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Part 4: The life and death of Jimmy Jackson

VOLUME 21 NO. 9

Page B1

www.flcourier.com

MARCH 1 - MARCH 7, 2013

STILL WAITING FOR JUSTICE Trayvon Martin’s violent death set off protests nationwide.

Editor’s note: See a related story on Florida’s “stand your ground” law on Page A3. COMPILED FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Tuesday, Feb. 26, marked one year since then-17year-old Trayvon Martin was gunned down on a rainy night by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator in a gated community of Sanford. Martin was visiting his father and was walking back from the store when, despite requests by local police not to do so, Zimmerman began following Martin because he appeared “suspicious.” The two ended up in a physical confrontation and the un-

FLORIDA COURIER FILES

Race takes center stage

It’s been a year since Trayvon Martin was shot to death. Here are some notable events that happened around the state in the wake of his violent death. armed Martin was shot in the chest and killed. Now, a year later, it is a time for waiting. Martin’s mother and father are waiting to see if their son’s killer will be convicted of a crime. Zimmerman is living in hiding, waiting for what his lawyers predict will be his exoneration. Sanford residents are wait-

ing to see if their police department, which faced withering criticism and the ouster of its chief, will stabilize under a new leader and win the confidence of the Black community. And the nation is waiting too.

A year of activity Protests, town hall meetings, demands for the kill-

er’s arrest, a no-confidence vote in the local police chief, and calls for review of Florida’s “stand your ground’’ law marked some of the frenzied activity as the facts about Martin’s killing went national after first emerging in Black newspapers and Black-focused websites and social media. The Rev. Al Sharpton was the main speaker at a rally organized by Central Florida ministers that attracted more than 30,000 people to Sanford, many of them from around the state. Other marches and protests took place around the nation. The purpose: to pressure law enforcement See TRAYVON, Page A2

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Rosa Parks: Making history again

Is the Voting Rights Act in trouble? BY MARIA RECIO MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS (MCT)

WASHINGTON – The politically charged issue of race was before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in a case that could determine how the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act applies to the South. The nine justices engaged in a lively and at times contentious 70-minute exchange, with several possibly signaling their positions in what may mean a new chapter in the nation’s divided racial history. The repercussions of their eventual decision could be felt throughout the country. The case arose out of Shelby County, Ala., which is challenging sections of the pivotal 1965 law that prohibited discriminatory voting rules. The county brought the suit against the sections of the law that require nine mostly Southern states and portions of seven others – including Florida – to receive prior approval from the U.S. Department of Justice on voting procedures or anything that affects a minority group’s ability to cast ballots.

Ongoing discrimination Shelby County argued that applying Section 5 of the law to only certain states violates the Constitution, which is based on laws being applied equally. Its attorney said that the formula to determine which jurisdictions fall under Section 5 is outdated, based on long-since discontinued literacy tests and voting registration dependent on mid-1960s data. At the center of the case is whether the courts or Congress, which in 2006 reauthorized the Voting Rights Act for 25 years, should decide whether the prior approval requirement in Section 5 – considered by supporters to be a deterrent to discrimination – stays in place. U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli pointed out that Congress had looked at the record and approved the law by large margins. But Justice Antonin Scalia said, “I think it is attributable to a phenomenon that is called perpetuation of racial entitlement.”

What’s the difference? At least five members of the court seemed to agree that it is constitutionally impermissible, in the words of Justice Anthony Kennedy, to treat some states as “independent sovereign(s)” and others as “under the trusteeship of the United States government” without actual, current evidence in a distinction between these states. Kennedy is seen as the swing vote in many closely divided cases.

ALSO INSIDE

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/MCT

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner applaud during the unveiling of a statue of Rosa Parks at the United States Capitol on Wednesday. The bronze statue and its black granite pedestal are nearly 9 feet tall and weigh about 2,700 pounds, and is the first full-size statue of an African-American in the Capitol collection of more than 180 statues.

Bondi: Florida shouldn’t ‘surrender’ on Obamacare

three years. The state in later years would pick up part of the tab, eventually paying 10 percent of the costs. “I’ve seen how issues like this explode in cost once they become an accepted part of policy,” Putnam said. “And it’s just simply not realistic to think you would enroll over 1 million new people into a program that you would then end in three years.”

BY JIM TURNER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

National news

A chorus of opposition is starting to take hold in the Florida Cabinet to Gov. Rick Scott’s support for expanding Medicaid to comply with “Obamacare,” with Attorney General Pam Bondi saying she objects to the idea. “I am opposed to this dramatic expansion of Medicaid, because of the ultimate cost to Florida’s taxpayers and because I don’t think our state should surrender even more control over health care to the federal government,” Bondi said in an email Tuesday. Pam Bondi, who helped lead a legal Bondi challenge to the constitutionality of the federal Affordable Care Act, known popularly as Obamacare, has joined Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in forming a potentially persuasive bloc as the Medicaid expansion issue moves before lawmakers. Under Obamacare, the federal government says it would fully pay the expansion costs during the first

Scott drew national headlines last week when he announced support for expanding Medicaid eligibility. The governor, who has been a longtime critic of Obamacare, said he would support the expansion for three years and then require that it be revisited. Bondi backed Putnam’s contention that once Medicaid is expanded to include residents up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line, the state would be unable to back away from that position after three years. Opponents worry that the expansion could eventually create a massive fiscal burden to Florida. Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, who is the other member of the Cabinet, was unavailable to comment on Tuesday. Estimates of the state’s costs have varied. But the Urban Institute and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation have estimated that adding 1.3 million people to the Medicaid program could cost Florida $5.4 billion over the next decade, while the state would gain $66.1 billion in federal health care payments over the same time.

COMMENTARY: BRUCE DIXON: THE LESSON OF JESSE JACKSON, JR. | A4 COMMENTARY: BEN JEALOUS: BAYARD RUSTIN: A BLACK GAY UNSUNG HERO | A5

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

No major ‘stand your ground’ law changes

HEALTH | B4

Controversial address vaults renowned surgeon into political arena

FINEST | B5

Meet Quintiara

FOCUS

MARCH 1 – MARCH 7, 2013

Top 10 reasons why we should care about sequestration Editor’s note: As of the Florida Courier’s press time Wednesday night, sequestration was still scheduled to occur on Friday.

ture investments stimulate employment in sectors that employ disproportionately high rates of workers of color, such as construction and public transit. 4. Federal budget cuts under sequestration would quickly mean cuts to federal, state, and local public-sector jobs, which disproportionately employ women and African-Americans. In 2011, employed African-Americans comprised 20 percent of the federal, state, and local public-sector workforce, and women were nearly 50 percent more likely than men to work in the public sector. According to the Congressional Budget Office, scheduled cuts in federal spending were the primary driving force behind slow economic growth projected for this year, meaning thousands of lost jobs and cuts to federal contractors. 5. Early childcare funding could be cut by more than $900 million, impacting the thousands of children of color who benefit from these programs. Such cuts will mean 70,000 children will be kicked out of Head Start, a federal program that promotes the school readiness of children from low-income families from birth through age 5. Sixty percent of program participants are children of color. 6. Programs that directly help the most vulnerable families and children – such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC – are threatened by sequestration. WIC serves as a supplemental food and nutrition program for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women and for children under age 5. The

SOPHIA KERBY

Thanks to congressional Republicans putting the economy in jeopardy during the debt ceiling debacle in the summer of 2011 and again in 2012, a package of automatic across-theboard spending cuts known as sequestration is set to go into effect on March 1, 2013. Below are the top 10 reasons why communities of color should pay attention to sequestration and the impact it will have in these communities: 1. Deep cuts to long-term unemployment benefits will disproportionately affect people of color. Extended federal unemployment benefits remain vulnerable under sequestration, and the long-term unemployed – those out of work and searching for a new job for at least six months – could lose almost 10 percent of their weekly jobless benefits if the sequester cuts go into effect next week. These cuts will have a greater impact on people of color, as 10.5 percent of Latinos and a staggering 13.8 percent of Blacks are unemployed, compared to only 7 percent of Whites. What’s more, in 2011, 40 percent of unemployed Asians, 38 percent of unemployed Blacks, and 28 percent of unemployed Latinos were unemployed for more than 52 weeks. 2. Workforce development programs that are vital to communities of color such as YouthBuild and Job Corps face significant cuts. YouthBuild, a program connecting low-income youth to education and train-

GUEST COMMENTARY

ing, could be cut by about 8 percent under sequestration. Coupled with previous federal appropriation cuts in fiscal year 2011 by 37 percent, the program could see about one-third of its federal funding cut between fiscal year 2010 and fiscal year 2013. In 2010, 54 percent of YouthBuild participants were African-American and 20 percent were Latino. Job Corps, an education and training program geared toward young adults, faces about $83 million in cuts in fiscal year 2013 under sequestration. In 2011, 72 percent of Job Corps participants were people of color. 3. Cuts to critical job-creating programs such as the Build America Bonds program are also on the chopping block. Build America Bonds, which were created in the 2009 stimulus bill, provides incentives for infrastructure investments through the tax code. Since its inception, the program has helped states and cities fund thousands of jobcreating infrastructure projects at lower costs than traditional taxexempt municipal bonds. Build America Bonds could see budget cuts of up to 7.6 percent, however, if sequestration goes through. Build America Bonds benefit all Americans, as more than $106 billion of Build America Bonds have been issued by state and local governments in 49 states and the District of Columbia since the program started. Infrastruc-

A deadly six minutes The Retreat at Twin Lakes is a gated community in Sanford, Fla., about 20 mi. (32 km) north of Orlando, where Trayvon Martin, 17, was staying with his father during a 10-day suspension from his Miami high school. The map below shows various locations related to Trayvon’s shooting death on Feb. 26 by George Zimmerman, 28, a volunteer neighborhood watch captain.

3 7-Eleven

Target

Twin Trees

Zimmerman’s townhome

0.4 miles

Area detailed at right

4 Zimmerman tells his family he’s heading to Target; he carries the 9mm semiautomatic handgun he uses during patrols

5 7:11 p.m., ET Zimmerman calls police from his SUV and says he’s spotted a suspicious-looking teen near the clubhouse

7:12 p.m. Trayvon’s girlfriend calls back moments after they hang up; he tells her he’s being followed; she says to run

6 7:13:09 p.m. Zimmerman tells police Trayvon is running towards the subdivision’s back entrance

7 7:13:12 p.m. Zimmerman leaves his truck and confirms to

police that he is following Trayvon; police advise him not to follow the teen; he agrees to stop; it is now 7:13:27 p.m.

8 7:14:40 p.m. Zimmerman agrees to meet police at the

mailboxes; seconds later, he tells them to call him when they arrive; the call ends at 7:15:04 p.m.

Long Oak Way

Twin Lakes

3 0.4 km

Gloria Pond

Walking shortcut used by residents

7-Eleven; he chats on his cellphone with his girlfriend

Trayvon’s body found next to sidewalk in shared backyard

7:16 p.m. Trayvon’s call with his girlfriend goes dead after she hears a scuffle

Trayvon’s townhome

One-minute gap Neighbors hear cries for help and call police; there is a single shot, then silence

Twin Trees

9 7:17 p.m. Police arrive, finding Trayvon’s body about 200 ft.

(61 m) from his backyard; he is pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m.

Retreat View Circle

NOTE: Times stamped to the second are based on Zimmerman’s 911 call that started at 7:11 p.m., ET — a time that is rounded to the minute; calls between Trayvon and his girlfriend and the time police arrive are rounded to the minute

Back entrance

200 ft. (61 m)

Source: Miami Herald interviews, ABC News interviews, police reports and 911 recordings, MCT Photo Service; Miami Herald staff writer Audra D.S. Burch contributed to this report

TRAYVON from A1 to arrest Zimmerman, who was never charged with a crime by the Sanford Police Department or local prosecutors.

Law enforcement reacts Public and media pressure forced Sanford officials to release 911 tapes that showed that Zimmerman disobeyed the 911 dispatcher’s directive that he not follow Trayvon. That pressure also forced Gov. Rick Scott to tap an outside prosecutor, State Attorney Angela Corey of the Fourth Judicial Circuit in Jacksonville as special prosecutor, replacing Seminole County’s Norm Wolfinger. Corey made national headlines when she announced Zimmerman would be charged with second-degree murder. Scott later appointed a Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection to investigate how such tragedies can be avoided in the future and tasked the panel with reviewing the “stand your ground” law. Critics charged that the panel included members who helped pass the law in

Trayvon Martin at age 14

1 Zimmerman lives in the subdivision with his wife 2 Trayvon is staying at the home of his father’s girlfriend 3 During the NBA All-Star Game halftime, Trayvon walks to the

Mailboxes

Miami

Trayvon’s townhome

Retreat View Circle

Orlando

Florida

Sanford

Gulf of Mexico

7-Eleven

Retreat View Circle

Atlantic Ocean

Vicinity of Zimmerman’s parked SUV

Sophia Kerby is the Special Assistant for Progress 2050 at the Center for American Progress. Click on this story at www. flcourier.com to write your own response.

George Zimmerman in court April 12, 2012 2

S Oregon Ave

Ga.

Tallahassee

Twin Trees

0.8 mi. (1.3 km)

Ala.

Main entrance

Clubhouse

Oregon Ave

al cuts would significantly hurt low-income families and communities. Many housing programs such as Section 8 Housing Assistance provide vouchers to low-income families for affordable housing in the private market. In 2011, Section 8 aided more than 2 million lowincome families across the country. Data from 2008 indicate that 44 percent and 23 percent of public housing recipients are African-American and Latino, respectively. 10. As the nation continues to endure a cold winter, programs such as the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which helps bring down the cost of heating for low-income households, are crucial. LIHEAP, which helped about 23 million low-income people pay their winter heat bills, is in jeopardy of being cut. Lowincome communities, which tend to disproportionately comprise of people of color, depend on such programs to make ends meet during these tough economic times. In order to avoid significant damage to the U.S. economy – and particularly to communities of color across the country – congressional Republicans should agree to a balanced package to replace the sequester and its damaging cuts.

program could be cut by $543 million – a devastating loss to the more than 450,000 people of color who benefit from its services. 7. Federal education funding cuts will disproportionately hurt students of color. If the sequester goes into effect, nearly $3 billion would be cut in education alone, including cuts to financial aid for college students and to programs for the most vulnerable youth – English language learners and those attending high-poverty, struggling schools – impacting 9.3 million students. Such cuts will affect key programs that receive federally funded grants such as Education for Homeless Children and Youth and federal work-study. The lack of access to financial aid for people of color will further exacerbate the student debt rates in these communities. In the 2007-08 academic year, 81 percent of African-Americans and 67 percent of Latinos with a bachelor’s degree graduated with student debt, compared to 64 percent of their White peers. Cutting access to these vital financial aid programs will curtail the higher education aspirations of tens of thousands of students of color. 8. Cuts to critical medical research put patients at risk. The National Institutes of Health would lose $1.5 billion in medical research funding, meaning fewer research projects would be aimed at finding treatments and cures for diseases such as cancer and diabetes – both of which are among the leading causes of death for African-Americans. 9. Since 2010 funding for housing has been cut by $2.5 billion, meaning any addition-

2005, but no known opponents. Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, urged lawmakers Wednesday to repeal it.

Trayvon Martin, one year later

It has been one year since 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman while he was walking in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., where his father lived.

Key events in the case

More rallies, remembrances Trayvon’s family set up a Florida-based nonprofit organization, the Justice For Trayvon Martin Foundation, that set a goal for itself of becoming a worldwide hub that will “remove judgment of minority youth” through awareness campaigns. The family also intends to mobilize activists for justice by aggressively using social media. Recently, Martin’s family and activists such as Jesse Jackson, Sharpton, along with celebrities Jamie Foxx and Cedric the Entertainer, held a rally and remembrance dinner in Miami on what would have been the teen’s 18th birthday. On Tuesday, there were no planned speeches or marches planned in Sanford because Martin’s parents did not want that. There were candlelight vigils in Sanford, New York City, and other places around the country.

Progress in Sanford On Feb. 14, Sanford hired a new police chief: Cecil Smith, a 25-year vet-

Graphic: Kara Dapena, Miami Herald

Martin at age 14

Feb. 26, 2012 Neighbors call police to report hearing a scuffle and gunshot; Martin found dead; neighborhood watch captain Zimmerman taken into custody; no arrest made

April 10 Zimmerman’s lawyers say they no longer represent him because they had not heard from him April 11 Prosecutor announces 2nd-degree murder charge against Zimmerman, who is now in custody

April 23 Zimmerman enters written not-guilty plea after being released on bail June 1 Zimmerman’s bond revoked; booked into jail two days later after surrendering to authorities Zimmerman at second bond hearing in June

Aug. 30 Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson officially assigned the case Oct. 17 Judge sets tentative trial date for June 10, 2013 Source: Reuters, AP, MCT Photo Service

eran from Elgin, Ill., who is Black. The city recently created a new police unit designed to aggressively go after gun violence, gangs and drugs, things that have dispropor-

March 16 Zimmerman is heard on 911 tapes saying he is following Martin; dispatcher tells him not to; cries for help also heard; Martin’s parents demand an arrest March 19 U.S. Justice Dept. launches investigation March 22 Sanford police chief steps down amid charges of mishandling case and no-confidence vote by city commissioners; rally in downtown Sanford calling for Zimmerman’s arrest

Protesters demanding arrest of Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla.

May 15 Medical report by Zimmerman’s family doctor show he was diagnosed with a fractured nose, two black eyes and two lacerations on the back of the head after confrontation with Martin May 18 Recordings of interviews with witnesses released

May 24 Prosecutors and defense attorney ask that certain evidence be sealed until trial July 6 Zimmerman released from jail after posting $1 million bond Feb. 5, 2013 Judge denies defense’s motion to delay trial

tionately harmed Sanford’s Black community. It also created a blue-ribbon panel, co-chaired by a White retired criminal judge and a Black pastor, which is working to improve police

and community relations. There also will be two permanent memorials in Goldsboro, the historically Black community just west of downtown Sanford. One will have marble monu-

ments, each with the name of a Sanford resident who has been killed. The other, smaller memorial will include many of the other items related to Martin, including stuffed animals and photographs.

Critical hearing in April Zimmerman’s “stand your ground” hearing is tentatively set for April 22. At that time, he is expected to ask for immunity from prosecution and tell Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson that he shot Martin once in the heart because the highschool junior had broken his nose and pinned him to the ground, and Zimmerman believed that he was about to die. Nelson could dismiss the case and Zimmerman could go free. Or she could refuse Zimmerman’s request and let the case go to a jury trial now set for June.

Ashley Thomas, James Harper and Andreas Butler of the Daytona Times; Martin E. Comas and Rene Stutzman of the Orlando Sentinel (MCT); and Cynthia E. Griffin of Our Weekly (NNPA) all contributed to this report.

MARCH 1 – MARCH 7, 2013

FLORIDA

No major ‘stand your ground’ law changes Panel appointed by Scott released report last week BY MARGIE MENZEL THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – The panel charged by Gov. Rick Scott with reviewing the state’s ‘stand your ground’ self-defense law did not recommend any major changes to the statute, although it did make suggestions for tweaks by the Legislature in the upcoming session. The basic premise of the law isn’t challenged in the final report released on Feb. 22. Scott’s Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection included lawmakers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, representatives of minority communities and law enforcement. Scott appointed the panel amid outrage over last year’s shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Black teen who was killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford. Zimmerman wasn’t arrested for months, until after national protests.

Smith not surprised Senate Democratic Leader Chris Smith, who asked to be on the task force but wasn’t appointed, said he’d expected this result. “When you put a task force together of people who wrote the bill and full of people who support ‘stand your ground,’ I knew that the task force wouldn’t come up with anything earth-shattering,” he said. The law basically al-

RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT

Sybrina Fulton, left, the mother of Trayvon Martin, her son, Jahvaris Fulton, and Trayvon’s father, Tracy Martin, right, speak to the media on June 12, 2012, before attending a Stand Your Ground Task Force meeting in Longwood. lows those who feel their life is in danger in public to meet the threat with deadly force. If they claim that was the situation, they can go to a hearing before a judge and get a ruling on that issue without ever going to trial. The task force issued a draft report in December that urged lawmakers to look more carefully at a few areas of the law that might be vague.

Different views Smith, who convened his own task force after being left off Scott’s, has main-

tained that the law gives cover to those who attack others for revenge or as part of a crime. “Anyone who looks at all of the data and all of the misuses of ‘stand your ground’ – from Miami, where people are chasing someone down the street and stabbing them to death, to Tampa, where people are getting shot on playgrounds, all the way to Tallahassee, where gangs are using ‘stand your ground’ as they shoot up the streets – anyone who looked at that data realistically would have come out with stronger recommen-

State loses another round on drug tests Appeals court wouldn’t side with Florida on testing applicants seeking TANF benefits BY JIM SAUNDERS THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – A federal appeals court Tuesday refused to lift an injunction against a 2011 Florida law that would require drug tests for people seeking publicassistance benefits – spurring Gov. Rick Scott to vow an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta said the state

had not shown a “special need” for drug testing applicants to the program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). It upheld a preliminary injunction issued in 2011 by U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven. “As the district court found, the state failed to offer any factual support or to present Luis any empirical evLeBron idence of a ‘concrete danger’ of illegal drug use within Florida’s TANF population,’’ the 38-page opinion said. “The evidence in this record

dations, as my task force did,” Smith said. Rep. Dennis Baxley, ROcala, the original sponsor of the bill and a member of the task force, said the statewide hearings and public debate helped to clarify that the law doesn’t cover those who assault someone they have pursued. “The greatest benefit of the task force was a thorough review of what our self-defense law is and is not. I think it has brought understanding,” Baxley said. “I think moving forward, we’ll all see ways to make clearer application.”

does not suggest that the population of TANF recipients engages in illegal drug use or that they misappropriate government funds for drugs at the expense of their own and their children’s basic subsistence. The state has presented no evidence that simply because an applicant for TANF benefits is having financial problems, he is also drug addicted or prone to fraudulent and neglectful behavior.”

State will appeal Scott quickly issued a statement calling the appeals-court ruling “disturbing” and saying it would be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. “Welfare is 100 percent about helping children,’’ said Scott, who along with the Republican-controlled Legislature, approved the law. “Welfare is taxpayer money to help people looking for jobs who have children. Drug use by anyone with children looking for

Another bill coming The panel wants lawmakers to look more carefully at the part of the law that says the presumption of justifiable self-defense doesn’t apply when the person who uses defensive force is engaged in “unlawful activity.” Also at issue: how law enforcement officers should proceed in situations in which shooters claim to have stood their ground in self-defense. Baxley said people will always try to claim that ‘stand your ground’ covers their cases. “And there will always

a job is totally destructive. This is fundamentally about protecting the well-being of Florida families.” While the appeal focused on the preliminary injunction, the three-judge panel Tuesday backed Scriven’s view that opponents of the drug-testing ban were likely to prevail in the overall case. Opponents contended that the drug-testing requirement violated the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches.

Refused drug test The named plaintiff in the case, Navy veteran Luis Lebron, applied for benefits in 2011 as a college student and single father. Lebron, an Orlando resident who has been represented by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Florida Justice Institute, met the program’s requirements but refused to go along with a drug test.

be close calls near the foul line no matter where you put that line,” he said. “But to automatically arrest people and detain them and they have to go on defense and prove their innocence is not consistent with our standard of legal care, which says you are innocent until proven guilty of something.” Smith said Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs and a co-sponsor of the law who also sat on the task force, will file a bill to make minor changes in the upcoming session.

“The court’s decision clearly states that the Fourth Amendment’s protection against being subjected to these kinds of invasive searches protects us all, including those of us who are struggling to make ends meet in this tough economy,’’ said Maria Kayanan, an ACLU of Florida attorney and lead counsel in the case. “The state of Florida can’t treat an entire segment of our community like suspected criminals simply because they are poor and are trying to get temporary assistance from the government to support their families.” The ruling came less than a month before the appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments in a separate attempt by Scott to require drug testing of state employees. A district court also has ruled against Scott on that controversial plan, and the appeal will be heard March 22 in Miami.

Business owners emerge as vocal force in immigration-reform debate BY ALANA SEMEULS LOS ANGELES TIMES (MCT)

AVON PARK – Spend a few minutes talking to Joe Wright near the vast open fields of his dairy farm, and it quickly becomes clear that he’s a staunch Republican. The list of federal and state programs he would end, given a chance, is considerable: food stamps, subsidized housing, free school lunches, unemployment insurance. But Wright, who owns the 1,300-acre V&W Farms here and is president of the 300-farm Southeast Milk Cooperative, says he’s about ready to leave the Republican Party if it doesn’t push hard for immigration reform this year. “This is an issue where the conservative Republicans are just plain wrong,” he said recently as a steady trail of 1,500-pound JerseyHolstein crossbreeds plodded toward the milking parlor, bellowing on their way. “We cannot milk cows without Hispanic labor, period.”

Significant force Business owners like Wright have emerged as a significant force in nego-

tiations over immigration reform this year, reaching an important agreement with labor groups this week about how to ensure workers continue coming into the U.S. This issue was one of many stumbling blocks in the 2007 debate over immigration reform, and may indicate that business is ready to support reform more vocally. “There’s no question that businesses are going to be more out there — everyone from the big guys to the little guys,” said Tamar Jacoby, president and chief executive of ImmigrationWorks USA, a federation of statebased pro-immigration coalitions. “Business has learned over these past five, six, seven years more and more that it needs to engage.”

Dirty work To be sure, more outspoken businesses doesn’t necessarily mean reform will come more easily. Businesses still have to find a way to agree with labor on the details, and different types of businesses want different bills. Many in agriculture favor a guest worker program that

GEORGE SKENE/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT

Worker Jorge Santiago washes down milking stalls between herds at Joe Wright’s dairy farm in Zolfo Springs on Feb. 4. allows farmers to hire migrant workers with minimal red tape, while technology companies want a way for high-skilled foreign workers to stay in the United States. Hotels and restaurants, as well as dairy farmers such as Wright, want a year-round labor supply to fill undesirable jobs. Wright says it will be much harder to operate his farm if Congress doesn’t pass an immigration overhaul. The work is dirty: herding cows at dawn; milking 144 an hour with the help of machines; giving them shots; sticking a hand into a cow to check

whether she is pregnant, while she defecates on you. And though the job comes with housing, it calls upon employees to be available at all hours should a cow get sick or go into labor.

Higher stakes Americans don’t apply for the jobs, he said, even though they can earn $10 or more an hour. One year he was so short of labor that he got foreign veterinary students from Croatia, Uruguay and Zimbabwe to help him run the farm. “I hired an Anglo once,” Wright said, watching as

two Latino workers moved quickly down an aisle of cows, hooking milking devices to their udders. “He made it 30 days, but he didn’t make it 60.” For many businesses, the stakes are higher this time around, as they see states adopt stricter immigration policies and vow to make mandatory e-Verify, a government program that allows employers to check a worker’s status.

A lot of tension In Georgia, where the state legislature passed a measure in 2011 requir-

ing police to check the immigration status of criminal suspects, growers lost 40 percent of crops because farmers didn’t have the labor to harvest them, said Charles Hall, executive director of the state’s Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association. In Arizona, where the passage of a similar measure, SB 1070, drew national attention in 2010, some construction companies can no longer find enough workers because so many Latinos have left the state, said Todd Landfried, executive director of Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform. Many businesses have formed advocacy groups in response to these laws, but having them as such active players in the pro-reform coalition also gives rise to friction. “Business can play an important function and likely will, but their inclusion in the coalition creates a lot of tension,” said Steve Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports tighter controls on immigration. “Will the coalition hold together and be large enough to overcome opposition? I don’t know.”

EDITORIAL

MARCH 1 – MARCH 7, 2013

Turning the clock back on voting rights Shelby County, Ala., is suing the Justice Department because they think that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (and its reauthorization in 1982 and 2006) is unfair. The facts – the small city of Calera, Ala., redistricted its boundaries in a way that the sole AfricanAmerican councilman lost his seat. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act forced a new election with different boundaries, and Ernest Montgomery regained his seat. Shelby County (which includes parts of Birmingham) objects to the provision of the Voting Rights Act that requires that areas with histories of past discrimination. This would include many southern states, as well as areas, like Alaska, that have historical discrimination against Na-

DR. JULIANNE MALVEAUX TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

tive people, and places like Texas and parts of California, that have historic discrimination against Latinos. They say that it’s all equal now and there is no need to monitor them.

Shelby has support Not surprisingly, conservatives and the Attorney Generals of several affective states have filed amicus briefs to support Shelby County. These include the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Texas. Additionally the usual

suspects like the Conservative Legal Defense Fund, the Cato Institute, the Pacific Legal Foundation and the Southeast Legal Foundation (among others) have lined up to support Shelby. It is not surprising that the conservative Project 21, nominally an African-American organization, has lined up to support Shelby. It is more surprising that the National Black Chamber of Commerce has filed an amicus brief. I’d be most interested in learning where the Black Chamber polled its membership before filing this brief. If I were a member, I’d have to cancel my membership. If my dues were used to support that nonsense, I’d be repelled. I guess it just goes to show that “everybody brown ain’t down,” and to raise questions about this

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: SEQUESTER SCISSORS

organization.

Invidious practices Many suggest that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act means there is no need for Section 5. While Section 2 allows lawsuits, it forces plaintiffs to show that changes in voting provisions are motivated by “invidious practices”. Section 5 says that those who are known to have engaged in such practices are required to have the Department of Justice review them. If our nation had never chosen to implement the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, there would have been no need for the Voting Rights Act. The Fourteenth Amendment actually states that state population decides the number of Congressional representatives, but if enough people are denied the right to vote, Congressional representation should be reduced. This provision has never been enforced, even when the whole Black population in some southern states could not vote. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits denying the right to vote based on race, color, and previous condition of servitude, and authorized Congress to enforce this amendment with

the appropriate action and legislation. Until 1876, federal troops enforced the right that African-Americans had to vote, spurring an unprecedented level of AfricanAmerican civic participation. Because the AfricanAmerican population (and number of voters) was greater than the number of whites in Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina, African-Americans were elected as lieutenant governors, secretaries of state and treasurers

Nation alarmed Additionally 16 AfricanAmericans served in Congress – 2 in the Senate and 14 in the House of Representatives. No wonder some were eager to nullify the Fifteenth Amendment. Federal troops were withdrawn from southern states in 1877; in 2013, 136 years later, southern states are asking that voting protection be withdrawn from their states. Why? Just as the election of 16 African-American legislators alarmed the South, so has the election and reelection of President Barack Obama alarmed our nation. His election reminds us all of the power of the vote, and emboldens those who would limit it.

That’s why several states have passed voter ID legislation requiring people to have an official government ID in order to vote. That’s why a 102-year-old woman waited more than six hours to vote. That’s why some states have consolidated voting places, making people travel further and wait longer to vote. We don’t have poll taxes anymore (although forcing people to travel more than an hour and wait more than an hour is an implicit poll tax), nor do voters have to take a fitness test, so the means of voter suppression have been both more and less subtle. It reminds us of why we had the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and in our nation’s failure to implement, the Voting Rights Act. The Court heard these arguments on Feb. 27. We must be alarmed and, if we live in states that filed amicus briefs, aware of those who would suppress our vote.

Julianne Malveaux is a D.C.-based economist and author. Click on this story at www.flcourier. com to write your own response.

Republicans mad about Obama, not spending RICK MCKEE, THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE

The lesson of Jesse Jackson Jr. Former congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., was the closest thing to Black royalty we hope to see. Jesse Jr. wasn’t the first or the worst African-American princeling to be handed a congressional seat by his family at or before the age of 30. He probably did a lot less damage in his 17 years than Tennessee’s Harold Ford, whose folks gave one to him at 27. Junior also did a lot less harm to the long-term interests of African America than many of his other colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus like Alabama’s Artur Davis, New York’s Greg Meeks, or Georgia’s David Scott. With longtime Jackson strategist Frank Watkins, Junior co-authored a valuable and insightful book, “Toward a More Perfect Union,” in which he proposed constitutional amendments for the rights to vote, to a decent job at a living wage, a clean environment, and more. If Junior had shown imaginative leadership in Congress, he might have been mayor of Chicago by now. But imagination and leadership seem to have eluded the young prince. Junior mostly kept his head down in Congress, voted with the crowd on Iraq and other mattters, and by 2003 he was shilling for a Southside casino and a new

BRUCE A. DIXON BLACK AGENDA REPORT

airport in his district supposedly as “job creation” measures. The very specific acts that led to his downfall and disgrace are almost inexplicable. Blonde bimbo stripper girlfriend, $40,000 gold Rolex watches, buying Michael Jackson’s hat and living off one’s campaign fund are all such obvious nonos it’s hard not to view them as cries for help from a man who might have been over his head almost from the beginning. I hope Junior eventually gets it together and finds a way to make a real contribution. It’s time to put aside the princes and princesses of our Black political class, and come up with new leaders, new pathways to, and new models of leadership. That’s going to mean casting aside the two-party system and the Democratic half of which our Black political class have made their careers.

Bruce Dixon is managing editor of BlackAgendaReport.com.

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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Cut, cut, cut seems to be all that Congressional Republicans want to do. President Obama should see a simple solution to America’s budget problem. Republicans are not mad about spending – they are mad about Barack Obama. Anything the president supports, Republicans will oppose. So this is what the president should suggest. The president should seek legislation that would require Congress to cut itself first.

Cut Congress pay Why can’t Congress cut Senator and House member’s salaries down to minimum wage? Many of the Congress persons are multimillionaires anyway. How about cutting Congressional health plans out all together and make elected officials use the same Medicare and Medicaid programs that poor people have to use that must be supplemented because federal health “entitlements” don’t pay the full costs for anything? Perhaps Congress will be willing to cut their retirement plans that provide both money and health benefits for as long as they live?

Lucius Gantt THE GANTT REPORT

ries, travel benefits, office expenditures and other miscellaneous costs? Now, Gantt Report readers should know that the whole Congress bears responsibility for budget cutting called sequestration. Both Republicans and Democrats alike signed on to the idea of making budget cuts via a budgetary death wish. Members of both political parties decided to create a fiscal catastrophe that would inflict economic damage on the whole United States unless a political bargain was reached.

No hope

At the time of this writing no bargain had been reached and American citizens have no hope any political agreement will be reached. The voters thought they would be electing a president and a Congress that would make spending cuts but those same elected officials were expected by voters to tax the super rich that are percentage wise the Cut staff’s benefits least taxed. Federal programs with And, what about cutting Congressional staff’s sala- the largest budgets proba-

bly have the greatest waste but one party wants a welfare plan for defense contractors but do not want welfare for needy women, children and babies.

Sequestration cuts The White House is taking its side of the sequestration story to the streets. The people are being told that sequestration will mean more dangerous airports, poorer schools, limited health care and no infrastructure repairs. But the truth of the matter is sequestration cuts are small tomatoes. If cuts go through with no increase in tax revenue only about 700,000 jobs nationwide will be lost but a lot of the positions are critical jobs that keep us safe and secure. Congressional support for sequestration was a bad idea from the jump. African-Americans should know better than any other citizens that you can never depend on government to do the right thing!

Gantt’s latest book “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” is in bookstores everywhere. Contact him at www.allworldconsultants.net. Click on this story at www.flcourier. com to write your own response.

Steps to ‘walk worthy’ through life “Direct my footsteps according to your Word” – Psalm 119:133 The gospel song “Order My Feet in Your Word” happens to be a popular tune. It’s a good theme for life and a personal request to God to “Prepare my goings in your paths and not let evil rule over me.” However, to impose order on “your steps” requires practical techniques and applications. What procedures are involved if you want to “walk worthy” through life? A new and empowering book titled, “The Spirit Within: Embracing God’s Living Spirit for a Healthier Life,” just might be the answer. It’s a timely guide that helps readers “order” their lives in both practical and spiritual ways. Author Alan E. Miller said, “Knowledge of God and his works in your life is empowering.”

WILLIAM REED BUSINESS EXCHANGE

Miller said, “You can enjoy a healthy life by having an accurate view of God in your heart and mind and letting that shape your life every day.”

Renaissance man Regarded as a modernday Renaissance man, Miller is an artist, published poet, accomplished playwright and a corporate diversity marketing counselor. Miller’s also a certified “Fruit of the Spirit” instructor. Better grounded than those whose job it is just to read the news on TV, Miller knows how to help navigate obstacles and chart paths to solid solutions. He appears on news networks and his

writings have been featured in national publications. Miller’s email is amillergroup@aol.com. Listed among the “Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America,” Miller is a management specialist and leading advocate for free market principles and economics. He’s a combination of corporate trainer and “holy roller.” Listed among the “Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America,” Miller is a management specialist and leading advocate for free market principles and economics. He’s a combination of corporate trainer and “holy roller.”

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

MARCH 1 – MARCH 7, 2013

Bayard Rustin: A Black, gay unsung hero The State of Equality and Justice in America is a 20-part series of columns written by an all-star list of contributors to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Here’s the seventh op-ed of the series: A decade before Rosa Parks’ arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus, police dragged Bayard Rustin off a bus in Tennessee for the same act of protest. When pressed about why he was resisting segregation, Rustin gestured to a young White boy seated at the front of the bus. “If I sit in the back,” Rustin said, “I am depriving that child of the knowledge that there is injustice here, which I believe is his right to know.”

Unsung hero Bayard Rustin, an often unsung hero of the civil rights movement, spent his entire life exposing injustice in our nation. Even before he served as lead organizer of the 1963 March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. declared his dream, Rustin was labeled a Communist and a radical by the government. When he traveled to the segregated South dur-

EDITORIAL

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: A GOOD DAY TO SEQUESTER

that he was gay. When confronted about it, he could have lied - that’s what everyone did in those days. BEN But Bayard Rustin was exceptionJEALOUS al. He lived openly because to do otherwise would be a missed opTRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM portunity in exposing the injustice and intolerance that he, along ing the first-ever Freedom Rides, with other members of the Lesbihe experienced a barrage of racial an, Gay, Bi-sexual, and Transgender (LGBT) communities experislurs and violence. But in America, in the 1950s and enced. 60s, no label stuck to Bayard Rustin quite like “homosexual.” As an Legacy marginalized openly gay man, Rustin was atDespite a lifetime lived in sertacked by everyone - Congress- vice to justice and nonviolence, men and activists, Black and White Rustin’s legacy was marginalized - simply for living openly. Yet, at a by his sexuality. His 1987 New York time when few others would, Rus- Times obituary demonstrated the tin proudly wore that label. evasive language about LGBT peoTo Bayard Rustin, fighting for ple that was all too common in the his equality as a Black man, while media just a few short years ago. leaving his identity as a gay man The obituary skirted the topic of unspoken, would have been an his being gay and referred to his unthinkable betrayal. It was his longtime partner by euphemism firm belief that silence about ei- only. Even today, his name is not ther identity meant he accepted nearly as well known as the oththe system of discrimination that er greats of the Civil Rights Moveallowed hatred about both to per- ment. sist. As America continues to celebrate Black History Month and Lived openly as we ponder the state of equalLong before it was easy or safe, ity and justice in America during Rustin was motivated to live open- this historic anniversary year for ly. He could have hidden the fact the fight for equality, we should

CHIRISTOPHER WEYANT, THE HILL

Movements linked

we’re proud that President Barack Obama used his second inaugural address to link the Civil Rights movement and the LGBT Equality movement just last month. But long before a president like Barack Obama was even possible, Bayard Rustin was preaching an equal future. We shouldn’t forget his sacrifice, and the greatest tribute to his legacy would be to finish his work.

Today, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, and the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organization, are proud to work together toward equality. And

Benjamin Todd Jealous is president/CEO of the NAACP and Chad Griffin is president of the Human Rights Council. For more information, visit www. lawyerscommittee.org. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

not forget trailblazers like Rustin. Like Rustin’s, let us uplift the stories of LGBT African-Americans who felt and still feel the burdens of discrimination - those whose very lives illustrate the insistent fact that the fight to treat all people equally is both this country’s greatest accomplishment and its greatest unfinished obligation.

A tribute to cultural warrior, Hoyt W. Fuller I am compelled to pay tribute to Hoyt W. Fuller who was a major contributor to history, especially its cultural component, in the 1960s and 1970s. Hoyt, as manager editor of Negro Digest (later Black World), from 1961 to its ceased being published in 1976, was the connecting link for Black artists and creators in the arenas of theatre, dance, music and literature during that immensely productive period of Black creativity. In the pages of the magazine one could read and learn about what was happening culturally around the country and the world. Positions and ideas were introduced, discussed, critiqued and often argued about from a variety of perspectives. I am personally indebted to Hoyt because, as was the case was so many other young journalists and writers, he published my first article in a national magazine.

A. Peter Bailey TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

ert Belt, a senior government major at Columbia College and current president of the Columbia group, the purpose of the conference was to ‘examine the role Afro-American college students should play in the Black Revolution and their responsibility, both individually and collectively, to the civil rights efforts….’” I sent the article, unsolicited, to Negro Digest. When Hoyt, whom I didn’t know at the time, contacted me to say that the article would be published in the July 1967 issue under the title, “New Image in the Ivy League,” I was both surprised and elated.

In my case, it was an article I wrote after attending the 1966 First Intercollegiate Conference of Afro-American Students hosted by the Student Afro-American Society (SAS) of Columbia University. Among the schools represented were Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MT. Holyoke, Radcliffe, Barnard and Vassar. Delegates also came from Howard University Committed visionary and Morehouse College. I was not That began my relationship a student at any of those institu- with a brilliant, perceptive, notions but was invited to attend by nonsense, committed, visionary, a Columbia student I knew. talented and wise Brother who became both a great friend and Black revolution a much- appreciated mentor. It As I wrote “….According to Rob- must be noted that Hoyt didn’t

Obama joins NUL in fight for early childhood education “So, tonight I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every single child in America.” President Barack Obama In last month’s State of the Union Address, President Obama proposed one of the most important and proven strategies for expanding educational opportunity and closing the achievement gap in our nation’s public schools -- universal quality pre-school that is affordable and accessible to all. We applaud the president for making this a national priority. The National Urban League and many others have long understood that if America is to achieve the vision of a globally competitive nation, we can no longer accept that the quality of education is based primarily on your zip code or the size of your bank account.

Achievement predictor The availability of early learning opportunities for children is a significant predictor of the level of achievement they will attain throughout their academic careers. Early interventions for the youngest learners also provide a critical ladder to responsible adulthood and the jobs of the future. Many affluent parents spend tens of thousands of dollars each year to provide quality pre-school experiences for their children, an expense which most middle and working class families simply cannot afford. And because of funding inequities, many urban students spend their entire educational lives playing catch-up in run-down schools with over-burdened teachers. This inequality is not only imperiling the futures of millions of public school children, it is jeopardizing America’s ability to develop a workforce capable of competing in the 21st century global marketplace.

MARC H. MORIAL TRICE EDNEY WIRE

playing field. He envisions a continuum of high-quality early learning for a child – beginning at birth and continuing to age five. In a cost sharing partnership with states, government funded pre-school would be extended to all four year-olds from low and moderate-income families below 200 percent of poverty. The President’s proposal comes as the March 1 “sequestration” budget cut is fast approaching.

Sequestration worries If Congress and the White House fail to come to an agreement, our economy could face another recession and the education of many urban children will be further weakened. According to the White House, 70,000 young children would be shut out of Head Start and as many as 10,000 teachers could lose their jobs. We must not let that happen. Last year, with the release of the National Urban League’s eight--point plan to Educate, Employ and Empower, we made the point that any serious discussion about the creation of jobs and economic opportunity must account for the basic shortcomings of our current national approach to education, from early childhood to adulthood and beyond. We said that robust early childhood education for every child must be an essential part of the solution. President Obama agrees. We urge Congress to act quickly to make it a reality.

Marc Morial is president/CEO of the National Urban League. Click on this Level playing field story at www.flcourier.com to write President Obama proposes to level the your own response

just publish articles focusing on the arts. There were also many thoughtprovoking essays on economics, politics, international affairs, education and the civil and human rights movements. When John H. Johnson ceased publishing Black World (that became the name in 1970) in 1976, reportedly because it was a consistent money-loser, Hoyt immediately began plans to launch a new magazine to be called First World.

He, with the assistance of several key supporters, worked many long, arduous hours trying to keep the magazine afloat. I still believe that contributed to the lethal heart attack that felled him at age 58 in 1981.

Dedicated warrior

With Hoyt’s death, the Black Arts and Cultural Movement lost its most influential dedicated warrior. It was a devastating blow from which it has still not recovered. We need to pay homage to Hoyt by gathering together in his memThird World rebuked ory. Those interested in doing so The name was a rebuke of the should contact me at apeterb@veconstant use of “Third World” rizon.net. when speaking of Black and Brown Peter Bailey, a former associcountries throughout the world. Unfortunately, many of those ate editor of Ebony, is currently people who loudly proclaimed editor of Vital Issues: The Jourtheir devotion to Hoyt and Black nal of African American SpeechWorld didn’t follow through with es. Click on this story at www.flfinancial contributions to his ef- courier.com to write your own response. forts with First World.

Guns, not the Klan, are the real threat Chicago suffers unbearable levels of gun violence, yet the victims remain largely silent. They travel from funeral home to graveyard, rather than march from church to gun shop. The president is applauded when he calls for action on gun violence, but before his plane leaves the tarmac, more are shot, including even the sister of one of the young children standing behind him during his address. If we are to free ourselves of this terror, we will have to change our minds. Victims of tyranny have three options. They can adjust, they can resent but turn anger inward, or they can fight back. I recently spoke at the King College Prep High School, the school that Hadiya Pendleton was attending when shot to death. When I asked the students if they had a classmate in jail or knew someone who used drugs, nearly all said yes. When I asked if they knew someone who had brought a gun to school or secreted one in a car, they said yes. I asked if they would turn in someone who smuggled a gun into school — “No, no,” was the answer. I asked if they would turn in someone who had a rope and a white sheet and hood hidden in their car. “The Klan,” they said, “of course we’d turn them in to authorities.”

Silence undermines They are more forceful in defying the impotent Ku Klux Klan than in challenging the presence and re-

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

thinking and stop tolerating the status quo that change becomes possible. Slave masters never retire. Slavery ends when the enslaved changed their minds. Segregationists did not end segregation; it ended when the segregated forced a new reality. Yes, change requires leadership, inspiration and more. But in the end, the victims decide. We will end the scourge of gun violence only when its victims decide that they can no longer accept the losses in lives and in security.

ality of dope and guns. Silence undermines security and betrays the possibility of freedom. No one doubts the threat posed by guns and drugs. Last year, 65 young people in Chicago died in gun violence, the equivalent, as the president noted, of a Newtown every four months. This despite the fact that Chicago Police confiscate Victims have power about 10,000 firearms each Victims have power. They year. have consumer power, boyThis is a crisis. cott power, lawsuit power, marching power, the powTerror normalized er of counterculture actions Guns not only claim loved and moral authority. They ones on the streets of Chica- have the power to disturb. go. The Centers for Disease They have the power to emControl and Prevention re- brace a multifaceted apports that of the 30,000 sui- proach that attacks the phecides committed each year nomena of guns in, drugs in, in the U.S., nearly 20,000 in- jobs out, home foreclosure volve guns, and that suicide exploitation and crippling is now the No. 3 cause of poverty. teenage deaths. To go from adjustment to We are being terrorized, freedom, we have to be willyet we treat the terror as a ing to march, to protest, to normal part of life. go to jail, to risk the rage of Real change can only oc- the oppressors, to challenge cur when victims fight back. their ways and construct the The victim might not be re- world that we want to live in, sponsible for being down; a world without guns, withbut they are responsible for out drugs, without violence. getting up. That’s why Dr. It can be done — but only Martin Luther King called if we decide to act. upon us to be “creatively maladjusted” to abuse and The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, injustice. Sr. is president and CEO of the Rainbow/PUSH CoVictims rise up alition. Click on this story It is only when victims at www.flcourier.com to change their own way of write your own response.

NATION

TOj A6

MARCH 1 – MARCH 7, 2013 nesses all recanted their testimonies, admitting that they perjured themselves, the Wilmington Journal reports.

‘Political prisoners of conscience’ After much activism on their behalf, including Amnesty International which called the group “political prisoners of conscience;” and a CBS “60 Minutes” expose on the fabrication, they received a commutation of their sentences in 1978 and the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately overturned all of the convictions citing prosecutorial misconduct violations of constitutional rights. But even after the appeals court directed the state to either retry the defendants or dismiss the charges, the state did nothing. After nearly 32 years, Wilmington Journal Publisher Mary Alice Thatch, asked the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a federation of 200 Black-owned newspapers, to help pursue the pardons of innocence for the Wilmington Ten.

Kept the faith

RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER/MCT

This 1978 file photo shows Ben Chavis, right, speaking at a news conference the day after Gov. Jim Hunt’s decision to reduce the sentences of the Wilmington 10. Hunt refused to pardon the group.

Chavis’ next goal after pardon: Mobilize youth Wilmington Ten member plans to use status to help rebuild civil rights movement BY HAZEL TRICE EDNEY TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE

Civil rights leaders across the nation described it as one of the most significant moments in the modernday civil rights movement. That is when then North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue issued a pardon to the members of the legendary Wilmington Ten on Dec. 31, 2012. But even bigger than that moment may be what’s to come. Former Wilmington Ten member Dr. Benjamin Chavis, co-chair of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network with Russell Simmons, says he will now use the pardon as a catalyst to involve young people in the continued struggle for equality and justice in America. Chavis and a panel of current civil rights activists were slated to appear

at the Howard University School of Communications this week for a Black History Month forum at WHUT, the university’s TV station.

“Because of my work with Russell Simmons and the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, I know there are millions of young people who want to know what the freedom movement is all about, what the civil rights movement is all about,” Chavis said in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire. “I see the exoneration and the pardon of innocence of the Wilmington 10 as a blessing from God. And when you’re blessed, you have to utilize those blessings. We plan to use this status that we’ve been given by history to help inspire a new generation of people to be active and supportive in the civil rights movement.”

buke to a criminal justice system that has long discriminated again AfricanAmericans. “I have decided to grant these pardons because the more facts I have learned about the Wilmington Ten, the more appalled I have become about the manner in which their convictions were obtained,” said Perdue. “Justice demands that this stain finally be removed. The process in which this case was tried was fundamentally flawed. Therefore, as Governor, I am issuing these pardons of innocence to right this longstanding wrong.” In even stronger terms, Perdue condemned the blatantly racial activities that led to the convictions: “These convictions were tainted by naked racism and represent an ugly stain on North Carolina’s criminal justice system that cannot be allowed to stand any longer.”

Naked racism

The case

In her Dec. 31st statement, Perdue used words with equivalence to a re-

In a nutshell, here is a description of the Wilmington Ten case, according

‘Blessing from God’

Justice Sotomayor criticizes prosecutor for remark on defendant’s race BY DAVID G. SAVAGE TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU (MCT)

WASHINGTON — Sonia Sotomayor, the Supreme Court’s first Latina justice, strongly criticized a Texas prosecutor Monday for citing the race of a defendant as grounds for convicting him of a drug deal, saying the government attorney had tried to “substitute racial stereotype for evidence

and racial prejudice for reason.” The justice filed a rare statement commenting on the court’s refusal to hear an appeal, not to dissent from the decision, but rather to “dispel any doubt” that the action “should be understood to signal our tolerance of a federal prosecutor’s racially charged remark. It should not.” Sotomayor, who began her career as a prosecutor in New York City, she said she was troubled by what happened. “By suggesting that race should

Dr. Ben Chavis is now co-chair of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network. to reporter Cash Michaels of the Wilmington Journal: The Wilmington Ten nine Black males and one White female – were activists who, along with hundreds of Black students in the New Hanover County Public School System, protested rampant racial discrimination there in 1971. In February 1971, after the arrival of Rev. Benjamin Chavis to help lead the protests, racial violence erupted, with White supremacist driving through Wilmington’s Black community, fatally shooting people and

play a role in establishing a defendant’s guilt, the prosecutor here tapped a deep and sorry vein of racial prejudice that has run through the history of crimiJustice nal justice in our Sonia nation,” she wrote. Sotomayor “...It is deeply disappointing to see a representative of the United States resort to this base tactic more than a decade into the 21st Century.” “I hope never to see a case like this again,” she said in a statement joined by Justice Stephen G. Breyer.

Controversial statement Bongani Calhoun appealed after he was convicted of participating in a drug conspiracy and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

committing arson. A White-owned grocery store in the Black community was firebombed, and firemen came under sniper fire. It wasn’t until a year later that Chavis and the others were round up and charged with conspiracy in connection with the firebombing and shootings. The Ten were falsely convicted, and sentenced to 282 years in prison, some of which they all served. It wouldn’t be until 1977, after years of failed appeals in North Carolina courts, that the three state’s wit-

He contended that while he went along on a road trip with several friends, he did not know they planned to buy cocaine. The jury heard two of the coconspirators testify that Calhoun knew about the drug deal. They also said they had more than $400,000 in cash in the room. When Calhoun took the stand, Sam Ponder, an assistant U.S. attorney in San Antonio, pressed him for an explanation. He said “commonsense” should tell jurors why these men were in the hotel room. “You’ve got African-Americans, you’ve got Hispanics, you’ve got a bag full of money. Does that tell you — a light bulb doesn’t go off in your head and say, ‘This is a drug deal?’ ” the prosecutor said.

‘Completely inappropriate’ Calhoun’s lawyer did not object at the time to the racial reference in the question, which Ponder re-

After a series of NNPA stories, exposing court records that proved prosecutorial corruption, other media and civil rights organizations joined in the push for the declaration of absolute innocence, which was issued by Perdue. The declaration of innocence finally cleared the names of Chavis, Connie Tindall, Jerry Jacobs, William Joe Wright, Anne Sheppard, Wayne Moore, Marvin Patrick, James McKoy, Willie Earl Vereen, and Reginald Epps. Chavis, who served the longest sentence - five years and four months says he never lost his faith in God throughout the ordeal. But he is now left with a haunting realization that many youths may never understand the hardships that were suffered for the freedoms they now cherish. “This is the same dilemma that Nelson Mandela and the [African National Congress] had in South Africa. A whole generation of young people in South Africa, they’ve heard about the Apartheid regime, but don’t quite get the connection, similar to here in the United States,” he said. “So, to me I’m going to be a part of a global movement to not only build an awareness of the importance of the freedom movement, but stress that young people - while they’re young should participate to transform their lives.” Chavis, who worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a teenager, is no novice at mobilization. He is a former executive director of the NAACP and served as national director of the 1995 Million Man March. Chavis says he will now “write more and speak more and be very, very active. I’m going to use my status in the movement to help renew, rebuild and revitalize the civil rights movement.”

peated in his closing statement, and the issue was not raised in his initial appeal. For that reason, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal Monday. Last year, a federal appeals court judge raised a similar objection in response to Calhoun’s case. “Such racially charged comments are completely inappropriate for any lawyer. It is particularly inappropriate for an Assistant U.S. Attorney — a prosecutor — to behave this way,” wrote Judge Catharina Haynes, an appointee of President George W. Bush. Ponder said Monday that he had not yet read Sotomayor’s comments. “It was a question taken out of context. It was one question out of several hundred,” he said. “It was the end of the day, and it was something I was trying to articulate, and I didn’t do a very good job of it. That’s all I can say.”

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IFE/FAITH

March 1 - March 7, 2013

Daytona crash could trigger track changes See page B3

SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE

Surgeon in spotlight after remarks on healthcare overhaul See page B4

SOUTH FLORIDA / TREASURE COAST AREA www.flcourier.com

‘Hey, he’s getting robbed!’

Witness describes night young entrepreneur died at Jacksonville nightclub notorious for violence Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in series of stories framing the life of James Roland Jackson, III, known as “Jimmy” to his family. BY PENNY DICKERSON SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

Adult entertainment and nighttime nudity continue to thrive despite a nationwide recession. More than 15,000 employees rely on the industry for their livelihood, including strippers who balance their weight on fiveto eight-inch heels while performing tricks on a pole. Male audiences are left mesmerized. Despite protests and legislative attempts by evangelicals and conservative groups like NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) to bar their existence, adult entertainment remains the object of a man’s loose dollar bills and profitable subjects for a business estimated to gross more than $7 billion through the year 2017. Companies in this industry operate adult entertainment venues in which striptease or other erotic or exotic dance is regularly performed for males, females or mixed audiences. Upscale establishments referred to as Gentlemen’s Clubs are distinct among businessmen and professional athletes and offer patrons appealing V.I.P. privileges.

Making a living However, their urban counterparts like Jacksonville’s Silver Fox nightclub have the reputation of being establishments that can permeate violence as deadly as murder. Shootings have become Silver Fox staples and the homicide death of Jimmy Jackson last year has reinforced the club’s status as a business that compromises the intent of patrons who seek mere satisfaction. He was 26 years old

when he was shot four times at the Silver Fox on June 2, 2012 at approximately 4 a.m. He died 10 days later at Shands Hospital Jacksonville. Jackson was not at the club to illicit strippers nor was he believed to be drunk the evening he became another shooting victim at the Silver Fox. He was content in his role for the evening – serving as road manager for Young Cash, a local artist signed to Tallahasseebased rap artist T-Pain. Both are a prodigy of the iconic South Floridabased rapper Flo Rida.

THE LIFE & DEATH OF

JIMMY JACKSON

48 police calls

From dream to nightmare Cash and his entourage rented the club for his birthday “after party.” According to his friend and eyewitness Rodney Lamont English, a.k.a. Wood, “Jimmy arrived earlier in the evening to help set up and his white Camaro was later brought and parked by a friend. He was not from Jacksonville or familiar with the Silver Fox.” An entrepreneur at heart, Jimmy established his own venture – Exclusive J – in hopes of becoming an independent music mogul who managed the careers of emerging artists. This was his dream. A fascination for stardom attracted a mixedgender crowd that surpassed capacity. The overflow parking area is an unlit backdrop for potential crime and in this patch of crumbled asphalt and grass, two Black males robbed Jimmy Jackson at gunpoint. Four bullets took him down. The incident helps quantify the establishment’s growing reputation for criminal activity, including five incidents that involved discharging a firearm.

Blighted area The Silver Fox night-

dowless structure has maintained its pleasureseeking appeal. The club conforms with a 2005 law passed by the city of Jacksonville requiring fully nude establishments to be located in areas zoned heavy industrial. Further, the law prohibited nude clubs from being within 500 feet of schools and churches and within 1,000 feet of homes. Partial nudity is featured at the Silver Fox. Popular for stripper activity and parties, the Silver Fox is formally listed as a Bikini Club featuring Black dancers. Patrons are offered day and night covers of $2 and $5, respectively. Dance prices are listed as $10 with drinks for $2.50.

CHARLES W. CHERRY II / FLORIDA COURIER

Jimmy’s mother, Stephanye Rozier-Jackson leaves the church after his homegoing service in Orlando. club is strategically located in the ruins of Jacksonville’s industrial blight. An area bustling with traffic and activity by day transforms into a desolate area of abandonment at night leaving few to notice activity – criminal or otherwise. A cold storage freezer and farmer’s market sit east and west of the club. Both are flanked for miles

by mechanic and scrap metal shops. Rows of fleet trucks and used tire garages are in comfortable proximity to a popular fried chicken franchise and the random presence of seafood shacks leave Florida’s southern air with a caustic stench. Silver Fox clientele repeatedly ignore the surroundings, and for more than a decade, the win-

According to a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) public records report (2011-12), more than 48 “Calls for Service” resulted in police dispatch to the nightclub’s associative address on West Beaver Street. Calls range from noise violations, stabbings, and drunken fights. Discharging a firearm leads the list. In a 2009 Florida Times Union feature titled, “Jacksonville Clubs keep an Eye out for Guns,” the Plush Nightclub, a popular mixed-crowd venue, was cited for 31 firearm incidents within 125 feet of its commercially zoned property. The records were released by JSO and covered a three-year period. The Silver Foxx was runner up with 12; the gun violence is neither new nor ceasing. What does continue to change for the establishment is management.

Eyewitness account A Youtube video dated June 21, 2012 promotes a “grand opening” for the Silver Fox, now spelled with a single X. This celebratory debut and name change came eight days after Jimmy Jackson was declared dead at Shands Hospital. “Jimmy had the biggest smile on his face and

SECTION

Left: This sign is at the entrance of the Silver Fox in Jacksonville. Below: Jimmy Jackson was shot in the parking area of the Silver Fox on June 2, 2012. Photos by PENNY DICKERSON/ SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

was just enjoying life that night,” reflected his friend, Rodney English. “I’ve witnessed three or four people getting shot there and each time it’s the same club, same spot, no lighting.” One of a few cooperating witnesses, English further added that two JSO police officers were on either side of the crime scene, but were called to another location shortly before the crime against Jackson took place. “I was close enough to see two Black males in black T-shirts. They put on their seatbelts and drove away slow when I hollered, ‘Hey, he’s getting robbed!’ ” English added. “A small handful of people saw the shooter(s),” offered Detective Bobby Bowers, lead homicide investigator charged with bringing justice. “All were heavily drinking. Panic ensued and most ducked or ran,” he added.

Tried to walk away Jackson didn’t have a proclivity for conflict or contention. According to Bowers, he complied with the random robbery and tried to walk away when he was shot. More perplexing to Jackson’s grieving family and friends is why the Silver Fox nightclub remains open for business. The establishment’s owners would not comment at the time of this writing. A telephone request for a comment on Wednesday from a man who stated that he was the owner or manager yielded the following response: “No, we don’t wanna participate.’’ A civil suit against the Silver Fox has been filed on behalf of Jackson’s only surviving daughter, fiveyear-old Denia Jackson.

In part five of the series, an attorney from the Chestnut Firm along with lead homicide Detective Bobby Bowers will offer commentary and updates on the investigation. The case remains unsolved.

CALENDAR

MARCH 1 – MARCH 7, 2013

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Tampa: A young women’s leadership symposium presented by the Florida Diversity Council will be held March 2 from 8 a.m. – noon at the Columbia Restaurant, 2117 E. 7th Ave. The symposium is designed to promote the development of female high school students from the Tampa Bay area into future leaders. More information: Kim Woollard, 800-8396328 or Ronda Woble, 727-488-9345. Tampa: A free men’s health forum featuring food, prizes and health screenings will be held March 9 from 9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. at the University of South Florida’s Marshall Center, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. More information: mhftampa.com. Tampa: The 76th Annual District Meeting of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity’s Seventh District will be held April 4-7 featuring a golf tournament, picnic, job fair, step show and worship service. More information: PiIota.org. Winter Park: A St. Patrick’s Day parade will be held March 3 at 2 p.m. in Downtown Winter Park. More information: 407694-8228. Orlando: Churches and schools will participate in the Seventh Annual Washington Shores 5K Walk & Health Fair March 9 from 8 a.m. to noon at Hankins Park, 1340 Lake Park Court. Register as a team or individual online at www.orchd. com under the events section. Orlando: Bel Biv Devoe, Dru Hill, El Debarge and other artists will be at Funk Fest 2013 at Tinker Field on April 6 beginning at 5 p.m. Concerts also are scheduled in Jacksonville and Tampa. Complete lineup: http://funkfestconcerts.com. St. Petersburg: Youths ages 7 to 11 can enjoy a night of football, kickball, ping-pong, foosball, video games and dance parties during “Freestyle Fridays” at the Fossil Park & Willis S. Johns Center, 6635 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N. First visit free; $6 each following visit. More information: 727-893-7756.

JAY-Z

Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake head to Miami for their Legends of the Summer Tour Aug. 16 at the Sun Life Stadium for an 8 p.m. show.

BUBBA SPARXXX

Rap artist Bubba Sparxx will be at Brewster’s Roc Bar in Jacksonville March 30 for a 7 p.m. show.

St. Petersburg: First Fridays are held in downtown St. Petersburg at 250 Central Ave. between Second and Third Avenues from 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. More information: 727393-3597. Tampa: Songstress Alicia Keys brings her World On Fire tour to Florida with performances at the Tampa Bay Times Forum March 24 and Miami’s American Airlines Arena March 23. Fort Lauderdale: The Florida Minority Community Reinvestment along with a coalition of Florida minority non-profits and neighborhood associations are hosting the 2013 Let’s Do Business Florida & Summit June 28-June 29 at the Westin Beach Resort & Spa. No cost to women-minorityveteran businesses and nonprofits. More information: www. letsdobusinessflorida.com.

MIKE EPPS T:8”

Funny man Mike Epps will be at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre in Orlando on May 24 for an 8 p.m. show.

Celebrating those who celebrate our community.

Clara C. Frye

Black hospital founder to be added to Florida Women’s Hall of Fame NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

The 2013 class of the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame, as announced Monday by the Governor’s Office, includes: Clara C. Frye, who in 1923 founded the first African-American hospital in the Tampa area; Palm Beach County pioneer Lillie Pierce Voss, who recorded life among settlers in southeast Florida; and Aleene Kidd Mackenzie, 92, of Ocala. Mackenzie founded the Florida Commission on the Status of Women to advocate for women’s rights in 1964, was the first president of the National Association of Highway Safety Leaders and helped established the Florida State University Foundation. Frye was a nurse who established the Clara Frye Negro Hospital in 1923, the first African-American hospital in the Tampa area. She worked there for 20 years in the early 1900s. The hospital admitted patients of all ethnicities.

The month of February is a time to celebrate the visionaries and volunteers whose ties to the community remain strong year-round. Much like the leaders before them, our honorees strive for success as they continue to set paths so others may join them. We are committed to shining light on those who never fail to give back. To learn more, visit 365Black.com. From left: Tony Hansberry II, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Harold & Tina Lewis, Grant & Tamia Hill, Chaka Khan & Mary-Pat Hector.

Stoj

MARCH 1 – MARCH 7, 2013

SPORTS

JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT

Jimmy Johnson (48) leads Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (88) in the sprint to the finish line to win the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach on Sunday.

Too close to the action? Daytona crash could trigger track changes to protect spectators THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER (MCT)

DAYTONA BEACH – A wreck that injured more than two-dozen race fans at Daytona Saturday could trigger fresh scrutiny of measures to protect spectators. The violent, 12-car wreck on the last lap of the Feb. 23 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway tore a hole in the safety fence and sent debris – including a wheel – careening into the frontstretch grandstand. H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler, former president of Charlotte Motor Speedway, predicts the accident may prompt track owners to raise safety fences or move fans further from the most dangerous areas. “If you put the first row about 30 feet back, and about 14 feet up in the air, that would solve almost every problem you’ve got,” Wheeler said. Now, the first row of seats at Daytona is about 10 feet from the track fence.

How it happened Twenty-eight fans were treated for injuries, 14 at the track’s care center and 14 at local hospitals, Daytona President Joie Chitwood III said last Saturday. Seven fans remained hospitalized Sunday, and all were in stable condition. The fan injuries happened after rookie Kyle Larson got knocked airborne into the catch fence, a 22-foot barrier of steel posts and reinforced wire that separates the track from the grandstand seats. The fencing caught the front of Larson’s car and ripped it away, leaving the car’s engine and one wheel tangled in the fence. Another wheel went sailing into the grandstand, as did large parts of the car. That wheel landed in the stands, nine rows from the fence. Chitwood said Sunday he did not know if the wheel went over the fence, or through it. Wheeler said his review of the video suggests the wheel went over the fence. If that’s found to be the case, he predicted many track owners will have to spend millions to raise the heights of their fences. And that, he said, could “disrupt the sport completely.” “The worst thing that anyone can think about is a wheel going over the fence,” he said. If it’s determined that the wheel went through the fence, track owners could face a different set of headaches.

‘Engineered correctly?’ It’s possible to build a fence that could withstand the forces of an airborne race car, but doing that would require a thorough engineering study, said Samuel

Gualardo, past president of the American Society of Safety Engineers, a group that has examined ways to make racing safer. “Was it engineered to withstand these forces?” Gualardo asked. “And if it was, was it engineered correctly?” Gualardo agreed that the easiest way to protect fans may be to move them away from the danger. “Obviously it will be a revenue decision by track owners because you’ll be eliminating that set of rows,” he said. “That’s probably why they haven’t done it.” That move could also make the sport less appealing to fans who love to be close to the action, Gualardo and others say.

History of fan deaths Saturday’s incident was one of the worst involving fans in recent memory. On April 27, 2009, seven fans at Talladega Superspeedway were treated for injuries when Carl Edwards’ car went airborne and struck the frontstretch fence. From 1990 to 2010, at least 46 spectators died at U.S. race tracks, an Observer analysis found. Nine were hit and killed by flying tires, including a 52-year-old woman who died in 2010 at a drag race at the Firebird International Raceway in Phoenix. The spectator deaths took place at all levels of U.S. racing, from big ovals and short tracks to drag strips and off-road courses. In 1999, three fans were killed when a wreck caused a tire to fly into the grandstand at an Indy Racing League race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. That accident prompted track officials to raise the catch fence from 15 to 21 feet. It also led to a rule that “tethers” tires to the body of the race car in the IndyCar series.

‘Good safety track record’ Starting in the 1990s, NASCAR also began mandating that wheels, hoods and other parts be tethered to the car frames so they’re less likely to fly into the stands. In Saturday’s wreck, the wheel tethers apparently worked, NASCAR officials said. But a tether alone could not prevent the wheel from becoming airborne. That’s because the wheel was still attached to other parts of the car when it flew into the stands. After the Talladega accident, Daytona brought in a structural engineer to review the track fencing, Chitwood said. Afterward, the track reviewed the engineer’s recommendations and installed new fencing, he said. “So we felt like we had done everything … in making sure we were prepared for (the Feb. 23) event,” he said. “Incidents do happen and I think those are the exception. If you look at our 55 years in the business, we have a

JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT

Kyle Larson’s car (32) disintegrates into the catch fence at the finish line in the final seconds of the Nationwide 300 race at Daytona International Speedway in on Feb. 23.

JEFF SINER/CHARLOTTE OBSERVER/MCT

Rapper 50 Cent stands on pit road next to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kyle Busch’s (18) car prior to the start of the Daytona 500. pretty good safety track record.”

Full review promised Saturday’s wreck began as the field was exiting Turn 4 and approaching the checkered flag. Regan Smith, who was leading the race, attempted to block a pass from Brad Keselowski and instead got turned nose-first into the wall. “I tried to throw a block – it’s Daytona, you want to go for the win here,” Smith said. “I don’t know how you can play it any different other than concede second place, and I wasn’t willing to do that today.” Larson’s car appeared to strike near the crossover gate – a section that can be removed for access to the infield. The wreck sent debris flying long distances. Chitwood confirmed that fans on the upper

STEPHEN M. DOWELL/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT

Jimmie Johnson celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Daytona 500 race on Sunday.

Child injured

proved to stable. Eddie Huckaby, one of the injured fans, reportedly suffered a severe cut from his hip to his knee when he was struck by a long piece of flying metal. His brother, Terry, a plumber from Hendersonville, Tenn., controlled the bleeding by turning his belt into a makeshift tourniquet. Sunday’s Daytona 500 featured former IndyCar driver Danica Patrick starting from the pole – the first woman to accomplish that feat in the Cup series. Jimmie Johnson won the race, with no incidents involving spectators.

One of the injured fans was an unidentified child who, on Saturday, was reported to have lifethreatening injuries. By Sunday, that child’s condition had im-

This report was compiled by Jim Utter, Alexander, Gary Schwab and Gavin Off of The Charlotte Observer.

deck grandstands were among those injured. NASCAR promised a full review of the accident, and said it would make any improvements found to be needed. In the hours after the wreck was cleared, the scene on the frontstretch of the speedway was surreal. Participants in Sunday’s pre-race show were practicing as workers busily removed car debris from the stands and repaired the fence. Tony Stewart won Saturday’s race, but NASCAR called off postrace media obligations out of respect for the injured.

HEALTH

TOj B4

TOJ

MARCH 1 – MARCH 7, 2013

Controversial address vaults renowned surgeon into political arena Dr. Ben Carson’s remarks criticizing health-care overhaul cheered by right BY SCOTT DANCE BALTIMORE SUN (MCT)

W. Bush awarded him the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2008. But with his address at the annual breakfast, he has drawn a new level of attention to himself — and one he intends to use to reach a larger audience.

No political ambition

BALTIMORE — Dr. Ben Carson says he didn’t anticipate the reaction to what he considered his common-sense remarks as keynote speaker last month at the National Prayer Breakfast. But after video went viral of the trailblazing Black neurosurgeon taking jabs at President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul a few feet from the president himself, some want the famed doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to parlay the attention into a new career: politics. “Here you have this guy who has been a celebrity minority for 30 years coming out and making the conservative case better than a lot of conservatives can,” said Jonah Goldberg, editor-atlarge for National Review Online. “Emotionally, that had a really big impact for a lot of people.”

‘Healing Hands’ While some objected to Carson raising health care and tax policy at the traditionally nonpolitical Washington breakfast, conservative heavyweights Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter all cheered his address. The Wall Street Journal published an editorial with the headline “Ben Carson for President.” Fame isn’t new to Carson. The 61-year-old Detroit native, who rose from a childhood of innercity deprivation to become the youngest person to lead a major division at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the first surgeon anywhere to separate conjoined twins, has written bestselling books about his life, his faith and success. His memoir, “Healing Hands,” was made into a television movie starring the Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. President George

Carson, who plans to retire from surgery in June, says he has no interest in running for office. But he says he will use the new exposure to urge common sense, bipartisanship and a reversal of the “moral decay” that he says is eating away at the country. “I have this feeling that as time goes on, we’re not getting any more civilized, and we should be,” he said in an interview. “We’re still running around like the days of Genghis Khan. There are so many important, better things to do and we need to encourage people to reach into the brighter side of humanity and not encourage people to continue to glorify the darker side.” He won plaudits from the political right for his prayer breakfast call for the creation of health savings accounts at birth in place of what he considers the bureaucracy of Obama’s health reform, and for the imposition of a flat tax that he likened to a biblical tithe to supplant a complex tax code that he said asks too much of the rich. He also lambasted Washington for the $16.5 trillion national debt — evidence, he said, of hubris to rival that of ancient Rome. Though he didn’t mention it in his remarks, Carson adds samesex marriage to his litany of the nation’s problems. Much of his address focused on a biblical argument for bipartisan cooperation.

Devout Adventist Carson has been better known for his accomplishments than for his ideology. Speaking at the prayer breakfast in 1997, he described being raised by a poor, single mother who had been one

LLOYD FOX/BALTIMORE SUN/MCT

Dr. Ben Carson poses for a portrait on Feb. 15 at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Md. of 24 children. He said he felt as if he was “the dumbest person in the world” before he gained confidence in his intellectual abilities. He studied his way to Yale, and then to medical school at the University of Michigan, where he considered going into psychiatry before he realized his hand-eye coordination and spatial skills would make him an apt surgeon. At the age of 33, he was named director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, where he led the team that performed the milestone conjoined twin surgery in 1987. Along with this experience, he said, his Christian faith drives the practices that he preaches. Carson is a devout Seventh-day Adventist. “I’ve had experiences in my life that leave no doubt in my mind about the fact that God exists,” Carson said. “I’m quite willing to debate people who don’t think so because I want them to explain to me how did our solar system get so organized and how is the universe so complex and yet wellorganized that we can predict 70 years hence when a comet is coming?”

‘Prominent concern’ Carson is known for sharing his views plainly, said Carol James, a physician assistant at Hopkins who has worked alongside him for more than three decades and is godmother to his three sons. “As time has gone on,” she said, “his interest in the community and the country and how we are stacking up both educationally or in other ways with the world has become a more prominent concern for him.” The subject inspired “America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made this Nation Great,” Carson’s more recent book.

James said he isn’t shy about sharing those concerns. The combination of Carson’s forthrightness, his stature in the medical community, and the spectacle of an African-American physician confronting Obama over his most controversial policy have caught the attention of the political world. Though Carson calls himself an independent, Republicans have rallied behind his message where it dovetails with their own. Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham have joined in the praise. “I think it was refreshing to hear somebody speak plainly and talk about solutions and not talk about political rhetoric,” said David Ferguson, executive director of the Maryland Republican Party. “I think there’s always going to be a reaction, regardless of who is speaking, when somebody has solutions and a bold approach instead of the cyclical problems we’re facing as a country.”

Positive reaction Carson said he has been “deluged” since the speech with media requests and reaction, “95 percent of it positive.” He said he believes it shows “an incredible thirst in this nation for common sense.” How long he stays in the spotlight could be up to him, said Paul Herrnson, a government and politics professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. Ross Perot, for example, kept himself relevant in the 1992 presidential election by persisting through his own ambition and financial independence. Given how far off the 2016 election is, that could be a tall task to attempt now, Herrnson said. Some have criticized the breakfast address as an inappropriate political stunt. The conservative

columnist Cal Thomas accused Carson of “lowering himself” by breaking with the tradition of avoiding politics at the 61-yearold event. Past speakers have included Mother Teresa, Bono and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. But the comments weren’t intended to stoke political controversy, Carson said. Nor, he said, did they appear to offend Obama. “I think there is virtually no better setting than something like the National Prayer Breakfast to talk about the spiritual state of the nation,” he said. “I believe the spiritual state of the nation is not good.”

Education speeches planned Carson said he hopes to spark independent thinking over partisan bickering. He has planned 10 international trips after his retirement from surgery to speak to youth about the importance of education. He also plans to continue speaking around the United States — something for which he is now likely to be in greater demand. Many of those speeches are likely to touch on what Carson sees as a weakening of the nation’s moral fiber that threatens the country’s survival. “We try to make everything equal now, every kind of family situation,” he said. “We go into the schools and we say there’s no outstanding people because we don’t want this one or that one to feel bad. “We’re basically extracting reality out of everything so everybody can feel good. But ultimately making everyone feel good makes everyone feel bad.”

New asthma test helps doctors prescribe treatments BY GRACIE BONDS STAPLES ATLANTA JOURNALCONSTITUTION (MCT)

Fall and winter can wreak havoc on asthma sufferers. Parents of asthmatics know this, perhaps, better than anyone. Inhaled corticosteroids, which might have an impact on children’s growth, are often used to treat the condition. But, for some, the therapy may be unnecessary. A new, noninvasive breath test called fractional exhaled nitric oxide, or FeNO, has taken away much of the guess work about whether a patient should be on inhaled corticosteroids. The test is helping to guide treatment decisions and is the first to measure airway inflammation — the major underlying cause of asthma. “With one breath into a handheld device, physicians can measure the level of inflammation in a patient’s lungs,” said Dr. Stanley Fineman, an allergist at the Atlanta Allergy & Asthma Clinic. “If FeNO levels are high, that signals that the patient’s lungs are inflamed and the asthma is out of control.” By measuring airway inflammation, physicians can determine whether a steroid is the appropriate therapy

tion with fewer potential long-term side effects. “One of the things people need to understand is that the use of corticosteroids can be lifesaving,” Fineman said. “As long as you monitor the effects and the side effects, then you should be able to control any potential side effects and minimize them.”

and at what dose.

Atlanta ‘asthma capital’ In 2010, Atlanta was the “asthma capital of the U.S.” and among the top 20 worst cities for air pollution, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Twelve percent of Georgia children suffer from asthma compared to 9 percent of children nationally. The culmination of pollution, pollen count and barriers to accessing medical care all contribute to the difficulty in managing patients with asthma. Atlanta’s springs have been especially hard on Matt Brown’s 8-year-old daughter Hannah Claire. Twice this past year, Fineman has had to resort to corticosteroids use so Hannah could breathe. And, each time, Brown said, he and his wife have worried about how longterm use might impact her growth. “Taking any medicine can lead sometimes to another illness, which leads to something else, so you don’t always know if you’re better,” he said.

Steroid use Although there is cause for concern, Fineman said, parents should talk to their doctors before starting or

Common questions Fineman was asked to recall the three most common questions parents have about steroid use.

PHIL SKINNER/ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION/MCT

Dr. Stanley Fineman puts Hannah Claire Brown, 8, through a breathing test on Feb. 13 at the Atlanta allergy & Asthma Clinic in Marietta, Ga. stopping steroid use. “In general, inhaled steroids are much less risky than oral steroids,” he said. “A child is better off taking an inhaled steroid on a regular basis than taking

an oral steroid every few months.” This is because inhaled steroids go straight to the airway where the inflammation is and therefore have less systemic absorp-

Q: How do I know whether inhaled corticosteroids are necessary? A: A physician typically determines whether inhaled corticosteroids are the best course of treatment, based on the severity of the patient’s asthma. Traditionally, a physician will talk to patients about their history and symptoms (coughing or wheezing), perform a physical exam and testing — like lung function, to get a clearer picture of each patient’s individual asthma. By measuring FeNO levels, physicians can better determine if steroids are the appropriate course of treatment and if dosage might need to be increased or decreased. Q: If my child isn’t taking his or her medication

as directed, will my doctor be able to tell? A: Sometimes, but not always. In general, it is very difficult to measure a patient’s adherence to medication because asthma is such a variable disease, meaning symptoms can wax and wane depending upon a patient’s exposures to triggers. Studies have shown, however, that FeNO levels can be helpful in determining whether patients have been taking their steroid medication as directed by their physician. Q: How can I talk to my doctor about adjusting my child’s dosage? A: The three most important pieces of information that a parent, caregiver or individual should share with their doctor are the types of symptoms that the child has been experiencing, how frequently the child needs to use their bronchodilator inhaler and what sort of physical limitations the asthma symptoms have been causing. If a patient’s asthma is under control, a physician may consider reducing the dose. If the asthma is not under control, you might want to adjust medication or treatment recommendations.

MARCH 1 – MARCH 7, 2013

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

Meet some of

FLORIDA'S

finest

submitted for your approval

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

james James Moore describes himself as driven, ambitious and versatile. The current Abercrombie and Fitch model and aspiring actor is very athletic and has been scouted to attend a basketball camp in Houston. Contact James on Twitter and Instagram @greatness1012 or jbmoore1012@yahoo.com. CREDIT: Dejohn Barnes Quintiara Ford is a 20-year-old college student seeking a criminal justice degree. She has a Bahamian background but is a Miami native. The aspiring model has hopes of being in magazines or commercials in the future.

quintiara The Onion ripped for post about young actress

First lady Michelle Obama presented the best picture award at Sunday’s Academy Awards as members of the military look on.

EURWEB.COM

The satirical website The Onion is under fire for a vulgar tweet aimed at pint-sized Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis. The 9-year-old has drawn wide praise for her acting talent, including an Academy Award nomination for best actress. On Sunday, an anonymous writer at The Onion made fun of all the attention she’s received, but in the minds of some readers, went too far. The website posted a now-deleted Tweet that called the child a cunt. “Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a cunt, right? #Oscars2013”

Outrage over Clooney joke, too

FLOTUS’ Oscar appearance was top-secret assignment EURWEB.COM

During her Feb. 22 appearance on “Jimmy Fallon,” Michelle Obama said she would be attending the Governor’s Ball at the White House on Sunday night and would likely only catch the tail end of ABC’s live telecast of the Academy Awards. What she coyly left out was that she’d actually be ON the tail end of the telecast. The Hollywood Reporter told how the video of the first presenting best picture to “Argo’’ from the White House came together. According to Academy president Hawk Koch, the plan came from Harvey Weinstein of The Weinstein Co. and his daughter, Lily. Koch and Oscar show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron loved the idea. And when it was pitched to the first lady, Zadan told The Hollywood Reporter that her response was, “Yes, I think it’s a great idea. We watch movies all the time at the White House. Let’s do it.” So, nearly three weeks ago, Koch and the producers borrowed Disney’s jet for a flight to D.C. They told their colleagues, though, that they had to go to New York for the day. “The

planning of it was like Argo — it was a C.I.A. mission, it was so complicated. We didn’t even want anyone to know where we were going,” Zadan said.

Nicholson knew early Once they arrived, they joined up with Weinstein and his daughter and then they all met with members of the first lady’s staff to hammer out the details. The staff took them through the available White House rooms so they could select one for the broadcast. They were asked whether the first lady should appear alone or with a group, and the producers suggested having members of the military join in. With the White House aboard, Zadan and Meron then approached Jack Nicholson, who had starred in their 2007 film “The Bucket List.” Zadan told Nicholson: “We have this proposition for you. How would you like to present best picture with Michelle Obama?’’ Nicholson immediately signed on. Mrs. Obama’s appearance was treated like a state secret, known to only a few of those working on the show. It was intentionally kept off the show’s run sheets, so it wouldn’t leak.

Backup plan On the Friday before the show, the Academy issued a release announcing that Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman would be serving as presenters. The announcement included a statement from Zadan and Meron that said, “Their participation in this year’s Oscars completes a list of presenters and performers that truly represents that great breadth and depth of acting talent in film today.” The person seen via satellite on the Oscars show handing her the envelope was Robert Moritz, the chairman of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Nicholson, who had introduced the first lady from the Dolby Theatre stage in Hollywood, was holding a second envelope with the winner — in case something went wrong and they lost the connection. Meanwhile, as predicted, Denzel Washington, nominated for his role in “Flight,’’ went home empty-handled. So did Quvenzhané Wallis, 9, nominated for her portrayal of Hushpuppy in “Beasts of the Southern Wild.’’ For a complete list of winners, visit www.oscar.com.

During the Oscar telecast, host Seth McFarlane, in one of his many sexist and misogynist jokes of the evening, quipped: “So let me just address those of you up for an award, so you got nominated for an Oscar, something a 9-year-old could do! She’s adorable, Quvenzhané. She said to me backstage. “I really hope I don’t lose to that old lady, Jennifer Lawrence. To give you an idea how young she is it’ll be 16 years before she’s too old for Clooney.” Clooney took it in stride, but the numerous transgressions were not lost on the audience. While Quvenzhané and her cohorts from “Beast of the Southern Wild’’ celebrated their big night at the post-Oscar parties, Twitter lit up with outraged Tweets from the famous and non-famous alike: Keith Olbermann, the former MSNBC host, and Wendell Pierce of The Wire called out The Onion in particular, with Pierce asking the editors for an apology. “Identify the writer. Let him defend that abhorrent verbal attack of a child. You call it humor, I call it horrendous.” The Onion has since apologized, stating that the tweet was “cruel and offensive.’’

Quvenzhané Wallis arrives at the 85th annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 24. She made history this year by becoming the youngest ever to be nominated in the best actress category. JAY L. CLENDENIN/LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT

FOOD

TOj B6

TOJ

MARCH 1 – MARCH 7, 2013

Healthy family From family Features

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If you’re looking for delicious ways to bring more nutrition to the family table, it’s hard to beat broccoli. Broccoli is on most top 10 lists of superfoods, and packs a lot of nutrients in each bite. “Easily incorporated into a variety of dishes, broccoli offers a great way for busy families to eat healthy on a daily basis,” said Rachel Brandeis, registered dietitian. For an extra nutrient boost, try these recipes made

with Eat Smart Beneforté broccoli. Brandeis said, “Beneforté broccoli provides more phytonutrient glucoraphanin, which naturally strengthens your antioxidant enzyme levels to help maintain the antioxidant activity of vitamins A, C and E in your body. These vitamins protect your body from potentially damaging free radicals and environmental stresses.” Beneforté broccoli is available in the packaged produce section of grocery stores. Find out more at www. EatSmartBeneforte.com.

Broccoli with Fusilli and Red Pepper

Broccoli Stir-Fry Serves: 4 1 teaspoon vegetable oil 2 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced 1 cup assorted Asian mushrooms (maitake, white buna-shimeji, enoki, yellow foot, shiitake) 1/2 head Napa cabbage, shredded 1 1/2 cups of Eat Smart Beneforté broccoli florets 1 1/2 cups snow peas

1 red bell pepper, chopped Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste Sprouts for garnish Heat large sauté pan with oil over medium high heat. Cook shallots until translucent, about 2 minutes, add garlic. Cook for 1 minute. Add mushrooms and cook until liquid dissolves, about 5 minutes. Add cabbage, broccoli, snow peas and bell pepper; cook for 3 minutes. Top with sprouts. Serve immediately.

Broccoli with Fusilli and Red Pepper Serves: 6 to 8 1 1/2 cups of Eat Smart Beneforté broccoli florets 3 teaspoons salt, divided 1/2 pound fusilli pasta 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced into long thin strips 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1 lemon zest 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 2 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice Freshly grated Parmesan (optional) Cook broccoli for 3 minutes in a large pot of boiling water with 1 teaspoon salt. Remove from water with slotted spoon. Place in large bowl and set aside. In same water, cook pasta according to package directions, about 10 minutes. Drain well and add to broccoli. While pasta is cooking, in small sauté pan, heat oil and cook sliced red pepper, garlic and lemon zest over medium-low heat for 3 minutes. Off heat, add 2 teaspoons salt, red pepper flakes, pepper and lemon juice. Mix and pour this over broccoli and pasta. Toss well. Season to taste, sprinkle with cheese (if using), and serve. For added protein, shred 1/2 of a cooked store-bought roasted chicken, then toss with pasta and serve.

Roasted Broccoli Serves: 4 1 1/2 cups of Eat Smart Beneforté broccoli florets 3 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced 2 tablespoons olive oil Salt and pepper to taste 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon lemon zest 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan 3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts 1 teaspoon chopped basil (optional) Preheat oven to 425ºF. In large bowl, toss broccoli with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Place broccoli in a single layer on baking sheet. Roast for 15 to 20 minutes, turning once during cooking, until crisp-tender. Remove broccoli immediately to serving bowl and toss with lemon juice and zest, Parmesan, pine nuts and basil. Adjust seasoning to taste and serve hot.

Note: Cooking decreases the glucoraphanin content of Beneforté broccoli as it does for all broccoli. The best way to get the health benefits from any broccoli is to eat it raw or lightly steamed.

Roasted Broccoli

Broccoli and Fresh Tomato Pizza

Broccoli and Fresh Tomato Pizza Yield: 1 pizza (serves 6 to 8) 1 whole wheat 12-inch ready-to- bake pizza crust 4 tablespoons olive oil 4 cloves garlic, minced 2/3 cup shredded mozzarella- provolone cheese blend, or 1/3 cup shredded mozzarella and 1/3 cup shredded provolone 1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese 1 cup of Eat Smart Beneforté broccoli florets (raw and quartered) 2 Roma tomatoes, chopped coarse Preheat oven to 450°F. Place pizza crust on cookie sheet. Pour olive oil into small pan; heat and add garlic. Stir for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to small cup to cool. Pour garlic olive oil mixture over crust, distributing evenly. Sprinkle mozzarella-provolone blend evenly over crust. Sprinkle cheddar cheese evenly over top of mozzarella-provolone blend. Place broccoli on top of cheese; distri bute evenly. Place tomatoes on top of pizza; distribute evenly. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven; let sit for 2 minutes before slicing and serving.