Florida Courier - February 26, 2016

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CELEBRATING OUR 10TH YEAR STATEWIDE!

A look at firsts for Blacks In politics and law See Page B1 FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 3, 2016

VOLUME 24 NO. 9

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WE WILL DECIDE

BY ANTHONY MAN SUN SENTINEL / TNS

FORT LAUDERDALE – When the Democratic presidential campaign hits Florida in full force, no constituency will be more critical to the outcome than the state’s Black voters.

African-Americans and Caribbean-Americans have the numbers to decide whether Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders wins the March 15 primary, and whether it’s a blowout victory or a close contest.

Pressure on Hillary The stakes are highest for Clinton, whose campaign has been left reeling

by Sanders’ strong showing in states that have already voted. In Florida, Clinton is depending on the deep reservoir of support she enjoys among Black voters, political leaders and activists.

state; he spoke to the NaAs absentee tional Urban League convoting begins, vention in Fort Lauderdale, Clinton also apthe unexpectedly where peared, on July 31.

Sanders is attempting to close race for chip away at Clinton’s supthe Democratic port among Black voters and leaders nationally, and presidential Clinton has made extensive to head off Sanders’ nomination makes efforts inroads.

Florida’s Black vote In the numbers critical for victory. After he won an overby either Clinton whelming victory in New Hampshire, the Clinton or Sanders. campaign circulated a meBut her Florida campaign is just getting started. And so far, Black Democratic leaders said, it’s not even visible in the African-American and Caribbean-American communities.

Sanders has given even less attention than Clinton to Florida. She has made several appearances in the

mo from campaign manager Robby Mook in which he wrote that states like Florida, with large minority populations, are critical.

The numbers show why.

More than 28 percent of the state’s registered Democrats are Black. In Broward, FILE PHOTO Palm Beach and MiamiDade counties, more than In 2010, students at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach marched to See VOTE, Page A2

the polls to vote early.

ETA NU CHAPTER / OMEGA PSI PHI FRATERNITY, INC.

Teaching Black history

No celebratory shooting Scott signs ‘backyard’ gun range bills

BY JIM TURNER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – Surrounded by a group of police chiefs, Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a measure dubbed the “backyard range” bill, intended to restrict the recreational discharge of a firearm in certain residential areas.

The proposal was one of nine that Scott signed into law Wednesday.

The backyard range measure (SB 130) prohibits the recreational discharge of a firearm outdoors, including for target shooting or celebratory shooting, in primarily residential areas with a density of one or more dwelling units per acre. A violation would be a firstdegree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Immediate effect

Members of the fraternity’s Eta Nu chapter, located in Pompano Beach, held their educational foundation’s Third Annual Black History Festival, which included historical exhibits, health screenings, live entertainment, and a car show. Black History Month commemorations are winding down around the state.

The bill, which goes into effect immediately, was backed by the Florida Police Chiefs Association, the National Rifle Association and the Unified Sportsmen of Florida.

St. Augustine Beach Police Chief Robert Hardwick said the legislation will ensure “residential areas are better protected from people using firearms irresponsibly and unlawfully.”

A Senate staff analysis of the bill pointed to reports about people constructing gun ranges in their backyards, with neighbors being concerned for safety. Law enforcement officials complained See BILL, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS

State’s ‘Johnny Reb’ general returning home

BY JIM SAUNDERS THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith is headed to retirement.

The Florida House on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that would lead to removing a statue of Smith from the National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. Gov. Rick Scott indicated he likely will sign the bill (SB 310), which had already passed the Senate.

“Just because those who we honor are replaced by future peo-

ALSO INSIDE

ple doesn’t mean that the person who was there previously is any less brave or any less valiant,” House sponsor Jose Felix Diaz, R-Miami, said. “We just continue to add to the history of Florida.

We’re certainly not trying to forget the history of Florida.”

Two statues apiece Each state is allowed two statues in the National Statuary Hall, and Florida is represented by statues of Smith and John Gorrie, widely considered the father of air conditioning. Under the

bill, a committee would recommend three prominent Floridians as potential replacements for Smith, and the Legislature would pick one whose statue would be placed in the hall.

Florida donated the Gorrie statue to the National Statuary Hall in 1914 and followed eight years later with the Smith statue, according to a Senate staff analysis. The bill would not affect the statue of Gorrie, an Apalachicola physician in the 19th Century.

The staff analysis said Smith taught at the U.S. Military Acad-

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Bush supporters turn to Rubio NATION | A6

Supreme Court hears case on police powers Obama touched by girl’s tears on his final year HEALTH | B4

The health divide in Baltimore

See STATUE, Page A2

COMMENTARY: LUCIUS GANTT: WHERE’S THE BLACK POLITICAL CAMPAIGN MONEY? | A2 COMMENTARY: VAUGHN MCLAUGHLIN: FIGHT OVER SCHOOL CHOICE ABOUT FREEDOM, JUSTICE | A4

FOCUS

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FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 3, 2016

Where’s the Black political money?

Billions of dollars will be spent in 2016 by candidates seeking election to public offices. Believe it or not, large sums of campaign contributions will come from wealthy Black individuals, predominately Black labor organizations, Black businesses, Black students and Black voters!

In more cases than not, Black contributions to political candidates don’t do a damn thing to help America’s Black residents, Black communities and Black voters!

Your choice Now, don’t twist it up. Contributing to political campaigns is every Americans’ prerogative.

If you want to contribute your hard-earned dollars to an elected office seeker, by all means write a politician a check.

When non-Blacks contribute money, they get something in return. When Wall Street bankers contribute to campaigns they get reduced regulations, tax considerations, access to desired poli-

LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT

ticians, they get to stay out of jail for financial crimes they committed and, in some cases, they even get to write federal and state laws that benefit their industry.

Women campaign contributors get political attention to women’s issues. Hispanic contributors get consideration regarding issues important to them like immigration. Gays that put money in political campaigns get changes in laws like same sex marriage laws.

What do Black people get?

They get tricked, they get fooled, they get misled, they get bamboozled, they get jacked and, worst of all, they get politically punked!

There are some wealthy Black lawyers that contribute to every political candidate they can contribute to. The contributions are vast, but the returns on those contributions are so small they could be described as minimal. They get invitations to receptions, they get their names on campaign literature, and – if they are lucky – they might get a wink and a smile from a political Klansman, skinhead or redneck!

They don’t get many government risk management legal opportunities, and they don’t get special considerations from elected or appointed judges.

Organizations of Black laborers may give more money to political candidates than any other Black groups. Longshoremen, government workers, hospitality workers and other groups of Black workers donate millions of dollars to political candidates in presidential election years.

And when the election is over many of the candidates they contribute to vote to privatize government agencies and bust up organized labor efforts. They pass Right to Work Laws and the campaign contribution recipients do all they can to prevent or hinder labor groups from organizing.

What I think If Black people, Black organizations, Black social or fraternal groups, Black community groups, Black business groups chose to contribute, by all means give your money to politicians that ask you for it.

But contribute like you have some sense!

When White folks make large contributions to politicians, they earmark the money. In other words, if AFL-CIO gives money to politicians they oftentimes demand that the politicians use union printers for their printed materials. They request that politicians hire people on staff that the White unions recommend.

They request a seat at the table when politicians discuss or consider labor legislation.

You tell me Why can’t Black lawyers, Black business people and Black labor groups like the ILA, AFSCME, SEIU and others demand that the money they contribute go to Black printers, Black media companies, Black pollsters, Black caterers and to other Black political professionals?

I know you don’t like for me to write like this, but it’s true. Black campaign contributors, Black

BILL that they were hamstrung because their lawyers found the state statute barring “recklessly or negligently” discharging a firearm to be “subjective and vague.”

The “backyard range” issue received heightened attention in June 2014 when the Comedy Channel’s “Colbert Report” did a satirical piece on a Big Pine Key resident who legally set up a makeshift sideyard shooting range using a state law, created in 1987, regarding shooting on private property.

Scott also signed a measure (SB 228) Wednesday that would remove aggravated assault from a list of offenses that lead to people being sentenced under the 10-20-Life mandatory-minimum sentencing law. Scott said he signed the bill because it was supported by the law enforcement community and “made sense.”

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33 percent of registered Democrats are Black.

“There is no, ‘Oh Lord, I have to have Bernie Sanders for president’ taking place in the African-American community. He has a couple of supporters, and their argument is not so much (for) Sanders as it is they don’t want the African-American community to be taken for granted,” U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings said.

“I have not seen any major effort in the AfricanAmerican community thus far that is supportive of Senator Sanders. I do know there are substantial numbers of African-Americans who are supportive of Hillary Clinton.”

Hastings, 79, the Broward-Palm Beach county representative who became Florida’s first Black member of Congress since Reconstruction when he was elected in 1992, is one of Clinton’s longest and most outspoken supporters.

Hyacinth McFayden, of Greenacres, who is originally from Jamaica, said there is strong support for Clinton in the CaribbeanAmerican community.

“I’m a Hillary girl all over,” said McFayden, 68.

“Caribbean-Americans like her. I don’t know much about Bernie Sanders. The folks I talk to are Hillary.”

Sanders has support But Russell Morgan, 24, of Lauderhill, recently switched his voter registration from no party affiliation/independent to Dem-

Demand respect!

Stop contributing to political devils that refuse to spend money with Black businesses and political professionals!

Pick up a Black newspaper sometimes and see which politicians are buying ads in your media outlets. You will see more ads from the elephant than there are from the donkey.

The political parties and candidates that you endorse first and contribute to first are the same ones that put you last, hire you last, contract you last and respect you less!

Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere. “Like” The Gantt Report page on Facebook. Contact Lucius at www. allworldconsultants.net.

(SB 1030, SB 1032, SB 1038 and SB 1040) involve technical changes to state statutes. Scott may soon get to approve or veto two other measures, as follows:

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Minimum mandatory change

politicians and Black people must work together politically and every other way to progress and to survive!

If it doesn’t hurt you to ask if a politician’s literature has a “union bug” on it, it shouldn’t be hard to ask a politician if he has Black workers on his campaign staff or if he has contracts with Black political vendors!

Elder protection

BOB ANDRES/ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION/MCT

Chloe Morris shoots her Glock 17 at a commercial gun range in Georgia. Having a gun range at home is now against the law, under most circumstances, in Florida.

A third bill (SB 158) signed Wednesday would allow people with lifetime fishing or hunting licenses, or boater-safety identification cards, to have a symbol added to their driver licenses displaying that lifetime status. The addition of the symbol, when a drivocratic so he could vote for Sanders in the primary.

“I don’t think (Clinton) necessarily has overwhelming support. I definitely think there is a route for Bernie Sanders to gain support among AfricanAmericans,” Morgan said.

“A lot of African-Americans do not know a lot about Bernie Sanders but they do know a lot about Clinton. If Bernie can make himself more visible in the African-American community, he can get support.”

Rick Hoye, the Sunrise and Plantation area leader for the Broward Democratic Party, said Hastings, McFayden and Morgan reflect what he sees.

Generational split Hoye, 36, said he thinks older Black voters, especially women, are likely to stick with Clinton. But, he said, younger Black voters – just like younger voters in the overall population – are more open to Sanders.

“Black voters have been historically devoted to the Clintons. I think it (Florida) is still Clinton country,” Hoye said. “But that could shift because of AfricanAmerican outreach efforts” when the campaign ramps up in Florida.

He said he hasn’t yet decided between Clinton and Sanders. “I like them both,” he said.

No Hillary ‘lock’ JeffriAnne Wilder, a University of North Florida sociologist who specializes in diversity and race relations, said there is potential for Sanders to perform well with Black voters in Florida.

“It’s no longer a lock for Hillary Clinton getting the

er’s license is issued or renewed, would come with a $1 fee.

Other laws created Other bills signed Wednesday (SB 182) would extend several public-records exemptions involvwidespread support from the Black community, and I think a lot of folks are surprised by that — including Hillary Clinton herself,” Wilder said.

Wilder said there’s been a major change in the two decades since “people were talking about Bill Clinton being America’s first Black president and there was this sort of unwavering support for Clinton.”

Wilder said the Black Lives Matter movement and increased concern about racial justice that has developed in the aftermath of widely publicized killings of unarmed AfricanAmericans “has really impacted the African-American community.

“They’re looking for more than just lip service from their candidates.”

Tied overall Pollsters haven’t released Florida surveys recently, but a nationwide Quinnipiac University Poll out Feb. 17 showed Clinton and Sanders effectively tied 44 percent to 42 percent in the overall population, while Clinton leads 55 percent to 30 percent among non-White voters.

Voting in the first two states to hold nominating contests — Iowa, which is 92 percent white, and New Hampshire, 94 percent white — hasn’t provided a test of support from minority voters.

As the campaign has moved on to states with more minority voters — Clinton won Nevada on Saturday, and the South Carolina primary is this Saturday — both candidates are furiously trying to demonstrate their commitment to Black voters.

ing financial “trade secret” information, while a related proposal (SB 180) would make theft of tradesecret financial information a third-degree felony.

Those laws go into effect on Oct. 1.

Four other measures signed by Scott Wednesday

List of supporters Earlier this month, Clinton rolled out a long list of prominent female AfricanAmerican supporters in politics, business and entertainment, including the political action committee of Congressional Black Caucus. Sanders received an endorsement from entertainer/activist Harry Belafonte, director Spike Lee, and rapper Killer Mike, among others.

In Florida, Clinton has the support of the state’s top Black Democrats, including Hastings, and U.S. Reps. Frederica Wilson and Corrine Brown, and all 11 Black state senators, state representatives and county commissioners from Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Clinton also has endorsements from Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, the teen who was killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford, in 2012, and Benjamin Crump, the Tallahassee-based civil rights lawyer who represented the family of Martin and the family of Michael Brown, whose 2014 killing by a Ferguson, Mo., police officer sparked nationwide protests.

Natalie Jackson, the Orlando civil rights lawyer who worked with Crump on the Zimmerman case, has endorsed Sanders.

Do endorsements matter?

The influence of such supporters is unclear.

“Gone are the days of just kind of taking what we hear from these supposed leaders, taking what they say, their endorsements,

The Florida House on Wednesday gave final approval to a proposal that would lead to increased oversight of professional guardians who manage the affairs of seniors. The House voted 115-2 to back the bill (SB 232), which earlier passed the Senate and is now ready to go to Scott.

Private professional guardians often serve wealthy people. Supporters of the proposal, sponsored by Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, and Rep. Larry Ahern, R-Seminole, say that professional guardians can take advantage of seniors.

Under the bill, the Statewide Public Guardianship Office at the Department of Elder Affairs would expand to become the Office of Public and Professional Guardians. It would establish standards for guardians, receive and investigate complaints and penalize guardians who and following it,” Wilder said.

Hoye said he think that’s especially true for younger voters, for whom Sanders has shown great appeal.

“If you mention (civil rights leader and congressman) John Lewis, Alcee Hastings to some people, they may not even know who these people are,” Hoye said.

More effort necessary As part of her nationwide effort to stall any Sanders movement among Black voters, Clinton’s campaign held a rally Feb. 15 in the mostly Black city of Riviera Beach, where several Black politicians vouched for her.

Clinton wasn’t there. Worried about Sanders in Nevada, she stayed there to campaign and sent her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to campaign on her behalf in Riviera Beach.

Hastings and Christine Jones, vice chairwoman of

STATUE from A1

emy at West Point before later becoming a Confederate general.

He surrendered the last Confederate force during the Civil War, the analysis said.

National debate The effort to replace the Smith statue has moved forward amid a national debate about

breach the standards.

Rape kits Sending the issue to the House, the Florida Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill that would set time frames for testing DNA evidence in suspected sexual-assault cases.

The bill (SB 636), sponsored by Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers, came after reports last year that Florida has a backlog of thousands of untested “rape kits.”

Benacquisto’s bill, in part, would require lawenforcement agencies to submit rape kits for testing within 30 days of receiving the evidence. Testing would be required within 120 days of the submission of the kits.

The House version (HB 179), sponsored by Rep. Janet Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach, has made it through committees, readying the issue to go to the full House.

If the House takes up and passes Benacquisto’s bill, the measure would then go to Scott. the Broward Democratic Party, said Clinton needs to do more to maintain her support and ensure a good turnout among Black voters. Among their recommendations: local staffers organizing on her behalf and campaign offices in Black neighborhoods.

“We never see any of her representatives in our area.

That’s an issue for us. They need to be visual. They need to attend meetings that we have,” Jones said.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Priscilla Taylor said that ultimately, “the African-American community is majority for Hillary. I think Hillary has been fighting this fight for a long time. From speaking to people, she’s going to be OK in the African-American community here.”

Still, she said, Clinton “needs to come back here and let this community know it’s important to her.

You still can’t take it for granted.”

symbols of the Confederacy. That debate came after a man with white supremacist views was accused of killing nine African-American worshippers at a historic Black church in Charleston, S.C, in June.

Diaz said he has received threats and faced derogatory comments about his Cuban heritage because of his sponsorship of the measure.

House members voted 83-32 to approve the bill, which passed the Senate in a 33-7 vote.

FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 3, 2016

FLORIDA

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With Bush out, Florida Republicans turning to Rubio

BY BRANDON LARRABEE THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – Former Gov. Jeb Bush’s decision this weekend to suspend his presidential campaign appears to have brought an end to a family feud among Florida Republicans, with many of those who had endorsed Bush quickly swinging their support behind U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.

Rubio still faces major challenges in his bid to become the GOP’s presidential nominee in the November election. But having elected officials in his home state coalesce behind his candidacy could boost Rubio’s odds of grabbing Florida’s 99 delegates to the Republican National Convention this summer.

To win the nomination, a candidate needs 1,236 delegates.

Bush dropped out the race on Feb. 20 after a disappointing fourth-place showing in the South Carolina primary. By Monday, a steady stream of Republicans who had backed Bush when he seemed like the inevitable nominee were lining up behind the only full-time Floridian left in the race.

PHOTOS BY CAROLYN COLE/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Marco Rubio campaigns in South Carolina on Feb. 16. This week, Florida supporters of Jeb Bush were throwing their support to Rubio. inee in the general election.

“The stop-Trump train is really what’s going down the track right now,” said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida.

More state support In South Florida, three current Republican members of Congress and a former GOP congressman who had all backed Bush announced jointly Monday that they had switched to Rubio.

“From our days in the Florida Legislature, I’ve known Marco Rubio to be a principled man committed to public service,” U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart said in a statement. “This commitment and his vision for the future of this great nation make him the strongest candidate for the Republican nomination.”

Congressman Jeff Miller of Northwest Florida also moved to back the state’s junior senator, according to the Pensacola News Journal.

It was a trend that was expected to continue.

“Most Floridians, at least in the political world, supported Governor Bush and now, I suppose, will endorse Marco Rubio,” said J.M. “Mac” Stipanovich, a lobbyist and longtime Bush adviser.

Stipanovich said he had already cast his ballot for Bush through early voting before the South Carolina results came in, but would likely have voted for Rubio if he had waited until after Bush’s announcement.

Surprise exit Bush’s exit within the first month of voting in the GOP primaries was a surprise. In addition to doz-

Dems chair responds

President George W. Bush, left, and former first lady Laura Bush campaign with Jeb Bush in Charleston, S.C., on Feb. 15. Even with his family’s help, the former Florida governor couldn’t sway enough voters to stay in the race. ens of endorsements inside and outside of Florida, the son of one president and brother of another had raised $100 million before officially entering the race.

But the decision by Rubio, a former speaker of the state House and a sort of protégé of Bush, to challenge the former governor caused several members of the state GOP to feel conflicted about their votes.

“I worked closely with both of them and, like a lot of folks, had had some angst about shared loyalties and awareness of these

Legislators weigh in on terrorism fight

BY JIM TURNER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – Hawks in the Florida Legislature want Congress to fully declare the nation is at war with global Islamic terrorists.

The Senate Military and Veterans Affairs, Space, and Domestic Security Committee on Monday unanimously backed a proposal (SM 1710) that urges Congress and President Barack Obama to authorize the use of military force against al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) “and all other global Islamic terrorist organizations that similarly engage in acts of terrorism.”

“With all of the power that we have, as the greatest nation in the world, and with the threats that come across, whether it would be in our computers, whether it be bombings in other nations or other countries, ultimately it’s moving closer to us,” said Sen. Greg

two leaders,” state Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, said.

That feud came to a head last weekend.

“However we feel about it, it’s been resolved in South Carolina,” Baxley said.

State Sen. Thad Altman, R-Rockledge, also acknowledged the tension.

“It was heartbreaking for me to watch Marco and Jeb go at it and split the vote,” he said. “Now that we have one Floridian, one candidate ... I think Marco Rubio is the guy for the job, and I

Evers, a Baker Republican and the measure’s sponsor.

‘Memorial’ proposal Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, while noting that the U.S. already is using force against those groups, questioned if the government can declare war on groups rather than nations. But Committee Chairman Thad Altman, RRockledge, responded, “that’s the different world we live in today.”

The proposal is what is known as a “memorial,” which has no binding authority but expresses the opinion of the Legislature.

The memorial points to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington organized and financed by al-Qaeda and the Nov. 13 attacks across Paris that left 129 people dead. ISIL claimed to have coordinated the Paris attacks, along with other attacks in Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, and France.

Obama has drafted requests to Congress to authorize the use of military force on two occasions, in February 2015 and in December, days after what appeared to be an Islamic State-inspired attack in San Bernardino, Calif., that left 14 dead and 21 wounded.

Congress and Obama have not been able to reach agreement.

think he’ll be the next president.”

‘Still in mourning’ Others still weren’t ready to jump. The Rubio campaign called state Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, on Feb. 21 to ask for his support.

But Gaetz said Monday he hasn’t decided what to do.

“I am still in mourning. ... I wasn’t just for Jeb Bush.

I have been a Jeb Bush acolyte since before he was governor. His defeat was like a death in the family,” said Gaetz, a former Senate president.

Obama has authorized action against ISIL through a 2001 law designed to combat al-Qaeda and people behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attack.

Rules panel next Evers said Congress and Obama need to be on the same page when it comes to fighting terrorism.

Evers said by including “all global Islamic terrorist groups” in the request to Congress, regardless of what nation they’re operating within, the memorial is intended to be “as broad or as narrow as it needs to be.”

“We have experts in our military that would be able to pick and choose where they need to go,” Evers said. “The terrorists, they’re not picking and choosing, they’re destroying equally wherever they go.”

The memorial must still go before the Rules Committee to reach the Senate floor.

The House version of Evers’ proposal (HM 1319) by Rep. Larry Ahern, R-Seminole, awaits an appearance on the House floor after having received unanimous support from the Local & Federal Affairs and State Affairs committees.

Helping to rally state Republican leaders behind Rubio is the fear that real-estate tycoon Donald Trump, who has proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States and touts his plan to build a border wall, could win the nomination. Trump narrowly lost the Iowa caucuses before winning primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Many Republicans, especially among elected officials, fear that Trump could be a disastrous nom-

Bill stiffens crimes against Realtors THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

People who commit violent crimes against realestate agents would face stiffer penalties under a measure that started to move Monday in the Senate. Members of the Criminal Justice Committee approved the proposal (SB 214), which would up the classification of assaults, batteries and sexual batteries against real-estate brokers, broker associates or sales associates when they are showing property.

Sen. Jeff Clemens, DLake Worth, said he gets “nervous” about setting criminal laws that single out professions for special protections. But bill sponsor Nancy Detert, R-Venice, said the intent is to send a message rather than to make more people felons.

“It’s premeditated. They’re making an appointment with you to assault, murder or rob you,” Detert said. “It’s

Democrats were quick to try to play down the advantages Rubio might get from the switched endorsements.

“If these politicians couldn’t help Jeb overcome the Trump machine, what makes them think they can help put Rubio – who lost every single delegate in South Carolina to Trump – over the top?” asked Allison Tant, chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, in a statement.

Where the candidates stand in Florida isn’t entirely clear. GOP voters in other states have shown they are willing this year to buck the establishment.

And few if any polls of Florida have been released in the last month.

“I think it’s still a state that’s up for grabs,” MacManus said.

And the man who would represent the biggest potential Florida endorsement for Rubio is still recovering from his loss. Stipanovich said he hasn’t spoken to Bush since the governor dropped out, but barring a surprising endorsement for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, there were likely only two alternatives.

“I think the choice is probably between endorsing Marco and not doing anything right now,” Stipanovich said. the stalking aspect. It’s the fact that it’s mostly a female occupation. Seventy percent of the crimes are against women. I think they’re being stalked, they’re being targeted.”

Robbed, assaulted A 2015 National Association of Realtors survey, included in a staff analysis of the proposal, found that 40 percent of the association’s members “experienced a situation that made them fear for their personal safety or safety of their personal information.”

Of those responding to the survey, 2 percent indicated they had been robbed while working and 1 percent had been victims of assault. With less than three weeks left in the legislative session, the Senate proposal would still need to get through two additional committees.

A related House proposal (HB 47), filed by Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, RNaples, is ready to go to the full House.

EDITORIAL

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FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 3, 2016

Trump plays the dozens as Jeb breaks down During the Republican primary in South Carolina, candidate Donald Trump attacked candidate Jeb Bush by referring to his brother, former President George W. Bush.

When you get challenged by referring to someone close to you, don’t rattle on. Cut the debate on that topic and get back to the subject at hand – leading America as president.

The worst part was that Trump was not accurate on many of the accusations about the 43rd president. If that wasn’t enough, Jeb asked for more by including his mother and father in the argument. Trump ate it up.

Sad scene It was truly sad to see former First Lady Barbara Bush, a 90-year-old great-grandmother, slowly moving with the help of a walker in freezing New Hampshire weather showing support for her son.

I shook my head looking at this and said to myself, “You are going too far, Jeb. People are going to wonder about your strength – bringing in your aging mother to fight your battles.” Trump wisely avoided any bad words to or about her. It is the visual that said it all.

However, Trump saw an opening by Jeb bringing in his brother to South Carolina. He wrongly referred to George W. Bush as a

HARRY C. ALFORD NNPA COLUMNIST

“liar who wrongly led us into the Iraq War. He claimed there were weapons of mass destruction and there weren’t. Thousands of our soldiers died because of that.”

Jeb had no comeback. He could have.

Iraq had plenty of weapons of mass destruction – mainly chemical weapons which it would use from time to time against rebelling Kurds and Shiites. All Jeb was apparently thinking was the subject of nuclear weapons. He should have concentrated on chemical weapons and SCUD missiles that could reach our ships and Israel.

Didn’t tell his story He should have turned this around by eloquently explaining the Bush name.

His grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a New Hampshire senator and a strong civil rights advocate who played a valuable role in the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. He valiantly fought the Democratic senators who opposed it and he convinced President Eisenhower to support it. This encouraged Eisenhow-

Obama forever and ever On January 20, 2017 someone other than Barack Obama will become president of the United States. Many people – this columnist included – long for the day when the national nightmare will be over, and Black people might once again resume their proud tradition of leading American left politics.

But this won’t happen until most of them are deprived of the illusory good feelings provided by the sight of a Black president.

We might be able to again work for self-determination and pursue full citizenship rights with the zeal that was once commonplace.

More Obama Unfortunately, Inauguration Day for the next president will probably not have that hoped-for effect. As the countdown clock moves, we are seeing a resurgence of the Obama propaganda juggernaut. A day doesn’t pass without a plethora of social me-

MARGARET KIMBERLEY BLACK AGENDA REPORT

dia images meant to keep us in full Obama thrall.

In just the past week alone we have been subjected to video of a girl crying upon being informed that Obama won’t be president forever. The White House released a video showing a 106-year old Black woman joyfully meeting the president and first lady. That was followed by #Obamaandkids which showed the president in adorable mode with small children.

The Obama team was always a marketing powerhouse; they aren’t letting up with a mere eleven months to go. The goal is not to burnish the president’s historical legacy.

Fight over school choice is about freedom and justice I know many of you have heard by now that 10,000 people rallied in Tallahassee last month to support school choice scholarships for low-income students. You probably also heard that Martin Luther King, III was the keynote speaker, and that Black, White and Hispanic leaders joined him in denouncing a lawsuit the state teachers’ union filed to kill the scholarships.

But here’s something you probably haven’t heard, though it demands your attention. After the rally, the teachers’ union president, Joanne McCall, referenced the pleas from parents to drop the suit and asked, “What are they so afraid of?”

BISHOP VAUGHN MCLAUGHLIN GUEST COMMENTARY

Obvious answer That statement cannot go without a response, even if the answer is obvious.

We are afraid 78,000 students on scholarship, including 23,000 Black students, will be evicted from schools where they are thriving. We are afraid for our communities, which have already endured too much pain.

We are afraid the vicious cycles of generational poverty will rev

er to begin integrating Southern schools – an event he failed to do for our troops while managing World War II. Jeb could have mentioned his father, President George H.W. Bush, who furthered the implementation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Most of the minority business programs that we have today where implemented during his vice presidential and presidential terms. More Black millionaires evolved under government procurement programs during those three terms.

Then he could have spoken of the great things his brother accomplished. During the 43rd president’s term, Black business turned around.

Decreased under Clinton Bush’s predecessor, William J. Clinton, had a less-than-glamorous period for Black-owned firms. The 8(a) program started reversing as the Department of Defense started directing their 8(a) contracts to Alaskan Native corporations – a total sham.

White firms could claim some type of relationship with one of the Alaskan tribes, and then get no-bid, billion-dollar contracts for years. We started noticing a drop of a billion dollars per year for Black 8(a) firms beginning in the mid-1990s.

Jeb could have stated that during the Hurricane Katrina

Stay in line The media onslaught is to replicate the strategy of 2008. People who should have known better went along with well marketed neo-liberalism and imperialism. No stone is left unturned to keep the sheep in line. We might actually dare to think about those serving draconian sentences for drug dealing who Obama refused to free, or the children he killed in drone attacks.

The natural inclination to feel good isn’t harmless when politics are the subject of discussion. This election year, Black people should begin the process of recovering their collective senses. The Black president did nothing to stop the decimation of the little wealth his most fervent supporters once had.

Mass incarceration and police murder still target Black people more than anyone else. This is not the time to let up because of propagandists with the right connections. #Obamaandkids is the brainchild of one Michael Skolnik, who serves as president of Russell Simmons’ globalgrind.com and has the title of political director. Simmons is a phony revback up again.

Truly, we are afraid for our children.

The tax credit scholarship program, as it is officially called, is not a miracle. But it is a tool that can help, and in fact has been helping for 15 years. It is opening doors of opportunity for 78,000 students that they and their parents could never have imagined.

Some parents are so thrilled when they get the scholarship, they scream for joy. Some are so relieved, because their children now have a greater shot at success in school and in life, that they cry. Yet Ms. McCall asks, “What are they so afraid of?”

No controversy I consider the scholarship program an equalizer. It gives lowincome parents the power to send their kids to private school, if they think that is best. In other words, it allows them to do what wealthier parents do all the time, without controversy or headlines.

Somehow, giving low-income

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: JEB DROPS OUT

NATE BEELER, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

rebuilding, George W. Bush opened the doors for Black contractors. Within three years, more than $3 billion were earned

by Black participating companies. I got weekly reports from FEMA stating the dollar amount, name of contractors and contact info to verify that contractor. By contrast, when Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey, the current administration claimed they didn’t keep such numbers – a TOTAL LIE. Regarding capital access, under George W. Bush, Small Business Administration loans grew from 4 percent to 8 percent. Since then, the current administration has decreased that amount to 2 percent.

Bad for Blacks

olutionary and with the help of his patrons like Skolnik, is at the trough of the Black Misleadership class.

It is sad indeed that pictures of kids touching Obama’s hair, or gazing lovingly at him, are enough for millions of people to lose their powers of thought. The sentimental self-indulgence is an indication of the low level of political awareness in this country.

These pictures tell a much larger story though. Obama wouldn’t be president at all without the services of the best marketing people in the country.

The president left a Facebook message for the woman whose granddaughter cried over him.

“Caprina, tell her to dry her tears, because I’m not going anywhere.

Once I leave the White House, I’ll still be a citizen just like her.

And when she grows up, she can get involved right alongside me.

In the meantime, I’ll keep an eye out for her letter, and we’ll always get to celebrate our birthdays together!” Yes, she and the president share a birthday. How perfect.

Obama and Obamaism aren’t going anywhere. The level of hypnotic browbeating will not diminish. Anyone who thinks about alternatives to the Democrats, or fighting imperialism or mass incarceration, will have to struggle in 2016 just like they did in 2008. In the meantime, get ready for more cute kids.

Just the beginning We have not seen the last of the Obama hagiography. Skolnik and his ilk won’t disappear. The soon to-be-former president will need them as he builds libraries, makes money and dispenses patronage.

In the meantime, he will use every means to keep pesky progressives from thinking for themselves. Lest anyone criticize Obama in particular or Democrats in general, they will have to fight against perfected propaganda that would make Orwell turn in his grave. parents the same opportunity causes a scene. The teachers’ union has been fighting the program since the beginning. Every single objection – that it takes money from public schools, that it cherry-picks the best and brightest students, that it doesn’t have accountability – has been refuted by hard evidence, common sense, or both.

Yet the attacks have gone on, and have now made their way into the courts. Ultimately, it may be up to the Florida Supreme Court to decide.

In the meantime, tens of thousands of parents will worry, for good reason. Could 78,000 children really be removed from the schools they love and sent back to schools where so many were failing? Yes. Could that really happen in America in 2016? Yes. Yet Mrs. McCall asks, “What are they so afraid of?”

Important to me The scholarships and the good they do aren’t abstractions to me.

My wife and I founded The Pot-

Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher

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.

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President George W. Bush proclaimed all government contractual projects to be “Right to Work.” President Obama’s first executive order was to reverse that order and make all projects over $1 million to be union-only, which drastically reduced contracts and hiring of Blacks.

Jeb, all you had to do was stand tall and eloquently describe the brilliant legacy of your family.

But you didn’t do this and got hustled. Your run for president is now suspended.

Harry C. Alford is the cofounder and president/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. Contact him via www.nationalbcc.org.

Margaret Kimberley’s column appears weekly in BlackAgendaReport.com. Contact her at Margaret.Kimberley@ BlackAgendaReport.com. ter’s House International Ministries and Potter’s House Academy in Jacksonville so we could empower people – spiritually, socially, economically, educationally. Thanks to the scholarship, we can provide nearly 300 students with a top-notch education.

Many of their parents attended the Rally in Tally. As they stood near the Capitol, 10,000 strong, they heard these words from Martin Luther King, III: “This is about justice. This is about righteousness. This is about truth.

This is about freedom – the freedom to choose what’s best for your family, and your child most importantly.”

Yes, it is. The scholarship parents know better than anyone.

That’s why they’re afraid.

That’s also why they’ll never give up.

Bishop Vaughn McLaughlin is pastor of The Potter’s House International Ministries.

Central Florida Communicators Group, LLC, P.O. Box 48857 Tampa, FL 33646, publishes the Florida Courier on Fridays. Phone: 877-352-4455, toll-free. For all sales inquiries, call 877-352-4455; e-mail sales@flcourier.com.

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FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 3, 2016

Apple defends giving safe haven to terrorist plots Three years ago, Edward Snowden made defying government mass surveillance a cause celebre. Ever since, tech companies have been in the vanguard of those championing this cause.

From day one, however, I’ve been decrying their hypocrisy and the ignorance of their customers.

This excerpt from a June 2013 column is illustrative.

“Americans complaining about the government spying on them is rather like Kim Kardashian complaining about the paparazzi taking pictures of her…In this Information Age, tech companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Twitter, and WikiLeaks are masters of the universe. But they have created a schizophrenic human species – whose members share everything about everything, yet claim to be zealous about their privacy.

“Only this explains the growing national outrage over the government’s National Security Agency (NSA) monitoring their promiscuous and indiscriminate digital companies to spy on them to sell them stuff –but not okay for the NSA to do so to keep them safe. “…(Americans) blithely give up truly sensitive personal information for the convenience of buying stuff with credit cards…records collected from such transactions make the generic phone records the NSA collects seem even less intrusive than a traffic cop’s speed gun.

“All we need is for terrorists to pull off another 9/11. The same people venting outrage about government surveillance today will be venting ever greater outrage over the government’s failure to monitor the footprints of those terrorists (i.e., connecting the dots).”

ANTHONY L. HALL, ESQ. FLORIDA COURIER COLUMNIST

There’s a difference It’s one thing for tech companies to exploit the ignorance of their customers to sell them stuff.

It’s quite another for them to defy a court order to help the government keep their customers safe.

Yet this is the incomprehensible and untenable defiance Apple is mounting as if its corporate life depends on it.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion seeking to compel Apple Inc. to comply with a judge’s order to unlock the encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters.

Apple had previously refused to comply with the order, with Apple CEO Tim Cook saying the company refused to ‘hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers.”

Unsurprisingly, other tech companies are supporting Apple; its defiance furthers their commercial interests. But it is utterly stupefying that ordinary folks are doing so too. After all, judges routinely sign warrants which force us to open our homes for all kinds of searches and seizures. They sign similar warrants to force us to even give hair and blood samples.

Therefore, Apple must believe that its customers’ iPhones are more inviolate than their homes, even their bodies. Only this belief explains its defiance.

Never mind the schizophrenic premise upon which it is based:

Won’t stand up That’s not how it works for Democrats. And it doesn’t work because they are such wimps when it comes to standing up for their beliefs.

You have never heard nor will you ever hear a Republican talk about not nominating any judge because he or she is too conservative. In fact, they have made a

Former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw will spend the rest of his life behind bars for multiple counts of rape and sexual assault against Black women. Why did it take so long for most of us to notice this story?

The answer lies at the uncomfortable intersection of gender, race, and class. The Holtzclaw saga underscores a broader truth about America in 2015: our criminal justice system systemically undervalues and abuses – and our mainstream media routinely ignores – poor Black women.

One story Katie Truslow (her name changed to protect her privacy) is a Black woman who has faced these injustices. Like 85 percent of incarcerated women, her prison story begins with physical and sexual violence.

After her abusive ex-husband raped her during their divorce,

KIMBERLY TIGNOR TRICE EDNEY NEWSWIRE

Truslow began dating the drug dealer who protected her. When her boyfriend was indicted, Truslow’s connection to him was all the prosecutors needed to charge her with conspiracy. Truslow’s status as a Black woman with little money made it easier for the criminal justice system to see her as a perpetrator rather than as a victim.

The theory of “intersectionality” explains our society’s ambivalence toward Americans who happen to women and Black. Intersectionality posits that social categorizations such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation overlap in ways that create

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: JEB BUSH SUSPENDS HIS CAMPAIGN

Privacy for profit Meanwhile, Apple’s compliance with the Chinese government makes a mockery of its defiance against the American government.

Not least because this betrays the fact that Apple is all too willing to sacrifice customer privacy for corporate profit.

According to the London Daily Mail newspaper, “Detractors of Apple’s decision…have questioned why, if the company feels it must protect ‘the security of its customers,’ it apparently complied with the Chinese government’s demand to show it secret data one year ago…(when) Apple agreed to let the Chinese government perform ‘security checks’ to confirm that there were no ‘backdoors’ that might let the U.S. government read Chinese citizens’ data. The country had threatened Apple’s access to the Chinese market.”

Apple is merely doing what other tech companies have done. I decried their hypocrisy in a 2006 column in which I praised Google for defying the Bush administration’s demand for information about the Internet searches and surfing habits of its customers. Soon thereafter, Google agreed to help China’s totalitarian government spy on and censor its citizens’ use of the Internet in exchange for market access.

ADAM ZYGLIS, THE BUFFALO NEWS

ing to help the democratic American government invade the privacy of one dead terrorist – Apple is standing on sound corporate principle. This should strike even stupid Americans as not only hypocritical but patently absurd.

To be fair, Apple is arguing that if it complies in this case, the government might force it to develop code to unlock every iPhone ever sold; further, that terrorists might hack this code. But this smacks of the specious, immoral, slipperyslope argument Swiss bankers once used to keep private the accounts of Nazi swindlers and nacrotraffickers.

Apple defying the government in this fashion is no more hypocritical and absurd than Edward Snowden complaining about U.S. mass surveillance while hiding out in Russia. After all, mass surveillance in Russia rivals what Apple Hypocritical and absurd The point is that U.S. tech com- helps government officials execute panies have been helping the to- in China. talitarian Chinese government invade the privacy of everyone in Trump is right It gives me pause that buffoonChina for years. Yet they would have you believe that – in refus- ish Donald Trump proposed the

dents, The Federalist Society is leaving its right-wing imprint on the courts.

To their disappointment, David Souter was nominated to the Supreme Court by President George H.W. Bush, but ended up siding with liberals on the bench. “No More Souters” became the boisterous chant of disappointed conservatives.

Though they are arch-conservatives, Roberts and Kennedy have been sharply criticized by GEORGE E. conservatives for certain votes.

CURRY Roberts provided the deciding GEORGE CURRY MEDIA vote to uphold the legality of the Affordable Care Act and Kennedy point of putting right-wing reac- voted to legalize same-sex martionaries on the court: Clarence riage.

Thomas, John G. Roberts, Samuel Alito, Anthony M. Kennedy and, Campaign push of course, Antonin Scalia.

The Washington Times notYet, Democrats – and only ed in September, “As a precurDemocrats – feel compelled to sor to the upcoming Republican appoint less doctrinaire justices presidential debate, a conservain order to appease Republicans tive group is starting a campaign who oppose them at every turn. push to get the candidates on the That’s a one-way street to no- record about how they would apwhere. proach Supreme Court nominaConservatives have created a tions. vast network through The Feder“’Demand justices with a provalist Society “dedicated to reform- en record of upholding the coning the current legal order.” From stitution. We can’t afford more establishing chapters on every surprises,’ a narrator says in the law school campus, to arrang- first advertisement by the Judicial ing internships with like-mind- Crisis Network, which features ed lawyers, and screening poten- the faces of Justices John Roberts tial judges for Republican presi- and Anthony Kennedy and re-

Black women, mass incarceration missing from conversation

A5

namely, that people who use iPhones to share everything about their private lives want Apple to protect their privacy.

Only Democrats compromise on court appointments President Obama has announced that despite threats from Republican leaders, he plans to nominate someone to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia. I hope he ignores the advice of Vice President Joe Biden, who wants him to select someone who isn’t staunchly liberal.

Biden said, “...the idea that we’re going to go in and decide we’re going to pick an, I don’t know, a new Justice Brennan, I don’t think that’s going to happen. That’s not how the system works.”

EDITORIAL

unique disadvantages for individuals who belong to more than one category.

American civil rights law focuses on only one disadvantaged status at a time.

However, racial justice tends to be defined in terms of the needs of Black men and feminism in terms of the needs of White women. Hence the relative obscurity of Black women like Katie Truslow and the survivors of Holtzclaw’s crimes: they are victimized because they are women, they are ignored, stigmatized, and even incarcerated just because they are Black and predominantly poor.

A similar dynamic explains the lack of data about incarcerated Black women. Corrections agencies disaggregate prisoner data by race and by gender, meaning that we know plenty about Black prisoners and about women prisoners. Because the data is not separated by race and gender, we rarely know how many of the Black prisoners are women, and how many of the women are Black.

The lack of data limits the conversation. Activists and policymakers can have detailed conversations about Black people and women in the prison system but must resort to imprecise statistics and anecdotal evidence to de-

tired Justice David Souter, all Republican picks to the court.”

Selecting a progressive to replace Scalia would shift the balance of the court, which is now tilted 5-4 in favor of conservatives. And the next president may get two or more additional appointments.

All of the remaining Republican candidates for president are contending that President Obama should not appoint a replacement for Scalia, which would leave his seat open for a minimum of 11 months. And, according to FactCheck.org, critics of Obama are distorting the history of the Supreme Court to make their argument.

“Let’s take Cruz’s statement first,” FactCheck.org states.

“He’s right – or close to right – that it has been 80 years since a Supreme Court nominee was ‘nominated and confirmed in an election year.’ It has actually been 76 years. But here’s the missing context: There have been only six outstanding court vacancies in an election year since 1900, and in every case the vacancy was filled.”

Rubio said on “Face the Nation” (Feb. 14): “...There’s been precedent established over 80 years that, in the last year, especially in the last 11 months, you do not have a lame-duck president make a lifetime appointment to the scribe the state of Black women prisoners.

We extrapolated from the one data point included about Black women in the “Prisoners in 2014” report provided by the Bureau of Justice Statistics that Black women make up 23 percent of incarcerated women. By contrast, Black women comprise only 14 percent of the U.S. female population. We also know that Black women are incarcerated at roughly twice the rate of White and Latina women.

Our national silence about Black women’s experiences with mass incarceration does not render their absences inconsequential. Katie Truslow’s sudden absence was keenly felt by her daughters, who were only 7 and 9-years-old at the time of her incarceration. Of the 61 percent of Black women prisoners who have minor children, more than three quarters were their children’s primary caregiver prior to their incarceration.

Against Truslow’s wishes, her girls eventually wound up living with the mother of her abusive exhusband. Since Truslow was incarcerated, she was not there to protect her daughters, and the cycle of sexual abuse began to repeat itself. She describes one incident in which she had to call some-

only meaningful way Apple’s customers can react to its defiance: they can boycott Apple products.

Granted, Trump’s presidential campaign seems like little more than an organized version of the drug-induced meltdown Charlie Sheen acted out on TV a few years ago. Still, I agree with Trump.

Alas, for most people, boycotting would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Indeed, late-breaking news is that its customers, for whom Apple can do no wrong, are organizing protests in cities throughout the United States. They intend to protest what they see as government persecution of Apple. Nincompoops!

This is why, given its willful failure to obey this court order, the only hope is for the judge to impose a fine for contempt that makes even Apple hurt where it counts.

Anthony L. Hall is a Bahamian native with an international law practice in Washington, D.C. Read his columns and daily weblog at www.theipinionsjournal.com. highest court on the land.”

Not true FactCheck.org stated, “In fact, this is the first time in at least 116 years that a Supreme Court vacancy occurred in a lame-duck president’s final year in office.

The chart above also shows there was only one lame-duck president – Reagan – who had a vacancy to fill, but that vacancy occurred when Reagan had more than a year in office. Rubio said the precedent extends only to a president’s last year ‘especially in the last 11 months,’ which would only cover Obama.”

Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who has dismissed Roberts as “disgraceful” and a “disappointment,” named Clarence Thomas is his favorite Supreme Court justice.

Critics notwithstanding, President Obama plans to nominate a judge to succeed Scalia. It would be the height of cowardice to shy away from nominating a progressive to the nation’s highest court.

George E. Curry is president and CEO of George Curry Media, LLC. Contact him via georgecurry.com. one to track down her daughter when the girl ran away because of Truslow’s ex-husband’s sexual advances.

Truslow now worries that a different cycle will repeat itself— that of incarceration. She works with women who are reentering the general population after prison and sees the same stories filled with sexual trauma, domestic violence, and desperation time and time again. Truslow knows that story well: it is her story, and it is also the story of her daughters. And she worries that incarceration, like sexual abuse, is a “generational occurrence” and “a pain that will carry out to [her] daughter.”

To prevent that from happening, we must include the stories of Black women like Katie Truslow and the survivors of Daniel Holtzclaw’s crimes when we speak about the injustices of the American criminal justice system. More importantly, we must take concrete steps to address the ways that system uniquely burdens women of color. Only when justice is holistic and inclusive is it complete.

Kimberly Tignor is the interim director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s Public Policy Project.

TOJ A6

NATION

FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 3, 2016

Court dives into case on police powers Justices without Scalia divided over giving officers more leeway to stop people

BY DAVID G. SAVAGE TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court resumed hearing arguments Monday for the first time since Justice Antonin Scalia’s unexpected death and immediately plunged into a heated dispute over police powers that underscored how the remaining eight justices might find themselves increasingly deadlocked this term.

As they considered whether to give police more leeway to stop and question people in highcrime neighborhoods, the justices appeared split along familiar ideological lines, raising the possibility of what some predict could be several 4-4 votes without Scalia.

Before arguments began, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. opened the session with a tribute to Scalia, whose seat was draped with black cloth. The conservative justice was found dead at a Texas resort Feb. 13.

“We remember his incisive intellect, his agile wit and his captivating prose,” Roberts said. “But we cannot forget his irrepressible spirit. He was our man for all seasons, and we shall miss him beyond measure.”

‘Exclusionary rule’ issue Once arguments got underway, the justices — now evenly split between Republican and Democratic appointees — voiced starkly different views on the case.

At issue is whether to relax the so-called “exclusionary rule” and permit the use of evidence that was found after an officer had illegally stopped a pedestrian or motorist.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the nation was in danger of “becoming a police state” if officers

TOM WILLIAMS/CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY/NEWSCOM/ZUMA PRESS/TNS

Pallbearers carry the body of Justice Antonin Scalia into the Supreme Court where he lay in repose on Feb. 19, ahead of his Feb. 20 funeral mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. can stop every person on the corner, ask for identification, check for warrants and then search them if one is found.

But the chief justice said he saw no problem with an officer asking for identification from a man seen leaving a suspected drug house and checking to see if he had an outstanding arrest warrant.

Focus on Ferguson While the case heard Monday centered around events in Salt Lake City, much of the argument focused on Ferguson, Mo., which exploded into unrest in 2014 after a White police officer shot and killed an unarmed Black man.

Subsequent investigations into the practices of the Ferguson Police Department found that more

than two-thirds of the city’s residents had outstanding warrants, mostly for unpaid parking tickets and minor fines.

Justice Elena Kagan said she was “surprised beyond measure at how many people have outstanding warrants” in many of the nation’s cities. It would “dramatically change the incentives” for police if they were told they could stop people for questioning and check for a warrant and then search and arrest anyone who had a warrant on file.

The case heard Monday began when a police officer in south Salt Lake City was watching a house where illegal drug sales were suspected, based on an anonymous tip. After some time, he saw Edward Strieff exit the house and walk toward a convenience store.

The officer stopped him in a parking lot.

The officer asked for Strieff’s identification, and after making a call, learned that Strieff had an outstanding warrant for a minor traffic fine. The officer then searched Strieff, found methamphetamine in his pocket and arrested him.

Utah ruling debated A Utah judge refused to suppress the evidence because the officer’s search was triggered by the news of the outstanding warrant. But the Utah Supreme Court threw out the case against Strieff on the grounds the officer had no legal basis for stopping him in the first instance.

The liberal justices said they would be troubled by a ruling

that encouraged the police to stop people routinely, hoping they might have an outstanding warrant that would justify searching them or their cars.

The conservative justices said only a tiny percentage of people in most communities have outstanding warrants, so police would not be inclined to make stops for that reason in most of the nation.

The justices will meet behind closed doors to vote on the case of Utah vs. Strieff. If a majority can agree on an outcome, they will begin writing an opinion.

If not, the Utah Supreme Court ruling could be affirmed on an equally divided vote.

Virginia senators want to study 400 years of Black history

BY JAMES WRIGHT TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, Democrats from Virginia, want to set up a federal panel to study the contributions and accomplishments of Blacks in America.

On Feb. 11, Kaine and Scott were joined by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (DVa.), Congressional Black Caucus Chairman U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), and Director of the NAACP Washington Bureau Hilary Shelton in announcing the introduction of the “400 Years of African-American History Act,” a bill establishing a commission to plan nationwide programs and activities in 2019 to recognize the arrival and influence of Africans in America.

Kaine noted that other racial and ethnic groups have had similar commissions and Blacks shouldn’t be different.

Other commissions “I’ve been lucky to be a part of federal commissions that have been formed to study and celebrate English and Hispanic history,” Kaine said. “Well, if English lives matter, if Latino lives matter, then African-American lives matter and they’ve mattered every day since the landing of those ’20 and odd’ African-Americans at Point Comfort, Va. “The story has a lot of pain to it, but it’s a story that has to be told to commemorate that we as a nation, had it not been for 400

COURTESY OF OFFICE OF SEN. BOBBY SCOTT

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott speaks at a press conference announcing a bill to recognize contributions of Blacks in America. With him are U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, left, and U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield and U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, right. years of African-American history, would have been absolutely unrecognizable.”

In reference to other commissions, Kaine is talking about the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Va., that took place in 2007 and the 450th anniversary in 2005 of the founding of St. Augustine, the first permanent European settlement in the U.S.

1619 arrival The first Blacks to come to American shores permanently in 1619 were from a Dutch ship and were believed by historians to be indentured servants because slavery didn’t exist in Virginia at that time.

Blacks could become full citizens in the Virginia colony a few years after their arrival but harsh restrictions, starting in 1639, eventually led to establishment

of slavery based on color in 1662.

The legislation calls for the appointment of a 15-member commission. The commissioners will be uncompensated but will have travel expenses covered and will select a chair, vice chair, and executive director.

2020 deadline The legislation states that grants will be available for work related to the commission and

a final report on the project will be issued on July 1, 2020, the date it is scheduled to go out of business.

“The commission established by this bill will be charged with the important task of planning, developing, and implementing a series of programs and activities through 2019 that fully tells the story of African-Americans, their contributions to the fabric of our nation, and their resilience over the last 400 years,” said Scott, the first Black to represent Virginia in the U.S. Congress since Reconstruction.

Warner said that “confronting the sins of our nation’s past is the only sure way to move toward a brighter future.”

Beyer said that commission could serve as a beacon in the country’s “march toward racial equality” and noted the bipartisan support for the bill that includes Reps. Randy Forbes (RVa.) and Scott Rigell (R-Va.).

The bill “will offer an important opportunity for discussion on a number of issues, including the ever-growing influence of people of African descent in the daily lives of all Americans,” Shelton said. “The NAACP would like to thank Sen. Kaine and Rep. Scott, as well as the co-sponsors of this important legislation, for their efforts, vision and foresight.”

This story is special to the Trice Edney News Service from the Afro American Newspapers.

Obama responds to girl who doesn’t want him to leave office

BY ANGELA BRONNER HELM THE ROOT

It appears that President Barack Obama, possibly inspired by the adorable viral hashtag #ObamaAndKids this weekend, caught wind of a popular video showing a little girl crying when she learned that he was leaving office next January.

The Facebook page belonging to the little girl’s grandmother Caprina D. Harris shows a video of her totally

distraught “dranbaby” snotcrying and saying, “I’m not ready” to let the president go, as her grandmother patiently explains that a president can serve only two terms.

The message attached to the video read, “On Saturday morning just before Gymnastics, My Dranbaby found out that our President Barack Obama was no longer going to be our President!!! He has been her President all of her life and Yes her birthday is also on AUGUST 4!!!! My poor baby!!!”

The president then responded by posting a message in the comments section of the post, saying, “Caprina, tell her to dry her tears, because I’m not going anywhere. Once I leave the White House, I’ll still be a citizen just like her. And when she grows up, she can get involved right alongside me. In the meantime, I’ll keep an eye out for her letter, and we’ll always get to celebrate our birthdays together!”

‘Caprina Harris’ granddaughter laments: “I’m not ready for a new one!’’

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IFE/FAITH

FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 3, 2016

Director will be at Flint event on Oscar night See page B5

SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE

‘The View’ names first African-American executive producer See page B5

SOUTH FLORIDA / TREASURE COAST AREA

WWW.FLCOURIER.COM

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Barack Obama is the first African-American president of the United States. Here’s a look at other firsts for American Blacks in politics and law: EVENTS 1861 Civil War begins.

1863 President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing most slaves.

1865 to 1877 Reconstruction.

Constitution amended three times to provide equal rights to Black Americans.

1865 Civil War ends.

The 13th Amendment ratified, outlawing slavery.

1868 The 14th Amendment ratified, granting citizenship to any person born or naturalized in the United States.

1870 The 15th Amendment ratified, guaranteeing Black Americans the right to vote.

1896 Plessy vs.

Ferguson.

Supreme Court decides “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

1954 Brown vs.

Board of Education.

Supreme Court finds segregated public schools unconstitutional.

1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin.

— Karsten Ivey, Sun Sentinel

1865

J.S. Rock Lawyer admitted to practice before U.S. Supreme Court

1870

Hiram R. Revels U.S. senator (Miss.)

Joseph Rainey

U.S. Rep. (S.C.)

1865

Rev. Henry Highland Garnet Give a speech in the U.S. Capitol

1871

Jefferson F. Long Speak in House of Representatives as congressman (Ga.)

1872

Charlotte Ray Female lawyer allowed to practice in Washington, D.C.

1911

William Henry Lewis Appointed to a sub-Cabinet post

1926

Violette N. Anderson Female lawyer admitted to practice before U.S. Supreme Court

1967

Thurgood Marshall U.S. Supreme Court Justice

1944

Harry S. McAlpin Reporter to attend White House press conference

1955

E. Frederic Morrow Hold an executive position on a president’s staff

1960

1966

1977

1977

1989

1989

Andrew Hatcher Assistant presidential press secretary

Patricia Harris Female Cabinet secretary (HUD*)

L. Douglas Wilder Elected governor of a state (Va.)

1966

Robert C. Weaver Edward Brooke U.S. senator (first since Recon- Cabinet secretary (Housing and Urban struction) (Mass.)

Development)

1967

Carl Stokes Mayor of a large city (Cleveland)

1968

Shirley Chisholm Female U.S. representative

Clifford Alexander Jr. Secretary of the Army

Colin Powell Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

1992

Carol Moseley Braun Female U.S. senator (Ill.)

2000

Donna Brazile Manager of a presidential campaign SOURCES: AFRICAN AMERICAN REGISTRY, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, INFOPLEASE.COM, BLACKPAST.ORG, TNS

2001

Condoleezza Rice National security advisor Colin Powell Secretary of State PHOTOS COURTESY OF: TNS, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

CALENDAR

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FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Cape Canaveral: The Original Wailers and Third World will perform at the Port at Port Canaveral on Feb. 28.

The show starts at 3 p.m.

Orlando: The Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra will present its annual Celebration of Music Education concert at 4 p.m. Feb. 28 at the Edgewater High School auditorium. Tickets: www. fsyo.org.

Miami: The Sistrunk parade and festival starts Feb. 17 at 9 a.m. The parade is along the Sistrunk Boulevard corridor. The Urban Music Festival is until 7 p.m. at Northwest Ninth Avenue and Northwest 12th Avenue.

Orlando: The Bethune-Cookman University Chorale will perform March 3 at 7 p.m. at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church Sanctuary, 4851 S. Apopka-Vineland Road. The concert is free but tickets are required. Call 407-8764991 or visit www.st.lukes. org/bethunecookman.

Hallandale: An award reception for area women is at 4 p.m. March 12 at Greater Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church in Hallandale.

It’s sponsored by the Divine Divas of S. Florida, a Red Hat Society chapter.

Fort Lauderdale: “The Abolitionists,” film viewing and discussion takes place at 2 p.m. Feb. 27 at Nova Southeastern University, Cotilla Gallery, Alvin Sherman Library, 3100 Ray Ferrero Blvd. More information: call 954-262-5477.

Melbourne: “Three Black

FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 3, 2016

STOJ

COCOA BROWN

The Festival of Laughs featuring Mike Epps, Tony Rock and Cocoa Brown is March 19 at the University of South Florida Sun Dome.

KIRK FRANKLIN

Catch Kirk Franklin at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach on March 15.

SILENTO

“Let’s Dance,’’ a tour featuring Silento, is March 5 at House of Blues Orlando. Other performers are iLoveMemphis, DLOW, We are Toonz and 99 Percent.

Kings,’’ a concert featuring Duke Ellington’s final work of the same name, is March 5 at the Scott Center Auditorium at Holy Trinity and March 6 at Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center, 1707 16th St. Tickets: www.SpaceCoastSymphony.org.

Tampa: Computer Mentors and the Temple Terrace Public Library will provide free basic coding/logic skills and Lego Robotics programming to youngsters 10-13.

Classes will be Tuesdays, 5-6 p.m., March 15-May 31 at the library. Details:

Documentary to highlight Black pioneers of St. Petersburg SPECIAL TO THE COURIER

Archie and David Boston recently met with State Rep. Daryl Rouson in Tallahassee to discuss their upcoming PBS special titled “Black Pioneers of the Sunshine City.”

Rouson supports this PBS special and will be assisting the producers to help identify financial support for the upcoming documentary.

“Black Pioneers” will chronicle the history of African-American struggles and successes in St. Petersburg. This historical documentary will tell the stories of Black men and women, past and present, whose sacrifices contributed to the community.

The targeted airdate will be during Black History Month 2017 on WUSF-TV Tampa/ St. Petersburg.

New documentary relives Robinson’s spring training game in Daytona Beach

BY FLORIDA COURIER STAFF

The Halifax Historical Museum in Daytona Beach will commemorate Jackie Robinson’s history-making 1946 spring training game in Daytona Beach with a gala reception and documentary movie premiere.

On March 17, 1946, Robinson played in a spring training baseball game as a member of the Montreal Royals, the Dodger organization’s AAA Minor League team. On that day, the Royals played against the Major League’s Brooklyn Dodgers – the first time a professional baseball game knowingly included an African-American since 1887. The following spring Robinson would break the Major League’s color barrier when he joined the Dodgers.

To commemorate that event, the Halifax Historical Society is hosting a celebration and the premiere of the documentary, “Oral Histories of Jackie Robinson’s 1946 Spring Training.”

March 17 event It will take place on Thursday, March 17,

Contact Kelsey Peduzzi at 813-506-6770 or kpeduzzi@ templeterrace.com.

St. Petersburg: On March 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Enoch Davis Center, the Federation of Families of Florida and Swiyyah Woodard will provide a free mental health awareness forum. Woodard will discuss her mental illness and new book, “Don’t Call Me Crazy! Again!” More information: www.swiyyah. com.

Estero: Nick Cannon presents “Wild N Out’’ at the Germain Arena on March 15.

The show is at 8 p.m.

Tampa: The Gasparilla Music Festival on March 12-13 will include Steven “Ragga’’ Marley, Erykah Badu and Talib Kweli. The event is at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, 600 N. Ashley Drive. Tickets: GMFtickets.com.

Miami Gardens: Aretha Franklin, Janelle Monae and Kenny “Babyface’’ Edmonds recently were added to the March 18-20 Jazz in the Gardens lineup. Details and complete artists lineup: www.jazzinthegardens.com.

Fort Lauderdale: ASCENT:

Black Women’s Expressions Art Exhibition is on display through March 4 at Cotilla Gallery, Nova University, 3100 Ray Ferrero Jr. Blvd.

Free.

Jacksonville: Rihanna: Anti World Tour 2016 makes stops on March 12 at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, Amalie Arena in Tampa on March 13 and AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami on March 15.

Jacksonville: The Black Violin performs March 3 at the Ritz Theatre and Museum at 7 p.m.

Jacksonville: Herb Alpert takes the stage March 4 at the Florida Theatre Jacksonville. The show starts at 8 p.m.

Altamonte Springs: The Central Florida International Black Women’s Congress will present its “Every Black Woman Should Wear a Red Dress Women’s Health Symposium on March 5 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Hilton Orlando/Altamonte Springs, 350 S. Northlake Blvd.

Register by calling 407-3315665 or 407-341-9781 by Feb. 28.

Experienced producers David, a Gibbs High School graduate, will produce the documentary. He previously worked as a producer and director with NBC, CBS, ABC and PBS television networks. His brother, Archie, also a Gibbs graduate, is the associative producer. Archie has extensive experience in advertising, design and design education in the greater Los Angeles area.

William Newmon, their childhood friend who also attended Gibbs, will lend his expertise in the set-designing department. He has worked on many popular television shows at Universal Studios and Sony Pictures. Recently, he was presented a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Art Directors Guild in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Unlike many other documentaries aired on local and national television, “Black Pioneers” will be a fast-paced and concise one-hour program utilizing historical photos, films, video footage along with music from different eras including the 1950s through the 1990s.

To contribute photographs, contact the Weekly Challenger at 727-896-2922.

This story is special to the Florida Courier from the Weekly Challenger.

from 5 to 8 p.m. at the museum, 252 South Beach St. Free parking will be available in the parking lot off of Magnolia Avenue between Jackie Robinson Ballpark and the Daytona Beach Library. Shuttle service will be available. The Jackie Robinson Ballpark was established during the 1920s as City Island Ball Park.

Consultants for the film were former Daytona Beach NAACP President James Daniels and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis professor and former Daytona Beach News-Journal reporter Chris Lamb.

Residents interviewed The 25-minute documentary consists of videotaped interviews with area Black residents who witnessed the 1946 spring training or resided in Daytona Beach when Robinson broke professional baseball’s color line.

The documentary also explores post World War II race relations in Daytona Beach. It features interviews with some Daytona residents.

Funds for the film came from the Florida Humanities Council. Halifax Historical Society and retired professor Leonard Lempel and award-winning photographer and cinematographer Eric Breitenbach co-produced the documentary.

Tickets for the event are $10.

For more information, call the museum at 386-255-6976.

We Listened.

We Learned.

We Now Invite You to Lead.

STOJ

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FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 3, 2016

As appeared in Tallahassee Democrat on Thursday, February 4, 2016

Drop The Suit!

Over 10,000 Rally in Tally to fight for educational options

In 2001, the Florida legislature created the Tax Credit Scholarship Program to empower low income parents to choose the best K12 school for their children. This program now serves 78,000 children, over 75% of whom are minorities. The average annual income of their families is $25,000.

Test scores show they were the worst performers in their public schools. Test scores show once on scholarship they make progress equal to children of all incomes.

Research shows that the program even improves the academic performance of the public schools.

OPPAGA, the state’s fiscal research arm, has issued reports stating that the program saves taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year.

Despite all these benefits, in August of 2014 the Florida teachers union filed a lawsuit asking the courts to shut down the program and evict the children from their chosen schools. In May 2015, Circuit Court Judge George Reynolds dismissed the suit.

The union appealed and has vowed to continue the suit “as long as it takes”.

On January 19, 2016 over 10,000 scholarship parents and students came from all over Florida to urge the union to drop the suit. Their message was one of hope, not anger.

They said not every child will thrive in their assigned public school. Some children need an environment that only this program can provide. Over a third of Florida schoolchildren now attend a school other than their zoned assigned public school.

They attend magnets, charters, virtual schools and dual enrollment programs. Why target the program that serves only Florida’s poorest children?

Bishop Victor Curry, New Birth Baptist Church of Miami. Chairman of the Save Our Scholarships Coalition, Master of Ceremonies of the Rally, and one of the one hundred AfricanAmerican ministers in Florida who have denounced the lawsuit.

They were joined at the rally by Martin Luther King III, who led the thousands in a simple chant: “Drop The Suit!”

Join civil rights leaders from around Florida.

Urge the teachers union to

#DropTheSuit!

Learn more. Visit SaveOurScholarships.com.

Valentin Mendez, scholarship student, and his mother

Paid for by the Black Alliance for Educational Options

Save Our Scholarships Coalition Members:

JULIO FUENTES Founder and president of the Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, representing 38 chapters and 80,000 minority businesses, and CEO of Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (CREO)

BISHOP C. E. GLOVER The Florida Black Ministers Parental Choice Alliance, representing more than 100 ministers across the state

MAURY LITWACK The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, representing Florida Jewish day schools, synagogues and families

JACQUELINE COOPER Black Alliance For Educational Options, representing 10,000 members and 100 elected officials

RABBI MOSHE MATZ

LORENA CASTILLO

REV. H. K. MATTHEWS

Agudath Israel of Florida, representing roughly 100 rabbis and synagogues

Coalition of Hispanic Instructors In Support of Parental Awareness, over 80 public school teachers in Miami-Dade and Broward counties

Legendary Florida civil rights figure who marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma

“Ultimately, if the courts have to decide, the courts will be on the side of justice. Because this is about justice; this is about righteousness; this is about truth; this is about freedom: the freedom to choose what’s best for your family – and your child, most importantly.” - Martin Luther King III

Over 10,000 marchers filled Duval Street between the Capitol and the Florida Supreme Court.

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HEALTH

FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 3, 2016

STOJ

The health divide in Baltimore

from the church.

“If we walk around this block, we’ll pass four liquor stores and three sub shops,” said Derrick DeWitt, pastor of First Mount Calvary, on Fulton Avenue.

‘Disjointed services’

DOUG KAPUSTIN/KAISER HEALTH NEWS

To the frustration of hospital officials who say they deserve better, Bon Secours hospital is still known across West Baltimore as “Bon Se-Killer.”

In Freddie Gray’s neighborhood, the best medical care is close but elusive.

BY JAY HANCOCK KAISER HEALTH NEWS TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

BALTIMORE — The Baltimore health system put Robert Peace back together after a car crash shattered his pelvis. Then it nearly killed him, he says.

A painful bone infection that developed after surgery and a lack of follow-up care landed him in the operating room five more times, kept him homebound for a year and left him with joint damage and a severe limp.

“It’s really hard for me to trust what doctors say,” Peace said, adding that there was little afterhospital care to try to control the infection. “They didn’t do what they were supposed to do.”

Pushed by once-unthinkable shifts in how they are reimbursed, Baltimore’s famous medical institutions say they are trying harder than ever to improve the health of their lower-income neighbors in West Baltimore.

But dozens of interviews with patients, doctors and local leaders show multiple barriers between the community and the glassy hospital towers a few blocks away.

Suspicious of system Reporters from Kaiser Health News and the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism spent much of the fall in and around Sandtown-Winchester, a Baltimore neighborhood where violence flared last year after Freddie Gray was fatally injured in police custody.

Residents say they have little more confidence in the medical sysFreddie tem intended to Gray heal them than in the criminal justice system intended to protect them.

Even though his accident happened in 2004, Peace says he cannot view doctors and hospitals with anything less than deep suspicion.

“They almost let me die,” he said.

Disparity in services As with so much else, there are two Baltimores when it comes to health. One population is well off and gets the best results from elite institutions on the city’s west and east sides, the University of Maryland Medical Center and the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

The other is a poor minority that gets far less, even as it uses hospital services at higher-thanaverage rates. One indicator: The typical Sandtown resident lives a decade less than the average American.

“They come in with a great service, but they don’t have relationships with people in the community,” said Louis Wilson, senior pastor of New Song Community Church in Sandtown, a small wedge of about 5,000 households. “They want the people in the community to come in and respect them, but they don’t respect the people in the community. It does not work. It just doesn’t.”

Inadequate system The gap is more than the cultural distance between lower-income African-Americans and the

wealthier practitioners, often of other ethnicities, who treat them, although that’s a part, Wilson said. It’s about insurance that is still unstable, confusing and perceived as expensive despite the health law’s recent expansion of Medicaid for low-income patients.

It’s about a system that still treats too many residents in the most expensive way possible — in crisis visits to the emergency room — rather than keeping people healthy in the community. It’s about having too few primary-care doctors addressing everyday needs to change that.

It’s about inadequate transportation to get to appointments and jail stays that cut patients off from family doctors. It’s about avoiding medical institutions often seen in the same light as the justice system that held Freddie Gray when he died: as biased, haughty and dangerous.

“When you walk into a hospital, it’s like walking into a courtroom,” said William Honablew Jr., who volunteers at LIGHT Health and Wellness, a nonprofit whose community services include helping those with HIV and other chronic illness navigate the system. “You know who’s in charge, and you know who’s not.”

Haunted by the past Many in Sandtown have heard of Henrietta Lacks, an AfricanAmerican woman whose tissue was used without permission by Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to establish a line of experimental cells.

For years, Baltimore Blacks associated Hopkins, on the city’s east side, with the “night doctors” of African-American folklore who supposedly kidnapped Black children for medical experiments, residents and community leaders say.

Bon Secours Baltimore Health System, Catholic, nonprofit and the nearest inpatient provider to Sandtown, has reduced potentially deadly, in-hospital hazards such as pneumonia and blood and urinary tract infections in recent years. Adjusted for illness severity, its death rates for Medicare patients with major conditions such as heart failure and stroke are little different from national scores.

Life expectancy But to the frustration of hospital officials who say they deserve better, Bon Secours is still known across West Baltimore as “Bon SeKiller.”

“I lost two aunts in that hospital, an uncle and two cousins. Five people,” said Arnold Watts, 60, in a grim accounting matched, unprompted, by several other residents interviewed.

The average Sandtown resident lives to be 69.7 years old, according to the Baltimore City Health Department — the same as life expectancy in impoverished North Korea.

Detailed data from the Maryland agency that regulates hospital prices, seldom seen by the public, illustrate why.

Residents of the ZIP code including Sandtown accounted for the city’s second-highest per-capita rate of diabetes-related hospital cases in 2011, the secondhighest rate of psychiatric cases, the sixth-highest rate of heart and circulatory cases and the secondhighest rate of injury and poisoning cases. Asthma, HIV infection and drug use are common.

Two out of 10 babies born in Sandtown in 2013 were underweight — the highest percentage in any of Baltimore’s 55 neighbor-

Even small copayments required by many health plans dissuade low-income West Baltimore residents from seeking care, the John Snow report found.

Some constantly switch doctors to find the lowest price, leading to “disjointed services” and potential harm if information falls in the cracks, it found.

“I change doctors like I change underwear,” said Eddie Reaves, 64, who tries to find practices that won’t charge him copays as little as $12 or $15. His income is $1,170 a month, he said. In 2014, he added, “I must have seen a good total of about 10 doctors.”

Reaves has diabetes and highblood pressure. He’s on Medicare because of a disability. He has applied twice to Medicaid since the health law expanded coverage two years ago. That would improve his benefits. But he never received the paperwork, he said.

The best care he ever received, Reaves said, was when he didn’t need any insurance card — when he was homeless.

Health Care for the Homeless, a nonprofit a couple miles east of Sandtown, delivers comprehensive services to the homeless without regard for ability to pay.

Some progress

IMAM SMITH/CAPITAL NEWS SERVICE

Eddie Reaves, a diabetic with high blood pressure, said the best care he ever received was when he didn’t need any insurance card - when he was homeless. hoods. The share of Sandtown mothers getting early prenatal care fell by 25 percentage points in 2013 from the year before.

Disappointing answers Dr. Jay Perman is a pediatric gastroenterologist who is president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, which shares its downtown campus with the University of Maryland Medical Center. Perman, who says the school has a critical role to play in fighting poverty, looks out of his 14-floor paneled office across a boulevard that marks the beginning of Baltimore’s poor west side.

“Why,” he asks, “in the midst of this extraordinary health care enterprise that is present in Baltimore, with all this expertise, are we sitting here on this side of Martin Luther King (Blvd.) and on the west side of Martin Luther King (Blvd.) you have some of the most disappointing life expectancies that one could imagine?”

Two miles away, residents such as David Johnson start to provide an answer. Johnson, 52, sits in the nave of First Mount Calvary Baptist Church, waiting for food bank vegetables and talking about being newly out of jail, lacking identification and trying to qualify for Medicaid.

Limited resources Police arrested Freddie Gray, 25, five blocks from the church last April, allegedly for carrying an illegal switchblade. He died of spinal injuries that prosecutors filing manslaughter charges blamed on police.

Western District police station, where officers removed Gray’s unconscious body from a prisoner van and protesters surged a week later, is a block south.

“I think I have diabetes,” said Johnson. “I know I have high blood pressure. I know that. I get dizzy a lot, especially when I wake up in the morning. I need to see a doctor.”

But he can’t. Baltimore jail authorities lost his identification cards, he said, before releasing him in October from an 11-month stay related to a drug arrest. He spent weeks reapplying for a Motor Vehicle Administration identification card, which social workers said he needed to qualify for Medicaid.

“You need ID to get ID, you know?” he joked. Nobody told him he could use incarceration credentials to qualify.

Medicaid’s expansion to include low-income adults was seen as an unprecedented opportunity to cover former inmates such as Johnson as they rejoin the community. (Inmates are not usually eligible while incarcerated.)

But limited administrative resources for release planning means sign-ups are often limited to the most severely ill, said Lena Hershkovitz, a vice president with HealthCare Access Maryland, a nonprofit working to increase enrollment.

“I know for a fact that he’s not unusual,” she said of Johnson. “I would say the majority of people leaving the prison or detention system are leaving without Medicaid.”

Poor service Even when patients get access, care is disrupted by physician turnover, poor follow-up or insurance companies’ changing medical networks.

“The system is fragmented,” said Debbie Rock, who has run LIGHT Health and Wellness, on Sandtown’s western edge, since the 1990s. “I think that people need to go back and talk to each other. I think the doctors and the health insurance companies need to sit down and listen to each other.”

One homeless West Baltimore patient left an oral surgeon’s office with a wired jaw and no way to pay for the liquid nutrition he needed to feed himself, said Carol Marsiglia, senior vice president at the Coordinating Center, a nonprofit consulting organization that is working to reduce readmissions and emergency visits in the neighborhood.

A home oxygen company wouldn’t serve a discharged lung patient because he had a $27 balance, she said. A hospital directed two home health companies to teach a patient how to deal with a new colostomy bag; neither showed up. The Coordinating Center fixed the breakdowns.

Struggling neighborhood Poverty makes Sandtown’s health worse. Many say poverty causes Sandtown’s poor health.

Many residents hold jobs in government or manufacturing, run churches or collect pensions from the military or Social Security. Even so, the median Sandtown household income in 2011 was $22,000.

Roofs leak. Mold and mildew grow. Baltimore Gas and Electric cuts off energy to Sandtown households for nonpayment at twice the rate it does in the rest of the city. Lead paint violations like the kind that allegedly poisoned Freddie Gray are nearly four times higher in Sandtown than in Baltimore as a whole.

Drug and alcohol use are common. Diets are often poor. Many lack cars and the nearest supermarket is more than a mile away

By many accounts, hospitals, doctors, health plans and governments in Annapolis, Maryland’s capital, and Washington are making unprecedented efforts to bridge the medical divide with Sandtown and the rest of low-income Baltimore.

The grand idea is to save money and simultaneously improve lives by keeping people healthier in the community instead of letting them become ill enough to land in the hospital.

In October Bon Secours bought a nearby church that it intends to turn into a primary care and wellness center. UMMC and Bon Secours are working with “transition coaches” from the Coordinating Center to make sure people leaving the hospitals take medicine and schedule follow-up appointments. UMMC’s transition clinic serves hundreds of recently discharged patients.

‘Health enterprise zones’ Maryland is developing one of the most advanced electronic networks for letting medical providers collaborate by sharing patient records. Health Care for the Homeless has opened a clinic in Bon Secours.

Dr. Samuel Ross, Bon Secours’ CEO, talks about working more closely with the churches and continuing to improve the hospital’s outcomes and reputation.

“No, it’s not solved,” he said.

“We need to keep doing what we’re doing, and understand that some of this is a person at a time.

There is no wholesale campaign or branding message that’s going to cause people to say, ‘You’re wonderful.’”

In 2012 Maryland’s legislature created “health enterprise zones” to increase the supply of primary caregivers in West Baltimore and other underserved areas. UMMC puts emergency room patients in touch with a primary care doctor if they don’t have one.

In September hospitals proposed taxing insurance companies, employers and other payers so they could hire up to 1,000 caregivers directly from West Baltimore and other low-income communities with poor health results.

Starting early The Baltimore health department is pressing hospitals to collaborate on high-risk patients and is building ties with lowerincome neighborhoods by hiring residents, said Dr. Leana Wen, the city’s health commissioner.

Baltimore’s B’more for Healthy Babies program has reduced the city’s African-American infant mortality rate by nearly a third since 2009, to 12.8 per thousand births. But that’s still a fifth higher than the African-American rate for all of Maryland.

University of Maryland Medical Center has workshops and internships for high schoolers interested in health careers. The University of Maryland, Baltimore, got a federal grant to mentor and train West Baltimore middle schoolers to increase the number of AfricanAmericans in health care jobs.

STOJ

FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 3, 2016

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

Meet some of

FLORIDA’S

finest

submitted for your approval

Ava DuVernay, director of “Selma,’’ will direct a movie adaptation of the Madeleine L’Engle book “A Wrinkle in Time. Catch her Feb. 28 during the #JUSTICEFORFLINT event, which will stream live on revolt.tv at 5:30 p.m.

B5

Think you’re one of Florida’s Finest?

E-mail your high-resolution (200 dpi) digital photo in casual wear or bathing suit taken in front of a plain background with few distractions, to news@flcourier. com with a short biography of yourself and your contact information. (No nude/ glamour/ fashion photography, please!) In order to be considered, you must be at least 18 years of age. Acceptance of the photographs submitted is in the sole and absolute discretion of Florida Courier editors. We reserve the right to retain your photograph even if it is not published. If you are selected, you will be contacted by e-mail and further instructions will be given.

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Ryan Coogler, director of “Creed’’ is also the founder of Black Out For Human Rights. On Feb. 28, Oscar night, he, Ava DuVernay, Hannibal Buress, Jesse Williams and Janelle Monáe will host a free event in Flint, Mich., to raise awareness of the city’s water crisis and human-rights violations across the U.S.

Only 29 percent of Hollywood’s speaking roles filled by women

BY RYAN FAUGHNDER LOS ANGELES TIMES TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

An extensive new study of diversity in Hollywood paints a damning portrait of the film and television industry behind and in front of the camera, describing the media landscape as “whitewashed” and calling the lack of inclusion an “epidemic.”

The report released Monday by University of Southern California’s Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative shows a lack of representation for women, ethnic minorities, and gay, lesbian and transgendered people.

The study examined 414 feature films and TV shows from major studios including the Walt Disney Co. and 20th Century Fox, and analyzed the prevalence of different groups on-screen.

Lack of inclusion Only 29 percent of all speaking roles were filled by women, the report found. Its analysis also showed that 28 percent of all speaking characters were nonWhite, compared with 38 percent of the general U.S. population.

Only 2 percent of roles were gay, lesbian or bisexual.

Behind the camera, the university study also found a lack of inclusion. Nearly 85 percent of directors were male; 71 percent of

Candi Carter, executive producer of “The View.”

screenwriters were male.

“The film industry still functions as a straight, White, boy’s club,” the study’s authors wrote.

“The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite should be changed to #HollywoodSoWhite, as our findings show that an epidemic of invisibility runs throughout popular storytelling.”

Major changes Studios and TV networks have come under increasing pressure to deal with the lack of diversity in the entertainment industry.

The issue reached an apex when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated allWhite acting Oscar nominees for the second year in a row.

Following the outcry over the nominations, the academy announced major changes to its rules for voting members. But some activists, like famed director Spike Lee, said the problem stems from the executive ranks of the Hollywood studios, which are largely White and male.

None of the major media companies fared well in the USC study, which scored each based on the diversity of the characters in their shows and movies, along with the number of women writers and directors.

Studios rate poorly The studios’ movies scored es-

Sony did better with including minorities than most of the studios with movies like “Think Like a Man Too.’’ Above is a scene with the female stars of the film. pecially poorly. Of the films included in the study, all from 2014, Sony, Disney and Warner Bros. had no female directors. Fox had a score of 4 percent, while Universal and Paramount had 9 percent.

Sony and Paramount did better with including minorities, with relatively high percentage of speaking roles going to non-

‘The View’ names first Black executive producer FROM WIRE REPORTS

ABC announced this week that Candi Carter has been promoted

to executive producer, becoming the first African-American to hold the title at “The View.

“This season ‘The View’ has

Whites. Sony benefited from movies like “About Last Night” and “Think Like a Man 2,” while Paramount had “Selma” and “Top Five.”

Time Warner’s studio Warner Bros. scored lowest among the major studios, with 9 percent representation of minorities.

The companies generally scored better on the TV side,

which the report portrayed as being more diverse.

The CW, Disney, Viacom, Amazon and Hulu all scored 40 percent or higher for inclusion of female TV characters. For minorities, five out of 10 major media companies were considered “largely inclusive” or better. Disney and the CW ranked highest for inclusion in television.

once again been at the very heart of the political conversation and cultural conversation in America,” said James Goldston, president, ABC News. “Candi and the team have worked tirelessly to make ‘The View’ the place to be heard for an impressive roster of celebrities, politicians and people in the news.”

Carter joined the daytime talk

show in August as the interim show runner after 15 years at “Oprah Winfrey Show.’’

“It’s an honor to be part of the extraordinary legacy built by Barbara Walters, the exceptional, funny and smart women at the table led by Whoopi Goldberg and a terrific team behind the scenes,” said Carter. “Every day is a thrill.”

B6

FOOD

FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 3, 2016

S

FROM FAMILY FEATURES

Finding the right daily nutritional balance is no easy feat. Managing sugar, carbohydrate, fat and red meat intake takes serious effort and planning, but transforming your favor­ite recipes into more nutritious family meals may be easier than you realize.

Adopting the blenditarian lifestyle is a simple solution to healthier eating. It involves, simply, blending mushrooms into meat to make every day dishes more healthful and delicious. Adding chopped mushrooms to ground beef at a ratio of at least 25 percent mushrooms can enhance the taste of dishes, deliver an extra serving of vegetables and beneficial nutrients, and trim total calories and fat intake.

Any mushroom variety will work. Creminis and portabellas lend rich, earthy flavors to any meal, while white button mushrooms offer a more delicate taste. For the more adven­turous eaters, maitake and shiitake varieties bring a bold woodsy taste and meaty texture to the plate.

The key to blending is developing the perfect mushroom consistency. For example, if using ground meat for tacos or burgers, chop mushrooms to mimic the familiar crumbled texture, using a knife and cutting board, food processor or vegetable chopper. For stews, halve or quarter mushrooms, or slice them to match strips of meat in fajitas or stir-fry.

Practice your blending technique with these recipes and find more deliciously blended dishes to share with your family at MushroomInfo.com.

CLASSIC BLENDED BURGER Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 10-15 minutes Servings: 4 1/2 pound cremini or white button mushrooms 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided 1 pound ground beef 1 teaspoon salt 4 buns Finely dice mushrooms or gently pulse in food processor.

In skillet, warm 2 tablespoons olive oil on medium-high heat and add mushrooms, sauteing 5-7 minutes, or until golden brown.

Remove from heat and cool 5 minutes.

Transfer cooled mushrooms to medium bowl. Add ground beef and salt, mixing until combined.

Make 4 patties. Add remaining olive oil to pan and cook burger patties on medium-high heat until desired doneness. Plate and add desired toppings to bun.

How can

make your

Topping recommendations: feta cheese, romesco sauce, sweet peppers and sauteed red onions.

ASIAN LETTUCE WRAPS Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 15 minutes Servings: 4 8 ounces fresh mushrooms 1 onion, chopped 4 cloves garlic 1 tablespoon minced ginger 1/2 pound lean ground beef 1 tablespoon canola oil 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard 1/4 teaspoon dried minced garlic 1/4 teaspoon dried minced onion 1 red pepper, finely chopped 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 head Boston lettuce 1/2 cup shredded carrots 1/4 cup chopped cashews (optional) In food processor with metal blade, pulse mushrooms, onion, garlic and ginger until finely chopped. Add ground beef; pulse until combined.

In large, nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.

Add mushroom mix­ture, thyme, oregano, mustard, garlic and dried onion. Cook, stirring often, 10 minutes, or until browned.

Stir in red pepper, hoisin sauce, soy sauce and vinegar. Simmer 5 minutes; remove from heat.

Serve in Boston lettuce leaves gar­nished with shredded carrots and chopped cashews.

BLENDED CHILI AND MACARONI Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 25 minutes Servings: 8 1/2 pound mushrooms 1 pound lean ground beef

1 package chili seasoning 1 can beef broth 1 can (15.5 ounces) kidney beans, rinsed 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste 1 cup medium salsa 2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked shredded cheese sour cream cilantro In food processor with metal blade, pulse mushrooms until finely chopped.

In large saucepan, brown meat and mushrooms with chili seasoning.

In another saucepan, mix broth, kidney beans, tomato paste, salsa and macaroni.

Bring mixture to boil and cover.

Simmer on low 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. When noodles are al dente, stir in browned meat and mushrooms.

Serve topped with cheese, sour cream and cilantro.