Florida Courier - January 11, 2013

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JANUARY 11 - JANUARY 17, 2013

VOLUME 21 NO. 2

Was the November ballot too long?

BY DAVID ROYSE THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

When Gov. Rick Scott recently listed ways he thinks Florida could reduce voting difficulties and long polling lines, he drew the most attention for a change of course in suggesting that more early voting might help.

But another idea Scott raised may have more far-reaching implications for public policy in Florida, and might even be more difficult to accomplish than the politically volatile suggestion about early voting.

Long ballot FLORIDA COURIER FILES

Female African clothing and fashion entrepreneurs traveled to America last year to learn how to improve their businesses.

HERE’S OUR ‘BLACK AGENDA’

BY THE FLORIDA COURIER EDITORIAL STAFF

Editor’s note: This is an updated list of issues that was originally published on Oct. 26, 2012.

1. JOBS AND BLACK BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT – Even before the 2008 recession, the Black Press was reporting Black male unemployment rates of 50 percent or more in pockets of high-density Black urban areas like New York and Milwaukee. Black unemployment has increased during the Obama administration, and, when the number of people who are no longer looking for jobs is considered, overall Black unemployment easily exceeds 25 percent nationwide.

Various studies show that Black-owned firms hire a greater percentage of Black applicants than do otherwise similar White-owned firms. But because small Black business owners have difficulty getting investment capital, many have used home equity loans to start or improve their businesses.

With the foreclosure crisis that

SNAPSHOTS NATION | A3

President Obama will serve another four years – largely as a result of the overwhelming number of Black Americans who voted for him in November 2012. Here are some major issues we must force the second Obama administration to address. peaked in 2008 (see HOUSING entry), Black entrepreneurs find it more difficult than ever to start or grow their businesses.

Government policies must target the disproportionate impact “The Great Recession” has had both on Black workers and on Black businesses. President Obama must enforce minority business preferences already on the books in federal government procurement – something that did not occur during the first four years, leading some Black business leaders to conclude that his administration is hostile to small Black businesses. Helping Black businesses succeed will have a di-

FLORIDA | A6

Revenue, pension top list of local governments’ concerns HEALTH | B3

How raising grandkids affects grandparents

ALSO INSIDE

FINEST | B5

Meet Abby

Blame legislators

FLORIDA COURIER FILES

Frances McCready listens as other senior citizens discuss a possible increase in the cost of living allowance in Social Security. ments because they are poor.

That dependency grew with the housing foreclosure crisis that robbed many Black families of their largest financial asset: their home. The Pew Research Center indicates that “the median wealth of White households is 20 times that of Black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households,” the largest disparities since Pew began publishing the data more than 25 years ago.

The growth and length of entitlements must be reduced so that America’s budget deficit will be eliminated over time.

However, such reductions

US health poor compared to wealthy nations

BY ERYN BROWN LOS ANGELES TIMES / MCT

Jobs increase in December; rate unchanged

rect impact on reducing Black unemployment, which is critical to improving the condition of Black America.

2. ‘ENTITLEMENTS’ (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment insurance, welfare, public housing) – According to the Pew Research Center, about one-third of all Americans have benefited from two or more entitlements program during their lives. Social Security is the sole source of retirement income for too many African-Americans because of a lack of income from pensions and other assets.

A disproportionate number of Blacks rely on entitle-

Americans live shorter lives – and are in generally worse health – than citizens of other wealthy nations, according to an extensive report released Wednesday by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine.

The analysis of international health data determined that American men had the lowest life expectancy among men in 17 countries, including wealthy European nations, Australia, Canada and Japan. U.S. women had the secondlowest life expectancy (only Danish women fared worse.)

The 2012 ballot was several pages in many places, most notably in Miami where voters had to wade through 12 pages because of a number of local issues. It was lengthened by legislators, who put 11 constitutional amendment questions on it, some of them written out in full.

“In Miami-Dade County, the ballot read like the book of Leviticus – though not as interesting,” said Senate President Don Gaetz.

In short, “it was just too long,” Scott said late last year on CNN.

Nine areas The study listed nine health areas in which Americans came in below average: infant mortality and low birth weight; injuries and homicides; adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections; HIV and AIDS; drug-related deaths; obesity and diabetes; heart disease; chronic lung disease; and disability.

The U.S. earned relatively high marks for its low cancer death rates and success controlling blood pressure and cholesterol levels, the researchers said. But by and large, said panel chair Dr. Steven H. Woolf during a phone call with reporters Wednesday,

See AGENDA, Page A2

the team was “struck by the gravity of our findings,” which spanned the population.

“Even Americans who are White, insured, have college educations and seem to have healthy behaviors are in worse health than similar people in other nations,” said Woolf, a researcher who directs the Center for Human Needs at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va.

Various causes The disparities were pervasive across all age groups up to 75, Woolf told the reporters, and seemed to stem from a variety of wide-ranging causes, including U.S. car culture, the number of uninsured people in the country, and weaknesses in our outpatient health care system.

Gun use emerged as a factor: Americans were seven times

The ballot was long in part because the Florida Legislature exempted itself from a 75-word limit on ballot summaries that applies to interest groups that put forth proposed amendments. And in some cases, the entire text of the amendment was listed.

Elections supervisors said they believed it was the longest statewide ballot ever and had warned publicly before Election Day that it could take over a half hour to wade through it.

Another problem University of Florida Political Science Professor Dan Smith, whose expertise is in the conduct of elections, believes the lines weren’t caused by the length of the ballot – noting that even in Miami-Dade County with its biblical tome, there were major differences in lines, with people in some precincts waiting several hours and those in others getting in and out quickly.

Longer ballots probably do slow voters down some, Smith said.

“But the bottlenecks were processing people through...part of it was all the provisional ballots that were pulling people off” the line, See BALLOT, Page A2

more likely to die in a homicide and 20 times more likely to die in a shooting than their peers. In all, two-thirds of the mortality disadvantage for American men was attributable to people under the age of 50 – and slightly over half of that resulted from injuries, said study collaborator Samuel Preston, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

It is possible that there’s something about American culture, and the high value it places on individualism and personal autonomy, which results in its poor performance, the researchers noted. It also may be that the U.S. is ahead of the curve on a general trend, and that other nations will also start to experience the health problems that have been on the rise here since the 1980s, Preston said.

COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: BARBARA ANWINE: 50 YEARS AFTER CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, CHALLENGES CONTINUE | A5

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FOCUS

JANUARY 11 – JANUARY 17, 2013

Brazil sets crack cocaine loose in its Black majority Crack addiction is out of control in Brazil.

It started in the jungles of the Amazon and is now infesting the streets of the “favelas” (ghettos) of Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.

In fact, Brazilians are the biggest consumers of crack and cocaine in the whole world.

Keep in mind that Brazil has over 100 million Black citizens, which makes the nation second only to Nigeria in Black population. Brazil has two and a half times the Black population of the United States.

What happened?

How this has come to be is mysterious. But one thing is for sure – it predominantly affects the Black populace of this nation.

It also reminds us of the targeted assault of crack on our own Black population.

Brazil is a former colony of Portugal. The Portuguese took a ship full of enslaved Africans to the

HARRY C. ALFORD NNPA COLUMNIST

Vatican. They were seeking the Catholic pope’s blessing. He received the Africans and blessed what the Portuguese were about to do. Thus, the greatest holocaust in history – Trans-Atlantic African slavery – was begun.

Portugal claimed Brazil in the year 1500 and the first enslaved Africans were delivered in 1525.

There are villages in southeastern Brazil where the villagers still speak their native African languages.

Unlike the United States that went through a civil war and reconstruction for the immersion of Africans into the general population, Brazil and other South American nations ended slavery during the 1880s abruptly and

had no transition for the newly freed Blacks.

In denial This nation tries to hide its Blackness. They are officially in denial about disparity. Blacks are 52 percent of the population but, in a nation where voting is mandatory, Blacks have less than 10 percent of the elected officials.

They have no economic base and any Black celebrity such as an athlete, singer or actor is expected to marry someone White.

It reminds me of that old rock tune “All They Want To Do Is Dance.” Some day there is going to be a struggle in this predominantly Black nation.

How is it done?

How is cocaine being brought into this large nation? I have read various articles about the situation but no one seems to identify the source. It could be using the model of the United States. The difference is the trafficking started in the rural areas in Brazil with the cities being the final market.

The CIA wanted to fund a revolution in Nicaragua and was denied by Congress. Thus, they came up with a funding scheme.

They would introduce crack to Black neighborhoods in the United States and come up with quick cash to buy arms for its rebels.

They recruited a bright, entrepreneurial, middle-class guy living in Los Angeles by the name of Ricky Donnell Ross.

Rick Ross put the first crack house in America at 69th and Hoover. That was 11 blocks south of my Aunt Lula’s home. His distribution source would be two fledgling gangs: the Crips and the Bloods.

Los Angeles always had gangs.

But they were social units like the Slausons, Business Men and Del Vikings. These new groups are murdering machines and would soon infest the entire nation with the crack plague.

In the end, Rick Ross had mastered a $600 million enterprise and only had to do 14 years in prison. The damage done by this CIA-sponsored activity was very serious and it is still having a detrimental affect on our society.

Government cooperation The addiction level in Brazil is raging into a severe fury. No one seems to know how it is coming into the nation. Ha! Like the United States there is some level of cooperation. The United States would use two major street gangs. The Brazilians have three gangs running their operation. There is a lack of much police activity.

The only official activity to stop this plague is the social work in-

dustry. People will visit these “crack lands” that are located near favelas and try to convince addicts to enter rehab. They are basically ignored. Very rarely will you see police or military trying to suppress the drug activity.

These gangs operate with impunity within the favelas. They are more like the local government and organized crime can flourish within their territories.

Black misery Brazil is known for its corruption at all levels and the crack business seems to have found very friendly territory. We in the Black Diaspora should not be quiet about this.

There are evil people profiting off the misery of Black folk and where is the outrage?

The government has announced that it will fund $2.2 billion for further rehab and education efforts, but that probably will do nothing to stop the rise in addiction.

A very large Black population is at risk and the world seems to ignore it.

Harry C. Alford is the cofounder and president/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. Contact him via www.nationalbcc.org. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

AGENDA

BALLOT

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should not cause disproportionate pain to the young, the old, and the sick. Focusing on jobs and Black business development can help Black people accumulate wealth, which reduces the number of poor people in Black communities who need government help.

3. EDUCATION – As the Florida Courier reported in September 2012, the racial achievement gap between Black and White students is narrowing so there’s progress to report. But Black boys are still woefully underperforming academically. Black students continue to be disproportionately disciplined by being suspended or expelled from school, which puts them directly into the school-to-prison pipeline.

The level of a person’s education is the single best predictor of economic success in America. Regardless of whether a child attends a public school or a private charter school, the factors of academic excellence are well known: focused, motivated teachers with the tools to get the job done, good administration, parental support, high expectations of students’ abilities, and accountability all around.

Ivory A. Toldson, Ph.D., a professor at Howard University, suggests improving counseling and advisement in predominantly Black high schools; ensuring that every high school has a college-bound curriculum; supporting Black male initiatives in college; advocating for funding for Pell Grants and needs-based scholarships; and advocating for universal access to public institutions of higher education and historically Black colleges and universities. The Obama administration should continue to encourage and fund such solutions.

4. HOUSING – A study by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) cited by the Washington Post found that Whites made up about 56 percent of the 2.5 million foreclosures completed between 2007 and 2009, but that non-White communities had significantly higher foreclosure rates. Blacks and Latinos were more than 70 percent more likely to lose their homes to foreclosure during that period, the study found.

Overall, Blacks lost about 240,020 homes to foreclosure between 2005 and 2008, according to the CRL study. A Pew Research study found that “from 2005 to 2009, median wealth fell by 66 percent among Hispanic households and 53 percent among Blacks, compared with 16 percent among Whites.

The losses left Hispanic and Black wealth at their lowest levels in at least 25 years,” according to the Christian Science Monitor.

The high rates of home foreclosures among African-Americans also damages credit scores, making it harder to borrow money for college, business development, or other beneficial personal investments.

The Obama administration’s foreclosure assistance programs were weak and left too much control in the hands of banks who were content to let the foreclosures proceed. Much of the recent multibillion-dollar settlement with “banksters” will go to lawyers, consultants, and to states. It comes too late for many who lost their homes to bogus foreclosures or filed bankruptcy to stay in their homes. The second round of foreclosure assistance targeting distressed homeowners was not well-publicized. The administration must target assistance to Black homeowners, who were disproportionately hurt, and use the Black Press to do so.

5. DISPROPORTIONATE INCARCERATION – America’s failure to deal with jobs, Black business development, education and housing leads directly to racially disproportionate imprisonment.

According to the Sentencing Project, there are approximately 2.3 million people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails; more than 60 percent are non-White. Many of the millions who are locked up struggle with mental health issues and drug addiction, low levels of educational attainment, and have histories of unemployment or under-

Smith said.

Reduced verbiage

FLORIDA COURIER FILES

Efforts to prepare Black boys for higher education should continue. employment.

For Black males in their thirties, 1 in every 10 is in prison or jail on any given day.

A Black male born in 2001 has a 32 percent chance of spending time in prison at some point in his life; a Hispanic male has a 17 percent chance; a White male has a 6 percent chance.

Solutions include changing draconian “three strikes” and minimum mandatory laws, investing in mental health and drug rehab treatment, reinstating parole and community release, and supporting probation and non-imprisonment alternatives.

6. GUN VIOLENCE – According to “Protect Children, Not Guns,” the Children’s Defense Fund 2012 report, “Black children and teens accounted for 45 percent of all child and teen gun deaths in 2008 and 2009 but were only 15 percent of the total child population. Black males ages 15-19 were eight times as likely as White males of the same age and two-and-a-half times as likely as their Hispanic peers to be killed in a gun homicide in 2009. The leading cause of death among Black teens ages 15 to 19 in 2008 and 2009 was gun homicide. For White teens 15 to 19, it was motor vehicle accidents followed by gun homicide in 2008 and gun suicide in 2009.” As the Obama administration responds to the Newtown school massacre, there must be resources devoted specifically to reducing and eventually eliminating gun violence among Black youth.

7. HIV/AIDS – According to Centers for Disease Control statistics, Black Americans face the most severe burden of HIV of all racial/ethnic groups in America. Despite representing only 14 percent of the U.S. population in 2009, African-Americans accounted for 44 percent of all new HIV infections that year. Black Americans account for a higher proportion of HIV infections at all stages of disease, from new infections to deaths. In 2009, Black men accounted for 70 percent of the estimated new HIV infections among all Blacks more than six and a half times higher than that of White men.

Young Black men who have sex with men and young Black women having unprotected heterosexual sex are at particular risk of getting new HIV infections.

Again, this issue results from failure to address joblessness, education, incarceration, and housing challenges in Black America. Those socioeconomic issues, including limited access to high-quality healthcare and HIV prevention education, directly and indirectly increase the risk for HIV infection and affect the health of people living with and at risk for HIV infection. Efforts to combat HIV/AIDS in Black America must be intensified, and Black community-based institutions must become more involved.

8. ‘OBAMACARE’ – It’s the law, but it’s still being demonized. There is massive confusion in Black America as what it will require and how it will be applied. As Obamacare takes a hold around the nation, the administration should work with the Black Press to help Black Americans understand the change Obamacare has wrought.

9. THE U.S. SUPREME COURT – The next president will probably appoint one and

possibly two U.S Supreme Court justices.

President Obama may have the chance to pick the first Black female justice, with current California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris as the No. 1 contender.

Right now, affirmative action in education is on the chopping block. Black America has no advocate on the court in the mold of the late Justice Thurgood Marshall. Obama should appoint a strong Black woman who could hold her own against neoconservative justices.

10. AFRICA POLICY – America is a day late and a dollar short with regard to building strong economic ties to Africa. As America focuses on spending billions of dollars fighting in Afghanistan and maintaining or extending its global military footprint, Chinese, European and Middle Eastern economic interests are spending billions to support nation-building in Africa’s fast-growing economies. Because of longtime historical, political, economic and educational ties to Africa, Black Americans should become the leading economic ambassadors to Africa; such a strategy should become a national priority.

11. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE – Historically, Black communities have borne a disproportionate burden of pollution from landfills, garbage dumps, incinerators, sewage treatment plants, chemical industries and a host of other polluting facilities, with the associated health problems (particularly cancer) that go along with living in proximity to such sites. Efforts to combat environmental racism in America must be greatly intensified.

12. AMERICA’S POLITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE – America’s political system is broken. Though this may not be a typically “Black” issue, it’s clear that the general dysfunction of America’s political system has a major impact on communities that can’t afford lobbyists or are otherwise not sufficiently organized to represent their own interests.

“Gerrymandered” districts elected or reelected GOP right-wingers will destroy the country rather than allow Obama to “win’’ anything. The Senate is held hostage by filibuster threats – something that Democrats refuse to change. Obama himself must be pushed to become part of the solution rather be a political survivor of the dysfunctional status quo.

Black Americans should begin to build coalitions with other grassroots organizations that are pushing for term limits for Congress, campaign finance reform, and proportional Electoral College voting, including support of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

Sources: Florida Courier archives; New York Amsterdam News; Schott Foundation for Public Education; Center for Responsible Lending; National Black Environmental Justice Network; theroot.com; the Washington Post; The Sentencing Project; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Centers for Disease Control; the Christian Science Monitor; Pew Research.

The state may not be able to do much about local referenda or races, but the constitutional amendments – all put on the ballot by legislators – could be pared back, both Scott and Gaetz said.

Shorter descriptions of amendments should at least be on the agenda, the governor said. Gaetz has another idea: Don’t put constitutional questions on the ballot if they’re not truly necessary. And he pledged that will be the case the next two years, because the Senate won’t advance any but the most urgent.

45 minutes The 11 constitutional amendments added up to more than 2,600 words, a length which the Florida Times Union newspaper estimated took about 13 minutes to read. The ballots in Duval and Clay counties in all included nearly 4,000 words total. The paper quoted the Duval County elections supervisor as saying it took one voter 45 minutes to complete the ballot at the elections office.

It’s not usually easy reading.

Consider this sentence: “Under the amendment, state revenues, as defined in the amendment, collected in excess of the revenue limitation must be deposited into the budget stabilization fund until the fund reaches its maximum balance, and thereafter shall be used for the support and maintenance of public schools by reducing the minimum financial effort required from school districts for participation in a state-funded education finance program, or, if the minimum financial effort is no longer required, returned to the taxpayers.”

Graduate degree necessary?

The words aren’t necessarily hard, but the average reader who has never heard of the budget stabilization fund, for example, might require a second run-through.

A 2011 study by two Georgia State University professors that was published in Political Research Quarterly found that the often obscure and legalistic language in a lot of ballot questions requires, on average, a graduate school level vocabulary.

But Gaetz is also skeptical about broad efforts to try to shorten the ballot, noting as Smith did, that the problems weren’t universal. He noted that in his home county of Okaloosa, the ballot was already shorter than in Miami-Dade and there also weren’t many other voting problems.

Citizens’ initiative remain Gaetz isn’t interested in trying to keep ordinary citizens, as opposed to lawmakers, from putting questions before voters, he said. That’s different from previous Florida Legislatures, which have tried to make it harder for citizen groups, shortening timelines for collecting signatures to get ballot measures approved, for example.

But Gaetz doesn’t want to make it any harder for ordinary people to change the constitution, no matter how long the ballot might get.

“It’s good to check in with the people more often, not less often,” Gaetz said. “I’m not at all sure the immediate answer to the elections problem of 2012 is to conclude we need to give the citizens of Florida less opportunity to speak their mind.”

JANUARY 11 – JANUARY 17, 2013

NATION

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More jobs in December, but jobless rate unchanged

BY KEVIN G. HALL MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS (MCT)

WASHINGTON — The unemployment rate held steady at 7.8 percent and employers added an additional 155,000 jobs in December, the government said last week in an employment report that was neither hot nor cold.

With the additional December jobs, employers added 1.835 million jobs in 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In normal times, that’d be a good showing, but recovery from the Great Recession continues to lumber along and the hiring numbers aren’t enough to bring down the high jobless rate.

Private-sector employers added 168,000 posts last month, but the overall number was dragged down by 13,000 government jobs lost. The 155,000 jobs reported fell in the range of the monthly average for all for 2012, which happened also to be the monthly average for 2011: 153,000. It means that hiring is on a steady, albeit not robust, trajectory.

“This was a ho-hum employment report. ... It does little to alter our near-term expectations over the trajectory of growth. Employment pickup? Check. Upward revisions? Check.

Pickup in earnings? Check.

Extension in the workweek? Check,” Neil Dutta, the head of economic research for forecaster Renaissance Macro, wrote in a note to investors.

Long road ahead All those monthly indi-

DECEMBER BY THE NUMBERS Health care, up 44,500.

Leisure and hospitality, up 31,000.

Construction, up 30,000.

Manufacturing, up 25,000.

Professional and business services, up 19,000.

Financial services, up 9.000.

Transportation, warehousing, down 600.

Temporary help services, down 600.

Retail, down 11,300.

Government, down 13,000.

cators were up slightly in December, with a combined upward revision to October and November hiring of 14,000 jobs. But none of them is up enough to make economists think that the recovery is kicking into higher gear.

“For me this report indicates an economy that is stuck on a shallow growth trajectory,” Steven Ricchiuto, the chief economist for Mizuho Securities USA, said in a research note.

For the White House, the continued growth in employment is a sign of a recovery moving forward.

“The economy has now added private-sector jobs for 34 straight months, and a total of 5.8 million jobs have been added over that period,” Alan Krueger, the head of the White House Council of Eco-

HEATHER CHARLES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/MCT

Roxie King poses for portrait in her home in Chicago in September 2012. King lost her job as a cardio echo ultrasound technician in 2010 and had been struggling to keep her Chicago home. nomic Advisers, said of the jobs numbers in his White House blog.

For others, however, the status-quo numbers underscore the long road that’s still ahead.

Could have been worse “The jobs deficit — the number of jobs lost since the recession officially began five years ago plus the number of jobs we should have added just to keep up with the normal growth in the potential labor force — remains nearly 9 million.

At December’s growth rate the labor market will not fill in that gap until the end of 2021,” Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the lib-

eral Economic Policy Institute, said in a statement on Jan. 4.

The jobs report could have been worse. Washington’s dysfunction over the “fiscal cliff,” which was only partly averted by a New Year’s Eve deal, has weighed on hiring. And both growth and hiring are being held back as the Northeast struggles to recover from the flooding and other damage caused by superstorm Sandy.

“This is a constructive report from an economic growth perspective. Employment (particularly in the private sector) continued to expand at a moderate rate in the final three months of 2012 despite the uncertainties over the fis-

cal cliff,” wrote economists at RDQ Economics in New York, holding off on the superlatives.

Positive signs Within the numbers, there were positive signs for 2013. The labor-intensive manufacturing and construction sectors ended 2012 on an up note, respectively adding 25,000 and 30,000 jobs in December.

The leisure and hospitality sector added 31,000 jobs in the month, a sign that businesses and individuals are opening their wallets more.

The health care sector, which never stopped hiring, even in the depths of the recession and the

U.S. financial crisis, added 44,500 jobs in December.

Along with the 13,000 government jobs lost, the retail sector shaved off more than 11,000 positions in December amid flat sales.

Measures of underemployment and stress in the labor market remained largely unchanged in December. The number of long-term jobless, out of work for half a year or more, held steady at 4.8 million and accounted for 39 percent of all the unemployed.

Similarly, the number of workers who have parttime jobs but reported they’d like full-time employment also held steady at 7.9 million.

One of country’s top track coaches resigns over 2002 affair with athlete ASSOCIATED PRESS

University of Texas women’s track coach Bev Kearney resigned on Jan. 5 and acknowledged in an interview with the Austin AmericanStatesman that she had an intimate relationship with an athlete in her program in 2002.

Kearney, who won six national championships since 1993, was placed on paid leave in November as university officials investigated unspecified issues within the program. In a statement, university officials said the relation- Bev ship was first reported to the school in Octo- Kearney ber and the school was taking measures to fire Kearney before she resigned.

Neither Kearney nor the university identified the former Texas athlete. Kearney told the newspaper it was a “consensual intimate relationship” that began in July 2002 and ended later that year.

‘Poor judgment’ CHARLES BERTRAM/LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER/MCT

Brittany Fulz of Kentucky is loaded down as she shops at Toys”R”Us/Babies”R”Us in Lexington on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22, 2012.

Holiday sales down 3.4 percent compared to previous year

BY SHAN LI LOS ANGELES TIMES (MCT)

Early signs point to a holiday season that was not nearly as merry as retailers had hoped.

Sales were down 3.4 percent compared to the year before, while the number of store visits plunged 16.4 percent, according to a report from coupon site RetailMeNot. Aside from Black Friday and Cyber Monday, spending came late into the season, the report found.

Four of the five busiest shopping days fell within 10 days of Christmas, with Dec. 22 (commonly known as Super Saturday) surpassing even Black Friday.

Post-Christmas shoppers between Dec. 26 and the new year handed retailers a 12.7 percent jump in sales despite traffic into stores actually falling 8.5 percent as retailers got better at converting browsers into buyers.

“There were important shifts in calendar days this season, which

impacted sales and traffic to stores,” said Shelley Kohan, RetailMeNot vice president of retail consulting.

She noted that Christmas last year fell on a Sunday, which suppressed sales on Saturday but boosted shopping on the day after Christmas, which was a Monday.

This year, merchants enjoyed a robust weekend before Christmas, which fell on a Tuesday, but also experienced a drop on the Dec. 26 compared to a year earlier.

Patti Ohlendorf, Texas vice president for legal affairs, said school officials don’t believe Kearney had any similar relationships with other student athletes.

“Coach Kearney is a good person and has been very important to the university. However, she made this terrible mistake and used unacceptably poor judgment in having this relationship,” Ohlendorf said.

Despite Kearney’s characterization of a consensual relationship between adults, Ohlendorf said the university “cannot condone such an intimate relationship, including one that is consensual, between a head coach and an student athlete.

We told Coach Kearney such a relationship is unprofessional and crosses the line of trust placed in the head coach for all aspects of the athletic program and the best interests of the student athletes on the team.”

Top track coach The 55-year-old Kearney was among the highest-profile women’s track coaches in the country and the university was planning to give her a raise before she was suspended. Kearney was inducted into the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2007. She’s also a member of the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.

In her interview with the Statesman, Kearney said she didn’t know why the relationship resurfaced a decade after it ended.

“You destroy yourself. You start questioning how could you make such a judgment,” she said. “How could you make such an error after all the years? You can get consumed (by it) … I didn’t commit a crime, but I displayed poor judgment.”

EDITORIAL

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JANUARY 11 – JANUARY 17, 2013

Black-owned banks still making a difference Starting during the 1930s, the Mitchells of Washington were close friends with Edward Kennedy Ellington’s family. So, in 2009 when the Duke Ellington Commemorative Quarter was to be distributed, the Ellington family selected the Mitchell’s Industrial Bank on the historic U Street corridor to begin distributing the quarter.

The Ellingtons and Mitchells are evidence of the evolution of the nation’s Black middle class. The families grew up in LeDroit Park, an area of urban, narrow row houses anchored by Howard University. The bank of LeDroit Park residents, Industrial Bank of Washington, grew to be one of America’s oldest Black-owned banks. The bank and Mitchell family are testaments to the Washington Black busi-

WILLIAM REED BUSINESS EXCHANGE

ness movement.

When it opened, Industrial Bank was Washington’s only Black-owned bank. Jesse Mitchell, a 1907 Howard University Law School grad, started Industrial Bank of Washington in 1934. A range of Black investors – including individuals, churches, and service-oriented organizations – rallied around the effort. The bank has had a national impact through three generations: Mitchell’s son, B. Doyle Mitchell Sr., succeeded him as president in 1953.

He was succeeded in 1993

by his grandson, B. Doyle Mitchell Jr., as president and CEO and his granddaughter, Patricia A. Mitchell, as executive vice president. Under their guidance, Industrial Bank remains a familyowned business that has 150 employees and $350 million in assets.

The story of Industrial Bank of Washington is of importance to Black Americans because as Black wealth has evolved, Industrial Bank has, over generations, delivered banking and financial services toward the growth and development of the nation’s largest and longest enduring Black middle class.

Both the bank and Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington are Washington legends. The “Duke” and other Black music legends helped

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: YEAR OF THE SNAKE

establish the U Street entertainment corridor. On February 26, 2009, Industrial Bank led the way when the jazz musician became the first Black American to be prominently featured on a U.S. coin in circulation with the release of a quarter honoring the District of Columbia.

In “Images of America: Industrial Bank,” B. Doyle Jr. and Patricia A. Mitchell have produced a good look and insight into Black Washington over the past seven decades. The book is a worthwhile look into the Black banking world, people and events.

Black capitalism Since slavery, Africans in America have realized the necessity of accumulating wealth and the subsequent benefits of collective financial security. The Free African Society, the Free Labor Bank, and the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company laid the groundwork for Black capitalism in America.

Black banks gave AfricanAmericans a venue in which to learn about and partici-

pate in the business of banking. They helped Blacks learn valuable economic lessons about being industrious and saving money.

African-American churches and fraternal organizations served as pooling places for capital needed to open banks sensitive to the needs of African-Americans.

“In Images of America: Industrial Bank,” the authors tell the story of the institution in 130-pages with more than 200 vintage images that brings to the fore the people, places, and events that shaped the character of Washington through history and until today.

The bank held accounts for the National Business League, the National Bankers Association, the National Newspaper Publishers Association (the Black Press of America) and most national fraternal and sorority organizations.

In the book, the Mitchells have defined a community as the bank’s story is illustrated through images from the Industrial Bank archives and the Scurlock Studio Records, Archives Center, National Museum of Ameri-

can History, Behring Center and Smithsonian Institution. The foreword was composed by Edward Ellington Jr. and April Ellington, son and daughter of “The Duke.”

Lesson well learned “Images of America: Industrial Bank” is a “must read” for Blacks. The book is published by Arcadia Publishing – www.arcadiapublishing.com. Learning about what has become a mainstay for Black Washingtonians will be a lesson well learned. Industrial Bank has received wide acclaim for its community reinvestments and performances.

B. Doyle Mitchell Jr. says, they provide “services to create a vibrant local community based on encouraging thriving businesses.”

William Reed is head of the Business Exchange Network and available for speaking/seminar projects through the Bailey Group. org. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Blacks continue to be tricked by politicians Bob Englehart, The Hartford Courant

Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 164 No gender diversity in Obama’s top management – Some White progressive women are going off on Bro. Prez, triggered by a New York Times article entitled, “Obama’s Remade Inner Circle Has an AllMale Look, So Far.” The article was complete with an official White House picture with 11 senior advisors on fiscal matters: nine White men, one Black woman (his friend Valerie Jarrett), one Black man.

I don’t know many Black folks who’ve watched this administration that are surprised that Bro. Prez’s top advisers in every governmental sector are White men. And you can bet all of them have Ivy League or Wall Street backgrounds or both. What change?

Happy birthday, Tricky Dick! This week, the late former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon would have turned 100 had he lived. The best way to describe him?

“Complex.” What else would you call a man who did more to support Black entrepreneurship through enforcement of affirmative action than Barack Obama has thus far – but who still believed that Black people would eventually strengthen America after about 500 years of “inbreeding” because “they are strong physically and some of them are smart”? Yup, he said that. Check the “Watergate” tapes...

Black kids’ names – Two of my cousins

quick takes from #2: straight, no chaser

Charles W. Cherry II, Esq. PUBLISHER

in Atlanta have spent decades working in educational, sociological and psychological circles in inner-city Atlanta. Over the years, I’ve laughed and shook my head at the names of some of their students or clients.

This year, my cousin wrote this on an index card: “S – A”. She told a bunch of us sitting in the living room that was a real first name. She asked us to pronounce it.

My brother Glenn got it right almost immediately.

The name is pronounced “SADASHA” and is spelled “S-A.” Square biz. My cousin said S-A had the nerve to get mad if you couldn’t spell her name correctly. (Be advised that S-A’s name has been slightly changed to protect her guilty mama.)

Contact me at ccherry2@gmail.com; holler at me at www.facebook.com/ ccherry2; follow me on Twitter @ccherry2.

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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Charles W. Cherry, Sr. (1928-2004), Founder Julia T. Cherry, Senior Managing Member, Central Florida Communicators Group, LLC Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Cassandra CherryKittles, Charles W. Cherry II, Managing Members Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Chief Executive Officer Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher Dr. Valerie Rawls-Cherry, Human Resources Jenise Morgan, Senior Editor Lynnette Garcia, Marketing Consultant/Sales Linda Fructuoso, Marketing Consultant/Sales, Circulation Angela VanEmmerik, Creative Director Chicago Jones, Eugene Leach, Louis Muhammad, Lisa Rogers-Cherry, Circulation James Harper, Andreas Butler, Ashley Thomas, Staff Writers Delroy Cole, Kim Gibson, Photojournalists MEMBER National Newspaper Publishers Association Society of Professional Journalists Florida Press Association Associated Press National Newspaper Association

Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means.

These feats are called magic tricks, effects or illusions.

One who performs such illusions is called a magician or an illusionist. Some performers may also be referred to by names reflecting the type of magical effects they present, such as prestidigators, conjurors, mentalists or escape artists.

The world’s greatest magicians are the government illusionists. People that you voted for to represent you in government make you think they are representing you when they are really representing themselves!

The biggest tricks are being pulled on AfricanAmerican citizens and African-American owned businesses.

Politicians will tell you that they like you, tell you that they support you, tell you that they will protect you and they tell you that they will help you.

The truth of the matter is that politicians have made anything and everything that appears to be for minorities, the disadvantaged or the diverse vanish and disappear!

Blacks put last Black communities, Black schools, Black organizations and Black people that put their favorite politicians

Lucius Gantt THE GANTT REPORT

first are always put last by the people they voted for.

The government programs allegedly created to assist Black business appear to be merely road blocks that unfairly require nonwhite vendors to fill out mounds of paperwork and so called “certifications” while white businesses only have to submit a bid for government jobs.

When government illusionists are asked, “How much government money was spent with Black businesses?”, Black businessmen are instructed to ask the White contractors.

Government illusionists make you think there is a government contract in the hat when all that is in the hat is a white rabbit!

Some people hired by governments to assist Black businesses try their best to help but most employees of so-called Black Business offices have never ran a business, never made payroll, never paid a business tax and perhaps, never spent money with a Black business.

magicians too. They vote on government appropriations but when Black businesses say they are not given chances to participate in government contracting opportunities, the Black legislators say they didn’t know that.

Cubans, for instance, have their participation in government programs like Lotteries written into law.

Now, you tell me again, why it is mandatory to do business with Cubans and other Hispanics but it is also OK to do zero business with African-Americans?

Tricky politicians will fuss and fight for months about fiscal cliffs and debt limits but at the end of the day all they will do is print more money even if paper money is like a bee without honey and no stinger to back the bee up.

The easiest trick for government magicians to pull is an escape act! Get out of office and let someone take your seat that wants to serve the people.

The people are tired of being mislead, tricked and bamboozled!

Buy Gantt’s book “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” at any major bookstore and contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net. Click on this Ignorant Black story at www.flcourier. legislators com to write your own reBlack elected officials are sponse.

Triumphs and tragedies of 2012 “I miss you, baby girl.

Sweet caramel princess. African-American, Puerto Rican Canadian with a wee bit of Irish…We will honor your classmates you loved so dearly too. As well as the teachers and staff. Love wins.”

— Nelba MarquezGreene, the mother of 6-year-old Sandy Hook victim, Ana Grace MarquezGreene As we begin 2013, I want to take a moment to reflect on some of the major triumphs and tragedies of the past year.

First, as many of you know, the National Urban League’s number one priority this year was our “Occupy the Vote” campaign, devoted to defeating the onslaught of voter ID laws and other tactics designed to suppress voter turnout among African-Americans and other progressive voters.

By all indications, our ef-

MARC H. MORIAL TRICE EDNEY WIRE

fort, in concert with many others across the country, was successful.

On Nov. 6, President Obama was re-elected with overwhelming support from the very communities that were targets of the voter suppression crowd.

In fact, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis, “Blacks voted at a higher rate this year than other minority groups and for the first time in history may also have voted at a higher rate than Ehites.” Our thanks to everyone who helped us Occupy the Vote in 2012.

We also want to again extend our gratitude to all those who came to the aid of the victims of Superstorm Sandy that struck New York and the Mid-Atlantic region

in October.

Sandy was a natural disaster that claimed more than 100 lives, but this year also saw one of the most horrific man-made disasters in American history – the shooting deaths of 20 elementary school students and six others in a school in Newtown, Conn.

While the nation is still mourning this tragedy, the National Urban League has called for a reinstatement of the assault weapons ban, along with a comprehensive review of all gun laws to close loopholes and strengthen enforcement.

We must take action now to end the scourge of gun violence in America.

Marc H. Morial, former mayor of New Orleans, is president and CEO of the National Urban League.

Click on this story at www. flcourier.com to write your own response.

JANUARY 11 – JANUARY 17, 2013

50 years of making history in courts, not streets As we celebrate the arrival of 2013, it is imperative that we reflect upon the 50 years of civil rights victories and struggles since the historic year of 1963, which, in many ways, launched the modern civil rights movement. It was during this time of transformative change for our nation that the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was established.

The summer of 1963 saw murders, bombs, beatings, jailing and threats to those who sought an equal society. It also witnessed the collective public rise up through open demonstrations and other joint public actions that sought to expose and end racial discrimination and segregation.

On June 11, Alabama Governor George Wallace made his infamous vow to prevent court-ordered desegregation of the University of Alabama. On June 12, Medgar Evers, field secretary for the NAACP, was tragically assassinated by a member of the White Citizens Council in Jackson, Mississippi. On Aug. 28, at the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired the world with his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Kennedy’s influence Facing this unprecedented time of strife and hope, President John F. Kennedy took to national television to call for a new positive civil rights legal framework, stating, “it is better to settle these matters in

BARBARA R. ARNWINE TRICE EDNEY WIRE

the courts than on the streets.”

On June 21, 1963, he convened a historic meeting of some 244 lawyers from throughout the United States and called for the formation of the Lawyers’ Committee to mobilize the considerable “pro bono” resources of the private bar in the leadership of the fight for racial justice. I have been privileged to lead this organization for the last 24 years.

As we celebrate our 50th anniversary this year with the national “Toward Justice” Campaign, we will be engaging an army of lawyers, grassroots activists and ordinary Americans for racial and social justice and inspiring a new generation of leaders. Our Campaign is chaired by the great civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis.

Along with his wife, Lillian Miles Lewis, who sadly passed away on Dec. 31, 2012, Congressman Lewis has fought for decades to utilize the political sphere to advance civil rights.

In the 50 years since 1963, we have seen major legislative civil rights victories, including the passage of landmark legislation such as the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act and Fair Housing Act. Additionally, we have fought in the courts on behalf of millions

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VISUAL VIEWPOINT: VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT SLAMMED

of clients to give true meaning to the promise of racial justice, emboldened in the states by the enforcement of these laws by private attorney generals. Yet our nation still faces tremendous challenges.

Inequities still exist During the 2012 elections, we successfully battled against new voter suppression laws in 46 states designed to disenfranchise specific categories of voters including racial minorities, the young, the elderly, low-income and the disabled. Those proposed laws represented a symptom of the many inequities that still exist in our beloved nation. Voting is but one of a myriad of civil rights inequities that continue to persist.

African-Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of Whites. Eight times more African-American children attend high poverty schools than do White children. Poverty rates for African-American and Hispanic families triple that of White families; and the unemployment rates for minorities remain in or bordering on double digits (African-Americans at 14.0 percent and Hispanics at 9.6 percent), while the unemployment rate for Whites is 6.9 percent.

The Lawyers’ Committee’s broad and innovative programmatic agenda in the courts, legislatures, transactional services and public policy and public education arenas will be critical in combating these barriers and opening up our society for true racial

Jeff Parker, Florida Today and the Fort Myers News-Press

equality and social justice.

Rise up people In 2013, we must remain vigilant and engaged and demand that the government is proactively leading the entire nation toward justice and equality for all.

The Lawyers’ Committee and our many allies will continue to win battles, as we did fighting against voter suppression tactics that could have impeded as many as five million Americans from casting their ballots in the presidential election.

Through the courts and good old-fashioned voter education and mobilization, we demonstrated to the enemies of Democracy that they would never have a free hand to oppose justice. We have also demonstrated that whenever

evil tactics abound, “we the people” will rise up with a standard of justice to oppose it.

Moving into 2013 and beyond we must keep our eyes on the prize that remains elusive even 50 years later, remaining unified and ever vigilant against the ignorance and intolerance that impedes racial progress in America.

Barbara R. Arnwine is president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The Lawyers’ Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy.

For more information, www. lawyerscommittee.org. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Boehner: Intemperate, ignorant, out of control Congressman John Boehner was re-elected speaker of the House of Representatives with a narrow vote. Needing 218 votes, he barely clinched it with 220. His narrow vote reflects the fact that no Democrat would vote for him and that many Republicans are disillusioned of him.

Perhaps it also reflects the fact that he has so poorly comported himself that he does not deserve reelection.

Cursing made public Most folks who curse do it behind closed doors. In deference to their position, they attempt to parse their public statements to reflect the dignity of the office they hold. Not Mr. Boehner, who dropped the “f” bomb at Senator Harry Reid not once, but twice, in the middle of fiscal cliff negotiations. To his credit, Senator Reid did not respond, but behaved as if he perhaps did not hear the out-of-control Boehner.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives comported himself as intemperate, ignorant and out of control.

The fact that Boehner appeared out of control is no surprise to those who have observed him over these past two years. He leads with bombast and bluster then backs down into defensiveness and profanity. Last Decem-

The fact that Boehner DR. JULIANNE MALVEAUX TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

ber, he refused to compromise with President Obama on fiscal matters surrounded by a defiant set of Republicans who agreed with him. When he backed down, he was surrounded by not a soul, virtually abandoned by his party.

Rebuked by own party Déjà vu. After pontificating, and offering a nonsensical Plan B for a House vote, his party rebuked him and he had tuck tail and sit down at the negotiating table. No wonder he managed so much ire that he cursed the Senate Majority leader.

You can cuss in public and you can cuss in private. The fact that Boehner chose to kick New York to the curb as a big an “f” bomb as the one he offered Senator Reid. After being promised that relief for Hurricane Sandy was forthcoming, Boehner broke his promise and pushed the vote back to the 113th Congress.

Only after Democrats and Republicans, governors and Congressional representatives excoriated him on the House floor, did

appeared out of control is no surprise to those who have observed him over these past two years. He leads with bombast and bluster then backs down into defensiveness and profanity. he agree to vote on $9 billion plan on January 5, with another $53 billion up for vote on January 15.

Meanwhile, many New Yorkers are still living in the backs of their cars, lacking electricity and other basic needs, eating in soup kitchens, bathing in shelters, no better off than they were when the hurricane hit. Have we not learned lessons from Hurricane Katrina?

Can we not get relief to people

just a bit sooner? Must New Yorkers be treated as pawns in this partisan nonsense? Should Boehner have the right to metaphorically fling the “f” bomb at them?

Righteous rage New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, have expressed their righteous rage at Congressional chicanery. This has not moved a Congress that bootstrapped fiscal cliff legislation with goodies for Puerto Rican rum producers, some Hollywood moguls, and other assorted pork.

The day of the earmark has supposedly expired, but those with special interests spent more time promoting them than they did not repairing the damage from Hurricane Sandy.

Congressman Peter King (RN.Y.) calmed down after a private meeting with Boehner. He had it absolutely right before he calmed down though. Then he raised questions about the way Congressional representatives run to New York for fundraisers and support, but have not rushed to support New York and New Jersey in this crisis.

While monies may yet be forthcoming, it should have hit New York, Connecticut and New Jersey at least a month ago. And

while $9 billion is seemingly assured, with a new Congress, the affected areas may be lacking much longer.

Incompetent congress I’d bet that if one of Boehner’s Ohio’s eighth district constituents complained about sleeping in a car, he might care more. I am sure he wouldn’t bristle and use profanity (or behave profanely) with those who presumably vote for him. But Boehner has abdicated all claims to decency in the past year or so. He has led a nonproductive and incompetent Congress, and tainted fiscal cliff negotiations with earmarks and set-asides.

Why not an earmark for hurricane victims? Why not pure decency for his peer, Senator Harry Reid? Why not pretend to have good sense, even if you don’t.

Can Boehner stoop any lower?

Let’s see what other stunts he pulls as House Majority Leader of the 113th Congress.

Julianne Malveaux is a Washington, D.C.-based economist and writer. She is president emerita of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Resolve to end child poverty, violence As New Year’s Eve countdowns wound down, many people turned to the familiar ritual of taking stock of where they are now to make resolutions for what they can do better in the new year.

We all measure our accomplishments and shortcomings in different ways. Some people count numbers on a scale or in a savings account. But what if we decided to take stock as a nation by measuring how we treat our children?

If we did that kind of countdown, we’d learn: Every second and a half during the school year a public school student receives an out-of-school suspension.

Every 8 seconds during the school year a public high school student drops out.

Every 32 seconds a child is born into poverty in America.

Every 47 seconds a child is abused or neglected.

Every 72 seconds a baby is born without health insurance.

Every 5 ½ hours a child is killed by abuse or neglect.

A majority of all American

Marian Wright Edelman NNPA COLUMNIST

fourth- and eighth-grade public school students can’t read or do math at grade level, including 76 percent or more of Black and Latino students.

Many children hungry Millions of American children start school not ready to learn and millions more lack safe, affordable, quality child care and early childhood education.

If we were counting we’d see that millions of poor children are hungry, at risk of hunger, living in worst case housing, or are homeless in America.

And we would find a child or teen is killed by a firearm about every three hours and 15 minutes — more than seven every single day. The devastation at Sandy Hook put the media spotlight on a tragedy that strikes families in communities across America

daily as a result of our nation’s shameful refusal to protect children instead of guns.

In 2010, 2,694 children and teens died from gun violence.

Justice for children What do these numbers tell us about who we are and who we hope to be? Why do we choose to let children be the poorest age group in our rich nation and to let millions of children suffer preventable sickness, neglect, abuse, miseducation, and violence?

Why do we continue to mock God’s call for justice for children and the poor and our professed ideals of freedom and justice for all?

It’s time for new resolutions backed by urgent and persistent action. In 2013, the United States celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and of the Birmingham movement.

Our first African-American president will be inaugurated for a second term, in a public ceremony that will take place the same day as our national holiday

honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., our prophet of nonviolence.

How will we honor and carry forth our long struggle towards freedom and equality?

Let’s resolve not to make this another year of platitudes and remembering the dream but make this a year of action to end child poverty and violence as Dr. King called for.

Dr. King said: “The Declaration of Independence proclaimed to a world, organized politically and spiritually around the concept of the inequality of man, that the dignity of human personality was inherent in man as a living being.

The Emancipation Proclamation was the offspring of the Declaration of Independence.

Our pride and progress could be unqualified if the story might end here. But history reveals that America has been a schizophrenic personality where these two documents are concerned.

On the one hand she has proudly professed the basic principles inherent in both documents.

On the other hand she has sadly practiced the antithesis of these principles.”

Reaffirm democracy He concluded: “There is but one way to commemorate the Emancipation Proclamation. That is to make its declarations of freedom real; to reach back to the origins of our nation when our message of equality electrified an unfree world, and reaffirm democracy by deeds as bold and daring as the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.”

Let’s match the history of this 2013 moment with bold and daring steps to close the gap between what every child needs to grow to productive adulthood, what we know works, and what we do to ensure their healthy development. It must begin with safety from guns. If the child is safe all of us are safe.

Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Children’s Defense Fund. For more information, go to www.childrensdefense.org. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

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FLORIDA

JANUARY 11 – JANUARY 17, 2013

Revenue, pension are top 2013 issues for local governments

BY MICHAEL PELTIER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – Pensions and taxes lead a list of priorities for local governments as the 2013 legislative session approaches, with other less critical issues waiting just off stage.

City and county governments are hoping the state’s improved financial picture will give them some breathing room and quell a recent trend in Tallahassee to place limits on how local governments can raise revenue and how that money can be spent.

Squeezed in recent years by lower property values, a drop in home sales and an anti-tax mood in the Legislature, representatives of the state’s 67 counties and more than 400 municipalities say they hope to protect their autonomy while beginning to again reap the benefits of an improving economy.

Major concerns For many cities, increasingly expensive pensions, especially for police and firefighters, are gobbling up larger portions of cash strapped budgets.

County governments are looking for the state to pick up the tab for juvenile justice detention and Medicaid while providing counties with more flexibility in how they can spend collections from the communication services tax, which they say is one of the few major sources of discretionary revenue.

“All told, the three of those combined is about $700 million, so it's a pretty significant hit when you look at them, especially taken together,” said Cragin Mosteller, spokeswoman for the Florida Association of Counties.

Services tax Both groups have been eying changes to the state’s communication services tax.

Originally established in 2000 as a way to consolidate taxes on a growing list of communication services, the tax generated about $1.5 billion in revenue last year, according to Department of Revenue estimates.

Of that, cities and countries receive about half.

Local governments claim-ed changes made earlier this year would have a negative impact on them, but state economists couldn’t determine what the long term economic impact would be on local collections.

“It is a complicated issue, and we certainly recognize the need to update the law,” Mosteller said.

“But it is imperative it be revenue-neutral.

These are critical dollars for local governments.”

that of other government workers.

In seven years, contributions for public safety employees grew from 28 to 41 percent.

“For cities, the biggest is-

sue is pensions,” said Scott Dudley, director of legislative affairs for the Florida League of Cities. “I guess you could call that our ‘super priority,’” Dudley said.

The battle pits cities

against unions, whose representatives have been urging lawmakers to avoid the temptation of putting in place statewide policies instead of letting local governments and their

employees hammer out agreements that meet their specific needs.

“There are some bad ones, but we don’t think the good ones like Tampa or Tallahassee should be

punished because some city in southwest Florida or southeast Florida is having problems,” said Matt Puckett, executive director of the Police Benevolent Association.

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Pension shortfalls While funding remains the biggest county concern, Mosteller said, the group is also tracking legislation on a range of issues from protecting local fertilizer ordinances to ensuring that counties have a seat at the table on anything dealing with water supply.

For cities, much of the flack is over pensions paid to police and firefighters.

While many cities have adequately funded pensions, some municipalities have seen their ability to fund pension benefits erode as the economy went south and tax collections dipped.

Further, changes made in 1999 make it more difficult for cities to modify benefits to address pension shortfalls.

‘Super priority’ A September study by the LeRoy Collins Institute, a Tallahassee-based think-tank housed at Florida State University, found pensions for police, firefighters and other special category employees grew at a much steeper rate than

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January 11 - January 17, 2013

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President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama bow in prayer at the ending prayer recited by House of Representatives Chaplin Daniel Coughlin in Statutory Hall at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 20, 2009.

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President Barack Obama takes the oath as the 44th U.S. President with his wife, Michelle, by his side at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2009.

TRAVIS HEYING/WICHITA EAGLE/MCT

Cecillia Hailey of Atlanta, foreground, cheers along with those around her as Barack Obama is introduced shortly before taking the oath of office.

The McWhite family of Orlando reacts in 2009 as President-elect Barack Obama is sworn-in as the 44th U.S. president. From left, Sharon McWhite, Theo McWhite, son Austin McWhite, and mother Ernestine McWhite.

Reviewing inaugural history

By Robert S. Boyd McClatchy Newspapers

Inaugurals are a mixture of pomp, festival and gravity, the American equivalent of a coronation. Their rituals are laden with symbols of national purpose, continuity and unity. For 220 years, they have marked the peaceful transfer of power, a feat few other countries have achieved.

Presidents have tinkered with the ceremony to reflect their personal style and the state of the nation.

There’ve been top hats and bare heads, cheers and boos along parade routes, unruly mobs in the White House, poets and preachers, brilliant sunshine and bitter cold, glamorous balls and tragic circumstances.

Almost always the day has featured a solemn swearing-in, an inaugural address, one or more parades, plus parties, receptions and fancy balls far into the night.

The heart of the affair is the inaugural oath, first recited by George Washington on the balcony of New York City’s Federal Hall, the original seat of government, on April 30, 1789.

The 35-word oath is prescribed in the Constitution, but Washington added the phrase “So help me God” and placed his left hand on a Bible hastily borrowed from a Masonic Lodge on Wall Street. Most later presidents have followed the founding father’s precedent.

Washington’s successor, John Adams, took the oath in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall.

Thomas Jefferson did it in the new Senate chamber in the District of Columbia in 1801. James Monroe moved the ceremony outside to the east front of the Capitol in 1817.

It remained there until 1981, when Ronald Reagan switched it to the Capitol’s west front as

trivia Who gave the first televised inaugural address? Harry S. Truman on Jan. 20, 1949.

Who gave the first inaugural address to be broadcast live on the Internet? Bill Clinton in his second address, Jan. 20, 1997.

Who gave an inaugural address one year, then gave the one after the next president? Grover Cleveland gave his second inaugural address on March 4, 1893.

To date, this is the only time a president has been elected, lost to his opponent in the next election cycle, then been elected again to serve a second term.

a giant stage prop for his inauguration.

Sub-zero temperatures drove Reagan inside the Capitol building in 1985 for his second oath-taking and forced the cancellation of his parade, disappointing 12,000 marchers, 66 floats and 57 bands.

Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson showed their common touch by eschewing carriages and walking up to Capitol Hill to be sworn in. Jimmy Carter delighted the crowd and horrified the Secret Service by leaving his armored limousine after the swearing-in, and strolling down Pennsylvania Avenue with his wife and children to the White House. Both Bushes, the Clintons and the Obamas walked part of the way at their inaugurals as well.

Until Benjamin Harrison’s 1889 inauguration, the parades usually moved up the hill to the Capitol. Since then, they’ve flowed down the hill past the White House reviewing stand.

Some grander parades lasted

Jimmy Carter Library/National Archives/MCT

President Jimmy Carter, center left, and wife Rosalynn walk down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington during his 1977 inauguration.

library of congress/mct

President Herbert Hoover, left, and President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt ride to the U.S. Capitol for Roosevelt’s inauguration in Washington, D.C., in March 1933. well into darkness.

After his 1829 parade, Andrew Jackson opened the White House to thousands of his hungry and thirsty followers, who tracked in mud, broke windows

and wrecked furniture. After Lincoln’s second inaugural in 1865, unruly guests stole silver and draperies.

There’ve been awkward moments between incoming and outgoing presidents. Adams boycotted Jefferson’s inauguration in 1801. Ulysses Grant refused to ride in the same carriage as Andrew Johnson in 1869. Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt drove to the Capitol in chilly silence in 1933.

Not all inaugurals have been joyous occasions. Andrew Johnson took the oath in his boardinghouse the day after Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865. In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in in Buffalo, N.Y., where William McKinley had died earlier that day.

A grim-faced Lyndon Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One on the day John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas.

Gerald Ford took the oath in the East Room of the White House after Richard Nixon resigned in 1974.

Ever since Washington, most presidents have launched their

term with a formal address, usually calling for national reconciliation and setting out their vision for the future.

Washington and Adams gave their inaugural speeches in person. Jefferson and a century of his successors sent theirs to Congress in writing. Wilson renewed the personal address in 1913.

Some inaugural addresses have etched lines in the national memory: • Thomas Jefferson: “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.’’

• Franklin Roosevelt: “... the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’’

• John Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.’’

• Gerald Ford “Our long national nightmare is over.’’

At Kennedy’s snow-swept inaugural in 1961, the glare of the sun and a stiff breeze kept Robert Frost from reading a poem he had written for the occasion.

Vice President Lyndon Johnson tried to shade the lectern with his top hat, but the 86-year-old poet protested “I can’t see in this light.’’ Instead, he recited from memory one of his earlier poems, “The Gift Outright.’’

William Henry Harrison’s 1841 address — an hour and 40 minutes long, delivered without hat or coat on a cold, damp day — turned tragic. The 68-yearold Harrison developed pneumonia and died a month later.

His vice president, John Tyler, was sworn in at his hotel and never gave an inaugural address.

Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009 drew a record 1.8 million people to the National Mall to witness the swearing-in of the country’s first black president.

To read the inaugural addresses of former presidents: www.inaugural.senate.gov/ swearing-in/addresses

Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune/MCT

A record 1.8 million people flocked to the National Mall to watch President Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009.

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CALENDAR & OBITS

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FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Jacksonville: Harvest Group Institute will host a “Key Essentials for Your Total Success” seminar Jan. 19 at the Crown Plaza Hotel-Jacksonville, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

More information: 904554-0946, www.HarvestGroupInstitute.com or email HarvestGroup@ mail.com.

Cocoa: Celebrate Mardi Gras Feb. 9 from 5 p.m. to midnight at 100 Harrison St., Cocoa Village.

More information: 321639-3500.

St. Petersburg: Legendary R&B singer Mavis Staples is scheduled at the Mahaffey Theater on Jan. 19 for an 8 p.m. show.

Tampa: Rap sensation Young Jeezy will perform at the Amphitheatre Entertainment Complex at Ybor on Jan. 21 for a 7 p.m. show.

Orlando: The Lights Out Festival featuring Lil Jon will be at the UCF Arena Jan. 11 for a 5:30 p.m. show.

JANUARY 11 – JANUARY 17, 2013

National Archives celebrating 150th anniversary of Emancipation Proclamation

CHEF MARVIN WOODS

The 24th Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities takes place Jan. 26 to Feb. 3 in Eatonville. Celebrity chef Martin Wood, right, will be part of interactive programming focusing on nutrition and healthy lifestyles. Complete www.zorafestival.com.

FROM STAFF REPORTS

NATALIE COLE

Deandre Brackensick

Concerts featuring Natalie Cole are scheduled Jan. 20 at The Mahaffey in St. Petersburg, Jan. 22 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale and Jan. 23 at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.

The 13th Annual Tampa Bay Black Heritage Festival takes place in Tampa Jan. 17-26.

A street festival at Curtis Hixon Park on Jan. 19 will feature an old-school concert with Con Funk Shun, Klymaxx and Deandre Brackensick of “American Idol.’’ More information: www.tampablackheritage.org.

Winter Park: The Unity Heritage Festival will be held Jan. 20 from 1 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. and Jan. 21 from 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. at Shady Park, 721 W. New England Ave. The festival will feature gospel artists and family events. More information: 407-599-3275.

turing Civil War re-enactments, historical exhibits, folk music and camp re-creations will be held Feb. 1-3 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. at the Renninger’s Antique Center, 20651 U.S. Highway 441. $6 adults, $4 ages 12 and younger. More information: 407-418-2075.

Mount Dora: The Battle of Townsend’s Plantation & Civil War Festival fea-

Ocoee: The City of Ocoee is accepting parade registrations for its seventh

Oldest living citizen Mamie Rearden dies ASSOCIATED PRESS

A 114-year-old South Carolina woman who was the oldest living U.S. citizen died Jan. 2.

Mamie Rearden of Edgefield, who held the title as the country’s oldest person for about two weeks, died at a hospital in Augusta, Ga., said daughters Sara Rearden of Burtonsville, Md., and Janie Ruth Osborne of Edgefield. They said their mother broke her hip after a fall a few weeks ago.

The Gerontology Research Group, which verifies age information for Guinness World Records, listed Mamie Rearden as the oldest living American after last month’s passing of 115-year-old Dina Manfredini of Iowa. Rearden’s Sept.

7, 1898, birth was recorded in the 1900 U.S. Census, the group’s Robert Young said.

Rearden was more than a year younger than the world’s oldest person, 115-yearold Jiroemon Kimura of Japan.

Prominent role as mother, homemaker “My mom was not president of the bank or anything, but she was very instrumental in raising a family and being a community person,” said Sara Rearden, her youngest child. “Everybody can’t go be president of a bank or president of a college, but we

Arena football player Chandler Williams dies ASSOCIATED PRESS

Arena Football League player Chandler Williams died on Jan. 5 at age 27.

The league said Sunday that Williams died while playing in a flag football tournament in South Florida. The league did not release a cause of death but said he died of “natural causes.’’

The wide receiver was a seventh-round draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings in

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annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Unity Parade presented by the City of Ocoee’s Human Relations Diversity Board. It is Jan. 21 at 10 a.m. Parade registration forms are available at www.ocoee. org or 407-905-3100.

Tampa: The American Brain Tumor Association hosts its inaugural Breakthrough for Brain Tumors Tampa 5K Run & Walk

on Feb. 9 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. More information or registration: www.breakthroughforbraintumors.

Sinbad will perform at the Hollywood Hard Rock Live Jan. 13 for a 7 p.m. show.

Orlando: Comedian Bruce Bruce joins Sheryl Underwood and Tony Rock at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre on Feb. 1 for an 8 p.m. show.

St. Petersburg: First Fridays are held in downtown St. Petersburg at 250 Central Ave. between Second and Third Avenues from 5:30 p.m.10:30 p.m. More information: 727-393-3597.

Hollywood: Funny man

The National Archives celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation with a free special display of the original document from Dec. 30, 2012 through Jan. 1, 2013. Special programs are scheduled throughout the year.

These events will be held at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., on Constitution Avenue at 9th Street, NW. The Emancipation Proclamation is displayed only for a limited time each year because of its fragility, which can be made worse by exposure to light, and the need to preserve it for future generations.

Not all declared free In September 1862, Lincoln issued a preliminary decree stating that, unless the rebellious states returned to the Union by Jan. 1, freedom would be granted to slaves within those states. The decree also left room for a plan of compensated emancipation.

No Confederate states took the offer, and on Jan. 1, 1863, Lincoln presented the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation declared, “all persons held as slaves within any States, or designated part of the State, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

The Emancipation Proclamation did not free all slaves in the United States. Rather, it declared free only those slaves living in states not under Union control. The proclamation allowed Black soldiers to fight for the Union and tied the issue of slavery directly to the war.

For more information about the National Archives’ Emancipation Proclamation events, visit www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2013/ nr13-20.html.

feel just as proud of her in her role as housewife and particularly as mother and homemaker.”

Mamie Rearden, who was married to her husband, Oacy, for 59 years until his death in 1979, raised 11 children, 10 of whom Mamie survive, Sara Rearden said.

Rearden She lived in the family homestead with a son and a daughter on land that had been in the family since her father’s accumulation of acreage made him one of the area’s largest Black landowners.

Her father sent her off to earn a teaching certificate at Bettis Academy on the far side of the county, and she would spend an entire day on a loaded wagon to reach the school along dirt roads, her daughter said. She taught for several years until becoming pregnant with her third child.

Practiced what she preached In the mid-1960s at age 65, when some settled into retirement, she learned to drive a car for the first time and started volunteering for an Edgefield County program that had her driving to the end of remote rural roads to find children whose parents were keeping them home from school, Sara Rearden said.

Mamie Rearden always counseled that her children should treat others as they wanted to be treated and that included never gossiping or speaking ill of others.

When asked about a preacher’s uninspiring sermon, her daughter recalled her mother saying: “’Well, it came from the Bible.’ She never would badmouth them.”

2007 out of Florida International. He got into NFL preseason games in four seasons but never played in a regular-season game, also spending time with the Miami Dolphins, Atlanta Falcons and Kansas City Chiefs. Williams also Chandler played for the CFL’s ToronWilliams to Argonauts.

He caught 83 passes for 996 yards and 17 touchdowns while leading the AFL with a 23-yard kickoff return average for the Tampa Bay Storm last season.

Storm President Derrick Brooks says “we are shocked and saddened.”

He is survived by his fiancee, Vanitia Harrigan, and a daughter, Tori Williams.

Read All About Black Life, Statewide!

Visit us online at www.flcourier.com

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STARTS FRIDAY, JANUARY 18 CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES

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JANUARY 11 – JANUARY 17, 2013

HEALTH

New fitness trend: Back-to-basics exercises Body weight training Yoga still hot yoga, while not can be done in gyms in Meanwhile, the top 10 in this latest suror at home for free vey, appears to have staying

BY HELENA OLIVIERO ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION (MCT)

Forget fancy workout gear.

One of the hottest trends of 2013 suggests you need nothing more than your own body weight.

Body weight training includes back-to-basics exercises — pushups, planks, pullups, squats and other exercises — and using the body as resistance is a leading trend this year. A survey recently released by the American College of Sports Medicine says among fitness trends, body weight training appears in the top 10 for the first time.

“The reason body weight exercises are becoming popular is because it’s a proven way to get and stay fit,” said Walt Thompson, associate dean for graduate studies and research in the College of Education at Georgia State University. He authored the study. “And it’s related somewhat to the economy.

Our mentality is more back to the basics.”

Pilates interest wanes Thompson said using your own body weight to work out has been around for centuries.

Gyms are repackaging body weight training by adding lights, music and fitness instructors to make it seem “fun, exciting, new.” And body weight training is something people can do in the comforts of home for free.

The American College of Sports Medicine survey, now in its seventh year, was completed by 3,346 health and fitness professionals worldwide. Other fitness trends rounding out the top 10 include strength training, sharing personal trainers and incorporating more diet programs into fitness programs.

So, what’s fallen off the list?

Pilates, spinning and stability balls.

Thompson believes while Pilates is still popular in some pockets of the country, enthusiasm has waned in recent years.

He said it raises the question of whether Pilates was ever a real trend or more of a passing fad.

Top fitness trends for 2013 1. Educated, certified and experienced fitness professionals: Educated and experienced fitness professionals claimed the top spot in 2013 for the sixth consecutive year. Fully accredited education and certification programs for health/ fitness professionals are on the rise.

2. Strength training: Remaining in the No. 2 spot for the second year in a row, this trend is important for men, women, young and old to improve or maintain strength.

power. Yoga secured No. 14 in this latest survey.

Thompson believes yoga’s evolution to include many variations, such as hot yoga and power yoga, helps keep this form of exercise seeming new and fresh — and ultimately convinces people it’s worth paying for these classes even during lean economic times.

Jacob McLendon, owner of AGX (formerly Adrenaline Group Xercise), has seen interest in body weight training build for years now.

McLendon said people are more likely to combine intense cardio with strength training to achieve more well-rounded fitness. Some of his fitness clubs’ most popular classes include a mix of exercises such as leg squats, pushups and plyometrics, which involves high-intensity jumping moves.

“People are getting more educated on the body and how it operates, and how body weight training not only makes you strong, but can help you with everyday movements in life like lifting your groceries into the car, walking up that flight of stairs,” said McLendon, who has fitness centers in Chamblee and Sandy Springs, Ga.

3. Body weight training: This is the first appearance of this trend in the survey.

Body weight training uses minimal equipment, making it more affordable.

4. Children and obesity: With nearly one in three children ages 10 to 17 considered overweight or obese, childhood obesity continues to be a serious public health problem. A growing number of commercial and community-based programs are teaming up with schools to fight the obesity epidemic.

5. Exercise and weight loss: Incorporating diet and exercise is of growing interest among fitness professionals. A growing number of fitness programs are offering everything from meal planning to onsite nutritionists to regular lessons on nutrition.

6. Fitness programs for older adults: The baby boom generation is growing older and living longer. With this group typically having more discretionary money and time than others, fitness programs for older adults will remain a strong trend for 2013.

7. Personal training: As more professional personal trainers become certified, they are more accessible and available in a wide variety of settings from corporate wellness programs to community-based programs to medical fitness programs.

Get workout buddy “The aesthetic benefits of working out and how you look in the mirror is one thing,” he said, “but the main fact people need to focus on is and are paying more attention to is what’s going on under the surface — your muscles, your whole internal system and how your organs work, the strength of your bones.”

Meanwhile, Laura Wilkinson Sinton shares a personal trainer with a friend three days a week. Doubling up on the trainer makes it less expensive than one-on-one sessions, and having a workout buddy gives her accountability.

“I know if I am not there, my workout buddy is there expecting me to be there,” said Wilkinson Sinton of Atlanta.

The intense, 60-to-90-minute sessions begin with a one-mile run and then include a wide range of exercises designed to make the body sweat and build muscles — lifting weights, lung-

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PHIL SKINNER/ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION/MCT

Matea Matthews works out at AGX (formerly Adrenaline Group Xercise) on Dec. 22, 2012, in Chamblee, Ga. es, pushups and bench presses, and the list goes on. Her personal trainer devotes one session a week to body weight training.

‘Best stress reliever’ Wilkinson Sinton, 55, started the three-times-a-week sessions with the personal trainer more than three years ago.

While her weight has remained the same, her body fat percentage has dropped sharply.

“I recently had my checkup, and my doctor said, ‘Whatever you are doing, keep doing it,’” she said. It’s not particularly

cheap, with Wilkinson Sinton estimating she spends about $500 a month on the personal trainer.

“It’s an investment in myself,” Wilkinson Sinton said.

“I can cut out shopping for clothes and other things. The way I look at it is this is preventive health care. I can spend the money now or spend the money later on health problems.” So as Wilkinson Sinton starts the new year, she plans to keep her fitness routine intact.

“It is the best stress reliever and makes me feel great,” she said.

8. Functional fitness: Functional fitness uses strength training to improve balance, coordination and endurance in order to participate in daily activities without any stress. Often, this program is created for older adults.

9. Core training: Core training stresses strength and conditioning of the stabilizing muscles of the abdomen, thorax and back. It typically includes exercises of the hips, lower back, and abdomen, all of which provide support for the spine and thorax.

10. Group personal training: This trend, fueled by the economic downturn, allows the personal trainer to provide individualized service catered to small groups of two to four people. This allows groups to have a discounted rate, while still giving the trainer a full schedule of clients.

Source: American College of Sports Medicine annual survey completed by 3,346 health and fitness professionals worldwide

Raising grandchildren can be hard on grandparents’ health children under such difficult circumstances.

“With some families, what you see is shared parenting across the generations and a family adapting in a very positive way, such as helping a young parent going to school care for the child until the parent can assume more of the responsibilities,” said James Gleeson, an associate professor at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

BY DEBORAH L. SHELTON CHICAGO TRIBUNE (MCT)

CHICAGO – Two years ago, Ruth Maxey was raising six children, including twin granddaughters, a niece and the girl’s three siblings.

She was also in her 60s.

It got to be too much, and in January 2011 Maxey had a stroke, not long after she retired from a demanding job as a hospital administrator.

She has high blood pressure, which is a risk factor, but “I’m sure the job and raising the kids and the rippin’ and runnin’ had something to do with it,” she said.

After her stroke, the three oldest children moved in with their grandmother in Rockford, Ill., and Maxey focused on raising the other three, including her two grandchildren, whose mother had died of complications from childbirth.

“I guess all would be good if I was 35 and I had the energy to keep up with them,” said Maxey, 64, who decided to retire to focus on the kids. “I don’t have the energy, but I love them.”

Emotional and physical challenges Raising children can be taxing at any age, but it can put even more physical and emotional strain on an older person. Poor health, in turn, can make it more difficult for some grandparents to perform caregiving duties.

High rate of Black caregivers

TAYLOR GLASCOCK/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/MCT

Suzanne Kowalski poses for a portrait in her home on Dec. 10, 2012, in Mount Prospect, Ill. Kowalski was previously raising two of her grandchildren while their mother was incarcerated, but she had to stop when her health began to suffer.

Some research has found that grandparent-caregivers experience depression, high blood pressure and other health problems at higher rates than their peers who are not raising children.

“Considering the changes related to aging – hearing loss, vision impairment, gait abnormalities, cognitive decline, among many others – grandparents face significant emotional and physical challenges as they

try to ‘keep up’ with toddlers, tweens, teenagers and pre-adults,” said Dr. June McKoy, a Northwestern University geriatrician.

Numbers steadily increasing Most people assume that their full-time child-rearing responsibilities will end once their children are grown and out of the house, but millions of grandparents across the country find

themselves nurturing another generation.

Their numbers have risen steadily over the years.

Among the reasons: an illness, death, addiction, mental illness, incarceration or military deployment on the part of one or both of the child’s parents.

The prolonged economic downturn also has taken a toll on some families.

Of course, not all grandparents wind up caring for

And some grandparents say their grandkids help them stay active.

Grandparent caregiving crosses income, racial and other demographic categories, Gleeson said, though African-Americans are two to three times as likely to be raised by a relative other than a parent, compared with other racial and ethnic groups.

About a third of grandparents caring for grandchildren are single.

Nationwide in 2011, about 7 million grandparents lived with a grandchild younger than 18, and about 39 percent of them were primarily responsible for meeting their grandkids’ basic needs.

One of those grandparents, Suzanne Kowalski, was so absorbed with taking care of two of her grandchildren that she ignored a dimple on her left breast

that turned out to be a sign of cancer. By the time she sought medical care and got diagnosed a year later, in September 2011, it had spread to her lymph nodes.

“Had I not been raising the grandkids, I would have gone to the doctor at least a year earlier because I wouldn’t have been so financially strapped,” she said. “My energy level would not have been so low. … I was giving all my attention to them.”

Putting herself first Kowalski – like other grandparents interviewed by the Tribune – said she doesn’t regret taking the children in.

“Every choice I made was my choice and I would do it again,” said Kowalski, who lives in Mount Prospect. “I believed they didn’t deserve any less than my full attention. In hindsight, I could have taken better care of myself so I could be better for them. But you live and you learn and sometimes you learn when it’s too late.”

In March, after eight years, she decided to turn over custody of the children to their father, her son-in-law.

Without the kids, Kowalski says, she is paying more attention to her health.

“I’m living and eating differently now,” she said.

“If they were living here, I wouldn’t be doing that because I always put the kids first. Now I’m first.”

FOOD

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JANUARY 11 – JANUARY 17, 2013

Sweet ways to cook with

SWEET CORN

Sweet Corn with Southern BBQ Butter Yield: 4 servings 1/4 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce (sweet, spicy, etc.)

1/4 stick butter 4 ears fresh Florida sweet corn, shucked Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper Chives, for garnish Preheat oven broiler on high.

Add barbecue sauce and butter to small saucepan.

Stir over low heat until melted and smooth.

Here are some Season corn other great ways lightly with salt and to top Florida pepper. Place sweet sweet corn on the corn in a mediumcob: sized baking dish Garlic and basil and pour barbe­cue butter mixture over sweet corn. Broil 4 inches Cilantro, lime from broiler, being and honey sure to watch the Parmesan and whole time. Turn pesto sauce and baste for 6 to Cinnamon, 8 minutes, or until sugar and butter golden.

Garnish with chives. Serve warm.

FRom family Features

Corn on the cob with some butter is a popular side dish, but there’s so much more you can do with fresh, juicy corn.

These recipes make the most of sweet corn from Florida and will have your family asking for more.

“Sweet corn is a really versatile ingredient,” said Justin Timineri, Executive Chef and Culinary Ambassador, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. “From fritters and soup to enchi­ladas and corn on the cob with some surprising toppings, there are plenty of ways to enjoy this healthful grain.”

To get more fresh ideas for cooking with corn, visit http://bit.ly/floridacorn.

Chef Justin’s Kitchen Tips for Kids Get the kids involved in buying, prepping and cook­ing corn. Here’s what they need to know to help you in the kitchen: Look for fresh sweet corn with the husk still attached. They should feel and look moist and plump, with the kernels inside fat and shiny. The silk of the corn should be a little sticky and should look glossy, stiff and moist.

To shuck: Grasp the husks and pull down to expose the kernels. Continue until all the husks and silk-like hairs have been removed.

To remove kernels: Hold corn cob upright by the tip, with the large end solidly down on the table. Take a small sharp knife and cut down, removing the corn kernels. Be careful not to cut too deep and remove parts of the cob.

Sweet Corn and Tomato Bisque Yield: 4 servings 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 onion, finely chopped 4 ears fresh Florida sweet corn, kernels removed 1 large garlic clove, minced 4 cups low-sodium broth (vegetable or chicken) Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper 2 tablespoons sour cream 2medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped 1 scallion, thinly sliced 1 tablespoon cilantro, finely chopped, plus more for garnish Melt butter in large, heavy pot. Add onion and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, until lightly browned, for about 6 to 7 minutes.

Stir in corn and garlic, cooking until corn is lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add broth and simmer until corn is tender, about 15 minutes. Lightly season with kosher salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer half the soup into blender or food processor; purée until almost smooth. Add blended soup back into unblended soup; stir to combine.

Add tomatoes, scallion and 1 tablespoon cilantro; bring to a boil. Serve hot and garnish with cilantro.

Sweet Corn and Ricotta Fritters Yield: 4 to 6 servings 2 ears fresh Florida sweet corn, kernels removed 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped fine 4 ounces low-fat ricotta cheese 2 large eggs, beaten 1/3 cup self-rising unbleached or whole-wheat flour Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper Olive oil (for shallow pan frying) In medium-sized bowl, combine corn, cilantro, ricotta, eggs, flour and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Add a small amount of olive oil to a mediumhigh preheated sauté pan. Care­fully add spoonfuls of corn mixture to hot pan. Cook on both sides until golden brown.

Test the first done fritter, and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve with low-fat sour cream if desired.

Sweet Corn and Black Bean Enchiladas Yield: 6 to 8 servings 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1/2 cup onion, chopped 1 cup fresh Florida sweet corn kernels 2 bell peppers, diced 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 cup salsa 1 can low sodium black beans, rinsed and drained Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 10 6-inch corn tortillas 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided 1 8-ounce can enchilada sauce Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray an 11 x 7-inch (2-quart) baking dish with pan release cooking spray.

Add vegetable oil to a medium pan. Cook onion, corn and bell peppers over medium high heat for 3 minutes. Add cumin, salsa and black beans, and con­tinue to cook for two minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove pan from heat and let cool slightly.

Place an even amount of the filling mixture in each tortilla. Using 1 cup shredded cheese, evenly distribute it on top of each tortilla.

Carefully roll up each tortilla, and place seam side down in sprayed baking dish.

Pour enchilada sauce over rolled enchiladas, spreading to coat all tortillas. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly around edges. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.

Serve with diced avocado, salsa and sour cream, if desired.

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JANUARY 11 – JANUARY 17, 2013

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

Meet some of

FLORIDA'S

finest

submitted for your approval

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.

lloyd

Abby B. is a South Florida resident, professional fashion model, and aspiring actress. She has been cast in a supporting role in several episodes of USA Network’s “Burn Notice.” She has been in commercials and has appeared in Nikki Minaj’s “Beez in the Trap” video.

She also was the featured lead “girl’’ in a DJ Khalad video featuring T.I., Lil Wayne, and Future.

Photo credit: www. mikemontoya.com / info@1stmillionmgt. com.

abby

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Lloyd Dickenson of Miami was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. The 26-yearold enjoys acting, singing, playing pool, and weight training. This aspiring actor has appeared in several commercials and two independent films “A Mistaken Look’’ and “Baghdad.’’ When he’s not modeling and pursuing his next acting job, he loves having a good time with friends.

Photo courtesy of 1st Million Management LLC / info@1stmillionmgt.com.

Along with Lambs petition letter, petitions by four other people opposed to the show have also been posted to the Change.org website, all in favor of cancelling the show Oxygen Media unveiled Dec. 26.

In a press release Oxygen Media said it is hoping to draw viewers in by broadcasting the “highs and lows of this extreme ‘blended family’ that is anything but ordinary.”

“Oxygen will give fans an intimate look at unconventional families with larger than life personalities and real emotional stakes,” said Cori Abraham, senior vice president of development for Oxygen Media, in the statement. “‘All My Babies’ Mamas’ will be filled with outrageous and authentic over-the–top moments that our young, diverse female audience can tweet and gossip about.”

‘Bad immoral example’

A controversial new show coming to Oxygen features popular Atlanta rapper Shorty Lo, who has 11 children by 10 baby mothers. The reality show is titled “All My Babies Mamas.’’

TV show about rapper dad with 11 kids from 10 Baby Mamas sparks outrage

BY ALEXIS TAYLOR SPECIAL TO THE NNPA

A new reality television show in the works for the Oxygen cable network, home of the “Bad Girls Club” and “I’m Having Their Baby” programs, has spawned outrage in the African-American community.

The program, “All My Babies’ Mamas,” is set to follow Carlos Walker, better known by his G-Unit rap moniker “Shawty Lo,” as

cameras film the day-today activities surrounding him, his eleven children and their ten different mothers.

Petitions protesting the show, which is set for a spring 2013 debut, have already drawn more than 18,000 thousand signatures against the hourlong series produced by DiGa Vision, a production company funded by former producers from MTV. “It’s an abomination and it is designed to demoralize

and exploit our children,” said Sabrina Lamb, author and founding chief executive officer of the youth financial education organization, WorldofMoney.org.

Another ‘minstrel’ show?

Lamb said the children who have no choice in having their “pain and humiliation up for sale” are the main reason why the more than 14,000 supporters of her petition are putting

more focus on this program than on what she called other “minstrel shows” such as VH1’s “Love and Hip Hop.” “These images are going around the world- and the international community is watching,” Lamb told the AFRO, angered that the antics and aggressive attitudes of the African-American women on shows like “Real Housewives of Atlanta” are often automatically speaking for the entire demographic.

In an open letter posted on the website My Brown Baby on Jan. 3 to Oxygen Media CEO Jason Klarman, Lamb said, “By all accounts, Oxygen Media wants young women to be self-hating, violent and catty while using their considerable spending power to support your advertisers.”

Protest on Change.org Lamb said she is outraged because the show is propagating a lifestyle of unprotected sex and abusive relationships. She also added that televisions shows like the proposed “All My Babies’ Mamas” are an act of desperation from a Black community “starved” to see themselves glorified on the tube, regardless of the image they are propagating to the masses.

“Is this how far we’ve come?” Lamb asked, adding that Walker “doesn’t need a reality television show – he needs therapy and a few boxes of condoms.”

The Lamb petition is one of four entreaties on Change.org to protest the show.

Still, not everyone is interested in seeing the company prosper by capturing the family as it grows in number and “dysfunction.”

“It degrades society and sets a bad immoral example for our younger generation along with eroding the value of commitment in a family setting,” said Harriette Watkins, one petitioner from Decatur, Ga. “Why can we never show a Black man as a positive role model? ‘All My Babies’ Mamas’ is a slap to the face of men taking care of their responsibilities,” said Tiffany Austin, of Spanaway, Wash., another petitioner. “It is glorifying all the wrong things.”

According to the Huffington Post, the network has pulled the 13-minute preview that was previously posted on its website, but has not announced plans to the cancel the program.

This story is special to the NNPA News Service from the Afro-American Newspaper.

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BOOK REVIEW

STOJ

JANUARY 11 – JANUARY 17, 2013

‘Freedom National’ a thorough study of end of slavery

BY DR. GLENN ALTSCHULER SPECiAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Americans continue to fight about the causes and consequences of the Civil War. Was the conflict “irrepressible,” some ask, or the result of the actions and inactions of a “blundering generation”? Did the North fight to eradicate slavery or to preserve the Union? Was Abraham Lincoln a Great – or a Reluctant – Emancipator?

In “Freedom National,’’ James Oakes, a professor of history at the City University of New York Graduate Center, addresses these questions in a monumental and masterful history of the struggle to end slavery.

ment “politically viable.”

By the end of 1863, President Lincoln and General Grant had come to believe that Blacks troops (who were willing to serve despite unequal pay and insults and

abuse by White officers and enlisted men) were shifting the tide of war.

They were a double blessing, adding strength to the Union Army and depleting the productive ca-

Myth-busting account Repetitious, at times, “Freedom National’’ also downplays substantive differences among Republicans and exaggerates public support in the North for some of their policies.

Nonetheless, Oakes’ exquisitely detailed, myth-busting account of one of the most pivotal moments in our history is penetrating and persuasive.

Although his research only added to his admiration for Abraham Lincoln, Oakes shows that abolition did not depend “on the singular act of a single man” and rescues the Republican Party from the “inconspicuous place” to which it has been assigned in the story of slavery’s destruction.

Bold and bracing act Most importantly, Oakes transforms our understanding of the Emancipation Proclamation.

It was, he reveals, a bold and bracing act in a process that already included two acts of Congress, emancipating slaves in Confederate states who voluntarily approached Union lines or who lived in areas occupied by the Union Army; offers of compensation to Border States that freed their slaves; repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850; and Attorney General Edward Bates’ declaration (repudiating the Dred Scott dictum) that free Blacks were citizens of the United States, who could not be deprived by any state of the privileges and immunities attaching to their citizenship.

Justified as an exercise of the president’s powers as commander-in-chief in wartime, the Emancipation, Oakes reminds us, was far more than an unenforceable liberation of slaves under the control of the Confederacy.

The proclamation lifted the ban on enticement of slaves to leave farms and plantations, opened the Union Army Black soldiers, intensified the pressure on Border States, and made the Thirteenth Amend-

at any one time, constituting about one fifth of the military’s fighting force.

“Indispensable to northern victory,” Oakes writes, they were “indispensable to slavery’s destruction.”

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‘Cordon of freedom’ From the time their party was founded in the 1850s, Oakes points out, Republicans advanced the view that the Constitution recognized slaves only as “persons in service,” not as property; consequently freedom for every individual should be presupposed everywhere, unless states established the existence of “the peculiar institution” in law.

Certain that abolishing human bondage and saving the Union were inextricably linked, Oakes demonstrates, they used the exigencies of war and congressional majorities to construct a “cordon of freedom” that ultimately included a ban on slavery in the territories and the District of Columbia, an end to federal protection of slavery on the high seas, recruitment of slaves into the Union Army, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

pacity of the Confederacy (which in the closing weeks of war offered to emancipate slaves who joined the Army).

In 1865, about 100,000 Black men were in uniform

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Dr. Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He occasionally writes reviews for the Florida Courier.