Florida Courier May 31, 2013

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MAY 31 - JUNE 6, 2013

VOLUME 21 NO. 22

MONEY AND POWER Here’s a quick look at high points of President Obama’s schedule after he left Morehouse College last week.

ways to work around it is to have a Democratic House of Representatives. The president faces no more elections and has promised to be more involved in the fundraising push this time out. The president intends to hold at least eight fundraisers for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

American drone power

Chicago money President Obama came home to Chicago on Wednesday to raise money for Democratic congressional candidates as part of a push to take back control of the House and preserve Democrats’ majority in the Senate next year. Capturing the House would be a boost to Obama as he pursues his second-term agenda. During a 15-minute speech, Obama said he’s willing to work with Republicans, but can get more done with Democrats in charge of the House. “If day in, day out, what we confront is obstructionism for the sake of obstructionism, and Pool photo by Kristoffer Tripplaar/Sipa via Abaca Press/MCT what appears to be an interest only in scoring points or placating the base as opposed to trying President Obama delivers a speech on his administration’s counterto advance the interests of the American people, terrorism policy at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in then we’ve got to figure out a way to work around Washington, D.C., on May 23. that,” the president said. “And one of the best

On May 23, in a speech spanning nearly an hour at the National Defense University – and less than a week after he refused to get into a dense policy discussion at all-male, predominately Black Morehouse College – Obama addressed what is likely to be a central piece of his legacy, weighing what is “effective” and “legal” in warfare against what is “wise or moral.” Obama acknowledged that drone strikes he has ordered have killed innocent people. And he not only dealt with critics rhetorically, but he also confronted Medea Benjamin, the cofounder of the antiwar group Code Pink. She interrupted the president’s speech numerous times to shout accusations that have dogged him for years.

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION / EASTERN CONFERENCE

Battling as San Antonio awaits Miami Heat center Chris Bosh, right, battles Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert in the fourth quarter of Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on Tuesday in Indianapolis. The series winner plays the San Antonio Spurs for the NBA championship.

See OBAMA, Page A2

Job providers or welfare queens? State contracts, cash payments go together By Steve Miller Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

Located on eight acres in Fort Myers, the Florida office of Gartner Inc. is 125,000 square feet of modern corporate campus, with a cafeteria large enough to feed 200 at a time, a gym, and a second-floor outdoor patio. It houses just over 10 percent of the multinational company’s 4,500 staffers. Gartner’s technology services and consulting operation grew up in Florida, setting down in Lee County in 1998 with a state tax break worth $1.4 million and a promise to hire 335 people for the service center. Today, Gartner employs 500 people in Fort Myers. “We were looking to expand a few years ago and started talking to Lee County and the state, and our plan was to add a significant number of jobs. And both the county and the state told us of these programs,” said Christopher Lafond, Gartner’s chief financial officer.

Al Diaz/Miami Herald/MCT

Cash sweetners “These programs” were incenSee JOBS, Page A2

Female prison workers win key legal ruling By Michael Doyle McClatchy Washington Bureau / MCT

COLEMAN – Dozens of female staffers say they regularly confront groping, rape threats, public masturbation and other serious sexual harassment while overseeing inmates at the large federal prison complex in Coleman, Fla. Located in Central Florida, about 50 miles northwest of Orlando, the Coleman complex consists of low- and medium-security facilities and two high-security penitentiaries. All told, the Coleman complex houses about 7,100 inmates. But though they say the

ALSO INSIDE

Coleman prison environment is “saturated with sexual abuse and assaults,” the female workers also complain that the federal Bureau of Prisons has failed to act. In some cases, the employees say, supervisors have simply thrown out written complaints about inmate sexual misconduct.

Won key battle Now, in an unusual battle that split the Justice Department, the female workers at Federal Correctional Complex Coleman have won a crucial legal victory. With the Justice Department’s eventual support, but over the Bureau of Prisons’ objections, a Miami-based ad-

ministrative judge has granted powerful class-action status to the aggrieved employees. “We have to make sure the inmates aren’t running out of control,” Washington-based attorney Cyrus Mehri, who represents the workers, said in an interview Wednesday, “and we have to make sure the Bureau of Prisons takes care of its officers.” The class-action decision rendered April 9 by Administrative Judge Joy R. Helprin, endorsed last week by the Justice Department, adds clout to the complaint as it proceeds through the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Nasty behavior

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

More foster parents needed in state

Tammy Padgett, for instance, was one of more than 60 female workers to file an affidavit complaining about the Coleman environment, saying she endures “masturbatory behavior approximately once per week.” A Coleman teacher, Eva Ryles, said an inmate in her classroom “masturbated to the point of ejaculation,” while others say inmates have placed sperm in public places. Vile language is commonplace, the women say, with Ryles adding that “many women have resorted to wearing smocks, jackets or other heavy See RULING, Page A2

WORLD | A6

President will skip ancestral homeland during visit to Africa

OBITUARY | B2

Former FAMU journalism dean dies at 64 FINEST | B5

Meet Teressa

COMMENTARY: GLEN FORD: Detroit’s art treasures saved while the city is picked clean | A4 COMMENTARY: LUCIUS GANTT: DON’T BLAME THE ALCOHOL, BLAME THE CHILDREN | A4


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Florida Courier May 31, 2013 by Central Florida Communicators Group, LLC - Issuu