, etc,.” according to the response letter.
chairwoman of The Able Trust’s board of directors, announced to supporters of the organization that Homant had “retired” and would be replaced by Tony Carvajal, who recently served as the executive vice president of the Florida Chamber Foundation. “As I am sure you are already aware, our board and staff have been working closely with Commissioner of Education, Richard Corcoran, and his team to lay the foundation for a bright and successful future,” Moore wrote in the Aug. 21 missive.
Homant replaced
Full probe sought
Even with Homant’s total salary included, The Able Trust’s administrative costs “only rises slightly above 15 percent,” the organization’s response, which was unsigned, said. Two months after The Able Trust responded to the audit, Corcoran demanded the organization immediately remove Homant from her position and deny her “physical and electronic access to Able Trust files and office.” He also banned the organization from entering into any contractual relationships with Homant in the future. Six days after Corcoran’s letter was sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis and legislative leaders, Karen Moore,
Aside from concerns with the top executive’s salary, Corcoran in his letter highlighted issues with a non-profit entity The Able Trust created that had not been authorized in state law. That entity, the Able Charitable Foundation, has received “millions of dollars” in transfers from The Able Trust, Corcoran added. Corcoran demanded that The Able Trust agree to undergo a full investigation of the Able Charitable Foundation, writing that the The Able Trust did not have authority “to allow funds to be deposited with a separate entity.” If money had been transferred to the foundation, Corcoran wrote, “the department will recommend
New area code proposed for Northwest Florida cludes cities such as Tallahassee, Pensacola and Panama City. The North American Numbering Plan Administrator, an organization that works on area-code planning, filed a petition in June with the Public Service Commission saying that the 850 area code
immediate termination of its association with the Able Trust and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.” Any funds that were transferred to the foundation must be returned to the Able Trust, Corcoran wrote.
will “exhaust” during the first quarter of 2022.
689 takes effect The petition recommends approval of what is known as overlay, which would involve assigning a new area code to the same area covered by the 850 area code. The Public Service Commis-
When asked about his vision for The Able Trust on Aug. 23, DeSantis praised Corcoran’s “reform mentality.” DeSantis, who has the authority to appoint new members to the organization’s board of directors, said he wants to help make the organization “better.” “All of my appointees, I want them to be reformers, who are not going to tolerate incompetence or failure in government – that is what we will see,” the governor said on Friday. Some advocates connected to the disability community welcomed Corcoran’s intervention.
Mission ‘worthwhile’ Jim DeBeaugrine, a former executive director of the Florida Agency for Persons with Disabilities, said the shake-up may be able to bring out the “tremendous potential” The Able Trust has to offer Floridians with disabilities. “The mission of the organization is absolutely worthwhile,” DeBeaugrine told the News Service in a telephone interview. “I do feel that new leadership was needed and I am optimistic that the new CEO is a good first step.” The Florida Legislature would be required to act to shut down The Able Trust. This spring, a bill that would have permanently saved The Able Trust from repeal went nowhere, but state lawmakers agreed to allow the organization to exist for four more years.
sion would ultimately have to sign off on a new area code, as it did last year when it approved a new 689 area code for parts of Central Florida. That new code, which took effect in June, was an overlay of the 407 and 321 area codes in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties and parts of Lake and Volusia counties.
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Revitalize the SBA 8(a) business program According to the Small Business Administration (SBA): “The federal government’s goal is to award at least five percent of all federal contracting dollars to small disadvantaged businesses each year.” Here are the benefits: “To help provide a level playing field for small businesses owned by socially and economically disadvantaged people or entities, the government limits competition for certain contracts to businesses that participate in the 8(a) Business Development program. “Disadvantaged businesses in the 8(a) Program can: Compete for set-aside and sole-source contracts in the program. Form joint ventures with established businesses through the SBA’s mentor-protégé program. Receive management and technical assistance, including business training, counseling, market assistance, and high-level executive development programs, as they apply.”
Most successful program ever The 8(a) program was the brainchild of Parren J. Mitchell while he was chair of the House Small Business Committee and his staff, led by NBCC Board Member Anthony W. Robinson. It is the most successful minority business program in the history of federal procurement. No formal program has made more Black millionaires than this program. Still, it must be updated and reinforced.
HARRY & KAY ALFORD GUEST COLUMNISTS
A five percent minority business goal for the federal government is a pittance. The Black population percentage of our nation is over 14.6 percent alone; Hispanics are 17 percent. That’s 31.6 percent without other ethnicities. Racism and passive discrimination in this nation still exists and per the U.S. Supreme Court and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, discrimination must be addressed according to the disparate impact placed on identified groups.
Didn’t follow through President Bill Clinton had the answer to this after being encouraged (or intimidated) from the 1996 Million Man March. His plan to “mend” affirmative action rather than “end” it included formal disparity studies for each of the 10 federal regions. Following that, adjusted goals could be implemented. One big problem – he never did it. The Congressional Black Caucus should wake up and take the lead from its greatest founder, Congressman Mitchell, and proceed with the above idea. The great HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson applied this logic and took Black procurement at HUD to new heights, approaching 32 percent. President George W. Bush watched his back as Demo-
Blacks don’t blame immigrants for bosses’ crimes African Americans differ only slightly from Latino Americans in their attitudes towards immigration, and are in some ways more opposed than Hispanics to Donald Trump’s policies at the southern border. A comprehensive release of Gallup Polls conducted on immigration since 2006 confirms that the great ethnic political divide in the United States is between English-speaking, U.S.born Whites and virtually everybody else. On most political issues, Hispanics – who can be of any race – line up somewhere in between Blacks and Whites, with Blacks consistently taking the more “left” or “progressive” position. Gallup polls show remarkable agreement between Hispanics and African Americans on immigration questions.
Group similarities In its in-depth immigration overview, Gallup compared gen-
GLEN FORD TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE
eral national responses from January 2019 with White, Black and Hispanic answers to the same question in June 2016. The polls reveal striking similarities in the two groups’ positions on immigration and citizenship. Asked where they stand on “deporting all immigrants who are living in the United States illegally back to their home country,” Blacks and Hispanics spoke almost in unison. The polls showed 76 percent of Blacks were “opposed” (36 percent) or “strongly opposed” (40 percent) to the proposition, while 78 percent of Hispanics were “opposed” (46 percent) or “strongly opposed” (32 percent). Although two percent more
African communities connect at Ethiopia’s embassy As a Malcomite and a strong believer in Pan-Africanism, I immediately accepted an invitation from two friends, historical interpreter Marquett Milton and anthropologist Johnny Coleman II, to join them in attending an event at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Its title, “Connecting Communities Together: African Heritage, Pan African Leaders and H.I.M Haile Selassie Birthday Celebration,” definitely grabbed my attention.
A. PETER BAILEY TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE
Annual event Tefera Alemayehu, a dynamic, young Ethiopian with commanding skills in communications and community service, played a key role in bringing it about. His organization, the Network of Fam-
cratic congressmen tried to have him indicted for whatever reason they could find. He eventually resigned to spend time protecting his name and future during various hearings and investigations. HUD does about four percent in Black procurement today. The greatest challenge to the 8(a) program came ironically under the Barack Obama administration. This president had a mission to “repay” White construction unions for raising over $600 million in his first presidential campaign. His payback was to require federal construction contracting over $1 million to become union-only projects. As Blacks and Hispanics are terribly underutilized by construction unions, this would cripple the 8(a) program. We went to the White House and pleaded on the effect this would have over our constituency (which should have been his, too). They ignored our efforts and quickly became adversarial. What happened was devastating. The Obama administration went “dark” over the 8(a) program.
Destroyed by Obama Black procurement levels at the time George W. Bush left office were over 8 percent. When Obama finished his two terms, it had been reduced to a little over one percent. That’s billions of dollars extracted from our communities. SBA Regional Administrator Ashley Bell spoke at our recent annual conference and empha-
Hispanics were generally opposed to immediately kicking out all undocumented people, significantly more Blacks (40 percent) than Hispanics (32 percent) took the “strongly opposed” position. Only 61 percent of Whites were either “opposed” or “strongly opposed” to wholesale deportation of “illegals.”
Closely aligned On the question of “allowing immigrants living in the U.S. illegally the chance to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time,” the two ethnic groups were closely aligned. The poll showed 84 percent of Blacks either “favored” (36 percent) or “strongly favored” (48 percent) a road to citizenship, while 92 percent of Hispanics “favored” (50 percent) or “strongly favored” (42 percent) the idea. On “building a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border,” Blacks were equally as generally opposed to the concept, but significantly more fervent in their opposition than even Hispanics. For both groups, 82 percent were generally opposed to the wall. But 55 percent of Blacks
ily Service Professionals, joined CALDAN Communications in launching an annual event three years ago that “connects African communities, including people of African descent from around the world.” Their celebration on July 23, 2019 – the 127th anniversary of the birth of Emperor Selassie – did just that by allowing over 200 attendees, including several of the emperor’s direct descendants, to share cultural values through music, dance, fashion, food and verbal presentations. The latter included a warm welcome from H.E. Fitsum Arega, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to the United States and brief remarks by Dr. Frank Smith, founder of the African American Civil War Museum (“The Importance of Museums in
VISUAL VIEWPOINT: NUCLEAR ARMS CONTROL
PARESH NATH, THE KHALEEJ TIMES, UAE
sized the reduction in Black procurement due to the reduction in active Black 8(a) firms. The same can be said for SBA business loans. It was just devastating and most of the Black community does not know what hit them. What was particularly “salt in the wounds” was that the SBA under the Obama administration became very hostile towards Black business. At one point, the SBA would reject our emails to them. They took their budgets for funding development grants away from Black associations and tossed them around to non-Black groups. There was pure hatred over there during those eight dark years. How could Blacks do this to other Blacks in the 21st Century?
Turn it around Let’s turn this atrocity around. We must encourage the White
were “strongly opposed” versus 40 percent of Hispanics. The order was reversed in the less vehement opposition column, with 27 percent of Blacks and 42 percent of Hispanics “opposed.”
The pattern is clear There is no schism between Blacks and Hispanics over immigration, and we can conclude from the polling data that most Blacks do not blame immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic, for historically high Black unemployment rates, or for depressed wage levels. If Blacks blamed immigrants for these conditions, it would show up in the numbers. Instead, large proportions of African Americans registered what might be interpreted as militant opposition (“strongly”) to building a wall on the southern border, keeping undocumented people in limbo, and mass deportations. African Americans appear to feel more “strongly” about such things than Hispanics, although the Gallup poll shows that 85 percent of Black respondents and their parents were born in the U.S., versus only 32 percent of Hispanics. (The figure for Whites
Preserving History and Culture”), Dr. Silvester Okere (“Anthropology of Africa”), Hawi Awash (“African Future and the Rule of Youth”), Tiffany Lancaster (“African Origins and Their Socio-Economic and Political Participation of Diaspora Women”), and Dr. Yohannes Zeleke (“Africa and Tourism”). Other highlights included an African cultural and fashion show by ET Entertainment, a presentation on Caribbean history and culture by Ras Wayne Rose, Ph.D., and a slideshow featuring legendary Pan-African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Winnie Mandela, Steven Biko, Brother Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey and Emperor Selassie.
Inspirational address My special highlight was the
Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher
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House and federal agencies to quickly pick up the pieces and bring the 8(a) program back to life and with vigor and updated goals. If Black firms could attain at least five percent in procurement contracting with the federal government, that would mean $25 billion annually infused into our economic base. There is a federal election coming in 2020. We must make significant improvement while that environment exists. It is time for Blacks to address each political candidate with that great quote from Chaka Khan: “What ‘cha gonna do for me?”
Harry C. Alford is the cofounder and president/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC). Kay DeBow is the NBCC co-founder. Contact them via www.nationalbcc.org.
is 88 percent.)
We know the history Black people take progressive positions on immigration despite the fact that wholesale immigration of low-wage and undocumented workers does depress wages and degrade working conditions. That’s what the rulers intend it to do, and the effects are intimately experienced by workers at the bottom of the barrel, where Blacks have been stuck since they arrived on these shores. For most of Black American history, we were the workers that were blamed for every crime against labor committed by the owners of capital and industry and their political servants. The same White workers that blame immigrants for the precarity inflicted on today’s society by the bosses, once similarly scapegoated Black people. It is to African Americans’ credit that the vast bulk of us reject such chauvinism.
Glen Ford is executive editor of BlackAgendaReport.com. Email him at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
passionate, powerful, inspiring, knowledge-expanding keynote address by H.E. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, the African Union’s Ambassador to the United States. Her address, which included the memorable observation that “Colonialism is alive and well in Africa,” demonstrated a strong belief that Africa’s need for unity is not an option. It’s the only way that the continent can establish its rightful place in the international arena. When she finished, someone should have said, “Let us all say ‘Amen.’”
A. Peter Bailey’s latest book is “Witnessing Brother Malcolm X, the Master Teacher.” Contact him at apeterb@verizon.net.
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AUGUST 30 – SEPTEMBER 5, 2019
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Jay-Z didn’t sell out, he bought in In the wake of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protest against police brutality and extrajudicial murder, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation struck a deal to lead the NFL’s endeavors into music and entertainment. The issue now being raised centers around Jay-Z being a “sellout.” Jay-Z is a capitalist. He did what capitalists do: he bought in. Before he was Jay-Z, he was Shawn Carter. He grew up in the Marcy Projects in Brooklyn, N.Y., and was a drug dealer in his youth. By his own admission, his drugdealing days prepared him for his current life as a sports entrepreneur and music mogul.
Already a sellout Shawn Carter sold out his community for his personal gain by selling drugs to his own people. Jay-Z, the capitalist, has once again increased his personal fortune by buying into an institution that has also shown little regard for the fate of Black people. When asked where we are in the protest process and the significance of kneeling, Jay-Z gave a very Trumpian response: ‘’I think we’ve moved past kneeling and I think it’s time to go into ac-
DR. WILMER J. LEON III TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE
tionable items… “Kneeling – I know we’re stuck on it because it’s a real thing – But now that we all know what’s going on, what are we going to do? How are we going to stop it? Because the kneeling was not about a job, it was about injustice.’’ Translation? Jay-Z supported Kaepernick in the moment because it was the thing to do. Now there is an opportunity to get paid and as a capitalist, “I’m about that paper.”
What about Kaepernick? In addition to helping the NFL with entertainment, Jay-Z will also consult with the NFL on matters of social injustice. Speaking of injustice, this opportunity for Jay-Z only became possible after Kaepernick sacrificed his NFL career to protest against the real injustice of statesanctioned police murders. If Jay-Z were really down for the cause, wouldn’t he have stepped
‘The 1619 Project’ should be required reading The New York Times is marking the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Blacks in America with a three-month editorial series called “The 1619 Project.” The series will document and narrate how enslaved Blacks were already building America at Point Comfort before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. It will also show how Blacks have been unsung and unpaid builders of much of the rich nation America has become.
Telling the truth From the series, an excerpt from an essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones: Before the abolishment of the international slave trade, 400,000 enslaved Africans would be sold into America. Those individuals and their descendants trans-
ANTHONY L. HALL, ESQ. FLORIDA COURIER COLUMNIST
formed the lands to which they’d been brought into some of the most successful colonies in the British Empire. Through backbreaking labor, they cleared the land across the Southeast. They taught the colonists to grow rice. They grew and picked the cotton that at the height of slavery was the nation’s most valuable commodity, accounting for half of all American exports and 66 percent of the world’s supply. They built the plantations of George Washington, Thom-
America’s $1.5 trillion racial wealth gap New research analyzes the strong connection between disproportionate wealth and financial services and products that are either shared or denied with consumers of color. Authored by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), The economic impact of closing the racial wealth gap, identifies key sources of the nation’s socioeconomic inequity with its accompanying racial and gender dynamics along with family savings, incomes, and community context.
Banks more strict “Black families are underserved and overcharged by institutions that can provide the best channels for saving,” states the report. “For instance, banks in predominant-
CHARLENE CROWELL NNPA COLUMNIST
If last year was an indication of the high alert felt by HBCU students to defend their campuses against sexual assault, then it is up to HBCU leaders to start having bold, public conversations about policies and expectations right now. Before classes are in full swing, before home football games kick off and the beat drops at the first on campus parties. Before students begin dating each other and people from surrounding communities. Before resident assistants, resident directors, police officers and student affairs vice presidents are tied up in unfortunate circumstances of who knew what and when.
J.L. CARTER, SR HBCU DIGEST
Do it NOW Start talking about rape and sexual assault right now. Start mandating student meetings and town halls on domestic violence, bullying, and reporting obligations now. Start reviewing the code of student conduct and federal guidelines on sexual assault reporting and response now. Too many men and women on HBCU campuses are living in the
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to the mic and told NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that he will work with the NFL on the condition that “Kap” gets a fair shot at making an NFL roster?
The real danger But it’s not really about Shawn Carter, aka Jay-Z. He is a metaphor, a distraction from the real issue: the dangers of Black capitalism. In Manning Marable’s “How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America,” Marable writes, “A decisive component of this underdevelopment process within the periphery is the non-White elite” who serve “…as a necessary yet dependent buffer between those who wield power and those who have none. “Within popular culture, it is the non-White mouthpiece of the new order, articulating in the media and in the various aesthetic forums the ideals of the masters.” When White capitalists team with Black capitalists, the Black community finds itself in a more precarious circumstance. The White capitalists will leverage the indifference and duplicity of the Black capitalists against the very community that the Black capitalist claims to support.
as Jefferson and James Madison, sprawling properties that today attract thousands of visitors from across the globe captivated by the history of the world’s greatest democracy. They laid the foundations of the White House and the Capitol, even placing with their unfree hands the Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol dome. They lugged the heavy wooden tracks of the railroads that crisscrossed the South and that helped take the cotton they picked to the Northern textile mills, fueling the Industrial Revolution. They built vast fortunes for White people North and South – at one time, the second-richest man in the nation was a Rhode Island “slave trader.” Profits from Black people’s stolen labor helped the young nation pay off its war debts and financed some of our most prestigious universities. It was the relentless buying, selling, insuring and financing of their bodies and the products of their labor that made Wall Street a thriv-
•Black Americans can expect to earn up to $1 million less than White Americans over their lifetimes; •Black men with no criminal records are less likely to receive job interviews than are White men with criminal records; •The median wealth of a single Black women is $200, while that of a single White man is $28,900; and •Black families are up to 4.6 times more likely to live in areas of concentrated poverty, than are White and Latino families. Geographically, 65 percent of Black Americans reside in one of only 16 states. All of them score below the nation’s national average of 77 state performance metrics spanning economy, education, economic opportunity, fiscal stability, infrastructure and more.
ly Black neighborhoods require higher minimum balances ($871) than banks in White neighborhoods do ($626).” Additionally, according to the MGI report, the nation’s overall economy is affected by racial wealth gaps, estimating that between 2019 and 2028, the cost of economic losses to the general Other factors economy will be in the range of When student loan debts and $1.0-$1.5 trillion. criminal incarcerations are facAmong the MGI report’s other tored into the racial wealth divide, key findings are that: an even more bleak scenario is
HBCU leaders must talk about sexual assault
EDITORIAL
painful space of last resort when it comes to dealing with these issues. Tragic circumstances which should befall no one’s son or daughter, regardless of the gender with which they were born, should not be viral posts on social media. Their pain should not be a catalyst for campus community members uniting for the universal rights of safety and decency. That students are willing to out themselves, their sexuality and their suffering as a means for the most basic administrative response to campus crime should be an alarm for every HBCU president, student affairs vice president, police chief and counseling center director. And because the last few years have made the practice global in news coverage and social media reaction, the projection is that more students living with these horrifically permanent memories are willing to sacrifice their privacy in the name of justice and pro-
EMAD HAJJAJ, ALARABY ALJADEED NEWSPAPER, LONDON
“We don’t need to kneel any- tioned brutality and murder by the police. The NFL, the government more. It’s time to get paid.” and the media used their power to corrupt the message and demonWe were told ize Kaepernick, costing him his Frederick Douglass told us very livelihood. clearly, “Find out just what any As was the case with Curt Flood, people will quietly submit to (or Muhammad Ali, Dr. John Carlos get paid to do) – and you have and others before him, Colin Kaefound out the exact measure of in- pernick will eventually be rememjustice and wrong which will be bered for taking a stand (in this imposed upon them. The limits of case a knee) for justice. tyrants are prescribed by the enJay-Z will be remembered for durance of those whom they op- buying in – and selling out. press. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did Dr. Wilmer Leon is producer/ and it never will.” host of the nationally broadcast By focusing on Jay-Z, we are los- call-in talk radio program “Ining site of the fact that Colin Kae- side the Issues with Wilmer Lepernick used his platform to call on,” on SiriusXM Satellite radio attention to historic and systemic channel 126. Contact him via problem in America: state-sanc- www.wilmerleon.com.
ing banking, insurance and trading sector and New York City the financial capital of the world. But anyone who knows anything about the history of slavery in America knows that, for 350 of the past 400 years, Whites constitutionally and systematically enriched themselves at the expense of Blacks. This included Whites reneging on the infamous 1865 promise to compensate newly freed Blacks for their slave labor by granting them 40 acres (and a mule).
White over right And what happened to this astonishingly visionary program, which would have fundamentally altered the course of American race relations? From the Root, published January 7, 2013: “Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s successor and a sympathizer with the South, overturned the Order in the fall of 1865, and, as Barton Myers sadly concludes, “returned the land along the South Carolina, Georgia and Florida coasts to the
disclosed. “Incarceration is estimated to reduce annual wages by 40 percent – not including the lost wages during the time served – for the formerly incarcerated,” states the MGI report, “reduces their economic mobility, and even increases the risk of school expulsion six times for their children….[B]lack men without criminal records are actually less likely to receive job interviews than are White men who have criminal records.”
Black women suffer For Black women, gender brings a dual “wage penalty,” according to the report. Median earnings for Black women are only 65 percent as much as those earned by White men, and 89 percent of median earnings for Black men. Black women typically borrow more in student loans, so their lower earnings bring stronger financial challenges in repayment years. As a result of these and other factors, the median wealth of a
tection of themselves and others.
From the top Those principles – community caring and justice – should be coming directly from HBCU administrators. It is clear that the student handbook, posters around campus, Denim Day and student organizational fairs are not enough. It is time for campus communities to hear directly from presidents and chancellors in the public square about the cultural and legal ramifications of these actions. Rape and sexual assault have never been and never will be okay. Being drunk or high is not consent. Schools cannot simply and automatically throw out students accused of rape, and sometimes even prosecuted of the same. Reporting and preventing sexual assault is everyone’s duty, not just those unfortunate enough to be involved in an incident, but those
planters who had originally owned it” – to the very people who had declared war on the United States of America.” Ever since then, Whites have reacted with racial indignation to any attempt at making good the reparations this Order envisioned. This is because far too many of them never learn a damn thing about the history of slavery in America. This explains why America has yet to atone for its original sin. It also explains why the legacy of racism and all its malicious strains endure. Besides making good on (all) promissory notes, the best thing the government can do to facilitate racial justice and reconciliation is to make The 1619 Project a mandatory course in every American high school.
Anthony L. Hall is a native of The Bahamas with an international law practice in Washington, D.C. Read his columns and daily weblog at www.theipinionsjournal.com.
single Black woman is only $200, while that of a single White man is $28,900. Both male and female Black college graduates are prone to support their families more so than their White college classmates. The financial assistance shared with older family members reduces the amount of disposable dollars that might have contributed more to paying down student debt or beginning financial investments like mutual funds or certificates of deposit. “Moving forward, this situation can only be addressed through bold federal and state laws and policies that create equity of opportunity for all,” said Aracely Panameño, CRL’s Director of Latino Affairs.
Charlene Crowell is the deputy communications director at the Center for Responsible Lending. Contact her at charlene. crowell@responsiblelending.
who suspect an incident may take, is taking, or has taken place.
No more silence Sexual assault is not a “keep it in the family” issue. Faculty, staff and students deserve training on how to properly handle a claim, connect to resources, and the requirements of privacy and confidentiality. These are the things are presidents and chancellors must make clear, from as visible a pulpit as can be built or amplified on campus. Because if our leaders don’t take the step of making student safety a big enough priority deserving of campus-wide attention, students know how to take a much bigger step in front of a much bigger audience.
Jarrett L. Carter, Sr. is publisher of HBCU Digest (www.hbcudigest.com).
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AUGUST 30 – SEPTEMBER 5, 2019
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JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES/TNS
In 21 of the 25 biggest counties by population, non-White groups taken together make up more than half of residents.
US becoming more diverse – and quickly in some areas 109 counties went from majority White to majority nonWhite since 2000, study shows. BY JEFF GAMMAGE THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/TNS
The United States is becoming more diverse as the White share of the population declines
Can you nuke a hurricane? Scientists weigh in BY DAN SWEENEY SUN SENTINEL/TNS
FORT LAUDERDALE – The online news site Axios reported on Aug. 25 that, according to memos from Homeland Security and National Security Council meetings and people who had been briefed on the memos and/or were in attendance at the meetings, President Donald Trump has asked at least twice why the United States can’t simply drop a nuclear weapon into the eye of a hurricane to disperse it over the Atlantic Ocean before it reaches our shores. Trump, in a Twitter posting Monday in which he referred to himself in the third person, called Axios’ reporting “fake news” and denied suggesting it. Putting aside the debate over whether Trump said it, if you’re wondering whether the nuclear option could work, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) actually has a page on its website dedicated to the hypothetical question
and Hispanic, Asian and African American populations grow — and that change is happening quickly in certain places. While Whites remain the largest racial or ethnic group nationwide, accounting for 60% of all Americans, 109 counties in 22 states from California to North Carolina went from majority White to majority non-White since 2000, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Census data.
The study looked only at the counties with a minimum population of 10,000 in 2018, but those counties represent 77% of the nation’s 3,142 counties and include 99% of the population. Overall, 293 counties were majority non-White in 2018, most of them concentrated in California, the South, and the East Coast, Pew said. In coming years, several large, majority-White counties may flip in coming years.
WASHINGTON — Amid an escalating trade war, fears of an economic downturn and a crowded field of Democratic presidential hopefuls, a majority of Americans are simply “angry” at the U.S. political system, a new poll showed on Sunday. An NBC News and The Wall Street Journal survey asked 1,000 adults how much they agreed with the statement they “feel angry because our political system seems to only be working for the insiders with money and pow-
which includes Detroit, and where the African American population was the largest nonWhite group, the study said.
Counties include Broward
Another way to consider the nation’s changing demographics, Pew said, is to consider how few counties shifted the opposite way. From 2000 to 2018, only two counties went from minority White to majority White: Calhoun County in South Carolina and West Feliciana Parish in Louisiana, each with populations of only about 15,000. Among the 109 counties that shifted from majority White to majority non-White between 2000 and 2018, 26 had been at least 60% White in 2000.
In 21 of the 25 biggest counties by population, non-White groups taken together make up more than half of residents. Eight of these counties were majority White in 2000 but have since changed: San Diego, Orange, Riverside and Sacramento in California; Clark in Nevada; Broward in Florida; Tarrant in Texas, and Wayne in Michigan. Hispanics were the largest non-White population in all those counties except in Wayne,
The opposite way
— with the conclusion that this would be a very bad idea.
‘Not a good idea’ “During each hurricane season, there always appear suggestions that one should simply use nuclear weapons to try and destroy the storms,” meteorologist Chris Landsea writes on that page. “Apart from the fact that this might not even alter the storm, this approach neglects the problem that the released radioactive fallout would fairly quickly move with the tradewinds to affect land areas and cause devastating environmental problems. Needless to say, this is not a good idea.”
More explanation If you want to get deeper into the science, NOAA continues: “The main difficulty with using explosives to modify hurricanes is the amount of energy required. A fully developed hurricane can release heat energy at a rate of (50 to 200 trillion) watts and converts less than 10% of the heat into the mechanical energy of the wind. The heat release is equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes. “According to the 1993 World Almanac, the entire human race used energy at a rate of (10 trillion) watts in 1990, a rate less than 20% of the power of a hurricane.” That’s not to mention the diplomatic issues. Nuking hurricanes would appear to violate
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) actually has a page on its website dedicated to using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes. a few international treaties, including both the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty of 1976.
Poll: Majority of Americans ‘angry’ at political system BY READE PICKERT BLOOMBERG NEWS/TNS
Those include Fairfax County, Va.; Pima County, Ariz.; Milwaukee County, Wis.; and Cobb County, Ga. All have populations that are less than 52% White.
er, like those on Wall Street or in Washington, rather than it working to help everyday people get ahead.”
70% feel angry Seventy percent responded affirmatively, with 43% saying the statement described their feelings “very well.” It’s a marginal increase from October 2015, when 69% responded affirmatively ahead of the 2016 election. The poll was conducted Aug. 10-14 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. “Four years ago, we uncovered
a deep and boiling anger across the country engulfing our political system,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, which conducted the survey with the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies. “Four years later, with a very different political leader in place, that anger remains at the same level.” And Americans’ anger came despite a feeling of relative economic well-being: the poll showed that respondents were satisfied, on the whole, with the present state of the U.S. economy and their finances.
The Axios report relies on sources from separate Homeland Security and National Security Council meetings, and also quotes a supporter from within
the administration who acknowledged Trump’s nuclear proposal but added, “His goal — to keep a catastrophic hurricane from hitting the mainland — is not bad.”
That would typically be seen as a plus for President Donald Trump as he seeks re-election in 2020. When looking to the future, though, the majority of respondents — 56% — reported still feeling “anxious and uncertain” about the economic outlook.
in the CBS poll. Despite recent downbeat readings in consumer confidence and manufacturing, the unemployment rate remains near the lowest levels in a half century, and wages have been ticking up. The CBS News survey was conducted by YouGov and sampled 2,727 U.S. residents Aug. 20-22. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Both polls preceded Trump’s announcement on Aug. 23 of a higher duty rate on U.S. imports from China. Even before that, though, 44% of respondents to the CBS survey said they didn’t think Trump’s trade approach to China would succeed. Only 25% said they truly believed it would.
Optimistic about economy The finding of economic dread was somewhat at odds with a CBS News poll, also released on Sunday, that showed slightly more Americans (38%) are optimistic about the economy going forward than pessimistic (35%). The job market was the top reason Americans cited to be optimistic about the economy
HEALTH | FOOD | TRAVEL | SCIENCE | BOOKS | MOVIES | TV | AUTOS COURIER Football season
IFE/FAITH
gets underway for Florida’s HBCUs See page B2
AUGUST 30 – SEPTEMBER 5, 2019
SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE
Self-care tips to improve your well-being See page B3
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Though about a third of all American men and women are obese, nearly half of AfricanAmericans are obese, increasing their risk for diabetes and cardiovascular issues, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Prevention and treatment Churches — especially those with predominately Black membership — have long been recognized for their potential in improving the health and wellness of their members of those in their communities. A 2002 study in the American Journal of Public Health found that Black churches provide many more health-related services than White churches, whether in a rural or urban setting. Those included prevention and treatment-oriented programs, as well as health screening, education and support, the study said.
Relevant questions
DREAMSTIME/TNS
Researchers aren’t saying church attendance causes diabetes or obesity, only that there is a correlation, said Keisha L. BentleyEdwards, associate director of research and director of the health equity working group at the Cook Center.
Study finds differences in diabetes and obesity rates within Black churches BY MARTHA QUILLIN THE NEWS & OBSERVER/TNS
RALEIGH, N.C. — There are correlations between religion, diabetes and obesity within African-American churches, according to a new Duke University study.
The study published last month in the Journal of Religion and Health cites two main findings: Black Americans identifying as Baptist are more likely to have diabetes than those identifying as Catholic or Presbyterian, and Black men who go to church five or more times a week are three times more likely to be obese than their counterparts who seldom or rarely attend. Researchers aren’t saying church attendance causes diabetes or obesity, only that there is a correlation, said Keisha L. Bentley-Edwards, associate director of research and director of the health equity working group at the Cook Center. Additional research would be need-
ed to find out how they are connected, she said.
Focus on denominations Bentley-Edwards, who also teaches general internal medicine, said considerable health research has been done comparing the traits of White Christians to Black Christians. But relatively little work has been done looking at differences between denominations of Black Christians, or between Black members of the same denomination who have different roles in the church and participate to different degrees. “We wanted to look at nuances within the Black church, and not just treat the Black church
as a monolithic group with no diversity within it,” she said in a telephone interview with The News & Observer.
Database used The team used an existing database, the National Survey of American Life, conducted in the early 2000s to compare certain traits among African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans with those of White respondents living in the same communities. Loneke Blackman Carr, who helped with the research and also teaches at the University of Connecticut, said the National Institutes of Health provided funding for the project in part because Blacks are disproportionately affected by diabetes and obesity.
A key to reducing diabetes and obesity rates lies in finding how these health issues might be connected to religion, the researchers say: Are there high-glycemic specialties in Black Baptist churches’ covered-dish repertoires that are missing from Black Catholic and Presbyterian gatherings? Are men who attend church nearly every day of the week sneaking comfort-food leftovers from the fellowship hall? Are they leaders of the church, who are so busy they over-rely on high-calorie, drive-through restaurant food? Does it matter that some denominations stress more than others the Bible’s teaching about the body being a temple? Do Black churches need to offer exercise classes tailored for male members? “We can’t wait to talk with some people,” Carr said, to try to find some explanations that might lead to custom interventions. “What this research shows is that one size doesn’t fit all.”
New website helps diners find Black-owned restaurants company agreement, and overhead costs.” “I think that’s why so many of them are choosing alternative ways of creating a presence in the community,” Hendrix added. “Food trucks, pop ups, becoming personal chefs, cooking for small groups—just looking for alternative ways of raising capital.”
BY LISA FITCH OUR WEEKLY NEWS LOS ANGELES NNPA NEWSWIRE
More than 2,000 Black-owned eateries are featured on the new internet-based restaurant locator eatblackowned.com, which launched June 21 intending to support Black-owned restaurants. “There’s only one thing that everyone in this world has in common: we all love great tasting food,” creator Edward L. Dillard said. “We have soul food, vegan, barbecue, Caribbean, seafood and more listed on the site.” “I believe that if people have a place where they can find all the minority-owned restaurants in this country, more of us will start to support these small businesses,” Dillard said.
Boosting money circulation “Ninety-three cents of every dollar spent by Black consumers produces no economic benefit for the Black community, as the dollar only circulates in the community for six hours,” he adds. A professional truck driver for a company out of New Jersey, Dillard has been on the road for 15 years, and travels across the country four or five days of the week. “I didn’t like the direction of the country,” he said in a recent phone interview. “I wanted to do more to support Blackowned businesses, but I was always gone. I don’t spend money on clothes, accessories or shoes. The majority of my money was going to food. “I decided to spend it in different restaurants,” he added, noting that the internet was of little help. “The problem was only the major cities and only real popu-
Setting realistic goals PHOTO COURTESY OF NNPA NEWSWIRE
With the popularity and general necessity of food, one might wonder: Why there aren’t many more Black-owned restaurants? lar restaurants would come up in my search. The really small ones wouldn’t come up.” There already are some existing websites promoting Black-owned businesses in general, but they don’t have a lot of restaurant listings. Dillard was inspired.
Going forward “I had a vision in mind but didn’t have the experience in designing a website,” he said. “Luckily, there’s Google and You Tube. They pretty much teach you everything! I realized there was a small chance that I might be able to make this happen.” Dillard spent nearly five months conducting research for his project, collecting the names and addresses of more than 2,000 restaurants in the U.S. Then, he completed the website design. “It took me a long time to design a website,” Dillard said. “What surprised me is that I got the job done.” Working as a one-man show, Dillard then collected the restaurant pictures and website links to complete the project for launch.
So far, the site includes 94 restaurants in New York, but only 35 within a 25-mile radius of downtown Los Angeles.
Fostering inclusion “African-Americans make up only 8 percent of restaurant owners and managers in the U.S.,” said Warren Luckett, co-founder of BRW in a recent Forbes feature. “Our mission is to provide a platform that calls for inclusion in the industry and exposes and elevates Black-owned businesses.” Visit https://labrw.com for a list of participating BRW restaurants. With the popularity and general necessity of food, one might wonder, why there aren’t many more Black-owned restaurants? “Access to capital,” explained Veronica Hendrix, who participated in a panel discussion on food at a recent Los Angeles chapter meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists. “It takes a lot to start a restaurant, in terms of finding a location, working with the leasing
“A lot of banks initially look at them as a risk until they’re proven,” Hendrix said. Nearly 60 percent of restaurants fail within their first three years, according to recent studies of business start-ups. Restaurateurs have to set realistic goals; conduct market research and analysis; and have an original concept with good food. ‘“I love talking about food,” said Hendrix, who currently writes a blog called “Collard Greens and Caviar”— a take on her wide range of food tastes, from down-south soul food to European delicacies. “Social media has been huge for me,” Hendrix said. “Through social media, I’ve created a sense of food family.” The panel — which also included Noelle Carter, who formerly worked in the Los Angeles Times test kitchen; and Mona Holmes, writer for Eater Los Angeles — agreed that food journalists are not taken very seriously, even though food is something they deal with every day, preparing it, or eating it, or both. “Food is very personal,” Hendrix said. “It can create a lot of memories and evoke feelings.”
Attracting regulars The panel agreed that almost nothing beats homemade, although many restaurants seek to replicate the looks, smells and
tastes of family kitchens, creating an experience that creates a regular customer. Hendrix admitted that whenever she smells nutmeg, she thinks about her mother’s homemade teacakes. “That smell triggers comfort, love and safety,” she said. “For us, those teacakes were everything.” The late Leah Chase, whose restaurant, Dooky Chase, served as an important New Orleans meeting spot during the Civil Rights movement, agreed: “Food builds big bridges,” she has said. “If you can eat with someone, you can learn from them and when you learn from someone, you can make big changes.” Dooky Chase was named one of the 40 most important restaurants of the past 40 years by Food & Wine. It takes a great deal of work to evoke such a place and create such feelings. To that end, restaurant owners work especially hard. Eatblackowned.com hopes to assist them on the advertising front.
More to come Dillard has plans to include more Black-owned food businesses on the website. “There are Black-owned franchises,” Dillard said. “I will list them, but I’m having a hard time finding those franchises. Rapper Rick Ross owns a lot of Wingstops in Florida—we’ve added them. “Some Black-owned franchises don’t promote that they’re Black-owned,” he added. “They ‘keep it corporate.’ We do have some franchises listed: Tiger Woods, Shaquille and Michael Jordan have a few franchises.” See DINERS, Page B2
ENTERTAINMENT & FINEST
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DINERS
EDWARD PENTATONIX WATERS The group’s World FOOTBALL Tour stops at
from B1
The team faces Daily’s Place in Morehouse CollegeJacksonville on Aug. 24. on Sept. 7 in Jacksonville. Info: Ewctigerpride.com
Vanishing industry
TOM JOYNER The Allstate Tom Joyner Family Reunion Weekend is scheduled through Sept. 2 at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee. Details: BlackAmericaWeb. com
FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Jacksonville: UB40 featuring Ali Campbell and Astro along with Shaggy performs Sept. 14 at Daily’s Place and Sept. 15 at Boca Raton’s Mizner Amphitheatre. Fort Lauderdale: Parliament Funkadelic with George Clinton performs Aug. 30 at Revolution Live and Orlando’s House of Blues on Aug. 31. Tampa: The State Attorney’s Office and Tampa Hillsborough Homeless Initiative will host an expungement clinic on Sept. 17, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Includes preparation of application and review. Free notary and finger printing services.
Location: 419 N. Pierce St. Daytona Beach: The Bethune-Cookman Wildcats will play the Southeastern Louisiana Lions on Sept. 7 at Daytona Stadium. Jacksonville: Auditions are being scheduled for Children grades 2-12 for the Jacksonville Children’s Chorus: Visit jaxchildrenschorus.org for details. Orlando: The 16th annual Caribbean Health Summit at Camping World Stadium is Sept. 7 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. It’s hosted by the Center for Multicultural Wellness and Prevention and other partners. Free. Tampa: A financial seminar hosted by the Tampa Bay Black Heritage Festival and the Entrepreneur Collab-
orative Center is Aug. 31 at 2101 E. Palm Ave. (Ybor City). Details: Tampablackheritage. org Orlando: Ashanti will be in concert on Sept. 28 at the Orlando Amphitheater. Jacksonville: “To Aretha with Love’’ and the 20th anniversary of the Ritz Theatre is Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. Orlando: Bone, Thugs-NHarmony is scheduled Sept. 26 at Hard Rock Live Orlando and Sept. 28 at Fort Lauderdale’s Revolution Live. Tampa: The Tampa Bay Chapter of the National Alumnae Association of Spelman College will host its first golf tournament on Sept. 29 at Top Golf. Sponsorships and more info about the scholarship fundraiser: www.
FLORIDA’S
finest
Think you’re one of Florida’s Finest?
E-mail your high-resolution (200 dpi) digital photo in casual wear or bathing suit taken in front of a plain background with few distractions, to news@flcourier.com with a short biography of yourself and your contact information. (No nude/glamour/ fashion photography, please!) In order to be considered, you must be at least 18 years of age. Acceptance of the photographs submitted is in the sole and absolute discretion of Florida Courier editors. We reserve the right to retain your photograph even if it is not published. If you are selected, you will be contacted by e-mail and further instructions will be given.
Thousands of Caribbean culture lovers converge on South Florida every year before and during the Columbus Day weekend to attend the annual Miami Broward Carnival, a series of concerts, pageants, parades, and competitions. On Carnival Day, “mas” (masquerade) bands of thousands of revelers dance and march behind 18-wheel tractor-trailer trucks with booming sound systems from morning until nightfall while competing for honors. Here are some of the “Finest” we’ve seen over the years. Click on www.flcourier to see hundreds of pictures from previous Carnivals. Go to www.miamibrowardcarnival.com for more information on Carnival events in South Florida. CHARLES W. CHERRY II / FLORIDA COURIER
DEXTER DAPS The Broward Reggae Festival is Sept. 1 at the Miramar Regional Park Amphitheater featuring Ding Dong Ravers, Dexta Daps and Richie Spice.
naasctampa@gmail.com Orlando: Tyler, the Creator performs Sept. 27 at the Addition Financial Arena, Sept. 28 in Tampa and Sept. 29 in Miami. Clearwater: Boyz II Men is on the lineup for the Oct. 1720 Clearwater Jazz Holiday. Details: Clearwaterjazz.com Orlando: The Central Florida Mineral & Gem Society is hosting a Rock, Mineral, Gem, Jewelry & Fossil Show Oct. 4-6 at the Florida National Guard Armory, 2809 S. Fern Creek Ave. Details: www.cfmgs.org Tampa: Young Thug and Machine Gun Kelly are scheduled Oct. 18 at the Yuengling Center and Jacksonville’s Daily Place on Oct. 19.
African American culture has gone global with the exception of soul food. Across the United States, legendary soul food restaurants have closed. In big cities like Chicago, these once-popular restaurants are no more: Army and Louis (1945-2010), Gladys Luncheonette (1946-2001), Izola’s (19502011). In New York City: Copelands (1962-2007), and in Los Angeles most of the popular M&M (Mississippi Mary) restaurants (1968 through early 2000s), as well as Aunt Kizzy’s Back Porch have been shuttered. Lavell Jackson, a former co-owner of The Candy Store, believes several factors like African American migration, African-Americans preparing their own dishes, more Blacks preferring fast food, internal turmoil among family-owned Black restaurants, healthier options and the economic slowdown have done harm to a “niche industry.” “In regard to the economy, I made hundreds of thousands of dollars during the crack cocaine era,” Jackson said. “My diner was filled with drug kingpins, as well as the local clergy, beautiful women, as well as professional athletes. Now places like Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles – one of the small numbers of diners — has survived and has been dependent on a small cult following. I believe gentrification will give the industry a boost also.”
Ratings and recipes A user’s login page will also be added this fall, with customer reviews and a star
S
system to rate each restaurant. “Within the next two to three months, I would like to have the members section set up,” Dillard said. “There, you will be able to login with a custom user name and pass code. Members will be able to rate restaurants, leave comments and add pictures for the restaurant. “Eventually, I will have a page for recipes,” he added. “Members will be able to post their recipes for visitors of the website to search and read.” Businesses can post a eatblackowned.com listing by completing a form online, which asks for the name, location, contact information and other details of the establishment. Company logos and images can also be added, along with a restaurant description. “There are two options: basic listings and featured listings,” Dillard said. “Featured listings are paid for and they have several benefits over basic listings. If anybody searches, you’ll be ranked at the top of the first page.”
‘Build ourselves up’ Dillard is also looking for companies to advertise on the site. “We have advertising space on the front page,” he said. “And we also have space available on our listings page.” The full-time truck driver believes his website’s listings will help to make some difference in the nation’s Black community. “I hope this website will get more people to support Black-owned businesses, “ Dillard said. “There’s a huge racial wealth gap in this country. We need to do everything we can to build ourselves up. Hopefully, someone will find a new eatery they never tried and go get som e great-tasting food.”
AUGUST 30 – SEPTEMBER 5, 2019
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HEALTH
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can be key to ensuring your bedroom is the sleep oasis you need for quality rest. If you need help when it comes to selecting a mattress, the experts at a retailer like Mattress Firm can help you find the right mattress based on your sleep position or aches and pains from a wide selection of mattress sizes, features and accessories that won’t break the bank.
Relaxation techniques Whether you have a few spare minutes or an entire afternoon of free time, finding a quiet place to relax and practice meditation or yoga can help you reduce stress and anxiety, become more selfaware and create a sense of calmness during even the busiest of days. Try setting up a secluded area in your home (or office) where you can concentrate on your practice and really listen to yourself.
Unplug and unwind
PHOTO COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES
Finding a quiet place to relax and practice meditation or yoga can help you reduce stress and anxiety, become more self-aware and create a sense of calmness during even the busiest of days.
Find some time for yourself Five self-care tips to improve your well-being FAMILY FEATURES
Between hectic schedules, ever-growing to-do lists and caring for others, it can be easy to put self-care on the backburner. Committing to a healthy diet,
getting adequate sleep, reducing stress, exercising regularly and unplugging from your devices can help keep you healthy, both mentally and physically. Consider these self-care ideas from the sleep experts at Mattress Firm to help bolster your well-being.
Nourish yourself While eating well may seem like an obvious self-care tip, it’s
How to control that temper
tion to others. For instance, if someone has harmed your property, and you stay relatively calm, they know you can make a good case in court.
BY JUDI LIGHT HOPSON, EMMA H. HOPSON AND TED HAGEN TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE/TNS
Calm and focused
Do you get upset trying to deal with your kids, your spouse, or your siblings? Maybe you scream loud enough for neighbors to hear. You know your actions aren’t cool, and later, you’re likely to feel ashamed of yourself. Also, if you’re spewing anger at co-workers, friends, or business associates, this could hurt your income, reputation, and career possibilities. If you have a bad temper, you’re not alone. Most individuals can really get hot under the collar. It’s not easy to stay centered and calm while your emotions are boiling. It’s almost impossible not to yell, if you believe your dignity is taking a few bad whacks from someone.
Helpful tips No one should react strongly before digesting information. For example, if your teenage daughter tells you she’s pregnant, try hard not to spew your emotions. Instead, tell her you need time to think about the situation. Remember that you can always get angry later. For example, if you find out one of your employees has been stealing from the company, plan your reaction. Take time to think about how forceful you need to be. You might need other people to witness what you say. Some people like to push your buttons. Don’t let them. Absorb what the other person is saying or doing, but don’t allow him or her to trigger a reaction. People are afraid of a calm person. Why? They know you can give believable informa-
not always easy to change your eating habits or replace fast food and sweet indulgences with healthier options. However, properly nourishing your body with the right foods, like fish, leafy green vegetables and berries, can help you maintain a healthy weight, reduce your risk for diseases such as diabetes, improve your memory and reduce inflammation, among other short- and long-term benefits.
Good night’s rest Getting a proper night’s sleep – most experts recommend seven to nine hours for the average adult – can have a positive impact on how you feel both mentally and physically. Having both the proper routine – limiting caffeine and sugar intake before bed and reducing distractions such as TV or smartphones – and the right mattress
With 24/7 access to the internet, social media and television, it can be easy to create bad habits associated with the always-connected, smartphone-obsessed world. However, screens – and the blue light they emit – have been proven to negatively impact sleep and mental performance. Setting aside some time – aim for a couple hours in succession – each day to unplug from your devices and their distractions can lead to better sleep, productivity, emotional wellness and creativity.
Move more While it’s important to take care of yourself mentally, taking care of your body can be just as important to provide peace of mind. Finding time each day to get in at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, whether it’s a fullblown workout, a walk around the neighborhood with your dog or a bike ride to a favorite destination, can boost your mood, reduce stress and anxiety, and help keep your waistline trim. Find a regimen that works for you, be it multiple short active periods or one long gym session, and make it part of your daily routine for an easy way to boost both your physical and mental well-being.
“I just went to court with my neighbor over a dangerous dog running loose,” says a nurse we’ll call Beverly. Beverly prepared with her lawyer to force the neighbor to build a strong fence. She took a picture of the dog growling and snapping, a drawing of the fence she felt was adequate to protect her family, and she told the judge she’d pay for the fence. “I won the case, but I didn’t have to pay for the fence,” says Beverly. “I made good sense, and 99% of the law is just good common sense. My calmness helped me focus on presenting my material effectively and quickly, so the judge would listen.”
Know the facts Moving from anger mode to “action” mode is often necessary to fix a situation. Staying calm helps you figure out what action is needed. A friend we’ll refer to as Kim recently caught her husband with another woman. “I walked into a restaurant, and there they were,” says Kim. “They were laughing and having a drink. Good thing I didn’t lose my temper. The woman turned out to be his first cousin, Karen, who had not been around in years. “Karen had made a family history book she was bringing my husband. Jeez, I’m glad I didn’t act jealous! I’d have felt like a fool.”
Judi Light Hopson is the executive director of the stress management website USA Wellness Café at www. usawellnesscafe.com. Emma Hopson is a nurse educator. Ted Hagen is a family psychologist.
DREAMSTIME/TNS
New research suggests that people with children are happier, but only once their kids have moved out in adulthood.
Study: Having kids makes you happier, but not for a long time BY NANCY CLANTON THE ATLANTA JOURNALCONSTITUTION/TNS
Want to make your parents happy? Move out. New research suggests people with kids are happier in their later life than people without children, but only if their children have left the nest. Scientists at Heidelberg University in Germany used data on 55,000 people ages 50 and older in 16 European countries. The information came from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe database. The results, published in journal PLOS One, suggest that parenthood makes people happier as they age. One reason could be that parents see their grown chil-
dren as a form of social support that “may become important in the later states of a person’s life.”
Less day-to-day stress Past surveys have focused on parents whose kids still live at home. These often show that people with kids aren’t as happy as their childless peers because they have less free time, sleep and money. But Christoph Becker and his team found that “when children grow up and move out, they provide social enrichment to their parents minus the day-to-day stress of looking after them.” Grown children may also give something back by providing care and financial support to their parents, he said. “Hence, children’s role as care-
givers, financial support or simply as social contact might outweigh negative aspects of parenthood.”
More research Becker told CNN that “having a social network corresponds to greater life satisfaction, but that doesn’t have to come from children.” People without children can get enough social satisfaction from close relationships with friends or family members. CNN wrote that Becker plans to track happiness for the same people over many years to study how well-being changes as people age. “Literature has suggested that there might be U-shaped connection between age and happiness: people become less happy in middle age, but more happy in older age,” Becker told CNN. “We want to test if we find a similar relationship in our data, depending again on parenthood and social networks.”
FOOD
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FROM FAMILY FEATURES
Whether you prefer watching your favorite teams in-person or on TV, tailgate season means it’s time to break out your party’s favorite foods from appetizers and snacks to all-out meals. Go long for a touchdown-worthy tailgate or settle in for game day on the couch with these recipes for a bold burger, sweet-and-spicy wings and creamy coleslaw. For an appetizing pregame warmup, try this assortment of nacho toppings to give your whole party something to cheer about. Find more recipes to amp up your tailgate atmosphere at Culinary.net.
Perfect for pairing with game day dishes of nearly any variety, nachos allow a special amount of personalization for guests of all ages and taste preferences. Along with tortilla chips, of course, try nibbling on these topping options throughout your party: • Shredded cheese • Melted nacho cheese • Sour cream • Guacamole • Salsa • Black olives • Shredded meat • Sliced peppers • Diced tomatoes • Corn • Beans PHOTO COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES
Take down a tantalizing tailgate Crunch into coleslaw Appetizers, main courses and snacks may dominate many tailgate parties, whether at home or the stadium, but don’t forget to incorporate sides that can accompany all the flavors of your festivities. This Honey-Dill Coleslaw, for example, makes for a complementary dish to just about any protein from burgers to wings and beyond. Plus, with only a few simple ingredients, it’s an easy side to whip up yourself or enlist help from an eager guest. Find more sweet side recipes at honey.com.
A flavorful, exotic spin No tailgate is complete without a game day staple: burgers. For a twist on tradition, try serving a different style of beef to give guests a new take on an all-time favorite. This Grass-Fed Wagyu Burger with Red Radish Chili Pickles uses First Light 100% grass-fed Wagyu beef from New Zealand, home to some of the world’s most natural tasting beef and lamb. With cattle allowed to roam and graze freely over lush green hills and pastures all day, every day, the result is a tender, flavorful meat that tastes as nature intended. Remember to cook the patties quickly over high heat to help retain juiciness, tenderness and flavor. With a touch of chili pepper in the pickles, you can add just enough spice with a sweet kick. Find more recipes for game day gatherings at beefandlambnz.com.
GRASS-FED WAGYU BURGER WITH RED RADISH CHILI PICKLES Red Radish Chili Pickles: 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar 2 tablespoons water 1/2 teaspoon sugar 2 tablespoons sliced fresh red chili peppers 1/2 cup sliced red radish Wagyu Burgers: 1 1/3pounds First Light New Zealand Grass-Fed Wagyu Grind salt, to taste pepper, to taste 1 teaspoon grainy mustard (optional) 2 tablespoons rice bran oil 4 hamburger buns 2 tablespoons mayonnaise 4 lettuce leaves
HONEY-DILL COLESLAW Recipe courtesy of the National Honey Board Servings: 4 1/4 cup honey 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed 1package (16 ounces) coleslaw mix 1/4 cup thinly sliced onion salt, to taste pepper, to taste In small bowl, combine honey, sour cream and dill. In large bowl, toss coleslaw mix with onion and honey-sour cream mixture. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve immediately.
2 vine-ripened tomatoes, sliced 2 tablespoons onion jam To make Red Radish Chili Pickles: In small saucepan, heat vinegar, water and sugar. Add chili and radish; remove from heat. To make Wagyu Burgers: Season Wagyu grind with salt and pepper, to taste. Mix in mustard, if desired. Form into four patties. Lightly brush both sides of burgers with oil. In frying pan, sear burgers over high heat then reduce heat to medium and cook until well caramelized. Flip and repeat process on other side. In frying pan, lightly toast burger buns. Spread mayonnaise on buns; top with lettuce, tomato and burger. Spread spoonful onion jam on each burger then finish with Red Radish Chili Pickles.
A sweet-hot handheld Ditch the plates and dive right into a sweet and spicy snack perfect for the whole party with these Honey-Sriracha Grilled Wings. To help simplify prep, try grilling ahead of time and keep in the oven until guests arrive. Or, if you’re tailgating in style at the stadium, toss into a pan and cover with foil to keep them warm until it’s time for a bite. Visit honey.com to find more tailgating recipes.
HONEY SRIRACHA GRILLED WINGS Recipe courtesy of the National Honey Board Servings: 8 4 pounds fresh chicken wings water 3 cups rice wine vinegar 1/4 cup Sriracha sauce 2 tablespoons salt 2 cups honey, divided Heat grill to 225-240 F. In large bowl, rinse wings with cool water. Add rice wine vinegar, Sriracha, salt and 1 cup honey. Fold to incorporate all ingredients and coat wings evenly. Place wings on grill, cover with lid and cook 12-14 minutes before turning once and cooking additional 15-18 minutes. Open lid and turn wings. Brush remaining honey on wings. Cook 5-8 minutes, remove from heat and serve.