Florida Courier - February 22, 2013

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FEBRUARY 22 - FEBRUARY 28, 2013

VOLUME 21 NO. 8

YES, HE DID

ZBIGNIEW BZDAKE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/MCT

President Barack Obama greeted Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton, center, mother of slain 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, as he visited Hyde Park Academy in Chicago last week. Hadiya Pendleton was gunned down as she stood with friends after school in a park that is located near Obama’s Chicago home.

Hat in the ring B-CU interim president ‘will serve’ if asked BY JAMES HARPER FLORIDA COURIER

After less than a year on the job as Bethune-Cookman University’s interim president, Dr. Edison Jackson has changed his mind and appears to want the job full time. “If asked, I will serve,” Jackson said during a meeting in his Daytona Beach office with the Daytona Times, the Florida Courier’s sister newspaper, during which he discussed the future of the university. That conversation led to Jackson being asked again if he was interested in staying on at B-CU. When asked before, Jackson had always been evasive, saying he “was not looking for another job” when he agreed to serve as B-CU’s temporary leader. On Feb. 15, Jackson did not shy away from answering the question, this time calling B-CU “a very

sacred place.” “I’ve never been in position of following people, but to be a trendsetter,” he noted. “We can be more than we have been.”

Disproportionate benefit “If you look at the president’s record in the first four years, if you look at his major domestic policy accomplishments, they disproportionately do benefit the AfricanSee OBAMA, Page A2

BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2013

Happy to share their research

‘God’s work’ Jackson said last week that the B-CU president is responsible for the university’s vision. “Where there is no vision, people will perish,” Jackson said, quoting the Bible. “It’s not just about being president. It’s about doing God’s

COURTESY OF BROWARD COUNTY

George Bellinger, Christina Francois and Janay Oliver are the winners of the Black History Month essay contest sponsored by Fort Lauderdale’s African-American Research Library and Cultural Center. The subject of their essays was the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.

See JACKSON, Page A2

Scott awards millions to help veterans, military

Perjury charge against Zimmerman’s wife stands BY RENE STUTZMAN ORLANDO SENTINEL / MCT

SANFORD – George Zimmerman’s wife appeared in court Tuesday and sat silently as a judge refused to dismiss the perjury charge against her. George Zimmerman is the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who is accused of murdering Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black 17-year-old, in Sanford one year ago.

NATION | A6

Plenty of cash

Lavish lifestyle catches up with Jesse Jackson, Jr.

According to prosecutors, Shellie Zimmerman lied at her husband’s April 20, 2012 bond hearing when she testified that the couple had no money. In truth, they were awash in cash, according to the couple’s financial records. More than $130,000 had

ALSO INSIDE

CHICAGO – President Obama returned home Friday to a city shaken by the gun violence he has sworn to curb, delivering a call for communities to “fill the hole” in the hearts of troubled young people and work together to rise out of poverty. The Chicago meeting, part of the president’s campaignstyle appearances pushing the administration’s second-term agenda, came one day after Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett met with six African-American journalists to defend the administration against critics who say the president has not done enough to help

Black America. According to Jarrett, Obama has launched initiatives and backed legislation that have significantly helped African-Americans throughout his time in office, even though there is a perception in some quarters that the nation’s first Black president hasn’t done as much for African-Americans as he has for Latinos, gays and lesbians, and other groups.

B-CU’s Board of Trustees is expected to bring up the issue at their next board meeting in March. At their last board meeting in December, Chairman John Harrington said, “The search for a permanent president continues. We are blessed to have an outstanding interim president in Dr. Edison O. Jackson. He continues to make a significant and positive impact on both our campus and the community.”

FLORIDA | A3

Meet Whitley

COMPILED FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS

Decision coming?

SNAPSHOTS

FINEST | B3

As the president traveled to his Chicago hometown to meet with Black boys at a local school, his senior advisor defends Obama administration policies she says have benefited Black Americans.

come flooding in the previous two weeks from online donors, contributing to George Zimmerman’s defense. Recorded phone calls at the Seminole County Jail between Zimmerman, who was locked up at the time, and his wife suggest he was directing her where to deposit the money, and she was following his orders.

Arrested and released In June, Special Prosecutor Angela Corey, the elected state attorney in Jacksonville, charged Shellie Zimmerman with perjury. Shellie Zimmerman was jailed for a few hours then released on $1,000 bail. Since then, she has lived in hiding with her husband, who is awaiting trial on a seconddegree murder charge. On Tuesday, defense attorney

Kelly Sims asked Circuit Judge Marlene Alva to dismiss the perjury count. He argued that because his client’s testimony happened in Seminole County – not Jacksonville, where Corey was elected – the special prosecutor does not have jurisdiction. Prosecutor John I. Guy contends that the executive order by Florida Gov. Rick Scott, naming Corey special prosecutor, authorized her to investigate and prosecute “all matters pertaining to the death of Trayvon Martin.” That covers Shellie Zimmerman’s statements in court, he argued. But Sims said, “Mr. Martin was already gone by the time of this April 20 bond hearing.”

ments being challenged happened at a bond hearing for Martin’s killer, the governor’s executive order was broad enough. Shellie Zimmerman sat at a defense table next to her attorney and said nothing during the 15-minute hearing. Her husband, George Shellie Zimmerman, did Zimmerman not appear. Sims left the courthouse, predicting that Shellie Zimmerman would be acquitted. “She’s getting stronger. … She’s a strong woman. She’s going to be OK,” he said. If you study carefully the questions she was asked, he State wins said, she answered truthfully. “It’s all about specificity,” Sims The judge sided with the state. She said that because the state- explained. He did not elaborate.

COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: DR. ELSIE L. SCOTT: WHY ARE SUCH LARGE NUMBERS OF BLACKS IN PRISON? | A5


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