Florida Courier - January 09, 2015

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JANUARY 9 – JANUARY 15, 2015

VOLUME 23 NO. 2

TAKING CREDIT

Obama hits the road to trumpet economic improvement before returning to Washington to take on the GOP-dominated Congress for the next two years.

BY KATHLEEN HENNESSEY AND CHRISTI PARSONS TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU /TNS

WASHINGTON – Taking credit for a spate of good economic news and boasting of more to come, President Obama kicked off a three-state tour Wednesday hoping to prove that Republicans’ rise to power in the Capitol this week will not push him to the sidelines.

Speaking at an auto plant outside Detroit, Obama declared that not only is the American auto industry on the mend, but so is the U.S. economy.

“We are entering into the new year with confidence PETE SOUZA /WHITE HOUSE PHOTO that America is coming On Wednesday, President Obama greeted Ramone Davis, a veteran who served back,” Obama told a cheertours in Afghanistan and Iraq and now works at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant ing crowd of autoworkers in Wayne, Mich. in Wayne, Mich.

“We’re moving,” he said.

“America’s resurgence is real. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.... Now that the worst of the crisis is behind us, if we all do our part, if we all pitch in, then we can make sure this rising tide is lifting all the boats, not just some.”

Pushing his agenda Obama was in Michigan only a few hours, and his remarks focused on cheerleading for the industry he takes credit for reviving. But the visit still spoke to his strategy for confronting his status as a late-term president faced with a GOP-controlled Congress.

Rather than wait for newly empowered Republican lawmakers to lay out their priorities – and lob a few

FSU’S WINSTON TURNS PRO

Gone, baby, gone

shots at the White House – aides say, the president will push ahead on his agenda with or without cooperation from Congress.

White House officials said the president would unveil significant executive actions on stops later this week, as well as policies that would require congressional cooperation.

Homeowner help From Michigan, Obama flew to Phoenix, which was also in economic turmoil when he took office. There, on Thursday he’ll discuss his plans to make housing more affordable to the middle class, including a decision to lower mortgage insurance premiums for borSee OBAMA, Page A2

Miccosukee patriarch dies at 94 Buffalo Tiger fought for native rights SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

Former Miccosukee Chief Buffalo Tiger, known for his achievements in securing a positive future for the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, died Tuesday of natural causes in his home in Kendall with his family by his side. He was 94.

Long history

STEPHEN M. DOWELL/ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS

Florida State University quarterback Jameis Winston tried to inspire teammates during the Rose Bowl College Football Semifinal game against the Oregon Ducks on Jan. 1 in Pasadena, Calif. Oregon won 59-20. A week later, Winston decided he would forego his last year of college and enter the National Football League 2015 draft.

Scott sworn in for second term

BY BRANDON LARRABEE AND MARGIE MENZEL THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – Gov. Rick Scott was sworn in for a second term shortly after noon Tuesday, beginning a new four years in office that in some ways brings as many questions as the first.

Scott took the oath of office on the steps of the Old Capitol during a sunny, cool day in Tallahassee. Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, state Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Attorney General Pam Bondi also were sworn in to start their second terms, as was Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, who took office early last year.

Scott, a former health-care executive who shocked the political establishment by getting elected in 2010 and came from behind to

ALSO INSIDE

beat former Gov. Charlie Crist in 2014, now moves from the challenges of governing as a newcomer to the challenges of holding off lame-duck status as attention shifts to the 2016 presidential campaign and, two years later, to the race to succeed him.

Gov. Rick In his inaugural address, Scott excerpts of which were released Monday, Scott was expected to pitch Florida to residents of states with Democratic governors and repeat some of the small-government conservative prescriptions that got him elected in 2010, before he eased off hardedged conservatism in his re-election bid.

Begins at FAMU The day began with a prayer breakfast at Florida A&M University that was attended by Scott and First Lady Ann Scott, their daughters, Lopez-Cantera, Atwater, Putnam, FAMU President Elmira Mangum and a number of

legislators and state agency heads.

The speakers, who represented a wide array of faiths, called on Floridians to pray for Scott’s term in office.

“Our dear governor can’t do it on his own,” said keynote speaker Jim Towey, president of Ave Maria University in Southwest Florida.

“He needs the help of God and the prayers and effort of each one of us. … Democracy is not a spectator sport.”

Few festivities Scott has ditched some of the traditional inauguration festivities in Tallahassee, instead opting for a post-election tour of the state to tout the economic recovery.

He held a reception Monday night at the governor’s mansion, watching a video reviewing his second campaign and delivering brief remarks in line with the themes his inaugural.

“We will be No. 1 as the global hub for business,” Scott said.” And that’s our whole agenda for the next four years.”

Before White settlement on Native American lands, most of the mid-southeast region of the United States was Miccosukee territory for hundreds of years. This area comprised most of what is today Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Kentucky.

During the U.S. government’s genocidal removal of Native Americans during the early to mid-1800s, Native American people were being forced to move west into present-day Oklahoma and Kansas. The Miccosukee sought refuge in the remote Florida Everglades to live in a subtropical wetland – an area that is mostly water.

Although this new land was vastly different from any territory they lived in before, the Miccosukee people were able to adapt and eventually to thrive in the Everglades.

See BUFFALO TIGER, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

Some hot topics in state in 2015 FLORIDA | A6

Six years to complete degree is not unusual

COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 GUEST COMMENTARY: HANK SANDERS: AN OPEN LETTER TO CHARLES BARKLEY | A5

OBITUARY | B2

Remembering pioneer politician Edward Brooke

FOCUS

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JANUARY 9 – JANUARY 15, 2015

Watch out for the Black ‘come up’ There are writers and reporters in almost every newspaper, on every TV and radio station and on every network trying to get their “come up” by constantly attacking Black youth, Black athletes, Black rappers and present and past Black heroes!

And the ringleaders of these unrelenting attacks are White women!

A “come up” is when you use other people to raise your status mainly by criticizing someone good or someone better than you.

Winston is hated It seems the most hated person in the world these days is Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston.

It is fair game to criticize Winston’s exploits on and off the field. But to talk or write about mistakes Winston made months and years ago and to twist and turn any situation about him into a negative situation has to be racially motivated. Look at how Michael Vick is being hated years after an indiscretion, and years after he changed his life for the better!

LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT

Why Winston? Because the only crime Winston committed was to walk out of a supermarket months ago with a couple of pounds of crab legs. But White women at USA Today and at ESPN talk about sexual assault, BB guns and heated discussions with coaches every time Jameis Winston’s name is mentioned.

Fair newsmen and broadcasters would talk and write more about alleged sexual assaults done by their coworkers, or by White quarterbacks, or by White media owners!

Divide and conquer Hatred of Black people by the media is nothing new. This idea that the Black community can be divided, exploited and oppressed by attacking Black leaders and Black achievers has been around since White folk landed on Plymouth Rock and Plymouth Rock

landed on us!

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has reportedly been involved in multiple sexual situations where assault was claimed. But they don’t mention that when they talk about Ben. Not only is Philadelphia Eagle end Riley Cooper not criticized for making racial slurs, he is loved by Midwest Klansmen for describing his teammates as “N”s.”

In my business, it happens every election year. The Negroes with the least education, the least experience, the worst track records and the least political influence in America’s Black communities run to the political parties and the political candidates and say, “Lucius Gantt thinks White people are devils,” or “The Black newspaper won’t run free press releases because Black media owners don’t like White people.”

Not limited

They know me

But don’t think this Black “come up” thing is limited to sport or limited to Whites talking about Blacks.

Every day, someone of African heritage goes up to a White person and says something negative about a Black person.

In fact, on your job, at your school, or anywhere else, the African-American loved by White people the most is the African-American that hates other Blacks, that snitches on other Blacks, that will fire other Blacks for no reason when ordered to do so by White supervisors and will lie on Black people to get the Black come up!

Well, I can’t speak for newspaper owners. But many of Lucius Gantt’s best friends and most of my main clients are of European descent. You don’t have to tell them what I write about, because they have been reading The Gantt Report and studying my media career far longer than my haters!

My clients around the world do more on the Internet than post booty shots and comments about food! They check the facts.

They know what I write. It is no secret. And they know in 40 years as a professional journalist and political consultant, I have never been told that something in The

Gantt Report was libelous, slanderous or definitely untrue.

Tell the truth Stop trying to be the Black equivalent of the old Indian scout that hated his tribe and rode away from his Native American brothers and sisters to help the paleface.

If you must say something about an African-American person, at least make sure you tell the truth.

Personally, I don’t want to work with a business, an individual or a political effort for people who prefer to listen to lies about Black workers and Black businesses, than to speak to the Black people being discussed face-toface!

Never try to “come up” by lying and hating on your friends, family and coworkers. Instead of a “come up” in 2015, set yourself up for a “come back” and get ready to beat back your enemies, either literally or figuratively!

Find books by Gantt online and contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

BUFFALO TIGER

designing the Indian SelfDetermination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 that strengthened the sovereignty of all tribes by allowing them to deal directly with the government, bypassing an Indian agent.

from A1

Born in the Everglades William Buffalo Tiger was born on March 6, 1920 on an island in the Everglades to Sally Tiger and Tiger Tiger. He lived on the island with his family while the Everglades was still pure enough to live a natural life on the land.

Looking back on his early years, he recalled clean air, and water so clear he could “see fish dancing in the streams.”

As a youth, he and his family moved around South Florida. In the 1950s, they were living in the Musa Isle Indian Village on the Miami River during what son Lee Tiger calls the “Living on Display Era.” Buffalo Tiger’s first major accomplishment was putting an end to this period of exploitation, and moving the families back to the Everglades – where they continue to reside to this day.

In the early 1950s, Buffalo Tiger was appointed by the tribe’s leadership, known as the “medicine people,” to be a spokesman of the Miccosukee Tribe and the liaison between both the Florida and federal governments. He accepted this unpaid position.

OBAMA from A1

rowers backed by the Federal Housing Administration.

Obama lowered the mortgage-insurance premium for borrowers who have a down payment of just 3.5 percent of the home’s purchase price and finance the rest of the purchase with a loan backed by the Federal Housing Administration.

The reduction is expected to save the typical firsttime homebuyer an average of $900 a year on the insurance, the White House said. The insurance is required because they’re financing so much of the purchase and the loans are riskier.

Existing homeowners who refinance into an FHA mortgage will see similar reductions, the White House said.

Thousands affected The White House estimated that the change will help 800,000 homeowners save on their mortgages and 250,000 new buyers save on mortgage payments over the next three years.

Obama has been under pressure from the housing sector to help lower costs for borrowers seeking to buy with a low down pay-

In 1955, when Miccosukee family members were harassed by Everglades game wardens for fishing without licenses and cutting the palmetto leaves to make their homes, Buffalo Tiger had a meeting set up with then-Florida Governor Leroy Collins, who resolved the issue. The Miccosukee returned to their way of life.

Business successes

Recognition endangered In 1959, the U.S. government informed the Miccosukee Tribe that it had missed a crucial 1958 deadline to be “recognized” as a Native American tribe.

Recognition meant they would have their lands held in trust by the federal government and would be able to receive government aid. But good fortune and Buffalo Tiger’s negotiating skills made the government reverse course.

The opportunity came in the form of an invitation from Fidel Castro to visit Cuba, brought on by Cuba’s remembrance of a treaty between the Miccosukee Tribe and Spain dating back to the 1700s.

“The government wanted to pay us money to shut up,” Buffalo Tiger said in ment – often younger buyers and first-time homebuyers, both a crucial link in home sales.

“We do not see first-time buyers getting into the marketplace. They don’t have a chance to get onto that first rung of housing,” said Chris Kutzkey, president of the California Association of Realtors.

While mortgage lending rates have been near record lows for several years, that has benefited the most creditworthy borrowers, who are often the wealthiest of homebuyers. The middle-income segment of the market, with higher debt loads, has faced tougher lending standards. Stagnant income has crimped its ability to put more down toward a home purchase.

“Mortgage underwriting standards have been overly stringent,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

Government rip-off The premiums rose sharply after the financial collapse and have not come down even as the economy and the housing market have improved.

“It’s almost as if government is ripping off the consumers,” complained Yun, noting that premiums were raised to minimize risks to taxpayers of borrowers defaulting on governmentbacked loans. “But what

The American government didn’t take the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida seriously until then-Chief Buffalo Tiger began to re-negotiate a treaty with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. a 1997 interview with the Miami Herald. “We wanted land set aside for us and to be left alone. No one in Washington would listen to us.

“So when (Fidel) Castro took over, I went over there and smoked some cigars with him and Che Guevara and I asked them: ‘Do you recognize the Miccosukee Tribe?’ Castro said he did.

He said that if the United States would not give us a place to live, we were welcome to go over there and he would make room for us. When we got back, there were all kinds of phone calls from Washington. The government started dealing with us seriously then.”

As part of the tribe’s deal with the U.S. government,

they never went back, and will not unless relations are normalized. As a result, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida received federal recognition on January 11, 1962. Buffalo Tiger became official chairman of the tribe, a position in which he served for 24 years.

Other achievements of Chairman Tiger include

has happened is they were punishing current borrowers for the sins of past mistakes. Current borrowers did not harm the market, but they are paying the excessively high premiums.”

One consequence is the shrinking number of new homeowners. Over the past four years, first-time homebuyers shrank as a percentage of all FHA loans – from 56 percent down to 39 percent, he said.

First-time buyers are a key part of the real estate chain, needed so existing homeowners can sell and purchase nicer, perhaps newly built homes.

“Future homebuyers are paying a higher expense than is necessary and that is having an effect on housing,” said David Stevens, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association.

In a related move, former North Carolina Democratic Rep. Mel Watt, the new head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency – the regulator of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – took steps in late December to make it possible for Fannie and Freddie to purchase loans that had down payments as low as 3 percent instead of the prior limit of 5 percent.

ing. The economy is growing at a brisk pace, falling gasoline prices leave people with more spending power and hiring picked up sharply in 2014. A tight rental market also may soon push more people into considering home ownership.

“Apartment rents are rising at the highest pace in seven years, which means some of the renters . . . will seriously consider buying,” said Yun of the national real estate group.

Polls improve

Favorable conditions Economic conditions are increasingly favorable for a return to normalcy in hous-

Greater confidence While careful not to declare that the U.S. economy has made a full comeback, the White House is more confidently pointing to signs of recovery: the best quarterly growth in a decade, a recent all-time high for the Dow Jones industrial average, rising consumer confidence and low gas prices.

On Friday – after the Florida Courier’s press time – Obama is due in Tennessee to highlight new efforts on job training and making higher education more affordable. Aides billed the tour as a preview of his State of the Union address this month.

Advisers describe the plan as a continuation of what the president last year dubbed his “pen and phone” strategy, a yearlong campaign to work around a deadlocked Congress.

The White House believes the strategy was validated in the final weeks of 2014. After Obama announced a major shift in immigration policy, a climate change deal with China and a reset of half a century of U.S. policy toward Cuba, his public approval rating inched up at the end of the year, hitting a 16-month peak in Gallup polls.

White House aides see the boost as proof that Americans want to see the president in action, even if his moves are controversial or spark backlash from Congress.

“These are the plays we ran in 2014 and they were successful. And that’s why we’re running them now,” said one White House official, who requested anonymity to discuss the plans.

But Republicans say they are baffled by the claims of victory and disappointed

by Obama’s decision to rerun 2014, a year in which many of his executive maneuvers were overshadowed by foreign policy crises, his party all but banished him from the campaign trail, and Democrats were clobbered in the midterm election.

“It’s almost like he’s pretending it didn’t happen,” said Republican pollster David Winston, an adviser to congressional leaders.

“Elections are statements

Over the years, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida developed several successful enterprises in South Florida, including Miccosukee Indian Bingo, Miccosukee Resort & Gaming, Miccosukee Golf & Country Club, Miccosukee Indian Village & Airboat Rides, the Miccosukee Tobacco Shop, two service plazas, a restaurant, and a general store.

In retirement, he opened Buffalo Tiger’s Airboat Tours with his wife, Yolima Tiger, in the 1970s.

They ran it together until his early 90s. Still in operation, his airboat tours are noted worldwide for their authenticity and a good family experience. TripAdvisor ranks Buffalo Tiger’s Airboat Tours as one of the best destinations in Miami, with a 5-star rating and a Certificate of Excellence.

Buffalo Tiger is survived by his wife, Yolima Tiger, son Lee Tiger, son William Buffalo Tiger Jr., daughter Sally Tiger, son David Tiger, daughters Jennifer and Jessica, and 21 grandchildren. from the electorate about how things are going. And they made a pretty clear statement.”

Winston argued that the White House appeared to be missing what he said was the message of the midterm: that Americans wanted a different policy direction and to see leaders in Washington working together.

First things first Obama’s first moves of the year weren’t aimed at bipartisan outreach. On Tuesday, as Republicans officially took control of the Senate, the White House announced it would invite congressional leaders for a sit-down – but not until next week, after Obama’s travels.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest then announced Obama’s veto threat against two bills that Republicans prioritized, one approving the Keystone XL pipeline and the other adjusting the definition of full-time work under the Affordable Care Act. Republicans zeroed in on the Keystone veto promise to blame Obama for stalling a project they say can only help the economy.

By Kevin G. Hall and Lesley Clark of McClatchy Washington Bureau (TNS) contributed to this report.

JANUARY 9 – JANUARY 15, 2015

FLORIDA

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Some hot topics in Florida this year 10 government stories that could generate major headlines in state

er, an anti-gambling legislator who frequently says he would scrap the state Lottery if he could, said recently that he doesn’t care if the table games disappear and the state loses the Seminoles’ cash. Florida stands to lose about $116 million a year if the portion of the compact giving the Seminoles exclusive rights to table games such as blackjack expires, according to an estimate from state economists.

BY BRANDON LARRABEE THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

Will Scott get his way?

A key question for Gov. Rick Scott is how focused Republican legislators will be in helping deliver on his promises without the threat of Democrat Charlie Crist to focus their attention.

Scott promised during his 2014 re-election campaign against Crist to slash taxes by $1 billion over the next two years and to spend the state’s budget surplus on a variety of other measures, but the Legislature still has to go along with him while advancing its own priorities. So far, House and Senate leaders are saying all the right things --- but the true test will come after the legislative session begins in March.

New presiding officers The notoriously fractious relationship between former House Speaker Dean Cannon and former Senate President Mike Haridopolos in the 2011 and 2012 sessions prompted their successors, former Speaker Will Weatherford and former President Don Gaetz, to be at least publicly friendly over the past two years.

But new House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, a Merritt Island Republican who wasn’t even tapped for the office until after the 2012 elections, is just becom-

Medical marijuana

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/MCT

Will Sen. Marco Rubio run for president? Many think the Republican will jump in the 2016 presidential race.

He’s shown speaking at the National Press Club on May 13, 2014, in Washington, D.C. ing known to the Capitol crowds. How he and Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, interact could decide whether the next two sessions are successful or a struggle.

Negron-Latvala battle continues In one of the longestrunning soap operas in Tallahassee, there’s still no definitive word on the outcome of a leadership fight between Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, and Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater.

The two are vying to become Senate president after the 2016 elections. Even with the failure of former Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff’s

comeback bid in November – a blow for Latvala’s chances – it doesn’t look likely that either will back down until a vote is called.

Redistricting appeal The Florida Supreme Court will get its first chance to consider the state’s congressional districts when it hears oral arguments March 4 in an ongoing legal challenge to the map.

Voting rights groups argue that lawmakers violated a constitutional ban on political gerrymandering in drawing district boundaries. Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis in 2014 ordered some relatively

CHRIS NASHAWATY

ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL FILMS OF THE YEAR. “

A reminder of what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did for this country.

David Oyelowo is magnificent. He reveals the King who is not in our history books — his humor, his human failings, and his self-doubt.

Director Ava DuVernay brilliantly uses a micro event as a way into a larger, more compelling macro story. ‘Selma’ arrives with a raw-nerve urgency and timeliness that no one could have anticipated.”

minor tweaks to a congressional map the Legislature approved in 2012, but his decision has been appealed by the voting-rights groups who want a broader overhaul of the plan.

Voucher legal battle Lawyers for the Florida Education Association, the state and a group of parents who benefit from the state’s de facto schoolvoucher program will return to court Feb. 9 for the next showdown in a highstakes fight over the program’s future. The FEA and other groups filed a lawsuit in August claiming that the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program is unconstitutional.

The program, which could raise as much as $357.8 million this year, provides tax credits to companies that donate money to nonprofit entities that pay for children to go to private schools.

The parents have since intervened in the case on the side of the state. A judge is scheduled to hear the state’s motion to dismiss the case in February.

If it moves forward, the litigation could lead to the most important schoolchoice decision since a 2006 ruling from the Florida Supreme Court that held the state’s Opportunity Scholarship Program unconstitutional. That program was a purer version of a voucher system, using public money directly to fund private education for some students.

Medicaid expansion ONE OF THE BEST

FILMS OF THE YEAR

ONE OF THE BEST PERFORMANCES OF THE YEAR .

NEW YORK FILM CRITICS ONLINE BOSTON SOCIET Y OF FILM CRITICS

David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The odds that the joint federal-state health program for low-income Floridians will be expanded to cover more state residents are still relatively small.

But some business groups are starting a new push to get some sort of plan approved, and Gardiner hasn’t ruled it out.

In a meeting with report-

ers, Gardiner described as “intriguing” a proposal that would accept billions of dollars available under the federal Affordable Care Act and provide coverage through private insurers. A similar plan failed to pass the House in 2013, but Crisafulli said he might consider expanding health care coverage via the private sector.

Bush, Rubio for president?

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s declaration that he would “actively explore” a run for the presidency made it appear to be a near-certainty that the Republican, whose presence still looms large in state politics, will seek the GOP nomination for 2016.

But the state could have a second favorite son enter the race if U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio decides he also wants to take a shot at the White House. Either way, the nation’s largest swing state could play an even more outsized role this year in choosing the next president.

Deal on gambling?

The prospect of new state legislation on gambling has become a game of its own the last few years, with insiders placing odds in December and January only to watch things go bust in March and April.

But few things focus legislators like a deadline, and there’s a looming one this year: A portion of a 2009 agreement giving the Seminole Tribe exclusive rights to conduct card games at seven of its facilities dries up in July unless lawmakers and Scott renew the deal.

A sweeping gambling proposal crumbled last year when proponents of allowing at least one megacasino in South Florida put the bill on ice because they lacked the votes for Senate passage. And Gardin-

Approaching the oneyear anniversary of when the Legislature approved a bill that would allow a limited form of medical marijuana, there’s still no final regulation from the state that would allow sales of pharmacological pot to go forward. And a Department of Health Official told an audience in Orlando this week that the rule will require the Legislature’s blessing because costs associated with the new law are growing. Florida law requires the Legislature to ratify rules that cost in excess of $1 million over five years.

Office of Compassionate Use Director Patricia Nelson said she anticipates that the combined costs for businesses to operate the cannabis industry and for the state to regulate it would exceed $1 million over five years, triggering ratification. Doctors on Jan. 1 were supposed to begin ordering strains of cannabis that are low in euphoria-inducing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and high in cannabadiol, or CBD, for patients who suffer from severe spasms or cancer.

Meanwhile, supporters of broader medical marijuana – who failed to get the 60 percent approval required for a constitutional amendment in November – have promised to try again, either through the Legislature or at the ballot box.

Water and land money Much of the budget-related buzz around the Capitol since the November elections has focused on Amendment 1, also known as the “Florida Water and Land Legacy” constitutional amendment, which was approved by voters in the November elections.

The measure requires the state to dedicate a portion of real-estate tax revenue – by some estimates $10 billion over 20 years – to land and water projects.

Gardiner supports using a 5-year plan, similar to one that the state uses to fund transportation projects, but Crisafulli has seemed ambivalent toward the idea. Whatever the vehicle, lawmakers will now face a new constraint when crafting a spending plan.

Report: Fraud down in ‘no fault’ claims THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

A 2012 effort to reform the state’s “no-fault” auto insurance system has halted the growth of fraud in the system, according to a new state report. But the numbers released Monday are still considered too preliminary to show the full impact of the law.

The report by the Office of Insurance Regulation found that since the law (HB 119) went into place on Jan. 1, 2013, there has been a drop in the number of personal-injury protection claims filed and dollars sought. Meanwhile, the report indicates that claims under other cover-

age types, such as bodily injury and uninsured motorist, have gone up.

“Overall, there was limited data available to determine the true impact of HB 119,” a release from the Office of Insurance Regulation said. “However, the data call analysis reveals the law has had a major impact on the personal auto market and changed the trajectory of trends being seen prior to its enactment.”

What law required The 2012 law, considered a last-ditch effort to maintain the no-fault system, set benchmarks for insurers to lower rates on socalled PIP coverage. It required people involved in

crashes to seek treatment within 14 days and allowed up to $10,000 in benefits for emergency medical conditions, while putting a $2,500 cap on non-emergency conditions.

Gov. Rick Scott and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater pushed for the law, saying that fraud, primarily in the Tampa and Miami regions, had resulted in the cost of auto-insurance coverage to spike for Floridians.

The report said the average medical cost paid through PIP claims has dropped 14 percent statewide from 2011 to the first three quarters of 2014, with the average payment down 28.7 percent in South Florida in the same time.

EDITORIAL

A4

JANUARY 9 – JANUARY 15, 2015

No justice, no profit What now?

What a raucous, topsy-turvy, heart-wrenching, angry year we experienced in 2014. We had everything from the sadness of lives lost on airplanes and ferry boats, to the anger of Black men being killed and Black women being beaten by police officers, to the elation of a record-breaking stock market and the lowest gasoline prices since 2008. Certainly our emotions have been mixed as we witnessed a potpourri of ups and downs as we pondered the question: “What’s next?”

Move ahead What happened during the past year, whether positive or negative, is now a lesson for all of us. We must move forward. We cannot live in the past; we can only learn from it. In light of that reality, here are a few suggestions to help get you moving in a posi-

JAMES CLINGMAN NNPA COLUMNIST

tive direction in 2015.

First and foremost, build, strengthen, and nurture your spiritual foundation. Be thankful for each day, and use it wisely. Stay informed with real news, not with opinions from talking heads. Remember that followers pick their leaders; it’s not the other way around. So pick leaders who work in your best interests rather than self-serving charlatans who are only concerned about themselves.

Make an even stronger effort to support Black businesses and, Black business owners, take care of your business by doing what

you say you will do with honesty and professionalism. It’s tax time, so if you need a tax preparer use a Black firm. Compro Tax Service is an excellent and wise choice. Look online to find the office nearest you. Talk to your church leadership about joining or forming a local chapter of the Collective Empowerment Group (CEG), also found online.

Voting works Don’t waste your vote. Give it to someone who is not afraid to state his or her position on regarding Black voters during the campaign and afterwards—and then fulfill their promises. If they fail to do so, don’t vote for them. Also, on the political side of things, stop putting the same old folks into office, especially if they have not delivered anything to Black folks and/or if they have been in their particular office for

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: EQUAL JUSTICE

decades. Put some new “youngbloods” with fresh ideas into office. We will never be politically empowered until we start playing to win instead of playing just to play.

Find a Black certified financial planner and get involved in some level of investment in the stock market. As we are standing in line to buy Nike shoes, we should also be teaching our children how to buy Nike stock. Also, teach entrepreneurship to our youth. Let them know they can own a business even if they end up working for someone. Teach them early by using examples of young Black business owners such as Jasmine Lawrence, Moziah Bridges, Cory Nieves, Omar Bailey, and many others you can find on the Internet.

Make it a habit to listen to the Carl Nelson Radio Show (1450AM WOL in Washington, DC or www. woldcnews.com), Brother Daren “State of the City” Muhammad in Baltimore, Dr. Rosie Milligan in L.A., Elliott Booker (Time for an

Defending torture

Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 240 Free speech under attack – As I write this late Wednesday night, 12 people were just shot dead in Paris at the office of a French magazine called Charlie Hebdo (“Charlie Weekly”). The magazine is similar to American satirical magazines like “Mad” magazine and “The Onion” online.

The difference? Charlie Hebdo makes fun of religions – including Islam, which has a strong tradition of not creating a visual depiction of Muhammad, the religion’s most important prophet. (The tradition against depicting Muhammad is especially strong amongst Sunni Islamic radical fundamentalists, including Al Qaeda and ISIL/ISIS.) In 2006, Charlie Hebdo published 12 cartoons of Muhammad in a weekly issue that featured the prophet crying. The headline translated from French reads, "Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists." Protests in various coun-

QUICK TAKES FROM #2: STRAIGHT, NO CHASER

CHARLES W. CHERRY II, ESQ. PUBLISHER

tries with large Islamic populations ensued, and Charlie Hebdo was targeted for terrorist attacks. In 2011, its French offices were firebombed.

I’m a trained journalist who’s a fervent believer in America’s First Amendment guaranteeing free speech. I also believe free speech is a fundamental human right worldwide. I stand with the French people who are reeling from this tragedy. Twelve people died to prevent the cartoon you see in this column from being distributed. We publish it in their memory and as a response to radical Islam.

"I am Charlie." Screw the terrorists.

Contact me at ccherry2@gmail. com. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Opinions expressed on this editorial page are those of the writers, and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of the newspaper or the publisher.

THE CREDO OF THE BLACK PRESS The Black Press believes that Americans can best lead the world away from racism and national antagonism when it accords to every person, regardless of race, color or creed, full human and legal rights. Hating no person, fearing no person. The Black Press strives to help every person in the firm belief...that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.

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Jim Clingman is the founder of the Greater Cincinnati African American Chamber of Commerce. Write your own response at www.flcourier.com.

Tortured ‘reasoning’ for using torture I found it quite amazing to hear the reactions by much of the public to the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture.

The first was the attempt at denial. The second was a defense of torture.

The attacks on the exhaustive report began with the assertion that the report was under-researched and inaccurate. This attack was very difficult to sustain. The report was based on 6 million internal CIA documents and assorted reports, including reports concerning the relative utility of interrogation techniques. It was also not a document that was produced over night. It took more than five years to complete this. This was not, in other words, a last minute job.

MILT PRIGGEE, WWW.MILTPRIGGEE.COM

Awakening) in Philadelphia, and other conscious and informative radio shows.

Finally, in response to the outrageous treatment some of us have received, boycott prisons.

That is stop committing crimes and putting yourself at the mercy of a system that cares absolutely nothing about you. Second, in addition to the protests the young folks are doing now, add a strategy, an end game that uses economic sanctions (No Justice, No Profit!) as leverage to get the CEO’s of various corporations to come out publicly and denounce the abuse being inflicted upon the people. Remember, it’s not simply about withdrawing our money just to hurt someone else; it’s about using that same money to help ourselves by building our own economic infrastructure.

So, the initial attacks, though loud, obnoxious and inflammatory, began to collapse. Next came something more interesting, and actually quite disturbing. Among some in the CIA, and later within the public, there was the defense of torture. Most people in the U.S. were not naïve enough to deny that torture took place. Instead, large numbers of those polled suggested that while, yes, it was torture, at the same time it was acceptable because – supposedly – useful information had been obtained.

There are several sources of concern here. Let’s start with the very fact that we are talking about torture. Supposedly, the U.S. does not engage in torture. Other countries have been accused in the past as having been perpetrators of torture, including Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and the former Soviet Union. The U.S.A was supposedly morally superior. Yet, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, all of that was thrown out the window and the U.S. joined the list of countries openly conducting torture. And, by the look of some of the polls, a few too many people seem to be

BILL FLETCHER, JR. NNPA COLUMNIST

quite proud of it.

We cannot stop there, however. Not only are the majority of those polled willing to embrace torture, but they have accepted the fiction that the torture resulted in useful information. What is noteworthy here is that the documentation indicates that very little of use has been obtained by torture. It is all there in black and white, yet much of the public appears unwilling to accept that fact and, instead, substitutes its own imagination for reality. There is a name for this in psychology.

Criticize who?

Once a nation embarks on torture, it is forever on a slippery slope. Not only does it lose the right to criticize others, but there is also a question of limits. In other words, who else can be tortured once one has opened the gates of hell?

Torture is not a new instrument in the arsenal of the USA. What is new is the willingness of much of the government – and the population – to quite openly embrace it.

And with that step any suggestion of a moral high ground evaporates like a morning mist…and with that, quite probably many of our Constitutional rights.

Bill Fletcher, Jr. is the host of The Global African on Telesur-English. He is a racial justice, labor and global justice activist and writer. Write our own response at www.flcourier.com.

Reshaping the hip-hop agenda this year New York, New York Big City of Dreams but Everything in New York is Not Always What It Seems You Might Get Fooled If You Come From Out of Town but I Am Down by Law and I Know My Way Around.”

– Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five Since the tragic murder of two NYPD officers, New York City has been in disarray.

It has been a constant back and forth cops and protesters objecting to police practices, the mayor siding with the people he serves, and the police commissioner battling disrespectful officers who want to be respected by all of the above.

Mayor Bill De Blasio recently met in a closed door meeting with Police Commissioner Bratton and union leaders and reportedly came up with nothing. Former Mayor Giuliani entered the fray by saying that Mayor De Blasio should apologize to the boys in blue for insulting them with his comments and siding with protesters.

Silent protest Do you remember Flavor Flav of Public Enemy’s debut solo, “911 is a Joke,” a reference to the delayed or non-response to emergency calls in the Black neighborhood? What does it mean when the New York Post reports that the number of arrests dropped 66 percent since the tensions between the police unions and the mayor began? Are the police staging a silent protest with hopes people will see the importance of their work? Are they willing to sacrifice more lives by not responding to calls? Are we headed back to the days of police not showing up for hours in certain neighborhoods when people are need?

Take advantage Even so, this is an opportunity to branch out and show the world who we really are.

Our story for years has been ‘they’ are holding us back. While we know there are systematic hurdles, we also know they can be avoided. Now that we have some room to

JINEEA BUTLER NNPA COLUMNIST

breathe, let’s take full advantage.

The new year has begun and we need to reshape our agenda. On January 13 – 15, at the Sheraton Times Square in New York City, the Hip Hop Union will join Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. for the 18th annual Wall Street Project Economic Summit. The theme is: “Where Wall Street, Main Street, and Silicon Valley Converge.” Our annual Business of Hip Hop session will be held on Wednesday, January 14. We will be demonstrating “What Hip Hop Can Do” to change the world. Watch Now Networks CEO Shawn Grandberry will moderate a conversation with everybody’s top five: MC Rakim Allah; VP Ed Lover; P. Frank Williams, Freeway, Rick Ross, and Tony Neal.

Our fifth anniversary VIP “I AM A CITIZEN” toast and Hip Hop TV launch party on Jan. 15. There, we will unveil our Super PAC (Political Action Committee) Hip Hop United and our Entrepreneur Co-operative, which will allow members and friends of the Hip Hop Union to share in the fruits of wealth building. Together, we will build a new foundation for economic empowerment and a political force to combat injustice. With all the unrest and division besetting the nation, we have no choice but to change course and succeed. For more information, visit www.rainbowpushwallstreetproject.org.

Jineea Butler, founder of the Hip Hop Union, is a Hip Hop Analyst who investigates the trends and behaviors of the culture and delivers programming that solves the Hip Hop Dilemma. She can be reached at hiphopunitedpac@gmail. com or @hiphopunitedpac.

JANUARY 9 – JANUARY 15, 2015

An open letter to Charles Barkley Dear Mr. Barkley: I write you out of love. I write you out of profound pain. I write you out of deep concern. I hope you accept this letter in the spirit that I write.

Mr. Barkley, I understand that you said, in so many words, that slavery was not so bad and that you were tired of people bringing up slavery. I was shocked by both statements. Then I was mad.

Then, I was terribly disappointed. Finally, I was just in deep hurt and great pain. Now, I am trying to help you and all those who may think like you.

Mr. Barkley, allow me to tell you why slavery was “not so bad,” but very, very bad. First, African people were snatched from their families, their villages, their communities, their tribes, their continent, their freedom. African people were made to walk hundreds of miles in chains. They were often beaten, poorly fed and abused in many ways. Women and girls were routinely raped. The whole continent was ravaged and still suffers to this day. Mr. Barkley, this is very, very bad.

Very bad Second, African people were placed in “slave dungeons” for weeks and sometimes months until the slave ships came. They were often underfed, terribly beaten, raped and stuffed together so tightly they could hardly move. African people were packed in the holds of ships with little space to even move.

They performed bodily functions where they lay and then lived in it. They were oftentimes beaten, raped and abused mentally, physically and emotionally. Many died from disease and broken spirits.

HANK SANDERS GUEST COLUMNIST

Some were so terribly impacted that they jumped overboard and drowned when brought to the deck of the ships. Millions died during the Middle Passage from Africa to the Americas. Mr. Barkley, this is very, very bad.

Third, African people were broken like wild animals. They were stripped of every element of their identity. Their names were taken.

Their languages were taken. Their religions were taken. Their histories were taken. They were forbidden to have family. They had no rights to own anything. They were considered property. Their personalities were permanently altered. Their freedom was taken.

They became chattel sold from “slave blocks.” This crushing of identity impacts us to this day. I call it the psychology of the oppressed. Mr. Barkley, this is very, very bad.

‘Kin to can’t’ Fourth, African-Americans were worked from “kin to can’t;” that is from “can see” in the morning to “can’t see” at night. There was no pay for their long, hard labor. Many were poorly fed. Most felt the lash of the whip. All felt the lash of the tongue. Many were repeatedly raped. Their children and other loved ones were sold at will. Some mothers killed their baby girls so they would not have to endure the ravages of slavery.

Mr. Barkley, this is very, very bad.

Fifth, African-Americans had

no right to defend themselves no matter what was done and how wrong it was. By law, they could not even testify against their abusers. As U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Toney said in the 1857 Dred Scott case, “A Black man has no rights a White man is bound to respect.” This became the law of the land and its legacy bedevils us to this day. Mr. Barkley, this is very, very bad.

Sixth, African-Americans were perceived and treated as sub human. The only way enslavers could square this terrible treatment with their Christian beliefs was see us as less than human.

Therefore, they could proudly place such beautiful words in the Declaration of Independence and the U. S. Constitution with impunity: i.e. – “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

To them, African-Americans were not human so these beautiful words did not apply. Even the U.S. Constitution designated us as three-fifths of a person. That’s why White terrorists, in and out of uniforms, can kill us without punishment. The legacy of being less human lingers with us today.

Black lives are worth much less than White lives. Mr. Barkley, this is very, very bad.

Seventh, it required great violence to implement and maintain the worse form of human slavery known to humankind. It required unbridled violence by enslavers, slave catchers, local, state, federal governments and the entire society. Maintaining the institution of slavery created a very violent

2014 was a banner year I will be 67 years old next month. For nearly half of those years my wife, Kay, and I have been stand-alone entrepreneurs.

Times can be bad, good, great and catastrophic, depending on how you look at it. For us, 2014 will go down as a very good year. Challenging, yet rewarding in regards to the upcoming prospects.

Our twin sons presented us with their first post graduate degrees. Thomas received his Masters in Communication Management from the University of Southern California (mighty Trojans). Harry brought home his Masters in Sports Management from Georgetown University. They immediately kept the pace up. Harry is in the MBA program for Babson University while Thomas is enrolled in the MBA program at John Hopkins University. They also successfully completed the sale of their first business venture, Lacrosse Playground. Side money is now coming from their individual consulting service. They are fast becoming the best investment Kay and I have ever made together. I see this bundle of “tools” being ap-

HARRY C. ALFORD NNPA COLUMNIST

plied to the growth of the National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC).

Solar taking off Procurement activity among our members has taken off with lightning speed. Central and South America have been the most active. Liquid Nitrogen Gas stations are up and running in Colombia. Solar heating farms now exist in El Salvador. A gold mine has been commissioned in Surinam by NBCC members from Maryland, Mississippi, Colombia and principles in Spain. Deep Water Port activity is now taking place in Nigeria, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. An actual resort city is in the planning stages in Ghana.

Our San Francisco AfricanAmerican Chamber of Commerce has put together a consortium to

link a portion of the high speed railway in Northern California – $1.5 billion of infrastructure. Oh yes! We have learned how to do this and are putting it to practice.

Cuba is about to open up and we are more than ready. To say that in 2014 we have taken it to a new level would be a major understatement.

The organized threat against the NBCC by the White House has apparently ended in failure. We have stood firm against the back alley Chicago style dirt. Marching forward and rising as we step – God is truly great! We continue to be the strongest Black business association in the world with exponential continuing growth.

Technology wins The organized attempt to kill the coal industry has ended in a heap of ashes. Technology breakthroughs, a very friendly free market and astute investments are making this sector not only survive but grow and take a firm position to lead America to more affordable energy providing wealth for investors, jobs for workers and lower

Ed Brooke doesn’t get his due Sandwiched between the deaths of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and popular ESPN sportscaster Stuart Scott, the passing of former Massachusetts Senator Edward W. Brooke III at the age of 95 did not get nearly the attention it deserved.

Though two African-Americans were elected to the U.S. Senate during the Reconstruction Era by the Mississippi legislature – Hiram R. Revels and Blanche K. Bruce, both Republicans – Brooke was the first Black elected to the upper chamber by popular vote, beginning his term in 1967. What made his election remarkable at the time was that a Black Republican Episcopalian could be elected statewide in Massachusetts, a predominantly Democratic and Catholic state with a Black population of less than 3 percent. It would be another 25 years before another African-American – Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois – would win a U.S. Senate seat (1992).

Not a sell out Prior to his election to the Senate, Brooke served two terms as attorney general of Massachusetts. When he came to Washington, he declined to join the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)

plans for a New Deal or a Great Society?”

GEORGE E. CURRY NNPA COLUMNIST

and told Time magazine: “I do not intend to be a national leader of the Negro people. I intend to do my job as a senator from Massachusetts.”

While doing his job, Brooke showed that – as did several Black Republicans who would later follow him in public service, including Assistant Secretary of Labor Arthur Fletcher in the Nixon administration and William T. Coleman, Jr., Secretary of Transportation under Gerald Ford – he could be a Black Republican without selling out his principles or abandoning the fight for civil rights.

When Barry Goldwater won the party’s 1964 presidential nomination, for example, Brooke, the state attorney general, refused to be photographed with Goldwater or endorse the Arizona ultraconservative.

In the 1966 book titled, The Challenge of Change: Crisis in Our Two-Party System, he asked, rhetorically: “Where are our

Stood for something Though fellow Republican Richard Nixon was in the White House, Brooke opposed Nixon’s attempts to abolish the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Job Corps and weaken the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

And when Nixon nominated Clement Haynsworth and Harrold Carswell to the U.S. Supreme Court, Brooke was part of a bipartisan coalition that blocked the appointment of the two nominees who were considered hostile to civil rights.

On Nov. 4, 1973, Brooke became the first Republican to call for Richard Nixon’s resignation after the famous “Saturday night massacre” that took place when Nixon ordered the firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox after Cox issued a subpoena for copies of Nixon’s taped conversations recorded in the Oval Office.

Brooke assumed an offensive posture as well, particularly on housing issues. He co-sponsored the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion or

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VISUAL VIEWPOINT: BABY NEW CONGRESS VOWS TO DO NOTHING IN 2015

RJ MATSON, ROLL CALL

society that infests us to this day.

That’s why the United States has far more violence than any country in the world. Mr. Barkley, this is very, very bad.

Legacy of slavery remains Eighth, even after slavery formally ended, we still had Jim Crow. These same imbedded attitudes generated state-sanctioned terrorism for nearly another 100 years. The Ku Klux Klan and other terrorist groups hanged, mutilated, maimed and murdered without any punishment. It was state sanctioned terrorism because the “state” did not do anything to prevent it. That’s why even during the Civil Rights Movement murders took many years before even a modicum of justice was forged.

Just look at the deaths of Medgar Evers, James Chaney, the four little girls murdered by the bombing of a Black Birmingham Church and so many others. That is why today Trayvon Martin could not walk the streets of his neighbor-

hood and Jordan Davis could not play loud music in his car and Eric Garner was choked to death and Michael Brown was gunned down. Mr. Barkley this is very, very bad.

Mr. Barkley, if you knew your history, you would not say slavery is not so bad and you are tired of people bringing up slavery. The legacy of slavery is everywhere.

However, you are not totally to blame because you were deliberately denied the opportunity to learn you history. That is one more legacy of slavery. I hope you will seek the full history for yourself so that you will not ever say such things again.

With deep concern, Hank Sanders

Hank Sanders is a nine-term Alabama State Senator. A practicing attorney in Selma, Ala., he is a graduate of Talladega College and Harvard Law School. Write your own response at www.flcourier.com.

2015 promises to be an even more exciting year.

Fortunately, we are prepared and are making changes to our board of directors and management structure that will make our managerial ability even more prudent and sharper than ever before. prices for consumers. There is no other nation on earth as strong as the United States when it comes to energy reserves and exporting.

All of this accomplished with the fiercest of adverse regulation and evil policy making.

Our Department of Education continues to fight against free enterprise with its attack on for- profit colleges and universities. Confusing policies such as Common Core Curriculum and a hatred of charter schools reminds me of the late singer Curtis Mayfield, “taught by fools from uneducated schools.” Let us close the Department of Education, which was another crazy idea started by former President Jimmy Carter.

Our Internet activities over the past 15 years have propelled our nation to forefront of communications throughout the world. This is a proven example of the virtues of free markets and less obstructive

government. However, we seem to have a Federal Communications Commission eager to do something counter-productive and anti-capitalistic. Let us continue to make great strides in Telecom with good policy and less adverse regulation and rule making.

Yes, 2014 had challenges but we were ready and seized the opportunities as they emerged. And 2015 promises to be an even more exciting year. Fortunately, we are prepared and are making changes to our board of directors and management structure that will make our managerial ability even more prudent and sharper than ever before.

ethnicity. It was signed into law

by President Lyndon B. Johnson a week after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

rights leaders and liberals. As attorney general, he opposed the NAACP’s call for a boycott of Boston’s public schools to protest the city’s de facto segregation, saying the law required students to stay in school. In the Senate, he opposed a program to recruit teachers to work in disadvantaged communities and opposed amending Senate rules to make filibusters against civil rights legislation easier to terminate.

Brooke also faced personal health challenges, including being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002. He underwent a double mastectomy and was declared cancer free. Brooke spoke publicly about the illness, which strikes about 1,500 men each year, a disproportionate number of them Black.

In his 2006 autobiography, Bridging The Divide: My Life (Rutgers University Press), Brooke said, “My fervent expectation is that sooner rather than later, the United States Senate will more closely reflect the rich diversity of this great country.”

Throughout his life, Brooke did that exceptionally well.

‘Brooke Amendment’ He continued to work on strengthening the law and in 1969, Congress passed the “Brooke Amendment” limiting public housing tenants’ out-of-pocket rent expenditure to 25 percent of the resident’s income, a percentage that has since increased to 30 percent.

With the Voting Rights Act up for renewal in 1975, Brooke engaged in an “extended debate” with John Stennis (R-Miss.) on the Senate floor that resulted in the landmark measure being extended and expanded. He was also part of the team of legislators who retained Title IX that guarantees equal education to females and the Equal Credit Act, a measure that gave married women the right to have credit in their own name.

In 1967, Brooke served on the 11-member President’s Commission on Civil Disorders, better known as the Kerner Commission, which was established by President Johnson to investigate the causes of the 1967 race riots and to provide recommendations for the future.

At various points during his career, Brooke was at odds with civil

Harry C. Alford is the cofounder, President/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce®. Write your own response at www.flcourier.com.

George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine, is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service (NNPA.) Write your own response at www.flcourier.com.

TOJ A6

FLORIDA

JANUARY 9 – JANUARY 15, 2015

Six-year journey to degree not unusual for far too many students, additional semesters do not result in a degree or credential.”

At UCF, fewer than half of all students will graduate in four years.

By the numbers

JACOB LANGSTON/ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS

University of Central Florida student Frederick LaLanne studies in the nap room inside the Student Union on campus during finals week.

Graduating from college in more than four years pretty common in US

BY GABRIELL RUSSON ORLANDO SENTINEL (TNS)

Frederick LaLanne describes his mother as a helicopter parent who doesn’t seem to mind that the baby of the family lives at home while he commutes to college.

But it doesn’t keep her from echoing the common refrain at the end of the semester: When are you going to graduate?

For LaLanne, who expects to be 24 when he finishes Universi-

ty of Central Florida a year from now, the delay can be blamed on changing majors and juggling work.

“If I graduated a year or two ago, I’m guess(ing) I’m working.

I might be in something I didn’t want to do,” LaLanne said on a recent day in the Student Union while soon-to-be graduates in their caps and gowns posed for pictures nearby.

‘Four-Year Myth’ LaLanne’s six-year journey is becoming normal on campuses across the country as most students fail to graduate within four years, according to a recently released study called “The FourYear Myth” from an Indianapo-

lis nonprofit Complete College America.

Only about 19 percent of college students will graduate in four years from public universities and about 36 percent from flagship high-level research institutions, the report said.

For those seeking an associate’s degree at a two-year school, only about 5 percent will finish on time, the study found.

“Metrics like these are unacceptable, especially when we consider that students and their families are trying desperately to control the skyrocketing costs of higher education,” the report said. “As lifetime savings are depleted and financial aid packages run out, the extra time on campus means even more debt, and

For the group of UCF students who enrolled in the 2008-09 year, about 40 percent finished within four years while about 70 percent had earned diplomas by six years, according to the university.

The expectations of students graduating in four years has changed, especially as students study abroad or do internships, said Maribeth Ehasz, UCF’s vice president of Student Development and Enrollment Services “Now students want to do more that extends their time,” Ehasz said, adding most UCF students typically finish school in 4-1/2 to five years.

Still, the latest numbers show improvements from nearly a decade ago as more students arrive on campus with college credits from dual enrolling or AP courses. Only 31 percent graduated in four years in the group that started UCF in 1999-2000.

At the University of Florida, about 67 percent graduate within four years and 85 percent in six years, spokesman Steve Orlando said. The most recent numbers at Florida State University show 57 percent graduate by four years and about 77 percent in six years.

About 16 percent of Valencia College students who didn’t need remedial classes graduated in two years while 37 percent finished in three years, according to the numbers for those who started at the school in 2010.

Good enough to graduate The latest report blamed several reasons, such as students not taking enough credits each semester while they juggle school, work and families to a prob-

lem with credits not transferring from other schools. The average graduate finishes with 134 credits, above the typical threshold of 120 to get a degree, the report said.

UCF pushes to help students narrow in on what they want to do, Ehasz said. First-year students are assigned special advisers at orientation to “get a grip on what’s in front of them” and meet throughout the school year.

LaLanne counts his credits at 98 so far.

Outside Orlando, at Winter Springs High School, LaLanne was known as outgoing teenager. His grades weren’t spectacular, but good enough to graduate, and he played practically every sport — lacrosse, volleyball, football, baseball.

In his family, LaLanne was special. He was going to be the first in his immediate family, who migrated from Haiti, to attend a university after he graduated high school in 2009.

Not easy At first, LaLanne wanted to become a high school science teacher.

“Then a year passes, and then I go, ‘I’m not really about this,’” LaLanne said.

Last spring, he settled on his major, falling back on his love of sports. He wants to study sports exercise science and dreams of becoming a strength and conditioning coach at a university.

It isn’t easy to catch up. He could cram more classes into his schedule, but he delivers pizza 25 hours a week and spends summers working at a camp to earn extra money. LaLanne is paying his way using loans and financial aid.

He doesn’t focus on the debt that lies ahead, he said.

“If you worry about it through your whole school career, that wouldn’t be good,” he said. “Every class would stress you out – I need to get it done.”

“You cannot find this education anywhere else.”

We are now accepting applications for the Spring 2O15 Workshop at Macy’s!

We invite all minority and women-owned businesses to apply for The Workshop at Macy’s!

You’ll gain insight from seasoned Macy’s pros and Macy’s partners, and get the tools you need to succeed and sustain growth in the retail industry.

Apply today at macysinc.com/workshop PicTured: Amber Lee-Forrester, Kane & couture. Past participant of The Workshop at Macy’s.

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IFE/FAITH

JANUARY 9 – JANUARY 15, 2015

Remembering ESPN’s Stuart Scott See page B2

SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE

Get healthier by dining at home See page B4

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The Root, a premier news, opinion and culture site that focuses on African-American issues, has compiled this list of leaders to follow this year.

They include the attorney general nominee, a veteran congresswoman in the midst of a resurgence and the survivor of a police shooting who could have his eye on politics.

BY CHARLES D. ELLISON THE ROOT.COM

In 2015, rubber will meet road as a new Republican-dominated Congress convenes, state legislatures open for business, and the grind of political process forces fresh legislative and legal decisions. Of course, there will be countless players on the field. The Root narrows it down to seven; nothing biblical or metaphysical about that number, just a fresh stab at who we think will make waves over the next 12 months.

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/TNS

President Barack Obama nominates Loretta Lynch, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, to succeed Eric Holder as attorney general on Nov. 8, 2014.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick

Loretta Lynch If you’re about to be the first Black female attorney general of the United States, you get top mention. It’s not a done deal, but Lynch should be replacing outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder. Sources suggest she’s made an impression during her Capitol Hill visits and any GOP Senate plans to block her appointment may have just been scuttled by the PR nightmare posed by House Majority Whip Steve Scalise’s (R-La.) mingling with White supremacists.

Observers will closely watch her investigate Black deaths at the hands of police while managing the expectations of an impatient protest movement.

The New York City Police Department has sparred with the Brooklyn, N.Y., prosecutor over police brutality before — and it can tell you just how fierce she is.

KIM KIM FOSTER-TOBIN/THE STATE/TNS

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott addresses the crowd at his victory party at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center in North Charleston, S.C., on Nov. 4, 2014.

Leon Ford Jr.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters We’ve watched with humbling awe the momentary fall, then rebirth, of longtime Southern California Democrat Maxine Waters. After all, it wasn’t that long ago when a blistering House Ethics probe left us wondering if she’d be forced out. But giving up was never her style.

Instead, she moved up as ranking Democrat on the powerful House Financial Services Committee, where, in 2015, she’ll be a gigantic thorn in the side of the majority as it tries to repeal the Wall Street reform law known as Dodd-Frank. In the wake of a recession that destroyed over a quarter of the Black middle class, Waters is someone African-Americans will need in their corner. She’ll be loudly tackling a number of critical economic issues that we don’t hear enough about: If she’s not pushing back against the chattel slavery of credit reporting, she’ll be digging deeper into a suspect federal public housing program.

Ken Thompson He’s the Black Brooklyn district attorney you’ve probably never heard of. But you’ll probably hear a lot more about him as ongoing tensions between New York City police and the African-American community heat up. Thompson will be oversee-

Patrick is mulling a presidential bid — just not in 2016. But what he says and does in 2015 could set the stage for a second Black man in the White House by the time national fatigue over the first one passes. And who knows? Maybe he ends up as someone’s running mate.

Still, to win two terms in a state with a Black population under 10 percent is a spectacular feat of political acumen — and it should give many food for thought about what Patrick does next as he leaves the governor’s mansion. It was Patrick’s emotional delivery that should have stolen bigger headlines at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Still in his prime, Patrick is in perfect position to use 2015 as a launching pad for the next decade.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters

Ken Thompson

Missouri Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick

ing the grand jury probe into the death of 28-year-old Akai Gurley, who police claim was accidentally shot in the chest by a rookie cop in a Brooklyn stairwell.

The Brooklyn district attorney is already sending signals that this grand jury round might be a bit different: In a departure from the shadow, defend-thecop-at-all-costs style of White prosecutors in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y., Thompson wants the grand jury to consider actual charges. Watch how he navigates those waters and where his political future ends up.

While on the surface he’ll play a hard line on cop misconduct, behind the scenes he’ll chisel a deal with the NYPD. Hence, it was no coincidence when, later in the month, he was praising the department for its role in nabbing East Coast gun traffickers.

sion commodity as she crashed straight into the weeks of unrest that made Ferguson a global brand name. Her fluid, nononsense, combative style — as she openly ripped Gov. Jay Nixon (D-Mo.) — raised quite a few brows as many of her Black political peers were holding back.

This year finds ChappelleNadal blasting to the top of conservative media most-wanted lists for a set of recent tweets on white privilege. Sure, you’d expect us to put tweeting sensation St. Louis city Alderman Antonio French on this list, but where French plays it safe, ChappelleNadal pushes the envelope.

Something smells like an ambitious political play as she attempts a national splash through loud protest and legislative drafting. Using the movement as bullhorn, she could be the key to the serious Black political mobilization St. Louis County currently lacks.

Missouri Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal

Congressman Tim Scott

Representing Missouri’s 14th District, Chappelle-Nadal was something of a cable televi-

The now popularly elected senator popularly elected from South Carolina is proving that

Leon Ford Jr.

he’s not the typical, fire-breathing demagogue Black Republican who’s looking for the next media hit. Scott enters 2015 as the face of pragmatic Black Republicanism, something this very small segment of the GOP community will need as ideological pony shows like Dr. Ben Carson come out to sell books and spark controversy in time for the 2016 presidential cycle.

You probably expected we’d put up newly elected Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) — but do you want entertainment or do you want true political marketplace?

Scott hails from a state where there are actually way more than a handful of Black residents, so what he does this year will be consequential, especially as he heads over to a plum Senate Banking Committee assignment.

While an unapologetic, probusiness conservative, Scott is still finding time to talk about Black folks and poverty — even if his solutions are different from what many are used to hearing. He may not be a 2015 game changer, but he most certainly will be a savvy Senate player.

If you don’t hail from Pittsburgh, then you probably haven’t heard of 21-year-old Leon Ford Jr. Don’t worry about it, though: At some point this year, you will. Ford, who is currently back in surgery for a gun injury that left him paralyzed, is the Michael Brown/Tamir Rice/ John Crawford/Akai Gurley who made it. He is the resurrected, unarmed Black man shot in cold blood by Steelers Town police during a 2013 traffic stop and who lived to talk all about it.

The shooting left him paralyzed, but it didn’t break his spirit. Could you stage a protest and shut down an entire downtown Pittsburgh street in a wheelchair? After dodging unbelievably cruel aggravated assault charges from the Pittsburgh police — after he got shot ... by them — Ford isn’t stopping there as he gradually becomes the next authoritative voice and player in #BlackLivesMatter.

His presence is already being felt, and he’s leaving tears in his wake. Sources say the magnetic Ford is easily a major candidate for office by the time he’s 30. But in 2015, he might be the next face of a national movement.

Charles D. Ellison is a veteran political strategist and regular contributor to The Root.

He is also Washington correspondent for the Philadelphia Tribune and chief political correspondent for Uptown magazine.

B2

CALENDAR & OBITUARIES

JANUARY 9 – JANUARY 15, 2015

High school players shine in Under Armour game

NAJEE

Maze featuring Frankie Beverly returns to the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of Arts and Humanities (ZORA! Festival) on Jan. 31 in Eatonville.

Saxophonist Najee will entertain the crowd on Feb. 1.

BY NICHOLAS AUSTIN-HOLLIDAY

In front of a crowd of more than 25,000, nobody expected the final score of the Under Armour High School All-American Game to be so lopsided. Top players at every position from around the country were playing in the game, held Jan. 2 in St. Petersburg at Tropicana Field.

The game has become one of the top high school all-star games in the nation.

In the end Team Highlight (in white) was able to get a huge win over Team Armour (in black) by a score of 46-6.

At times, the practices, which were held in Orlando, at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, got very heated. Players were giving it their all to show what they had against other top players.

Standout plays The game saw Daylon Charlot from Team Highlight by way of Patterson, La. return a punt for a 53-yard touchdown and Eric Glover-Williams from Team Armour return a punt 47 yards for a touchdown. GloverWilliams is from Canton, Ohio.

Damien Harris, a Team Highlight running back from Berea, Ky. had 122 yards rushing and one touchdown while quarterback Deondre Francois, a Florida State University commit, added 103 yards and a touchdown through the air for Team Highlight.

Defensive end Byron Cowart from Team Highlight ended the game with three tackles and a sack while defensive tackle Daylon Mack had seven tackles and three of those for a loss. Both defensive players were named the game’s MVPs.

Ray-Ray McCloud III of Sickles High School in Tampa receives his game jersey from football analyst and former NFL coach Herm Edwards.

PHOTO BY CHOW AND SCOTT KEEPSAKES

Edward Brooke, pioneer Black senator, dies at 95

BY JOHANNA NEUMAN LOS ANGELES TIMES (TNS)

Edward Brooke, the first Black elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote and the first Republican senator to call for the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon over the Watergate scandal, died Saturday at his home in Coral Gables. He was 95.

He died from natural causes, said his former legislative aid, Ralph Neas.

Upon winning the Senate election in Massachusetts in 1966, he became the first Black member of that legEdward islative body since Hiram Brooke Revels and Blanche Kelso Bruce were sent to Washington during the post Civil War Reconstruction-era by a “carpetbag” Mississippi Legislature.

Brooke achieved a number of social firsts in the Senate, including the integration of its swimming pool and barbershop. To this day only four other Black senators have been popularly elected to the U.S. Senate, one of them being Barack Obama.

Called for Nixon’s resignation It was an era of moderation when Brooke entered the Senate. He joined a small band of liberal Republicans, when centrist voices like Jacob Javits of New York, Charles Percy of Illinois and Mark Hatfield of Oregon influenced political debate. Brooke supported housing and other anti-poverty programs, advocated for a stronger Social Security and for an increased minimum

ESPN tribute to Stuart Scott planned months before his death FROM WIRE REPORTS

Months ago, shortly after Stuart Scott gave a speech about his fight with cancer, a group of ESPN producers – led by Mike Lieber, Miriam Greenfield and Denny Wolfe – began producing what would become the 14-minute tribute obituary that aired on ESPN Sunday morning. He died of cancer the morning of Jan. 4. He was 49.

“They all talked about what it would mean if the piece ever aired. It meant their friend and colleague Stuart was dead,” writes Sports Scott Illustrated‘s Richard Deitsch. “But the small group of ESPN staffers who worked on the feature believed they owed it to their colleague to produce something with love

S

LEDISI

The Tampa Bay Black Heritage Festival takes place Jan. 15-25. The 11-day celebration includes live entertainment featuring Atlantic Starr on Jan. 17 and Ledisi on Jan. 18.

Details: www.tampablackheritage.org.

JEFFREY OSBORNE

Men of Soul (Jeffrey Osborne, Peabo Bryson and Freddie Jackson) will perform at the 2015 Jazz in the Gardens. It takes place March 21-22 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens.

BET

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Jacksonville: Catch Doug E. Fresh and Friends on Jan. 10 at the Ritz Theatre & Museum. The show starts at 8 p.m.

West Palm Beach: The 70s Soul Jam featuring The Spinners, The Stylistics, Jimmy Walker, Cuba Gooding Sr. and Main Ingredient. Shows are Jan. 9 at the Kravis Center in West Palm and Jan. 10 at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa.

Tampa: The Black and Brown Comedy Get Down featuring Cedric the Entertainer, Mike Epps and Eddie Griffin is Jan. 23 at the Amalie Arena and at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena on Jan. 24.

wage, and promoted commuter rail and mass transit.

He also bedeviled the Nixon White House, criticizing the administration for adopting a “Southern strategy” of wooing Southern Whites by not enforcing civil rights laws. He also sponsored a resolution calling for an end to U.S. involvement in Vietnam and opposed three of the president’s conservative nominees to the Supreme Court.

In November 1973, in the midst of the Watergate crisis, Brooke called for the president to step down. “President Nixon has lost his effectiveness as the leader of this country, primarily because he has lost the confidence of the people,” Brooke said. Nixon resigned the following August.

Retired and moved to Virginia Brooke lost his re-election bid in 1978 to Democrat Paul Tsongas after admitting he made “misstatements” under oath about his personal finances during a divorce proceeding.

Four months after his loss, the Senate Ethics Committee issued a statement saying that although Brooke had engaged in “improper conduct” under the Senate’s financial disclosure rules, his violations did not merit disciplinary action.

Brooke retired to a 152-acre farm in Warrenton, Va., raising cattle and growing hay. He had two daughters from his first marriage, and then had a son, Edward Brooke IV — with his second wife, Anne Fleming.

When the boy — Edward William Brooke IV — was 9, his father said in an interview, “I’m 70 now, and having a boy that age will keep me young or kill me in the process.”

Went to Howard, Army Edward William Brooke III was born Oct. 26, 1919, and reared in Washington, D.C. His mother fed her son’s love of opera by taking him to hear performances in New York. and care if that awful day ever came.”

Deitsch reports that the producers informed Scott’s agent that work on the obit was underway, asking if Scott would want to know. It’s believed he was unaware that it had been completed.

Called the ‘hip-hop Howard Cosell’ Lieber and Greenfield found out Scott had passed before sunrise on Sunday and hustled to get the piece ready for air. Lieber said producers were working on some of the auxiliary Scott pieces that ran on Sunday as late as two weeks ago. There are a lot of advanced pieces that live on ESPN’s servers until they run but Lieber and Co. intentionally did not put the main Scott feature on the servers because they did not want the piece living electronically.

“God forbid someone hits a wrong button or sees that we are preparing it and starts to talk, and word got back to Stuart,” Lieber said.

The ESPN sportscaster, whose enthusiastic catchphrases such as “boo-yah’’ and cool urban persona earned him an early reputation as “the hip-hop Howard Cosell, lived in Avon, Conn., and reportedly died in a Hartford-area hospital.

Obama tribute President Barack Obama, who played

Miami: The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County will present a program of culture, dance, drumming and more by DeLou Africa on Jan. 24 at 1:30 p.m.

Jacksonville: Maze featuring Frankie Beverly will perform Jan. 15 at Florida Theatre Jacksonville.

Fort Lauderdale: Aaron Neville is scheduled for an 8 p.m. show Feb. 12 at the Parker Playhouse.

After graduating from Dunbar High School in Washington, he enrolled at Howard University in pre-med, later switching to social studies with a focus on political science and history. He trained in the ROTC program in college, and upon graduating in 1941 he entered the Army, serving in combat in World War II with a segregated unit in Italy.

After the war he enrolled in Boston University Law School and opened his first practice in the suburb of Roxbury.

Elected to top post in Massachusetts He first threw his hat into the political arena in 1950 when he ran for a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

By a quirk of state law, he was able to file nomination papers in both parties — leaving it to voters to decide his partisan label.

He lost in the Democratic primary, won in the Republican one and charted his course with the GOP from then on.

Although popular GOP presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower rode with him across the district, Brooke lost in the general election, and then again two years later.

Returning to his law practice, he did not run for office again until 1960, this time trying for secretary of state. He lost again, but only by 12,000 votes out of 2 million cast, positioning himself as a proven vote-getter at the state level.

Finally, in 1962, when no other Republican won statewide office, Brooke was elected the state’s first Black attorney general.

On election night, President John F. Kennedy — a native of Massachusetts and the first Catholic to serve as president — proclaimed it “the biggest news in the country.”

Boca Raton: Catch the Four Tops, Supremes, Temptations, Miracles and Marvelettes at Florida Atlantic Univrsity’s Carole & Barry Kaye Performing Arts Auditorium on Feb. 14.

Tampa: Candy Lowe hosts Tea & Conversation every Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at 3911 N. 34th St., Suite B. More information: 813-394-6363.

Sunrise: The Between the Sheets Tour with Chris Brown, Trey Songz and Tyga takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 12 at the BB&T Center in Sunrise.

Jacksonville: Rick Ross, GunPlay, Kkutta, FatTrel and Duece Poppi are

scheduled at Morocco Shrine Auditorium on Jan. 17.

Fort Lauderdale: Wale is scheduled Feb. 11 at Revolution Live.

St. Petersburg: Tickets are on sale for a show with Smokey Robinson at The Mahaffey Theater on April 12.

confirmed my belief that although there are bigots in America, whose hateful rhetoric seizes the media’s attention, the vast majority of people do not harbor such prejudice.”

Two years later, Brooke was re-elected with a plurality of almost 800,000 votes, a record for a Republican in Massachusetts.

After his time in the Senate, he didn’t leave public service entirely. In 1980 he was appointed to a nine-member federal commission charged with reviewing the internment of Japanese citizens during World War II. The commission’s historic report found there had been “no direct military necessity” for the detention, and it recommended the issuing of a public apology and financial redress.

Brooke went public in 2003 with the fact that he had breast cancer, one of about 1,500 men diagnosed with the disease every year, saying, “It was worth invading my own privacy,” to bring public awareness to the fact that males can get the disease.

Awarded Medal of Freedom

In Brooke’s memoirs, “Bridging the Divide: My Life,” he wrote, “My campaign

He remained popular in Massachusetts, and in 2000, friends lobbied to have the New Chardon Street Courthouse in Boston named for him, making it the first courthouse in the state named for a Black American.

In 2004, despite Brooke’s fierce criticism of the White House and its war in Iraq, President George W. Bush presented him with a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

And in 2009 Brooke received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor that Congress can bestow. In his presentation, President Obama praised Brooke for “breaking barriers and bridging divides.”

In addition to his wife, Anne, and son, Edward, he is survived by daughters Remi Goldstone and Edwina Petit; stepdaughter Melanie Laflamme; and four grandchildren.

a few minutes of one-on-one basketball with Scott during his 2008 campaign, was among those who expressed condolences. “Stu helped usher in a new way to talk about our favorite teams and the day’s best plays,” the president said.

Scott also emerged as an example of a well-known personality dealing courageously with a grim medical condition.

Diagnosed with cancer during a 2007 appendectomy, Scott appeared to have beaten it after two surgeries, radiation treatments and chemotherapy.

When it recurred in 2011, he underwent the same kind of rigorous treatment — but also endured the jabs, kicks and punches of mixed martial arts training. After his third operation, in 2013, he had to wait five months before his abdomen could take further pummeling. On some days, he did 300 pushups.

Last July, Scott was recognized at ESPN’s annual Espy awards.

In a moving speech, he recounted his battle and braced for the outcome.

“When you die, that does not mean you lose to cancer,” he said. “You beat cancer by how you live, and the manner in which you live. So live. Live! Fight like hell!”

high school football, but eye surgeries cut his athletic career short.

In 1987, Scott graduated from the University of North Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in speech communications.

Scott worked at TV stations in Florence, S.C.; Raleigh, N.C.; and Orlando before joining the new ESPN2 in 1993. His distinctive style appealed to younger viewers but also sparked some resistance from network executives.

“He didn’t just push the envelope,” said former ESPN anchor Dan Patrick. “He bulldozed the envelope.”

Still, Scott ultimately became an anchor of ESPN’s flagship program, “SportsCenter.”

In interviews, he said his street-inflected style emerged naturally. “My style is Black,” he said. “It’s hip-hop. It’s who I am.”

He was to be remembered in a private viewing and funeral this weekend in Raleigh.

Scott’s survivors include his daughters Taelor and Sydni; parents O. Ray and Jacqueline Scott; brother Stephen Scott; sisters Synthia, Kearney and Susan Scott, and girlfriend Kristin Spodobalski. His marriage to Kimberly Scott ended in divorce.

Joined ESPN2 in 1993

Reports from Eurweb.com and the Los Angeles Times were used in this report.

Served on federal commission

Born in Chicago on July 19, 1965, Scott grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C. He played

STOJ

JANUARY 9 – JANUARY 15, 2015

HEALTH

B3

consumed 2,164 calories, 81 grams of fat and 119 grams of sugar a day.

Those who cooked at home tended to rely less on frozen food and were less likely to eat fast food when they dined out. People in African-American households cooked less often than those in White households, and people who worked full time away from home cooked less often.

Start small and simple

From left, cooking students Sylvia Asafo, Frederick Harrid and his wife Crystal learn how to cook a low fat and low sodium meal for four from Chef Tia Berry.

Get healthier with more home-cooked meals Survey: AfricanAmerican households cook less often than White households

BY MEREDITH COHN BALTIMORE SUN (TNS)

PHOTOS BY KENNETH K. LAM/BALTIMORE SUN/TNS

Chef Tia Berry holds up ingredients while teaching students how to cook a low fat and low sodium meal for four on Dec. 18, 2014 in the Simple Cooking with Heart class offered by the American Heart Association Mid-Atlantic in Baltimore, Md.

People who eschew takeout for home cooking eat healthier foods, whether they aim to or not, according to new research from the Johns Hopkins University.

“When people cook most of their meals at home, they consume few-

er carbohydrates, less sugar and less fat than those who cook less or not at all — even if they are not trying to lose weight,” said Julia A. Wolfson, the lead author of the study and a fellow at the Center for a Livable Future at Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The findings may be obvious to some, or at least reassuring to others, but they could have implications for the obesity epidemic facing adults and children in the United States if enough people are persuaded to cook their own meals.

Wolfson, a trained chef, said some people don’t think they know how to cook or don’t think they have the time. Others may not have ready access to healthy ingredients, such as fresh produce. Many people are just out of the habit.

9,000 surveyed She said cooking at home doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive, and most people just need a kick-start, like a cooking class, menu advice or tips to navigate grocery aisles.

For the study, published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, Wolfson and others analyzed data from a national survey of 9,000 adults about what they ate.

The 8 percent who cooked only once a week or less consumed an average of 2,301 calories, 84 grams of fat and 135 grams of sugar a day. The 48 percent who cooked dinner six or seven nights a week

FROM MICHAEL MANN DIRECTOR OF HEAT, COLLATERAL AND THE INSIDER

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Plan ahead Rocco added: Do some food preparation in advance of the workweek, like chopping vegetables, so everything is ready to go — this may even be a money saver as people use the produce they buy rather than throwing it away.

“Most people I know struggle in the planning,” she said. “They’re coming home at 6 and opening the fridge or pantry and saying, ‘What am I going to do?’ That’s what you want to avoid. And you can, with a little planning.”

Cooking at home is mostly about developing a habit, DeRocco said, and “not letting Pinterest or Martha Stewart intimidate you.”

Lisa Manuel, a mother of 7-year-old Chloe and 9-year-old Burke, sought help from DeRocco about two years ago to develop that kind of routine, though she, her children and her husband all eat at different times and don’t all like the same things.

“It felt like a 24-hour buffet,” she said.

She was heartened to hear that just eating at home meant they were likely eating healthier than families that don’t, but she wanted to do better.

Manuel now tries to feed the family some of the same things, or variations of them. She plans, shops and preps ingredients on the weekends and stows batches of food in the freezer. She acknowledges doing better for her kids than for herself.

“I’m not as disciplined as I should be,” she said.

“I need to sit down and eat a meal and not snack in between everyone else’s meals. … When I stick to it, I feel a lot better. When I’m off track, I can definitely tell.”

To help meet its goal of reducing heart disease by 20 percent by 2020, the American Heart Association offers basic cooking classes with chef Tia Berry.

Berry said the organization wanted to help people not only cook at home but make healthier choices about ingredients.

Lifestyle changes Obesity has drastically increased across the nation over the past two decades, with more than a third of adults and 17 percent of children now in that category, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. That has contributed to an increase in rates of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancer, and $147 billion in additional annual health spending.

Berry said if people are trying to make lifestyle changes and cook at home, it would be easy to improve the nutritional value of the food. For example, make potato or other salads with a vinaigrette rather than a mayonnaise base, and don’t deep-fry anything.

“We offer recipes that are easy and familiar, like fajitas, chili and salad, that are heart-healthy and not anything too complicated,” said Berry about the 10 Simple Cooking with Heart Kitchen classes the association offered in Baltimore. There are also recipes and tutorials on the organization’s website.

“It’s not five-star restaurant food,” she said, “but it is things that people are comfortable with and are not as intimidated by.”

She said most people eat the same things over and over, so it’s a matter of choosing a few healthy recipes and practicing.

Cooking dinner at home regularly requires a lifestyle change, but, Berry added, “it doesn’t have to be complicated. You just need to pay attention to what you’re eating.”

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What: The project will consist of three When: Thursday, January 15, 2015 10:00 a.m. phases- Phase 1- ED expansion- Ground Floor – 11:30 a.m. consisting of 10,852 SF of new ground up ED Where: Doctors Hospital of Sarasota (MOB addition; Phase 2 to include interior renovation Auditorium) 5731 Bee Ridge Road, Sarasota, to an existing ED- Approx. 10,500 SF; Phase FL 34233 3 includes building two new OR’s #8 and #9 to an existing Operating Suite located on the second floor.

Bid packages associated with the project include the following:

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© 2014 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

These results were no surprise to Susanna DeRocco, who helps individuals, families, schools and others get on track in the kitchen with advice and recipes through workshops and her website, HealthyBodiesHappyMinds.org. She said meals can be made even healthier with some thought.

Most people just don’t know where to start and feel overwhelmed by the idea of cooking, she said.

The certified health coach, nutritional counselor and Towson mother advises people to start small and simple.

Pick a day, like Sunday, find one or two easy recipes online, and go to the store. After getting comfortable making a few meals, consider making a double batch and freezing half, or at least figuring out a second use for the leftovers.

Maybe rice was part of a stir fry one night and covered in beans the next, she said. Or the pasta gets customized with slightly different toppings to please different tastes in the house.

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B4

NATION

JANUARY 9 – JANUARY 15, 2015

S

The price of wrongly convicted’s lost years 20 states don’t pay compensation to exonerated prisoners for years spent behind bars

BY MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE LOS ANGELES TIMES (TNS)

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — When DNA evidence exonerated Andrew “A.J.” Johnson of rape after 24 years in prison, he got his picture in the paper and his freedom.

What he did not get was help starting over from the state that had imprisoned him.

He emerged from behind bars in 2013 at the age of 64, unemployed and in debt: $4,611.55 in child support had accrued while he was in prison.

“If I die today,” Johnson said recently, “I can’t afford to be buried.”

The number of prisoners exonerated of crimes has increased substantially with the advent of DNA testing and better forensics. But 20 states, including Wyoming, do not pay compensation for the years lost behind bars.

The falsely imprisoned in these cases are forced to file expensive lawsuits or seek special legislation from lawmakers who may be reluctant to pay, especially in cases where someone who spent years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit may have been guilty of others.

PHOTOS BY BRIAN VAN DER BRUG/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Andrew Johnson, left, talks with workforce specialist Trent Webb, right, at the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services office about job placement services on Oct. 21, 2013, in Cheyenne, Wyo. Webb explains to him how to plug his information into an online resume so he can search for potential jobs.

He had wanted to sue police and prosecutors, but his lawyers advised that the proposed law was a better bet, even though they would have to lobby a Legislature dominated by tough-oncrime Republicans.

“What is the price of freedom?” his attorney told him. “We’ll find out.”

Johnson knew how precious freedom was even before his wrongful conviction. Tempted by easy money and drugs, he had served more than a decade of hard time, mostly for robbery.

But that did not make him a rapist.

Worth nothing Johnson had served time on various theft and drug charges before his wrongful rape conviction in 1989. The Wyoming Legislature was left with a vexing question: How much are 24 years of a life like Andrew Johnson’s worth?

Their verdict was blunt: Nothing.

“People with prior records are more at risk for a wrongful conviction because they’re already in the system, and often that’s the first place police will look for a suspect,” said Saundra Westervelt, a compensation expert at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

In those cases, fighting for compensation can be a formidable challenge. Many exonerees are poorly trained men working low-level jobs, shadowed by the stigma of being ex-convicts, forced to file their own legal paperwork because they can’t afford attorneys or can’t find lawyers who will take their long-shot cases.

‘Clean hands’ provision Nearly 60 percent of the 1,500 cases listed in the National Registry of Exonerations are people of color.

But even in states that do pay compensation, a prior criminal record or indications that someone contributed to his conviction, for example, by associating with a gang, can ne an impediment.

Florida has a “clean hands” provision disqualifying those with prior felony convictions, and requires prosecutors involved in the cases to sign off on payments.

Former Laramie County District Attorney Scott Homar, who handled Johnson’s case on appeal, continued to insist he was guilty, even after DNA cleared him, and noted that Johnson’s criminal record had contributed to his life sentence.

In many states, prior crimes are not an impediment to compensation. Colorado recently

Safe-cracking sideline Sharon Kramer, left, talks with her brother Andrew Johnson in their home. His sister lets him stay in her spare bedroom, which barely holds his single bed. paid $1.2 million to an exoneree with a criminal record — including armed robbery — under its new compensation law. If Johnson had been convicted there, just eight miles south of here, he would be entitled to about $1.7 million.

Still called rapist Johnson acknowledged his past but said the state owed him just as it would anyone else unjustly imprisoned.

“Once you paid society back,” he said, “under the law, you are supposed to be another citizen of this country.”

Johnson had planned to move in with his mother when he got out of prison, but she died a few days before he was freed. Johnson joined his younger sister, who is disabled by multiple sclerosis and living in state-subsidized housing. The siblings split $250 a month in food stamps.

Donors moved by Johnson’s plight gave him a white 1997 Camry. But one morning he found his tires slashed and words scrawled on the windshield in black marker: “Walk rapist.”

New tires cost Johnson $272.34, draining his savings.

Bleak job prospects So that fall, Johnson trudged to the local unemployment office, broke and desperate.

“You just put your work history in right here,” an employee explained, pointing to a computer screen.

Johnson shifted his wiry frame forward, his narrow face eager.

He had $1.36 in change rattling in the pocket of his donated winter coat and yearned to make enough to buy a pair of work boots. “I just got out after 24 years,” he told the employee. “I got exonerated, and I don’t get any money.”

He followed the employee’s advice about online resumes and cobbled together a work history — dishwasher, fry cook, roofer. He figured his years filing legal appeals from prison were worth something, so he added law clerk.

The staffer searched online job postings.

“Doesn’t look like it’s bringing up much that you would qualify for,” he said.

The price of freedom Johnson’s attorneys, after launching Johnson’s successful appeal, proposed a state law that would compensate exonerees up to $500,000.

He had grown up poor, a young Black man in a state that is about 90 percent White.

His father died when he was 16, and Johnson had to work after school to help support his family.

He had always been chatty, nimble, forever tinkering with machines. Inspired by the operatives on the television show “Mission Impossible,” he developed a sideline: safe-cracking.

In 1968, the year he graduated from high school, Johnson was caught robbing a grocery store safe. He served more than a year in prison.

After his release he married, settled in Cheyenne, had two daughters and took up roofing.

But three more convictions and a divorce followed. By 1987, he was out of prison once more; he found a girlfriend and moved in to help raise her 4-year-old daughter.

He was up for a $2 raise at a new job when he was arrested again on June 10, 1989, and charged with raping a White woman, a friend’s fiancee.

DNA test results On Sept. 27, 1989, an all-White jury deliberated for less than a day before convicting Johnson of aggravated burglary and first-degree sexual assault.

Johnson married his girlfriend while in prison, but they saw little of each other, as he was repeatedly transferred out of state due to overcrowding. By 2006, they had divorced.

Two years later, lawyers at the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Innocence Center responded to Johnson’s pleas and successfully lobbied state lawmakers to pass a DNA-testing law. Then they persuaded a judge to order retesting of the rape kit from his case.

When new DNA tests excluded Johnson and matched the victim’s fiance, District Attorney Homar requested additional tests. They were inconclusive.

‘Credibility issues’ cited A judge ordered a retrial. In April 2013, Johnson was released on $10,000 bond.

Homar dismissed the new DNA tests, saying Johnson might have used a condom or not ejaculated.

Ultimately, Homar said too many years had passed to pursue a new trial, while also conceding that the accuser had “credibility issues.” In July 2013, he asked a judge to dismiss all charges against Johnson due to insufficient evidence.

“This is not an exoneration,” he said at the time. But months later, a judge made a finding that Johnson was in fact not guilty.

Johnson’s bond money was refunded. He used it to bury his mother.

With little chance of a good job, Johnson’s best hope was the proposed compensation law.

Exoneration bill tabled The bill introduced in March called for paying exonerees $100 per day in prison, up to $500,000, disbursed in annual increments of $50,000.

But the legislation drew fire almost immediately. Opponents warned that the law could reward criminals freed on technicalities.

A Republican lawmaker declared that compensating Johnson would be a mistake.

“If you ask the prosecutor,” Rep. Bob Nicholas said, “he will tell you with hand over his heart this man is not innocent.”

The bill was tabled, and later that month, the Legislature adjourned without passing it.

Oklahoma bill fines residents $500 for wearing a hoodie EURWEB.COM

Did you know that wearing a hoodie in Oklahoma could get you a $500 fine? That could be the case, according to a proposed bill that would make it a crime to wear a hooded sweatshirt, or hoodie, in public.

KFOR TV reports that although the wearing of hoods or similar head coverings during the commission of a crime has been against state law since the 1920s, the new proposal would ban a person from intentionally hiding “his or her identity in a public place by means of a robe, mask, or other disguise” even if the person was not involved in a crime.

The original intent of the law was to curb violence perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan. Under the proposed law, anyone caught

violating it would be guilty of a misdemeanor that’s punishable by a fine up to $500.

Exemptions, according to the language in the bill, include religious garments, weather protection, safety or medical purposes, parades, Halloween celebrations, masquerade parties, “minstrel troupes,” circuses, sporting groups, mascots or “other amusements or dramatic shows.”

Uproar by residents News of the proposed bill has many Oklahoma residents concerned in light of the bill’s language still being overly broad and easily misconstrued to ban hooded sweatshirts on any occasion.

“I think this is a violation of an individual’s right to chose what they want to wear as long

as it doesn’t violate the realm of public decency and moral values, and I think this could be very problematic,” Oklahoma City attorney James Siderias told KFOR. Despite the uproar, the bill’s author, state Sen. Don Barrington (R), told the station that the bill’s goal is simply to help deter crime.

“The intent of Senate Bill 13 is to make businesses and public places safer by ensuring that people cannot conceal their identities for the purpose of crime or harassment. … Similar language has been in Oklahoma statutes for decades and numerous other states have similar laws in place,” he said. “Oklahoma businesses want state leaders to be responsive to their safety concerns, and this is one way we can provide protection.”

EURWEB.COM

Wearing one of these could become a crime if bill passes.

STOJ

JANUARY 9 – JANUARY 15, 2015

Meet some of

FLORIDA’S

finest

submitted for your approval

FINEST & CULTURE

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.

More than 4,000 cruisers joined nationally syndicated radio talk show host Tom Joyner on the 13th annual Tom Joyner Foundation Fantastic Voyage 2012 aboard Royal Caribbean’s “Navigator of the Seas,” one of the world’s largest cruise ships. The Florida Courier spotlights some of the best-looking people on board.

Patricia, a native of Houston, Texas, was on her fifth Tom Joyner cruise.

Brandon of Chicago was on his first Tom Joyner cruise.

DELROY COLE / FLORIDA COURIER

brandon

patricia

Marian Robinson, lives in the White House and takes an active role in the lives of Malia Obama and her sister, Sasha, 13, an eighth-grader at Sidwell.

Neither Michelle Obama’s office nor Sidwell officials would discuss Malia Obama’s college prospects, nor would officials for Stanford and Berkeley.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle and other Bay Area news media, Malia Obama visited Berkeley and Stanford in June while her father was in California to deliver a commencement address at the University of California, News media also took note in August when she wore a Stanford T-shirt.

Most college-bound U.S. students apply to a number of schools. From 1990 to 2012, 77 percent of students submitted three or more applications; 28 percent submitted seven or more, the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA said.

DING LIN/XINHUA VIA ZUMA PRESS/TNS

First lady Michelle Obama, her daughters Malia, left, and Sasha visit the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall in Beijing, China, on March 23, 2014.

Berkeley or Stanford for Malia Obama?

First daughter weighs options for college

BY KATHERINE SKIBA CHICAGO TRIBUNE (TNS)

WASHINGTON — Soon Malia Obama will c hose where to apply for college and which one to attend beginning in the fall of 2016, as her father’s presidency winds down.

She wants to be a filmmaker, President Barack Obama has said. Last summer, news media reported that his 16-year-old daughter toured two northern California rivals: Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.

Berkeley, the state’s flagship public university, is known as a liberal enclave, and it has a department of film and media.

Stanford, a private university in Palo Alto, is more conservative and has alumnae including Chelsea Clinton and Supreme Court justices such as the retired Sandra Day O’Connor. Obama’s commerce secretary, Penny

Pritzker, is from Stanford — and, like Michelle Obama and the Obama daughters, is also from Chicago.

At Stanford, students can major or minor in film and media studies.

Expectations for Malia Obama no doubt are high. Her parents are Harvard-educated lawyers with Ivy League undergraduate degrees, the president’s from Columbia and his wife’s from Princeton.

Athlete, world traveler

Desirable candidate

The university has more NCAA championships than any other U.S. school. Malia Obama is known as an athlete, especially at tennis, so she might be a good fit in “Nerd Nation,” the unofficial nickname for the school’s sports fans.

Malia Obama’s college essay will come from a unique perspective. She’s lived in the White House since she was 10. She’s had a front-row seat to her father’s political campaigns. Her passport has been stamped around the world, and she’s met world figures such as Queen Elizabeth, Nelson Mandela and Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani education advocate who won the Nobel Peace Prize (as Malia’s father did, in 2009).

“Given the educational attainment of her parents, which is exceptional in itself, I can only assume she is going to be a bright and well-qualified student,” said David Hawkins, an official at the National Association for College Admission Counseling in Arlington, Va. “When you add to that who she is, all of that makes her a desirable candidate for pretty much any college,” said Hawkins, whose 13,000-member organization is made up of college admissions officers and high school counselors, including Washington’s elite Sidwell Friends School, which Malia Obama attends.

Michelle Obama’s crusade “Reach Higher,” urges young people, especially the underpriv-

ileged, to continue their education after high school.

“You have to work your butts off,” she reminded high schoolers attending an “immersion day” at Georgetown University in 2011.

At a speech Dec. 4 in Washington, Michelle Obama noted that students prepare for college “long before they even start high school.”

“Honestly, when Barack and I talk about this, we look at the college counseling many of the kids are getting today and we wonder how we ever managed to get ourselves into college,” she said.

On another occasion, she said she wants her daughters to study abroad someday but isn’t forcing it.

Visited both universities While other teenagers boast of college acceptance on social media, Malia Obama’s pick will make news around the world.

And unlike her peers, she’ll have Secret Service agents with her when she hits campus.

Michelle Obama’s mother,

A short list?

But Malia Obama, in light of her singularity, may have only a short list, Hawkins surmised.

A savvy viewpoint on the college experience of first daughters comes from Anita McBride, who was chief of staff to Laura Bush and inhabits the college application world herself since she has a 17-year-old son in prep school.

Since Sidwell has such a strong academic program and sends virtually all of its graduates on to college, McBride said she can’t imagine Malia Obama not getting into whichever college she wants.

Things were different for the twin daughters of George W. Bush, McBride noted, since Barbara Bush entered Yale and Jenna Bush entered the University of Texas at Austin in 2000 during their father’s first White House run.

Their college searches — and starts — were “so under the radar. No one was paying attention to them. They weren’t part of the campaign. They weren’t living in the White House,” said McBride, who is executive in residence at American University’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies.

FOOD

B6

CHILI WITH PEPATO CHEESE Recipe created

by Dirk Yeaton on murphygoodewinery.com Servings: 10–12 6 dried chili pods, seeds and stems removed Salt and pepper, to taste 1 1/2 pounds top round cut into cubes 1 1/2 pounds chuck steak cut into cubes 1 cup vegetable oil 1 medium onion, chopped 3 small cloves garlic, minced 1 1/2 ounces chili powder 1 tablespoon paprika 3 tablespoons cumin 2 tablespoons oregano steeped in 1 cup of red wine 1 tablespoon cider vinegar 1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder 2 cups beef broth 10 ounces stewed tomatoes 1/2 cup grated Pepato cheese Toast dried chilies over medium heat for about 2 minutes. Add 2 cups of water and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain out chilies to cool, then chop and reserve.

Season meat liberally with salt. Heat oil over high heat in large, heavy bottom

JANUARY 9 – JANUARY 15, 2015

TOJ

pot until it begins to smoke.

Carefully place beef into pan and brown on all sides until moisture cooks out and light brown film forms on bottom of pan.

Reduce heat to medium.

Drain meat of oil and fat.

Add onions and garlic, cooking until soft. Add chili powder, paprika and cumin.

Cook until fragrant. Add reserved chopped chilies and rest of ingredients (except for cheese) and stir well with wooden spoon, scraping browned bits off bottom of pot.

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour, occasionally stirring.

To serve, place in bowl and sprinkle with grated cheese.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES

FROM FAMILY FEATURES

Winter is a great time to experiment with new culinary creations that incorporate the bold flavors of wine for delicious results. Nothing pleases the senses quite like a comfort food dish on a chilly evening. If you’re planning a menu for just you and your mate, a small group of close friends or a full-blown dinner party, stock up on great wine selections to complete the menu.

Smoky Chili and Murphy-Goode Homefront Red Just as a robust chili calls for a blend of signature ingredients, so does the perfect wine to comple­ment it. The smoky flavors of seasoned steak cubes and dried chili pods will please the palate when united with Murphy-Goode Homefront Red — a blend of syrah, merlot, petite sirah and PERFECT WINTER zinfandel. This wine is comfort PAIRINGS food friendly and fruit forward, chock full of flavors of black • Matanzas Creek Merlot and cherry and raspberry, vanilla Beef Bourguignon and toast. Plus, for every bottle Bring out the rich and savory sold, the winery donates fifty flavors of this classic French stew cents to Operation Homefront, with the notes of dried bluebera national nonprofit ries and cranberries, bittersweet that provides assistance to serchocolate and black cardamom in vice members and their famiMatanzas Creek Merlot. lies.

• Freemark Abbey Napa Valley Classic Roast Chicken and Cabernet and Pot Roast La Crema Sonoma Coast Serve up this braised Chardonnay beef favorite alongside Freemark Fresh oregano, fragrant garAbbey Napa Valley Cabernet, with lic and buttery Castelvetrano its aromas of dark cherry, ripe olives star in this traditional plum and black currant. chicken dish which pairs won• Edmeades Zinfandel derfully with vibrant La Crema and Meatloaf Sonoma Coast Chardonnay.

Each meaty bite tastes even Just as in the Burgundy region more comforting than the last of France, these vineyards offer when paired with the lush texture an unusually long, cool growand notes of toasted oak, vanilla ing season, so grapes develop and cherry cola in Edmeades complex flavors. The Sonoma Zinfandel.

Coast Chardonnay is beautifully aromatic, with an intriguing interplay of lively citrus and subtle toasted oak, laced with just a kiss of butterscotch.

Toasted S’mores and Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Pinot Noir Take the traditional fireside treat to a new, gooey level with homemade, wine-infused marsh­mallows served with a glass of KendallJackson Grand Reserve Pinot Noir. Handcrafted from the top seven percent of all the winery’s lots, with 70 percent sourced from the same vineyard blocks year-to-year, it ensures greater consistency and enhanced complexity with each vintage. Please your sweet tooth and palate with this pinot noir, with lively berry pie notes defined in wild strawberry and black cherry, with hints of vanilla and earthy aromas.

CHICKEN THIGHS WITH POTATO, LEMON & CASTELVETRANO OLIVES Recipe created by Tracey Shepos on lacrema.com Servings: 4 8 sprigs oregano, leaves picked (1/2 cup packed) 5 cloves garlic 2 lemons, one zested and one cut into eight wedges 2 teaspoons cumin 3 tablespoons olive oil 8 chicken thighs (1 1/2 pounds), bone in, skin on 2 large Russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch circles 4 teaspoons kosher salt

1 cup Castelvetrano olives, pitted and drained Preheat oven to 350°F. In food processor, combine oregano, garlic, lemon zest, cumin and 2 tablespoons oil.

Process until chopped. Place mixture in large bowl and toss with chicken thighs.

In 10-inch cast iron pan, layer 1 tablespoon oil and top with potatoes and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons salt. Place chicken thighs on top and sprinkle again with 2 teaspoons salt. Scatter lemon wedges in between chicken thighs.

Place pan over medium heat, cook for 5 minutes or until edges start to brown.

Immediately place pan on top rack in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Adjust oven temperature to 400°F and cook for another 25 minutes or until chicken is browned and internal temperature reaches 160°F. Scatter olives on top and serve.

PINOT NOIR MARSHMALLOWS Recipe created by Molly Yeh on mynameisyeh.com Servings: 16 1/4 cup powdered sugar 1/4 cup cornstarch 1/4 cup Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve Pinot Noir 1/2 cup water 2 packets unflavored gelatin powder 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup light corn syrup 1 pinch salt In small bowl, combine powdered sugar and cornstarch. Grease two loaf pans or one 8- or 9-inch square pan and dust bottom and sides with half of powdered sugar mixture. Pour out any excess mixture back into bowl.

In bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, combine pinot noir and 1/4 cup water. Sprinkle gelatin over liquid. Grease rubber spatula and have standing by mixer, as well as prepared pan(s).

In small saucepan, combine remaining 1/4 cup of water, sugar, corn syrup and salt. Clip on candy thermometer. Heat mixture over medium heat until it reaches 240°F. Resist urge to crank heat level higher, otherwise

it could heat up too fast. (If takes a while to heat up to those last few degrees, you can inch heat level up to medium high, keeping a close eye on thermometer.)

Turn mixer on low and drizzle sugar mixture in slow and steady stream down side of bowl. Once entire mixture is in, increase speed to high and let it mix for 10–12 minutes, until lukewarm and fluffy.

Using greased spatula, immediately scrape mixture into pans and spread out evenly as possible.

Dust tops with remaining powdered sugar mixture and (if needed) use hands to flatten mixture out completely. Let set for hour, cut into squares and dust edges of squares with remaining powdered sugar mixture.