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Florida Courier staffers salute their moms See page B1 www.flcourier.com
MAY 6 – MAY 12, 2016
VOLUME 24 NO. 19
TO FLINT – FINALLY President Obama visits Flint, Mich. after bypassing the city earlier this year. But will his presence matter?
BY PAUL EGAN AND KATREASE STAFFORD DETROIT FREE PRESS / TNS
FLINT, MICH. – President Barack Obama had a straightforward message Wednesday for Flint residents: “I’ve got your back.” The president delivered that message to a crowd of about 1,000 people – many of them high school students – at Northwestern High School. “A lot of you are scared; all of you feel let down,” Obama said.
Prince died seeking drug addiction treatment
Wednesday’s visit was the president’s first to Flint since the water crisis began. Lead began leaching into the city’s drinking water in April of 2014 be-
he filled with a case of bottled water to flush his toilet at his home.
FLORIDA COURIER / 10TH STATEWIDE ANNIVERSARY
A ‘godfather’ dies, and the state plays games FC
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MAY 18 - MAY 24, 2012
VOLUME 20 NO. 20
DUELING DONATIONS
Here’s an update of events surrounding the killing of Trayvon Martin as of the Florida Courier’s press time on Wednesday night. Check www.flcourier.com for the latest news. Both sides get help Trayvon Martin’s mother will be able to take about eight months of paid leave from her county job, thanks to the generosity of county employees. Sybrina Fulton, who has worked at the Miami-Dade County housing authority for WALTER MICHOT/MIAMI HERALD/MCT 23 years, collected $40,825 Trayvon Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, and her son Jahvaris Fulton were intro- worth of donated vacation duced to the Miami-Dade County Commission Tuesday to thank commissioners time, county records show. and county employees for donating vacation time to her and to Trayvon’s aunt. The paid time off is in addi-
Rattlers strike Marching ‘100’ FAMU band suspended for at least one year
tion to the nearly $100,000 the family raised on wepay. com and at rallies, which will be used to launch a criminal justice advocacy foundation in Trayvon’s name. The donated days are the latest in increasing contributions that have amassed on both sides of the case. With websites dedicated to Trayvon’s grieving parents as well as for the man who killed him, and now even
his attorney, funds gathered in the wake of the Feb. 26 tragedy promise to reach $500,000. Donors continue to reach into their pockets, even as each side criticizes the other’s purpose and intent in seeking donations.
Not profiting “They are using the money to continue the legacy See TRAYVON, Page A2
CHUCK BROWN / 1936-2012
‘Godfather of Go-Go’ gone at 75
BY DEMORRIS A. LEE SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER
Meeting set Andrew Kornfeld was expected to meet with Prince early Thursday after taking a red-eye flight from San Francisco the night Prince’s representatives called, Mauzy said. When Andrew Kornfeld arrived at Paisley Park at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Prince’s representatives could not find him, Mauzy said. Andrew Kornfeld was one of three people at Paisley Park when the musician’s body was found in an elevator a few minutes later – See PRINCE, Page A2
SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3
It will be all about football this fall at Florida A&M University. President James Ammons told board members Monday during a 30-minute meeting that there will be no Marching “100” until 2013. The Marching “100’’ has been suspended since the November 2011 hazing death of Robert Champion, one of the band’s drum majors. Authorities ruled Champion’s death a homicide, resulting in 11 band members being charged with felony hazing charges. Misdemeanor charges also were leveled against two other band members in connection with Champion’s death. “We are going to work now with the students, the student leadership as well as the leadership team, the board and the external committees to examine best practices to implement some of the recommendations and suggestions that came from the internal university community,” Ammons said. “We will work to put those in place and once I feel that the issues are resolved, and then we will look at the reimplementation of the band.” The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) also is conducting an investigation of practices in the band. On Monday, a spokesperson declined to discuss when that investigation would be completed, but said that it was ongoing.
Family pleased and disappointed
CHARLES W. CHERRY II / FLORIDA COURIER
The Champion family has said they plan to sue for the death of their son See BAND, Page A2
SNAPSHOTS
Rumors swirl about Scott as Trump’s VP
CULTURE | B5
Malia Obama picks Harvard
FLORIDA | A3
OBITUARY | B2
National Geographic honors Black pilot
NATION | A6
Will Blacks abandon Obama over gay marriage?
Musician Chuck Brown, shown here performing on the 2009 Tom Joyner Cruise, was the originator of the “go-go” sound that is an artistic trademark of Washington, D.C. See a related “No Chaser” column on Page A4.
State may remove 180,000 voters from the 2012 rolls BY DAVID ROYSE THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
Extremist groups continue to mobilize
NATION | A6
FINEST | B3
Meet Patricia from the Joyner cruise
The full universe of potentially ineligible voters that state elections officials plan to check for possible removal from the rolls is about 180,000, a spokesman for the Division of Elections said last week. Elections spokesman Chris Cate told the News Service that when matching voter rolls against newly available citizenship data from the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, officials found a number of possible matches, and began fur-
ther investigating each one to see if they were likely to be wrongly registered to vote. Officials reported earlier this week that they had forwarded the first batch of those names – about 2,600 – to local supervisors of elections for further review and for each voter to be notified that they were on a list of people suspected of being illegally registered. “Everyone of those individuals would be contacted by supervisors,” Cate said.
Will take time This week, it isn’t clear how many more names might
eventually be checked. Cate said the larger number was the total identified so far, but that it will take some time to further cull through that list to determine which names are most likely accurately identified as non-citizens. “We’re still in the early stages of combing through that 180,000,” Cate told the News Service. “We have to respect every voter,” and err on the side of not purging them from the rolls if they’re legitimately registered, he said. Some additional portion of the full list of possible non-citizens will eventually be identified as likely to be wrongly
registered and sent to local supervisors for possible purging. Whether all of them will be vetted before this year’s election remains unclear. “There’s not a timeline, we are moving as promptly as we can while still being thorough,” Cate said.
Looking for cover? Some Democrats and voting rights groups have criticized the new effort to find suspected ineligible voters. An ACLU official said this week that state officials were looking for cover while trying to disenSee VOTES, Page A2
ALSO COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 INSIDE COMMENTARY: WILLIAM REED: TIME TO DUMP THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM | A4
Tupac Shakur’s mom dies HEALTH | B3
Reducing risk of colon cancer
ALSO INSIDE
See FLINT, Page A2
EE
MINNEAPOLIS – Prince was found dead one day before he was scheduled to meet with a California doctor in an attempt to kick an addiction to painkillers, an attorney with knowledge of the death investigation said Tuesday. Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a national authority on opioid addiction treatment, was called by Prince representatives the night of April 20 because Prince “was dealing with a grave medical emergency,” said William Mauzy, a Minneapolis attorney working with the Kornfeld family. Kornfeld, who runs Recovery Without Walls in Mill Valley, Calif., could not clear his schedule to meet with Prince the next day, April 21, but he planned to fly out the following day. He sent his son, Andrew Kornfeld, who works with him, to Minnesota to Paisley Park to explain how the confidential treatment would work, Mauzy said. Several other sources with direct knowledge of the investigation confirmed Mauzy’s account.
First visit
FR
BY DAVID CHANEN STAR TRIBUNE (MINNEAPOLIS) / TNS
“I am confident that Flint will come back,” he said. And, “I will not rest … until every drop of water that flows to your home is safe to drink, and safe to cook with, and safe to bathe in, because that’s part of the basic responsibilities of a government in the United States of America.”
cause of mistakes made when the city switched its drinking water source to the Flint River from Lake Huron while Flint was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager. The state acknowledged a lead poisoning problem around Oct. 1, after months of denials. Since then, the Legislature has appropriated tens of millions of dollars and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has requested more than $100 million more to address the infrastructure and the long- and short-term health problems. Obama ran through a brief history of the water crisis and said poor decisions were made RYAN GARZA/DETROIT FREE PRESS/TNS after the state appointed a Flint In February, Flint resident Darryl Wilson carried three gallon jugs
Four years ago, the Florida Courier noted the death of Chuck Brown, the “Godfather” of the Washington, D.C.-based “go-go” music, as well as the state’s efforts to remove thousands of allegedly ineligible voters from the 2012 voting rolls.
‘We can’t handle it’ Foster kids in legal trouble left adrift BY MARGIE MENZEL THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – Thousands of youths in Florida’s child-welfare system have gotten in trouble with the law. When they do, their caregivers often refuse to take them back. Now policymakers are trying to improve services to the teens, saying those children had already been abused or neglected when they began acting out in foster care. A work group of the Florida Children and Youth Cabinet has been developing policy recommendations for so-called “crossover youth,” and a meeting on the subject is expected to take place in June.
Highly at risk The policymakers say these young people are among the most challenging in any state system – and the most at risk to spend their lives behind bars or on public assistance. “We’ve got to get past the rhetoric and sit down and figure out what’s best for these youths, because if we don’t get it right, they’re going to be in our adult prison system when they’re 20 years old,” said Mark Jones, chief executive officer of the Community Partnership for Children, the private agency in charge of placing foster children in Volusia, Flagler and Putnam counties. According to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, 3.4 percent of the 42,211 youths arrested during fiscal year 2014-15 were living with foster families, other caregivers or in group homes at the time of their offense. That’s 1,428 kids, who averaged 2.4 arrests apiece over 12 months. “The population isn’t great (in size),” DJJ Secretary Christy Daly said. “It’s just that this population is very, very high-need – and very challenging.” Many caregivers simply can’t cope with troubled teens after a certain point, said Christina Spudeas, executive director of the advocacy group Florida’s Children First. “I’ve seen them tell the judge, ‘I’ve got six other kids. I can’t keep missing work. I’m going to lose my job, I’m going to lose my home – because of him,’ “ Spudeas said. “Then they call (the Department of Children and Families).”
Teens locked out Fed-up foster parents may refuse to care for the youth any longer. Sometimes the caregiver is willing to retrieve the youth following an arrest, but the judge has imposed a no-contact order due to the youth’s previous battery of the caregiver. These teens are known as “lockouts.” A second category of crossover youth has no caregiver available due to a death, hospitalization or incarceration. See FOSTER, Page A2
COMMENTARY: MARGARET KIMBERLEY: HARRIET TUBMAN’S FACE ON CURRENCY IS NO HONOR | A5 HEALTH: LIVING OUTSIDE DURING SPRING AND SUMMER ALSO UNHEALTHY FOR HOMELESS | B3
FOCUS
A2
MAY 6 – MAY 12, 2016
There are good moms and bad moms Happy Mother’s Day week to all of the good mothers around the world! (I will explain what I mean by “good mothers” later.) I loved my mother who is celebrating this year’s holiday in The Land of Plenty, referred to as “heaven” by Black community Christians. Growing up in my hometown of Atlanta, Ga., many people called me “Thelma’s baby boy.” If you purchased and read my latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” you would know that I dedicated that book to my mom.
Not afraid My good friend and pastor, Herman Haynes, told mourners at Mom’s homegoing services that “the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.” If you think I have a sharp pen and a sharp tongue, my mother was never afraid to say what she thought or whatever she wanted to say!
FOSTER from A1
According to the Department of Children and Families, 14 of Florida’s 17 community-based care lead agencies – which handle foster-care placements – spent $7.7 million on services for 610 crossover kids between July 2014 and March 2015. Of the youth who were identified, 326 were lockouts and 284 had no caregiver available. What’s more, advocates say, teens who have been arrested face harsher penalties without an adult to support them in court. “The data shows that children who are accompanied by a parent or caring adult get a lesser sentence and the least-restrictive consequences,” Spudeas said. Child-welfare professionals say that the kids are challenging because they’ve been traumatized. But it’s unclear how the state can improve its services to them, given the complexities of a system that crosses state agencies – and not just DCF and DJJ.
Behavioral issues “The root of the issue for a lot of these kids is behavioral health,” DCF Secretary Mike Carroll said. “A lot of times, we’re not dealing with these kids until they have to come into residential care. ... We need to be doing
FLINT from A1
emergency manager whose mandate was cost-cutting. “I do not believe that anyone consciously wanted to hurt the people of Flint,” he said, but a “corrosive” attitude that less government and fewer regulations is better, contributed to it, he said. “This attitude that government is always the enemy forgets that … government is us,” he said.
‘Work together’ “Everybody is going to have to work together to get this done. … It’s not going to happen overnight,” the president said. “It’s not enough just to fix the water; we’ve got to fix the culture of neglect.” Earlier, Snyder was loudly booed and heckled as he apologized to the large crowd and vowed to fix the water problem in Flint. And Flint Mayor Karen Weaver told the crowd she believes Obama’s visit will result in everyone recognizing “the priority of helping to fix Flint,” which includes replacing every lead service line in the city.
Drank some water Obama, who drank a glass of filtered water in front of the high school students, urged Flint residents – except for pregnant women and children younger than age 6 – to move away from bottled water and trust their certified filters. It’s necessary to get water moving through
LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT
I can’t say that Thelma was the greatest mom or the best wife. But I can say she was perfect for me. She was like the female version of “Victor Newman,” a character on “The Young and the Restless” television soap opera. She loved her family deeply and did everything she could for my sister Sheila and me. Mama was fair but firm! She was the queen of her house and her rules were absolute law. She told her kids to “do the right things and stay out of trouble.” She said, “If you go to jail, I’m not coming to see you or get you out!” Well, we did and she didn’t! However, she would encourage
more upstream, so these kids and these families don’t get to that point.” That means early identification and the coordination of services at the local level. Jones said it could also mean an enhanced placement, such as a specially-trained foster family or a houseparent-style group home with specialized intervention services. State Rep. Gayle Harrell, the Stuart Republican who chairs the House Children, Families and Seniors Subcommittee, said placement is crucial in such situations. “Going back into the fostercare system is very problematic because you can’t find a foster family that’s capable of handling them or will handle them,” Harrell said. “And most of them wind up in group homes. And you need to make sure that you have the right type of group home for them.” What’s more, said Florida Children and Youth Cabinet Chairwoman Wansley Walters, the funding for such services isn’t always available. “One of the main impediments, when you have kids going between systems, is that it starts breaking down on who pays for what,” said Walters, a former DJJ secretary. “We need the money to follow the child. But we’re not structured to have the money follow the child. And it gets very complex when you’ve got a kid being served in both systems.”
Grandmother or Daddy to get her babies out of jail.
Didn’t bother Even when I was charged and arrested for felony assault on a law enforcement officer, she didn’t lift a finger to get me out of the jailhouse. But during the trial, she did send her husband (my dad was deceased) to Tallahassee and ordered him to go to court every day and to report to her every night about what happened. I have written Gantt Reports for 30 years. There are two books of Gantt Report columns. But my mother never read more than one or two paragraphs. She didn’t like for me to express myself so strongly when writing about equal rights and justice, because she thought some deranged racist would kill me – or at least try to. But my mother never ever told me to stop writing. She knew it was my calling and my media talent was a gift from God that I had to use and share. I will always love you, Mama!
What I don’t like Now, every mother is not a
kids more than it hurts the parents, especially in the long run.
Satan had a mom Don’t act like all mothers are angels! Wicked witches can give birth; “Evilenes” can give birth. Even Satan had a satanic mother somewhere at some time. Before I end, I’d like to say thank you to Altermese Allen, Ruby Ellison, Juanita Gray, Julia T. Cherry, and my other surrogate moms who took me under their wings and gave me the motherly love I needed when Mom went home to God. I love all of you. And, OK, Happy Mother’s Day to all moms, good and bad! Enjoy your day!
Excerpts from Gantt columns are now posted every week on The Gantt Report’s Facebook page; become a fan. Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere. “Like” The Gantt Report page on Facebook. Contact Lucius at www. allworldconsultants.net.
PEDRO PORTAL/EL NUEVO HERALD/MCT
In this file photo, Lisa Alvarez prepares to feed a foster child at home in Kendall, Fla., in 2012. The Alvarez family has fostered more than 90 children, some with difficult medical issues.
Flint’s pipes again in order to heal them, he said. “We need everybody in Flint to start helping us flush out that system,” he said, through a campaign dubbed “Flush for Flint.” “The bottom line is, if you’re not doing your part, then these outstanding folks around the table who want to help can’t do this,” Obama said as he met with Snyder, Weaver and a group of mostly federal officials. The president said the need to trust filtered water does not mean that lead pipes don’t need to be replaced. They do. But that could take two years, or even longer to get them all, Obama said.
Widespread poverty
‘Resilient’ kids
“It’s the most vivid, painful, tragic example that one can imagine of the two Americas,” said Steven McMahon, a Democratic strategist. “In African-American communities around the country there’s hyperawareness of this, a sense that there but for the grace of God could go my community.” Michigan is a reliably Democratic state where Obama won by 10 points over his Republican opponent in 2012, Mitt Romney, whose father was once governor of the state. Snyder’s popularity has plunged since the water crisis was revealed; only about 25 percent of voters gave him a favorable rating in an April 18 poll by Michigan State University. Fifty-seven percent of Michigan residents blame Snyder or an agency under his control for the water contamination, according to the poll.
Obama said children are resilient and it wasn’t until the 1980s that the U.S. started banning lead in paint and elsewhere. “I am sure that somewhere when I was 2 years old I was taking a chip of paint, tasting it, and I got some lead,” he said. Lead can cause problems, the president said. But “as long as kids are getting good health care and folks are paying attention … these kids will be fine, and I don’t want anybody to start thinking that all the kids in Flint are going to have problems for the rest of their life, because that’s not true. “My job here today is not to sort through all the insand-outs of how we got here today,” he said. “There are times for politics. … This is not one of those times. This is a time when everybody locks arms and focuses on getting the job done.”
good mother! Only God can judge moms. But I can tell you what I don’t like about some mothers. Every child deserves to know their mothers and fathers. Every child should honor their mothers and fathers. Some parents occasionally fuss and fight and disagree. In my opinion, the worst thing a mother can do is turn children against their fathers that love them and want them. The most despicable thing a mother can do is lie on a child’s father to impress a man they want to sleep with. Most of the time, these kinds of lies happen when a man makes a “pimp move” and tells a woman trying to get out of a relationship that she will soon go back to her husband or baby daddy. The bad mom will say that the husband or baby daddy “is nothing but a junkie and a whore that will never be anything and never do anything” or make up some other lie to get the pimp to make her his “bottom B”! So many good fathers can’t have a good relationship with their children because baby mamas don’t want them to. Oftentimes it hurts the
Long before its lead crisis, Flint was an infamous example of the corners of America hurt worst by globalization and the erosion of U.S. manufacturing. Filmmaker Michael Moore, a Flint native, documented the city’s economic decline in the 1989 film “Roger and Me.” About 42 percent of Flint residents lived in poverty in 2014, compared with 16 percent in Michigan overall, according to the U.S. Census, and the median home value was about $37,000, compared with $120,000 for the state.
Political ramifications
PRINCE from A1
and it was Andrew Kornfeld who called 911. Mauzy said that Andrew Kornfeld told him that the others “screamed” when they found Prince and “were in too much shock” to call 911. Unfamiliar with Paisley Park, Andrew Kornfeld simply told the dispatcher, “We’re at Prince’s house.”
Pronounced dead Emergency responders arrived within five minutes. Prince was pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m., 19 minutes after responders arrived. Authorities said Prince was alone when his body was found. Foul play and suicide are not suspected. Autopsy results, which will include toxicology tests, are pending. Within days of Prince’s death, sources told the Star Tribune that his use of painkillers, which were found at the scene, had become the focus of the investigation. As part of their probe, investigators are trying to determine where Prince got the pills and who provided them. While authorities have characterized their work as a criminal investigation, that doesn’t mean that it will result in charges.
Inpatient care After he was first contacted by Prince’s representatives, Howard Kornfeld requested that a Twin Cities physician check on Prince and stabilize him, sources said. It was hoped that Prince would agree to go to California for longterm care under Kornfeld’s supervision, which would include roundthe-clock nursing support, Mauzy said. Prince’s representatives called
Howard Kornfeld because of his reputation as a nationally known addiction researcher, Mauzy said. According to Howard Kornfeld’s business website, Recovery Without Walls is a “personalized outpatient clinic, specializing in innovative, evidence-based medical treatment for chronic pain and drug and alcohol addiction.” It says that the clinic’s medical team “works together to resolve problems that other clinicians have found difficult, if not impossible to solve.” Howard Kornfeld also is known as an advocate for the expanded use of Suboxone, which contains buprenorphine and curbs opioid cravings. The drug has been underutilized, in part, because many doctors haven’t completed the federal training that is necessary to prescribe it. Andrew Kornfeld had a small amount of buprenorphine to give to Prince. However, it was never administered, Mauzy said. He added that Andrew Kornfeld gave the medication to Carver County investigators, who later interviewed him and the two others – whom Mauzy identified only as Prince staffers – who were at Paisley Park when the body was found.
Left a hospital Six days before Prince was found dead, his private plane was returning to Minneapolis after two concerts in Atlanta when it made an emergency landing in Moline, Ill. Sources with direct knowledge of the investigation have said that the landing occurred because Prince was overdosing on opioids. Prince’s bodyguard carried him to waiting paramedics at the airport and he was given a shot of the opioid antidote Narcan. He was taken to a hospital, but left within a few hours against medical advice.
MAY 6 – MAY 12, 2016
FLORIDA
A3
Speculation increases about governor as VP choice Scott’s name floating as Trump’s possible running mate BY BRANDON LARRABEE THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – Most of the speculation around Gov. Rick Scott’s political future has centered on a bid for the U.S. Senate in 2018, when incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson will be up for reelection and facing a Republicanfriendly midterm electorate that helped Scott win two terms in the governor’s mansion. But there are also growing rumors that Scott might be in the running for a higher-profile position than taking one of 100 seats in the U.S. Senate – that he could instead be the running mate for Donald Trump if the real-estate mogul clinches the GOP presidential nomination, as seems increasingly likely. Trump himself encouraged the rumors when, in an interview with The New York Times for a story published last weekend about a possible vice presidential selection, “he briefly praised three governors as possible contenders,” including Scott. The other two names Trump listed were New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of the first major Republicans to endorse Trump, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who’s still running for president.
‘Intriguing choice’
JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS
Florida Gov. Rick Scott talks to reporters during a visit to Bright Future Electric, an electrical contracting business with offices in Florida and Alabama, on June 11, 2015, in Ocoee. Other media outlets have also contributed to the speculation. Writing last week on the website of the conservative National Review, Jim Geraghty said Scott “might be the most intriguing choice” for Trump’s running mate. “Scott won two exceptionally nasty, hard-fought gubernatorial races and could lock up the state for Trump – giving him a win that John McCain and Mitt Romney could not achieve,” Geraghty wrote. “Scott’s a relatively lowkey, even-tempered figure among Trump endorsers; he may not
have an overwhelming personality, but he isn’t likely to do much harm.” The governor has kept up a rigorous travel schedule that would seem aimed at raising his national profile. Scott was in California this week, one of several jobpoaching trips he’s taken to states with Democratic governors. Last weekend, he attended the White House Correspondents Dinner, one of the biggest annual social soirees in the nation’s capital.
Longtime Trump friend
But Melissa Sellers, Scott’s former chief of staff and a current adviser, dismissed the speculation Monday. “The governor has made it clear that he has the job he wants and he won’t leave it,” Sellers said in an email. “Of course, he would always be willing to provide any insights from his experience in turning around Florida’s economy. Governor Scott is a long-time friend of Donald Trump’s. They have known each other in the business world for many years – long before the governor first ran for office in 2010.” In some ways, an alliance between the two men would make sense. Like Trump, Scott is an outsider businessman who fought the party establishment in his first bid for public office. “The common thread, of course, is the economy and ‘jobs, jobs, jobs,’ “ said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida. And since Trump won the Florida presidential primary on March 15, Scott has become one of his stronger supporters – calling last week for the “Stop Trump” movement to give up after Trump swept primaries in mid-Atlantic states. “Donald Trump is going to be our nominee, and he is going to be on the ballot as the Republican candidate for President. ... If the anti-Trump groups don’t stop now, their efforts will be nothing more than a contribution to the Clinton campaign,” Scott wrote on his Facebook page.
Narrowly won There are questions, though, about how much either man might be able to help the other. Scott has long been a divisive governor in Florida. In the most recent Quinnipiac University Poll to survey Floridians’ attitudes about Scott – taken in October – 41 percent of voters approved of the governor’s performance, compared to 47 percent who disapproved. Scott Arceneaux, executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, had a simple response to the prospect of a Trump-Scott ticket, according to a spokesman: “We could not be so lucky.” And while Scott narrowly won two terms as governor, he did so in midterm elections. Democratic voters tend to turn out in higher numbers in presidential elections. At the same time, if Scott were to tie himself too closely to Trump only to see the state won by Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, he could damage a potential Senate campaign in two years. “I’m not sure about the pragmatism for either of them,” MacManus said. MacManus also said that naming Scott as a possible running mate might also simply be a nod toward a critically important swing state in the fall. She noted that Nelson has also been brought up as a contender for Clinton’s No. 2 spot. “Mentioning Florida is good politics,” she said.
New project to provide affordable housing for Florida residents SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER
More than 100 people attended the official construction kickoff for a new Tampa development called Beacon Homes. Neighborhood Lending Partners (NLP) and Corporation to Develop Communities
(CDC) of Tampa co-hosted the event. The housing project is financed through the new Florida Minority Impact Housing Fund (FMIHF), which is managed by NLP. The nonprofit, a multi-bank lending consortium that provides financing to developers of affordable housing and community revitaliza-
tion, announced the fund’s launch at the event. This is the first development in the Tampa Bay area the FMIHF has financed. “We created this fund because we’re well aware that in Florida, 73 percent of our families and individuals that live in poverty are in minority communities. So we wanted to direct a pro-
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gram that would help improve the housing for these particular residents in these underserved communities,” said NLP President and CEO Debra Reyes.
For minorities, underserved The fund serves nonprofit developers, faith-based organizations, community development corporations and organizations making an impact in minority and other underserved communities across the state. Bank of America and Wells Fargo are the primary supporters of the $3 million FMIHF. The kickoff included a groundbreaking ceremony by the CDC of Tampa, an organization that works to revitalize neighborhoods and strengthen communities in Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties. CDC of Tampa is developing the property, a $2.5 million project that will be a mixed-income community. This marks the first new construction project for the nonprofit since the recession. “Beacon Homes represents more than just brick and mortar. It represents the lives of everyday people that become neighbors. A neighborhood of choice, a beacon of light, calling neighbors back to the front porch to share stories,” said CDC of Tampa President and CEO Ernest Coney.
A groundbreaking was held April 26 at North 34th Street and East 28th Avenue in East Tampa. The Corporation to Develop Communities (CDC) of Tampa is developing the property, a $2.5 million project that will be a mixed-income community.
More Tampa support
Other Florida projects
While the financing is being provided by NLP, it is also supported by funding from the City of Tampa and Tampa Housing Authority (THA). The land was actually purchased from THA, which are development partners for Beacon Homes, along with CDC of Tampa. “They have been in the public of course advocating for affordable home ownership, which is what we’ve done for the longest time. So we thought it would be helpful to partner with the local CDC to redevelop this site because we know it’s going to be beneficial to the community, and it’s a good thing to do,” said THA Director of Real Estate Development David IIoanya.
The economic impact is also significant with this development. It’s estimated Beacon Homes will generate $25 million in commerce, jobs and taxes. “It’s just a great effort in our city, coming together to make a difference in one of the communities that most needs us to focus on improvement and growth,” said Reyes. The FMIHF will also fund projects in other Florida cities, including Miami. In total, NLP has managed and/ or financed more than 137 housing properties across the state. Construction on Beacon Homes is expected to be completed within two years or sooner, depending on demand.
EDITORIAL
A4
MAY 6 – MAY 12, 2016
Stop whining and start grinding It’s interesting how the young folks have started using a term that describes what the older folks should be doing. I hear young people saying, “I’m grinding,” and I hear older folks whining. Young people know they have to “just do it,” as the saying goes, in order to achieve their dreams. In many cases, they are willing to take risks and forego the creature comforts that could accrue via high-level corporate salaries. They are willing to sacrifice in order to pursue their own path in life, unconstrained by the “rules” someone else sets for them.
Won’t do the work We older folks are not as willing to do the work. Instead, we are still relying on politicians to make things better for us. We do a lot more whining than grinding when it comes to our individual and collective economic freedom. So-called leaders and socalled liberated Black folks whine about what the “Man” is doing to us, how our collective fate is not in our own hands but someone else’s, what “we need to do,” how “unequal” we are in income, wealth, and social opportunities, and how many of us are in prison. They can recite all the stats and all the history surrounding
JAMES CLINGMAN GEORGE CURRY MEDIA
our current demise. They reminisce about Kemet and other ancient African contributions to the world. They talk about “Black Wall Street” and invoke the names of our great icons; and they continue to lament and chronicle, as Maulana Karenga says, “Litanies of lost battles.” While many of us are very adept at talking about our problems, far fewer of us are willing to get into the fray and do the work to ameliorate our problems – even though the solutions to our problems are relatively simple to implement.
Improve our lives Co-convener of the One Million Conscious Black Voters and Contributors, Amefika Geuka, wrote a “Black Paper” in 2007 in which he stated, “[Our] vision is of a transformed Black community where our people radically improve the quality of their lives and surroundings. We will accomplish this by implementing programs and ventures designed specifically for the unique needs of people of African descent – without apology!
Hope is waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court “Baldo came to the United States from Michoacán, Mexico, in 1988, when he was 17 years old. He lives in Pasadena, California, with his wife and their two U.S. citizen daughters, ages nine and 13. While in the United States, he trained as an electrician and, for nearly 20 years, worked for the same company installing electrical wiring and residential security systems. He lost his job in March 2014 when his employer discovered that Baldo was undocumented. Baldo’s employer told Baldo that he hated to lose him and that he would like to rehire him as soon as Baldo obtained work authorization. Baldo’s current work as an independent contractor has created financial difficulties for him and his family, as he can no longer rely on a weekly paycheck and cannot count on get-
MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN GEORGE CURRY MEDIA
ting work every week. – Brief filed in U.S. v. Texas The future of Baldo and his family and millions of other immigrant families are on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court makes a decision in U.S. v. Texas, which expected in June. Texas and 25 other states filed a lawsuit in February 2015 to block President Obama’s November 2014 executive action to help keep immigrant families together. The Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful
There was more to Prince than met the eye Another musical giant has left us far too soon. Looking back at the wonderful artistry of Prince allows music fans to reflect on some of what made him great. Predictable? Never! Ordinary? Hardly. Strange? That depends on your definition of abnormality. Questions abound: is he Black or White, straight or gay? Prince believed his music was his voice, so personal inquires didn’t mandate mass interviews or the need to want to answer the public’s clamoring to know. He was music. He recorded feverishly.
True genius One thing most agree on is, that the Minneapolis-native was a musical genius in his own right. Yes, a genius – another moniker often associated with the man who was a hybrid of Little Rich-
PE COBB GUEST COMMENTARY
ard (physical looks, makeup, hair, keyboard/piano playing, wailing voice inflections); James Brown (funk sound, dancing, stage presence, hair, hard working – after concert concerts, tireless recording sessions); and Jimi Hendrix (performance-style, guitar flair, fashion). He incorporated a bit from each as well as from Stevie Wonder (writing, producing, playing all or multiple instruments on one recording) and George Clinton (funk, producing/writing aliases for self and other artists, business savvy).
VISUAL VIEWPOINT: MOTHER'S DAY 2016
This will result in the complete elimination of the ‘slave mentality’ and dependence on the gratuity of others that it promotes. We will cease to be the ‘weakest link in the chain,’ or weakest ‘patch’ in the ‘quilt-like’ fabric of American society and that of the world.” Rhetoric not followed by action is meaningless. Whining not supplanted by grinding only displays weakness and apathy. If we would turn our whining into grinding, and concentrate on our internal resources with which to “accomplish what we will,” Black people would be much better off. Politically speaking, Black folks are now so engulfed in presidential candidates, thinking once again that our salvation somehow lies within them. Some of our Black political hacks are whining about which candidate will do the most for us, which is kinda like two enslaved people arguing over which plantation and “master” are better. If we continue to seek the largess of a political candidate without having a reasonable assurance that he or she will do more than talk about our situation, we will continue to get the same thing we have always gotten from them: more rhetoric.
Make demands Stop waiting to hear their paPermanent Residents (DAPA) and expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiatives would help parents and young adults remain in the U.S. temporarily to work, further their education, and support their families.
No safe return The brief shares more about Baldo’s story: “Baldo’s financial difficulties are compounded by his fear of being forced to return to Michoacán, where he has not lived in nearly 30 years. He has heard from family members about kidnappings and other drug cartel-related violence, and would not feel safe returning to Michoacán. Given the risk of harm, he would not want to take his daughters there, but he also would not want to be separated from them.” An estimated 16 million people in the United States have mixedstatus families like Baldo’s. One in five undocumented immigrant adults has a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse, and about 3.8 million undocumented immigrants have children who are U.S. citizens.
Signature work Prince added his own flair to create a signature body of music that spanned various genres that virtually eliminated descriptive cookie-cutter categories. For a man that wanted nothing to do with being “boxed,” his music reflected that philosophy. An array of pop hits skyrocketed Prince to stardom in the ‘80s. That colossal success didn’t compel him to chase those accolades further. As one of the most influential, impactful, and creative artists that the music industry has ever experienced, Prince possessed a desire of not wanting to tread where he’d already been musically. Though 1984’s “Purple Rain” was his all-time best seller (has sold 22 million-plus copies to date), on his follow-up release “Around the World in a Day” (1985), he purposely didn’t record songs similar to his charttopping, award-winning, blockbuster movie soundtrack. It would have been simple to make “Purple Rain Part 2.” That, however, would have been blasphe-
DAVE GRANLUND, POLITICALCARTOONS.COM
tronizing words regarding Black issues. Start demanding what we want, and then be prepared to respond with our votes and our dollars. We must negotiate from a position of strength not with idle threats and saberrattling, but by withholding our votes and our dollars if they do not support our demands. What do we have to lose? The state of North Carolina is currently being economically punished because of its stand on which bathrooms transgender persons can use. Corporations are withdrawing their dollars and other threats abound by athletic groups and such. Why isn’t the same thing happening on behalf of Black folks when it comes to voter suppression in that state? Have you heard any corporation threaten
to leave or boycott North Carolina on behalf of Black people? President Obama even spoke up for transgendered people. Corporations said they would move and the NCAA said it would cancel its events in that city if the law was not reversed. Guess what? The law was changed. We are too busy counting votes to realize that our dollars count for more. Stop whining and start grinding.
By expanding DACA, the Department of Homeland Security would offer deferred action to more young people brought to the United States as children before their 16th birthday. They must have continuously lived in the U.S. since January 2010 and every day since August 15, 2012, have a high school diploma or equivalent, or be in school. They would have access to important educational opportunities, internships and career and vocation training and have better chances of new jobs and increased earnings. The state of Texas’ injunction prevents an estimated 290,000 people brought to the country as children from applying for DACA.
rent and former chiefs of police and sheriffs and the Major Cities Chiefs Association and Police Executive Research Forum; 326 immigrants’ rights, civil rights, labor, and social service organizations; a bipartisan group of former members of Congress; 225 current U.S. senators and representatives; and former federal immigration and Homeland Security officials have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court. I hope the U.S. Supreme Court will seize this opportunity to move our nation forward, prevent family breakups, end the stressful hardships countless families face, and give hope and stability to millions of families, children, and young adults who would benefit from the president’s executive actions.
Broad support In recognition of the benefits for children and families and the economic future of our country, there is very broad support for DAPA and expanded DACA. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia; 116 cities and counties, along with the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors; 51 cur-
drugs, violence, spirituality, sex, and politics, to name a few. He produced varying musical styles, including, R&B, dance, rock, jazz, pop, funk, classical, psychedelia (neo-punk), blues, and gospel. The public benefited immensely from his efforts to fuse eclectic elements into his music and lyrics.
Feel and beliefs
Musical void
Prince made music that was uninhibited and not formulaic. Even as a teenager he recorded based on feel and beliefs. The “suits” initially wanted to direct his career and art; Prince wasn’t having any of that. He sacrificed his recording career to control his art, finally gaining ownership of his master recordings from Warner Bros. Records in 2014. Ultimately Prince longed to inspire, challenge, and teach. He championed real musicians and loathed lip-syncing. No musical style or subject matter was off limits. He sang about social issues (including the Freddie Gray shooting in Baltimore) and current affairs,
Prince has left a musical void that will not be filled with the current status of pedestrian radio and mainstream efforts to mass-produce the most simplistic music and artists (clones) possible. “There will never be another like him/her” is often said when one passes. That definitely applies to Prince Rogers Nelson.
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Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Sales Manager
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Marian Wright Edelman is founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund (www.childrensdefense.org).
mous for one who wanted to inspire and not be status-quo. Though short in stature, Prince was a lot of things: a fighter who pursued his convictions, was strongly opinionated, and manipulated the media with sheer marketing brilliance, while pushing and provoking shock.
Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher
Opinions expressed on this editorial page are those of the writers, and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of the newspaper or the publisher.
James E. Clingman is the nation’s most prolific writer on economic empowerment for Black people. His latest book, “Black Dollars Matter! Teach Your Dollars How To Make More Sense,” is available on his website, Blackonomics. com.
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MAY 6 – MAY 12, 2016
‘Humping Trump’ exposes mainstream media These days, news anchormen serve as little more than hosts of reality TV shows masquerading as news programs. Their programming mantra – “if it bleeds, it leads” – used to reflect reporting on an increasingly violent society. Now it reflects reporting on anything that outrages, scares, or titillates – just to generate ratings. I was in the vanguard of those decrying this sensationalizing of the news. Not because it exploits primal fears and desires; but because it betrays the news media’s role as a public trust. After all, the freedom of the press enshrined in the Constitution imposes a commensurate responsibility to serve as a source for news and information, not fun and entertainment.
(Trump) makes quite
All ‘breaking news’
act like a boastful,
Which brings me to the news media’s mercenary coverage of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Remarkably, they report every thing he says as “Breaking News,” especially the Tourrete-like insults he hurls at other candidates. In fact, you’d have to have been living on Mars over the past year to be unfamiliar with his boorish punch lines. President Obama commented on this at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner last week. In a mocking tone, which did little to mask his abiding contempt, he chastised their obsessive coverage and summarized their abandonment of all journalistic principles with this dig at the host of CNN’s State of the Union: “Jake Tapper left journalism to join CNN.” Equally noteworthy, though, is the way Campbell Brown, former anchor for NBC and CNN, commented a day earlier. In “Why I Blame TV for Trump,” for the May/June edition of Politico, she lamented how “hunger for ratings” has induced journalists to abandon all hope of practicing real journalism.
bumptious, bullying
ANTHONY L. HALL, ESQ. FLORIDA COURIER COLUMNIST
a show of attributing his popularity among Republican voters to his willingness to
buffoon; he appears congenitally unable to “act presidential.” Chasing the dollars Brown’s prevailing lament is that her profession has become so focused on chasing profits that chasing news has become a distraction. Only this explains the networks and cable news channels deserting coverage of Obama’s historic trip to Cuba to cover Trump’s umpteenth campaign rally. This, even though they knew full well that his rally would amount to little more than Trump blurting out the same political slogans and personal insults he has on every other occasion. Brown’s most poignant lament, however, is that media bosses will honor this Faustian bargain – even though they know full well
Harriet Tubman’s face on currency is no honor STOP THE RUNAWAY. FIFTY DOLLARS REWARD. The above reward will be given any person that will take him and deliver him to me or secure him in jail so that I can get him. If taken out of the state, the above reward, and all reasonable expenses paid – and ten dollars extra for every hundred lashes any person will give him to the amount of three hundred. – Andrew Jackson, Tennessee Gazette, November 7, 1804 The history of American presidents is one long tale of criminality; Andrew Jackson was one of the worst of the lot. Jackson grew rich on his Tennessee plantation made profitable by the unpaid labor of 200 enslaved people. There are southern cities with names like Jacksonville, Fla. and Jackson, Miss., in honor of a man who practiced the genocide that made White conquest possible. Jackson was perhaps more responsible than any other person for driving indigenous people out of the Southern states. The Indian Removal Act and the “Trail of Tears” were his handiwork. After Indians were conquered in war and sent to far-off Oklahoma, White settlers swept in to make cotton king through the labor of chattel slaves.
BLACK AGENDA REPORT
Born enslaved While Jackson was making hell on earth for indigenous peoples and Black Americans, Araminta Ross was struggling to survive in Maryland. Born circa 1820, she was among the four million enslaved people in the country. She was as determined to be free as Jackson was to keep people like her in bondage. After marriage to a free man named John Tubman and her flight to freedom, she chose her mother’s name – Harriet. At the young age of 13, she attempted to help an enslaved man escape an overseer’s beating. The overseer threw an iron weight which struck her in the head. Tubman suffered from debilitating headaches and seizures and would fall asleep without warning for the rest of her life. Despite her physical suffering, she never lost her determination to be free. She fled the eastern shore of Maryland in 1849 and made her way to Pennsylvania and tempo-
Obama is al-Qaida’s Protector-in-Chief President Obama continues to play his three-card monte game in Syria, pretending to wage an all-out war against ISIS, while at the same time helping al-Nusra, al-Qaida’s terrorist army in Syria, blend in with the other jihadists armed and financed by the United States and its allies. With Russian help, the Syrian Army may soon be in position to march against the ISIS capital in Raqqah, and to drive al-Qaida from the country’s second largest city, Aleppo. If that happens, it would signal the final unraveling of a nearly four decades-long U.S. policy of using fundamentalist Islamic jihadists as foot soldiers for U.S. imperialism in part-
nearly everyone in the news “business,” Kelly wants to milk him for all he’s worth … her journalistic integrity and reputation be damned. That said, and with all due respect to Campbell Brown, I blame voters, not TV, for Trump. He makes quite a show of attributing his popularity among Republican voters to his willingness to act like a boastful, bumptious, bullying buffoon; he appears congenitally unable to “act presidential.” But ratings indicate that even Americans who hate Trump can’t resist watching his reality TV show masquerading as a presidential campaign; hence the TV phenomenon.
Milking Trump
A party of suckers
GLEN FORD BLACK AGENDA REPORT
nership with Saudi Arabia.
What goes around That’s what is driving the Saudi monarchy crazy, because if the jihadists are defeated in Syria, they are certain to turn on their Saudi paymasters and the other infinitely corrupt monarchies in the Persian Gulf. What goes around eventually comes around.
STEVE SACK, THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
This is why it’s all the more lamentable that she has now made a mockery of all that. FOX is promoting her Barbara Waltersstyle special as an “exclusive.” It’s scheduled to air on May 23. Never mind that a network promoting an exclusive interview with Trump is like a “john” hyping an exclusive rendezvous with a prostitute. But there’s no denying that Trump is a TV cash cow. Like
To be fair, though, the Republicans were already a party of far too many suckers long before Trump declared his presidential campaign. These are the same suckers who bought everything from claims about Obama being a Muslim to pledges to repeal Obamacare. Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that Trump, the undisputed P.T. Barnum of our times, is having no trouble getting them to buy his
rary freedom. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made that freedom precarious, but the risks did not sway her. She returned to Maryland on numerous occasions and assisted 150 people in gaining their freedom.
greater mockery of her legacy.
If it is true that one can “turn in the grave,” then Harriet Tubman is surely doing that now. Not only has her name been ruined by a dubious connection with the dollar that kept her captive, but she will share this “honor” with Andrew Jackson, enslaver and Indian killer. With great fanfare, the Treasury Department announced that new faces will appear on the $5, $10 and $20 notes. Currently George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant and Benjamin Franklin appear on the almighty dollar in the most commonly used denominations. With the exception of Abraham Lincoln, it is a list of slave holders. Some, like Washington and Jackson, owned hundreds of people, Franklin and Grant a few, but they were all participants in one of the worst evils of human history. Alexander Hamilton gets false credit from popular culture as an abolitionist, although he held slaves, too. At first, the public was told that Tubman would replace Jackson as the new face of the $20 bill. Instead, she and Jackson will appear together and make an even
And that’s why President Obama is sending 250 more Special Forces troops into Syria, supposedly to train more of those phantom “moderate” rebels that the Pentagon last year admitted do not exist. The real number of U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq is certainly much higher than the U.S. is admitting. These U.S. soldiers are attempting to rearm and unite all of the smaller terrorist groups that are integrated with al-Qaida – that is, everyone except ISIS. The Russians aren’t fooled one bit by Obama’s terrorist shell game. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has resisted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s proposals to carve Syria up into so-called “zones of interest,” a phony kind of cease-fire that would prevent the Syrian government from taking back its national territory. Lavrov is telling the U.S. that any so-called rebels that are caught fighting along-
A5
VISUAL VIEWPOINT: ANTI-ZIKA FUNDING
that a Trump presidency “could destroy the country.” CBS President and CEO Les Moonves summed up this mercenary coverage in Barnumesque fashion as follows: “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS…Man, who would have expected the ride we’re all having right now?… The money’s rolling in and this is fun.” Of course, the mandate to hump Trump has not plunged all news anchormen into a state of despair. Ironically, none other than Megyn Kelly of FOX News seems perfectly happy to ape Trump by playing a reality TV host – in what Trump himself has turned into a presidential version of “The Apprentice.” Perhaps you recall the way she questioned him during the first GOP presidential debate last August, particularly how she put him on the defensive for using vile and misogynistic epithets when talking about women. In all-too predictable fashion, Trump reacted by hurling vile and misogynistic epithets at Kelly, notably insinuating that she questioned him so aggressively because she was having her menstrual period. But the unassailable way she challenged Trump’s misogyny made her both a feminist and journalist heroine; not least because she had the good sense to resist his taunts to respond in kind.
Sharing the ‘honor’ MARGARET KIMBERLEY
EDITORIAL
A real hero There is no honor for Tubman in association with Jackson. Unlike all others whose faces appear on our currency, she fits the truest definition of a hero. In fact, she fought against what the rest of them represent: the establishment of a settler nation that brought death and misery to millions of people. Not only did Tubman free herself and others from slavery; she was truly a soldier. On June 2, 1863, she led the Union Army in an assault on the Combahee River in South Carolina. The battle resulted in victory and in freedom for 700 people. She is the only woman known to have led a Civil War military action. Tubman was on her way to Harpers Ferry in 1859 to fight by John Brown’s side. She arrived too late, but it is a great historical “what if.” Would she have been captured and executed like Brown, or would her presence have helped Brown win the day in his quest to spark a slave insurrection? There is a larger question about how Black freedom fighters should be honored and by whom. Black people should need no stamp of approval on their heroic figures. It is enough that we remember Harriet Tubman and tell her story and ours. It is an insult, an offense, to be told that putting her image on the symbol of her oppression is in any way praiseworthy.
side al-Qaida will be killed, just like al-Qaida, and that the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria is not subject to negotiation.
On the right side The Russians and the Syrian government not only have international law firmly on their side, but also the relevant United Nations Security Council resolution, which calls on the entire world to fight against both ISIS and al-Qaida’s Nusra Front. The U.S. voted for the resolution, and President Obama has repeatedly stated that Washington respects Syria’s national sovereignty. Obama is lying, of course – but then, the U.S. war on terror is probably the greatest lie of the 21st century, and a big part of the 20th century, too. The U.S. presence in Syria is totally illegal – which is why Obama has to cloak it in terms
snake oil to “Make America Great Again.” I trust there’s no need for me to further elaborate, especially given many of my previous commentaries. However, I must confess that despite my well-documented and well-founded cynicism, even I did not think there were enough suckers in the Republican Party to elect Trump its presidential nominee. I was wrong. Hell, Trump was probably right when he boasted that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight and still get enough votes to win this nomination. So, thusly chastened, I can only hope there are not enough suckers in the general electorate to elect Trump the next president of the United States. I am banking on Democrats, Independents, and enlightened Republicans – who elected and re-elected Barack Hussein Obama – to prove me right.
Anthony L. Hall is a Bahamian native with an international law practice in Washington, D.C. Read his columns and daily weblog at www.theipinionsjournal.com.
Neither should anyone care if Donald Trump and his ilk scream the words “political correctness.” His opinions don’t count either, and reacting to the shrieks of White nationalists often leads Black people to act against their own interests. It is best not to link discussion of Harriet Tubman with Donald Trump for any reason.
Picture mix-up The emptiness of the unwanted gesture was exemplified by the New York Times. In reporting the story, they mistakenly showed a photo of Sojourner Truth instead of Harriet Tubman. The mix-up is a reminder of how little Black people count in this society. One enslaved Black woman may as well be another, even when one is being remembered for supposedly good reasons. Neither the New York Times nor the Treasury Department will tell the truth of Black history in this country. It isn’t their place to tell it; in any case, the result will always be a sham. Our story is a deeply sacred responsibility and must never be granted to anyone else.
Margaret Kimberley’s column appears weekly in BlackAgendaReport.com. Contact her at Margaret.Kimberley@BlackAgendaReport.com.
of American self-defense against ISIS, despite the fact that ISIS grew by leaps and bounds until the Russians intervened and forced the Americans to pretend to wage war against it.
War with Russia? The U.S. troops’ main job is to arm the various brands of al-Qaida fighters with heavy weapons, and to act as a “trip wire,” daring the Russians to bomb areas of the country where American troops are active. In other words, he is prepared to go to war with Russia to defend the terrorist armies he has unleashed on Syria. Obama will end his term in office as the protector-in-chief of al-Qaida. What a legacy for the First Black President.
Glen Ford is executive editor of BlackAgendaReport.com. Email him at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
NATION
TOJ A6
MAY 6 – MAY 12, 2016
Malia Obama to take year off, then head to Harvard Born in Chicago on July 4, 1998, the first daughter attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools before she and her family moved to the White House in 2009.
The last two presidential children in the White House, twins Barbara and Jenna Bush, were spared major media scrutiny as they chose their colleges; they already were enrolled by the time their father won the presidency in 2000. Barbara Bush graduated from Yale and Jenna Bush from the University of Texas at Austin. During Bill Clinton’s presidency, his daughter, Chelsea, went from Sidwell Friends, a Quakeraffiliated prep school, to Stanford, choosing the place where her friend (and future husband) Marc Mezvinsky already attended. Chelsea Clinton graduated from Stanford in 2001 and later obtained a master’s degrees and doctorate from Oxford University in England and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
BY KATHERINE SKIBA CHICAGO TRIBUNE TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON – Malia Obama will take a gap year after graduating from high school, and then attend Harvard University in the fall of 2017, the White House said on May 1. Obama, 17, the older of the president’s two daughters, visited more than a dozen schools, including Stanford, Yale and Columbia, before making her decision. The White House did not say what she would spend her gap year doing. Malia Obama will be one of the most famous members of her class — and a standout for the Secret Service agents who will protect her. She was 10 when her father took office. Now a senior at the Sidwell Friends School in northwest Washington, she has come of age with the world watching. Her sister, Sasha, 14, is finishing her freshman year at the private school.
Parents went there Although Malia Obama’s grades and standardized test scores remain secret, factors in her favor when applying to colleges included her family background and study at top-flight schools. Her parents, both Harvard Law grads, have four Ivy League degrees between them. Michelle
Production assistant
OLIVIER DOULIERY SIPA/USA/TNS
President Barack Obama and daughter Malia arrive at the White House in Washington, D.C on Aug. 23, 2015, upon their return from vacationing at Martha’s Vineyard. Obama graduated from Harvard Law in 1988, and her husband followed in 1991. He completed undergraduate studies at Columbia University in 1983. She graduated from Princeton in 1985. The president, speaking at a Des Moines high school last fall about college access and affordability, said he knew that finding the best school was a “tough process” because his daughter was “going through it right now.” “You guys are juggling deadlines and applications and personal statements,” he told the audience.
Aspiring filmmaker He called his daughter a “hard worker” and said he advised her “not to stress too much about having to get into one particular college.” He said there were a lot of good schools and “just because it’s not some name-brand, famous, fancy school doesn’t mean that you’re not going to get a great education there.” Malia Obama is said to be an aspiring filmmaker. She plays tennis for fun. In 2014, she visited two two rival schools in Northern California — Stanford University and the
University of California, Berkeley — and later shifted attention to schools on the East Coast. She visited six of the eight Ivy League schools: Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale. She also visited New York University, Tufts University, Barnard College and Wesleyan University.
Other presidential grads Born in Chicago on July 4, 1998, Malia Obama attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools before she and her family moved to the White House in 2009.
Malia Obama interned last summer in New York City on the Brooklyn set of HBO’s “Girls,” the comedy-drama created by and starring Lena Dunham. She was in California in 2014 as a production assistant on “Extant,” a since-canceled CBS science fiction series. She also completed several internships closer to home at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, her mother has said. One region of the country she seems to have skipped on her far-flung college tour: her native Midwest. The president and first lady have said they will not return to Chicago, where they have a home, but will remain in Washington after his term ends in January. That would allow younger daughter Sasha to finish studies at Sidwell in the spring of 2019. “We’ve got to find a place to live because we can’t live here,” Michelle Obama told a group of children at the White House last month. “They’re kicking us out!”
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Mother’s
IFE/FAITH HAPPY
Young, single and very happy See page B5
MAY 6 – MAY 12, 2016
SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE
How about making Mom a pie? See page B6
SOUTH FLORIDA / TREASURE COAST AREA
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WWW.FLCOURIER.COM
The Florida Courier staff pays tribute to their moms with personal photos and narratives
To the chairwoman of our board: Thanks for being our anchor in the stormy seas of life. We love you! Chuck, Glenn, Cassandra
For My Mom (Mamie Lee), You have always been there for me and given tirelessly of yourself. You have the world’s biggest heart. Thanks for teaching me what it means to love and to be loved unconditionally. You have continued to set tremendous examples of what it means to be a wonderful mother. I try to emulate you daily. Happy Mother’s Day! I love you to the moon and back a million times. Forever, Lisa Rogers Cherry
My mother supported my dream of becoming a veterinarian even when others thought it was strange that a Black person would like to work on animals. She stayed up late nights to help me with school projects and my interest in science and math came from her. She always told me to be myself and not what other people wanted me to be. Mom is a good Christian woman with a positive outlook on life. I pray that she will live a long and healthy live like her mother who was with us for over 100 years! I love you Mom! Dr. Glenn Cherry
She was my Mama, my friend, my confidante. Thanks for leaving so many gems to live by. I love you, Julia
B
DAY
The love of a grandmother never fades whether she is here or in heaven. Love you both, Jamal
Happy 89th Birthday and Happy Mother’s Day to Alma Barlow Jones. We love you! Chicago, Rebecca, Annette and Valerie
SECTION
Dear Ma, Happy Mother’s Day! Thank you for supporting and helping us throughout the years. We appreciate all that you do for us, whether it’s stopping to get our favorite snack or staying up to help with a late-night project. If we want to go on a trip somewhere, you’re the first to help us start a fundraiser for it. Whenever we need support, you’re there, and we can’t thank you enough for that. You’re the best mother we could ever ask for. We love you 10 million zillion! Your kids, Chayla and Wiggles
The days go by, but the memories I have will never die. On this Mother’s Day without you, the sadness returns, but when I remember your voice, your laugh, and your constant love, my heart gets a little lighter. Sending thoughts of roses and love to you Mom until we meet again! Happy Mother’s Day! Valerie To our family’s phenomenal First Lady – Mrs. Josephine Griffin. Thanks, Mom, for your godly words of wisdom, your unwavering faith, amazing strength, and your peace that surpasses all understanding. Jenise and Cynthia
My best friend and confidante: I wish you were still here to share my thoughts. Looking forward to our reunion in heaven. Love ya, Jerry
S
CALENDAR
B2
MAY 6 – MAY 12, 2016
STOJ
Tupac Shakur’s mom dies at age 69 EURWEB
KEM & KELLY PRICE
SOUL CROONERS
The soul music revue group will be at the Straz Center in Tampa through May 15.
FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Miami: Senator Oscar Braynon II will present the annual Choice Challenge on May 7 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Florida International University’s Koven Center. The free event is for middle and high school students. Register at www.choicechallenge.org. Jacksonville: The African American Mental Health Initiative will host a Mental Health Walk & Village Talk on May 14 at Unity Plaza. Register at aamhimentalwalkvillagetalk2016.eventbrite. com. Daytona Beach: Bethune-Cookman University’s spring commencement will be at noon May 7 at the Ocean Center. Speaker: Political strategist Donna Brazile. Entry tickets are required.
Afeni Shakur-Davis the mother of Tupac Shakur, died Monday night at age 69. Shakur-Davis’s death was confirmed by the Marin County, Calif., Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s department says deputies responded to a report of possible cardiac arrest at 9:34 p.m. at ShakurDavis’ home in Sausalito. Davis-Shakur Afeni was taken to a local Shakur-Davis hospital, where she died at 10:28 p.m. Shakur-Davis vowed to keep her son’s memory alive after he was gunned down in the late 1990s.
Miami Beach: Marlon Wayans’ “Scandal-less’’ show takes to the Jackie Gleason Theater stage on May 19. Jacksonville: The Northside Church of Christ’s Ladies Inspirational Day is May 14 starting at 8 a.m. Details: Call 904-302-0772. Guest speaker: Patricia Iverson of Valdosta, Georgia. Tampa: Anthony Hamilton and Fantasia will perform June 16 at the USF Sun Dome. Jacksonville: The Florida Theatre Jacksonville will host Brian McKnight on May 24. Tampa: Catch the rapper on May 7 at Whiskey North. The show starts at 9 p.m. Coral Gables: The Women of Praise Mother’s Day Concert is May 8 at the BankUnited Center. Performers will include Shirley
A Mother’s Day Experience with Kem and Kelly Price is May 8 at Miami’s James L. Knight Center.
Caesar, Vickie Winans, Regina Belle and Dorinda Clark-Cole. Jacksonville: Catch Brian McKnight at the Florida Theatre Jacksonville on May 24. Miami: The Ninth Annual Memorial Weekend Comedy Festival is May 29 at the James L. Knight Center featuring John Witherspoon, Earthquake and Kim Whitley. Boca Raton: The Legends of the Old School concert takes place May 20 at the Mizner Park Amphitheater. Performers include Bel Biv Devoe, Rob Base, Lisa Lisa, Tone Loc and Kid N Play. Hollywood: Actor and comedian Tracy Morgan is scheduled May 21 at Hard Rock Live. Jacksonville: R. Kelly’s “The Buffet Tour 2016’’ makes a stop at the Jacksonville Veterans
Memorial Arena on May 26 and Miami’s AmericanAirlines Arena on May 28. Orlando: Catch Floetry at the House of Blues Orlando on May 8. St. Augustine: Salt N Pepa performs May 21 at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. The show is at 7 p.m. Hollywood: A May 10 concert will feature George Benson and Boney James at Hard Rock Live. Miami Beach: Miguel performs at the Faena Theater on May 27. Longwood: The Central Florida Community Arts’ Community Choir and Symphony Orchestra will perform “A Night On the Red Carpet’’ May 12 and 13 at Northland Church, 530 Dog Track Road. Tickets: http://cfcarts.com/events or call 407-937-1800 ext. 710.
Former Panther Shakur, born Alice Faye Williams, changed her name when she moved to New York City and joined the Black Panther movement. She and other party members were arrested in 1969 and charged with conspiracy to bomb multiple, busy city landmarks. In May 1971, she was acquitted on all charges — and she gave birth to Tupac just one month later. She was the subject of his 1995 song “Dear Mama,” in which Tupac detailed his childhood struggles and respect for his mother. “There’s no way I can pay you back/ But the plan is to show you that I understand/You are appreciated,” he rapped. In 2005, she opened the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation Center for the Arts on Memorial Drive in DeKalb County, an institution she hoped would include a performing arts theater, museum, art gallery, community meeting space and classrooms. Shakur-Davis decided to locate the arts center in DeKalb because her son bought his first home here, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in 2005.
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;
If time & money were not an issue...
• 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.’
Where would you travel?
…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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STOJ
MAY 6 – MAY 12, 2016
HEALTH
B3
Health of homeless a year-round dilemma Whether cold or poor, air quality due to heat or just the stress of living outside, illnesses among the homeless can be three to six times worse than someone with a home, a homelessness expert says. BY KISHANA FLENORY TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE
Every winter, more than 3.5 billion people are homeless in the U.S., according to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. When the season changes to spring and then summer, the socio-economic, mental health and other conditions afflicting the homeless remain steady. Therefore, though the issue of homelessness in the warm weather may not seem as dire, those who deal with the needs of the homeless year-round say their work continues with the same intensity. “The temperature outside – whether it’s hot or cold – is not healthy for a person who lives outdoors,” said Megan Hustings, director of the D.C. National Coalition for the Homeless. Hustings said that in either of the extremes, very hot or very cold, a person is subject to illness if they live outside.
‘A lot has gone wrong’ The root causes of homelessness must also be dealt with year-round, experts said. Whether mental illness, addiction disorders, unemployment, poverty or other situations, each person or family has his or her own story, said John Lozier, executive director of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “Homelessness reflects that a lot has gone wrong in a person’s life,” Lozier said. “It could be their personal life or social economic systems.” Lozier also pointed out that homeless people have the same illnesses as people with homes. However, due to weather conditions, whether cold or poor air quality due to heat or just the stress of living outside, illnesses
KISHANA FLENORY/HOWARD UNIVERSITY NEWS SERVICE
A homeless person finds a place to rest in a park in Washington, D.C. among the homeless can be three to six times worse than someone with a home, he said. Despite the care that’s available to the homeless, some shelters are almost as bad as living on the street regardless of the season, some said. “The conditions in some of the shelters I have been placed in were terrible,” said Uniqua Johnson, a 30-year-old New York resident. However, I had nowhere else to go. So, I was forced to stay there.”
Many partnerships needed Johnson said she was homeless because she was unemployed. With no money to pay rent for an apartment, she ended up on the streets, she said. Now employed, Johnson said she has made it her duty to never end up in a shelter again. Those who work with home-
lessness, said it requires the coordination of many levels of society. The Steward B. McKinney Assistance Act, established by Congress in 1986, aimed to coordinate the federal response to homelessness and to create partnerships between the federal, state, local and private agencies to address homelessness. Due to local legislation, in some areas – like Washington. and New York – the homeless are required to be accepted into shelters when the temperature drops to 32 degrees or lower, when the wind chill drops below zero degrees, when snow is more than six inches or when ice storms and freezing rain occurs.
Spring, summer issues There are many illnesses a homeless person can receive from being outdoors for long periods of time. During the winter, frostbite and hypothermia, the result of
the body temperature being abnormally low, is among the major issues, said David Hornig, a receptionist at Hope Mission in Washington. “Frostbite affects a person’s body,” Hornig said. “Their faces, ears, arms become affected by this illness.” In the spring, severe issues continue and new issues arise, said the Rev. Joanne Holston, president of the Anchor of Hope for the Homeless ministry at Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church in D.C. “During the summer and spring they still need toiletries and they need places to take showers and places to bathe because it’s hot,” Holston said, noting that food and water are also needed year-round.
‘Code Red’ Holston said there is great need for the public to continue to contribute to homeless shelters year-round – beyond the drives
of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sometimes the city issues a “Code Red” meaning no one should be outside due to the heat and poor air quality, she said. “So even though the weather is nice and they can sleep outside, they still need a place to stay,” she said. “That’s very crucial.” Many homeless people are not mentally ill or on drugs, as is often the perception, she said. Instead, many simply lost their jobs, she said. So, beyond tangible needs, they also need kindness and empathy, she said. “They need to know that people care and that they’re not looked down upon because homelessness has a different face now,” she said. “They’re not just out there. They’ve had other positions and other lives. And that’s year-round.”
This story is special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Howard University News Service.
Dietary changes may reduce the risk of colon cancer BY ALISON BOWEN CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS
Can changing your diet reduce your risk of colorectal cancer? Dr. Scott Strong, surgical director of Northwestern Medicine’s Digestive Health Center, said it certainly can’t hurt. Some simple changes such as increasing your fiber intake and reducing your consumption of red meat might reduce your risk factor. “We know without question that obesity is a risk factor for colon cancer,”
Strong said. Eating more fruits and vegetables and limiting processed meat can also decrease risk, he said. As can increasing calcium, folic acid and vitamin D.
What it is Colorectal cancer includes cancer of the colon and rectum, and is the second leading cancer killer in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And one in seven colorectal patients was younger than 50 years old, a January study in the
journal Cancer showed. “A large percent of the population still doesn’t undergo their screening colonoscopy, even though they’ve been told that they should have it done,” Strong said. Early screening is encouraged. Early detection can greatly influence how effectively cancer can be treated or even prevented. “What we’re trying to do is find the cancer at an early stage, where it’s more curable,” Strong said. “Not only are we looking for cancer, we’re preventing cancer.”
FOTOLIA/TNS
Eating more fruits and vegetables and limiting processed meat can help decrease the risk of colon cancer.
Some pesky facts about bedbugs MAYO CLINIC NEWS NETWORK/TNS
A recent study found that bedbugs have distinct color preferences. Researchers discovered bedbugs are drawn to red and black and repelled by green and yellow. Mayo Clinic parasitologist Dr. Bobbi Pritt calls the data interesting; adding, it’s always good to learn about pests that can infest human habitats. She says awareness about bedbugs is important, especially when you’re staying away from home. She answers a few questions for a better understanding about these pests and how to avoid them.
What are bedbugs? “Bedbugs are insects that mostly prefer to stay in dark cracks and crevices. They are blood feeders, meaning they have to feed on blood to survive. They spend about 10 percent of their time looking for a host, feeding on the host and then crawling back into the little dark hole.” Pritt says.
Why people fear them “The primary reason we don’t like bedbugs is because they bite us.” Plus, she says, “There is the creepy ick factor of things com-
ing out at night and biting us, and some people have very a pronounced response to a bedbug bite. They can get welts where they’ve been bitten and get itchy lesions.”
Transmitting disease “Even though bedbugs can ingest blood, and blood can contain different diseases, there hasn’t been any good evidence to show that anything taken in by a bedbug can actually be transmitted to a human.”
Checking for them “When checking into a hotel, always check the mattress. Look for evidence of bedbugs. Pull up the edge of the sheet and look for bedbugs, parts of their body or feces from where they have been feeding. Keep your suitcase on the luggage rack. An additional step is to keep your suitcase in the bathroom. Don’t bring it into the living room or put it on the couch. Keep your belongings in your suitcase rather than scattered around a hotel room where bedbugs can crawl onto them or lay their eggs.”
Been exposed? “If you are at all concerned that you may have picked up bedbugs in your travel, do not bring your suitcase into your home. Once you get bedbugs into your house, they are very difficult to get rid of and you’ll likely need to call an extermination service.”
MOTHER’S DAY
B4
MAY 6 – MAY 12, 2016
STOJ
Thank you, Mom Tips and tidbits to help celebrate Mother’s Day
MOVIES Many mothers just want a day of relaxation, so pop in a DVD of one of these mother-daughter related flicks.
BY SALLY DADISMAN McClatchy-Tribune
■ “Steel Magnolias” (1989): Sally Field and Julia Roberts play a mother and daughter at the center of a tight-knit group of friends in Louisiana. ■ “Terms of Endearment” (1981): This Oscarwinning movie chronicles the often difficult relationship between a mother and daughter, played by Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. ■ “Anywhere But Here” (1999): Susan Sarandon plays a mother who is tired of her small-town existence and decides to drag her less-than-willing daughter to Beverly Hills in hopes of a more glamorous life. ■ “Stepmom” (1998): Roberts and Sarandon play the future stepmom and dying mother, respectively, of Ed Harris’ children. ■ “Freaky Friday” (1976) or (2003): Take your pick, Jodie Foster (the 1976 version) or Lindsay Lohan (2003) plays the ungrateful child who switches bodies with her busy mom. ■ “Mommie Dearest” (1983): The perfect portrait of a nightmare mom, this campy film will make you appreciate that your mom didn’t have such an aversion to wire hangers.
She helped you learn to walk, taught you about the birds and the bees, and drove you to soccer practice, scout meetings and birthday parties. Mother’s Day gives you a chance to show Mom how much you care. Whether it’s watching a movie, serenading her with a song or serving her breakfast in bed, we offer a few suggestions for celebrating, along with a brief history of the day, how to say “mother” around the world and a short quiz.
HISTORY A celebration that began with the Greeks and Romans, Mother’s Day has been around for centuries in one form or another. The Greeks celebrated Rhea, the mother of the Gods, while early Christians had festivals on the fourth Sunday of Lent for Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. A religious order then created Mothering Sunday in Britain to celebrate all mothers, a tradition that was lost when British settlers formed the American colonies. In 1907, however, Anna M. Jarvis, a schoolteacher from Philadelphia, went on a mission to create a day honoring mothers. She sought help from legislators and businessmen, and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared the second Sunday in May a national holiday in honor of mothers.
‘MOTHER’ AROUND THE WORLD FLOWERS WITH FEELING Flowers are a popular gift for Mom. But what message are they really sending? Here is a list compiled by the Society of American Florists on flowers’ different meanings: FLOWER COLOR OR TYPE Carnation Pink Red Yellow Daisy --- Lily Calla Casablanca Day Stargazer Orchid --- Rose Pink Red Red and white Yellow Sunflower --- Tulip Pink Purple Red White Yellow
Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon in “Stepmom.”
SONGS Here are some songs, along with selected lyrics, for a melodically memorable Mother’s Day. Hey Mama By Kanye West You work late nights just to keep on the lights Mommy got me training wheels so I could keep on my bike And you would give anything in this world Michael Jackson leather and a glove, but didn’t give me a curl And you never put no man over me And I love you for that mommy can’t you see? A Song for Mama By Boyz II Men Mama, mama you’re the queen of my heart Your love is like Tears from the stars Mama, I just want you to know Lovin’ you is like food to my soul You’re always down for me Have always been around for me even when I was bad You showed me right from my wrong Mom By Earth,Wind & Fire Mom, pains and joy I love her more and more To her I’m still her boy Yeah yeah yeah And in my life I’ve always dug her And in my life I’ve always needed her The mom I know I love so well SOURCES: DAYFORMOTHERS.COM, INTERNET MOVIE
‘MOTHER’ AROUND THE WORLD
MEANING Gratitude Flashy Cheerful Innocence Regal Celebration Enthusiasm Ambition Delicate beauty Friendship Passionate love Unity Zealous Adoration Caring Royalty Declaration of love Forgiveness Hopelessly in love
QUIZ
A sweet treat for a sweet mother So you may not be the next Bobby Flay or Rachael Ray, but you can still make a simple meal for your mom. Here is a recipe from “Coffee Cakes,” by Lou Seibert Pappas (Chronicle Books, $18.95), to get you started. BLUEBERRY STREUSEL COFFEE CAKE Juicy berries nugget this easy-to-bake cake that flaunts a crunchy sweet topping of toasted walnuts and brown sugar streusel. 1/2 cup canola oil 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 1 cup whole-wheat flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries or mixed blackberries, blueberries and raspberries Streusel Topping 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
France Mère
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 cup (4 ounces) walnuts, chopped To make the topping: In a medium bowl or a food processor, combine the butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon. Cut the butter in with your fingers or process until the mixture forms coarse crumbs. Stir in the nuts and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly butter a 9-inch springform pan. In a large bowl, combine the oil, sugars, eggs and vanilla and beat with a whisk or electric mixer until smooth. In a medium bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir to blend. Add to the creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk or yogurt in two increments. Beat until smooth. Stir in the berries. Turn into the prepared pan and sprinkle evenly with the topping. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove the pan sides and let cool completely. Cut into wedges to serve. Makes one 9-inch coffee cake. Serves 10.
Germany Mutter
Greece Màna
Think you know about mothers? How many are there in the United States, what days and months are most popular for giving birth? Test your knowledge of these facts from the U.S. Census Bureau. 1. How many mothers are there in the United States? A. 60.2 million C. 80.5 million B. 70.4 million D. 90.3 million 2. How many children on average can a woman in the United States expect to have in her lifetime? A. 1.7 C. 2.4 B. 2.1 D. 1.9 3. What U.S. state has the highest average number of births per year per woman? A. Utah C. Illinois B. New York D. Nevada 4. What is the most popular month to have a baby? A. November C. May B. February D. July 5. What is the most popular day of the week to have a baby? A. Monday C.Wednesday B. Tuesday D. Thursday ANSWERS: 1. C; 2. B; 3. A; 4. D; 5. B
WORDS OF WISDOM Here are a few quotes on motherhood, from “Women Know Everything: 3,241 Quips, Quotes and Brilliant Remarks,” edited by Karen Weekes (Quirk Books, $16.95): “Any mother could perform the jobs of several air-traffic controllers with ease.” — Lisa Alther (1944-), American writer “Mothers are the most instinctive philosophers.” — Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), American abolitionist “Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.” — Oprah Winfrey (1954-), American television host, actress and magazine publisher
Japan Okaasan
Spain Madre
SOURCES: DAYFORMOTHERS.COM, INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE,MOTHERSDAYCELEBRATION.COM, ABOUTFLOWERS.COM, LYRICSONDEMAND.COM, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU. NARA.GOV, SARA BOSTWICK/ARCADE PUBLISHING
STOJ
MAY 6 – MAY 12, 2016
FINEST & RELATIONSHIPS
Meet some of
FLORIDA’S
finest
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B5
Think you’re one of Florida’s Finest? E-mail your high-resolution (200 dpi) digital photo in casual wear or bathing suit taken in front of a plain background with few distractions, to news@flcourier. com with a short biography of yourself and your contact information. (No nude/ glamour/ fashion photography, please!) In order to be considered, you must be at least 18 years of age. Acceptance of the photographs submitted is in the sole and absolute discretion of Florida Courier editors. We reserve the right to retain your photograph even if it is not published. If you are selected, you will be contacted by e-mail and further instructions will be given.
Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele are starring in “Keanu,’’ an action comedy they also produced. The movie is now in theaters. They are shown above at last year’s Primetime Emmy Awards. The last episode of their sketch-comedy series “Key and Peele’’ on Comedy Central aired in September 2015.
Last year, Misty Copeland became the first African-American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in the American Ballet Theatre’s 75year history. This week, Mattel unveiled a new Barbie fashioned after the ballerina. The doll is called the Firebird Barbie. JOE SCHILDHORN/BFA/SIPA USA/TNS
ROBERT GAUTHIER/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS
More young women embracing the single life BY SHARYN JACKSON STAR TRIBUNE/TNS
Sarah Jacobson, 33, tried for years to find a partner so she wouldn’t “die alone, my body devoured by my pet cat.” At 28, Hillary Kline was feeling like an “old maid.” But at some point, both decided that they preferred being single. Have a problem with that? These ladies don’t. They are part of an emerging demographic of women who are happily pursuing the solo life into their late 20s and mid-30s – and loving it. It’s a far cry from prior decades when marriage bought women a pass from one family home to another. Vows were a ticket to economic stability not easily attained by an untethered woman, and above all, it was what society demanded.
No more spinsters Even as feminism took root, women were largely expected to jump into a lifelong contract with someone of the opposite sex while still in the throes of youth. If they didn’t, they were ridiculed, called spinsters, or made to feel like their time was running out. (Remember the offensive trope in the 1980s that women over 40 are more likely to be killed by terrorists than get hitched?) Young women today are reclaiming singlehood as a point of pride, not shame. They are marrying later, or not at all. And they are doing it in shocking numbers, changing the course of modern dating and relationships. “The speed at which the change is happening is remarkable,” said Susan Brower, Minnesota’s state demographer.
More options The road to remaining single differs for everyone. Some women, faced with all the opportunities once withheld from their mothers and grandmothers, fall in love with their careers first. In an era where women can own property, launch businesses, even have children without relying on a man, some see dating and marriage as unnecessary.
COURTESY OF FOTOLIA/TNS
Young women today are reclaiming singlehood as a point of pride, not shame.
BY THE NUMBERS Median age at first marriage 1960: Women, 20.3; men, 22.8 2015: Women, 27.1; men, 29.2 U.S. women ages 25 to 34, never married 2005: 33.6 percent 2014: 46.3 percent
SOURCE: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, CURRENT POPULATION SURVEY
Some are casualties of modern digital romance, which offers more brief encounters than lifelong bonds. Some see the high divorce rate as a warning sign. Some just aren’t interested. That’s not to say they won’t be one day, but they are perfectly happy taking the tortoise’s pace in the race to the altar. “I pretty much accept that I’m going to be a late bloomer in life,” said Kline, a public relations specialist from Minnetonka, Minn. “I want to travel, I want to one day live overseas and I can’t really do that if I’m married and tied down and having kids and all that jazz.”
Kline tried dating for a while, but found that her ambition limited her pool of candidates. Men have called her “intimidating,” “focused,” “put together.” She’ll take those as compliments. “I’m just surrounding myself with things I enjoy,” she said. “It’s not a death sentence.”
Seismic shift The recent demographic shift has been monumental. Ten years ago, one in three women ages 25 to 34 had never been married. Today, it’s more like half. And while it was expected in 1960 that women got married around age 20, today most women wait another seven years before saying “I do.” That gives them nearly a decade more independence than their mothers had. (The median age of first marriage for men has also risen recently, but men have always been more likely than women to remain unmarried.) It’s the world that unmarried suffragist Susan B. Anthony foretold in 1877 when she spoke of an impending “epoch of single women” forged by true gender equality.
Contributing factors Higher educational attainment, economic concerns and increased acceptability of cohabitation and childbearing outside of marriage have all been contributing factors for women’s rising marriage delay, said Brower, the state demographer. “Those trends are pretty powerful and they’re at work.” Plus, Americans’ attitude toward marriage is ambivalent. According to a Pew study, 46 percent of Americans say it’s better for society if marriage and children are a priority; 50 percent say society is just as well off without such a priority. “There is a mixed assessment of marriage as an ideal,” Brower said. But society hasn’t totally caught up with all the women who choose to be single – at least not yet. “A lot of forces conspire, often unconsciously, to tell people who are unmarried that aspiring to marriage is the solution to making them unlonely,” said Rebecca Traister, a journalist whose provocative new book, “All the Single Ladies,” looks at the rise of unmarried women in the United States.
Still, Traister – whose book has more than 200 hold requests in the Hennepin library system — said there is pushback against negative stereotypes that have long plagued unmarried women.
Becoming the norm Indeed, the idea of “spinsterhood” is being reclaimed in popular culture as the ranks of single women have risen to rival those who have tied the knot. In her 2015 book “Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own,” Kate Bolick refers to her attraction to solitude as her “spinster wish.” Empowering listicles, like “31 Famous Unmarried People Who Prove That Being Single Is Badass,” regularly make the rounds on social media. “As [being single] becomes more of a mass behavior, all the messages in the world can’t undo something that is becoming the norm — to exist independently socially, economically and sexually, to not be tethered to a spouse,” Traister said. “It’s altering our perception of what adulthood means.”
The Star Tribune is based in Minneapolis.
FOOD
B6
MAY 6 – MAY 12, 2016
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Impressive
Lemon Raspberry Pie
fruit pies & tarts made easy
FROM FAMILY FEATURES
Berry season means colors, tastes and aromas that are sure to please. With a variety of gorgeous fresh fruits at your fingertips, why not whip up a fabulous fruit pie or tart to surprise family or share with friends? From PERFECT APPLE PIE 8 servings Prep time: 30 minutes Ready in: 3 hours Crust 1 box (14.1 ounces) Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box Filling 6 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples (6 medium) 3/4 cup sugar 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 tablespoon lemon juice Heat oven to 425°F. Place 1 pie crust in ungreased 9-inch glass pie plate. Press firmly against side and bottom. In large bowl, gently mix filling ingredients; spoon into crust-lined pie plate. Top with second crust. Wrap excess top crust under bottom crust edge, pressing edges together to seal; flute. Cut slits or shapes in several places in top crust. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until apples are tender and crust is golden brown. Cover edge of crust with 2- to 3-inch-wide strips of foil after first 15 to 20 minutes of baking to prevent excessive browning. Cool on cooling rack at least 2 hours before serving. Tip: Two cans (21 ounces each) apple pie filling can be substituted for the filling.
family dinners to spur-ofthe-moment picnics, pies are easy to make and easy for family and friends to appreciate. To save time in the kitchen, start with Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crusts for a flaky, tender base. Just unroll it into your favorite pie plate or tart
pan, spoon in a delicious fruit filling, bake and enjoy. Pillsbury has updated the packaging with a fresh, contemporary look and features a recipe for Perfect Apple Pie. For more delicious recipes, visit www.pillsbury.com/pie.
Fresh Berry Cream Tart
FRESH BERRY CREAM TART 8 servings Prep time: 15 minutes Start to finish: 2 hours 55 minutes Crust 1 Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust (from 14.1-ounce box), softened as directed on box Filling 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened 1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon orangeflavored liqueur or orange juice 4 cups assorted fresh whole berries (small strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and/or blackberries) 1/3 cup red currant jelly, melted Heat oven to 450°F. Prepare pie crust as directed on package for one-crust baked shell using 9-inch tart pan
with removable bottom. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely. In small bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and liqueur; beat until smooth and well blended. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly in cooled baked shell. Top with berries; brush berries with melted jelly to glaze. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving. Store in refrigerator.
LEMON RASPBERRY PIE 8 servings Prep time: 45 minutes Start to finish: 3 hours 45 minutes Crust 1 Pillsbury efrigerated pie crust (from 14.1ounce box), softened as directed on box 1 teaspoon flour 2 tablespoons finely chopped pecans Filling 1/2 cup sugar 2 tablespoons cornstarch 1/2 cup water 2 tablespoons margarine or butter 1 egg yolk, beaten 1/4 to 1/3 cup lemon juice Topping 2 3-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract 1 8-ounce carton frozen whipped topping, thawed 1 tablespoon milk 3 cups fresh raspberries or frozen raspberries without syrup, thawed, dried on paper towels Mint sprigs, if desired Heat oven to 450°F. Prepare crust according to package directions for unfilled one-crust pie using 9-inch pie pan. Press pecans into bottom of pie crust-lined pan. Generously prick crust with fork. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely. In small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; blend well.
MAKE CRUSTS EXTRA SPECIAL When making a top crust for pies, these tips can help you make them look extra special. GLOSSY UPPER CRUST: Brush the dough with slightly beaten egg white (if desired, sprinkle with sugar, too) before baking. SWEET GLAZED TOP: Brush
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Stir in water, margarine and egg yolk. Cook over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon juice. Pour into cooled crust. Refrigerate 1 hour. In small bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and lemon extract until smooth. Beat in whipped topping at low speed until well blended. Add milk; mix until smooth and of spreading consistency. Spread thin layer of topping mixture around edge of crust. Reserve 4 raspberries for garnish. Arrange remaining raspberries over top of filling. Spread remaining topping over raspberries. Garnish with mint sprigs and reserved raspberries. Refrigerate 2 hours before serving. Store in refrigerator.
the top pastry with a small amount of water, and sprinkle with granulated or coarse sugar before baking. PRETTY CUTOUTS: Cut shapes from the top crust with a canapé cutter or a knife before placing the top crust over the filling. With water or beaten egg, moisten the back of each cutout and set the design, moistened side down, on the crust.