Florida Courier - March 06, 2015

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MARCH 6 – MARCH 12, 2015

VOLUME 23 NO. 10

‘THE LEAST EXPENSIVE NEGRO’

A Black media owner sues the Rev. Al Sharpton and civil rights organizations for allegedly providing cover for discrimination against Black-owned media, and says President Obama is ‘bought and paid for’

by Comcast, America’s largest cable company.

BY THE FLORIDA COURIER STAFF

LOS ANGELES – Black media entrepreneur Byron Allen has filed a $20 billion lawsuit against cable giants Comcast and Time Warner Cable as well as the NAACP, the National Urban League (NUL), and the National Action Network (NAN) for allegedly conspiring to discriminate against 100 percent A f r i c a n -A m e r i can-owned media in contracting for slots on cable networks.

Allen’s company, which owns eight digital channels, claims that Byron racial discriminaAllen tion is the reason he has been unable to air content on cable sys-

tems owned by Comcast and Time Warner, and thus share in advertising revenue.

“100% African-American-owned media has been shut out by Comcast,” the lawsuit states. “Of the approximately $11 billion in channel carriage fees that Comcast pays to license television channels each year, less than $3 million is paid to 100% African American-owned media.”

Hot rhetoric In making his case, Allen has been slashing away on TV, in print, and on the Internet. He is especially harsh toward Sharpton, whom he said “is…nothing more than a than a Black pawn in a very sophisticated White economic chess game... used by his White masters at Comcast and AT&T,” as he told the Daily Caller website.

Ferguson violates Blacks’ rights

“It’s cheaper to give Al Sharpton money, than it is to do business with real African-Americanowned media,” Allen charged, calling Sharpton “the least expensive Negro” in a CNN interview.

“What Comcast did is, they give Al Sharpton money so he doesn’t call them racist. That is the issue here,” Allen exclaimed in an interview with the Huffington Post.

“Why is Al Sharpton getting more money from AT&T than Ebony Magazine, which has been around for 70 years?...I find it outrageous that AT&T is the biggest sponsor of Sharpton’s 60th birthday party. (They) spent more money on Al Sharpton’s birthday party than they have on 100-percent African-American owned media combined.”

Allen also claims that Sharpton, President Obama, and civil rights organizations are letting

COURTESY OF MSNBC

A federal lawsuit says the Rev. Al Sharpton’s MSNBC talk show, ‘Politics Nation,’ serves as a $750,000 yearly payoff for his continuing support of a proposed $45 billion corporate merger involving Comcast, which owns MSNBC – Sharpton’s ‘boss.’ large corporations and the federal government off the hook for not doing business with 100-percent Black-owned media companies.

Filed last month Allen’s California-based company, Entertainment Studios Net-

works, and an organization calling itself the National Association of African-American Owned Media filed the lawsuit February 20 in a Los Angeles federal court.

It’s the second federal lawsuit the two entities have filed that See SHARPTON, Page A2

ISRAEL’S BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SPEAKS TO CONGRESS

‘It’s a very bad deal’

Feds won’t charge Brown’s killer COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS

FERGUSON, Mo. – The Ferguson Police Department – whose actions after Police Officer Darren Wilson’s fatal shooting of young, unarmed Michael Brown in August sparked violent protests and a nationwide outcry – has persistently and repeatedly violated the constitutional rights of Blacks, jailing them for minor offenses far more often than Whites, using traffic stops to arrest them disproportionately and subjecting them to excessive force, a Justice Department investigation has concluded.

Meanwhile, a separate Justice Department investigation determined that the federal government will not bring charges against Wilson in Brown’s death, officials announced Wednesday.

A local grand jury declined to bring charges in November.

Out of control The police department investigation portrays a city in which

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/MCT

President Obama shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a frosty meeting in the White House in October 2014. In Tuesday’s speech to Congress, Netanyahu vociferously attacked Obama’s negotiations with Iran. See a related ‘No Chaser’ column on Page A4.

See FERGUSON, Page A2

Session starts on ‘exceptional’ note COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE – Calling on something he termed “Florida exceptionalism,” Gov. Rick Scott used the annual State of the State address Tuesday to try to reinvigorate his legislative agenda after a difficult opening to his second term.

During the 21-minute speech, Scott pushed lawmakers to adopt his proposals to slash taxes, hold down the cost of higher education and boost public education spending to the highest per-student level in state history.

Scott did not unveil new proposals in the speech. But the governor introduced an overarching theme to tie together his agenda. He used “dream” or some form of the word 19 times in the address.

“Florida’s long been a place where dreams

ALSO INSIDE

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

come true. But this is not just our past, it’s our future. ... We want more people to chase their dreams in the great state of Florida,” he said.

Changing the subject The annual speech also gave Scott a chance to change the subject after a bruising two months that featured questions about the forced resignation of the state’s top law enforcement officer and speculation that Scott’s influence might be waning as lawmakers begin looking past the term-limited governor.

Some of Scott’s goals enjoy broad support, including his call to increase education funding. There is also agreement among the Republicans who control the Legislature on the need for further tax cuts. The amount of cuts and which taxes are slashed might differ.

State leads nation in fraud and identity theft NATION | A6

Gov. Rick Scott

State Sen. Arthenia Joyner

State Rep. Dwight Bullard

Old, new leaders clash over struggles’ direction

Democrats critical Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, took issue with Scott.

“Dreams are not coming true for over a million Floridians who are blocked out of affordable health care,” she said, referring to Republicans’ refusal to expand Medicaid deSee SESSION, Page A2

HEALTH | B3

Exploring the cause of asthma in children

COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: LISA GISSENDANER: BLACK GIRLS CARRY EXTRA BURDENS TO STAY IN SCHOOL | A4

A2

SESSION from A1

spite Scott’s previous, tepid support for the plan. “…Dreams die when people get sick and can’t get health care. One of the top issues facing this state is providing health care for 1 million people who don’t have it, and the governor didn’t even mention it.”

Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, expressed concerned about

FOCUS

MARCH 6 – MARCH 12, 2015

Scott’s push for more tax cuts.

“The idea of handing those (dollars) out in tax cuts every year means that things like teacher’s salaries, more police officers, better-supported judges, bettersupported public defenders and state attorneys, suffer the consequences,” Bullard said.

“We have to be about the business of protecting the revenue streams that we have and not losing sight of the good that government can do. Government should be in the business of helping and protecting people, and not be in

the business of being shrunken to the point that it suffocates.”

House, Senate plans House Speaker Steve Crisafulli and Senate President Andy Gardiner set shared priorities dubbed “Work Plan 2015” that includes cutting taxes, crafting a water policy and boosting education spending.

Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, touted the need to reform state and local government pensions.

While the Senate has support-

ed efforts to revamp local pensions, it has not gone along with past House attempts to change the Florida Retirement System.

Those attempts involved moving away from traditional pensions and toward 401(k)-style plans for state workers and others, including teachers.

Meanwhile, Gardiner said the Senate has an “obligation” to look at expanding healthcare coverage for low-income Floridians, particularly because the state might lose about $1 billion in federal funding. House Re-

publicans have refused to accept tens of billions of dollars in federal money under the Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid.

Another part of the leaders’ shared agenda will be to increase educational and job opportunities for people with disabilities.

Brandon Larrabee, Margie Menzel, Jim Saunders and Jim Turner of the News Service of Florida Reporter all contributed to this report.

FERGUSON from A1

police dogs were set upon Blacks but not Whites, and where Blacks were seven times more likely to be subjected to force than Whites.

Officers and municipal court officials in the St. Louis suburb exchanged racist emails, the investigation found, including one from 2008 predicting that President-elect Obama would not be in office long because, it asked, “what Black man holds a steady job for four years”?

Another email relayed a joke in which a Black woman receives $5,000 for having an abortion and, when she asks why, is told that the money came from the citizens group Crime Stoppers.

Lawsuit or settlement Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III, City Manager John Shaw, Police Chief Thomas Jackson and City Attorney Stephanie Karr met with federal officials on Tuesday to discuss the case, the city said in a statement.

The investigative report, made public on Wednesday, will form the basis for either a federal civil lawsuit or a negotiated settlement with the city.

ROBERT COHEN/ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH/MCT

Michael Brown, Sr. touches the top of the vault containing the casket of his son Michael Brown, Jr. at the end of the burial service on Aug. 25, 2014.

The fate of Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson, center, is uncertain after DOJ’s scathing report.

Disproportionate punishment The investigation found that the distrust of the Police Department, particularly by Blacks, was largely attributable to Ferguson’s approach to law enforcement.

A combination of ingrained racial bias and the city’s focus on generating revenue from traffic stops led to routine violations of the Constitution and federal laws, the report’s findings stated.

Adding to the volatile mix is the fact that while Ferguson’s population is 67 percent Black, its government and police force are predominantly White.

“This confirms what many people have been saying for a long time,” said Antonio French, a St. Louis alderman who was a prominent presence during the protests. “The Ferguson Police Department had a pattern and a culture that targeted minorities.”

The report comes with a ream of statistics that helps explain the anger: • 85 percent of people subjected to traffic stops in Ferguson between 2012 and 2014 were Black.

• 90 percent of those who received a citation and 93 percent of those arrested were Black.

• Blacks were almost twice as likely as Whites to be searched during a traffic stop even though they were less likely to possess contraband.

SHARPTON from A1

place scrutiny on high-profile media mergers. They jointly filed a $10 billion lawsuit in December against a proposed AT&T merger with DirecTV valued at $45.8 billion.

Both the AT&T/Direct TV and the Comcast/Time Warner Cable proposed mergers are currently under regulatory review.

‘Diversity’ agreements Allen’s lawsuit describes how the civil rights organizations – none of which own media outlets – were allegedly bought off to prevent them from objecting to Comcast’s $45 billion-dollar proposed merger with Time Warner Cable.

According to the complaint, Comcast entered into “memoranda of understanding” and “voluntary diversity agreements” with Sharpton’s National Action Network, the NAACP, and the National Urban League. Comcast then used the documents and the credibility provided by the organizations to cover up a conspiracy in which the nation’s largest cable company racially discrimi-

FLORIDA COURIER FILES

• The same problems extended to Ferguson’s city jail and municipal court, where investigators found a pattern of focusing on revenue over public safety.

Blacks dehumanized “They wonder why people reacted the way they did to Michael Brown’s death, and clearly this report shows it’s a natural reaction to how people have been treated over the years,” said Michael T. McPhearson, co-chairman of the Don’t Shoot Coalition in Ferguson.

McPhearson said some of the racist emails highlighted the way

nated against 100 percent Blackowned media outlets like Allen’s.

‘Donations, salaries’ “Each of the signatories to the MOU between Comcast and the “African American Leadership Organizations” were paid by Comcast in the time leading up to the Comcast/NBC-Universal deal,” the lawsuit states.

“Comcast paid $30,000 to the NAACP, $835,000 to the National Urban League…Comcast also paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the National Urban League’s various regional affiliates.”

Allen’s lawsuit also alleges that Comcast, which owns MSNBC, paid Sharpton “over $3.8 million in ‘donations’ and as salary” for his work as an MSNBC host, which the lawsuit states is $750,000 a year.

The legal action also claims that Comcast and Time Warner Cable airs only one fully Blackowned channel, the Africa Channel – which itself is partially owned by a former Comcast executive who allegedly was in on the conspiracy.

“Aside from a channel that is owned and operated by the former Comcast/NBC-Universal executive who authored the MOUs, Comcast has not launched a

police had dehumanized Black citizens, whether suspects or not.

“That shows the mentality and how they look at Black people.

When you’re looking at a whole community, you’re not looking [only] for criminals. You believe the whole community are criminals. Every person is not even worthy of being treated fairly,” McPhearson said. With that approach, “there’s no way you’re going to be able to police a community fairly.”

Fewer dismissals The investigation also found that Blacks were less likely to

single 100% African Americanowned channel – by way of the MOUs or otherwise,” the lawsuit states.

Obama uses Sharpton “I think that Obama uses him (Sharpton) to control the Negroes,” Allen told the Daily Caller. “D.C. has been taking payoffs.

Comcast (whom Allen claims was one of Obama’s largest corporate campaign donors) owns every politician in that town, including President Obama.

“Obama has been bought and paid for…President Obama, you control a couple billion dollars in (federal) advertising. What have you done to make sure AfricanAmerican-owned media is participating in government advertising? We got more respect from President Clinton.

“And what happened in the Obama administration is former (Federal Communications Commissioner) Meredith Attwell Baker voted for the merger of Comcast-NBC Universal (in 2010) and then 90 days later took a much higher paying job with Comcast after granting them the merger.

That was betraying the public’s trust as a public service.”

Minority ‘fronts’?

In 2010, Comcast faced criti-

have their cases dismissed in court than were Whites and were far more likely to be the subjects of arrest warrants. During the two years studied, 96 percent of people arrested during traffic stops because of outstanding warrants were Black.

For a five-month period last year, 95 percent of people held at the jail more than two days were Black, and often the charges against Blacks were petty offenses such as “manner of walking in roadway.”

Latest investigation The report marks the latest in

cism for its diversity efforts during the federal evaluation of its NBC-Universal merger that was subsequently approved.

As part of a 2011 agreement, the cable giant agreed to launch several cable channels backed by non-Whites, including the Aspire channel headed by Earvin “Magic” Johnson, the Revolt channel lead by Sean “Diddy” Combs, and El Rey network with Latino film director Robert Rodriguez.

Comcast cited the three networks as evidence of its commitment to diversity. Allen isn’t buying it, saying that research indicates that the non-White “celebrities” are not the true majority owners of either of the three networks Comcast cites.

“The real ownership of these entities will come out in the lawsuit,” he explains, and includes venture capital funds and White former cable company executives.

Defendants reply A Comcast spokeswoman who spoke with the Los Angeles Times newspaper called the lawsuit “frivolous.”

“We do not generally comment on pending litigation, but this complaint represents nothing more than a string of inflammatory, inaccurate, and unsup-

a series of investigations the Justice Department has conducted recently into high-profile, racially charged confrontations.

Last month, officials announced that no federal criminal charges would be filed against a former Florida neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black 17-year-old, in Sanford in 2012.

Still to come are the results of a criminal investigation into an incident last year in New York’s Staten Island in which police killed a Black man, Eric Garner, with an apparent chokehold.

Civil rights experts say that, much as in the Ferguson case, bringing charges against the police in the Garner killing may be difficult because of the high standard of proof required. But the availability of a video and the extended nature of the struggle may make a prosecution easier than in the other two cases, they said.

Richard A. Serrano and Timothy M. Phelps of the Tribune Washington Bureau in Boston; Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times in Houston; and Michael Muskal, Matt Pearce and James Queally of the Los Angeles Times in Los Angeles all contributed to this report.

ported allegations,” she is quoted as saying. A Time Warner Cable spokeswoman refused to discuss the lawsuit.

In various media outlets, Sharpton and NAN rejected the claims, saying they could support defamation counterclaims, and that NAN has received less than $1 million from Comcast.

“The lawsuit is the epitome of an insult to the Black community” and has “not one scintilla of evidence,” Sharpton said in a phone interview with Reuters.

He told the Hollywood Reporter that he “welcomes the opportunity to answer the frivolous allegations.”

“National Action Network has not been served with any papers and considers this claim frivolous. If in fact we were to be served, we would gladly defend our relationship with any company as well as to state on the record why we found these discriminatory accusations made by said party to be less than credible and beneath the standards that we engage in,” NAN wrote in reply to Allen’s Huffington Post interview.

The Florida Courier has been unable to locate a response from either the national NAACP or the National Urban League as of press time late Wednesday night.

MARCH 6 – MARCH 12, 2015

FLORIDA

A3

State leads nation in fraud and identity theft Florida’s transient population makes it easier for criminals to take advantage

theft prosecutions last year. Keven Cimeus of Miami was sentenced to 156 months in prison after federal agents found more than 2,400 Social Security numbers and names stored on thumb drives, laptops, an iPad and his email account. And Tanya Fox, of Orlando, was sentenced in October to 240 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $4 million for a scheme to file fraudulent tax returns using stolen identities taken from the Orange County Health Department.

Fighting ID theft also became the top priority for the FBI’s 800 employees who work between Fort Pierce and Key West. Local law enforcement also stepped up.

BY WILLIAM E. GIBSON AND DONNA GEHRKE-WHITE SUN SENTINEL (TNS)

WASHINGTON — Florida remained the hotspot for fraud and identity theft in 2014, burdened by the highest per-person rate of consumer complaints in the nation.

Among metropolitan areas, South Florida topped the list for ID-theft complaints for the fifth year in a row, according to figures released by the Federal Trade Commission.

But complaints from the region have dwindled from prior years, a sign that an intense federal and local crackdown has had an impact.

Florida — long known for flimflam, bogus swamp sales and Medicare fraud — was home to seven of the top 20 metro areas for consumer fraud complaints last year. The state is the third most populous with 19.9 million but has the highest fraud rate by far.

‘Getting better’ Still, the latest data on South Florida is a victory of sorts: The reported identity thefts are about half that of 2012, the peak of this ubiquitous crime in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

“The numbers are getting better,” said Cindy Liebes, FTC southeast regional director, who has traveled from Atlanta in previous years to warn of identity theft at town hall meetings throughout South Florida.

Computer hacking that exposed consumer information from companies such as Target and Home Depot has exacerbated the long-standing problem, the National Consumers League warned Tuesday.

Tips for consumers

PHIL VELASQUEZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS

JuWanda Harris holds personal documents on Feb. 17, 2010, in Chicago. After Harris filed her tax return, the IRS told her someone using her Social Security number had already filed a return.

“Data breaches regularly expose sensitive personal information about millions of Florida consumers on cybercrime black markets,” said John Breyault, vice president of the Consumers League. “Without reforms in Washington to better protect consumers’ data, high identitytheft rates could become the ‘new normal’ for consumers in Florida and around the country.”

Why Florida?

He said thieves and scammers apparently are attracted to Florida for a host of reasons: Its lack of state income tax means less scrutiny from state officials. Its transient population makes it easier for hit-and-run operators to blend in. Its large senior population provides a tempting target of savings and vulnerabilities. And

its fast development “means a lot of new money floating around.”

More than 200,000 fraud-related complaints poured in from Floridians last year, the highest per-person rate in the nation, with 1,007 complaints per 100,000 of population. Florida’s high rate was followed by Georgia and Nevada.

More than 37,000 Floridians complained of identity theft, giving the state the highest rate — 186 per 100,000 — followed by Washington and Oregon.

Among metropolitan areas, Miami/Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach had 18,428 ID-theft complaints, the nation’s highest rate of 316 per 100,000.

Next highest were Seattle, St. Louis, Tallahassee and the Naples area. Jacksonville had the ninth highest rate, Fort Myers the 11th highest, Port St. Lucie 12th, Lake-

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– Book review, School Library Journal • How low expectations of Black students’ achievements can get them higher grades; • Want a great grade? Prepare to cheat!

land/Winter Haven 13th, and Orlando/Kissimmee/Sanford tied with Tampa for 17th.

Many of the thefts are discovered when taxpayers are unable to file their returns because an identity thief had already sent a return using their names.

Top cases In early 2013, officials from the IRS called South Florida one of the “twin epicenters” in the state for tax-related identity theft and vowed to continue a crackdown. In a year, the federal agency tripled the number of investigations, doubled the number of IRS staffers working on tax-related identity theft and beefed up its computer software to ferret out fraudulent returns.

The IRS included two Florida cases in its top 10 identity

Bullard keynotes FAMU’s Black History Month Convocation

BY ALEXIS GARY SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

Florida Sen. Dwight Bullard returned to his alma mater earlier this month as the keynote speaker for Florida A&M University’s Black History Month Convocation.

Bullard challenged students to stand up for fellow HBCU South Carolina State University as it battles to stay open. Members of the South Carolina State Legislature are proposing to shut down the HBCU Dwight (historically Black college/ Bullard university) for two years as a way to regroup because the school is facing a $10 million deficit.

Bullard urged FAMU students to take to Twitter. “I want you to send a message to the governor of South Carolina. Gov. Nikki Haley, Do what you must to save South Carolina State,” Bullard said.

Audience member Alonzo Graham supported Bullard’s message. “I had no idea this was happening at South Carolina

The National Consumer League, a private nonprofit advocacy group, said the report shows the need for Congress to increase penalties for malicious computer hacking and to require companies to meet data-security standards to safeguard consumer information.

The group also provided these tips for consumers: Resist clicking on suspicious links or attachments in emails, text messages or on the Web. These often contain malware that can hijack your computer and steal sensitive personal information like Social Security numbers, user-names, passwords and dates of birth.

File your taxes early. The FTC identified tax-related identity theft as a top source of identity theft complaints. Scammers file in someone else’s name early in tax season and collect fraudulent returns before the legitimate taxpayer has filed his or her return.

Create strong and unique passwords using a combination of letters, numbers and symbols. Avoid using common words or names in your password and don’t use the same password across multiple websites.

Review your credit reports regularly and report any suspicious activity promptly.

State. I am all for sending a message to the governor. Senator Bullard is right. We do need to stick together,” Graham said.

History lesson Bullard went on to give students a short history lesson, citing an important milestone in the role that FAMU students played in Tallahassee’s Black history. In sticking with his theme of taking action, Bullard told the audience about former FAMU students who during the civil rights movement fought for change in Tallahassee.

Bullard graduated from FAMU in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in history.

“Inspired by a little Morehouse school and a young girl from Tuskegee, Florida A&M University students desegregated buses here in Tallahassee,” Bullard related.

“I never really thought about the civil rights movement being in Tallahassee. It was interesting to hear the story,” FAMU Junior Imir Hall said.

Bullard also encouraged students to think about the future and whether they are prepared to someday become leaders.

“I challenge you to understand this: Throughout the history of this university, we have had to fight tooth and nail for the preservation of our institution, and I’ll be damned if in my tenure in the Legislature [I] will allow FAMU to fall on my watch. But the catch is this: My time is limited, which means that there’s a torch that needs to be passed. It was passed on to me, and I will not let it extinguish before I pass it on to somebody who’s not only capable, but better than I could [have] ever been.”

• How Black students can program their minds for success; • Setting goals – When to tell everybody, and when to keep your mouth shut; • Black English, and why Black students must be ‘bilingual.’ …AND MUCH MORE!

FSU withdraws controversial recruit’s scholarship

www.excellencewithoutexcuse.com

BY ALEXIS GARY SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

Download immediately as an eBook or a pdf Order softcover online, from Amazon, or your local bookstore ISBN#978-1-56385-500-9 Published by International Scholastic Press, LLC

Florida State University (FSU) has rescinded the athletic scholarship of football recruit Brian Bell, who may have been involved in the death of a Georgia teenager.

FSU’s athletic department refused to comment on the decision, only releasing a general statement about the university’s scholarship program.

“As background I can tell you that all football scholarships are full. There are no partial scholarships in that sport at this level,” said Associate Athletic Director Rob Wilson.

Kendrick Johnson was found dead in the gymnasium of his Valdosta, Ga. high school in January 2013. Bell has denied any involvement in the death. However a $100 million wrongful death suit filed by

Contact Charles at ccherry2@gmail.com

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for info on speeches, workshops, seminars, book signings, panel discussions.

Twitter @ccherry2

Johnson’s family claims that Bell and his brother killed the 17 year old.

Conflicting reports The suit also claims that local law enforcement and school officials conspired to cover up the truth.

A county coroner originally called the cause of death positional asphyxia and ruled it an accident but Johnson’s family hired an independent pathologist who determined that the teen died from blunt force trauma.

FSU Senior Donald McKenzie supports his university’s decision.

“Given the endless amount of bad publicity Florida State was or has been receiving because of the football team scandals, I would have to agree that they did the right thing. Not only accepting but giving a potential murderer a full ride to our institute would have drawn more negative attention,” McKenzie said.

Neither Bell nor his brother has been charged in Johnson’s death. However, they have both received target letters from federal investigators who began looking into the case 16 months ago.

EDITORIAL

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MARCH 6 – MARCH 12, 2015

Free the Corinthian 15 – From student debt In what may be the first student debt strike in U.S. history, 15 aspiring college graduates who were suckered into taking out tens of thousands of dollars in private and federal loans to attend for-profit Corinthian Colleges are demanding that their federal debts be forgiven. “To Corinthian and ECMC, we have one thing to say,” the students declared, in a message circulated online by The Debt Collective.

“We owe you nothing.”

Corinthian once operated more than 100 campuses and online units under the brands Everest, Heald and WyoTech, but has dissolved under the weight of numerous lawsuits and a federal criminal investigation for predatory lending and false advertising.

Twelve of the units are to be closed, but 85 others are being sold to the ECMC, the Education-

GLEN FORD BLACK AGENDA REPORT

al Credit Management Corporation, a private non-profit company that the U.S. Department of Education uses as an enforcer to compel students to repay their federal loans.

Double standard Students that attended the 12 schools that are to be closed stand a good chance of having their obligations discharged, but the bulk of the Corinthian’s 72,000 enrollees are technically being “transferred” to the ECMC, a bill collection agency that has never run a school. In effect, the U.S. government is running a corporate shell

game to keep Corinthian’s victimized students in debt, even as it forces the for-profit college out of business for using the students as cash cows to extract the maximum federal student loans.

The Debt Collective grew out of the Occupy Wall Street movement’s Strike Debt working group.

Last year, Strike Debt’s “Rolling Jubilee” bought and abolished almost $17 million in student debt at Everest College, a Corinthian property. The Debt Collective uses Facebook and other social media to find people that owe money to the same creditors, and then organizes them to take common action.

Predatory practices Worthless and expensive.

The business model of for-profit schooling in the United States is wholly dependent on federal loans to low income students.

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: FLORIDA HOT AIR

Federal regulations, however, require that schools derive at least 10 percent of their income from private sources. Corinthian solved this problem by setting tuitions higher than the federal loans could cover, so that students would be forced to take out additional, private loans, which would then make the school eligible for more federal loan money.

Within three years, 60 percent of Corinthian students default on the private loans – leaving them with bad credit as well as a worthless educational experience. Forprofit schools account for 13 percent of all college students, but for 47 percent of student loan defaults. A huge share of that debt is owed by Blacks, who are far more prevalent in for-profit student bodies than in the general college population. Ashford University and the University of Phoenix award Blacks more baccalaureate

Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 248 Obama, Putin Netanyahu – Bro. Prez has at least two people on this planet he hates: Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. (Look at the Page A1 picture. Netanyahu’s smug; Obama’s hating.)

But why? Background, training, and experience. Putin and Netanyahu both spent early careers as spies in organizations similar to the U.S’s Central Intelligence Agency, while Obama was working as a law professor, community organizer, and centrist politician. Putin and Netanyahu were trained to lie, manipulate, scheme, and kill for their countries. Obama’s training?

Constitutional law and organizational behavior.

Remember what Joe Biden said in election year 2008? “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy...Watch, we’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

Well, Putin and Netanyahu both tested Obama’s mettle – Putin by moving Russian troops into neighboring countries, Netanyahu by building Israeli housing on land claimed by the Palestinians. A conflictaverse President Obama talked loud and did nothing. Putin and Netanyahu think Obama is a naïve, weak punk and treat him as such. Obama knows that, he hates

QUICK TAKES FROM #2: STRAIGHT, NO CHASER

CHARLES W. CHERRY II, ESQ. PUBLISHER

it – and them – and realizes their perception won’t change. A man knows when he’s not respected. Which led to…

Playing the “Jewish card” – For the first time in American history, a foreigner came into the people’s legislative body and raised objections to the ongoing foreign policy decisions of a sitting U.S. president. Netanyahu handled the GOP-dominated Congress like it was his lapdog, and sent a message to the world that Israel owns America when it comes to foreign policy in the Middle East. I watched Netanyahu pulled every ‘card’ in the deck: the Bible, the Holocaust, Christianity, radical Islam, nuclear mushroom clouds, “never again,” blah blah.

I’m no Obama fan; regular readers know why. But Republicans have lost their minds to justify such disrespect for the office itself. Eventually, those chickens will come home to roost…

Contact me at ccherry2@gmail.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.

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

No limitations When you stop to think about it for a moment, the only person who can place a limit on you from aspiring to go higher is YOU. You cannot blame ‘The Man’ for holding you back. You cannot blame the environment for engulfing you because the aspiration must begin in one’s mind. As a great philosopher once said, ‘if the mind can conceive it, the body can achieve it.’

Everyday, we can make the choice for higher aspirations. As we encourage our children to dream BIG dreams, there’s nothing stopping us from doing the same thing. No more ‘dumbing down’ who we are and what we aspire to do. In a real sense, anyone who has the nerve and/or audacity to bring you down with words is someone you can use for motivation. What I often tell those I empower through my speeches, is ‘use hateration and motivation for your elevation.’

Here are some ways in which you can as-

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DR. SINCLAIR GREY III GUEST COLUMNIST

pire to go higher.

Make up your mind that all things are possible. If the United States can put a man on the moon and an African-American can get elected as President (twice) don’t say what can’t be done Refuse to have a defeatist attitude. Nothing worth having will ever come easy. If you put forth the effort, you’ll embark on great rewards Understand you’re entitled to learn as much as possible Surround yourself with the right people who will encourage you and push you.

These are the ones who see your potential and will invest in you to help you reach your destiny Read, read, and read. Through reading, your mind begins to envision. By envisioning, you create your own world in which you want to live. Continue to envision because it’s your vision that will fuel your determination Because we live in a world that is riddled with so much, I double dare you to become a trailblazer. That’s right; I urge you to be a difference maker.

Dr. Sinclair Grey III is an activist, speaker, writer, author, life coach, and host of The Sinclair Grey Show heard on Mondays at 2 p.m. on WAEC Love 860am (iHeart Radio and Tune In). Click on this article at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Black girls carry extra burdens to stay in school Whitney Richards Callathes – a young person navigating the difficulties she confronts as a woman of color and an undocumented immigrant completing her education – has an added responsibility. She is the primary caretaker for her incarcerated uncle. Whitney shared her story about how this additional burden has affected her life at a town hall meeting held last October hosted by the African-American Policy Forum (AAPF) and Girls for Gender Equity.

She explained: [This] adds undue pressure in our own lives, right? Potentially pushing us out of school, forcing us to get second, third jobs, and working late into the night, while we are still responsible for caretaking, right?

And often times, it isn’t considered or looked at as a burden or gendered form of oppression because we are expected to do it, right? It’s women’s work. It’s supposed to be a labor of love…and even when we ask for help, there is often little help to be provided.

Barriers to success

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Glen Ford is the executive editor of Black Agenda Report.

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

Aspire to go higher I’m often amazed at hearing so many people joking about one’s intelligence. In other words, a whole lot of people who have aspired to go higher in their quest for higher learning are often mocked and ridiculed by those who choose to settle for settling.

Without a doubt, a serious problem exists within those who are jealous or should I say, insecure about themselves that they would try to pass on mediocrity to others.

What’s even more troubling are those individuals who have heeded the words of those who refuse to excel.

As an African-American male, I grew up in a time when friends would equate education, smarts, and good articulation with being White. Sadly, many people within my generation listened to that foolishness for a long time and accepted that nonsense.

BILL DAY, CAGLE CARTOONS

degrees than any other schools in the country, including historically Black colleges. Half the 40,000 students at Strayer University, the outfit fronted by professional Black ignoramus Steve Harvey, are Black or Hispanic. Between 2004 and 2010, Black enrollment in for-profit bachelor’s degree programs grew by 264 percent.

Indeed, most of the increase in Black college enrollment in the 21st century has been in for-profit institutions – a predatory business model designed to exploit the poor and bilk the state.

Free the Corinthian 15 from student debt – and then give everyone a free, quality higher education.

On top of experiencing racial inequities that parallel the ones confronting men and boys, women and girls of color face unique challenges because of their gender. Whitney’s story illustrates how gender-specific factors function to exacerbate the effects of systemic forms of racism. Yet, traditional conceptions of racial justice consistently ignore these sorts of concerns.

In response to the erasure of these concerns, AAPF released Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected last month. This report sheds light on the barriers to success that Black and other girls of color encounter in the New York and Boston public schools. Toward this end, it assesses the impact of excessively punitive disciplinary policies on girls of color. In so doing, it demonstrates that the racialized risks associated with unduly harsh disciplinary measures and the school-to-prison pipeline are real and substantial obstacles for girls as well as boys.

Pregnancy concerns The report pushes back against the popular narrative that only boys of color are se-

LISA GISSENDANER NNPA GUEST COLUMNIST

riously at risk in this arena. It illuminates the gender-specific obstacles such as pregnancy, sexual harassment, and caretaking responsibilities that can disastrously undermine the performance of girls in school.

These concerns, however, are largely absent from the public discourse on the challenges confronted by youth of color.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found that because of the additional responsibilities of childcare, only half of teen mothers finish high school by the age of 22, compared to 89 percent of girls overall. Moreover, the report reveals that there is a lifelong income gap for those without high school diplomas that is greater for women than for men.

Another major risk facing girls of color in and outside of school is sexual abuse.

A 2011 study by Black Women’s Blueprint found that close to 60 percent of Black girls are victims of sexual assault by the age of 18. But, schools often fail to appropriately respond to or prevent this form of abuse.

Our challenge, then, is to assure that all girls are viewed with respect and nurtured in a way such that they come to understand that they are worth investing in.

To accomplish this objective, we must lift up the voices of these girls, listen to their stories, and center their concerns at the heart of our vision of racial justice – a vision that should be inextricably linked to innovative large scale programmatic initiatives that target the concerns of our girls as aggressively as those developed to meet the needs of our boys.

Lisa Gissendaner is the Young Scholars Program Coordinator for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Ohio State University. Click on this article at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

MARCH 6 – MARCH 12, 2015

EDITORIAL

The people of Chicago stun Obama’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel In a stunning Chicago mayoral upset, challenger Jesus “Chuy” Garcia with the help of 3 minor candidates held President Obama’s favorite mayor Rahm Emanuel to only 45% of total votes cast. With 34% of the vote Garcia will face Emanuel in a round two runoff election for what Chicagoans call “the fifth floor” the first Tuesday in April.

A former chief of staff at the Obama White House, Rahm Emanuel is estimated to have spent eight times the amount raised by Garcia, and more than four times what all the other candidates did together.

“Turnout was near an all-time low, but it didn’t matter,” one campaign associate told Black Agenda Report. “The voters who did come out were really motivated, they know Rahm is an absolute pig.”

Anti-Rahm vote “There were also two advisory referenda our forces helped place on the ballot, which brought out the anti-Rahm vote. The first was a citywide vote on taking the big money out of elections, which carried 80%. The second referendum was for Chicago getting an elected school board instead of the mayoral dictatorship the President, privatizers and corporations love so much, that we’ve had since the Daley era. The mayor’s people would not allow a school board vote on the ballot citywide, so the Chicago Teachers Union and their allies in the communities across the city hit the streets and did a ward by ward petition drive, which got it on the ballot in 37 of the city’s 50 wards. This measure got 270,000 to 34,000, almost 9 to 1.”

Former Chicago Public Schools chief and current Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been a ferocious advocate of charter schools, teacher firings, high stakes testing and privatization,

BRUCE A. DIXON BLACK AGENDA REPORT

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VISUAL VIEWPOINT: PIPELINE INK

Chicago Public Schools in 2014, down from his original proposal of over 100. He did it in the face of overwhelming opposition, and naturally just about all the closed schools were in the Black and Latino parts of town.

Every advantage

His opponent, Jesus Garcia, is a local Democrat politician, and former head of a nonprofit neighborhood organization. Garcia was born in Durango Mexico, and played a prominent role in marshaling Latino support for the election of Chicago’s only progressive mayor Harold Washington in 1983 and 1987.

Rahm Emanuel, called by some “Mayor One Percent” had every conceivable advantage. President Obama cut multiple campaign commercials for him, and made well publicized visits to his campaign offices. Besides millions in cash to spend, he had most of the city’s Black and Latino political leaders, including congressmen Bobby Rush and Luis Gutierrez in his kennel. His Hollywood pals did an 8 part CNN mini-series for him by the same folks who did the “Brick City” series to boost the political fortunes of Newark’s Corey Booker. The CNN series broadcast fake stats about Rahm and his top cop bringing down the city’s murder rate, debunked almost immediately by news reports while the series was still being broadcast. And under Rahm and the Daleys, Chicago has expelled roughly as many poor and black residents in the last 20 years as New Orleans after Katrina. The city that elected Harold Washington in 1983 was over 40% black.

Today’s Chicago is about 27% African-American.

The established neoliberal candidate playbook on winning big city elections is to discourage poorer and left leaning voters from coming out, while spending heavily on media. Thanks to the long term mobilization of the teachers union and many forces across the city, it didn’t work this time.

all of which were carried out in Chicago first. Duncan pledged in 2010, with the president at his side, to “turn around” a euphemism that means privatize, at least 5,000 public schools nationally. Like big city mayors in Philly, ‘Sweetheart deals’ New York and elsewhere, Rahm Rahm Emanuel is also vulnerEmanuel did his part to imple- able for the many, many privament the policy, closing over 50 tizations, sweetheart deals, and

ADAM ZYGLIS, THE BUFFALO NEWS

grand thefts he’s helped perpetrate while on the fifth floor. He pretended to “reform” the Daley era deal which gave all the city’s parking spaces to a consortium that appears to include J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi for the next 75 years. If a parking meter breaks or the city decides there’s no need for meters on a particular street, the contract obligates Chicago taxpayers to pay the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi and the other shadowy investors what those meters would have produced for the remainder of the 75 year contract. Rahm secretly had the yellow light interval shortened a couple tenths of a second to produce more revenue for the city and the contractors who manage its red light cameras.

Chicago residents can rest assured their city’s mayor, unlike those in unlucky cities like Detroit, will be never, ever overruled by an unelected board of onepercenters. Rahm Emanuel has created something called the “Infrastructure Trust Board” a private body appointed solely by the mayor with power to overrule any local law or city council decision.

is a local Democrat politician, and former head of a nonprofit neighborhood organization. Garcia was born in Durango Mexico, and played a prominent role in marshaling Latino support for the election of Chicago’s only progressive mayor Harold Washington in 1983 and 1987. Garcia got into the race late, having been tapped by Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis, who dropped out of the mayoral race when she was diagnosed with brain cancer last year.

Garcia supports a city ordinance that would grant reparations in the form of cash settlements, housing assistance, free tuition at city area colleges and free medical care for the falsely convicted. Chicago seems to uncover a new such case almost every week or two.

While Emanuel’s deep pockets, media endorsements and powerful friends would seem to give him a built in advantage in the April runoff election, it could be anybody’s race.

Bruce Dixon is an information technologist and co-chair of the Georgia Green Party.

Click on this story at www.flAlternate choice courier.com to write your own His opponent Jesus Garcia response.

The perils of a poisonous politics By doubling down on his vile slur REV. on President Obama’s love for his country, ex New York Mayor Rudi JESSE L. Giuliani created the media frenzy JACKSON, that he craved. He also set up an SR. easy test of decency for RepubliTRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM can presidential contenders: who has the sense to disavow Giuliani’s poison? Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio passed the admittedly low bar; Governors Scott Walker If Republicans wonder and Bobby Jindal failed ignominiously: Governor Rick Perry pret- why 95 percent of zeled his way through it.

If Republicans wonder why 95 percent of African-Americans and African-Americans and 70% of Latinos will likely end up voting for Democrats in 2016, they 70% of Latinos will should look in the mirror. Virtually every African-American will see likely end up voting this attack on President Obama as racist, something that would not be occurring were Obama White. for Democrats in 2016, Silence in the face of the attack will be seen as proof that the Re- they should look in the publican race-based politics of division remains in force. In his decision to weaken the Voting Rights mirror.

Act Shelby v. Holder, Justice Roberts wrote that “this country has changed.” Giuliani’s insult ratifies Blame Obama the wisdom of Justice Ruth BadGiuliani’s rant echoes the new er Ginsberg’s ringing dissent, that hysteria that Republicans are trywhile progress has been made, the Congress surely was right in de- ing to stoke: that Obama is “withdrawing” from the world, and ciding we still have far to go.

thereby weakening America.

A parade of horrors – Russia in Ukraine, ISIS in Syria and Iraq, negotiations over nukes with Iran, terrorist violence in Paris – is summoned up and blamed on the president.

Recently, Obama made the simple and common sense observation that we are not at war with Islam, but with terrorist extremists who want to hijack the religion for their own ends. His statement was similar to that repeated frequently

by George W. Bush when he was president. Any future president from either party will make similar statements – both to reflect reality and to keep the fear-mongers from fanning hatred here at home.

Yet the president’s comments sparked hysterical comments from across the right-wing noise machine as if common sense were somehow heresy.

Misguided anger This clamor is feeding a mindless war fever. Do we want to have an armed confrontation with Russia over Ukraine? Not really, the macho hawks basically want to fight to the last Ukrainian. Do we want to put troops back into Iraq? Not really, although as

President Obama has escalated the US response to ISIS, the armchair hawks have moved to more muscular positions, now even mumbling about “boots on the ground.” We are fighting wars in Afghanistan, providing troops and arms and bombs against ISIS, running drone attacks in nearly a dozen countries, dispatching special forces to 120 countries. And somehow this is scorned as withdrawal from the world.

Missing in the hysteria and the vile attacks on patriotism is a sensible policy debate – and a sensible reckoning of how we got to where we are. The reality is that excessive belief in military force has done more than anything to cause this mess. The catastrophic invasion of Iraq is the worst foreign policy debacle since Vietnam.

invasion of Iraq turned the country over to Shiite rule, ironically empowering Iran. ISIS comes out of the Sunni reaction to that reality.

Meanwhile we’ve only begun to pay the $3 trillion tab for Bush’s Iraq War, even as our own roads, rail, sewage and water systems grow ever more dangerous for lack of investment.

Those who mindlessly call the president weak, impugn his patriotism, and accuse him of withdrawing from the world ought to be called to account. Enough with the rhetoric, the posturing, and the poison. What is the policy that they want? Let us hear them explain how they will drive a confrontation with Russia in Ukraine, while fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.

The only way Americans will accept this nonsense is if they are scared out of their wits. Sadly, that Longest war seems to be the intent of the fear The decision not simply to go mongers, who need to be chalafter Bin Laden and al Qaeda, but lenged before they frighten us into to wage a counterinsurgency war yet another costly debacle. in Afghanistan and “rebuild” that nation has led to the longest war Jesse Jackson Sr. is the presiin our history that shows no sign dent and founder of the Rainof ending. The “humanitarian in- bow/PUSH Coalition. Click on tervention” in Libya has left chaos this story at www.flcourier.com and violence in its wake. The US to write your own response.

Giuliani’s words do more than hurt – they divide “A new expression has entered the Westminster lexicon: dog-whistle politics. It means putting out a message that, like a highpitched dog-whistle, is only fully audible to those at whom it is directly aimed.

The intention is to make potential supporters sit up and take notice while avoiding offending those to whom the message will not appeal.”

– The Economist, March 2005 After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City, I brought a delegation of mayors to meet with the city’s thenmayor, Rudolph Giuliani.

The delegation’s goal was to help restore confidence in the still-traumatized city and help rebuild what had been so inhumanly destroyed. At the time, I was mayor of New Orleans and

not love America.

MARC H. MORIAL TRICE EDNEY WIRE

president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and Giuliani – widely acknowledged and praised for his leadership after the attacks – catapulted onto the national stage to become “America’s Mayor.”

How times have changed.

During a private New York fundraising dinner for Republican presidential candidate Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Giuliani popped onto the national stage yet again – not for the qualities he displayed as “America’s Mayor,” but for the unfounded accusation that President Obama does

Questioning the president “I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Giuliani said in response to a question about the president’s foreign policy and counter-terrorism strategies. He added, “He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up, through love of this country.”

Speaking in front of a 2016 Republican presidential contender and a mixed crowd of conservatives and business executives, Giuliani – who failed to win the 2008 GOP presidential nomination – attacked the

patriotism of our nation’s president, a man whose grandfather served in World War II, whose granduncle helped liberate the Nazi death camp at Buchenwald and who was the chief executive behind the operation to kill 9/11’s mastermind, Osama Bin Laden.

Questioning the president’s patriotism isn’t just inappropriate; it demonstrates a complete lack of respect. It begs the question that as Giuliani continues to seek a prominent role on the national political stage: Will he choose to rehearse only in the Theater of the Absurd?

All wrong Giuliani’s response was neither an honest critique of the president’s foreign policy, nor was it a considered analysis of our nation’s

ongoing discussion on how to combat terrorism.

It was, however, a veiled attack on the character of our president. It was a better-left-buried relic from 2008 when candidates – including Giuliani – purposely appealed to a particular strain of the GOP base who viewed Obama, the Harvard-educated Black man raised by his White family in Hawaii, as “the other” and “not like us.” It was a rehearsal of the kind of divisive rhetoric that has no place in the 2016 race for the White House.

I am the first to assert that honest critiques of any president, administration and its policies are critical in a functioning democracy. But in this case, there is nothing constructive or relevant in maligning a man because of the way he was raised. White

House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “It is sad to see when somebody who has attained a certain level of public stature and even admiration tarnishes that legacy so thoroughly.”

If I agreed with anything in Giuliani’s statement, it is that, yes, it was a horrible thing to say on many levels.

I would add, in a word of advice to the former mayor of New York, that whenever you feel compelled to preface a comment with “I know this is a horrible thing to say,” it is likely a comment better left unsaid.

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

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

TOJ A6

NATION

MARCH 6 – MARCH 12, 2015

Left to right. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Anthony Driver, Julian Bond and Leighton Watson.

Leaders clash over struggles’ direction Black History Month program at Howard turns to how generations can work together

BY JACQUELYN JOHNSON TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE

WASHINGTON – On one hand was Julian Bond, a longtime civil rights activist, founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and former chair of the NAACP. He was accompanied by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, also a longtime civil rights activist and former SNCC member who also was a member of the famous Mississippi Freedom Summer and worked with slain civil rights icon Medgar Evers.

On the other were members of the new and future generation

of leaders – Howard University Student Association President Leighton Watson and Howard University Student Association Vice President Anthony Driver.

As activists from two generations gathered for a discussion on racial profiling in America during Black History Month at Howard University, the conversation quickly turned to how the generations can learn from and work with each other to address the human rights issues of the day.

Critique of protests Norton said she was pleased to see the recent protests led by young people against the policerelated deaths of unarmed Black men in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City.

“I have been so elated by seeing young people get out in the streets, I don’t know what to do,” she said.

Still, she felt the marches and

demonstrations, while important and necessary, lacked focus and a clear direction.

“Back in the days of the Woolworth sit-ins, the demands were clear,” she said. No one needed to articulate demands. Today, the demands aren’t clear. I haven’t heard any demands articulated.

We hear hands up, don’t shoot and Black lives matter, but in fact, much of America may think that what people are really concerned about is black men getting shot in the streets.

“That does occur considerably more often than White men, but that’s not what brought people of every color out. “It’s racial profiling that did it.”

The disconnect In response, Watson said it would help his generation to have guidance from the older generation in how young people today should lead and organize.

“I think that part of the dis-

Mississippi judge delivers epic sentencing speech to three involved in hate crime

BY ZENITHA PRINCE TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE

The stirring words of U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, read during the Feb. 10 sentencing of three men involved in the hate crime murder of James Craig Anderson, a 48-yearold Black man, in a Mississippi parking lot in 2011, is being hailed as a moral and emotionally moving tour de force.

Carlton The young men Reeves Deryl Paul Dedmon, 22, John Aaron Rice, 21, and Dyland Wade Butler, 23, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and to violating the Matthew Shepard and James Bryd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act in the killing of Anderson,

whom they and other conspirators beat and ran over with a truck while yelling “White power.”

Reeves, who in 2010 became the second African-American appointed as federal judge in Mississippi, began his protracted speech — which was posted on NPR’s website — by invoking the phantom of Mississippi’s savage past, including Black enslavement and its “infatuation” with the “carnival-like” public ritual of lynching.

‘Nigger hunts’ “How could hate, fear or whatever it was transform genteel, God-fearing, God-loving Mississippians into mindless murderers and sadistic torturers? I ask that same question about the events which bring us together on this day,” Reeves said, comparing the state’s past and present.

“A toxic mix of alcohol, foolishness and unadulterated hatred

connect is that you have young people who have the enthusiasm and the energy to be out in the streets,” Watson said. “There are ideas floating around, “but without communication with the people that have experience, have ideas, and know how the system works, that can tell us that these are viable ideas or this is what worked for us, it’s frustrating.

It’s frustrating because (we) have all of these solutions and ideas, but it’s hard not knowing if they can even work. So, if the older generation is sitting on ideas that can change the circumstances, then I would think that there needs to be communication, so that the young people can implement these.”

Bond’s response Bond said he thought it was important for the new generation to chart its own course without waiting to hear from their elders.

This story is special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Howard University News Service.

so numbing … is that these nigger hunts were perpetrated by our children.”

lawyers which includes an African-American AUSA from an office headed by an African-American U.S. attorney — all under the direction of an African-American attorney general, for sentencing before a judge who is AfricanAmerican, whose final act will be to turn over the care and custody of these individuals to the BOP (Federal Bureau of Prisons) — an agency headed by an AfricanAmerican,” he said.

“As demonstrated by the work of the officers within these state and federal agencies — Black and White, male and female, in this Mississippi they work together to advance the rule of law,” Reeves added. “Having learned from Mississippi’s inglorious past, these officials know that in advancing the rule of law, the criminal justice system must operate without regard to race, creed or color. This is the strongest way Mississippi can reject those notions — those ideas which brought us here today.”

Ugly, painful, sad

caused these young people to resurrect the nightmarish specter of lynchings and lynch mobs from the Mississippi we long to forget,” he continued.

“Like the marauders of ages past, these young folk conspired, planned, and coordinated a plan of attack on certain neighborhoods in the city of Jackson for the sole purpose of harassing, terrorizing, physically assaulting and causing bodily injury to Black folk.

‘They punched and kicked them about their bodies — their heads, their faces. They prowled.

They came ready to hurt. They used dangerous weapons; they targeted the weak; they recruited and encouraged others to join in the coordinated chaos; and they boasted about their shameful activity. This was a 2011 version of the nigger hunts.”

And, Reeves added, “What is so disturbing … so shocking …

“I think people in my generation are a little reluctant to say to these young people, ‘Why don’t you do this? How about you do that?’

“I’m not willing to say that because I think you know what the problems are. You know what the solutions are, and I’m sure we will be glad to help, but don’t depend on us to tell you what to do. “Just go out and do it.”

Driver said he believes in a part of the disconnect between the two generations.

He said, “After being in Ferguson and in Chicago, I feel like the disconnect is young people feeling as though the older generation comes in to (assume control of ) their movements, or to show face and take credit for their movements.”

The judge re-emphasized the fact that Anderson’s death was a hate crime — motivated by the victim’s race, and shot down claims that one or more of the men were, somehow, not “criminals.”

“In the name of White Power, these young folk went to ‘Jafrica’ (the Black neighborhood) to ‘f-ck with some niggers!’ — echoes of Mississippi’s past,” Reeves said, later adding, “What these defendants did was ugly … it was painful … it is sad … and it is indeed criminal.”

Reeves ended by pointing to signs of success and recommending actions that would keep Mississippi from going backward into the abyss of its ugly past.

“The sadness of this day also has an element of irony to it: Each defendant was escorted into court by agents of an African-American United States Marshal, having been prosecuted by a team of

This story is special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper.

President Ben Carson? Retired neurosurgeon formally exploring run

BY JOHN FRITZE BALTIMORE SUN (TNS)

WASHINGTON — Retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has become a star among conservative Republicans, announced Tuesday he is formally exploring a run for president in 2016.

Carson is among the first to take the step of setting up a formal exploratory committee that would allow him to raise money in preparation for a run — and to transfer some of that money to his campaign if he ultimately decides to get in.

He quickly developed a national following after criticizing PresiOLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/TNS dent Barack Obama’s health care Ben Carson, former neurosurgeon, speaks at the 42nd annual Conservative Political Action law at the 2013 National Prayer Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 26 in National Harbor, Md. Breakfast in Washington, D.C.

Decision by May Carson, who is 63, retired from Hopkins in 2013 after a distinguished career in neurosurgery. At 33, he was named director of pediatric neurosurgery at Hopkins — the youngest person to lead a major division at the institution. He won international acclaim in 1987 when he became the first surgeon to successfully separate twins conjoined at the head.

The move quelled speculation Monday that Carson might run for the Senate seat being left open

by Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski. Carson moved to Florida after retiring from Hopkins, but he still owns a home in Maryland.

He has previously said he will make a decision about whether to run by May.

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MARCH 6 – MARCH 12, 2015

Catch music icons at Jazz in the Gardens See page B2

SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE

Howard wants to use ‘n-word’ on ‘Empire’ See page B5

SOUTH FLORIDA / TREASURE COAST AREA

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J A N U A RY

J U LY

Jan. 5, 1925: Nellie Tayloe Ross is inaugurated as governor of Wyoming, becoming the first female governor in the U.S. Jan. 7, 1896: Fanny Farmer’s first cookbook is published with standardized cooking measurements.

Jan. 8, 1977: Pauli Murray becomes the first female AfricanAmerican Episcopal priest.

Jan. 25, 1980: Mary Decker became the first woman to run a mile under 41/2 minutes, coming in at 4:17.55.

July 2, 1979: The Susan B. Anthony dollar is released.

July 7, 1981: Sandra Day O’Connor is nominated as the first woman Supreme Court Justice.

July 12, 1984: Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, D-N.Y., is chosen as the first female to run for vice president. She joined Walter Mondale, D-Minn., on the Democratic Party ticket.

July 19-20, 1848: The Seneca Falls Convention, the country’s first women’s rights convention, is held in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

Janet Reno

Toni Morrison

F E B R U A RY Feb. 4, 1987: The first National Women in Sports Day is celebrated.

Feb. 15, 1953: Tenley Albright becomes the first American woman to win a World Figure Skating championship.

Feb. 24, 1967: Jocelyn Bell Burnell makes the first discovery of a pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star.

Feb. 27, 1922: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women’s right to vote.

Aug. 9, 1995: Roberta Cooper Ramo becomes president of the American Bar Association. She is the first woman to hold that office.

Aug. 26, 1920: The 19th Amendment of the Constitution is ratified granting women the right to vote.

Aug. 26, 1970: Betty Friedan leads a nationwide protest called the Women’s Strike for Equality in New York City on the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage.

Aug. 30, 1984: Judith A. Resnick joins the maiden flight of the space shuttle Discovery, becoming the second U.S. woman in space.

Sally Ride

MARCH March 4, 1917: Jeannette Rankin, R-Mont., becomes the first female member of Congress.

March 11, 1993: Janet Reno is confirmed as the first woman U.S. Attorney General.

March 13, 1986: Susan Butcher wins the first of three straight, and four total, Iditarod dog sled races.

N AT I O N A L A R C H I V E S March 20, Harriet 1852: “Uncle Beecher Stowe Tom’s Cabin,”

by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published. It becomes the best-selling book of the 19th century.

APRIL April 7, 1805: Sacagawea begins work as an interpreter for Lewis and Clark on their expedition.

April 7, 1987: The National Museum of Women in the Arts opens in Washington, D.C. It’s the first museum devoted to women artists.

April 19, 1977: Fifteen women in the House of Representatives form the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues.

April 28, 1993: The Ms. Foundation sponsors the first “Take Our Daughters to Work” day. In 2003, the day was changed to “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work” day.

SEPTEMBER

By Wendy Zang, McClatchy-Tribune

It wasn’t until 1987 that Congress declared March Women’s History Month, in celebration of women’s contributions and achievements.

The month was a step up from Women’s History Week, which had been recognized, first in Sonoma, Calif., in the late 1970s, and then a few years later nationally.

While March provides some time to focus on female accomplishments, great women should be celebrated for more than 31 days.

Here’s a look at some important dates in women’s history to recognize all year long.

Sandra Day O’Connor Mary McLeod Bethune

Rosa Parks

Geraldine Ferraro

JUNE June 9, 1949: Georgia Neese Clark is confirmed as the first woman treasurer of the United States.

June 10, 1963: Equal Pay Act is enacted prohibiting discrimination based on gender in the payment of wages June 18, 1983: Dr. Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.

June 25, 1903: Madame Marie Curie announces her discovery of radium.

Sept. 12, 1910: In Los Angeles, Alice Stebbins Wells becomes the first woman police officer with arrest powers in U.S. Sept. 20, 1973: Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in the battle of the sexes tennis match.

Sept 26, 1973: American Baptist minister Capt. Lorraine Potter becomes the first woman U.S. Air Force chaplain.

Sept. 29, 1988: Stacy Allison becomes first U.S. woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.

OCTOBER Oct. 4, 1976: ABC’s Barbara Walters becomes the first woman co-anchor of the evening news.

Oct. 4, 1993: Ruth Bader Ginsburg becomes second female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Oct. 8, 1993: Toni Morrison wins the Nobel Prize for Literature; the first African-American woman to do so.

Oct. 23, 1910: Blanche Stuart Scott becomes the first American woman pilot to make a public flight.

NOVEMBER

M AY May 5, 1938: Dr. Dorothy H. Andersen presents results of her medical research identifying the disease cystic fibrosis.

May 8, 1914: President Woodrow Wilson signs a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. May 21, 1932: Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to complete a solo transatlantic flight, flying 2,026 miles from Newfoundland to Ireland in just under 15 hours.

May 29, 1977: Janet Guthrie becomes the first woman to qualify for and complete the Indy 500.

AUGUST

LEARN MORE Check out these sites to learn more about women in history: n Library of Congress — www.womenshistorymonth.gov n The National Women’s History Project — www.nwhp.org n The History Channel — www.history.com/content/womenhist n National Women’s Hall of Fame — www.greatwomen.org/home.php n Department of Defense — www.defense.gov/specials/womenshistory n The Biography Channel — www.biography.com/womens-history SOURCE: NATIONAL WOMEN’S HISTORY PROJECT, THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS • PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ERIC GOODWIN/MCT

Nov. 1, 1848: The New England Female Medical School opens becoming the first medical school for women. In 1874 it merges with Boston University and becomes one of the world’s first coed medical schools.

Nov. 11, 1993: The Vietnam Women’s Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., honoring the 265,000 women who voluntarily served during the Vietnam era.

Nov. 14, 1946: Emily Greene Balch, co-founder of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nov. 28, 1881: The first organizational meeting is held for the predecessor group to the American Association of University Women (AAUW).

DECEMBER Dec. 1, 1955: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus to a white person.

Dec. 5, 1935: Mary McLeod Bethune creates the National Council of Negro Women.

Dec. 7, 1941: Capt. Annie Fox becomes the first woman awarded the Purple Heart for her service while under attack at Pearl Harbor.

Dec. 17, 1993: Judith Rodin becomes the first woman to head an Ivy League school, as president of the University of Pennsylvania.

CALENDAR & EVENTS

B2

MARCH 6 – MARCH 12, 2015

Corrections leader promises ‘free passage’ for prison guards who speak up

RONNIE LAWS

ROY AYERS

STOJ

THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

LONNIE LISTON SMITH FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Tampa: The Tampa Police Department will host a Black History and Beyond program from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on March 7 at Lowry Park Zoo Bandshell, 7525 N. Blvd.

program on March 13 at 801 Third St. S. West Palm Beach: A firsttime homebuyer education workshop is March 18 and 19 from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Urban League of Palm Beach County, 1700 N. Australian Ave. More information: wwwulpbc.org or call 561833-1461 ext. 3000.

Coral Gables: R&B Love Fest 2015 features Keith Sweat, Bell Biv Devoe, K-CI & JoJo along with El DeBarge.

The show is April 4 at the BankUnited Center.

Fort Lauderdale: The Mighty Clouds of Joy and Lee Williams will be at the War Memorial Auditorium on April 5.

St. Petersburg: Byron Pitts, co-anchor for ABC News’ “Nightline,’’ will be the speaker during Poynter Institute’s “Race & America: Examining Media’s Coverage of Social Justice Issues’’

Tampa: Journalist Roland Martin will be the guest speaker at a scholarship ball hosted by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and the GZl Educational Foundation on March 28 at the Mainsail

Conference & Event Center.

More info: gzleducationalfoundation.org or call 813451-3306.

Jacksonville: The legendary Mavis Staples will perform March 21 at the Ritz Theatre.

Estero: Actor and comedian Kevin Hart’s tour makes stops at the Germain Arena in Estero on March 27, April 25 at Amway Center in Orlando and April 25 at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena.

West Palm Beach: Gladys Knight takes the stage at the Kravis Center on March 5.

The show starts at 8 p.m.

Naples: Journalist and activist Charlayne HunterGault will be the speaker at a

Too few Black writers in the video game industry Editor’s note: This is the first of a twopart story by journalist Charles Moody III.

BY CHARLES MOODY III SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

While you are reading this article, do me a favor: Open up a new tab in your browser Visit your favorite major gaming outlet Find the staff section Count the number of African-American writers on staff How many African-American writers are employed at your favorite gaming outlet? If you aren’t satisfied with your answer, you can visit another site and follow the steps listed above. Did you find any this time?

I have often wondered why I do not see more African-American writers on the staffs of popular video game websites. I know that we exist. There are plenty Charles of gamers who are intelliMoody III gent, articulate and have a passion for games. Yet, when I looked at the staff list for 10 of the most popular gaming websites, I only found two African-American writers.

It was a truth that I did not want to accept. “We” are not as actively involved as other races. Why is our presence almost non-existent? What is keeping the numbers low? I caught up with Mike Williams, staff writer for GamesIndustry, to get his opinion.

An insider perspective CM: How did you get into the games industry?

MW: I answered an IndustryGamers (the U.S. site that merged with GamesIndustry to form GamesIndustry International) ad for an intern. I was lucky enough to be accepted for a trial period and then worked until I reached my current position as staff writer.

CM: Was your journey into the field of videogame journalism any harder than your White counterparts?

MW: I don’t think so. There may be some who have reached positions in game journalism because they knew someone higher up, but it’s a tough road for the most part. There are so many people willing to do your job for peanuts that you have to work really hard to stay in the game.

MW: What would you say is the biggest misconception about African-American gamers/journalists within the industry?

CM: Honestly, we’re such a rarity that I’m not even sure there’s something to misconceive. … Googling ‘African-American game journalists’ brings up N’Gai Croal, an excellent writer who left the journalistic field to become a consultant

a few years ago. That’s not to say we don’t exist in the field. There’s Kotaku’s Evan Nacisse and The Koalition’s Richard Bailey to name a few. But, certainly not in the same numbers as the 18-35 year-old White male.

CM: Why don’t we see more AfricanAmericans writing for bigger gaming outlets? Is the pool to choose from small?

MW: Games Journalism is not necessarily the career you choose if you want to be completely self-sufficient or provide for your family. It takes awhile to get to the point that you can draw a substantial salary from a single outlet. Many freelance at numerous places to make ends meet.

Starting out can be vicious, and you’ll find that journalists tend to come from middle and upper class backgrounds.

For working class families, journalism isn’t a high-profile career option and Games Journalism is even worse in that regard. Being able to work for free in the beginning is almost a hard-set prerequisite for the field. Money constraints lead many game journalists to eventually transition to PR work or community manager positions at developers and publishers.

Without the working class entering journalism, you’re already presented with a strike against the number of Black applicants.

Add to that the lack of visible representation in the industry and you lack young African-American kids with sufficient role models. Without role models, young children are more likely to focus on other pursuits. Careers in television, music, and film are far more enticing than journalism.

CM: If you were to look at the staff of popular gaming sites, one would think it’s “members only.” Would you agree or disagree?

MW: When sites get launched it’s going to feel that way because you’re more likely to choose applicants that you already know or come from similar backgrounds. Giant Bomb is a good example of this, being originally comprised of former GameSpot editors. Polygon’s original announcement crew was mostly White men because that’s what was available at the upper echelon of other outlets. Despite that beginning, Polygon has done a good job of hiring women and minorities on its team even if it lacks an AfricanAmerican writer at this time.

Most sites are open to new writers who have proven themselves elsewhere, which usually means smaller sites or personal blogs. Freelance pitches are a strong option and repeat freelance work is one way onto a site’s permanent staff. Of course, staff positions require those in current positions to move on, which is difficult if they’ve spent years just getting there.

You’re not going to be a senior editor at IGN until that editor leaves, and even then, you need experience elsewhere.

Corrections officers called to testify before state lawmakers won’t face retaliation, Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones assured senators Monday.

Jones told members of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee that anyone who addresses the committee “will have free passage.”

She added that the agency has started to hold meetings at the different prisons to address safety equipment, staffing and other concerns.

Julie Committee Chairman Greg Evers, R-BakJones er, said a number of corrections officers he’s talked to have said they would testify before the committee if subpoenaed.

The Jazz in the Gardens Allstar Band is made up of Roy Ayers, Lonnie Liston Smith, Ronnie Laws and Tom Browne.

They will perform at Jazz in the Gardens on March 22 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens.

March 15 Hattitude luncheon hosted by the Collier County Alumnae of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. www.Collierdeltas.org.

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

St. Petersburg: The legendary Smokey Robinson performs April 12 at The Mahaffey Theater and April 4 at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall in Fort Myers.

Fear retaliation However, Evers said those people “are afraid of retaliation” if they publicly discuss concerns about issues such as staffing levels, shift hours, the lack of proper uniforms or below-grade equipment.

“They all stepped up and said, ‘Absolutely, here’s what is going on, here’s what’s happening, but this is what will happen, because then I will be looked at as if I’m snitching on somebody,’ “ Evers said.

Last month, Jones told a House panel that a staff directive barring inspectors from disclosing information about investigations was necessary to shut down gossip and protect investigators.

Major probes

Tampa: Tickets are on sale for the Nephew Tommy Comedy Tour featuring Thomas Miles at the University of South Florida’s Sun Dome on April 18.

Jones’ appearance before the House committee came after six whistleblowers sued the Department of Corrections over a “gag order.”

The agency has been getting hit from all sides. Among other things, it faces investigations into inmate deaths, allegations of cover-ups, complaints about low staffing levels and questions about health care provided to prisoners.

A proposal (SPB 7020) to create new penalties for guards who abuse prisoners and establish a new commission to oversee the prison system was to go before the Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Subcommittee this week. The proposal previously received support from the Criminal Justice Committee.

Seminoles elevate gambling fight THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

Hours before a House leader unleashed a sweeping gambling overhaul that pointedly failed to include the Seminole Indians, the tribe began airing a television ad in the capital city reminding viewers about a $1 billion deal struck with the state five years ago.

The 30-second ad hit the air in Tallahassee on Monday, just as lawmakers returned to the Capitol for Tuesday’s 2015 legislative kick-off. The ad will also run statewide.

Also Monday, House Majority Leader Dana Young, R-Tampa, released a mammoth bill that would effectively put an end to the deal with the Seminoles, who have dumped more than $2 million into campaign contributions over the past two years, including $500,000 to “Let’s Get to Work,” a political committee backing Gov. Rick Scott.

‘Compact’ to expire Lawmakers are poised to consider a gambling deal this year because a portion of the deal with the Seminoles, called a “compact,” giving the tribe exclusive rights to offer banked card games like blackjack at most of its facilities expires in mid-July unless the Legislature reauthorizes the pact.

“Nearly five years ago, the state and the Seminole Tribe of Florida approved an historic compact to make sure that

gaming was controlled, profitable and safe for more than 19 million Floridians, backed by an international reputation for excellence and financial soundness,” the ad says.

“The return on investment, bigger than promised. And more than $1 billion for things like education, health care and veterans’ services. The Seminole compact. A partnership that works for Florida.”

Young’s plan would open the door to two Las Vegas-style casinos in Broward or Miami-Dade counties, which would do away with about $116 million a year in revenue-sharing the Seminoles now pay to the state for the card games.

Young’s proposal would also permit two pari-mutuels outside of South Florida to begin operating slots, which would violate a 20-year portion of the deal giving the Seminoles exclusive rights to the one-armed bandits outside of MiamiDade and Broward counties.

Federal law, however, would allow the tribe to continue to run slots and the banked cards as long as the games were being offered elsewhere in the state.

Young promised that revenue from her plan – which would require the “destination resorts” to spend at least $2 billion on capital costs and pay the state $175 million a year – would exceed the $255 million the Seminoles paid to the state last year.

DeAngelis Diamond Healthcare Group, LLC (DDHG) is currently seeking bids from qualified Subcontractors and Suppliers. Trinity, Tampa, FL and surrounding area businesses are invited to attend a Pre-bid Meet & Greet to learn more about opportunities associated with the Medical Center of Trinity NICU Addition/Renovation construction project.

The project will consist of a vertical single story expansion for the NICU Suite as well as renovation to surrounding areas affected by the project.

What: Pre-bid Meet & Greet When: Thursday, March, 12, 2015, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Where: DDHG Jobsite Office Trailer, 9330 State Road, #54, Trinity, FL 34655

All Construction divisions except for site work are strongly encouraged to attend especially divisions 3 through 17.

DeAngelis Diamond Healthcare Group is committed to building relationships for the future through honor, integrity and trust that achieve our clients’ goals while having a positive influence on our employees, subcontractors, community and industry.

DeAngelis Diamond Healthcare Group and HCA/ Medical Center of Trinity are strongly committed to the development and implementation of initiatives which promote the inclusion of local, small, minority and women-owned businesses.

For information regarding the bid packages for this project contact: Scott Bryant, Project Manager at (941) 952-3846 or Email: scottb@ddhealthcaregroup.com or Sam Lane, Superintendent at (239) 571-3105 or Email: saml@ddhealthcaregroup.com

To RSVP for the upcoming Meet & Greet contact: Rhea Kinnard at (615) 941-8396 or via Email: kinn0167@aol.com Refreshments will be provided.

S

MARCH 6 – MARCH 12, 2015

HEALTH

B3

Exploring the cause of asthma in kids Poverty and race drive rates more than city living

cause they are less able to afford interventions such as home assessments and remediation of “triggers,” such as mold, insect and rodent feces, and others.

BY MEREDITH COHN THE BALTIMORE SUN (TNS)

BALTIMORE — It was the day after Mother’s Day in 2012 when Faith Walker ran into her East Baltimore house unable to breathe.

Her mother, Tyishia Walker, who suffers from asthma and has an older daughter with the disease, knew exactly what was wrong: Faith also had the chronic lung condition.

“I’m sure it’s from living in the city,” said Tyishia Walker.” We have more rats, more mice. The house is old and moldy. I believe it makes a big difference.”

For the past 50 years, scientists also believed urban living led to higher rates of asthma in children. But new research from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center disputes the notion that geography alone is a major risk factor for the disease and its telltale coughing, wheezing and breathlessness.

Common links Up to 20 percent of children in Baltimore City have asthma, compared with the national average of 9.4 percent, according to government data.

There are, however, pockets around the country in suburban and rural areas where the prevalence of asthma is just as high, according to the study, recently published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The common links among 23,000 patient records reviewed from around the country appeared to be race, ethnicity and income, said Dr. Corinne Keet, a pediatric

Under control

KIM HAIRSTON/BALTIMORE SUN/TNS

Faith Walker, 7, who has asthma, readies to take a breathing test as Monique Franklin, research assistant, coaches her on Jan. 23 at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, Md. Johns Hopkins research shows that poverty, more than race, drives asthma rates. allergy and asthma specialist at Hopkins and the study’s lead investigator.

Key risk factors Public health advocates say the information could impact how health departments allocate resources in suburban and rural areas, ensuring that at-risk kids outside of cities are screened and treated.

Key risk factors for asthma include roach and other pest allergens, indoor smoke, air pollution and premature births, but such issues are not exclusive to

cities. Poor people don’t necessarily escape poverty by moving out of inner cities, and those who are African-American or Puerto Rican, specifically, don’t escape the genes that may be at play.

Nationally, about 17 percent of Black children and 20 percent of Puerto Rican children have asthma, compared with 10 percent of White children and 8 percent of Asian children, government data show.

“When we did the study we were expecting the prevalence to be higher

in inner cities,” Keet said.

“When we looked more closely at poor areas in cities and poor areas not in cities, we found there wasn’t a big difference.”

Dealing with triggers Keet said more study is needed, but already some policy experts and doctors say the research may help public health officials in directing resources outside of urban areas.

“The implications are clear,” said Dr. Cary Sen-

nett, president and CEO of the advocacy group Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America.

“Asthma is not a disease of the inner city, but affects children everywhere and, disproportionately, those who are living in poverty. In the wealthiest country in the world, we have much to do to address the problem of asthma in those who are most vulnerable — wherever they live.”

Poor families not only deal with more cases of asthma, he said, but more severe episodes be-

Faith Walker, now 7, wasn’t a participant in the urban asthma study, but she is participating in the mouse research. She is allergic to mold, pollen, cut grass and varmint feces, and her mother said it’s been tough to control all of that, though she tries. Research assistants say Faith has the cleanest house among the study participants.

Doctors tested Faith for allergies after she was brought to the emergency room that day almost two years ago when she had her first serious attack.

Tyishia Walker had long suspected Faith had asthma because she was always coughing. When Faith ran in the house struggling to breathe, Walker gave her a puff of her own medicine, but when that didn’t work, she called for help and the girl spent two days in the hospital.

Faith’s asthma is now under control with daily treatments, but Walker still watches over her, keeping her home from school some days and reining in aggressive play.

Walker, 37, and living on a limited income from disability payments, hopes to find a way to move to Pennsylvania or somewhere that has more modern houses, fewer mouse droppings and lower pollution.

“When she was struggling so hard to breath, that scared me,” she said.

“I’m limited in the money I can spend on rent. But I don’t want to live in Baltimore anymore.”

FREE metformin is just the beginning.

Select medications are free* at the Publix Pharmacy for as long as your doctor prescribes:

• Metformin

• Lisinopril

• Amlodipine Save on prescriptions where you already love to shop.

Switching is easy—just bring us your prescription bottles.

Visit publix.com/diabetes or talk to your Publix pharmacist to find out more. *Certain restrictions apply. See pharmacy for details.

B4

MARCH 6 – MARCH 12, 2015

STOJ

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES

FAMILY FEATURES

If you’re like thousands of other car owners who neglected maintenance during the brutal winter months, your vehicle could use a little extra care by now. Setting aside some time will help get your vehicle ready for the spring and summer driving season.

Particularly now that lower gas prices are leaving more money in consumers’ pockets, it’s an ideal time to invest that savings into your vehicle so it is safe, more dependable and lasts longer. After all, keeping your car well maintained lets you avoid the cost of higher payments, insurance increases and all the costs associated with purchasing a new car.

“Whether you visit a professional service technician or do it yourself, a thorough vehicle inspec­tion this spring can help keep your car safe and dependable, and help you avoid much higher costs down the road in the form of more extensive repairs or lost resale value,” White said.

“Your car has been through a long winter, working overtime in harsh conditions, but factors such as extreme cold, potholes and road salt have taken a toll,” said Rich White, executive director of the Car Care Council. “Most Americans rely on their vehicles nearly every day to get to work, school and everywhere in between, so taking the time for car care now can save headaches and money in the long run.”

A vehicle inspection should assess the following: • Brakes • Battery • Levels and condition of all fluids • Tires tread depth and air pressure • Belts and hoses

• Wheel alignment • Check engine light and other illuminated dash­board indicator lights • Interior and exterior lights and wiper blades

In addition, a repair shop can perform a com­puterized analysis to identify problems with the engine’s performance.

Once your seasonal “check-up” is complete, you can ensure your vehicle’s ongoing bill of health with three simple steps:

1. Keep your vehicle clean.

Regular car washes and waxes protect the paint and body of your car from corrosive debris. In parts of the country where salt is used on the roads, regular washing is especially important.

2. Keep an eye on the little things.

Your windshield wipers aren’t cleaning as well as they should? Your gas tank is missing its cap? There’s a warning light on your dashboard? When you see your car needs attention, don’t delay. Repairing small things now can help avoid more costly problems down the road, and add years of useful vehicle life.

3. Keep your car on schedule.

Every vehicle has a manufacturer-recommended maintenance schedule. Whether you choose to do your own main­tenance or patronize a local repair shop, following a routine service schedule is essential to keeping your car in safe and dependable working order.

Find additional information to help you drive smart, save money and be car care aware, including a custom service schedule and email reminder service, at www.carcare. org, or follow the Car Care Council on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest.

10 BASIC MAINTENANCE TIPS Spring into action with these 10 basic maintenance procedures to make sure your vehicle is running at peak performance for the summer driving season.

1. Check all fluids including engine oil, power steering, brake and transmission, as well as windshield washer solvent and coolant.

2. Check the hoses and belts to make sure they are not cracked, brittle, frayed, loose or show­ing signs of excessive wear.

3. Check the battery and replace if necessary. Make sure the connection is clean, tight and corrosion-free.

4. Check the brake system annually and have the brake linings, rotors and drums inspected at each oil change.

5. Inspect the exhaust system for leaks, damage and broken supports or hangers if there is an unusual noise. Exhaust leaks

can be dangerous and must be corrected without delay.

6. Schedule an engine check to help it deliver the best balance of power and fuel economy, and produce the lowest level of emissions.

7. Check the heating, ventilating and air conditioning system, as proper cooling performance is critical for the comfort and safety of you and your passengers.

8. Inspect the steering and suspension system annually including shock absorbers, struts and chassis parts such as ball joints, tie rod ends and other related components.

9. Check the tires including tire pressure and tread. Uneven wear indicates a need for wheel alignment. Tires should also be checked for bulges and bald spots.

10. Check the wipers and lighting so that you can see and be seen. Check that all interior and exterior light­ing is working properly and replace worn wiper blades so you can see clearly when driving during precipitation.

FREE CAR CARE GUIDE Want to learn more about your car? The free Car Care Guide reviews vehicle systems and basic services in an easy to read, non-technical format.

Order a free copy for your glove box at www.carcare. org/car-care-guide.

STOJ

MARCH 6 – MARCH 12, 2015

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

Meet some of

FLORIDA’S

finest

submitted for your approval

B5

Think you’re one of Florida’s Finest?

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

Florida Courier photojournalists have been on past Tom Joyner Foundation Fantastic Voyage cruises. We’re featuring some of the “Finest’’ cruisers.

This year’s cruise is April 11-15.

Details: fantasticvoyage.blackamericaweb.com.

Photos by DELROY COLE/FLORIDA COURIER and TONY LEAVELL/FLORIDA COURIER

Ryan Gentles

Gooding Sr. suing Orlando center over Florida Classic concert Cuba Gooding Sr., longtime lead vocalist of The Main Ingredient and father of Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr., thought it was a great idea to hold two benefit concerts in Orlando late last year during the annual Florida Classic weekend – the historic and annual college football game between Bethune-Cookman University and Florida A&M University. The goal was to raise needed money for the two historically Black colleges. Both schools agreed.

Gooding is accusing executives of Orlando’s new Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts (who over the day-to-day operations of the Bob Cuba Gooding Sr. Carr Centre) of multiple mistakes and failures of its obligations as a venue to offer viable opportunities for people to purchase tickets to the benefit concerts via Internet or the venue’s box-office.

Insulted by offer Dr. Phillips’ executives, according to Gooding, offered to donate $1,000 to each of the two Black universities, to which Gooding, said, “No way!’’ He finds the offer insulting, not only to himself and his family, but to the two schools as well. Gooding said, “If Dr. Phillips Center had good intentions to help the two Black schools, the venue would not have made so many unprofessional mistakes, blunders and oversights.”

Gooding also said there were many other failures and acts of negligence on the part of the Dr. Phillips Center and its brain trust, which will be revealed in court.

“I’m in this to win this for the two historically Black Colleges and Universities that would have given them much more than the insulting $1,000,” said the legendary singer, whose signature hit song is, “Everybody Plays the Fool.”

“These two schools, like so many other HBCUs are fighting for their very existence and should not have to be subjected to negligence or mistakes on the part of a venue that should have known better and should have operated with more professionalism.”

Gooding is not going away due to the pressure of Dr. Phillips’ name in greater Orlando.

“I’m from Harlem – I’m used to a good fight. But what a shame that it had to come down to this. They were quick to take my money for the two events, while rendered nothing close to what was promised.”

Yoba reveals that ‘Empire’ costar is gay EURWEB.COM

Although Jussie Smollett was mum on his personal life, his “Empire” costar Malik Yoba shed a bit of light on Smollett and his sexuality recently during an interview with BlackFilm. com as he discussed the success of “Empire” while making parallels to his classic 1990s show “New York Undercover.”

The following is part of Yoba’s BlackFilm.com interview.

What’s the feeling like being on a hit show?

Malik Yoba: Yeah. It’s good, man.

It’s definitely good to be part of a show, especially this particularly show but especially when all the predictors are there before it all happens. I knew that this would happen so I wasn’t surprised.

The show has the DNA of ‘New York Undercover’ for me and I was part of something that was revolutionary and groundbreaking 20 years ago. For me, from the beginning it was like déjà vu. So, with all the accolades and the love that it’s getting, it’s crazy. I’ve had that experience before. It’s just nice to know that people have finally decided if you put people who are underrepresented on television they’re going to show up to see themselves.

And if it’s smart, if it’s funny, it has the right music and has the right fashion and has the right attitude then you’re going to win. You’ll win every time. It’s one of those things that you feel like, obviously, it’s great perfor-

Malik Yoba is Vernon Turner, a close friend to Empire Enterprises CEO and music mogul Luscious Lyon (Terrence Howard) in the hit show “Empire.’ mances and music, and it’s a great cast. It’s all those things. But I think it speaks to a larger issue, which is people want to see themselves.

‘Move with integrity’ You’re the veteran of the group

here, having experienced this nearly 20 years ago. Have you been telling these people as much as they’re seeing the love that it’s getting from its ratings wise and everything else, and said, “OK, it’s great. But let’s make it last’’?

Yoba: I just think that you have to move with integrity. You have to move with a larger sense of purpose.

Because that is Malik Yoba’s personal philosophy. I don’t do this business for fame or money. I do it for purpose.

I think that our show represents a huge opportunity to stay in the culture beyond entertainment value and there’s an intrinsic nature of you have the gay factor, right? So, obviously, Lee is gay. That was an important storyline for him. I think it’s important for people to see themselves.

Even within the Black community.

But if you aren’t reJussie ally, really taking it off Smollett of screen and making it live in the community in a significant way…like I know Jussie, he is gay, and he’s very committed to issues around the LGBT community. He and I have a very close relationship. There are a lot of things that I’m doing. I have a company called iconic32.com. We create or enhance cultural movements for social good using pop culture.

Howard upset because he can’t say ‘nigger’ on ‘Empire’ EURWEB.COM

Keeping it real

There’s no question that “Empire” makes Wednesday nights must-see TV with it pushing the envelope to the extreme every week.

So what would happen if there was no envelope to push and they could get away with doing and saying anything? If it was up to Terrence Howard, that would be exactly what viewers got.

And then some since he would want his character Lucious Lyon to use the n-word on the show. From his interview with Entertainment Weekly, it’s safe to say that Howard is truly not a fan of holding back on what makes the show a center of conversation following each episode.

“If we start getting silly, if we start playing to people’s fancies, then we don’t deserve to be where we are,” he said regarding the success of “Empire.”

“It’s a big pressure because I want to be a truthsayer. I want to raise the bar.

I want to get rid of this f***ed up word called PC. I think it’s a gate for bigotry because as long as you’re politically correct you can say anything you want but feel some way different.”

“I’m mad that we don’t say nigger in the show,” Howard continued.

“Why is TV showing something different from the reality of the world?

Why is there a thing called censorship that stops people from hearing everyday talk? We use nigger every day. It’s become part of a conversation — why aren’t we using it in the show?”

Terrence Howard says he wants to be a truthsayer on “Empire.’’

B6

FOOD

FAMILY FEATURES

A

hot new dessert trend is here — cookies are getting a makeover. As identified in the McCormick Flavor Forecast 2015, favorite cookie flavors — like snickerdoodles and gingersnaps — are being reimagined in new decadent desserts. From peanut butter mousse tarts to chocolate chip biscotti with a creamy dipping sauce, these desserts redefine “milk and cookies.”

“Here in the kitchens, we looked at the distinctive flavors of popular cookies for inspiration,” said Mary Beth Harrington of the McCormick Kitchens. “Cinnamon sugar is the signature flavor in snickerdoodles, so we reimagined that cinnamon sweetness into a peanut butter mousse and peanut crust, resulting in a delicious tart.”

For more twists on classic cookie flavors, check out www.McCormick.com.

MARCH 6 – MARCH 12, 2015

PEANUT BUTTER SNICKERDOODLE TART WITH CINNAMON PEANUT CRUST Prep time: 30 minutes Cook time: 8 minutes Refrigerate: 1 hour Servings: 8 (1/2 tart) servings 1 1/2 cups lightly salted roasted peanuts, lightly crushed 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar 3 tablespoons butter, melted 1 teaspoon McCormick Ground Cinnamon, divided 3 tablespoons chocolate milk 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

TOJ

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk 1 teaspoon McCormick Pure Vanilla Extract 1/2 cup heavy cream Mix peanuts, sugar, butter and 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon in medium bowl.

Remove 1/4 cup and spread on small baking sheet. Divide remain­ing peanut mixture among 4 (4-inch) tart pans with removable bottoms.

Press firmly onto bottom and up sides of each tart pan.

Bake tart crusts and peanut crumble mixture together in preheated 350°F oven 8 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Meanwhile, microwave chocolate milk in medium microwavable bowl on high

45 seconds. Add chocolate; stir until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is smooth. Set aside.

Beat peanut butter, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.

Add heavy cream; beat until soft peaks form. Spread in prepared tart crusts.

Spread chocolate mixture over top.

Refrigerate at least 1 hour or until ready to serve. Cut each tart in half. Sprinkle with toasted peanut crumble.

Serve immediately.

Note: To crush peanuts, place peanuts in large resealable plastic bag. Pound with a rolling pin, mallet or heavy skillet until lightly crushed.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE BISCOTTI WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE DIPPING SAUCE Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 45 minutes Servings: 16 servings (2 cookies and 2 1/2 tablespoons sauce each) Biscotti: 2 1/2 cups flour 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar 1/4 cup instant nonfat dry milk 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 3 eggs 1 teaspoon McCormick Extra Rich Pure Vanilla Extract 1 cup miniature chocolate chips White Chocolate Dipping Sauce: 2 cups half-and-half 8 ounces white chocolate chips 1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur 2 teaspoons McCormick Extra Rich Pure Vanilla Extract For the biscotti, mix flour, sugar, dry milk, baking powder and salt in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed until well blended.

Mix eggs and vanilla in medium bowl until well blended. Gradually add to flour mixture, beating on low speed until well mixed. Stir in chocolate chips.

Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a 12-inch long log.

Transfer logs to parchment paperlined baking sheet. Flatten logs to 1-inch thickness.

Bake in preheated 350°F oven 20 to 25 minutes or until slightly risen and firm to touch. Cool logs on wire rack 10 minutes or until cool enough to handle. Transfer to cutting board. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut logs diagonally into 3/4-inch thick slices. Place slices, cut sides down, in single layer on parchment paper-lined baking sheets.

Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until crisp and golden, turning biscotti over halfway through cook time.

Transfer biscotti to wire racks; cool completely.

For the dipping sauce, place all ingredients in medium saucepan on medium heat. Simmer 5 minutes or until heated through, stir­ring constantly. Serve with biscotti.