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They overcame: Three women, three stories of hope See page B1
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JANUARY 5 – JANUARY 11, 2018
VOLUME 26 NO. 1
COLLATERAL DAMAGE Advocates say children of addicts must not be left behind as the Florida Legislature considers funding the fight against opioid addiction. BY DARA KAM THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – Ciara sobs as she recounts how, as a middle schooler, she helplessly witnessed her mother’s downward spiral into drug addiction, an affliction that left Ciara at times wishing her mother would simply die to end their suffering. Ciara, now 20, is one of the countless child casualties of an opioid epidemic Florida lawmakers are struggling to curb.
Considering options With a 35 percent-jump in opioid-related deaths in 2016, legisla-
tors are considering a variety of options to stop the spread of drug addiction and to keep patients from getting hooked on prescription medicines that can lead to the use of even more lethal street drugs, such as heroin and fentanyl. Policymakers are focusing their attention on drug users, dealers and doctors. But child-welfare advocates want to make sure that the needs of wounded children and other family members – the collateral damage in the life of an active addict – aren’t forgotten.
Could have been worse On the surface, what Ciara experienced growing up with an addict for a mother pales in comparison with the tales of children discovered in the backseats of cars with their parents passed out from drug overdoses in the front, or toddlers left alone in fetid apartments for days while drugaddled mothers or fathers scour the streets for a fix. But after her mother, Elizabeth, became hooked on pain pills due
JOSE M. OSORIO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS
Abuse of both legal and illegal opioid-based drugs are wrecking families everywhere in Florida. to back pain, life as Ciara once knew it rapidly changed. The electricity would be disconnected. The water was shut off. Money would disappear. The family – Elizabeth, her boyfriend, Ciara and Ciara’s younger sister – began to move from place to place. Ciara finally realized her mother had a drug problem.
Couldn’t hide anymore “It got worse and worse and
worse, so it’s kind of unhideable after a certain point,” she told The News Service of Florida. At age 15, Ciara went to live with her father, a situation she said wasn’t much better because he was an emotionally abusive alcoholic. The pain she experienced during the six years of her mother’s addiction lingers, six months after Elizabeth entered a residential treatment program near Tallahassee. Several years before Elizabeth decided to get clean,
Ciara learned that her mother’s live-in boyfriend overdosed and died. “I went into full panic mode after that because I was so scared that my mom would overdose. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose my mom,” she said.
Anger, pain But, as a teenager, Ciara said she was also angry and hurt. See DAMAGE, Page A2
One-quarter of Black America are ‘felons’
JANUARY BLAST
Deep freeze hits Deep South
Conviction rates have risen sharply BY TIM HENDERSON STATELINE.ORG / TNS
WASHINGTON – In recent decades, every state has seen a dramatic increase in the share of its population convicted of a felony, leaving more people facing hurdles in finding a job and a place to live and prompting some states to revisit how they classify crimes. In 2010, about 23 percent of the Black population had a felony conviction. The number of AfricanAmerican felons increased more than fivefold between 1980 and 2010, while the number increased threefold for other felons. The University of Georgia study did not calculate separate rates for Hispanics or other minority groups. In Georgia, 15 percent of the adult population was a felon in 2010, up from around 4 percent in 1980. The rate was above 10 percent in Florida, Indiana, Louisiana and Texas. Less than 5 percent of the population in Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Utah and West Virginia were felons, but every state had a large increase between 1980 and 2010, when the felony population ranged from 1 to 5 percent, according to a University of Georgia study published in October. TODD MAISEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS/TNS
Not the latest numbers
The same cold weather that froze New York’s Jamaica Bay dipped into Florida, causing snow in Tallahassee on Wednesday and hard freezes in parts of the state.
The new estimates only go through 2010, before many states began to reclassify some crimes, See FELONS, Page A2
SNAPSHOTS
FLORIDA | A3
Judge halts pot license for Black farmer
ALSO INSIDE
NATION | A6
OBITUARIES | B2
Teacher shortages linger in many states
Remembering young activist Erica Garner
Straightening of Amtrak curve was not a priority
Celebs we lost in 2017
FPL delays plan to bill customers for Irma BY JIM SAUNDERS THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – After saying in October it expected to collect an estimated $1.3 billion, Florida Power & Light has put on hold a plan to bill customers for the costs of restoring electricity after Hurricane Irma. FPL had been expected to file a petition last week with the Florida Pub-
lic Service Commission and begin recouping the money from customers in March. But FPL spokesman Dave McDermitt said Wednesday the company has not moved forward with the plan, primarily because it is studying implications of a federal tax overhaul approved last month by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump. “While we were planning to file a cost recovery plan with the Public
Service Commission by the end 2017, we now believe it is in the best interests of our customers to delay our filing to allow us time to have more accurate information and understand the complexities and implications of changes to the federal tax code that occurred at the end of December,” McDermitt said. McDermitt said the utility anticipates it will have more information by the end of January. That means customers will not see Irma-related storm charges hitting their bills in March.
COMMENTARY: ANTHONY L. HALL: AMERICAN-STYLE PROTESTS RAGING IN IRAN | A4 COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A5
FOCUS
A2
JANUARY 5 – JANUARY 11, 2018
There’s power in Black unity One of the best things that African-Americans can do in 2018 is to come together, especially at the ballot box! The so-called conservative political base of White supremacists, White nationalists, Klansmen, skinheads and neo-Nazis will undoubtedly be beaten like a drum in 2018 elections if Black men come together and join Black women at America’s polling places in 2018 local, state and federal elections!
Ignore the naysayers Don’t listen to the false political prophets on social media. Ignore the modern-day Uncle Toms, Sambos and Aunt Jemimas on morning radio talk shows and network TV news shows. Reject the backward and wrongful sermons of boot-licking religious leaders that suggest that God in the sky will take care of everything on earth! The God in you is the same God that was in all saviors and
LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT
messiahs and God will help Black people more when they stand up and help themselves! Yes, the Black vote is powerful! Every election year, The Gantt Report tells you that all voting groups – except yours – are divided! Blacks living in cities, counties and states that have at least 25 percent of the registered voters can decide almost every election on the local and state level and can be influential in every other election when there is Black political unity! There will be more Black candidates in 2018 seeking offices across the country. We need more Black candidates to hire and contract more Black political professionals.
Dumb idea The idea that African-Americans are qualified to do good jobs as public servants and elected officials – but Black political professionals, Black strategic consultants, Black media producers, Black printers, Black pollsters, Black direct mailers and other Black businesses and political vendors are incompetent – is an idea that must be discontinued, discredited and abandoned! Black candidates must reject advice from White consultants that encourage Black candidates to spend all of their media money on White media! Every Black political candidate should buy advertising in Black newspapers, in Black magazines and with Black TV and radio broadcasting companies!
tional institutions, Black people should vote against you no matter what your skin color is! Black people must know the difference between good Black candidates and modern-day neo-colonialists that are puppets of exploiters and oppressors that are merely dipped in chocolate, so to speak! Pan-Africans and Black nationalists, tell your people to unite and vote in 2018. Preachers, tell your congregations members to get on the church buses and go to the polls. Minister Farrakhan, encourage the members of the Nation of Islam and all Black Muslims to cast their ballots. Babalows, insist that all Yorubas, Santeros and other followers join their brothers and sisters on Election Day.
Vote your interests
Tell them to vote!
Black voters, stop voting for candidates just because they have Black skin! If you can’t support a Black political agenda that includes Black business development and contracting opportunities, affordable health care, affordable housing, safer Black neighborhoods, equal rights and justice or better funding for Black educa-
Drug dealers, tell your customers to put down the needles and crack pipes to get registered and go and cast their votes in 2018. Thugs, gangbangers and hoes, you all need to exercise your rights to vote! In fact, Native Americans, Hispanics and all other people of color should join African-American women and men and vote
FELONS
Race a factor? Police focused drug enforcement on high-crime neighborhoods, which were often predominantly African-American, Phelps said. As a result, felony convictions rose much faster among Blacks than among Whites. It’s possible that in states with relatively small Black populations like West Virginia and New Hampshire, “without that racial divide between a White correctional system and a poor Black population, it may be no coincidence that there’s a lower felony rate,” he said. Proponents of more lenient sentencing tend to focus on imprisonment, where Louisiana and Oklahoma have the highest rates, but probation is more common. There were 1.9 million people on felony probation in 2015,
DAMAGE from A1 “It felt like I wasn’t as important as the drugs were,” she said. For weeks, Ciara would hear nothing from her mother. Then she would get a phone call from Elizabeth, saying she needed money for a hotel room or she would have to sleep outside. Her mother’s lies and disappearing act and the constant anxiety took its toll. “It hurt so bad that honestly there was a long period of time I just wished she would have died, because it seemed like that would have been easier for me. It just would have been done. No more suffering,” Ciara said, sobbing. “Or just walked out of my life. I couldn’t do the constant worrying and the manipulation.”
Didn’t seek help Ciara, who graduated from high school with honors, did not receive counseling, but she now participates in weekly family sessions with a therapist at her mother’s treatment center. She said now realizes she probably should have sought help for herself earlier.
2020 critical The 2018 elections will be important, but 2020 elections will be even more crucial. If progressives win in 2020, good elected officials can un-gerrymander all of the seats that Republicans changed that were designed to limit the chances of Blacks and progressives to win state and federal political seats. Please join The Gantt Report and join Black female voters and let’s turn out to vote in 2018 more than we ever voted before! Respect the Black vote. Respect the grassroot political organizers. Respect Black media owners, and respect Black political professionals and political vendors in 2018 political campaigns!
Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere. “Like” The Gantt Report page on Facebook. Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants. net.
made it easier for felons to get occupational licenses. In 2010, Texas was tied with Louisiana for the fourth-highest percentage of population with a felony conviction, at about 10.5 percent. That was triple Texas’ 1980 rate.
from A1 scale back sentencing and take other steps to lower incarceration rates and ease ex-offenders back into society. But they are the first attempt to gauge the state-by-state buildup of felons during a nationwide, decades-long surge in punishment: Less than 2 million people were in prison or jail or on parole or probation in 1980, compared with more than 7 million in 2007. John Pfaff, a law professor at Fordham University, called the study “incredibly important,” but noted that with many gaps in information provided by states, further study may be needed to ensure an accurate picture. Nonetheless, he said, some of the state differences make intuitive sense. “Georgia has been trying to get people out of prison with probation, but we’re seeing that even with probation they’re still getting that record,” Pfaff said.
all political devils out of office in 2018! If you have a friend or family member that is not registered to vote, I urge you to get them registered!
Probation reform coming
FLORIDA COURIER FILES
A felony conviction carries a lifetime stigma whether a person is incarcerated or placed on probation. compared to 1.5 million in prison. In 2010, the two figures were about the same, at 1.6 million, according to the latest federal statistics.
Probation still a conviction Many view probation as a more humane alternative to imprisonment, said Michelle Phelps, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota. But in some states probation has become a “net widener” that draws more nonviolent criminals into the stigma and harsh supervision of a felony conviction. Phelps pointed to Minnesota, which has one of the lowest rates of imprisonment, but ranked 16th for felon population in 2010. That year felons were about 9 percent of Minnesota’s population, or nearly quadruple the rate in 1980.
Ciara and her mother requested that their last names not be published. Teenagers and tweens with drug-addicted parents may not have to enter the child-welfare system because they are not as vulnerable as younger children, who are dependent on others to provide basic necessities, like preparing meals or bathing. As the numbers of addicts escalate, the numbers of children placed in out-of-home care because of parental drug abuse is increasing, according to data captured by the Department of Children and Families. “We’ve definitely seen a significant increase in the number of kids who are coming in the child welfare system as a result of parental substance use,” said Jenn Petion, director of administration and external affairs for FamiliesFirst Network of Lakeview in Pensacola, an agency that provides foster care and other services.
Staggering statistics More than 4,000 babies were born addicted to opioids in Florida in 2016, an increase of over 1,000 percent from a decade ago. Substance abuse played a role in two-thirds of the cases where children were removed from
“Though it’s frequently dismissed as a slap on the wrist, probation can entail onerous requirements,” Phelps said. For instance, probation can require a job and good housing as a condition for staying out of prison, but the felony conviction itself can make it hard or impossible to get that job.
Permanent scar Gary Mohr, who heads Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said a felony conviction can have lifelong consequences, no matter whether the punishment is imprisonment or probation. “Even probation or a sixmonth sentence is really a life sentence because it affects jobs, it affects housing, it affects everything in their lives,” Mohr said. Several states have moved in recent years to ease the path for convicted felons, including re-
their homes within 30 days of birth last year. And there’s been a 38 percent increase in the number of children under the age of 5 who have been removed from homes because of substance abuse in the past four years. In the first half of 2017, more than 60 percent of all removals were due to drug abuse – nearly double the percentage just four years ago. The influx of children has resulted in a shortage of foster-care beds, Petion said, prompting her agency to hire an additional foster-care recruiter.
Focus on treatment Gov. Rick Scott wants to spend $53 million – more than half of which comes from federal funds – to address the opioid issue. Much of the governor’s proposed spending is focused on substance-abuse treatment, including medication-assisted treatment that pairs prescription drugs with counseling and other services. The Legislature, which begins its annual session Jan. 9, is moving forward with another Scott proposal that would limit doctors to prescribing seven days’ worth of opioids for patients with acute
storing voting rights and prohibiting employers from asking job applicants if they have a criminal record. Even some red-state conservatives support moves to erase the stigma and help people with felony convictions rejoin their communities.
Texas eases up Marc Levin, vice president of criminal justice policy at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, said his group supported legislation in Texas and elsewhere to ease the way for felons to return to the community. He cited a Texas bill that would have allowed some felons to seal their criminal records, though the final law that took effect in September only extended to misdemeanors. A 2015 Texas law provided legal immunity to landlords who rent to felons, and a 2009 law
pain. Research shows a direct correlation between the length of a first prescription for pain medications and the chances of becoming hooked on the drugs.
Hidden cost But focusing solely on addicts or would-be users is only a partial solution, child-welfare experts agree. “The hidden piece is the cost that the family endures,” said Mike Watkins, CEO of Big Bend Community Based Care, a Northwest Florida agency that provides child-welfare services. “The individual can use all they want. They can blow through resources and damage themselves, but in the wake of that are parents and children and brothers and so on. And then, unfortunately, we end up holding the bag with the kids and trying to put that back together.”
‘Wrap-around’ support While child-welfare advocates support increased spending on substance-abuse and mentalhealth treatment services, Petion also stressed that drug abuse “doesn’t happen in a vacuum.” “We have to be able to provide those wrap-around supports when there are children in-
The findings may help put probation reform on the front burner in some states. In Georgia, a February 2017 report by a state commission called for shorter probation sentences and lighter caseloads for probation officers. (The Pew Charitable Trusts, which also funds Stateline, assisted with the paper.) Almost 3 percent of Georgia’s adult population was on felony probation as of 2015 – far more than any other state and a 12 percent increase from 2010, according to the latest federal figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Georgia already has taken action to reduce felony convictions. For example, as part of sentencing and classification changes enacted in 2012, the state raised its felony theft threshold from $500 to $1,500.
What is a felony? Felony thresholds vary widely from state to state, from $200 in Florida to $2,500 in Texas. In recent years, many states have raised them to reflect inflation and reduce felony convictions. When crime rates rose in the 1980s and early 1990s, local and state leaders hired more police and they made more arrests, including felony arrests, Phelps said. In addition, many states elevated nonviolent crimes like drug possession to felony status, and many district attorneys adopted a get-tough strategy, seeking felony charges whenever possible.
volved. Every time we increase the number of children in foster care, it doesn’t just affect one thing,” she said, pointing out that the costs include additional caseworkers and transportation. “We have to provide those children with trauma with services so when the parent gets clean and goes back home, that the child is also healed from the trauma that they’ve experienced as a result of their parent being an addict.”
Repairing the damage Elizabeth, who’s been clean for six months, and Ciara are on a path of healing. “I broke my daughter’s heart,” Elizabeth acknowledged in a recent interview. But the two women also offer inspiration for other families. “What I would like people to understand about addiction is none of us woke up one day and said we want to throw everything and everyone precious away because getting high or getting drunk is more important. That’s not how it happens,” Elizabeth said. “Nobody did this to themselves on purpose. Addiction really is a disease. Once it has you, it has you. But there is hope. You just can’t give in.”
JANUARY 5 – JANUARY 11, 2018
FLORIDA
A3
Judge halts marijuana license for Black farmer Pigford case cited in licensing issue for Panama City man BY DARA KAM THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – A Tallahassee judge ordered health officials last week to stop the process of granting a marijuana license to a Black farmer, one of 10 coveted new pot licenses approved by the Legislature this year. The state Office of Medical Marijuana Use was supposed to grant all of the licenses by Oct. 3, but has not begun accepting applications for some new licensSen. Darryl es. Christian Bax, Rouson director of the office, blamed the delay on the lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of the carve-out for a Black farmer. The challenge is focused on a portion of a new state law that was passed during a June special legislative session. The law was intended to carry out a voterapproved constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana in Florida.
Pigford holdup Under the law, one of the 10 licenses must go to a grower who had been part of settled lawsuits, known as the “Pigford” cases, about discrimination against Black farmers by the federal government. The law also requires the Black farmer who receives a license to be a member of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association-Florida Chapter. But lawyers for Columbus Smith, a Black farmer from Panama City, argued that, while he meets the qualification of being part of the Pigford litigation, he has not been allowed to join the Black farmers association, effectively preventing him from receiving a license.
Temporary injunction The Florida Constitution bars “special” laws, in part, that relate to “grant of privilege to a private corporation.” The lawsuit alleges the medical-marijuana law violates that part of the Constitution. On Dec. 28, Leon County Circuit Judge Charles Dodson granted Smith’s request for a temporary injunction “on the bases stated by plaintiffs in their motion,” which focused on the part of the law dealing with the Black farmers.
Under Florida law, one of the 10 medical marijuana licenses must go to a grower who had been part of settled lawsuits, known as the “Pigford” cases, about discrimination against Black farmers by the federal government. “The court granted the motion based on the particular statute that we challenged, and not on anything else,” Wilbur Brewton, a lawyer representing Smith, told The News Service of Florida after the brief hearing. Brewton and lawyers representing the state told Dodson they wanted to have the matter wrapped up by June. But lawmakers may resolve the issue earlier.
Bill by Rouson Senate budget chief Rob Bradley told The News Service of Florida he wants to revisit the Blackfarmer portion of the law during the legislative session that begins Jan. 9. “Based on how I’ve observed this issue evolve, I would like to see the Legislature address the matter in the 2018 session,” said Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican who has been instrumental in developing and passing marijuana-related legislation for the past three years. Bradley intends to co-sponsor a measure (SB 1134) filed by Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, that would strip membership in the Black farmers association from the eligibility requirements
for the Black-farmer license. “It would open up that particular license to more competitors who meet the definition of being involved in that (Pigford) civil rights litigation. I think it would be in the best interest of the people of the state of Florida to have more competition for that license,” Bradley said.
‘Move forward’ Department of Health spokeswoman Mara Gambineri said agency officials “are currently reviewing the injunction to determine a path forward.” But marijuana industry insiders said they believe the agency could plow forward with licenses because Smith’s challenge is focused solely on the Black-farmer portion of the statute. Based on Dodson’s injunction, “we believe the department should move forward with the application and selecting process for the remaining MMTC (medical marijuana treatment center) licenses,” Medical Marijuana Business Association President Jeffrey Sharkey said. “Patients throughout Florida are still waiting to get access to this medicine they approved last November because there aren’t
enough licensees in the marketplace,” he said.
Application process Under the June law, health officials were required to issue licenses to applicants who had legal challenges pending as of January or who had scored within one point of the highest-ranked applicants in five regions. The Department of Health granted six such licenses after the law went into effect. The law also opened up the application process and required the health department to grant additional licenses. Licenses to grow, process and dispense medical marijuana have been one of the most-controversial issues in the rapidly developing industry. The new round of licensing will be the first opportunity for those eager to get in on the lucrative “green rush” to apply for licenses since the birth of the state’s marijuana industry in 2014, when the Legislature authorized non-euphoric cannabis for patients with severe muscle spasms or cancer.
License for Blacks Under the 2014 law, nurser-
ies that had been in business for 30 years or longer in Florida and grew at least 400,000 plants were eligible to apply for a medical marijuana license. In expanding the number of licenses this year, the Legislature carved out a license for Black farmers who complained that they were prevented from applying for the original licenses because none of the Black farmers met the eligibility criteria. Additional licenses will become available as the number of patients in a statewide database increases, but, for now, potential pot purveyors are anxious for the state to get the process started. And they’re not the only ones.
Director berated In October, Senate Health Policy Chairwoman Dana Young, RTampa, berated Bax for insisting that he could not begin processing new applications until his office knew what the judge would do regarding Smith’s lawsuit. “I’m not buying that just because there’s litigation out there you can’t fulfill your statutory duty to issue these additional licenses,” Young, a lawyer, scolded Bax during a committee meeting.
Boaters and anglers needed to help remap waterways altered by Irma Irma was a rare Category 4 storm that reached land, and the first to hit the Keys with such fury since Donna crossed Marathon with 140 mph winds in 1960. Hurricane-force winds stretched 160 miles. Tropical storm winds reached 440 miles. After Irma crossed Cudjoe Key, before and after satellite photos showed a dramatic bright halo of water clouded with sand all along the coastline, from the Treasure Coast to Cape Coral. Much of the damage underwater reflected the damage above ground, with the worst impacts near Big Pine in the Lower Keys, and to a lesser degree, Marathon to Key Largo, Fangman said. Areas around Key West and Boca Chica sustained less damage, as did Key Largo to the north. NOAA/TNS
Satellite images taken before and after Hurricane Irma hit the lower Keys on Sept. 10 show the powerful storm churned up miles of sediment. The Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary is now asking boaters for help in mapping changes to waterways and the ocean bottom. BY JENNY STALETOVICH MIAMI HERALD/TNS
When Hurricane Irma rolled across the Florida Keys last summer, it wasn’t just the motels and marinas, stilt houses and shell shacks strung along the island chain that were slammed. Underwater, the storm pushed around massive amounts of sand, uncovering ancient reefs and burying some closer to its path. Some channels were filled, others reconfigured. Buoys that marked navigation or provided moorings for boaters were ripped free— 800 in the
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary will need to be surveyed. Debris like boats, fenceposts, and propeller-snagging utility lines created new underwater hazards. Navigation, never easy among the mud banks and sea grass flats or maze of islands, took on new challenges.
Sanctuary needs help Now the sanctuary that stretches from the north end of Biscayne Bay to the Dry Tortugas is teaming up with the boating industry to undertake the daunting task of mapping the changes. The Sanctuary is asking boat-
ers to report changes to Navionics, an Italian company that produces navigational charts. Navionics also helped chart changes in the northeast after Superstorm Sandy. “We cannot get all the information we need by ourselves. So we need to work with partners,” said Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Superintendent Sarah Fangman, who oversees a staff of less than three dozen, including a six-man buoy team responsible for about 2,800 square miles.
Irma’s wrath For mariners, changes after a storm are par for the course, but
Assessing the damage Damage to marine life, and especially the imperiled reef tract, which has shrunk to half its original size and battled disease and warming waters in recent years, is still being assessed. The sanctuary is working with Everglades National Park, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and other agencies to determine what damage may be lasting and what parts of the reef can rebound. In October, the sanctuary teamed up with Mote Marine Lab to ask divers to report damage. They are also keeping a close eye on sponges, which feed by filtering water and got walloped by the prolonged turbidity, Fangman said.
More changes As the seasons change and lower winter tides roll in, changes to the bottom are likely to become more obvious, said Steven Friedman, commodore of the Florida Keys Fishing Guide Association and a guide in the Upper Keys. “A lot of it’s sort of navigational aids in Everglades National Park,” he said. “They have markers and posts that are down, in the channels and waterways we navigate.” Friedman had not heard of an increase in groundings, although tournaments that focus on flats fishing in shallow Florida Bay won’t start in earnest until spring.
Small team Fangman said the buoy team is in the process of surveying markers, but with a team of just six, it has largely focused on the most popular and heavily trafficked spots. “We haven’t gotten them all replaced yet, but every chance they get when the weather is good they’re checking,” she said. It’s not yet clear how bottom changes will be addressed, she said. If debris is blocking a channel, it will likely be removed, she said. But if it’s filled, dredging could be a more complicated fix. Whether to dredge would be decided by the U.S. Coast Guard, which maintains channels. “Mother nature has a way of moving things around,” she said. “We can try to put them back where we think they go, but Mother Nature has her own way.”
EDITORIAL
A4
JANUARY 5 – JANUARY 11, 2018
American-style protests raging in Iran Iran is more like America than most Americans, including President Donald J. Trump, realize. I was among far too few Western commentators who hailed Iranians for electing the moderate Hassan Rouhani as president in August 2013. But nothing vindicated our praise quite like Rouhani accepting President Obama’s overtures to strike a landmark nuclear deal.
Right deal Here in part is how I framed that deal in “One Small Step Towards De-Nuking Iran,” posted November 25, 2013: Bear in mind that, notwithstanding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reckless protestations about American appeasement, no American president has done more to halt Iran’s march towards acquiring nuclear weapons than Obama has with this (temporary) agreement. Not to mention that George W. Bush had more credibility when he was warmongering about Iraq’s WMDs than Netanyahu’s has with his warmongering about Iran’s nuclear weapons. After all, Netanyahu has been beating this drum for decades. What’s more, he has been trying every step of the way to get the United States to do his dirty work. Here, for example, is how the Jerusalem Post reported on his dire warning about Iran’s nuclear program on January 12, 1995: ‘A SERIOUS (sic) threat of nuclear war hangs over Israel, Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu told the Knesset plenum yesterday… ‘Within three to five years, we can assume that Iran will become autonomous in its ability to develop and produce a nuclear bomb, without having to import either the technology or the material,’ Netanyahu said. ‘[The nuclear threat] must be uprooted by an international front headed by the US.’ This is why I am constrained to reiterate that Netanyahu has given Obama just cause to be far more wary of him than the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani.
Greatly encouraged It follows, therefore, that I was as heartened when Iranians reelected Rouhani in 2017 as I
ANTHONY L. HALL, ESQ. FLORIDA COURIER COLUMNIST
Unfortunately, (Trump's) ignorance and arrogance are such that he couldn’t care less that he’s playing right into the hands of Iran’s “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his kitchen cabinet of hardline clerics. Because they would like nothing more than to blame him for inciting these protests. #IDIOT! was when Americans reelected Obama in 2012. More to the point, though, Obama promised a “post-racial” America. Yet Americans blotted his presidency by taking to the streets to protest all manner of racial injustice – not least the menace of White police killing Black men. In a similar vein, Rouhani promised a less-sanctioned, thriving economy and greater political freedoms. Yet Iranians are now blotting his presidency by taking to the streets to protest all manner of economic hardship and political frustration.
A different issue To be fair, Rouhani has grant-
Who really killed Erica Garner? Erica Garner was only 27 years old when she died on December 30, 2017. She was the mother of two children, one of whom was eight years old and the other just four months old. Ms. Garner became famous when father, Eric Garner, was murdered by New York City police on July 14, 2014. The killing was filmed and the world heard his last words, “I can’t breathe.”
Sparked protests Most police murder victims die unknown and their deaths are rarely even investigated. Garner was killed when thousands of people mobilized in mass protest across the country over the issue of police homicides. Because of that pressure, the city of New York went through the motions of prosecuting his killer, Daniel Pantaleo. But the grand jury in the conservative and mostly White borough of Staten Island refused to indict. Pantaleo is still on the force and even received an increase in pay when he earned overtime for court appearances. Ms. Garner was left to deal with her father’s death as best she could. She was an ordinary young woman, inexperienced in political activism or media re-
MARGARET KIMBERLEY BLACK AGENDA REPORT
Erica Garner is one of many NYPD victims. Her story is one of bravery, but also one of caution. lations. Yet she overcame what would be considered shortcomings by taking the simplest and most basic action. She spoke up.
DOJ inaction Barack Obama’s Department of Justice only prosecuted two cases of police brutality. Eric Garner’s was not among them. Obama’s response to demands was phony, meant to give the appearance of action when none was taken. He sent scoundrels like Al Sharpton to Ferguson, Mo., but only for show. Obama would even meet with
ed greater freedoms. Notably, he has allowed virtually unfettered access to the social media protesters are using to galvanize their protests and gotten rid of the dreaded morals police. But this restiveness stems primarily from the fact that youth unemployment remains as high as 40 percent. From the New York Times: “Iranian security forces clamped down on Tehran on Monday after demonstrators across the country ignored calls for calm by President Hassan Rouhani in the most significant venting of pent-up economic and political frustrations in years. “Since the protests began on Thursday, at least 12 people have been killed in clashes with security forces, according to the state television. … “On Sunday, protesters tried to storm police stations, military installations, and also attacked a seminary, the state television reported, showing footage of burned cars and fires.” Reports are that an additional nine people died overnight as these anti-government protests enter a sixth day.
Moderate reaction But I am heartened that Rouhani is reacting there much as Obama reacted here. Specifically, Rouhani is acknowledging that protesters have legitimate grievances; defending their right to protest; and calling on them to vent their frustrations without recourse to violence (i.e., of the kind that attended protests in places like Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, Md. Moreover, Rouhani’s enlightened reaction stands in commendable contrast to the repressive way government officials reacted in 2009. Back then, Iranians mounted similar protests over the reelection of Islamic hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I duly commented in “Iranians Protest Ahmadinejad’s Re-ordination,” posted June 15, 2009: No doubt Ahmadinejad was a religious zealot. In fact, he took perverse pride in hurling hollow threats about wiping Israel off the map (you know, the way Trump takes similar pride activists and family members when he thought he could get political cover by doing so. He met Ms. Garner on one occasion but because of her agitation. But he never gave Eric Garner or his family the justice that he had the power to give. In July 2016, Alton Sterling and Philando Castille also died in on-camera police murders. In Dallas, Texas a man named Micah Xavier Johnson exacted revenge by killing five police officers in that city. Johnson was himself killed by police using a remote bombing device to do the deed. Gavin Long did the same in Baton Rouge, La., killing three police before he too died at the hands of other officers.
Phony concern The realization that Johnson and Long changed the political conversation forced the Obama administration to hastily stage a dog and pony show entitled “The President and the People: A National Conversation.” Ms. Garner was invited to attend the nationally televised town hall along with other relatives of police murder victims. But the attempt at window dressing was not completely successful because she refused to be silent. The ulterior motives were so obvious that Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrice Cullors called the town hall “a s--t show. It was honestly one of the worst experiences you could’ve
VISUAL VIEWPOINT: PROTESTS IN IRAN
MARIAN KAMENSKY, AUSTRIA
in hurling hollow threats about raining fire and fury down on North Korea). But a fair reading of that commentary makes clear that the election and reelection of Ahmadinejad in Iran were every bit as democratic as the election of Trump in America. Not to mention this: The Islamic Republic of Iran elected a new president in democratic elections that would’ve made even George Washington, the father of American democracy, proud. Unfortunately, it did not please his presidential heir and namesake, George W. Bush. After all, this curious George only likes democratic elections when those elected share his political views and religious values. And, Iran’s president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clearly shares neither.
Another Trump blunder This is why, with all due respect to the dead, the most disheartening thing about these American-style protests is the way Trump is exhorting Iranians to overthrow their democratically elected government. Of course, Trump has blotted his own presidency by showing utter contempt for America’s democratic values, norms, and institutions. Therefore, nobody should be surprised that he is showing similar contempt for Iran’s. Unfortunately, his ignorance and arrogance are such that he couldn’t care less that he’s playing right into the hands of Iran’s “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his kitchen cabinet of hardline clerics. Because they would like nothing more put families through. It was all about apologizing about the cops, it was just a mess.” In short, it was vintage Obama. He wanted to dampen Black people’s justifiable anger and put a happy face on the system’s criminality.
Obama exposed To her credit, Erica Garner exposed emperor Obama’s nakedness. Neither she nor any of the other families were permitted to ask questions. She loudly proclaimed that they had been used, “railroaded,” as she put it. She asked an important question: “A Black person has to yell to be heard?” Of course, the answer is yes. It has always been yes. When her words threatened to ruin the Obama effort at damage control, she was allowed to speak with him briefly. Video of the conversation shows him in all of his hollow glory. He was clearly uninterested in Ms. Garner, mouthing condolences but making excuses for inaction. He barely hid the irritation he felt as he was forced to speak with her.
Challenges in life But Erica Garner’s best efforts couldn’t move the system. She had challenges in her personal life as well. Early in 2017, she was pregnant and assaulted by her child’s father. According to her mother, she was diagnosed with an enlarged heart and suf-
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than to blame him for inciting these protests. #IDIOT! Still, it is noteworthy that even Khamenei had enough respect for democratic governance to resist exhorting protesters in America (think Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter) to overthrow their democratically elected government. No less noteworthy, though, is that Trump is trying his damnedest to rule America in the autocratic way he’s accusing Khamenei of ruling Iran.
Government won’t collapse The hypocrisy this shows is brazen even for Trump. That’s why there is inherent “projection” – defined as people attributing to others traits, faults, and blame that inhere in themselves – in tweeting Iranians to do to their leader what he probably fears Americans might do to him. For the record, there’s even less chance that these protests will cause the downfall of this Iranian government than there is that similar protests could cause the downfall of any American government. I suspect these protests in Iran will play out much as the Arab Spring protests in Egypt did.
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. fered a heart attack shortly after giving birth. A second heart attack on Christmas Eve killed her. The stories of the survivors end this way all too often. They suffer trying to do what it is impossible: act on their own against a system that sanctifies police murder of Black people. One could say that Pantaleo killed her when he killed her father. Then again, the Obama administration chose not to give her justice and they were accessories, too. As a Black woman, she lived in a society that didn’t value her life and that fails to provide basic healthcare outcomes. There are many perpetrators in this sad story.
Retaliation and ‘beatdown’ But she isn’t alone. Ramsey Orta filmed Eric Garner’s death and police retaliated by setting him up in a drug deal. He is serving four years in prison and says he regrets having ever been involved. Erica Garner is one of many NYPD victims. Her story is one of bravery, but also one of caution. Just weeks before her fatal heart attack, she spoke of how “the system beats you down.” All too often, the beatdown is deadly.
Margaret Kimberley’s column appears weekly in BlackAgendaReport.com. Contact her at Margaret.Kimberley@ BlackAgendaReport.com.
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JANUARY 5 – JANUARY 11, 2018
Ta-Nehisi Coates is the neoliberal face of the Black freedom struggle Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “We Were Eight Years in Power,” a book about Barack Obama’s presidency and the tenacity of White supremacy, has captured the attention of many of us. One crucial question is why now in this moment has his apolitical pessimism gained such wide acceptance? Coates and I come from a great tradition of the Black freedom struggle. He represents the neoliberal wing that sounds militant about White supremacy, but renders Black fightback invisible. This wing reaps the benefits of the neoliberal establishment that rewards silences on issues such as Wall Street greed or Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and people.
We don’t agree The disagreement between Coates and me is clear: any analysis or vision of our world that omits the centrality of Wall Street power, US military policies, and the complex dynamics of class, gender, and sexuality in Black America is too narrow and dangerously misleading. So it is with Ta-Nehisi Coates’ worldview. Coates rightly highlights the vicious legacy of White supremacy, past and present. He sees it everywhere and ever reminds us of its plundering effects. Unfortunately, he hardly keeps track of our fightback, and never connects this ugly legacy to the predatory capitalist practices, imperial policies (of war, occupation, detention, assassination) or the Black elite’s refusal to confront poverty, patriarchy or transphobia. In short, Coates fetishizes White supremacy. He makes it almighty, magical and unremovable.
DR. CORNELL WEST GUEST COMMENTARY
sonal commitment to writing with no connection to collective action. It generates crocodile tears of neoliberals who have no intention of sharing power or giving up privilege. When he honestly asks: “How do you defy a power that insists on claiming you?”, the answer should be clear: they claim you because you are silent on what is a threat to their order (especially Wall Street and war). You defy them when you threaten that order. Coates tries to justify his “defiance” by an appeal to “Black atheism, to a disbelief in dreams and moral appeal.” He not only has “no expectations of White people at all,” but for him, if freedom means anything at all it is “this defiance.”
Empire ignored
Note that his perception of White people is tribal and his conception of freedom is neoliberal. Racial groups are homogeneous and freedom is individualistic in his world. Classes don’t exist and empires are nonexistent. This presidency, he writes, “opened a market” for a new wave of Black pundits, intellectuals, writers and journalists – one that Coates himself has benefited from. And his own literary “dreams” of success were facilitated by a Black neoliberal president who ruled for eight years – an example of “Black respectability, good Negro government.” Defiance without threat Coates reveals his preoccupaWhat concerns me is his narra- tion with White acceptance when tive of “defiance.” For Coates, defi- he writes with genuine euphoance is narrowly aesthetic – a per- ria: “As I watched Barack Obama’s
The prophet is rarely welcome in his own village “Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. ‘Where did this man get this wisDR. WILMER J. dom and these miraculous powLEON III ers?’ they asked. ‘Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?’ ... And they took ofTRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE fense at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor “cloak[ed] petty rivalry as disinterexcept in his own town and in his ested analysis.” own home.’” We will never progress as a poMatthew 13:53-57 litical constituency so long as our On December 17, The Guardian politics are based upon the politics published an op-ed penned by Dr. of personality and not the politics Cornel West entitled, “Ta-Nehisi of policy. Honest critique needs to Coates is the neoliberal face of the include substantive policy analyBlack freedom struggle.” It is a very sis. Honest analysis of the work of clear and well thought through African American writers or intelanalysis of Coates’ book, “We Were lectuals by other African American writers or intellectuals should Eight Years in Power.” West’s commentary was also be framed within the context of the a border critique of Coates’ per- analysis, not the personality. spective of the universe and of humanity’s relation to it – simply put, Criticism dismissed Coates’ worldview. By placing the critique in the context of personal animus, the West criticized critique can be summarily disDr. West’s critique has kicked off missed and not dealt with on the a firestorm of controversy via so- level that the issue and critique cial media and other outlets. Most truly requires. Most of the critique received of the controversy has been critical from Muhammad, Wong, Cobb of Dr. West. In Slate.com, Ismail Muham- and others centered around West’s mad wrote, “Not only is it a case of motivations. There was very little one of Black thought’s elder states- actual analysis of West’s critique men attempting a hatchet job on that would invite substantive diaa younger writer, West thoroughly logue about the issues. The focus of analysis should not botches the job...” In Huffington Post, Dwayne be if Dr. West is angry or jealous. Wong wrote, “For me, the biggest The focus should be if Dr. West is problem with Dr. West’s piece is correct. By focusing on West’s mothat are there more pressing issues tives instead of his analysis, his that need to be addressed.” critics are, as James Brown would Jelani Cobb took to Twit- say, “talkin’ loud and saying nothter accusing Dr. West of having ing.”
Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 311 F.E.A.R. due to CAIDS – In my first book, “Excellence Without Excuse-The Black Student’s Guide to Academic Excellence” (Amazon), I refer to what the late Zig Ziglar determined was F.E.A.R., or “False Evidence Appearing Real.” Usually, fear is your illogical emotions convincing your logical mind that a threat is imminent. I’ve seen enough fear in Black people to last me multiple lifetimes. I’ve seen Black people shun or even permanently isolate people
QUICK TAKES FROM #2: STRAIGHT, NO CHASER
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with illnesses like cancer, who are divorced, have been sued, gone through bankruptcy, been fired from a job, lost a lawsuit, or lost a criminal trial.
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VISUAL VIEWPOINT: DONALD TRUMP VS. KIM JUNG UN
star shoot across the political sky ... I had never seen so many White people cheer on a Black man who was neither an athlete nor an entertainer. And it seemed that they loved him for this, and I thought in those days ... that they might love me too.”
Why now? There is no doubt that the marketing of Coates – like the marketing of anyone – warrants suspicion. Does the profiteering of fatalism about White supremacy and pessimism of Black freedom fit well in an age of Trump – an age of neo-fascism, US-style? Coates wisely invokes the bleak worldview of the late great Derrick Bell. But Bell reveled in Black fightback, rejoiced in Black resistance and risked his life and career based on his love for Black people and justice. Needless to say, the greatest truth-teller about White supremacy in the 20th century – Malcolm X – was also deeply pessimistic about America. Yet his pessimism was neither cheap nor abstract – it was earned, soaked in blood and tears of love for Black people and justice. Unfortunately, Coates’ allegiance to Obama has produced an impoverished understanding of Black history. He reveals this when he writes: “Ossie Davis famously eulogized Malcolm X as ‘our living, Black manhood’ and ‘our own Black shining prince.’ Only one man today could bear those twin honorifics: Barack Obama.”
Obama was no Malcolm This gross misunderstanding of who Malcolm X was – the greatest prophetic voice against the American Empire – and who Barack Obama is – the first Black head of the American Empire – speaks volumes about Coates’ neoliberal In his commentary, Dr. West states, “The disagreement between Coates and me is clear: any analysis or vision of our world that omits the centrality of Wall Street power, US military policies, and the complex dynamics of class, gender, and sexuality in Black America is too narrow and dangerously misleading. So, it is with TaNehisi Coates’ worldview.”
Rational critique Contrary to the position taken by many of his detractors, Dr. West’s analysis is not a “hatchet job” or “petty rivalry.” It is a substantive analysis of a very good writer whose worldview is worthy of critique and analysis. By his critic’s own admission Dr. West has earned the right to provide it. Muhammad says, “...if you are a young writer who interrogates American race relations and White supremacy, Cornel West is the foundation upon which you stand.” Wong writes, “Dr. West doesn’t just write books and deliver lectures about fighting injustices. He is someone who has been on the frontlines marching...even going to jail for his convictions...involved in the struggle in very direct ways.” If his West’s curriculum vita and bona fides do not allow him the space in which to critique Coates, who can? In the search for “the next One, the Best and Brightest,” some may have heaped too much upon Coates a bit too soon. In West’s critique he writes, “There is no doubt that the marketing of Coates – like the marketing of anyone – warrants suspicion.” Since Coates has been accepted by the dominant culture, is his analysis and writing above reproach?
MARIAN KAMENSKY, AUSTRIA
view of the world. Coates praises Obama as a “deeply moral human being” while remaining silent on the 563 drone strikes, the assassination of US citizens with no trial, the 26,171 bombs dropped on five Muslimmajority countries in 2016 and the 550 Palestinian children killed with US-supported planes in 51 days, etc. He calls Obama “one of the greatest presidents in American history,” who for “eight years ... walked on ice and never fell.” It is clear that his narrow racial tribalism and myopic political neoliberalism has no place for keeping track of Wall Street greed, US imperial crimes or Black elite indifference to poverty. For example, there is no serious attention to the plight of the most vulnerable in our community, the LGBT people who are disproportionately affected by violence, poverty, neglect and disrespect. The disagreements between Coates and I are substantive and serious. It would be wrong to construe my quest for truth and justice as motivated by pettiness.
Nothing personal
ni Morrison who prematurely put Coates in the rare-air of James Baldwin. It was also Ms. Morrison who in 1998 wrote about Bill Clinton in The New Yorker that “White skin notwithstanding, this is our first Black President. Blacker than any actual Black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime.” Really? Could this be more unsubstantiated hyperbole? I think there is something to Dr. West’s critique and putting Coates’ work in the context of “...narrow racial tribalism and myopic political neoliberalism...” that is worth further analysis and honest debate.” In his piece “The Myth of Western Civilization,” Coates writes in direct contradiction to Dr. King: “I am an atheist...I don’t believe the arc of the universe bends towards justice. I don’t even believe in an arc. I believe in chaos.” If there is no arc, then what’s the point of our struggle? Is his “chaos” is Hobbes’ “state of nature”?
“the interests of the oppressors lie in changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them...” Is Coates working to change consciousness or situation?
Many vs. few
Atheists tend to be more sympathetic to the interests of the individual over the collective. Neoliberalism is about the privatization of public goods and the actualization of individual interests over the interests of the collective. Our struggle has always been about the collective. DuBois’ “The Souls of Black Folk” is not about the soul of some random individual. Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer dedicated her life to ensure the franchise for all, not just so she alone could vote. Dr. West writes, “Coates rightly highlights the vicious legacy of White supremacy, past and present...” but “he hardly keeps track of our fightback, and never connects this ugly legacy to the predIs Clinton ‘Black’? atory capitalist practices...” This is It was the brilliant writer To- important, as Paulo Freire wrote: Why? Is any of that contagious? Did they murder anyone or molest a child? No. Some of these folks made mistakes. Some of them suffer due to circumstances beyond their control, like many cancer survivors. So why the fear? Sometimes F.E.A.R. is as a consequence of what Dr. Na’im Akbar termed “Culturally Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome,” or CAIDS, which is Black America’s general inability to defend itself from negative influences as the result of 400 years of White supremacy/Black inferiority ‘brainwashing’ on the collective Black mind. It’s also generally accepted that Black folks, particularly in high-crime and low-income neighborhoods, show the clas-
sic symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). One of them is “generalized anxiety,” or daily worry. (I personally believe that institutionalized American racism impacts every Black American in similar ways. We all need therapeutic treatment.) Which brings me to my point. Former Congresswoman Corrine Brown appealed her federal criminal conviction this week. If she loses, she may die in prison. Former State Representative Dwayne Taylor starts serving federal time next week. If the churches they supported, the constituents they helped, the Congressional Black Caucus or the Florida Legislative Black Caucus raised legal defense funds, wrote supportive letters to
Must every serious critique be reduced to a vicious takedown or an ugly act of hatred? Can we not acknowledge that there are deep disagreements among us with our very lives and destinies at stake? Is it even possible to downplay career moves and personal insecurities in order to highlight our clashing and conflicting ways of viewing the cold and cruel world we inhabit? I stand with those like Robin DG Kelley, Gerald Horne, Imani Perry and Barbara Ransby who represent the radical wing of the Black freedom struggle. We refuse to disconnect White supremacy from the realities of class, empire, and other forms of domination – be it ecological, sexual, or others. The same cannot be said for TaNehisi Coates.
Dr. Cornell West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. He has written 20 books and edited 13. This article previously appeared in The Guardian UK.
What’s wrong? What is wrong with an honest critique of a popular writer and his work? Especially since, as Dr. West writes, the issues are “substantive and serious”? He continues: “Must every serious critique be reduced to a vicious takedown or an ugly act of hatred? Can we not acknowledge that there are deep disagreements among us with our very lives and destinies at stake?” I will add, and work to resolve them? Amilcar Cabral tell us, “...on the political level – however fine and attractive the reality of others may be – we can only truly transform our own reality on the basis of detailed knowledge of it and our own efforts and sacrifices.” We can only gain that detailed knowledge through honest study, debate and dialogue. The personal attacks on those who offer honest critique of the established narrative and work to change what Freire called the “culture of silence” of the dispossessed will not bring about our freedom and liberation. As he struggles against the Svengali spin of the comprador class, the prophet is rarely welcome in his own village.
Dr. Wilmer Leon is producer/ host of the nationally broadcast call-in talk radio program “Inside the Issues with Wilmer Leon,” on SiriusXM Satellite radio channel 126. Contact him via www.wilmerleon.com. the respective judges, or generally raised hell in their support of Black politicians who going to jail for campaign sloppiness, I damn sure missed it. Contrast that with what South Florida activists, including your humble writer, did years ago after current Congressmen Alcee Hastings was impeached and removed from his federal judgeship. We formed a “Committee for Justice,” kept up media pressure, and raised legal defense funds from a banquet and small donations way before the days of GoFundMe. Sometimes it’s none of the above. Sometimes Negroes are just scared. SAD!
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JANUARY 5 – JANUARY 11, 2018 that they can earn more in neighboring states. But finding money to raise pay has been a hard sell in a state where lawmakers have cut education funding in order to address an ongoing budget shortfall. Funding has dropped so low that some districts are only holding classes four days a week — a schedule Fallin has called “unacceptable.”
Getting worse Oklahomans voted down a ballot initiative last year that would have raised the sales tax by 1 percent to support education funding. The Legislature hasn’t voted on a proposal for raising teacher pay since then, said Christy Watson, communications director for the Oklahoma State School Boards Association. With over 1,800 positions in the state currently filled by people who hold an emergency teaching credential — which superintendents request as a last resort in order to hire someone who isn’t a certified teacher — up from 1,100 last year, Watson says the shortages are getting worse. “It’s not a secret that it’s going to take a teacher pay raise to really put us on the right path.”
Lack of data
AMY DAVIS/BALTIMORE SUN/TNS
Teacher James Martin, left, is shown years ago with students at Woodlawn High School in Maryland. The school was part of a program titled Avanced Via Individual Determination (AVID), which prepared students for academic success and college.
Teacher shortages linger in many states Some states are changing their licensure rules to make it easier to fill positions. BY SOPHIE QUINTON STATELINE.ORG/TNS
WASHINGTON — All 50 states began the current school year short on teachers. And schools nationwide still are scrambling to fill positions in a range of subjects, from chronically hard-tostaff ones such as special education to usually easy-to-staff grades such as kindergarten. Districts that can’t find a qualified teacher may stop offering a certain class or hire a rookie with an emergency credential, a move that could lower the quality of instruction. So lawmakers in several states took action this year to increase the supply of new teachers or raise teacher compensation. “The teacher labor market is a
labor market like any other,” said Elizabeth Ross, managing director for state policy at the National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonprofit research group in Washington, D.C.
No bachelor’s Arizona, Illinois and Minnesota are among the states that have sought to increase the supply of teachers by changing their licensure rules to make it easier for people who didn’t complete a traditional teacher preparation program to enter the classroom. In Minnesota, for instance, under the new structure aspiring career and technical education teachers no longer need a bachelor’s degree to get a teaching license. They can get a one-year teaching license if they have an associate degree, an industry credential or at least five years of work experience. The one-year license can be renewed three times.
Funding issue Changing licensure rules can
be controversial, however. Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, vetoed the Minnesota Legislature’s first attempt to change teacher licensing requirements. He argued that lawmakers needed to allocate funding to implement the new rules and questioned whether the proposed changes could hurt students. “Without a requirement that teaching candidates demonstrate comprehensive training in subject matter content and pedagogy, we risk providing our students with educators who are inadequately prepared,” he wrote in his veto letter.
New scholarships The Legislature later folded the licensing changes into an education funding bill, which Dayton signed, although he asked lawmakers to rethink the licensing changes. The Legislature hasn’t met since the bill was signed in May, so no changes have been made yet. Other states have tried to increase the supply of teachers by
making education degrees less expensive or shortening the time required to get one. Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey asked the state’s public universities to create new scholarships for students pursuing education degrees. Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe directed the state Board of Education to let colleges and universities offer an undergraduate major in teaching, something the state didn’t previously allow.
Raising salaries And some states, such as Idaho, are raising teacher salaries in order to encourage more people to become teachers and stay in the profession. Ducey called for a teacher salary increase in his state of the state address earlier this year, as did McAuliffe earlier this month. Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Mary Fallin has championed a teacher pay increase. Oklahoma teachers haven’t had a raise since 2008, and teachers are finding
State efforts to address teacher shortages are hampered by the fact that states don’t collect and publish good data on the positions districts need to fill or on teacher program graduates, says Ross of the National Council on Teacher Quality. “One of the most important tools that states can put in place is to develop very strong and clear supply and demand data,” she said. Maryland, for example, publishes a teacher staffing report every two years that tracks hiring trends and reveals mismatches between the jobs open and the qualifications of teacher training program graduates. The data can both help lawmakers make policy decisions and help prospective teachers make career choices, Ross said.
Stipends in Florida One strategy states can use to attract candidates to hard-to-fill teaching positions — once they have good data on shortage areas — is to offer higher pay for those jobs, Ross said. Her organization found that 31 states create pay incentives in some way, such as offering student loan assistance to new teachers who work in high-need areas. Three states — Florida, New Mexico and Utah — have a model program for giving additional stipends to all people who teach in shortage areas. There are plenty of other steps states and districts can take to help make teaching jobs more attractive, such as investing in mentoring for new teachers or creating a clear career ladder that gives ambitious professionals a reason to stay in the profession.
Straightening of Seattle Amtrak curve had not been a priority BY MIKE LINDBLOM SEATTLE TIMES/TNS
SEATTLE – The curve where Amtrak Cascades 501 derailed Dec. 18, killing three people, was identified years ago as an obstacle to Washington state’s dream of creating high-speed rail. The corridor between Lakewood and Nisqually “includes unsuitable sharp curvature,” said the state’s long-range plan, written in 2006. “A new connection, largely on structure because of differences in elevation, with a speed limit of one hundred mph will be required.” Yet the curve remains, a symbol of unsteady political support in the United States for rapid-rail infrastructure. Even with $800 million in Obama administration stimulus money, Washington state didn’t rebuild it.
Spent elsewhere The state decided instead to spread that cash among 20 projects, mostly to make its 79-mph corridor through Western Washington more reliable. Those projects include landslide prevention in Mukilteo, new Port of Vancouver, Washington, freight tracks to clear shipments out of the way of Amtrak Cascades, and renovating historic King Street Station in Seattle.
To straighten the DuPont curve and adjoining trestle over Interstate 5 would have driven the total cost to at least $412 million for the 14.5-mile passenger-rail corridor that opened recently from the Tacoma Dome to Lakewood and DuPont. That’s more than double the $181 million actual cost to rebuild the century-old segment with the 30-mph curve left in place.
Way too fast Amtrak Cascades 501 was going 78 mph in a 30-mph area when the lead locomotive jumped off the tracks to the right, where the rails curve toward an Interstate 5 overcrossing. The engineer, who was accompanied by another crew member, didn’t slow the train, for reasons yet to be determined. Washington’s incremental projects are a far cry from true high-speed rail, defined in the United States as reaching a 110to 150-mph top speed in regional corridors—achieved only on two Amtrak lines in the Northeast, while construction is just beginning in California on a 200-mph system. Worldwide there are more than 50 corridors 150 mph or quicker, including the famous TGV in France. Japanese Shinkasen trains cruise at 200 mph, and China Railway just opened a 155mph line.
BETTINA HANSEN/SEATTLE TIMES/TNS
An Amtrak train derailed and fell off of a bridge and onto Interstate 5 near Mounts Road between Lakewood and Olympia, Wash. on Dec. 18, 2017.
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SURVIVORS’ STORIES
THEY OVERCAME Three stories of hope from women who have endured major challenges
TAQUANNA JOSE F. MORENO/PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/TNS
Taquanna Kellam-Walker is photographed on Dec. 21 at the PathWays PA’s Adult Education Center in Folsom, Pa. She splits rent in an apartment with another teller. DeAngelo’s fiancé manages a Philadelphia Burger King and sends money. The ultimate family goal is marriage and a house.
BY ALFRED LUBRANO PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/ TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
One was abandoned by her parents. Another, just to live past 15, had to block out large swaths of her childhood. A third believed that her toxic upbringing made suicide preferable. What follows are stories of three resilient women born into poverty, a handeddown legacy of choked-off hope. Yet somehow, each overcame crushing obstacles to advance from a hard beginning to a happy ending — or, at least, an ongoing progress report of: So-far, sogood.
Can’t fail She is working on an associate’s degree and plans to get a B.A. as a certified signlanguage translator. A chance encounter with a deaf customer in the bank inspired her choice. DeAngelo believes God has a plan for her. “But those two baby faces always looking at me” provide enough rocket fuel to propel her, just in case she’s wrong about input from the divine. “Failure,” she said, not smiling, “is not an option.”
TAQUANNA KELLAMWALKER When your mother’s a drug addict who dies of an overdose, and your father didn’t even know you were born, what do you think your chances are of getting somewhere in this world? “I was in foster care my first four years,” said Taquanna Kellam-Walker, 21, one of eight siblings. Her father eventually heard about her and moved her to Northeast Philadelphia. She dropped out of Abraham Lincoln High School in the 11th grade because the baby growing inside her became a distraction from precalculus. Teen pregnancy in her family was as inherited a trait as brown eyes. “Well, you can’t stay here,” her father exploded, throwing her out of the apartment the day she told him. She was carrying her phone and a charger, and nothing else. “You’re old enough to have a baby, so go figure life out,” he said.
AMANDA DOBBS
AMANDA JOSE F. MORENO/PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/TNS
Amanda Dobbs smiles as she is photographed at her home in Southwest Philadelphia last month.
Saved by baby
Bounced around She went to an aunt, who, before slamming the door, offered a hater’s prediction of how things were going to go: “You’re like your mom,” she said. “You’re not gonna be nothin’ in life.” Her boyfriend told her to live at his aunt’s place, where she slept on the couch for five months. The boyfriend stayed for one. The aunt ordered Kellam-Walker to apply for federal aid, then sucked up the benefits, working the teenager like a slot machine. Miserable and eight months pregnant, Kellam-Walker connected with a program run by PathWays PA, a nonprofit headquartered in Folsom, Pa., that helps women and children.
A home and a job The agency secured Kellam-Walker an apartment for 18 months. It taught life skills, parenting and household management. She now works 50 hours a week — full time at a CVS, part time at PathWays, counseling pregnant teens. She earned her GED, and is taking classes at Community College of Philadelphia, working toward a four-year degree in social work to make things easier for her and Leionni, now 3. “She’s really motivated, and she’s helping other young people,” said Cristina Lim, a PathWays program manager.
Today’s the day to drive the car off Schuylkill and die, Amanda Dobbs resolved eight years ago. “Your suicide would be such a positive thing for others,” Dobbs, 42, told herself. Till then, she had done everything right: waited until she was married to have her son, Robert; attended trade school and community college; worked a solid job as a surgical tech. But a childhood of abuse, of her nowdead mother’s multiple men touching her, of frequent moves in and out of rundown apartments, caused Dobbs’ brain to crack apart, she said. “Post-traumatic stress, major depressive disorder,” Dobbs said.
ALYSSA ALFRED LUBRANO/PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/TNS
Alyssa DeAngelo, 23, of Oxford, Chester County, has overcome numerous obstacles to get her life on track and take care of her two children. “I pay for my own apartment in West Philly, and I bought a 2000 Plymouth Neon,” Kellam-Walker said. “I just woke up one day and said, ‘Gotta man up, gotta grow up. I want things. “And now I’m proving my aunt wrong: I’m not nothin.’ ”
What brought them there was poverty, family abuse, clinical depression, teen pregnancy and the awful luck that attaches like a parasite to a hard life. “I have severe anxiety, diagnosed when my parents split,” said DeAngelo. “And things happened to me I block out.”
ALYSSA DEANGELO
Keeps fighting
At night in Chester County, homeless families sleep in churches. A dearth of shelters in the 21st richest of America’s 3,100 counties makes it necessary, the arrangement coordinated by the local affiliate of a national outfit called Family Promise. For four months, Alyssa DeAngelo, 23, slept on cots with her fiancé and two boys, ages 2 and 4, in one of the whitesteepled sanctuaries amid million-dollar estates.
Alyssa, according to Susan Minarchi, executive director of Family Promise of Southern Chester County, “had a very rough childhood. But she wants to get things right for the family.” Sometimes, DeAngelo said, she feels herself slipping back into depression. “It’s dark,” she said, “and scary in a way you can’t express.” But DeAngelo is fighting. With the help of Family Promise, she got a bank teller’s job for $13.75 an hour.
She could no longer work. Her husband, Robert, lost his nursing assistant job at the same time, and the family squatted for three months in an uninhabitable house. Then came the day on the Schuylkill. Dobbs edged the car toward a drop-off near Route 1 when she heard a sound: Robert, a toddler in the rear child seat, had murmured. In her melancholy, Dobbs had forgotten he was there. “He saved my life,” she said, tearing up.
Started a business Dobbs institutionalized herself, and has continued treatment. An adept cook, she heard about Philabundance Community Kitchen, a culinary-training program run by the hunger-relief agency. Dobbs thrived, becoming class valedictorian. As part of the group, she appeared on ABC-TV’s “The Chew’’ in 2016. Robert now works three jobs (for a security firm, a limo service, and school bus company). Meanwhile, with contacts she made, Dobbs started her own catering business, Virtuous Food and Events. Recently, she cooked for 200 people at an event at the Philadelphia Ethical Society. “Amanda is amazing,” said Philabundance spokeswoman Stefani ArckBaynes. “She went from homelessness to business owner.” On Christmas, Dobbs and her son, now 9, fed the homeless. “It keeps my son humble,” she said. “And helping others gets me out of myself. “That’s a blessing.”
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OBITUARIES
JANUARY 5 – JANUARY 11, 2018
STOJ
Activist Erica Garner remembered for campaign for justice justice and will not be forgotten.” Erica Garner supported Sanders’ 2016 campaign for president, even appearing in an ad for his campaign. “Though Erica didn’t ask to be an activist, she responded to the personal tragedy of seeing her father die while being arrested in New York City by becoming a leading proponent for criminal justice reform and for an end to police brutality,” Sanders said. The police “killed her unarmed, nonviolent father with an illegal chokehold and got off with nary a word,” activist Brittany Packnett wrote in a Twitter post. “Erica had to fight for justice. Then for her own life…she didn’t deserve this, her father didn’t deserve this. Her family doesn’t deserve this. All this for being Black in America. I can’t.”
BY STACY M. BROWN NNPA NEWSWIRE
Erica Garner, who became an activist for all who were wronged by the American justice system, died on Dec. 30 at age 27. A Twitter account associated with Erica Garner spoke of her compassion for humanity. CNN reported that her family will continue to control her account. “When you report this you remember she was human: mother, daughter, sister, aunt,” Garner’s account tweeted. “Her heart was bigger than the world. It really, really was. She cared when most people wouldn’t have. She was good. She only pursued right, no matter what. No one gave her justice.”
‘A warrior’ Garner famously and fiercely sought justice for her father, Eric Garner, who died from a police chokehold in Staten Island, New York on July 17, 2014. She led marches and demonstrations in New York City and other places, and even appeared on national television imploring the Department of Justice to review the circumstances that led up to her father’s death. Erica Garner’s mother, Esaw Snipes, said, “She was a fighter, she was a warrior and she lost the battle. She never recovered from when her father died,” according to CNN.
Heart problems Snipes said that Garner suffered from the effects of an enlarged heart after giving birth to her son three months ago, CNN reported. “I warned her every day. ‘You have to slow down, you have to relax and slow down,’ “ Snipes said. According to the Twitter account, the activist went into cardiac arrest and suffered major brain damage from a lack of oxygen.
‘I will always march’
RAFFE LAZARIAN/ZUMA PRESS/TNS
Erica Garner, daughter of New York police chokehold victim Eric Garner, is shown in an Aug. 9, 2015, photo in Ferguson, Mo. She died on Dec. 30, 2017, following a heart attack a week prior.
Sharpton responds
How dad died
In a statement about her work as an advocate for criminal justice reform, the Rev. Al Sharpton also called her a warrior. Sharpton joined the Garner family in their push for justice against the New York City Police Department. “Many will say that Erica died of a heart attack, but that’s only partially true because her heart was already broken when she couldn’t get justice for her father,” Sharpton said. “Her heart was attacked by a system that would choke her dad and not hold accountable those that did it.”
On a summer day in July 2014, officers approached Eric Garner whom they said was selling loose cigarettes near a store in Staten Island. A video released showed Officer Daniel Pantaleo grabbing Garner from behind and applying a chokehold while other officers helped tackle Garner, whom family members said had asthma. On the video, in a plea that has resonated around the world, Garner is heard saying, “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe,” repeatedly. He died shortly after the incident. A grand jury failed to indict
Pantaleo and, in 2015, the city settled a civil claim by Garner’s family against New York for nearly $6 million.
Inspiration to Sanders Before and despite the settlement, Erica Garner pushed for justice and, with a national platform, her voice became as big as any in the fight for freedom, justice and equality. “I had the honor of getting to know Erica and I was inspired by the commitment she made working towards a more just world for her children and future generations,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted. “She was a fighter for
Remembering those who made us laugh, dance and think Here’s a glance at just some of the beloved AfricanAmerican celebrities who died in 2017. FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Charlie Murphy, 57
The founder of the popular music and urban culture website WorldStarHipHop.com died on Jan. 23 in San Diego of heart disease. Known as “Q,’’ he was born in Queens, New York.
The iconic standup comedian turned his cutting satire into a weapon in the struggle for civil rights and anti-Vietnam War activism. He was America’s first Black nightclub comic star and the first Black to sit on the “Tonight Show’’ couch. Gregory, who often resorted to hunger strikes, died of heart failure in a Washington hospital on Aug. 19.
Clyde Stubblefield, 73 Clyde Stubblefield died of kidney failure on Feb. 18 at a Madison, Wisconsin hospital. A drummer for James Brown, he was sampled “on 1000-plus songs, including Public Enemy’s ‘Fight the Power,’ Dr. Dre’s ‘Let Me Ride’ and George Michael’s “Freedom ’90.’’
Joni Sledge, 60 Songstress Joni Sledge, a member of the group Sister Sledge, was discovered dead on March 10 at her home Phoenix, Arizona. The group of sisters recorded the dance anthem “We Are Family” in 1979.
Chuck Berry, 90 Considered by many to be the father of rock ’n roll, this pioneer’s hits included “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Rock and Roll Music” and “Johnny B. Goode.” He died on March 18 after being found unresponsive at his house
Charlie Murphy
The stand-up comedian and actor died from complications of leukemia on April 12. He was best known as the writer and performer on the comedy series, “Chappelle’s Show.’’ He also was the older brother of Eddie Murphy.
Dick Gregory, 84
Jazz legend Al Jarreau died Feb. 12 at a Los Angeles hospital. A week earlier, he had had been hospitalized for exhaustion and was told by doctors that he had to retire from touring. He was best known for hits “Breakin’ Away,” “We’re in This Love Together” and the theme song to the popular 1980’s TV show, “Moonlighting.’’
Al Jarreau
in St. Charles, Missouri.
Lee O’Denat, 43
Al Jarreau, 76
In a March 2015 interview on NBC News, Erica Garner spoke passionately about the Black Lives Matter movement and other protests that sought justice. She recalled the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and how it wasn’t until months later, when the video of her father’s death was released, that the Eric Garner incident received national attention. Garner described seeing her father die via a cellphone video “a thousand-million times,” and when a grand jury failed to indict police officers, she said it was time to take her fight for justice to the streets. “To me, it was just saying, ‘You know what? I’m just going to march,” she told NBC News. Even when there weren’t television news cameras, Garner said she was determined to keep marching, to keep fighting. “That’s the most annoying question I get. People ask, ‘When will you stop marching? What do you want from marching?’ He was my father,” Erica Garner said during the interview. “I will always march.”
Lee O’Denat
Robert Guillaume, 89 Known for his role as Benson DuBois on the TV series “Soap’’ and its sitcom spinoff “Benson,’’ his acting and musical career was groundbreaking. He was the first Black to win comedy Emmys and the first to sing the title role of “Phantom of the Opera.’’He died on Oct. 24.
Chuck Berry
Clyde Stubblefield
Fats Domino, 89 Antoine Dominique “Fats” Domino Jr., the trailblazing singer and pianist, sold more than 65 million records, including “Blueberry Hill,” “I’m Walkin,’” and “Ain’t It a Shame.” Elvis Presley credited Domino for his groundbreaking role in rock ‘n’ roll. He died on Oct. 24 at his home in Harvey, Louisiana.
Fats Domino
Della Reese, 86 The singer and actress died on Nov. 19. She began her pop, jazz and gospel musical career in 1959. The star of stage and screen was perhaps best known as Tess on the TV series, “Touched by An Angel.’’ She also starred in “Chico and the Man’’ and the “The Royal Family.”
Information from AARP and BlackAmericaWeb.com were used in this report.
Robert Guillaume
Joni Sledge
Della Reese
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HEALTH
B3
AD COUNCIL FOR AUTISM SPEAKS/TNS
Three years of data from the National Health Interview Survey suggest that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders among American children and teens has stabilized at around 2.41 percent.
Autism spectrum disorders appear to have stabilized Data collected on kids and teens from 2014-2016
tor or health professional ever told you that (the child) had autism, Asperger’s disorder, pervasive developmental disorder, or autism spectrum disorder?”
BY KAREN KAPLAN LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS
711 said ‘yes’
Researchers have a new reason to believe that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in the U.S. has reached a plateau. The evidence comes from the National Health Interview Survey, which polls American households about a variety of conditions. When a participating family includes children, one of those kids is selected at random to be included in the interview. A new question was added to the survey in 2014: “Has a doc-
Between 2014 and 2016, this question was answered for 30,502 children ages 3 to 17. In 711 cases, the answer was “yes.” Researchers from the University of Iowa weighted those responses to account for the fact that not all American households were equally likely to be selected for the survey — and that among those that were, not all were equally likely to provide an answer to that particular question.
What data shows Once all the statistical work was done, the research team found that 2.41 percent of U.S. kids and teens had a form of autism between 2014 and 2016. That prevalence rose slightly over the threeyear period — from 2.24 percent in 2014 to 2.41 percent in 2015 and then 2.58 percent in 2016. But that wasn’t enough to be considered statistically significant. In other words, those changes were so small that they could have been due to chance.
Race and gender Some groups were more likely to report a diagnosis than others. The prevalence for boys over the three-year period was 3.54 percent, compared with 1.22 per-
cent for girls. The 1.78 percent prevalence among Latino children was significantly lower than for nonLatino Blacks (2.36 percent) or for non-Latino Whites (2.71 percent). Geography was not a factor, however. The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders was 2.21 percent in the South, 2.24 percent in the West, 2.47 percent in the Midwest and 3.05 percent in the Northeast. None of those differences was large enough to be considered statistically significant.
Nationwide survey The overall prevalence figures were higher than numbers reported in other surveys. For instance, data from the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network put the prevalence at 1.46 percent in 2012. That was essentially unchanged from the 1.47 percent the ADDM survey reported in 2010 — marking the first time it had held steady since 2000. The authors of the new report
offered a few explanations for the difference. Households from across the country participated in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), while the ADDM survey focused on about a dozen communities.
More work needed In addition, the NHIS relied on reports from household members to identify children with autism; for the ADDM, doctors reviewed kids’ medical and educational records. But the differences between the two surveys may not be as significant as the fact that both suggest the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders has stabilized. The Iowa researchers said more work will be needed to determine whether changes in environmental risks, diagnostic criteria, public awareness or other factors are behind the apparent end to a decade-long increase. The study was published in Tuesday’s edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Legal fees increase in workers’ comp system BY CHRISTINE SEXTON THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – Injured workers racked up nearly $186 million in approved legal fees in 2016-2017, a 36 percent increase from the previous year, a state report on the workers’ compensation insurance system shows. In all, attorneys’ fees in the workers compensation system totaled nearly $440 million during the 2016-2017 fiscal year. The majority – nearly $254 million – were forked out by employers defending workers’ compensation claims. Issued by the Office of the Judges of Compensation Claims, the 2016-2017 annual report notes that $185.6 million in approved legal fees for injured workers is the highest amount paid in nearly a decade and is attributable to a 2016 Florida Supreme Court ruling. “Clearly, there is a trend suggested of increasing claimant attorneys’ fees in the wake of (the ruling),” the report, released last month, notes.
workers’ compensation attorneys under legislatively approved fee caps decreased about 31 percent. It is the second consecutive year that legal fees increased for injured workers and employers and reverses what had been a five-year trend of lower legal costs for both sides in workers’ compensation cases.
How it works Workers’ compensation is a no-fault system meant to protect workers and employers. It is supposed to provide workers who are injured on the job access to medical benefits they need to be made whole. Those who are injured for at least eight days also are entitled to indemnity benefits, or lost wages. In exchange for providing those benefits, employers generally cannot be sued in court for causing injuries. While the system is supposed to be self-executing, injured workers hire attorneys when there are disputes over the amounts of benefits they should receive.
Second year
New state law
The report shows that in 20162017, more than $75 million in hourly fees were approved for claimants’ attorneys, a nearly 200 percent increase from the $25.8 million in hourly fees that were approved the previous year. During the same period, the report shows that fees paid to
Florida businesses faced some of the highest workers’ compensation costs in the country in the early 2000s. Business interests argued that attorney involvement – legal fees in the aggregate totaled $427 million in fiscal year 20022003 – was the reason for the high costs.
Attorneys’ fees in the workers compensation system totaled nearly $440 million during the 20162017 fiscal year. The majority – nearly $254 million – were forked out by employers defending workers’ compensation claims. The Legislature responded by passing a sweeping rewrite of the workers’ compensation system in 2003 that, among other things, tied the recovery of plaintiff attorneys’ fees to percentages of the amount of recovered benefits. The law was tweaked in 2009 to make clear that workers’ compensation judges were precluded from awarding additional hourly fees for plaintiffs’ attorneys.
Violation cited But in a 2016 ruling known as Castellanos v. Next Door Company, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the restrictive fee caps violated injured workers’ due process rights and authorized judges to award fees outside the fee schedule if adhering to it yielded unreasonable results. Business interests lobbied the Legislature earlier this year to,
at a minimum, limit the hourly rates that attorneys could charge. But lawmakers did not approve a change. Despite the marked increase in legal costs for 2016-2017, the report notes that when adjusted for inflation, aggregate attorneys’ fees in Florida workers’ compensation have decreased by more than $100 million over the past 14 years.
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SAFETY
JANUARY 5 – JANUARY 11, 2018
STOJ
PHOTOS COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES
Tips for family safety How to keep your busy, adventurous family safe FROM FAMILY FEATURES
Families are seemingly always on the go. From soccer games and school trips to excursions with friends and vacations with the family, people are constantly on the move, exploring new places and experiencing new things. In fact, a study by Sfara shows that kids today are using public transportation, going on field trips and taking long-distance road trips at much younger ages compared to 30 years ago. As exciting as these new opportunities can be, it’s equally as important to make sure families – and kids – stay safe and protected at home and on the go.
AROUND THE HOUSE Know your neighbors Whether you live in an apartment building, cul-de-sac or the countryside, make it a point to get to know your neighbors. Building these relationships isn’t only neighborly, but can help keep you safe. Not only can you have a stronger community of people to lean on for small crises, like borrowing forgotten ingredients, and larger emergencies, such as weather-related disasters, but you’ll also have a better understanding of your surroundings.
Help in an instant While security systems deliver some peace of mind, they’re not always fool-proof, and they also aren’t transferable to the office, school or your summer getaway. Always on and always available, an app such as Sfara Guardian can help keep you and your family safe, no matter where you are. By just tripletapping your phone, even while it’s in your pocket, the app connects you to a live emergency manager who can provide the help you need. If you’re unable to respond, it will dispatch local responders to your exact location immediately.
Accessibility While baby-proofing starts in your children’s earliest years, limiting their access to certain areas or items is important throughout their childhoods. When you have a young child, locks on cabinets and gates across steps may be your focus when it comes to home safety. As kids get older, ensure they do not have unsupervised access to dangerous items like cleaning supplies, prescription medicine or kitchen knives. Make sure to also have open conversations with kids about the dangers of seemingly safe home products so they are equipped to make appropriate
choices outside the home.
flashlight in case of a blackout.
Fire safety
Help on-the-go
Take the time to ensure your home is properly equipped in case of fire. Check that you have working fire extinguishers and that windows and fire escapes are not blocked by heavy furniture or other objects. Be sure everyone in your family knows the plan in case of a fire or similar emergency at home, and is aware of how to contact help, if needed.
Today, virtually everything is available at your fingertips, right through a smartphone. Now, safety is that accessible, too. Apps, like Sfara Guardian, can connect you to live experts who can help you in virtually any kind of situation. For example, if you’ve been in an accident, the app can detect you need help and send local responders even if you can’t speak. Learn more at sfara.com.
AWAY FROM HOME Tools to take on the road In the past, families brought the essentials with them when on the go – a first aid kit, snacks and water bottles. Now, in addition to the basics, make sure you add modern essentials to your packing list when you’re away from home, whether you’re going on a day trip or a long vacation. Carry a portable phone charger in your bag or in your car to ensure you can always connect to family, call for help if needed or just use your phone’s
Stranger danger When in public, be hyper-aware of your surroundings and the people around you. Talk with your kids about how they should respond if they are approached by a stranger. It’s a good idea to practice at home so your child feels comfortable giving an emphatic “no” if the need arises. If you’ll be at a crowded location where you may become separated, use your phone to take a photo of your child so you have a current photo and clothing description ready if the unthinkable happens.
DRIVING SAFELY Most families spend an ample part of every day in their vehicles, between transport to school, activities, work and various errands. Keeping everyone safe is easier than ever with a slew of safety features that are increasingly available, either straight from the factory or as addons to your in-car experience. Advanced Navigation: While built-in navigation systems in cars may just seem like an added convenience, they are also a key safety feature. Navigation systems offer easy access to directions and points of interest on the road, which can help eliminate distractions and reduce the possibility of accidents. Features like voice control can make navigation handsfree and allow you to concentrate on the road. Smartphone Crash Detection: Today, the technology in your pocket is often more advanced than the cars you drive or ride in. Apps like Sfara Guardian can detect a car crash or incident and dispatch help. Because the technology is on the phone, it works whether you are the driver or passenger and in your car or someone else’s. Roadside assistance has a modern twist, too. If you need help with a flat or a tow, you can request service on your app and map the driver in real-time as he or she heads your way. Lock Controls: In some vehicles, an adjustable setting allows you to control which car doors unlock depending on which door you open first or how many times you press the unlock button. This feature can allow a driver to safely enter the car on the driver’s side without unlocking other doors and potentially giving access to an intruder. Similar controls can keep mischievous kids from pushing buttons in the back and unlocking or opening rear doors or windows without your knowledge.
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JANUARY 5 – JANUARY 11, 2018
FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT
Meet some of
FLORIDA’S
finest
B5
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
Rhimes, Winfrey join new initiative to fight sexual harassment BY NICOLE HYATT EURWEB.COM
NATHAN GONGLETON/NBC/TNS
Hoda Kotb is shown on Dec. 22, 2017 on NBC’s “Today.” She has been named coanchor of “Today,” taking over the chair of fired co-anchor Matt Lauer.
Kotb replaces Lauer on NBC’s ‘Today’
following allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior with a female employee. Since the change, “Today” has topped ABC’s “Good Morning America” in the Nielsen ratings among total viewers, after finishing second through most of the year. The stable ratings performance likely encouraged NBC News executives to keep the team in place.
BY STEPHEN BATTAGLIO LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS
‘Remarkable’ woman
Hoda Kotb has been named co-anchor of NBC’s “Today,” taking over the chair of fired co-anchor Matt Lauer. NBC News Chairman Andy Lack announced that Kotb will team with co-anchor Savannah Guthrie for the 7 a.m.-to-9 a.m. segment of the program. It marks the first time in the 65-year history of ‘Today” that two-female co-anchors have led the program during its flagship hours.
Remains at 10 Kotb will also remain as part of the program’s 10 a.m. hour, which she has cohosted with Kathie Lee Gifford since 2008. Kotb stepped in for Lauer on Nov. 29, the day after he was fired from the program
“Over the past several weeks, Hoda has seamlessly stepped into the co-anchor role alongside Savannah, and the two have quickly hit the ground running,” Lack wrote in a memo sent to staff before the start of Monday’s program. “They have an undeniable connection with each other and most importantly, with viewers, a hallmark of ‘Today.’ “Hoda is, in a word, remarkable. She has the rare ability to share authentic and heartfelt moments in even the most difficult news circumstances. It’s a tribute to her wide range and her innate curiosity.” Kotb, 53, joined NBC News as a correspondent in 1998, after several years at New Orleans TV station WWL. Guthrie, 46, has been a “Today” co-anchor since 2012.
Three hundred powerful actresses and female agents, writers, directors, producers and entertainment executives have launched a sprawling initiative to fight systemic sexual harassment in Hollywood and in bluecollar workplaces nationwide. Called Time’s Up, the movement was announced on Jan. 2 in an open letter signed by Shonda the A-list group of womRhimes en in show business, including Ashley Judd, Eva Longoria, America Ferrera, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Rashida Jones, Emma Stone, Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon. The letter also ran as a fullpage ad in The New York Times, and in La OpinOprah ion, a Spanish-language Winfrey newspaper.
Major donations The campaign already has raised more than $13 million of its $15 million target. Oprah Winfrey and Taylor Swift have donated $100,000 apiece, while Shonda Rhimes, Witherspoon and Meryl Streep have each donated $500,000 to
the cause. “It’s very hard for us to speak righteously about the rest of anything if we haven’t cleaned our own house,” said Rhimes, the executive producer of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder,” who has been closely involved with the group. “If this group of women can’t fight for a model for other women who don’t have as much power and privilege, then who can?” Rhimes continued.
Others involved Other Time’s Up members include the showrunner Jill Soloway; Donna Langley, chairwoman of Universal Pictures; lawyers Nina L. Shaw and Tina Tchen, who served as Michelle Obama’s chief of staff; and Maria Eitel, an expert in corporate responsibility who is co-chairwoman of the Nike Foundation. “The struggle for women to break in, to rise up the ranks and to simply be heard and acknowledged in male-dominated workplaces must end; time’s up on this impenetrable monopoly,” the letter stated.
Helping all women The initiative includes: A legal defense fund (backed by the $13 million in donations) to help less privileged women — like janitors, nurses and workers at farms, factories, restaurants and hotels — protect themselves from sexual misconduct and the fallout from reporting it. Legislation to penalize companies that tolerate persistent harassment, and to discourage the use of nondisclosure agreements to silence victims. A drive to reach gender parity at studios and talent agencies that has already begun making headway. And a request that women walking the red carpet at the Golden Globes speak out and raise awareness by wearing black.
Tyson building cannabis resort in California BY PARKER RILEY BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM
The former heavyweight champion of the world is having an epic start to 2018. According to The Blast, Mike Tyson is creating a cannabis resort, which “aims at not only producing high quality strains of THC and CBD, but also implementing cutting-edge technology to advance the research on the health benefits of marijuana.” On Dec. 20, Tyson began building the resort in California City, which is a des-
ert 60 miles southwest of Death Valley National Park.
‘Rebirth’ for city
Mike Tyson
Mayor Jennifer Wood and his business partners Robert Hickman and Jay Strommen joined him in a ground-breaking event. Marijuana is now legal in
California. The resort reportedly will include a cultivation school, extraction facility, amphitheater, hydro-feed plant and supply store, and much more. According to The Blast, “The mayor describes the business venture as a ‘rebirth’ for the entire city.” The cannabis resort will reportedly create tons of jobs and give back to the community.
FOOD
B6
JANUARY 5 – JANUARY 11, 2018
CHOW DOWN on championship snacks FROM FAMILY FEATURES
When the clock ticks down toward game day and you’re putting together a snacking plan of attack, turn to recipes like these that you and your guests can savor for all four quarters of action. With different choices to draft from, there’s no need for a superstar main course at the center of the meal. Instead, rely on options like customizable brats and pulled pork sandwiches, baked chicken wings and gameday dips for winners all around. Find more recipes for hosting game day at Culinary.net.
CRISPY BAKED BUFFALO CHICKEN WINGS Total time: 1 hour, 25 minutes Serves: 8 4 pounds chicken wings 2 tablespoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt nonstick cooking spray 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 1/2 cup hot sauce 1/2 cup Litehouse Chunky Blue Cheese or Homestyle Ranch dressing 1/3 cup Litehouse Blue Cheese Crumbles carrots celery Lay wings on rack on rimmed baking tray and let dry in
refrigerator overnight, or pat dry with paper towels. Heat oven to 250 F. Put one oven shelf in lower quarter of oven and one in top quarter.
Place wings in large re-sealable bag. Add baking powder and salt. Shake bag to coat wings evenly.
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Line tray with foil. Spray rack on baking tray with nonstick spray. Place wings skin side up on rack. Bake on lower shelf 30 minutes. Move tray to higher shelf and turn oven up to 425 F. Bake 40-50 minutes, rotating tray halfway through. Wings are done when they are dark, golden brown and skin is crispy. While wings bake, whisk together butter and hot sauce; keep warm. Remove wings from oven and toss with hot sauce; sprinkle immediately with blue cheese crumbles. Serve with blue cheese or ranch dressing, carrots and celery sticks. SMOKED PULLED PORK SANDWICHES WITH HONEY BARBECUE SAUCE Recipe courtesy of the National Honey Board Servings: 8-10 Pork Rub: 1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon chili powder 2 teaspoons paprika 1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder 1 1/4 teaspoons onion powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon pepper 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 bone-in pork shoulder roast (4 pounds) 2 cups hickory chips 1 cup water 1 1/2 cups barbecue sauce 1 1/2 cups honey 1 cup ketchup 8-10 rolls chopped jalapeno peppers (optional) chopped onion (optional) chopped pickles (optional) To make Pork Rub: Stir together sugar, chili powder, paprika, seasoned salt, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, cumin, pepper and cayenne pepper. Massage Pork Rub over surface of pork and let stand 30 minutes.
Helping you is what we love to do. That’s why there’s always an experienced bread baker on hand in your Publix Bakery. And an expert cake decorator, too, ready to customize beautiful cakes to your every whim, for any occasion. See how we serve you at publix.com/service.
Soak hickory chips in water; drain well. Wrap chips in foil; punch holes in foil and place on top of gas grill set on high. When chips begin to smoke, place pork on grill and cook until well browned on all sides with lid closed, about 30-45 minutes. Heat oven to 300 F. Remove pork from grill and place in turkey-size oven bag set in large, shallow baking dish. Add water and seal well; pierce bag several times with small knife. Cook 3-3 1/2 hours, or until meat is tender and pork bone can be removed easily. Remove from oven. Remove bone and set aside until cool enough to handle. Shred meat into small pieces, removing fat. Add juices from cooking bag, skimming off excess fat. In separate saucepan, stir together barbecue sauce, honey and ketchup, cooking until hot and honey has dissolved. Stir most of sauce into shredded pork and mix well. Serve on rolls and drizzle with remaining sauce. Top with jalapenos, onions and pickles, if desired. BRUSCHETTA-TOPPED HUMMUS Prep time: 5 minutes Bruschetta: 2 cups multi-colored cherry tomatoes 1 clove garlic, minced 10fresh basil leaves, chopped 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus additional (optional) salt, to taste 1 container Sabra Classic Hummus (10 ounces) To make bruschetta: Cut cherry tomatoes into quarters or eighths, if large. Place in small mixing bowl. Stir in garlic, basil and olive oil, and season with salt, to taste. Scoop hummus out of container and swirl onto serving plate. Top with bruschetta and drizzle with touch of olive oil, if desired. Serve with fresh vegetables or pita chips.