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APRIL 4 – APRIL 10, 2014
VOLUME 22 NO. 14
GOAL!
President Obama says ‘Obamacare’ enrolled 7.1 million people – well above the original goal of six million enrollees. But don’t expect opposition to the Affordable Care Act to quit fighting for repeal anytime soon. BY CHRISTI PARSONS TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU / MCT
WASHINGTON – In a buoyant Rose Garden event Tuesday to announce that 7.1 million people signed up by the deadline for the first round of Obamacare, President Obama gleefully
declared his health care law “good for the country” and pledged he would work to perfect it in the months to come. But as his audience whistled and cheered at the number of enrollments – a target the White House previously said it couldn’t hit – the president quickly
Black churches are ‘too quiet’ Holmes kicks off Baptist candidacy
COURTESY OF WHITEHOUSE.GOV
President Obama and his administration take credit for signing of millions of Americans for health care as Vice President Joe Biden grins in the background. sharpened his message in- More than expected to a critique of those he said From the start of the day, have “based their entire po- the White House was giddy litical agenda on repealing” over passing the 7 million mark. After the disastrous the Affordable Care Act.
launch of HealthCare.gov, the administration revised that target downward by 1 million. The website was eventually fixed, though it
faltered Monday under the high volume. Democrats in Congress said that when everyone who started the process completes their enrollments later this month, the total could reach 8 million. Already, the enrollment has hit the mark predicted by the Congressional Budget Office when the law passed in 2010. At the most basic level, that means it is mostly working as advertised. “This law is doing what it’s supposed to do,” Obama said. “It’s helping people from coast to coast, all of which makes the lengths to which critics have gone to scare people or undermine the law or try to repeal the law without offering any plausible alternative so hard to understand.” “I’ve got to admit,” he went on, “I don’t get it. Why See GOAL, Page A2
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. / 1929-1968
‘Let us slay the dreamer’
TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE
WASHINGTON – Tallahassee-based pastor Dr. R. B. Holmes announced his candidacy for the presidency of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. (NBC) during a press conference at the National Press Club announcement on March 25. Holmes called on the Black church to rise and take back its historic role in fighting for social justice issues. “The Black church has become too quiet, too passive, too disconnected when it comes to challenging policies, programs and persons that degrade and devastate our people,” said Holmes, flanked by dozens of church and community leaders. He also announced the formation of a 40-member National Pastors’ Task Force to repeal and repair “stand your ground” laws.
‘Step forward’ “We have come here today to say to Black America and to the country that we as a people of color and faith are now ready to step forward to address some of the most urgent and critical needs impacting the Black community,” Holmes exclaimed. “We can and must lead the way to resolve and solve the present problems in our communities. We have come here also to launch my candidacy for the National Baptist Convention, which is one of the nation’s oldest and largest religious organizations.” Pastor of the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Tallahassee, Holmes is not new to the national stage. He is former president of
AP PHOTO
On April 4, 1968 – 46 years ago today – the Revs. Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy were together at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. Moments after this picture was taken, Dr. King was shot on the hotel balcony and died almost instantly.
See HOLMES, Page A2
Broward County political activist Carlton B. Moore dies FROM STAFF REPORTS
From NAACP
Carlton B. Moore, a former Fort Lauderdale city commissioner and longtime political activist in Broward County, died April 2 as a result of complications of a stroke he suffered on Christmas Day 2013. He was 60. Carlton B. A Tampa naMoore tive, Moore led the NAACP’s Fort Lauderdale branch in the 1980s, fighting against discriminatory activity by local banks and advocating for better public housing and single-member districts.
He launched his political career by jumping from the NAACP to the Fort Lauderdale City Commission in 1988, when he beat Fort Lauderdale’s first Black city commissioner, Andrew DeGraffenreidt, to win the office. Moore went on to serve as a city commissioner for almost 20 years, with short interruptions caused by resignations in 2000 and 2008 to run for the Broward County commission. He lost the 2000 race, then won the special election that was necessary after his resignation, allowing him to return to the city commission. Moore lost the 2008 county commission race by less than 200 votes before leaving the city com-
ALSO INSIDE
mission for good. He again ran unsuccessfully for the Broward County Commission in 2010, his last political campaign.
Great legacy Many improvements in Fort Lauderdale’s predominately Black Northwest area were as a consequence of Moore’s unceasing advocacy. He was instrumental in bringing a multimillion-dollar family health center and a new post office to the area, streetscape improvements, a $550 million sewer project, and passage of a $40 million fire safety bond to build new fire stations throughout the city. He was also a staunch supporter of the Fort Lauderdale Housing Authority, especially when the agency began a campaign to evict drug dealers and establish a construction jobs apprenticeship program in the 1990s.
Environmental justice Moore fought to get funding to remove poisonous ash and soil from the site of the city’s abandoned Wingate incinerator site, a 61-acre property located in the Black community. From 1954 to 1978, 480 tons of garbage burned a day at the site. Black residents blamed the incinerator for causing cancers, birth defects and other health problems for decades as they breathed the fumes before the site was shut down. The facility was designated a ‘Superfund’ site by the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection in 1989; $61 million was spent to prevent the toxins from spreading.
Post-election activity Moore, a life member of the NAACP, participated in various
SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3
Former ‘100’ member gets year in jail
NATION | A6
Exonerations in 2014 expected to outpace last year OBITUARY | B2
It’s been 30 years since death of Marvin Gaye
See MOORE, Page A2
COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: GEORGE E. CURRY: BUY BLACK – AN ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT STRATEGY | A5
FOCUS
A2
APRIL 4 – APRIL 10, 2014
Latest GM scandal is business as usual Editor’s note: Since Feb. 13, GM has recalled 6.3 million vehicles with bad ignition switches, faulty power steering, bad airbags, problems with transmission oil cooling lines, and failure to meet safety standards. So far, the problems are linked to 31 car crashes and 13 deaths. The latest GM scandal, in which the giant automaker consistently refused to correct product defects that endangered the lives of its customers and their families, ought to remind us of two things. The first and most obvious is the basic antisocial nature of corporate capitalist enterprises. The drive of corporations to offload their costs onto customers, the public, and the environment by means ranging from special tax breaks and corporate welfare to skimping on safety or poisoning the land, air and oceans is not a bug in the capitalist system that
BRUCE A. DIXON BLACK AGENDA REPORT
can be rooted out. Automakers do it. Companies that deliver water do it. Companies that make building materials and foodstuffs do it, along with mining concerns, retail. You name it, they all do it. Endangering the public in these ways is a fundamental feature of capitalism, one that’s baked-in.
Missed opportunities The second thing this particular GM scandal should remind us of is the series of colossal missed opportunities coming out of the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies and bailouts of 2009.
For a brief time, the U.S. government became the biggest stockholder in GM, with the power to appoint its operating officers. This is no small thing, because General Motors has a research and development arm about as big as that of France – certainly one of the largest and most able groups of scientists and engineers ever assembled. A visionary and transformative U.S. president might have used his executive powers with one hand and appointed a real “green jobs team” to run GM with the other to begin weaning the U.S. economy off fossil fuels. Having GM manufacture and the U.S. Post Office buy and operate electric delivery vehicles would have enabled GM scientists and engineers to radically lower the cost and increase the reliability of electric vehicles, and begun to force the rest of the auto industry to keep up, follow suit, or die.
Other solutions It gets mighty cold sometimes in Detroit, where GM is still headquartered, and heating homes and buildings is the single biggest contributor to atmospheric carbon dioxide. A green jobs team at GM could have put those engineers and scientists to work on the cheapest ways to retrofit existing homes and apartments for energy efficiency, using Detroit’s large stock of unemployed people and buildings empty and not as Exhibit A for building the world we want and deserve. But instead of a visionary leader in the White House who aimed to stop the rise of the oceans and/ or identified with Detroit’s unemployed, we had a slick Black corporate hack.
Cost of business GM and Chrysler got huge
HOLMES the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education. He also owns the Capital Outlook newspaper, which is a member of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) as well as the majority owner of WTAL-AM, a radio station in Tallahassee. Two years ago, Holmes joined with NNPA to announce a national initiative against hazing, which resulted in the National Anti-hazing/Anti-violence Task Force. Holmes is also president of a National Action Network (NAN) chapter. NAN is led by the Rev. Al Sharpton.
The vision
Strong support
GOAL from A1
are folks working so hard for people not to have health insurance? Why are they so mad about the idea of folks having health insurance? Many of the tall tales that have been told about this law have been debunked. There are still no death panels. Armageddon has not arrived.”
Campaign mode The president’s messaging machine is shifting into gear for the political challenge to come: persuading Americans of Obamacare’s merits before congressional elections come around this fall. As previously uninsured Americans get used to their newfound access to health care, the White House wants to drive home the message that the benefits may be at risk if Republicans are in charge. “Repeal” is the word of warning at the White House now, as White House press secretary Jay Carney made clear in his daily briefing, where he repeatedly used the word. “Those who run against it, who run on repeal and offer nothing
Court: Voter purge violated federal law BY BRANDON LARRABEE THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
A voter purge by Secretary of State Ken Detzner in 2012 violated the law, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in the most recent episode of a heated legal battle
Bruce Dixon is managing editor of BlackAgendaReport. com. Contact him at bruce. dixon@blackagendareport. com. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response. lions of members affiliated with churches, district associations and state conventions worldwide. It could broadly impact issues affecting African-Americans inside and outside the church. “The National Baptist Convention must become more visible and vibrant as it relates to saving, sustaining and strengthening African-American families in particular and all families in general,” Holmes says.
from A1
Among others participating in the press conference were civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump; Judge Glenda Hatchett; Baltimore pastor Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant; and the parents of the late Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Michael Giles, and Robert Champion. Teenagers Martin and Jordan were shot to death in the wake of Florida’s stand your ground law. Champion, a Florida A&M University ‘Marching 100’ drum major, was beaten to death as a consequence of hazing activities within the band. Giles is serving 25 years in prison for “standing his ground” in Florida against an attacker and shooting him in the leg. (The attacker lived.) “We stand with you because we understand the magnificent power of the potential collective-
cash bailouts. They were allowed to largely offload their pension and health care costs onto the workers themselves, and go back to their natural antisocial behaviors, manufacturing fleets and shiploads of environmentally destructive vehicles with as many safety defects as they imagined they could get away with. The latest GM scandal, with a few more deaths and injuries or a few thousand, is just the cost of doing business. Your cost, that is, not theirs. That’s capitalism for you. Who says the system doesn’t work?
COURTESY OF TRICE EDNEY NEWSWIRE
Dr. R.B. Holmes announces his candidacy for presidency of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. ly that is among us,” said Hatchett. “And we’re going to manifest it in ways that you can’t measure.”
Links to others Holmes wants to establish multi-denominational alliances. Bryant, who is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, will co-chair the pastors’ task force, Holmes announced. Bryant says he stands behind Holmes, largely because of his vision. Reflecting on the “historic Black church,” he said it “has alin return but the old status quo, are going to have some explaining to do to those millions of Americans who now have the security of affordable health insurance.”
Uneven distribution A major source of the intense opposition, however, is basic self-interest: The law’s costs and benefits are not evenly distributed between the parties. Those who stand to gain belong heavily to voter groups that favor Democrats. Americans who form the heart of the GOP coalition are less likely to benefit, but bear a significant share of the law’s costs. That reality makes it unlikely that Republican elected officials will mute their opposition to Obamacare, and Tuesday they showed no sign of doing so. “House Republicans will continue to work to repeal this law and protect families and small businesses from its harmful consequences,” House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, said.
ways been on the front line, realizing that we are the voice for the voiceless. And so many who have become disconcerted and disenfranchised are really trying to discover has the Black church contracted laryngitis, because we’ve not heard a voice,” Bryant said. “Historically it’s always been a Black Baptist preacher to correct America and put us back on track; it’s always been the voice of a Black Baptist preacher to speak truth to power uncompromising…unbossed and unbought.” the president’s signature legislation will usher in one of the broadest expansions of national health coverage since the Medicaid and Medicare programs were launched in 1965 and the Children’s Health Insurance Program was established in 1997. Through a combination of new marketplace insurance, coverage for adult children up to age 26 on their parents’ health plans and expanded eligibility for Medicaid, an estimated 9.5 million to 9.8 million uninsured Americans likely have gained health coverage under the law, said economist Katherine Carman of the RAND Corp., a nonprofit think tank in Santa Monica, Calif. Those estimates will continue to grow, since Medicaid enrollment continues throughout the year and many states and the federal government are extending marketplace enrollment beyond the official signup deadline of March 31.
Uninsured reduced
While further challenges remain, both politically and logistically, the unexpected success of the marketplace enrollment period helps ensure that
Under Obamacare, millions of Americans gaining coverage for the first time will get added financial security and improved access to care. Surveys by Rand Corp. and Gallup, as well as information from insurers, strongly indicate that the law has reduced
over the program and its possible successor. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments from Detzner that the effort to remove suspected non-citizens from the voting rolls did not violate a federal law barring wide-ranging efforts to cleanse those rolls within 90 days of an election. The ruling was a limited victory for a coalition of immigrant advocacy groups and voters who said they faced the possibility of being wrongly removed from the rolls. While the state would be justi-
fied in attempting to prevent noncitizens from voting, a sweeping effort like Detzner’s – pushed by Gov. Rick Scott – couldn’t be done so close to an election under the National Voter Registration Act, the judges said. The only dissenting member of the panel, Judge Richard F. Suhrheinrich, gave no explanation of his disagreement other than saying he agreed with the lower court ruling against those bringing the lawsuit. A spokeswoman for Detzner said the department is reviewing the decision.
Broad expansion
He added that Dr. Holmes is not “trapped behind denominational lines, but caught within a unifying vision.”
September election The NBC election will take place Sept. 1-5, during the organization’s 134th annual convention in New Orleans. Six candidates are running for the presidency. The current NBC president, Dr. Julius R. Scruggs, will not seek re-election. The NBC, the largest Black Baptist convention, has milthe number of Americans who lack insurance by at least 9.5 million. The beneficiaries are mostly low-income working families that qualify for subsidies designed to make insurance more affordable, and people farther down the income ladder who benefit from the law’s expansion of Medicaid. A smaller, but significant, number of people will pay higher insurance premiums than they used to and, in some cases, higher taxes. Those people are disproportionately Republicans. Republicans also outnumber Democrats among upper-income Americans, who earn too much to qualify for the law’s subsidies, but who may earn enough to be hit by its new taxes. And affluent small-business owners, among the most loyal Republican voters, are heavily represented among the people who bought insurance on the private market before Obamacare.
Government expansion Self-interest does not account for all the opposition to Obamacare. For many conservatives, the law also has come to symbolize the expansion of government that they oppose. But the way the law’s costs and benefits are dis-
MOORE from A1
leadership programs after leaving elected politics, including Leadership Broward and the Florida League of Cities’ Community Redevelopment Agency Working Group. He was also affiliated with the Fort Lauderdale Community Development Corporation and the Blue Ribbon Task Force for Community
“Now is the time for renewed action. In our 12-point action plan, we will take the leadership to save our boys and girls, to build schools in our own neighborhood, to repeal and repair stand your ground laws across America in our own neighborhoods and to support the importance of historically Black colleges and universities.” Holmes’s12-point action plan includes: • transforming the Nashvillebased National Baptist World Center into a full service ministry for member churches; • helping churches to avoid foreclosure and bankruptcy; • networking with civil rights and social justice organizations to support historically Black colleges and universities; • character-building activities for pro football and pro basketball athletes; • an urban and rural community development program that would include job training programs, faith-based schools, homes for the elderly, and firsttime homebuyers. tributed intensifies the conservative distaste. Obama’s political advisers know that and recognize they are unlikely to convert those who oppose the law. Over the next several months, they hope to get those who already like the law to feel more strongly about it.
Intense opposition Currently, opponents of the law feel more intensely about their position than do supporters. If Obama can succeed in changing that, he could gain politically from his argument that Republicans are standing against a reform that has made life better for Americans, his advisers hope. But White House Press Secretary Jay Carney more realistically acknowledged the difficulties ahead. “I’m not suggesting that just because we crossed this threshold that everything is going to be perfect on this issue,” he said. “We’ve crossed one milestone here, but there are many more to cross in the future.”
David Lauter and Michael A. Memoli of the Tribune Washington Bureau, and Tony Pugh and Lindsay Wise of the McClatchy Washington Bureau(MCT) contributed to this report. Housing. At the time of his death, Moore worked as vice president of consulting services for McKinley Financial Services, Inc., one of South Florida’s largest Black-owned businesses. Visitation is set for Sunday, April 6, at 5 p.m. at Roy Mizell and Kurtz Funeral Home, 1305 NW 6th St., Fort Lauderdale. Homegoing service will be Monday, April 7 at Harris Chapel United Methodist Church, 2351 NW 26th St., Fort Lauderdale.
APRIL 4 – APRIL 10, 2014
FLORIDA
A3
Year in jail for FAMU band member Jessie Baskin, 22, pleaded no contest to charges in death of Robert Champion BY JEFF WEINER ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT
A young musician who has been described by prosecutors as the “most enthusiastic” hazing participant in a Florida A&M University drum major’s beating death was sentenced March 28 to a year in jail and five years’ probation for manslaughter. Jessie Baskin, 22, pleaded no contest to manslaughter in November. He is one of several FAMU band members who have pleaded to charges in connection with the hazing death of Robert Champion. The 26-year-old drum major was bludgeoned to death Nov. 19, 2011, during a hazing ritual known as “Crossing Bus C,” in which he ran from the front to the back of the percussion bus while being beaten.
Called ‘most enthusiastic participant’ State Attorney Jeff Ashton described Baskin as “the one person who is most consistently identified as the most enthusiastic participant” in the hazing — landing “blows with hands and feet.” The ritual was carried out after the 2011 Florida Classic football game on a band bus that was parked at the Rosen Plaza hotel in Orlando, where the band was staying during the Classic weekend. Champion’s death rocked FAMU and the university’s Marching 100 band. Five other former band members, including Dante RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT Martin, who was regarded as the “Bus C president,” are Jessie Baskin, 22, was sentenced to a year in jail for the beating death of Florida A&M University drum major awaiting trial. Robert Champion.
Governor signs Florida GI Bill Law provides college tuition waivers for veterans, pays for base improvements BY JIM TURNER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
PANAMA CITY – Flanked by military veterans, members of the Florida National Guard and lawmakers, Gov. Rick Scott signed into law on Monday the “Florida GI Bill,” modeled after the World War II-era pro-
gram and intended to make Florida the most militaryfriendly state in the nation. The wide-ranging measure (HB 7015), rushed through the Legislature the first week of session as a priority of House and Senate leadership, provides university tuition waivers for veterans, pays for mil-
itary and guard base improvements, is expected to help increase employment opportunities for veterans and allocates $1 million a year to sell the state to veterans. Andrew Sloan, a Georgia native who spent six years in the U.S. Air Force and has been lobbying lawmakers since September on behalf of student veterans, said the bill will draw other veterans
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE FOR BLACK STUDENTS. NO EXCUSES. The classic guide from Florida Courier publisher, lawyer and broadcaster CHARLES W. CHERRY II PRAISE FOR ‘EXCELLENCE WITHOUT EXCUSE’: “This guide for African-American college-bound students is packed with practical and insightful information for achieving academic success...The primary focus here is to equip students with the savvy and networking skills to maneuver themselves through the academic maze of higher education.” – Book review, School Library Journal • How low expectations of Black students’ achievements can get them higher grades; • Want a great grade? Prepare to cheat! • 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!
www.excellencewithoutexcuse.com 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 Contact Charles at ccherry2@gmail.com
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for info on speeches, workshops, seminars, book signings, panel discussions.
Twitter @ccherry2
COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF GOV. RICK SCOTT
Florida Gov. Rick Scott celebrated the annual Miami-Dade County Days on April 2 and ceremoniously served paella, a classic Spanish rice dish, with Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, and Commissioner Adam Putnam. Miami-Dade County Days is an annual event in Tallahassee to embrace the diverse culture and history in South Florida and throughout the state. to Florida’s universities. “We served our nation and we only ask for that which we earned, by virtue of our service, (to) be there when we get home,” said Sloan, who is now a political science and German double-major attending Florida State University.
1.5 million veterans Scott tied his own experiences when leaving the U.S. Navy to wanting to support veterans and active duty service members. “I remember when I got out of the Navy back in the early ‘70s, it was not a good time to get out of the service in this country,” Scott said after the signing ceremony at the National Guard Armory in Panama City. “Our veterans were not respected; it was a tough time. We’re going to make sure that is this is the most military-friendly state for active-duty members, but also for all the veterans.” According to the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the state currently houses 1.5 million veterans, of which nearly one-third are from the Vietnam era and 231,000 served in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Florida’s nursing home population includes nearly 114,000 World War IIera veterans and more than 178,000 veterans of the Korean conflict.
$30 million package House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz crafted the package during a statewide “listening” tour last summer. Weatherford called the legislation “the most important bill that we’ll pass this legislative session.” The package, expected to cost more than $30 million in its first year, includes an anticipated $12.5 million for ongoing upgrades of the state’s National Guard facilities and $7.5 million to purchase a total of 45 acres of buffer lands around MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville and Naval Support Activity Panama City.
Hit in waivers The proposal also requires Visit Florida to spend $1 million a year on marketing aimed at veterans, and allocate another
$300,000 to a new nonprofit corporation, Florida Is For Veterans, Inc. The nonprofit, to be housed within the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs, would be used to encourage veterans to move to Florida, and promote the hiring of veterans. Meanwhile, state universities and colleges are expected to take an $11.7 million hit in waivers for outof-state tuition charges for all honorably discharged veterans, a proposal named the “Congressman C.W. Bill Young Veteran Tuition Waiver Act” after the late Pinellas County lawmaker who served more than four decades in Congress before his death last year. Because in-state tuition, covered by the federal GI Bill, is thousands of dollars cheaper than out-of-state rates, lawmakers hope the new waivers encourage veterans from outside of the state to apply to Florida schools. To assist families of active-duty service members, the bill also waives the requirement for spouses and dependents to get a Florida driver license if they get a job or enroll in a public school.
Scott: Florida Highway Patrol bonuses won’t be tied to tickets NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
Gov. Rick Scott last week rejected the possibility that bonuses for Florida Highway Patrol troopers could be connected to the numbers of traffic tickets they write. Scott issued a strongly worded statement after media reports raised questions about whether the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles was considering such a plan. “The idea that FHP would
tie officer bonuses to the number of tickets they write is absolutely outrageous and wrong,’’ Scott said in a prepared statement. “All state worker bonuses should be based on better – not worse – outcomes for the people of Florida who pay the taxes to fund state government.” The Tallahassee Democrat had reported that the Florida Police Benevolent Association was concerned that the department, which oversees the Highway Patrol, would link trooper
evaluations with “public contacts,” which include traffic stops, traffic citations, written warnings and arrests. In contract offers with the union, the department said traffic-citation quotas would not be put in place, the Democrat reported. But Scott appeared on March 28 to try to end any speculation on the issue. “Floridians paying more in tickets is not a better outcome. Period,’’ he said. “If this idea comes across my desk, I will reject it.”
EDITORIAL
A4
A liberal dose of intolerance Our nation is commemorating the 46th anniversary of the assassination of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (April 4, 1968). He gave his life so that we could fully participate in all that America has to offer. Since his death, America has made major strides towards freedom and equality for all. But within the Black community, I can no longer say with confidence that Dr. King’s death was not in vain. Many believe that Dr. King’s strong opposition to the Vietnam War was the final straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. We
RAYNARD JACKSON NNPA COLUMNIST
have gone from the Vietnam War to the war of words. The Vietnam War killed many thousands of Americans, but the war of words are destroying the very soul of a people. Rappers are calling our women bitches and hos. Our athletes and entertainers rarely take a principled stand on any relevant issues affecting our community.
APRIL 4 – APRIL 10, 2014
Many of our own movies do Jet and Ebony magazines. nothing but show the worst From their beginnings, these magazines showcased in us. the best in Black America. That’s why it pains me Freedom ain’t free We justify this behavior that one of their current with the mantra of “I have a employees has brought so right to do whatever.” Well, much shame and disgrace along with your right comes to the legacy of Johnson. a responsibility, a responsibility to show our commu- Shame, shame nity that through the sacriJamilah Lemieux, Senior fice of Dr. King, we have be- Editor for Ebony magazine come the embodiment of brought so much shame to his dream. this prestigious publication But, it wasn’t his dream that Johnson has to be turnalone. The dream was fu- ing over in his grave. Based eled by the likes of Fannie on her behavior, it is quite Lou Hamer, Claudette Col- obvious that Lemieux has vin, and Rosa Parks. The absolutely no understanddream was bankrolled by ing or appreciation for the the likes of Harry Belafon- sacrifice that Johnson made te, Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, to build his media empire, Jim Brown, and John John- Johnson Publishing Comson. pany. Johnson died at the ripe The ironic thing is that old age of 87 in 2005. But his she is from Chicago, which legacy lives on through his is where Johnson Publishtwo flagship publications, ing Company is headquar-
VISUAL VIEWPOINT: CORPORATE RELIGION
PAT BAGLEY, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 207 Carlton B. Moore, R.I.P. – So many memories for me. In contrast to the current era where a politician just “happens to be Black,” Carlton was an old-school Black politician who unapologetically fought for the Black constituents he represented, and he didn’t give a damn if you liked it or not. He did something many Black politicians won’t do today: give a Black business owner a chance to do business, make money – and not ask for anything in return. I was one of those Black business owners. In 1990, I was newly married, had just opened up my one-lawyer law practice (I was the only lawyer), and was praying for clients to come in for consultations so I could pay my secretary for the week. One day that year, in walks Dr. William H. Lindsey, the visionary director of the Housing Authority of the City of Fort Lauderdale. He says, “Carlton says I should speak to you about doing drug evictions for the Housing Authority.” It was a match made in heaven. As a former prosecutor, I took to throwing drug dealers out of public housing like a young duck takes to water. The stable Housing Authority income allowed me to become a community activist in Fort Lauderdale before I got into media ownership full-time.
QUICK TAKES FROM #2: STRAIGHT, NO CHASER
CHARLES W. CHERRY II, ESQ. PUBLISHER
From 1990 until Bill Lindsey died in 2001, I was able to help him develop the Housing Authority into an innovative, self-supporting, high-performing organization. We became good friends and confidants. Now both are gone. However, anytime I drive around Fort Lauderdale’s Northwest area, I see the legacies both left behind. Marvin Gaye, 1939-1984 – Gaye was killed by his father, Marvin Gay, Sr., after an argument 30 years ago this week. Gaye beat his dad, who retrieved a gun from the next room and immediately shot his son to death. Gay, Sr. took a plea bargain to voluntary manslaughter. If that happened today in Florida, Marvin Gaye would have been another ‘stand your ground’ casualty and Marvin Gay, Sr. would never have been convicted…
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.
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tered; and she attended Howard University, which has a building and a program named after Johnson (The John H. Johnson School of Communications). Last week she was engaged in a twitter conversation about a new conservative magazine, American CurrencySee, that is being headed up by neurosurgeon, Dr. Ben Carson and Armstrong Williams. I am also one of their columnists. In her twitter feed she begins to cast aspersions at Dr. Carson. My friend and colleague in the battle for the heart and soul of the Black community, Raffi Williams, sent her a tweet suggesting that she get to know about Dr. Carson’s life, which she stated in no uncertain terms, “I 100% do not want to know more. I wish I knew less!” In referring to Raffi, she continues, “Oh great,
here comes a White dude telling me how to do this Black thing. Pass.” I have known Raffi for many years and I know for a fact he has been Black most of his life. Furthermore, his race should have had nothing to do with her response to his suggestion of valuing diversity of thought. Isn’t that central to the whole notion of being educated? Obviously, she failed that course. Isn’t it amazing that Dr. King died because of racism and now people like Lemieux have become the very thing that King fought against?
Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a Washington, D.C.-based public relations/government affairs firm. Write your own response at www.flcourier. com.
End the NCAA’s plantation economics “It cannot be said that the employed scholarship players are ‘primarily students.’” With that statement, a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board last week accepted a petition by Northwestern football players that they were employees under the NLRB and could organize and form a union. His reasoning was simple and compelling. The players faced all the demands of a job – in the hours the players worked, 40-50 hours a week during the football season, the control the coaches exerted, and the athletic scholarships that are a form of pay. The players said they wanted a union largely to negotiate about health care and practice hours.
Game polluted by money Many who love college sports can’t bear to think of it as polluted by money. But here’s the reality: it already is. Big-time college athletics – particularly Division I football and basketball – is a profitable, professionalized industry. The TV rights for the new college football playoffs total $7.3 billion – with a “b” – over 10 years. The TV rights for March Madness, the basketball playoffs, total $10.8 billion over 14 years. Col-
REV. JESSE L. JACKSON, SR. TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM
lege football and basketball alone generates an estimated $6 billion a year, more than the National Basketball Association. The University of Texas football team generated nearly $70 million in profit in 2011. Everyone is making money, except the players whose play generates the revenue. Famed coaches in public universities are often the highest paid employees in the state. Urban Meyer of Ohio State will be paid $24 million over six years. The 15 highest football coaches in 2011 made $53.4 million. The 13,877 Division I players got zero dollars in pay. They do receive scholarships that by the NCAA’s own figures average about $3,000 short of the cost of attending college.
Smells like modern day slavery This has, as Taylor Branch has written, more than “the whiff of the plantation. ”On the cotton plantation, everyone got paid – the land owner, the overseer, the wholesaler, every-
one except the slaves who actually picked the cotton. They were chattel, had no rights that a White owner was legally bound to respect. They benefitted, it was claimed, from the paternal care of the plantation owner, providing them with room and sustenance. Similarly, everyone gets paid in big-time college athletics except the players who actually risk their bodies to provide the show. The NCAA dubs them “studentathletes,” using the claim of “amateurism” to deprive them of any remuneration. But bigtime college sports aren’t like the amateur sports of a Division III school. The demands on the players aren’t voluntary; they are mandatory and consuming. The injuries they risk aren’t minor; they can be career or even life threatening. It wasn’t a good idea for the South to base its economy on slave labor. And it isn’t a good idea for universities to be the producers of professionalized, big money sports entertainment. It surely conflicts with the stated educational mission of the university.
Jesse L. Jackson is founder and president of the RainbowPUSH Coalition.Write your response at www.flcourier.com.
College athletes win right to unionize: What does this mean for HBCUs? The Chicago regional office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled in favor of the College Athletes Players Association (CAPA) in determining that the scholarship football players at private Northwestern University had the right to form a union. Courageous leadership by Kain Colter of Northwestern and CAPA founder Ramogi Huma led to this victory. Now everyone is crying in their beer because the discussion has focused on athletes being paid. But, CAPA is about all that unions do: giving voice to the workers. Too little attention is focused on issues of player safety and health in the media storm following the ruling. For instance, almost no mention has been made of the new $1 billion TV contract for the NCAA and the lack of long-term health assistance to former players who have been injured. And, few reporters have read the decision to understand the facts presented: including “voluntary” meetings extending beyond the four hours a day of required practice allowed by NCAA rules, organized practices between 7:50 a.m. and 11:50 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday that clearly conflict with scheduled coursework and travel time to and from games, not included in the NCAA count of time players spend. In all, players spend 40 to 50 hours
WILLIAM SPRIGGS TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM
a week on football during the fall semester of classes.
Reflect on access to education Some are taking this as a teaching moment to reflect on access to higher education more broadly. During March Madness, some of the ironies are in full display. UCLA, with a storied history in college basketball, made it to the round of 16 this week in the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. Less noticed is that this past fall, UCLA admitted only 48 male African American freshmen. To young African-American men, in particular, is there little wonder then that sports appear to be the real ticket? Currently, the U.S. Department of Education is touting rules that ironically will benefit these same schools, as if they were models in developing the talent America needs for its future given that the majority of Americans born this year are of color and 20 percent of American children are poor. The scorecard the department envisions does not reward the schools doing the heavy lifting outside this limelight.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are responsible for about one in five AfricanAmericans who earn baccalaureate degrees in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) fields. That is why, Payscale. com shows that the starting salaries of baccalaureate holders from HBCUs like Prairie View A&M University, Tuskegee University and North Carolina A&T State University are higher than for many of the schools in the Sweet 16 like the Universities of Arizona, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Tennessee and Iowa State University, Michigan State University and Baylor University. Howard University, Spelman College, Xavier University of Louisiana, Hampton University, Florida A&M University and Morgan State University are the top six in the nation in producing black workers who will go on to earn doctorates in the STEM fields. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a distant member of the leaders, in 12th place.
William Spriggs serves as Chief Economist to the AFL-CIO, and is a professor in, and former Chair of, the Department of Economics at Howard University. Write your own response at www.flcourier. com.
APRIL 4 – APRIL 10, 2014
Buy Black: An economic empowerment strategy Margarita “Maggie” Anderson wants to transform “Buy Black” from a leftover 1960s slogan to a modern economic empowerment strategy. And because she has lived it, there is no person better qualified to lead the charge. Anderson and her family spent all of 2009 purchasing goods and services exclusively from Black merchants. She is author of a book cataloguing her experience titled, Our Black Year. She also authored an essay in the State of Black America report issued Thursday by the National Urban League titled, “Facts vs. Fiction: Buying Black as an Economic Empowerment Strategy.” Like the farmer trying to get his mule’s attention, Anderson whacks us across the head in the National Urban League report with two disturbing facts.
Two disturbing facts Fact #1: “…Most of the products and services African-Americans consume – Black media and entertainment, Black dating websites, Black hair and skin care, Black toys, and Black fashion – are neither produced nor distributed by Black-owned firms. Behind this consumption are billions of dollars in business contracts, business growth, advertising revenue, entrepreneurial opportunity and economic empowerment that, while driven by Black consumer spending, are not empowering the Black community.” Ouch! Fact #2: “In practice, self-help economics seems to be more pro-
nomic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts.”
GEORGE E. CURRY
A less noticeable movement
NNPA COLUMNIST
actively and effectively leveraged by other ethnic groups. For example, in Asian communities, a dollar circulates among the community’s banks, retailers, and business professionals for up to 28 days before it is spent outside of the community. In the Jewish community, the circulation period is 19 days; in the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) community, it’s 17 days; and in the Hispanic community, it’s 7 days. Yet, in the Black community, the dollar lives only six hours before it leaves the community.” Enough, I feel ya! Anderson says we have not harnessed our $1 trillion a year spending power because our civic and religious leaders, unlike Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., are unwilling to exhort our community to “Buy Black.” In his last speech, Dr. King said: “…We’ve got to strengthen our Black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the [White] banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a bank-in movement in Memphis… We have six or seven Black insurance companies in Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an ‘insurance-in.’” He explained: “We begin the process of building a greater eco-
Anderson wrote, “While ‘buying Black’ is at least as old as Emancipation, ‘buying Black’ has not been a highlight of the modern, post-Civil Rights era struggle for economic empowerment, much less a noticeable movement or public approach embraced by our community’s institutions, professional and civic organizations, universities, or churches.” There is rich irony is that our business organizations are demanding that federal and local governments award at least 10 percent of public contracts to Black businesses, yet we won’t spend 10 percent of our outlays with those same businesses. “According to the landmark Northwestern University’s Kellogg Business School study based on The Empowerment Experiment, out of close to $1 trillion in Black spending power, maybe 3 percent of that goes to Black professionals, suppliers and firms,” Anderson wrote. “But if Black households with annual income of $75,000 or more – middle and upper income African-Americans – were to increase spending with Black professionals and firms from 3 percent to just 10 percent, we could create close to 1,000,000 jobs.”
LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT
about their ancestors, our race is doomed to die! Black owned media is our only hope for future progress and perhaps for the future survival of Black people in America. World Starrrr! Why? Because 400 years after slavery days we still need OUR media to plead OUR cause! This current generation of Black youth is happy to be ignorant about African-American history. To them, there is nothing important about Black people in America and in the world if it is not on Facebook, not on Twitter, not on Instagram, not on ESPN, not on 106 & Park or not on World
Star Hip Hop! People of African descent have always believed it was necessary to remember their past and to share our glorious past with future generations. If there was no African-American story telling how in the hell would there be a “Roots” story or television program, let alone a butler story or a 12 years a slave story? No matter how many years go by Jews will never forget the Holocaust, Cubans will never forget Jose Marti, Indians will never forget Osceola, Geronimo or Sitting Bull but young Blacks only care about dumb ish on Facebook! In Black newspapers and on Black internet sites, Black people can find news that White media won’t publish, they can find opinions that White media won’t consider and they can see pictures that White media won’t show or reveal! It is a shame that people of Af-
Be mindful of educational debt First and foremost, be very careful with those student loans. Leaving school with a debt of tens of thousands of dollars, even before you get a job, is a prescription for financial disaster. I know the money is great to have, especially what some of you call your “monthly check,” which is in excess of what your tuition requires. But you will
Invest for tomorrow, today JAMES CLINGMAN NNPA COLUMNIST
have to pay it back no matter what, with interest, of course. Imagine trying to find and keep a job, a car, a place to live, and food to eat, while having to pay a monthly note of $400-$600 for a student loan for the next 20 or 30 years! When you get old you may also end up in the group with less than $1,000 saved for retirement. Keep in mind that a college education, while it is very important and necessary in this economy, is not worth what it used to be. Thus, it would be prudent to forego that highpriced school you want to attend and consider a smaller community college, a tech school, or an HBCU. Unless you get a scholarship that covers most or all of your costs, a smaller less expensive school is the way to go. I know most young people refuse to acknowledge it, but if you keep living you will get old. Question: “What will getting old cost you?” Getting old in today’s economy is very expensive. And who knows what will happen to Social Security and Medicare? The way things are going now, young people will be pretty much on their own when they get old.
GARY MCCOY, CAGLE CARTOONS
includes direct spending with local Black-owned businesses, as well as indirect spending through the support of Black vendors, agents, dealers and franchises of mainstream firms. The new jobs would be created from the money we already have and currently spend – no government program and no corporate social responsibility outlay necessary.” Some African-Americans, especially those who like to romanticize about Black life under Jim Crow, like to say Blacks were more willing to support Black businesses in the past because of segregation. But like goods in a White-owned store, Anderson isn’t buying. “Segregation did not compel the ingenuity, intelligence, and investment that created those businesses [North Carolina Mutual Life Support Black businesses Insurance Company, Black Wall She explained, “This 10 percent Street, Madam C.J. Walker’s hair
Blackonomics: The cost of getting old We are at a critical stage in the economy when “more than one-third of workers (36%) have a measly $1,000 saved for their later years,” according to a study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. “Compare that to the 28% of workers who said they had $1,000 saved in last year’s survey, and the picture gets a little more grim,” the article continued. The report refers to all workers; that 36 percent likely skyrockets when applied to Black people. You know what happens when America gets a cold – we get pneumonia. With baby boomers at the head of the mortality line, all we can do now is reflect on the financial “what ifs” in our lives and try to figure out how to live with a $1,000.00 or less in the bank. The millennial generation had better pay close attention to their finances and start saving as early as possible to keep from making the same money mistakes their parents and grandparents made.
A5
VISUAL VIEWPOINT: HOW TO DETER PUTIN
Ignorant and happy Now, more than ever before, Black people need Black media! Recently I was having a heavy discussion with two of my young friends. It started when I said I was happy that Michael Vick was getting another chance to be a starting NFL quarterback with the New York Jets. Immediately, my friends began to tell me how Eli Manning was one of the greatest QBs playing today because he was QB in two NY Giants Super Bowl wins. As I was trying to explain to them about great Black NFL QBs that never got appropriate recognition like Warren Moon or Joe Gilliam, I stopped the conversation as soon as I heard one guy say, “You’re talking about the past. I only care about what happens in my lifetime!” If young African-American men and women don’t care about their history, don’t care about their past and care little or nothing
EDITORIAL
It’s best to get a Roth IRA started now, or at least some kind of savings plan that will multiply and be there at retirement. (A few dollars saved each month now will multiply into hundreds of thousands or even a million dollars by the time you reach retirement age.) Don’t put all your eggs in one basket by simply depending on your employer’s contribution to your 401K and insurance plan. Unless you “own” the job you have, it can be taken away from you at any time, along with your retirement plan and your insurance policy. Understand, young people, that if a young athlete or entertainer can go broke after making unwise decisions with his or her millions of dollars, your $80,000 per year will evaporate at a much faster pace, especially if you try to live like they live. Be smart, learn from the mistakes of others, and understand that you do not have to end up like the current 36 percent in this country. The cost of getting old is high – be prepared.
Jim Clingman, founder of the Greater Cincinnati African American Chamber of Commerce, is the nation’s most prolific writer on economic empowerment for Black people. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati. Write your own response at www.flcourier.com.
products] nor did unjust laws force Black people to believe in each other,” Anderson stated. To do that, however, we need to leverage modern-day technology. “It is now easier than ever before to learn about, mobilize, seek and support Black-owned businesses,” Anderson wrote. “Therefore, technology enables us to involve consumers in an economic empowerment strategy by educating, inspiring and facilitating their practice of self-help economics.” Now, does she have your attention?
George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine, is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service (NNPA.) He is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. Write your response at www.flcourier.com.
rican descent all over the world al, Morehouse, FAMU, Grambling, know more about African-Ameri- Bethune, Spellman, Lincoln, Edcan history than African American ward Waters or Southern? Hell, no! young people know. Even if most of your career was at major media institutions, once Folks abroad know more you set foot inside a Black media In Holland, people know more company, you automatically beabout jazz and blues music than people that live in Liberty City come an inferior journalist! Keep on pushing on Black meknow. In Africa, people know more about the Black Panther Par- dia people, African-Americans ty, than the young Blacks that live that are not brain drained or brain in Oakland or Chicago know, the damaged appreciate your efforts people in the Caribbean know to recognize and honor Black peomore about Roberto Clemente, ple, Black ideas and Black accomWilfredo Benitez and other Black plishments in this country built islanders that rose to fame in the USA than the sports reporters you on the blood, sweat and backs of Black people. love on ESPN know. Our level of backwardness The reason others don’t like Black history is because Blacks makes African-American youth don’t like Black history. the cultural laughing stock of the To today’s educators and stu- free world! dents, no Black man or woman is important, credible or knowledgeBuy Gantt’s latest book “Beast able unless the White man or the Too: Dead Man Writing” at any White press says they are. You tell me, which HCBU is hir- major bookseller and contact ing Black media journalists to lec- Lucius at www.allworldconsulture or teach at Black colleges and tants.net. Write your own reuniversities. Is it Florida Memori- sponse at www.flcourier.com.
Exposure is educational The United Negro College Fund uses the slogan, ‘a mind is a terrible thing to waste’ to signify the importance of education. It has been a part of their creed for over three decades and hasn’t changed. Just hearing the slogan should instill a willingness in one’s spirit to learn as much as possible. As a matter of fact, life is an ever-learning experience. From the classroom to the real world, the need for education is critical to getting ahead in life. While the need for a formal education is critical, I’m concerned that the topic of cultural exposure isn’t readily taught and/or suggested. I want to make a note that there are many schools and administrators opening cultural doors to African-American students, however, I’m suggesting that there has to be a greater emphasis among African-American ministers, politicians, business owners, and parents, just to name a few.
Connected in a global society Through broadening our horizons or should I say, exposing ourselves to different countries, history lessons, foods, and people, the more we become educated. As one who ran a mentoring program for youth whose parents were incarcerated in Washington, DC years ago, I was shocked to discover that many of the youth participants had never left their community. In other words, they would stay within a 15 mile or less radius. How can you learn without stepping out of your comfort zone? Unfortunately, too many people today have this kind of mentality – never leaving the familiar to explore the unfamiliar. Let’s face it. We are living in a global world and the need to compete for employment and other money-mak-
DR. SINCLAIR GREY III GUEST COLUMNIST
ing ventures has stretched internationally. Without having a willingness to learn other languages and cultures, our progress as a people will become stifled. The time for excuses is over. Perhaps the poem Excuses tells it best “Excuses are tools of incompetence which builds monuments of nothingness and those who specialize in using them seldom amount to anything in life.”
Cultural expansion and exposure With cultural exposure, you appreciate life more. In no way shape or form do you ever lose your ancestral identity by exploring other cultures, in fact, you develop a greater appreciation of your own culture and heritage. Here’s my challenge for you. Stretch yourself in learning another language and meeting people of different races and ethnicities. Don’t judge them, but learn from them. Unless we (African-Americans) move outside of our comfort zone and stimulate our mind, we will have ourselves to blame. We must never allow anyone to close the door of opportunities on us. Let me restate the words of the United Negro College Fund, but this time I will put it in all caps – A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE.
Dr. Sinclair Grey III is a speaker, activist, published author, life coach and committed advocate for change. Contact him at drgrey@ sinclairgrey.org or on Twitter @ drsinclairgrey. Write your own response at www.flcourier.com.
TOJ A6
FLORIDA & NATION
APRIL 4 – APRIL 10, 2014
2014 exonerations expected to outpace 2013 9 wrongful convictions involved cases with no crimes, report shows BY FREDERICK H. LOWE TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE
NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
The National Registry of Exonerations, a joint project of the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University Law School, has reported that the pace of exonerations in 2014 is expected to easily surpass the total number in 2013. So far this year, there have been 25 exonerations and if this pace continues, there will be 100 exonerations in 2014. Last year, there were a record-breaking 87 exonerations, the organization reported. This year’s exonerations include 11 overturned murder convictions and two overturned rape convictions. Six exonerations involved non-violent crimes, including perjury, theft, non-violent conspiracy and drug possession.
Decades behind bars On average, the exoneration occurred 12 years after conviction, although in DNA cases the average time nearly doubles to 23 years. Nine of the 25 known exonerations occurred in 2014’s first quarter and more than 33 percent involved cases where no crime had occurred. “No-crime cases make up and ever larger portion of exonerations in the National Registry, including 28 out of 87 of the exonera-
Court to hear case about immigrant ER care
HYOSUB SHIN/ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION/MCT
Clarence, left, and Yvonne Harrison share a laugh, as they look at their wedding photographs together at their home in Marietta, Ga., on March 5. Clarence Harrison spent nearly 18 years in prison before he was finally exonerated by DNA evidence. Since he’s been free, Harrison has devoted his life to supporting the organization that helped clear his name, the social-justice nonprofit the Georgia Innocence Project. tions in 2013,” organization officials said.
47 percent Black Four of the exonerations in 2014’s first quarter, or 16 percent, occurred in cas-
es in which the defendants were convicted after pleading guilty. The rate of exonerations after a guilty plea has doubled since 2008. Five of the exonerations were obtained through
DNA evidence and 11 were obtained through cooperation with police and prosecutors. In 2013, 47 percent of the exonerees were AfricanAmerican; 40 percent were
White and 11 percent were Hispanic, the Registry reported.
This story is special to the Trice Edney News Wire from TheNorthStarNews.com.
An appeals court will hear arguments May 15 in a long-running case about payments to Florida hospitals for emergency care provided to undocumented immigrants. The 1st District Court of Appeal last week scheduled oral arguments in an appeal filed by the state Agency for Health Care Administration. A coalition of hospitals challenged AHCA about changes in emergency-care payments, and an administrative law judge agreed in December 2012 that AHCA had not gone through a required rule-making process. The state’s Medicaid program pays hospitals for emergency services provided to undocumented immigrants, but the case focused on the extent of services that should be covered. In the past, payments were made when emergency services were considered “medically necessary.” But in 2010, AHCA began using a more-restrictive standard that said payments would be made until patients are “stabilized.”
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IFE/FAITH Godfather’ of House music dies See page B2
SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE
APRIL 4 – APRIL 10, 2014
SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE
Jackson album to include unreleased songs See page B5
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TOJ
A BREAKDOWN OF
THE FINAL FOUR Some history, some inside scoop on the NCAA college championship teams BY CORBETT SMITH DALLAS MORNING NEWS/MCT
The 2014 Final Four is set — a mix of established powers and well-heeled bluebloods. Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky and Wisconsin have NCAA titles in their histories, the first three with championships in the last decade. Wisconsin – the outlier – made the Final Four in 2000 and has 11 20-win seasons in the last 12 years. Here’s a glance at each college team. The finals will air April 5 on TBS.
JOSHUA C. CRUEY/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT
Florida’s Scottie Wilbekin (5) shoots during the second half in the NCAA Tournament’s South Region final at the FedExForum in Memphis on March 29. Florida advanced, 62-52.
FLORIDA SOUTH REGION, NO. 1 SEED SEC REGULAR-SEASON AND TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS
History: Two national championships (2006, 2007); Four previous Final Fours (most recent: 2007) Star: Scottie Wilbekin, G, 6-2, Sr. The son of a Gainesville pastor, Wilbekin skipped his senior year of high school, graduating early to join the Gators in 2010. It has taken four years, two suspensions, and some tough love from his coach for the 21-year old point guard to reach his potential. Wilbekin, the SEC player of the year, tied a career high with 23 points against Dayton while not committing a turnover and holding the Flyers’ leading scorer, Jordan Sibert, scoreless. Suspended for the first five games of the 2013-14 season for his second violation of team rules, Wilbekin — as demanded by coach Billy Donovan — moved back home with his parents for his final year in college. Coach: Billy Donovan (486-188 over 20 seasons, 18th at Florida) Donovan burst into the national consciousness as a hard-nosed, smoothshooting point guard for Rick Pitino at Providence, helping the Friars make it to the 1987 Final Four as a senior. But “Billy the Kid” is no longer, with streaks of grey mixed into his perpetually slicked-back hair. Donovan, 48, has already established himself as one of college basketball’s best coaches, winning back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007. Florida set a school record for wins this season, its 16th straight campaign under Donovan with 20 wins or more. Be glad Florida is here… if the idea of one-and-done players is repugnant to you. Florida has four senior starters — Wilbekin, Casey Prather, Will Yeguete and Patric Young — and that’s not uncommon under Donovan. The coach has said that he isn’t opposed to recruiting short-term players, “as long as they’re a good fit.” But over the years, Donovan has convinced some of the program’s best players — David Lee, Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Chandler Parsons — to stay in Gainesville for multiple seasons. There’s been only one freshman leave Florida for the pros (Bradley Beal, 2012) since the NBA changed its early entry rule in 2006. Be sad Florida is here… if you like underdogs. If No. 11 Dayton could have pulled an upset in the South Region final, it would have been only the fourth time an 11-seed had made the Final Four and the fourth time since seeding began in 1979 that the final weekend was without a No. 1 seed: 1980, 2006 and 2011. So much for Cinderella. Florida is the clear favorite of the remaining four, ranked No. 1 in both polls before Selection Sunday, entering as the tournament’s top seed and riding a 30-game winning streak.
RICHARD MESSINA/HARTFORD COURANT/MCT
ROBERT GAUTHIER/LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT
MARK CORNELISON/LEXINGTON-HERALD/MCT
Connecticut Huskies head coach Kevin Ollie encourages the crowd after the Connecticut Huskies defeated the Michigan State Spartans, 60-54, at Madison Square Garden in New York on March 30.
The Wisconsin Badgers celebrate a 64-63 overtime win against Arizona in the NCAA Tournament’s West Region final at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on March 29.
The Kentucky Wildcats defeated the Michigan Wolverines, 75-72, during the NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Regional final on March 30 in Indianapolis.
CONNECTICUT EAST REGION, NO. 7 SEED
TIED FOR THIRD IN AAC REGULARSEASON, TOURNAMENT RUNNERS-UP
History: Three national championships (1999, 2004, 2011); Four previous Final Fours (most recent: 2011) Star: Shabazz Napier, G, 6-1, Sr. Years from now, Napier might be looked at as the most important player in UConn history — more than stars Kemba Walker, Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton or Emeka Okafor. Napier isn’t the most talented player from that group. Far from it. But the fact that he stayed loyal to UConn’s program is significant, keeping it relevant after it was saddled with NCAA sanctions and a postseason ban for 2012-13, as well as the surprise retirement of long-time coach Jim Calhoun. For the teams in Arlington, Shabazz is the most important player for his team’s success, leading the Huskies in minutes, points, assists and steals. Coach: Kevin Ollie (50-18 over two seasons, both at UConn) Ollie was an assistant when Calhoun decided to retire after 26 years in Storrs, Conn. Naming Ollie the head coach, as part of a planned succession, was a risk. He had only two years of coaching experience before getting hired in September 2012, coming to Calhoun’s staff directly after a 13-year career in the NBA. Born in Dallas but raised in Los Angeles — where he graduated from Crewshaw High School — Ollie had deep ties to the Huskies, playing in 124 games from 1991-95. He served as a team captain in the final two seasons at UConn. Be glad UConn is here… for SMU’s sake. It’s great for SMU that it is in the semifinals of the NIT. Truthfully, it’s a better fate than getting jettisoned in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, getting more practice time and storing experiences from meaningful postseason games. With Louisville’s imminent departure from the AAC to the ACC, the perceived strength of the American will be bolstered by a team with a Final Four pedigree. It’s also worth noting that the Mustangs had two ninepoint wins over UConn in conference play — which can’t hurt confidence for 2014-15. Be sad UConn is here... if you care about “integrity.” In 2011, the NCAA ruled that Connecticut’s basketball program had given more than $6,000 in inducements to recruits, made more than 300 improper phone calls and texts, used an NBA agent in recruiting and failed to “monitor and promote an atmosphere for compliance.” A single scholarship was docked for each of the next three seasons, as well as some recruiting days, but little else. The concept of integrity in college athletics is pretty sketchy. With deep-pocketed boosters, shoe dollars, shadow agents, heck, even the NCAA itself — it’s a messy business. But with UConn skating on a raft of infractions under Calhoun, it’s all a bit unsavory.
WISCONSIN
KENTUCKY
WEST REGION, NO. 2 SEED
MIDWEST REGION, NO. 8 SEED
History: One national championship (1941); Two previous Final Fours (most recent: 2000) Star: Frank Kaminsky, C, 7-0, Jr. A year ago, Kaminsky was just another big man on Wisconsin’s bench, getting 10 minutes a game and averaging 4.3 points. Now, after breakout performances in the NCAA Tournament, he’s being talked about as a potential NBA prospect. Kaminsky scored 28 points, including six in overtime, with 11 rebounds and three 3-pointers in the regional final win over Arizona. “When we have a guy like Frank who is just such a dual threat, really can finish on the inside and step out from the outside, it really helps open up things for all of us,” guard Ben Brust said. Coach: Bo Ryan (704-223 over 30 seasons, 13th at Wisconsin) Just how NFL quarterbacks are judged on Super Bowl wins or thoroughbreds are measured by Triple Crown races, college basketball coaches are unfairly measured by Final Four trips. After three decades on the sidelines, Ryan gets his first Final Four. It’s more than deserved; he has the thirdbest winning percentage of any active coach with more than 600 wins, trailing only Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski. The Badgers have made the NCAA Tournament in each of his 13 seasons, with six Sweet 16 appearances during that span. Be glad Wisconsin is here… for Ryan and the Wisconsin faithful. Ryan couldn’t hide his emotions when his team punched its ticket to Arlington, telling TBS sideline reporter Craig Sager after Wisconsin’s win over Arizona, “This is for Butch.” Both of Ryan’s parents died within the last 16 months; his father, Butch, had been his son’s biggest booster, traveling together each year to the Final Four as “bonding time.” The day of Wisconsin’s Elite Eight win would have been Butch Ryan’s 90th birthday. For Wisconsin fans, with their team long overlooked in the Big Ten by a handful of other programs, getting to the Final Four is sweet confirmation. Be sad Wisconsin is here… if you like games to be decided by players, not officials. Official Tony Greene put himself in the spotlight for the second time this season, blowing his whistle to call Arizona guard Nick Johnson with an offensive foul with four seconds remaining in overtime. Sure, Johnson absolutely shoved off (and missed the shot), but Wisconsin guard Josh Gasser also initiated contact trying to hedge him out of the lane. It was the second dust-up for Greene, who called a similar foul against Syracuse’s C.J. Fair at the end of a tight regular-season loss to Duke, leading to Jim Boeheim’s histrionic ejection.
History: Eight national championships (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1996, 1998, 2012); 15 previous Final Fours (most recent: 2012) Star: Julius Randle, F, 6-9, Fr. Fellow freshmen Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid and Jabari Parker might be selected earlier in the upcoming NBA Draft, but no first-year player has made a bigger impact than Randle. Regardless of class, he’s one of the fiercest rebounders in college basketball. Randle is the nation’s leader in double-doubles, getting his 24th of the season with a 16-point, 11-rebound effort in the Midwest Region final against Michigan. This level of play isn’t a surprise. As a senior in high school, he came back from a broken foot to take an 11-19 Prestonwood (Plano, Texas) team to a TAPPS 5A state title. Coach: John Calipari (596-176 over 22 seasons, fifth at Kentucky) Calipari might be basketball’s Robert Johnson — selling his soul at the crossroads for national prominence. He’s one of two coaches to lead three schools to Final Four appearances. He’s also the only coach to have two trips — with Massachusetts in 1996 and Memphis in 2008 — subsequently vacated for a variety of NCAA violations. Since the NBA’s early entry rule change in 2006, no coach has been better at securing short-term talent. Be glad Kentucky is here… for Texas’ sake. It’s easy to dislike Kentucky; I get it. With his penchant for oneand-done talent and his questionable NCAA past, Calipari isn’t particularly likeable. Kentucky fans? Someone printed “40-0” T-shirts at the start of this season, certain that their cadre of freshmen wouldn’t lose a game. And Ashley Judd —whether she’s clapping or sad, cheering or uninterested, you’re certain to see 1,000 cutaways to her during the Final Four if she’s in attendance. Boo. But Randle and the Harrison twins, Andrew and Aaron, are Texans, cutting their teeth and winning state titles in the Lone Star State. That counts for something, right? Be sad Kentucky is here… if you like fluid basketball. Kentucky’s lineup of youngsters is supremely talented. If you compare its players with nearly anyone else in college basketball, the Wildcats have better prospects up and down the board. But individual talent doesn’t always look great in a team concept. If the Wildcats don’t get a quick look in transition, or are pushed beyond the first option in an offensive set, they look like students in the beginner class at Arthur Miller — tentatively stepping through the paces of a fox trot. That’s why Randle — an elite offensive rebounder — and Andrew Harrison — a powerful guard who can get to the free-throw line — are so important. Those two can always get baskets, regardless of context.
BIG TEN REGULAR-SEASON RUNNERS-UP
SEC REGULAR-SEASON AND TOURNAMENT RUNNERS-UP
OBIT & EVENTS
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APRIL 4 – APRIL 10, 2014
TOJ
Frankie Knuckles, house music ‘godfather,’ dies at 59 BY GREG KOT CHICAGO TRIBUNE/MCT
From disco to ‘own thing’
‘An art form’
In Chicago, Frankie Knuckles was called the “godfather,” not because of any underworld connections, but because he helped build house — a style of Chicago dance music that revolutionized club culture in the ’70s and ’80s and still resonates around the world today. Knuckles died Monday at the age of 59, as confirmed by his longtime business Frankie partner, Frederick Knuckles Dunson. Knuckles died unexpectedly at his home. In addition to developing the sound and culture of house music, Knuckles would go on to mix records by major artists such as Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and Depeche Mode.
Knuckles learned his craft as a club DJ in New York City, then moved to Chicago in the late ’70s and developed a reputation as one of the city’s most influential dance-music tastemakers. He arrived in Chicago just as disco was losing steam. For many, disco literally went up in flames between games of a Chicago White Sox double header at Comiskey Park, when radio deejay Steve Dahl blew up hundreds of disco albums. “I witnessed that caper that Steve Dahl pulled at Disco Demolition Night and it didn’t mean a thing to me or my crowd,” Knuckles told the Chicago Tribune. “But it scared the record companies, so they stopped signing disco artists and making disco records. So we created our own thing in Chicago to fill the gap.”
Knuckles was mentored by the renowned DJ Larry Levan in the early ’70s while in New York. “We would spend entire afternoons working up ideas on how to present a record so that people would hear it in a new way and fall in love with it,” Knuckles said. “To us it was an art form.” He brought that knowledge west with him to Chicago, where he became known as “the godfather of Chicago house music” at the Warehouse and later the Power Plant. He would extend mixes of soul and R&B records and turn them into dance tracks, introduce new singles being produced by fledgling house artists and incorporate drum machines to emphasize the beat. In addition to building dynamic ebb-and-flow sets that would keep his dance floor filled from midnight to noon on weekends, he would create theater-of-themind scenarios with inventive
FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR
Knuckles was primarily known as a DJ, but he also played a key role as a tastemaker, de facto talent scout and producer. Knuckles bought his first drum machine from a young Derrick May, one of the founders of techno music, who regularly made the trip from Detroit to see Knuckles at the Warehouse. He also had a musical partnership with Chicago artist Jamie Principle, and helped put “Your Love” and “Baby Wants to Ride” out on vinyl after these tunes had been regulars on his reel-to-reel player at the Warehouse. He also produced the house classic “Tears” with
The Kinfolks Soul Food Festival will be in West Palm Beach on May 23 and Lauderhill on May 24. Performers will include Bootsy Collins, Cameo, Morris Day & the Time, Confunkshun and Lakeside. More information: www.ilovesoulfood. com.
Jacksonville: Ledisi is scheduled at Florida Theatre Jacksonville on April 16 at 9 p.m.
Jacksonville: Mike Epps’ After Dark Tour makes stops at the Times Union Performing Arts Center in Jacksonville on April 11 and Hard Rock Live Orlando on April 12.
Talent scout, producer
Robert Owens (of Fingers, Inc.). House was initially cruder and less polished than disco, a reflection of its blue-collar origins. Knuckles was hardly the only innovator in the scene, as Marshall Jefferson, Ron Hardy, Steve “Silk” Hurley, Farley “Jackmaster” Funk and dozens more also played key roles. By the late 1980s, Knuckles and many of his peers were stars in Europe’s emerging rave scene. Knuckles would often joke that he could walk down the middle of the street in Chicago and not be recognized, yet would be greeted by cheering fans when he would arrive at European airports for overseas DJ gigs. “I wasn’t frustrated by that, not at all,” he said. “I’m not the kind of person that lives for fame and glory. If I’ve got a nice, clean home and can put a meal on my table and can entertain my friends, I’m fine. I don’t need to see my face plastered everywhere.”
MORRIS DAY
Palmetto: The Gulf Coast Rhythm & Ribfest takes place April 11-13 at the Manatee County Fairgrounds featuring Musiq Soulchild, Lyfe Jennings and BK Jackson. More information: www.gulfcoastribfest.com.
Tampa: The Ivory Club of Tampa will host its 10th annual “Evening in Africa” charity event on April 12 at the Holiday Inn Tampa, 700 N. Westshore Blvd. The speaker is Marcia Wiss, an expert in international business. Donation is $60 per person. Cocktail reception, 6 p.m.; 7 p.m. dinner/dance. Information: www.theivorycluboftampa.org.
sound and lighting. “Sometimes I’d shut down all the lights and set up a record where it would sound like a speeding train was about to crash into the club. People would lose their minds.”
Orlando: Boz Scaggs is scheduled at Hard Rock Live Orlando on May 4 for an 8 p.m. show. DeLand: A concert featuring The Original Wailers is scheduled at Café Da Vinci at 7 p.m. on April 6. Orlando: Kendrick Lamar is
scheduled at the CFE Arena on April 20 for an 8 p.m. show. Orlando: The BethuneCookman University Concert Chorale will lead all three traditional worship services at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church (4851 S. Apopka-Vineland Road,
Marvin Gaye Jr. was shot and killed by his father on April 1, 1984.
Remembering Marvin Gaye: Singer killed 30 years ago FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Motown R&B singer Marvin Gaye, known for his hits such as “Sexual Healing,’’ “What’s Going On,’’ “Let’s Get It On,” and “Got To Give It Up’’ was killed by his own father just one day shy of his 45th birthday. The Grammy-Award winning singer died April 1, 1984, a day before his 45th birthday, at his family home in Los Angeles after an argument with his father. Marvin Gay Sr., a retired minister of the House of God Church, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to five years of probation. Police said the argument between them began when Gaye was unable to find an insurance company letter that had nothing to do with the singer.
Dad died in 1998 Probation investigators said Gaye had
apparently beaten his father shortly before the shooting. Shortly after the arrest, it was discovered that Gay Sr. had a brain tumor. The two men reportedly had a troubled relationship, with the son never believing that the father appreciated his success. “I’m sorry.... I loved him,” Gay Sr. said at his sentencing. “If I could bring him back, I would. I was afraid of him. I thought I was going to get hurt. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I’m really sorry for everything that happened. I loved him. I wish he could step through this door right now. I’m paying the price now.” The father died in 1998 at age 83. Gaye had 13 records in the top 10 from 1963 to 1977. Among his best-known hits were “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Sexual Healing,” “Let’s Get It On” and “What’s Going On.”
A report from the Los Angeles Times was used in this report.
Orlando) on Sunday, April 27. More information: 407-8764991 ext. 302 or visit www. st.lukes.org. Orlando: Lil Duval will be at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre on May 31 at 8 p.m. Jacksonville: John Legend is scheduled at the Florida
MONICA Deniece Williams, Monica, Jagged Edge and Rico Love are scheduled May 11 for a Mother’s Day Experience at the BankUnited Center in Coral Gables.
DEITRICK HADDON
A Mothers Day Gospel Celebration is scheduled at 7 p.m. on May 10 at the Straz Center in Tampa. Artists will include Tamela Mann, Deitrick Haddon and Deleon.
Theatre Jacksonville on April 30. Miami Gardens: The Haitian Compas Festival is May 17 featuring Taboo Combo, Carimi, T-Vic & Harmonik and others. The 3:30 p.m. show will be at Sun Life Stadium. Sunrise: Tickets are on sale
for Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour, which takes place May 23 and May 24 at the BB&T Center. Naples: The national NAACP Leadership 500 Summit will convene at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel May 22-25. Details: www.1500.org.
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APRIL 4 – APRIL 10, 2014
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WORLD
was wearing out. I couldn’t talk to anyone about it.” Two years ago, after the slaying of an activist friend, Semugoma left for South Africa, whose constitution guarantees equal rights for gays, lesbians, transgender people and others. He recently took part in an annual gay pride march. “The one thing Uganda taught me,” he says, “is I have to celebrate who I am.”
In hiding
ROBYN DIXON/LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT
Paul Semugoma fled his native Uganda because of harassment of gays. Last month Semugoma was almost deported from South Africa back to Uganda over a minor visa issue: he was quaking with fear at the prospect of returning to one of the world’s most homophobic countries.
‘I am a homosexual, Mum’ Homophobia driving gays in Africa to speak out BY ROBYN DIXON LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — When South African airport officials threatened to send Dr. Paul Semugoma back to his native Uganda, he shook with fear. Semugoma, an outspoken gay activist, was determined to remain in this country, where he has lived for two years, rather than be sent back to one of Africa’s most homophobic countries. Held by immigration officers after returning to South Africa with an expired visa, he was allowed to stay only after an outcry from human rights groups mindful of new legislation in Uganda calling for life in prison for those who engage in repeated acts of gay sex.
Powerful condemnation The harshness of the law signed days later by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni — and similar strictures in more than three-dozen African nations — is triggering a profound reac-
tion in Africa. For every repressive law, there’s an answer from African writers, intellectuals, politicians, doctors and activists. Despite the setbacks, gays and lesbians are increasingly coming out in countries where laws are not enforced, penalties are not as harsh or don’t exist. In an open letter last month, former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano called on all African leaders to protect gay rights. Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Cape Town compared Uganda’s anti-gay law to Nazi Germany’s repressions. Renowned Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie chimed in with a powerful condemnation of her country’s anti-gay legislation, which was signed into law in January.
Knew at early age But the change was perhaps best illustrated by an essay by prominent Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, titled “I am a homosexual, Mum,” penned partly in anger over laws in Nigeria and Uganda. Wainaina said he had known he was gay from the age of 5. Placing himself back in his younger years, he said the recognition
“comes every few months like a bout of malaria and leaves me shaken for days, and confused for months.” He never told his parents. He didn’t touch a man sexually until he was 35, and couldn’t use the word “gay” for four years after that.
Many behind bars His essay begins with a story that didn’t happen. Instead of his self-absorbed, busy life in South Africa, instead of somehow failing to get to his mother’s side in a Nairobi hospital, his essay has him there, head on her shoulder, gently clasping her hand, which is swollen with the effects of diabetes, whispering the truth. She is awake, listening, dying: Nobody, nobody, ever in my life has heard this. Never, Mum. I did not trust you, Mum. And. I. Pulled air hard and balled it down into my navel, and let it out slow and firm, clean and without bumps out of my mouth, loud and clear over a shoulder, into her ear. I am a homosexual, Mum. Dozens of men are behind bars in Africa, awaiting trial on sodomy charges or already convicted under anti-gay legislation that, according to Amnesty International, exists in 38 African
countries. Ethiopia is expected to toughen its legislation next week. The harsh new punishments in Nigeria and Uganda — signed with a populist flourish by Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Museveni, respectively — seem designed to garner easy support for governments and leaders with poor records, said Dawie Nel, spokesman for Out, a group in Pretoria, South Africa, representing gays, lesbians and bisexual, transgender and intersex people.
‘Sex was evil’ In Nigeria, the president’s move prompted a flurry of arrests, as well as riots outside a court where men faced trial for engaging in gay sex. In Uganda, activists worry that the law, and the president’s accompanying speech branding homosexuality “disgusting,” will incite homophobic attacks. Semugoma says that growing up in Uganda, he knew he was gay. But he was in denial. As a teenager, he joined an evangelical church and convinced himself that “sex was evil.” He later immersed himself in medical studies. But his denial eventually flaked away like a coat of bad paint. “I couldn’t hide from myself that I was attracted to other guys,” says Semugoma, 43. “I was very lonely. I hid in my books. I hid in my religion, but religion
Many of Semugoma’s friends in Uganda have moved out of their homes, gone into hiding or fled to Kenya, where lawmakers also are pushing for stronger enforcement of their country’s antigay legislation. Fear grew after a Ugandan tabloid newspaper, just after the law was enacted, published names and photographs of 200 people it said were gay. In Africa, presidents and church leaders have called gays and lesbians “un-African” and unnatural, comparing them to animals or malarial mosquitoes that need to be fought. Adichie and other African writers say the truth is very different. “We cannot be a just society unless we are able to accommodate benign difference, accept benign difference, live and let live. We may not understand homosexuality, we may find it personally abhorrent, but our response cannot be to criminalize it,” Adichie wrote.
Biggest problem: Silence Semugoma left Uganda after the 2011 killing of his gay activist friend David Kato, shortly after a tabloid published his name and photograph under the headline “Hang them!” Despite the homophobia in many parts of Africa, Semugoma says, the worst setbacks have often been cathartic, planting the visceral anger and self-belief that drive people to stand up and fight. At Kato’s funeral, a priest railed against homosexuality and villagers refused to allow the dead man’s burial. But Kato’s friends, many of them gay and lesbian activists, grabbed the microphone from the priest and buried Kato themselves as television cameras rolled. Semugoma came out publicly in 2012 at an international conference on AIDS in New York and has never returned to Uganda. He lives in Cape Town. “The biggest problem is silence. The longer you keep silent, the more they lampoon you and demonize you. I will speak these things, even if they are very uncomfortable,” he says. “I will call them out.”
United Nations panel issues warning about climate change Scientists’ report outlines growing risks relating to global warming BY TONY BARBOZA LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT
Climate change is already affecting every continent and ocean, posing immediate and growing risks to people, an international panel of scientists warned Monday. The longer society delays steps to cut the release of planet-warming greenhouse gases, the more severe and widespread the harm will be, said the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The report, which collects and summarizes thousands of scientific studies, is the panel’s starkest yet in laying out the risks facing nature and society. Global warming threatens food and water supplies, security and economic growth, and will worsen many existing problems, including hunger, drought, flooding, wildfires, poverty and war, says the report by hundreds of scientists from 70 countries. “Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change,” panel Chairman Rajendra Pachauri said at a news conference in Yokohama, Japan, where the 2,500-page assessment was presented. Already impacting crops
As the Earth warms, snow and ice are melting, rainfall is shifting, heat waves are growing more intense and water supplies are being strained. Plants and animals are moving to cooler areas, and in a few cases, have gone extinct because of climate change, the report says. Oceans are rising and growing more acidic, hurting marine life and threatening coastal residents with more destructive storms. By century’s end, climate change could displace hundreds of millions of people and cause trillions of dollars in damage to the world economy, the scientists say. One of the panel’s most striking new conclusions is that rising temperatures are already depressing crop yields, including those of corn and wheat. In the coming decades, farmers may not be able to grow enough food to meet the demands of the world’s growing population, it warns.
More fires, floods Although the United States and other wealthy countries could probably adjust to the resulting surges in food prices, “this could really be devastating in terms of increased malnutrition and hunger” in the developing world, said Linda Mearns, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. Much of the burden will fall on the world’s poorest people, who have done lit-
tle to cause global warming. Coping with the effects could cost developing countries as much as $100 billion a year, according to a World Bank estimate cited in the report. Although developing countries face the greatest loss of life, wealthy countries will experience greater financial losses, the report said. North America, for instance, can expect increasing damage from wildfires, flooding and heat-related deaths as temperatures climb, rainfall intensifies and sea level rises. “It’s not the case that we in the rich world are protected and they in the poor world are not,” said Chris Field, a scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science and co-chairman of the group that drafted the report. “You just have to look at Hurricane Sandy to get a picture of that.”
‘No turning back’ Scientists said their conclusions reflected growing evidence since the panel’s last assessment, in 2007, that extreme heat, dwindling snowpack, heavy rainfall and other episodes were becoming more frequent and severe because of climate change. The more emissions climb and temperatures rise, the greater the odds of irreversible consequences, the report warns. “Once a low-lying small island nation is flooded due to sea level rise, there is no turning back for people who lived there,” said Virginia Burkett, climate
Climate change effects around the world More flooding and wildfires, decline in crop yields and fish catches and water shortages are among the risks from rising temperatures, according to a new U.N. report.
Significant impacts of global warming Higher temperatures pose risks to health and economy worldwide, and especially in poorer areas Animals, fish affected
Floods, rising sea levels
Wildfires
Melting ice
Water shortages
Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Graphic: Pat Carr, Robert Dorrell
scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey. The Earth has warmed by about 1.5 degrees since the late 1800s because of the buildup of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels, industrial activity, agriculture and deforestation. The U.N. panel in September projected temperatures will rise 2.7 degrees to 8.1 degrees if carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere double, with sea level rising 10 to 32 inches by century’s end. The report is the second in a three-part climate assessment, the panel’s fifth
Crop changes
© 2014 MCT
since 1990, and will form the basis for negotiations next year on a new global treaty to limit greenhouse gases.
Some positive developments The Obama administration responded to the study with a call for an “ambitious” new agreement to cut global emissions. “Unless we act dramatically and quickly, science tells us our climate and our way of life are literally in jeopardy,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry said in a statement. The report outlines some positive developments, in-
cluding that many nations are already taking important steps to adapt to the changing climate. Some regions are restoring coastal wetlands, adopting resilient crop varieties, building coastal flood barriers and protecting energy infrastructure from disasters. “If we can get emissions down and slow the warming, then through effective adaptation we have a chance to come out of this in reasonably good shape,” said Michael Oppenheimer, a climate scientist at Princeton University. “If we don’t, then I fear for the future.”
TRAVEL
B4
APRIL 4 – APRIL 10, 2014
STOJ
Some states working together to crack down on toll violators BY DANIEL C. VOCK STATELINE.ORG
WASHINGTON — New England drivers who speed through toll plazas in neighboring states without paying are in for a rude surprise. Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire have agreed to crack down on their own residents who frequently blow off tolls in the other states. The three-year-old arrangement has yielded only modest amounts of money, but it is being hailed as a model for interstate cooperation as electronic tolling spreads across the country. “It’s really an issue of fairness,” said Chris Waszczuk, administrator of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation’s bureau of turnpikes. “If we don’t have the capability to collect from the out-of-staters, it is going to be a huge problem,” he added. Forty-two percent of the revenue collected on New Hampshire’s toll roads comes from out-of-state drivers, Waszczuk said. So far, New Hampshire has recovered more than $180,000 from the owners of 190 vehicles over the course of the program, which began in August 2011.
‘All-electronic tolling’ Part of the reason why the collection numbers are so small is because about 70 percent of vehicle owners will pay their missed tolls after getting one or two invoices. Once the state prevents motorists from renewing their registration, Waszczuk said, it collects 95 percent of what it is owed. “It’s not in the millions,” Waszczuk said, but it “is important to remember that it creates the expectation among the travelers that they will pay.” About 45 million vehicles in the United States now have tran-
TOP 10 TOLL AGENCIES BY MILES Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (606 miles) New York State Thruway Authority (570) Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (545) Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise (460) New Jersey Turnpike Authority (290) Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (286) Ohio Turnpike Commission (241) Kansas Turnpike Authority (236) Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation (141) Harris County (Texas) Toll Road Authority (107)
sponders to pay tolls electronically, often without stopping or even slowing down, according to the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA). Drivers pay $7 billion a year using those transponders. Toll agencies running facilities from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Florida Turnpike in Miami are adopting “all-electronic tolling,” which eliminates toll booths altogether. Drivers either pay with an electronic device, or the agency bills them using information gathered based on a vehicle’s license plate.
SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE, TUNNEL AND TURNPIKE ASSOCIATION, 2011
Working together The systems eliminate chokepoints at toll plazas and keep traffic flowing smoothly. But they also make it easier for drivers to get away with never paying a toll. With at least 115 toll agencies working in 34 states, there is a good chance the toll cheats would never get caught. Unless, that is, states work together, as they have been in the three New England states, to collect money owed by their residents to other jurisdictions. “Effectively, we’re running a 7-Eleven where the customer has left the store with a product, and we’re going to try to figure out how to get payment after the fact,” said Neil Gray, director of government affairs for the IBTTA.
Pass in 15 states A 2012 federal transportation law sets a deadline of October 2016 for tolling agencies to “implement technologies or business practices that provide for the interoperability of electronic toll collection programs.” Some systems are making progress. Drivers who have an EZPass transponder can now use it in 15 states, mostly in the Northeast, but also including Illinois
FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL/MCT
Mona Salamon, a toll booth operator, is shown in 2001 on the Florida Turnpike in Miami. The turnpike is adopting “all-electronic tolling,” which eliminates toll booths altogether. and North Carolina. The effort started in 1990 with seven tolling agencies from New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. The EZPass system is now the standard for the region. Similar efforts are under way in other parts of the country. Toll systems in large states such as California, Florida and Texas are improving cooperation. Oklahoma, which has the most miles of tolled road of any state, announced last week that its transponders would be compatible with those used in neighboring Kansas. To achieve interoperability means tolling systems have to
work together, not just on the road, but in the billing office too, Gray said. “Mechanically, it’s not rocket science to read the data. It’s really more about the payment function. I can see that tag, but if I don’t have that account number, I can’t do anything with it,” he said.
Compatible transponders Tolling agencies are working to determine what information would have to be on a universal transponder that could work across the country, Gray said. If
one is developed, he added, it would still take a while for agencies to deliver them to customers. The three cooperating New England states, though, all use the same E-ZPass system, so their transponders are compatible with each other. The enforcement agreement addresses a “higher level” of interoperability concerns than most agencies are wrestling with, Gray said. One of the most impressive features of the New England agreement, Gray said, is that the states apply their own penalties to their residents, rather than the penalties from the states where the violations occurred. Maine and New Hampshire, for example, prevent people with outstanding toll debt from renewing their vehicle’s license plates during the annual registration process. But Massachusetts can prevent motorists from renewing their driver’s license and from renewing their registration for failure to pay. Under the agreements, a New Hampshire resident who dodged Massachusetts tolls would be unable to renew his registration. But a Massachusetts resident who skipped New Hampshire tolls could have her license and registration renewals blocked.
FREE Help for Struggling Homeowners Help for Homeowners Event Tuesday, April 8, 2014 | 1:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Hilton Orlando — Orange Ballroom 6001 Destination Parkway | Orlando, FL 32819
Having problems paying your mortgage? 99 Meet9face9to9face9with9your9mortgage9company99 or9a9HUD9approved9housing9expert
99 Bring9your9monthly9mortgage9statement,9your9two9 most9recent9pay9stubs9and9two9bank9statements
99 Work9with9the9experts9to9identify9solutions9that9 best9suit9your9situation9and9get9guidance9on9how9 to9proceed To learn more about preparing the necessary forms and documents for review at the event, please visit:
MakingHomeAffordable.gov/OrlandoFL Call 888-995-HOPE (4673) for free help
Complimentary Self Parking
The Federal Making Home Affordable® Program is an equal opportunity provider in accordance with the Federal Fair Housing Act.
STOJ
FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT
APRIL 4 – APRIL 10, 2014
Meet some of
FLORIDA’S
finest
david
submitted for your approval
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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.
cartiss
David Claxton sits poolside as this week’s male Florida’s Finest. South Florida-based model Cartiss Brown, a Miami native, has an undergraduate degree in biology. Her goal is to be a physician’s assistant, as well as a model, actress and dancer. You can see more of her at www.cartissbrown.com; contact her at booking@cartissbrown.com.
PHOTOGRAPHER: MARQUEST EDWARDS
Colbert accused of racism over Asian tweet BY MEREDITH BLAKE LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT
“Xcape,’’ a collection of eight unreleased Michael Jackson songs, is set to be released on May 13 by Epic Records.
New album to include eight songs by Michael Jackson BY TODD MARTENS LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT
A new album will once again offer fans a glimpse as to what music lies inside the Michael Jackson vaults. On May 13, Sony’s Epic Records will release “Xscape,” a collection of eight, previously unreleased Jackson songs. The album was executive produced by Epic Records Chairman/CEO L.A. Reid, who, according to a Sony press release, curated the album and decided on its final tracklist. A host of recognizable producers worked on the Jackson songs, including the project’s lead
producer, Timbaland. The final eight songs were chosen after apparently combing through four decades of material. All the songs on “Xscape” feature completed Jackson vocals, according to the release, but they were retooled. Reid, in the statement, prefers the word “contemporizing,” noting that producers did not treat the material as sacrosanct. “Michael left behind some musical performances that we take great pride in presenting through the vision of music producers that he either worked directly with or expressed strong desire to work
with. We are extremely proud and honored to present this music to the world,” Reid said in the statement.
Preorders being taken Those who prefer to hear the material as Jackson, who died in 2009, left it on the cutting room floor can pay extra for the deluxe edition of “Xscape,” which will also include the eight songs in the original form. Preorders started Tuesday, and a full tracklist has not yet been revealed. The title track was said to be written by Jackson and pro-
ducer Rodney Jerkins, who worked with Jackson on his 2001 album “Invincible.” “It is,” according to the announcement, “the one track on the album that was ‘contemporized’ by the producer who recorded it originally in the studio with Michael.” Other producers on the album include the Stargate team (Rihanna), Timbaland pal Jerome “J-Roc” Harmon (Beyoncé) and veteran industry executive John McClain. Epic in 2010 released the posthumous Jackson collection “Michael,” an album that featured the “Hold My Hand” duet with Akon.
NEW YORK — Satirist Stephen Colbert is under fire for what some people are calling a racist tweet sent from the account of his show, “The Colbert Report.” The original message, posted on March 27 but now deleted, was a play on Asian stereotypes. It was pulled directly from a segment on the March 26 show mocking Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder for responding to pressure to change his team’s name by instead setting up a charity to aid Native Americans. The tweet read, “I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.” But taken out of the larger context, many Twitter users thought the mes- Stephen saged trafficked in the very Colbert racism the show was originally trying to lampoon. By the evening of March 27, the hashtag #CancelColbert was trending on Twitter, with users, assuming the tweet had been sent by Colbert rather than a representative of his show, personally blasting the host for perceived insensitivity. (“When satire becomes as offensive and hurtful as the thing satirized it is no longer satire. It is simply more injustice. #cancelcolbert,” read one sample tweet.)
Still trending Others, including comedians Jim Norton and Patton Oswalt, rushed to defend Colbert. The original message was deleted within a few hours, a move that in turn prompted outrage from right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin, who accused Colbert of cowardice. Subsequent tweets from @ColbertReport explained the context and clarified that Colbert himself does not administer the account. Even Colbert weighed in humorously from his personal account saying, “#CancelColbert — I agree! Just saw @ColbertReport tweet. I share your rage. Who is that, though? I’m @StephenAtHome.” But as of March 29, the controversy continued to rage, and #CancelColbert remained a top trending subject on Twitter. Outside of Twitter, Comedy Central has not commented on the matter.
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APRIL 4 – APRIL 10, 2014
TOJ
FROM FAMILY FEATURES
For many, the best moments involve precious times spent with those they cherish the most. When this special family bonding happens in the kitchen, it’s easy to create memories to last a lifetime. When you’re in the mood to try out new recipes, look for those that bring the whole family together. Add crunchy texture and sweetness to a classic casserole or a decadent sundae with a special treat, such as new Cracker Jack Chocolate & Caramel Popcorn snacks. You’ll serve up some smiles and new family memories while creating these recipes, which feature this scrumptious, caramelcoated favorite. For more sweet and savory fun, visit www.facebook.com/crackerjack.
CLASSIC ADDITIONS For more than a century, families have loved the delicious flavors of Cracker Jack snacks. This celebrated classic also makes the perfect topping for a variety of your favorite snacks. Add some allAmerican fun to any of these treats for extra crunch and flavor: Puddings Ice cream Cakes Greek yogurt
Brownies Pies Parfaits S’mores
CHOCOLATE CRACKER JACK® TIN ROOF SUNDAE Sauce: 1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk 1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon light corn syrup 1/8 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup peanut butter 3 tablespoons butter 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Sundae: 1/2 gallon fudge-ripple, vanilla or chocolate ice cream 1 cup chocolate-covered peanuts 1 bag (4 ounces) Cracker Jack Chocolate & Caramel Popcorn To make sauce, combine evaporated milk, sugar, corn syrup and salt in medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Simmer until thickened, 10 to 12 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent scorching. Remove sauce from heat. Whisk in peanut butter, butter and vanilla until smooth. Let cool for 30 minutes before assembling sundaes. In individual serving glasses, layer ice cream, chocolate-covered peanuts, Cracker Jack snacks and peanut butter sauce in two or three layers. Serve immediately.
SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE WITH BACON STREUSEL, MARSHMALLOWS & CARAMEL CRACKER JACK® TOPPING Potatoes: 1/2 cup milk 1/4 cup sugar 4 tablespoons butter, melted 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 teaspoon salt 5 cups mashed cooked sweet potatoes (about 6 large sweet potatoes or one 40-ounce can of canned drained sweet potatoes, plus one 29-ounce can) 1 cup fresh pineapple, diced Streusel: 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/3 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 4 tablespoons butter, cold, cubed 4 strips bacon, cooked, crumbled 2 cups Cracker Jack Original Caramel Coated Popcorn and Peanuts snacks 1 cup miniature marshmallows To make potatoes, preheat oven to 375°F. Coat 3-quart oven safe casserole dish with nonstick spray. In large mixing bowl, whisk milk, sugar, melted butter, eggs, vanilla and salt together. Add mashed sweet potatoes and pineapple and stir until well-combined. Transfer sweet potato mixture to prepared casserole dish. To make streusel, whisk together flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon in medium mixing bowl. Cut in butter using pastry blender or two knives until coarse crumbs form. Add crumbled bacon and sprinkle streusel mixture over potatoes. Bake until potatoes are hot and streusel is crisp and golden, 45 to 55 minutes. Top potatoes with the Cracker Jack snacks and marshmallows and return to oven until marshmallows are lightly browned, about 3 minutes. CRACKER JACK® ICE CREAM SANDWICHES Yield: 15 sandwiches 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed 1/2 cup butter, room temperature 1/4 cup vegetable shortening 1 egg 3/4 cup molasses 3/4 cup buttermilk 3 cups Cracker Jack Original Caramel Coated Popcorn and Peanuts snacks 1/2 gallon vanilla, cinnamon, maple, or caramel swirl ice cream, softened Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In mixing bowl, whisk together flour, pie spice, baking soda and salt. In large mixing bowl, cream together brown sugar, butter and shortening until light and fluffy. Add egg, beat until incorporated, then blend in molasses and buttermilk. Mix dry ingredients into butter mixture. Fold in Cracker Jack snacks. Scoop about 3 tablespoons of dough for each cookie onto prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are set, 10 to 12 minutes. Do not over bake. Cool cookies on baking sheet for few minutes, then transfer to rack to cool com pletely. Assemble sandwiches by scooping about 1/4 cup ice cream onto bottom of cookie. Top with second cookie, sandwiching gently so ice cream spreads to edges. Serve immediately or wrap in plastic and freeze until firm.