Florida Courier - July 22, 2016

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The challenge of being Black and blue See Page B1 www.flcourier.com

JULY 22 – JULY 28, 2016

VOLUME 24 NO. 30

MARCHING TO THE BANK

Following up on decades of community advocacy for Black financial institutions, the Black Lives Matter movement has energized a stream of Black Americans to open accounts in Black-owned banks.

COMPILED FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS

One United Bank, located in Miami, is Florida’s only Black-owned bank. Go to www.oneunited.com to open an online account. The bank’s only Florida branch is located at 3275 NW 79th Street in Miami, zip code 33147.

Reacting to the most recent wave of shootings of Black men by police officers, thousands of AfricanAmerican consumers across America are directing their dollars by opening checking and savings accounts in Black-owned banks.

A grassroots effort being called a “Spend Movement” found the nation’s Black banks receiving calls and online requests to open accounts.

According to National Bankers Association (NBA) President Michael Grant, “This is a movement that

began over 100 years ago, but had become dormant as a consequence of racial integration.

The NBA, founded in 1927, is a consortium of 35 African-American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American and women-owned banks.

The organization is headquartered in Washington, D.C. There were 21 Blackowned banks in America with approximately $4.7 billion in assets in 2013, according to HBCU Money.

But times have changed: There were 54 such banks in 1994, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation reports.

2016 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION / CLEVELAND, OHIO

Is Hillary linked up with Satan?

Feeling ‘undervalued’ “Thousands have been mobilized to protest with their spending power. Many African-American consumers are linking the shootings with a sense of powerlessness, feeling undervalued and disrespected,” he explained.

Since July 8, literally thousands of checking and savings accounts have been opened at Black-owned banks.

The surge in new accounts at Black-owned banks springs, in part, from civil rights leaders and orgaSee BANK, Page A2

Seeking answers in Florida Cops, Black activists frustrated

BY DARA KAM THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

Race relations in Florida, where lynchings of Black men were once almost commonplace, have reached a low point as a result of a growing distrust – and outright fear – of law enforcement officers, Black activists told The News Service of Florida in a series of telephone interviews Monday.

The tension is fed by videos documenting Black men sitting in their cars or crossing the street – some of them unarmed – being shot dead by police.

“I have not seen the kind of anger and agitation and unrest and paranoia and frustration across the board that I see now,” the Rev. R.B. Holmes, pastor of Tallahassee’s Bethel Missionary Baptist Church said.

Protecting themselves

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/TNS

Dr. Ben Carson spoke on the second day of the GOP convention on Tuesday and asked delegates whether America is “willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model somebody who acknowledges Lucifer.” The Democratic National Convention kicks off Monday from Philadelphia.

Florida sheriffs are reaching out to activists in the Black community while also taking additional measures to beef up protection for their own.

Martin County Sheriff William Snyder, a former state representative who was a Miami-Dade County police officer during race riots that engulfed urban Miami in 1980, said he is exploring the purchase of “tactical rifles” for all of See ANSWERS, Page A2

Former Fla. journalist uncovers Trump’s ‘stolen’ language

BY BRITTNY MEJIA LOS ANGELES TIMES / TNS

LOS ANGELES – Since he lost his TV reporting job last year, Jarrett Hill has been looking for his next opportunity. It presented itself in an unexpected way.

Hill was sitting at a corner table Monday night in a Starbucks drinking iced coffee and watching the Republican National Convention on an MSNBC live stream. As Melania Trump spoke, she uttered a phrase that the 31-year-old California native had heard once before – from First Lady Michelle Obama.

Jarrett “The only limit to your Hill

ALSO INSIDE

achievements is the strength of your dreams …, ” Melania Trump said during her address to the Republican National Convention.

Instinctively, Hill finished the phrase aloud to his laptop screen: “… and your willingness to work for them.”

He recalled the words from Michelle Obama’s speech because, he said, he had thought to himself at the time that it was “really beautifully written.”

Confirmed plagiarism When Hill googled Michelle Obama and parts of her memorable turn of phrase, her 2008 convention speech popped up. An hour later, after he had watched Melania Trump’s full speech again, he realized more than just a few words had been borrowed.

Hill took to Twitter to share his discovery.

He apparently was the first person to publicly note the similarities between the speeches.

The discovery prompted headlines across media outlets and flooded Hill with interview requests worldwide.

The controversy initially prompted Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s campaign chief, to blame Hillary Clinton and the media for bringing attention to “50 words, and that includes ‘ands’ and ‘thes’ and things like that” that were similar to Michelle Obama’s speech.

On Wednesday, a Trump Organization staff speechwriter named Meredith McIver took the blame.

“Over the phone, she (Melania Trump) read me some passages from Mrs. Obama’s speech as examples. I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft See JOURNALIST, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS NATION | A3

Who was police shooter Gavin Long?

WORLD | B3

Turkey prez: Coup attempt ‘gift from God’

ENVIRONMENT | B4

Impact of sugar industry’s hold over Everglades

COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: BRUCE A. NIXON: SANDERS NEVER HAD THE BLACK VOTE AND NEVER ASKED WHY | A4

FOCUS

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JULY 22 – JULY 28, 2016

Black skin, White words Many people are celebrating the comments made by professional basketball players, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Chris Paul and Dwayne Wade about the state of race relations in America.

The comments were made on a televised sports awards program.

As always, most African-American reactions to the athletes’ comments parroted what the major, minor and social media reported about the unexpected spoken words.

‘Their responsibility’ “It was good for them to speak out,” “They are showing that Black Lives Matter and are important,” or “It’s their responsibility to say something,” are some of the comments listeners and watchers had about their sur-

though Michael Jordan nearly never speaks out about anything!

LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT

prise verbal outlet.

Well, the only “responsibility” they have is to do and say what they feel is right. Basketball players, football players, baseball players, golfers, bowlers, sprinters, tennis players and other athletes are free to express themselves – or not express themselves – about societal events!

People love that those guys spoke. But after the award show, some went out and bought expensive “Air Jordans” for themselves or their children – even

Predictable comments I can’t complain about anything the four basketball players said. The statements were their thoughts given in their own predictable way!

It is always good to stand up and speak out about bad and heinous activities that take place on the streets of your country or those in your neighborhoods.

But the people you love will only comment in a manner that is acceptable to devils that inspire and create the bad situations that they comment about!

Don’t get it twisted. It was great for those guys to express their feelings about race-related issues. But don’t ever go to

sleep and dream that their way of speaking out compared to things that Muhammad Ali said or what Ali did!

Real sacrifices Ali gave up his championship, gave up his sports earnings, gave up his career and, in a lot of ways, risked his life and his freedom to say what he believed about war, about religion and about race relations! Ali was hated by multitudes of both Whites and Blacks for what he believed in and what he said about his beliefs!

No athlete may ever reach the social consciousness level of Ali. But current sports professionals can’t even and won’t even be Jim Brown, Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Curt Flood, Althea Gibson or others.

So don’t tell how great someone is for picking and choosing a convenient time to stand up and

speak! The struggle continues!

We all have a role We don’t have to do or say the same things as a group, as a race or as human beings. But we all should do something!

I applaud Anthony, Paul, James and Wade for what they did. I just hope they keep standing and keep speaking like I do, along with other non-celebrities!

Sometimes Black men and Black women have Black voices and White words –comments about us that are acceptable to them, and perhaps just as much for others, as the words are to us.

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.

ANSWERS

JOURNALIST

his deputies and holding training sessions with local businesses and schools, if requested.

Snyder met recently with a dozen Black activists, will hold a town hall meeting later in the week in a largely African-American neighborhood and is taking to social media to address concerns, he said.

But he also blamed Black activists for contributing to the tension.

that ultimately became the final speech.

“I did not check Mrs. Obama’s speeches. This was my mistake, and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps, as well as to Mrs. Obama.

No harm was meant,” McIver wrote in a statement distributed by the Trump campaign.

from A1

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Worked in Tampa Bay

‘Hateful and racist’ “I could be politically correct and say yes, we have to continue the dialogue, which we do, which I’m doing. But the AfricanAmerican community must mature and deal with the reality that they have too many young Black males that are aggressive and hateful and racist themselves who are consistently making the lives of the average deputy or police officer untenable. And that’s a fact,” Snyder said.

While much of the focus has been on the growing dissatisfaction of people being policed, Snyder’s comments represent what may also be a tipping point for those on the other side of the “thin blue line.”

“If they continue shoving cameras into our faces and calling us names and agitating and trying to create anarchy in their neighborhoods, they may end up winning the day, but the people are not going to be happy with what they get,” he said.

Looking for help Black pastors are organizing a “Solidarity Sunday” to show support for law enforcement and to “encourage the community to not turn on police officers but to turn to them with a spirit of love, unity and respect,” Holmes said.

But Dale Landry, vice president of the Florida branch of the NAACP, said Black activists

BANK from A1

nizations who consistently have pleaded with Black Americans to support Black-owned financial institutions.

But this sudden interest in Black-owned banks also coincides with Black Americans’ protests against the police killings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile near Minneapolis.

“The Black Lives Matter movement is a complement to an emerging economic empowerment movement that is engulfing Black communities all over America,” said Preston Pinkett, NBA chairman and CEO of City National Bank, headquartered in Newark, N.J.

Financial empowerment Baltimore-based attorney Jelani Murrain plans to transfer his hard-earned money to a Black-owned bank, which he considers to be an institution of financial empowerment.

“The fact that Black people have dealt with financial discrimination is a matter of record,” Murrain, a father of three young children, told Urban News Service.

Murrain, 38, said he and his wife decided last week to open an account with Atlanta’s Citizens Trust Bank. While Washington, D.C.’s Industrial Bank is Blackowned, Murrain prefers to invest

MARK BOSTER/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Flowers frame the photos at the roadside memorial of the three police officers, from left, Montrell Jackson, Matthew Gerald and Brad Garafola, killed in the line of duty in Baton Rouge, La., on Tuesday. are tired of being called upon by White officials to quell possible unrest.

“It starts to get ugly when that’s the only time you’re invited to the party, when they flash the ‘Black man’ light,” Landry said, using the Batman superhero phone as an analogy.

Landry said there is “a malignancy of fear spreading among Black people” about the police. He speaks about calls from mothers concerned about what might happen to their adult sons – some with sons of their own – when they travel to work or to the store.

‘No faith’ “People have no faith anymore,” Landry, a retired law enforcement officer, said. “Right now, no lives matter in police hands.”

Landry is pushing a local referendum to create a citizens’ review board to oversee policing in

in Citizens, since his father lives in Atlanta.

“A strong, vibrant Black-owned bank will hopefully ensure Black people have an alternative if faced with financial discrimination in the future,” said Murrain.

Murrain said he likes the stability of Citizens, which was founded by five Black businessmen in 1921. The nation’s third-largest African-American-owned bank’s assets exceed $350 million, according to published reports.

“A strong Citizens Trust Bank, of course, will provide better financial services to all people of Atlanta, not just Black people. The success of Citizens Trust is a win for the Black community and the United States.”

Not alone More than 8,000 people opened accounts at Citizens Trust between July 13 and 18, according to news accounts. New customers flooded the bank after hiphop artist Killer Mike urged Black residents to transfer their money there.

And officials at Houston’s Unity National Bank say more than 700 new customers have opened accounts in the past week.

“It’s fantastic. It’s a beautiful thing. We’re blessed,” said John Scroggins, president and CEO of Unity. “It’s been overwhelming.”

Scroggins said eight to 10 people open accounts in a typical week.

Scroggins said a local pastor told him he would withdraw his money from Chase Bank and hand Unity a check for $250,000.

Leon County and is urging other communities to pass similar initiatives.

Holmes advocates for broadbased advances – better schools, doing away with predatory lending and making it easier for exfelons to get jobs – to counter the despair in some urban communities.

“There is a feeling of hopeless, and when a person feels hopeless, they will ambush anyone, police, politicians, parents, principals, whatever,” the pastor said.

Florida was ranked number one in police killings of unarmed individuals last year, according to Umi Selah, the mission director for the Dream Defenders, a Black rights organization that pre-dates the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

‘Home to roost’ While his group does not advocate violence, Selah said the country’s foundation is rooted in

Shaking hands “I’ve been in the lobby shaking hands and thanking customers,” Scroggins said. He described them as African-American men and women professionals. “One customer told me, ‘The cause is worth the wait.’”

The cause, Scroggins said, stemmed from recent, high-profile police shootings of Black men.

“But,” he said, “the cause quickly turned to a social consciousness about Black empowerment and supporting Black-owned businesses.”

Scroggins said he plans to continue re-investing in the Black community by approving more small-business loans.

What’s the effect?

So, aside from symbolism, what does money in a Black-owned bank achieve for the Black community that it doesn’t deliver in a mainstream establishment?

Some Black Americans believe that investing in a Black bank will help circulate more money in the Black community, revive crumbling neighborhoods, secure a Black economic power base and enhance Black customers’ chances of receiving small-business loans.

“This is a very positive development for Black banks. They have always provided a disproportionate share of the small business loans and consumer loans to African-Americans. Ironically, it seems that we have gone full circle back to where we were before desegregation.

violence.

“The chickens are coming home to roost,” he said. “With the amount of video evidence that we have…you see very clearly the level of violence instigated by this country. So there should be no confusion about the fact that now people find the only solution in violence.”

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings, who serves as the head of the Florida Sheriffs Association, said the Black Lives Matter movement – which some blame for violence against police – is “not going away.”

At the same time, Demings, who is Black, said the majority of African-Americans support law enforcement in their communities.

He urged both sides to “tone down the rhetoric” and strengthen the relationships between law enforcement and community members, including clergy.

“The Black community is turning inward and seeking to provide security for itself. And few would argue against the notion that nearly every major social issue plaguing Black people in America can find its roots in economic deprivation.”

Following her lead Meanwhile Patrice Gaines, 67, said she will follow her daughter’s lead. Her daughter, Andrea Carter of Atlanta, 47, transferred her money to Citizens.

Gaines plans to open an account with Black-owned, New Orleans-based Liberty Bank. It was founded in 1972 with assets of $2 million. Alden J. McDonald, Jr. has led Liberty since day one and has grown its holdings to $374 million, according to the bank’s website.

“Andrea’s actions reminded me that I have a much longer view of this country and its history,” said Gaines, a former Washingtonian who now lives in Lake Wylie, S. C.

‘Pride’ in neighborhood “She never saw U Street in Washington, D.C., when it was lively with Black businesses, including a Black bank,” she said.

“There was a pride that came over me when I walked on U Street,” Gaines said.

“So, maybe this time is the time when my daughter can experience a fraction of the pride I felt when I lived in a neighborhood surrounded by Black-owned businesses, and I followed my mother into the Black-owned bank to get

Hill, who is from Fairfield, Calif., moved to Los Angeles in 2011 to work in television. In 2014, he moved to ABC Action News WFTS in the Tampa Bay area to work as a producer and a digital on-camera reporter.

He lost his job in April 2015, less than a week after celebrating his 30th birthday.

“I loved a lot of people I worked with there, but I’m a little salty,” Hill said. “I was really upset to have been laid off the way that I was.

“My gut told me I’d come back to that station on a national story someday. No idea it would be like this.”

Still looking Hill has been working with his agent to look for his next full-time job and has freelanced for places like Huffington Post and Independent Television News in Britain. He also runs an interior design business on the side.

Now, things are looking up, as he prepared for a CNN interview.

He has dozens of other media requests and seemed still in shock over the attention his Twitter feed had garnered.

“I would love to get a great job from this, doing something that I love,” he said, “but I don’t think I’ve even processed all of what’s happening.”

Times staff writer Noah Bierman contributed to this report.

money out of her account.”

Gaines said she is proud to invest in Liberty Bank, which has opened branches in Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas.

Several African-American celebrities also plan to open accounts with Black-owned banks.

Performers Usher, Killer Mike and Jermaine Dupri joined Citizens Trust Bank in February. Meanwhile, Gaines focuses on the big picture.

“My daughter has reminded me of the simple truth – that our money can still be used as a tool of power to make a point,” she said.

“Sometimes in a seemingly integrated business environment, we forget this. It’s not lost on me that my daughter and a younger generation had to remind me of this.”

A precaution Hoping to manage the expectations of its expanding customer base, Black bankers are encouraging some of their prospective customers who have lost their checkwriting privileges to work with bank employees to correct the situation.

Grant also cautioned Black consumers to be mindful of the voluminous requests that the banks are Michael receiving online, Grant in person and by telephone.

Michael H. Cottman of the Urban News Service contributed to this report.

JULY 22 – JULY 28, 2016

NATION

A3

Grappling to understand killer’s bizarre claims Gavin Long, who killed officers in Baton Rouge, claimed to be a life coach, spiritual leader.

BY KANSAS CITY STAR/TNS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – He described his third selfpublished book as the one that would transform the reader’s life, as it had his own.

“The Laws of the Cosmos,” Cosmo Setepenra boasted on his website, was an amazing journey toward self-awareness and empowerment. The book, according to an online presentation, was coauthored by Enensa Amen, but when contacted by the Kansas City Star, Amen said he merely designed the cover.

“I didn’t even know his real name,” Amen said Monday, a day after authorities say Gavin Eugene Long – who had recast himself as Setepenra – killed three law officers and wounded three others in Baton Rouge, La. “We did not engage each other personally. He sent me money, he sent me files. …

I never even met the guy.”

Some people with whom Long claimed an association said Monday that they never knew him or had any contact with him; others said he had mischaracterized their relationship.

Why Baton Rouge?

As Louisiana authorities began to piece together what led up to the July 17 killings, a clearer picture was emerging of the 29-year-old Kansas City, Mo., man who authorities say ambushed the officers. And that picture of Long – who in recent years had declared himself a nutritionist, life coach and spiritual leader – reveals a man who would take what he could from others and wasn’t always what he said he was.

But the path from that to a man who hunted police in Louisiana 700 miles away is tough to map or even understand.

“It’s important for us to look at that timeline that got him to yesterday morning,” Col. Mike Edmonson of the Louisiana State Police said during a news conference Monday afternoon. “And why? Why did he come to Baton Rouge?

Why did he pick Baton Rouge? Why did he pick that location right there and why did he kill police officers? That’s what is important to us.”

No comment Authorities know Long had been in community several they think he drove from Dallas, where

that their days; there he’d

DAVID EULITT/KANSAS CITY STAR/TNS

FBI evidence recovery team members search inside the Waldo Heights apartment complex at 8101 Campbell Street in Kansas City, Mo., on July 17, in connection to the shooting in Baton Rouge, La., by accused shooter Gavin Eugene Long, 29, of Kansas City. gone after renting a Chevrolet Malibu in Kansas City.

Investigators still haven’t interviewed people with key information about where Long went, whom he saw and what he did.

Family and friends have said little about the 2005 graduate of Grandview High School and five-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps.

On July 17, a man at 1166 E. 77th Terrace, the last known address for Long, came to the door with a gun in his hand and told a Star reporter he had no comment.

And on Monday, a reporter from another outlet tweeted at 12:06 p.m., “Man just angrily kicked GMA (“Good Morning America”) crew off of Gavin Long family residence in KC. “Do I look like a b---to you?” he shouted.”

‘Bizarre’ promotion Under the Setepenra identity, Long had a Facebook page called Cosmo Global on which he advertised his self-help books and touted events.

The page says he lost more than 80 pounds in six months at age 16 after teaching himself about diet and fitness.

The site says he had planned a “Celebrate Your Life Conference” in Phoenix in November and a “Cruise Into Spirit” to the Caribbean in October.

The notice claimed that at

cording to the organization, People Against Covert Torture & Surveillance International, also known as PACTS International.

Long is at least the third “targeted individual” to become a mass shooter in recent years, said Derrick Robinson, PACTS’ executive director.

Aaron Alexis, a 34-yearold civilian contractor, killed a dozen people at the Washington Navy Yard in September 2013 before police killed him.

Two weeks earlier, Robinson had exchanged emails with Alexis, who thanked PACTS for finally providing answers to things happening to him.

Ties to FSU shooter

Gavin Long, 29, ambushed police officers and killed three and wounded three in Baton Rouge on July 17. least 10 of “the most spiritual leaders on the planet” would join the cruise.

One of the spiritual leaders listed was Kim Russo, a psychic medium.

“She does not know him at all,” said David Roberge, Russo’s personal manager. “She has no idea why he would associate himself with her.”

Long never contacted the cruise producer or travel agency to be a speaker or attendee on the cruise or any tour produced by Di-

vine Travels, according to a statement released regarding Long’s claims.

“He is in no way affiliated with Cruise Into Spirit or Divine Travels,” the statement read. “Our prayers are with the families of the fallen officers.”

Added Roberge: “This is just bizarre.”

Fractured family Long’s upbringing in Kansas City was difficult at times.

He was the only child of Herschel and Corine Long and born a little less than two years after their 1985 marriage. The Longs bought the home at 1166 E. 77th Terrace in 1990.

About five years later, Corine Long filed for divorce.

Gavin Long was in the sole custody of his mother when the divorce was finalized in 1998. According to a judgment from that divorce, Herschel Long had “done very little to foster and maintain an affectionate relationship between himself and the child.”

The judgment described how Herschel Long frequently failed to appear for scheduled visits with his son while the divorce was pending and said he hadn’t bought birthday or Christmas gifts for Gavin.

It described one instance where Herschel Long picked up his son for a visit and dropped him off at day care at a casino.

“The Father’s conduct toward the child has been unkind and inexcusable and is not in the best interests of the child,” the court filing said. “Gavin very

much misses his Father.”

Herschel Long died in 2004.

Military service Court records also paint a picture of the family’s financial difficulties when Gavin Long was young. A vehicle listed in his parent’s divorce proceedings had been repossessed. A bank account had a nominal balance. Neither parent could afford health insurance for their son.

Long served seven months in Iraq and was discharged in August 2010 with the rank of sergeant, according to Marine Corps records.

He attended infantry school and the Marine Corps Communications Electrical School. Records show that he was a data network specialist in the Marines and served in Okinawa and California.

In Apri1 2015, Long contacted a California organization that serves as a support group for people who believe military or government officials are electronically tracking and harassing them.

The harassment can vary from mild to severe, with some of the worst cases allegedly involving the use of secret weapons to inflict pain, according to victims, who call themselves “targeted individuals.”

‘Targeted individual’ Long asked to be put on the organization’s “buddy list” while living in West Africa. But a month later, he deactivated his account without explanation, ac-

In November 2014, another “targeted individual,” lawyer Myron May, opened fire at the Florida State University (FSU) library before police killed him. He believed government “stalkers” were firing a direct energy weapon at him to inflict pain.

Long had posted a video of May on his YouTube channel. That leads Robinson to believe Long patterned his shooting rampage off May, who may have patterned his Florida State shooting after Alexis and the Navy Yard.

Based on YouTube videos posted by Long, it appears Long thought the Marines were targeting him and keeping him from getting jobs, Robinson said.

Long apparently served as a contact for people who believed they were targeted and were seeking help from another group, the Columbus, Ohio-based nonprofit Freedom From Covert Harassment and Surveillance.

That group describes itself as a support group for people marginalized by electronic harassment campaigns, often at the hands of government or law enforcement personnel.

The group’s January newsletter included its “buddy list,” a series of regional contacts offering support for people subjected to these types of campaigns. That list had Long’s e-mail as the contact for victims in Burkina Faso, a western Africa nation.

As for Long’s book? By Monday afternoon, Amazon had taken down the page listing it.

The Kanas City Star’s Laura Bauer, Mara Rose Williams, Donna McGuire, Katy Bergen, Steve Vockrodt and Matt Campbell contributed to this report.

EDITORIAL

A4

JULY 22 – JULY 28, 2016

Sanders never had the Black vote and never asked why A Fusion article by Terrell Jermaine Starr titled, “How Bernie Sanders Lost Black Voters” purports to explain why the Sanders campaign and its Black operatives failed to make a dent in Hillary Clinton’s overwhelming Black vote.

The article blames the Sanders campaign for not throwing enough financial resources at “Black outreach.” It also faults the candidate and his top advisors for not focusing clearly and publicly “...on the problems so many Black voters wanted addressed: police brutality, white supremacy and the ways in which economic inequality is inextricable from race...”

While both those factors are significant – the campaign certainly could have thrown more money and staff into “Black outreach” and the candidate should have spoken more clearly and persuasively on issues important to African-Americans –they don’t begin to explain Hillary’s hold on the Black vote or how it might have been shaken.

To unlock that particular door, the Sanders campaign or Mr. Starr would have to at least look for the key. They’d have to explore why how Hillary got that support, and just what were the power relationships which make that support possible. They’d have to ask why the most right-wing corporate Democrat has the most left-wing constituency in the Democratic Party on lockdown.

They didn’t ask Instead of asking those questions, the Sanders campaign and Mr. Starr’s Fusion article treated the Black community as a kind of united corporate whole with no perceptible internal divisions or contradictions, all of it potentially winnable by just putting the right message in front of the right audiences – or throwing enough staff and money at the problem.

That was Sanders’ mistake and it’s the error of the Fusion article as well.

Sanders didn’t lose the Black vote; he never had it.

Both the Sanders campaign and Mr. Starr seem to assume some kind of level playing field exists or existed in which they had the opportunity to persuade the Black vote away from those who had it, without the bother of questioning how and why their opponents DID have it. And they didn’t consider the relationships of power and dependency which tie almost the entire cohort of Black politicians, church leaders

BRUCE A. DIXON BLACK AGENDA REPORT

and traditional Black leadership to right-wing corporate Democrats.

An old mindset The vision of “the Black community” as a united, undifferentiated whole comes from the era of struggle against Jim Crow, from the time of Booker T. Washington, and it persists to this day.

It’s a construct Adolph Reed calls the “brokerage model” of leadership, in which a class of anointed Black leaders is thrown up – preachers, politicians, business figures – whose job for the last hundred years has been to represent the interests of all of us, to be the spokespeople for our unified demands. In other words, they are the brokers on our behalf in the halls of power.

Needless to say, the class composition of this leadership cohort is NOT the same class as the locked out and locked up, and the “unified demands” presented on behalf of us all by this kind of leadership often don’t reflect the interest of Blacks threatened by gentrification, or AfricanAmerican workers precariously employed and unemployed, or those of the young, the female or the queer.

Protecting themselves This time-honored vision of Black leadership must always demand “unity” to protect its own legitimacy. It must also aggressively suppress divergent points of view in the name of the “Black unity,” which is the excuse for the leaders’ existence. As Reed points out, it’s a fundamentally top-down and anti-democratic model of politics and political action – one that places no particular value on bottom-up organizing, nor upon broad democratic participation in decision making, or of accountability of leadership to followers.

No accountability The utterly unaccountable nature of traditional Black leadership is why the Congressional Black Caucus mostly endorsed the militarization of cops, why it backs the arming and financing of apartheid in Israel, and doesn’t stand against gentrification or school privatization or the

Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 280 #STRONG – Less than a month ago, I wrote this: It’s painful to know that for the foreseeable future, Orlando will be on the list of sites that bring mass murders to mind: Columbine, Sandy Springs, San Bernardino, etc. And anytime I see a #STRONG hashtag with a city’s name in it – #ORLANDOSTRONG, #BOSTONSTRONG, etc. – I immediately start thinking of violence and murder… I’m hoping not to see more #STRONG hashtags in the future. But given the fact that there are more than 400 million guns in circulation in America, my hope is unrealistic.

It’s unfortunately only a matter of time and place…

Since then, there’s now #DallasStrong and #BatonRougeStrong. I don’t have the powers of a fortune teller; it’s just common sense. With more than 400 million guns in circulation in America, more mass shootings are inevitable, whether they involve cops or so-called “civilians”…

Dallas and Baton Rouge were

QUICK TAKES FROM #2: STRAIGHT, NO CHASER

CHARLES W. CHERRY II, ESQ. PUBLISHER

foreseeable – and to a certain extent inevitable.

I’m talking now to folks in all levels of law enforcement.

Any Black person my age (59 as we speak) that keeps his or her “ear to the ground” in the community and online can see that younger generations of Black Americans are different from my Black “baby boomer” generation.

Younger Black folks are well aware nowadays of America’s history of baked-in structural racism and hypocrisy from Day One of the nation’s founding. They weren’t fed the George Washington-cherry tree-freedom justice

militarization of Africa, why it did not muster a peep of objection to the displacement of a quarter million Black people from New Orleans and the Gulf after Katrina, or vote against the bailout of criminal banksters who sold predatory mortgages to Black homeowners, stripping Black America of 90 percent of family wealth in the 2007-08 housing meltdown.

Without mapping out, acknowledging and questioning the lineup of forces arrayed against it, organizers of the Sanders campaign never even knocked on the door of Black support. They were knocking on the Black wall, unable to find the door.

Behind that wall however, the Black political class was able to produce an overwhelming Black vote for Hillary, in keeping with its alliance to the most right-wing and corporate-dominated sectors of that party.

Only Greens are left The Sanders campaign is over now, except for the efforts of staffers to herd followers, activists and contributors behind Hillary Clinton. The campaign of Jill Stein and the Green Party is now the only one that even wants to build support among AfricanAmericans. To do that, Greens will have to do what the Sanders campaign was unwilling and unable to do.

They and their Black supporters will have to interrogate Black allegiance to an entrenched Black leadership that serves only itself. They’ll have to find and cultivate relationships with forces not tied to those leaders, and develop stands on issues with them.

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: THE GOP PRESIDENTIAL TICKET

DAVE GRANLUND, POLITICALCARTOONS.COM

and hardest, a project that’s already cost tens of thousands of qualified experienced Black teachers their careers, imperiled the educational future of millions, and destabilized hundreds of Black communities nationwide – all with the compliance of large part of the existing Black political elite.

They’ll have to find ways to help boost and popularize the “opt-out” movement in Black communities, which right now is the only effective resistance to the bipartisan policy of corporate education reform.

More demands

On issues, Jill and the Greens will have to do more of what Sanders didn’t do.

They’ll have to get far out ahead of what Democrats are talking in the area of responses to racist policing, way beyond body cameras, sensitivity training and proceduralism, and into demanding the abolition of “police bills of rights” and police contract provisions that shield cops from effective investigations.

They’ll have to demand effective local and democratic control over policing and police practices, something that exists nowhere in the US. They’ll have to vigorously denounce the drive to privatize education as a thing that hits Black and Brown communities first

They’ll have to demand a complete demilitarization of Africa policy, and an embargo on weapons, resupply and military training not just to the Middle East but to Africa as well, the frontier for the next round of wars and the location of dozens of drone bases and scores of US military outposts.

They will have to point out again that forgiveness of student loans will affect proportionately more Black women than anybody else, because Black women are the most likely to have availed themselves of predatory student loans in the hopes of bettering their chances in the job market.

And most especially, Jill’s Black supporters will have to openly break with traditional Black leadership and their top-down methods, and openly question their right-wing alliances.

Jill Stein rightly says that you cannot build a revolution inside a counter revolutionary party.

You also cannot expect a counter-revolutionary elite to support your revolution. It’s not like any Black mayors, CBC members or prominent Black Democrats or Black megachurch preachers are

and democracy fables we grew up learning. They’ve learned from elementary school that America was a country meant for White men only when it was founded.

They are well aware of the genocidal atrocities committed against Native Americans, and the government-sponsored violence unleashed against those who were considered to be obstacles to America’s God-given “exceptionalism” – including revered and non-violent Americans such as MLK. They are well aware of their constitutional rights and they won’t hesitate to avail themselves of them – whether that includes free speech, the right to object to a search by police, or openly (and legally) carrying a semi-automatic weapon.

They are well aware that America hasn’t lived up to its promises, despite 250 years of Black struggle.

They won’t be disrespected.

They won’t “stay quiet,” as their more cautious parents advise them to do.

They see their peers being gunned down in what seems an endless loop of smartphone video. They see the criminal justice system malfunction when it

comes to prosecuting cops; they see the reflexive protective reaction of politicians; they see the “no snitching” policy enforced within “the thin blue line” when it comes to rooting bad cops out.

And they are IMPATIENT. They want equality NOW. Throw all that in with social media’s instant connectivity and having the ability to research anything from your cellphone.

They understand that historically, America only responds to two things: the threat of violence and the threat of economic uncertainty. And unlike their parents, some see violence as a viable method to get freedom, justice and democracy for Black people that’s 250 years coming.

Anybody that blames Dallas and Baton Rouge merely on “mental illness” or “evil among us” is in denial. These were premeditated murders for a REASON. I’m not justifying it. But I’m telling folks in charge, particularly the politicians, the NRA, and the cops, there’s a level of extreme frustration and anger that has led two young Black men – both military veterans, both with ready access to lethal weaponry, and both willing to go on suicide missions to kill numbers of cops

Action list

Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher

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about to go Green.

Wouldn’t go to war To shake loose a good percentage of the Black vote, Sanders would have had to go to war against Black congressmen, Black mayors and the entire Black political establishment – all of the Democrats – in a Democratic primary election. That was never going to happen.

Such a campaign can only be waged OUTSIDE the Democratic Party and outside the bonds of fake Black unity which prevail inside it.

In the long term, a Green Party can only grow if it sinks deep roots in the Black and Brown communities which the Democratic Party now regards as its “base vote,” its captive constituency.

Choose a side The fight to transform Black leadership will certainly outlast the few remaining weeks of this political campaign. But the remaining actors must choose a side in that struggle. Jill and the Greens can ignore that need for transforming Black leadership, or they can take part in it. I’m betting that, within the limited time frame of this campaign, the people running Jill Stein’s campaign will find a way to do exactly that.

On a longer time horizon, I am betting that the Green Party will be able to transform itself into a more internally accountable and “small-d” democratic organization that can build effective political campaigns and a permanent presence in Black constituencies. Some of us are on that case.

Bruce Dixon is managing editor of BlackAgendaReport. com. Contact him at bruce.dixon@blackagendareport.com. before they themselves were killed – that has taken hold in America right now. If you ignore or deny that anger and frustration, you do so at your peril.

And quit talking about a “Blue Life.” There’s no such thing. The term itself betrays a fundamental ignorance of American history.

Blue is the color of a uniform that can removed. “Black” is a skin color that is immutable. Africans were brought over to America because their dark melanated skin marked them as “the other,” as slaves brought here to do the work your ancestors couldn’t or wouldn’t do.

When Black cops remove their “blue,” they are still Black. Ask them and they will tell you.

They get profiled and stopped.

And they can get them killed just as easily as Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were.

Don’t believe me? Check the names of Derwin Pannell and Omar Edwards in New York and Jacai Colson in Maryland. They were all “blue lives” killed by fellow officers because their “Black lives” didn’t matter.

Hit me up at ccherry2@ gmail.com.

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JULY 22 – JULY 28, 2016

Black doctors stand against police violence The National Medical Association (NMA), representing over 50,000 predominantly AfricanAmerican physicians nationally, is deeply concerned by the recent and past incidents of police use of lethal force in the execution of their duties.

The NMA is cognitive of the tremendous contributions of law enforcement officers in preserving communities at great personal sacrifice, as well as exposing themselves on a daily basis to potential danger and life-threatening situations.

In addition, the NMA decries the violence against police officers. We call for the end of criminal and amoral attacks on police, as exemplified by the recent shooting deaths of Baton Rouge and Dallas law enforcement officers.

End the cycle The NMA calls for measures that will deflect both of these forms of violence and end the cycle of violence between the police and the communities they are duty-bound to protect and serve.

The NMA believes that violence, in particular the use of force by law enforcement, is a public health issue that disparately affects African-Americans and communities of color as well as other vulnerable populations such as the homeless, the mentally ill, those who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the poor, and teenagers.

In 2015, the NMA House of Delegates passed a resolution on Lethal and Sub-Lethal Injury Resulting from Law Enforcement Altercations. This resolution calls for the uniformity of training of law enforcement, as well as the uniformity of tracking and reporting deaths in custody.

Over the last two years, the public has been made acutely aware of police actions which have resulted in the unjustified killing of innocent unarmed African-American men. Though Philando Castile and Alton Ster-

THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION GUEST COMMENTARY

The NMA believes that violence, in particular the use of force by law enforcement, is a public health issue that disparately affects African-Americans and communities of color as well as other vulnerable populations such as the homeless, the mentally ill, those who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the poor, and teenagers. ling are the most recent victims to perish as a result of the actions of police officers, they are unfortunately on a long and growing list of citizens to suffer this fate.

The NMA deplores this unjustified use of excessive and often lethal force.

Now the NMA announces the development of the Working Group on Gun Violence and Police Use of Force dedicated to establishing recommendations for comprehensive public health

Why we need Black anger The entire world witnessed American police murder, but time stopped for Black people when Alton Sterling and Philando Castille died on camera.

Alton Sterling was killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, shot to death as he lay subdued and helpless. The trauma of that moment was still fresh when Philando Castille was shot after he told police he had a licensed handgun. His partner Diamond Reynolds was composed enough to film the scene. Castille lay dying but she understandably felt compelled to address his killer as “sir” as she and her four-year old child were treated like criminals.

Rage, then grief The reaction of rage was immediate and was tempered only by grief. It is not the first time that 21st century lynchings were seen by millions of people. But by now we know that the outcome doesn’t change whether the victim died in secret or on camera.

MARGARET KIMBERLEY BLACK AGENDA REPORT

There is rarely any justice because the system is designed to potentially treat every Black person the way it treated Sterling and Castille.

That anger was short-lived and disappeared when the tables were turned on police in Dallas, Texas. A man by the name of Micah Johnson, now dead at the hands of police himself, is the named suspect in the shooting of five officers during a protest march.

Black people are taught to hide their anger. The deaths of the Dallas police were a signal to stop demanding justice and begin the foolish and dangerous loop of sentiment. Just at the moment when rage was most needed, hand holding, candle light

Here’s how it all adds up Like millions, I am shocked and appalled by the needless killing of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and five Dallas police officers.

Respect for humanity requires that we reject, in the strongest terms, the unwarranted and unjustified taking of life. I search earnestly for answers to the “Why” of their executions and the reason that, after 240 years, our nation still sustains a level of racial hatred and intolerance that fuels these acts of violence.

Anyone giving an honest look at our national tragedy of racial violence, especially the recent epidemic of cop-on-citizen homicide, will agree that we, as a nation, have a conflict of major proportions that must be addressed and resolved if any of us are to live with the assurance of even a modicum of peace. The back-andforth response of violence and retaliation can only lead to our mutual destruction.

and criminal justice reform. This working group will set a clear violence prevention public health agenda for America while advocating for sensible gun reform.

The work product will be geared towards decreasing the morbidity and mortality disparities associated with violence and police use of force within our communities.

We, as African-American physicians, reject the notion that our communities must be policed in a way that results in increased injury, deaths and incarceration of so many of our patients. It is clear that instances of inappropriate force by police can lead to significant injury.

The injuries associated with police use of force occur during three timeframes: • the pre-custody period (commission of a crime, during a fight, chase, and apprehension, during a siege or hostage situation, or during restraint or submission); • the in-custody period (soon after being admitted to jail, during interrogation, during incarceration, or legal execution) AND: • the post-custody period (revenge by police or rival criminals or after reentry into the community).

Injuries and complications Injuries sustained by civilians at the hands of law enforcement include gunshot wounds, skull fractures, cervical spine injuries, facial fractures, broken legs, blunt trauma orbital floor fractures, laryngeal cartilage fractures, shoulder dislocations, cuts and bruises, concussions, hemorrhage, choking (positional or due to upper body holds), abdominal trauma, hemothorax, and pneumothorax.

Complications of such injuries include post-traumatic brain swelling, infections following open fractures and lacerations, hydrocephalus due to blood or infection, as well as subdural and epidural hematomas and, in the most severe cases, death. vigils and pleas for calm became the order of the day.

The corporate media needed to take Black anger off of the front pages and the airwaves. Every photo of a Black cop crying over his dead colleagues was placed front and center. Black protesters who shook hands with red necks were lionized. Every image of a White cop hugging a Black child was suddenly deemed prize worthy.

Condolences and calm The turn of events showed the depth of Black American miseducation. The same feelings which brought rage upon seeing Sterling and Castille dead suddenly became useless, even damaging.

Even the victims’ families gave condolences and asked for calm.

The Sterlings and the Castilles should have felt no need to say anything about the Dallas police killings and yet they succumbed as well.

The two dead men were all but forgotten after police died in the way that Black people do every day. Suddenly love was in the air.

Love, healing, togetherness are worthy but not when rage is justified. These otherwise laudatory feelings are used to silence Black anger when it is needed most.

an empirical evaluation of these elements of resolution as they apply to our “national disgrace,” I can offer a personal evaluation based upon years of observation.

First, there appears to be insufDR. E. FAYE ficient understanding and agreeWILLIAMS, ment as to the nature of our probESQ. lem among those with the authority and responsibility to make TRICE EDNEY WIRE constructive change. My assessment is that few – with the excepThree requirements tion of those experiencing racial As an attorney and counselor, discrimination – understand the I’m familiar with the mediation cumulative effect of discriminaprocess and the genuine effort it tory acts. takes to accomplish conciliation between aggrieved parties. Those Won’t accept who practice this type of negotiamaltreatment tion will usually identify 3 essenI’m reminded of the old adage tial requirements for success.

• There must be agreement be- that one can only beat a dog for tween parties as to the nature of so long before he’ll attack out of the rage and frustration of receivthe conflict.

• The conflicting parties must ing needless beatings. Unlike the communicate in a “common” time when some of us were conditioned into accepting the indiglanguage.

• The conflicting parties must nities of discrimination just “as communicate honestly without a matter of the way things were,” most Black people are no longer ulterior motive or deceit.

Although I don’t profess to offer willing to accept these indignities

EDITORIAL

A5

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: MELANIA TRUMP AND PLAGIARISM

BOB ENGLEHART, CAGLECARTOONS.COM

For these reasons a public health approach is critical to addressing the administration of force by police officers within communities subject to disparate practices. When an arrest is indicated, it is imperative that police officers are trained in techniques designed to safely restrain suspects, while protecting themselves from harm, with the goal of safe transport to police headquarters.

Understanding the inherent stress involved in performing their duties, it is critical that police officers have an initial mental health assessment and ongoing psychological support services. As a result, we ask for the following: • An immediate review and assessment of current state, local, and federal law enforcement hiring practices and their criteria for selection.

• An immediate review and assessment of current state, local, and federal law enforcement training criteria, continuing education, mental health risk assessment, further development of psychological support services, bias mitigation, and conflict resolution protocols.

• That specific federal appropriations be reinstated to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for basic research into the public health effects of gun

violence.

• That there be mandatory state, local, and federal adherence to H.R. 1447, The Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013, and that it be amended to require the inclusion of independent Medical Examiner reports and the US Standard Death Certificate.

We support police officers and law enforcement officials who are working to address these critical issues. We commend them for their daily efforts to protect and serve their community, ensuring the safety of citizens.

As physicians, we believe violence is unacceptable under any circumstance. We ask that all demonstrations remain peaceful to protect the health and safety of citizens and law enforcement alike.

The media promoted the foolishness and made no attempt to do the work of journalism. Every day an average of three people die at the hands of police in the United States, 1,134 in 2016 alone. Other nations have never had that number of police killings in their entire history. This data alone should be the catalyst for investigative reporting.

It is obvious that Obama never likes to talk about Black people.

His resentment at having to do so is palpable. He certainly won’t side with people who love him and risk angering the White people that he loves instead.

Media diversions Instead the media use well known racists like Rush Limbaugh and Rudy Giuliani to stoke useless anger and divert attention. Their opinions are irrelevant and giving them a forum is a substitute for raising the questions that White supremacy would prefer to keep covered up.

Of course some of the “kumbayaa” nonsense was prompted by repression against those who spoke out in their righteous indignation. A Black firefighter was under investigation for saying that police need “bullets to the head.” He didn’t actually shoot anyone. That right is reserved for cops.

Of course, the sorry spectacle is all reinforced by Barack Obama. His comments on the killings of Sterling and Castille were as Cornel West said, “weak.” that accumulate in our psyches and eventually distort our relationships with others and our place in the world.

Some of us are more inclined to strike back in ways, as futile as they might be, that we believe will express the full scope of our rage and frustration, and bring some measure of justice and retribution against those who harm us.

Too many Whites feign ignorance of racial discrimination impacting our community and that these acts are more than isolated incidents which have little or no connection to a larger reality. They don’t see that with each act of racial injustice or violence, there’s a corresponding increase in the level of anger in our communities. They see our communities disconnected by geography, but fail to see that we’re connected by an understanding of our common potential as victims of the same injustice.

Founded in 1895, the National Medical Association is the nation’s oldest and largest medical association representing the interests of AfricanAmerican physicians and the patients they serve. The NMA advocates for policies that would assure equitable and quality health care for all people. For more information on the NMA visit, www.NMAnet. org. Click on this story at www. flcourier.com to write your own response.

No cops prosecuted According to press reports he called the shooting of the Dallas police a “hate crime” and compared it to the mass murder of Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina. This same president never used his authority to prosecute even one killer cop.

Showing anger towards Obama would be the truest test of Black political development. For now, Black people need help even acknowledging that they are angry about their condition at all. Expecting more than that is a vain dream.

Margaret Kimberley’s column appears weekly in BlackAgendaReport.com. Contact her at Margaret.Kimberley@ Black AgendaReport.com.

Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response. little hope that we can establish reasoned dialogue. We’re speaking uncommon languages to each other.

I refer to those who listened to Rudy Giuliani attempt to explain that, instead of police violence, the real problem in our community is Black-on-Black violence.

Failing to acknowledge multigenerational practices that’ve left many of us unable to compete economically or to maintain minimal parity with Whites, Giuliani doubled-down on justifying disparate and unethical policing practices in Black communities.

His motives are clear. Giuliani, like too many others, wishes to maintain the social status quo – so nothing changes.

Dr. E. Faye Williams is national chair of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc. Contact her via www.na‘Uncommon languages’ tionalcongressbw.org. Click on Lacking a common under- this story at www.flcourier.com standing of the problem, there’s to write your own response.

NATION

TOJ A6

JULY 22 – JULY 28, 2016

Congressman’s comments about White people cause stir

Bill Cosby is escorted from the courthouse after attending his preliminary hearing at the Montgomery County Courthouse on May 24 in Norristown, Pa. The judge in that case ruled there was sufficient evidence for a sex abuse case against the comedian to proceed to trial.

BY JAVIER PANZAR LOS ANGELES TIMES TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

ED HILLE/PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/TNS

Judge: Cosby probe did not violate confidentiality agreement

BY LAURA MCCRYSTAL PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

PHILADELPHIA – Andrea Constand did not break her confidential settlement agreement with Bill Cosby by cooperating with detectives in an investigation that led to criminal charges against the entertainer, a federal judge has ruled.

The ruling, by District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno, dismissed portions of Cosby’s bid to make Constand return the money he paid her a decade ago to settle sexual-assault claims.

Cosby contended that the agreement prevented any party from disclosing details about the lawsuit or a 2005 criminal investigation into the allegations.

But a provision preventing someone from voluntarily sharing information about crimes with law enforcement would be “unenforceable,” Robreno wrote in the ruling, made public Monday.

2006 settlement Constand first reported the alleged assault to police in 2005, saying Cosby had drugged and molested her in his

Cheltenham home.

After then-Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. declined to file charges, Constand sued Cosby. The suit was settled out of court in 2006, and its details, including how Andrea much Cosby paid ConConstad stand, have never been made public.

Montgomery County prosecutors reopened the investigation last summer, after excerpts of a deposition Cosby gave in Constand’s suit were made public, and dozens of women came forward with similar allegations. Cosby has repeatedly denied all allegations against him.

Some claims dismissed He sued Constand, her attorneys, and her mother in February and demanded the return of his settlement money, contending they broke the settlement agreement by cooperating with law enforcement.

On Monday, Robreno dismissed Constand’s mother from the suit, and the claims against Constand and her attorneys that related to their cooperation

with the criminal investigation.

Robreno did not dismiss claims that Constand’s attorneys violated the settlement through alleged involvement in a court reporter’s release of the full transcript of Cosby’s deposition to the media last summer, or by writing an open letter to Castor last year that criticized his handling of the 2005 investigation.

Facing prison time Robreno also did not dismiss Cosby’s claim that Constand violated the confidentiality agreement by giving an interview to the Toronto Sun or by posting a tweet that said “I won’t go away, there is a lot more I will say.”

But given that the case is proceeding, Cosby’s attorneys on Monday issued a statement saying they were “very pleased with the ruling in favor of our client, which means that this case will be decided where it should be – in a court of law and on a full factual record.”

Cosby, 79, has been ordered to stand trial in Montgomery County on charges of aggravated indecent assault and has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces five to 10 years in prison.

A pretrial conference before Judge Steven T. O’Neill is scheduled for September.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, is no stranger to racially offensive language, but his remarks Monday about the superiority of White people during a TV panel outside the Republican National Convention still caused a stir.

He was on an MSNBC panel when Esquire writer Charles Pierce said the GOP was caterSteve ing to disaffected Whites.

“That hall is wired,” he said. King “That hall is wired by loud, unhappy, dissatisfied White people.”

King’s response “This ‘old White people’ business does get a little tired, Charlie,” King said. “I’d ask you to go back through history and figure out: Where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you’re talking about? Where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?”

“Than White people?” host Chris Hayes asked.

“Than, than Western civilization itself,” King replied. “It’s rooted in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the United States of America and every place where the footprint of Christianity settled the world. That’s all of Western civilization.”

‘Ignorant and racist’ Another panelist April Ryan asked, “What about Asia? What about Africa?”

The panelists started speaking over themselves until Hayes stepped in again.

“We’re not going to argue the history of Western civilization,” Hayes said. “Let me note for the record that if you’re looking at the ledger of Western civilization, for every flourishing democracy, you have Hitler and Stalin as well.”

Imani Perry, a professor of African American studies at Princeton University, reacted on social media Monday: “Rep. Steve King’s belief that the only contributions to civilization have come from White people is both astoundingly ignorant and racist.”

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The flag is lifted from the casket of Dallas Police officer Patrick Zamarripa at Dallas Fort Worth National Cemetery on July 16 in Dallas.

The challenge of being

BLACK &BLUE Dallas cop tries to build bridges despite catching flak from fellow officers and African-Americans critical of the police.

BY MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE LOS ANGELES TIMES TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

DALLAS – In Sgt. Leroy Quigg’s long career with the Dallas Police Department, two moments in particular capture his difficult and delicate mission.

When riots erupted in Los Angeles in 1992, Officer Quigg found himself facing a backlash in Black neighborhoods of south Dallas. “People would say, ‘You going to beat me like Rodney King?’” recalled Quigg, who is African-American.

They branded him an Uncle Tom, accused him of “working for the White man.”

Later, as a member of the anti-gang unit, Quigg proposed launching a gang intervention program for youth. But fellow officers balked – and questioned his intentions.

“They would say, ‘Quigg, how can I trust you anymore? You’re trying to help them. If I pull someone over and need you to cover me, you might not,’” he said.

‘Working for you’ As a result, Quigg has worked for years to build trust. Slowly, persistently.

That’s been a constant for the 50-yearold Quigg, who has spent half his life on the force, and it’s a challenge for AfricanAmerican police officers across the country.

To those who called him an Uncle Tom, he would say, “I’m not working for them, I’m working for you.”

When he arrested young Black men, he tried to reason with them. More than once, he’d say, “You’ve got to change

your ways. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, they died for you. Quit blaming the White man and take responsibility.”

Gang intervention program Fellow officers were another matter.

When he proposed the gang intervention program, his supervisor, who was Black, dismissed the idea as a conflict of interest. As they faced off, Quigg replied: “How is it a conflict if I’m trying to change a kid’s mindset so he’s not committing crimes?”

Then he took off his badge, removed his gun from the holster and set them on the table.

“He backed off,” Quigg said of his boss.

The program launched and grew over the years to include a traveling basketball team that’s going to Las Vegas this month, trips to the Grand Canyon and cautionary school presentations by former gang members. There are even classes in etiquette.

‘On high alert’ These days Quigg is among those trying to secure a city on edge after a Black gunman targeted White officers, killing five — including one Latino — and wounding nine.

“Everybody is on high alert. We don’t know who might sneak up on us,” he said.

But Quigg knows racism influences how young Black men are treated by police and that tempers have risen in recent weeks over several videos of fatal police shootings.

“They just want to be treated fairly, treated as human beings, without being viewed as a threat,” he said.

Helping both sides About a quarter of the Dallas police force is Black, including Chief David Brown, with their own Black Police Association.

They are, as they say, both black and

BARBARA DAVIDSON/LOS ANGELES/TNS

Dallas Police Sgt. Leroy Quigg, 50, greets well-wishers outside Dallas Police Headquarters on July 14. blue. As racial tensions flare nationwide and city leaders talk of building bridges, it’s Black cops like Quigg who are tackling the conflict on patrol, helping both sides confront past mistakes and improve relations.

Black officers have clashed publicly with the department over the years on issues big and small. A previous chief provoked a backlash when he banned natural Black hairstyles, including dreadlocks and twists, an edict the department later rescinded, but only after some officers were placed on leave and fired.

Under another past chief, Black officers, including Quigg, successfully sued for promotions they’d been denied while White officers with more serious disciplinary records rose through the ranks.

“We had officers who were demonized or vilified because they went and testified and were plaintiffs in lawsuits,” said Lt. Thomas Glover, president of the Dallas chapter of the National Black Police Association, adding that the department was troubled and the lawsuits “made it better.”

Blending in But he said Black officers still often “go neutral and give up some of their culture” to blend in, from the way they dress to the music they listen to.

“You tend to water down or scale back those things that may have been part of

how you grew up. Some officers believe that helps them blend in,” he said.

Quigg, accustomed to navigating racial divides, belongs to the Black Police Association and three other police groups in town. He was born to a White mother and a Black father in 1966, a time when critics hurled racial slurs at his mother and bricks at the family’s window in Toledo, Ohio.

He was the rare Black student in his Catholic school, and until eighth grade he thought of himself as White.

Then he met a Black neighbor playing basketball, they became best friends, and everything changed. Quigg traded country music and AC/DC for R&B, Ice-T and Run-DMC. “I was trying to find myself,” he said.

On the beat After majoring in criminal justice at the University of Toledo, he joined the Army, and was eventually stationed at Fort Hood in Texas. After he left the military in 1990, he decided to join the Dallas Police Department, back when they had about half as many Black officers “and a lot of them didn’t have rank.”

Quigg was partnered with a hefty White officer, Senior Cpl. Norman Smith, whom everybody called “the Big Russian.” Smith’s wife was Black, and he “knew how to talk to Black folks” on the See COP, Page B2

“They just want to be treated fairly, treated as human beings, without being viewed as a threat.’’

Sgt. Leroy Quigg about young Black men

CALENDAR

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JULY 22 – JULY 28, 2016

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FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Miami: Drake’s Summer Sixteen Tour, which features Future, makes an Aug. 30 stop at the AmericanAirlines Arena.

Jacksonville: Aaron Bing performs Aug. 14 at the Times Union Center for the Performing Arts.

Orlando: Beres Hammond will perform at Hard Rock Live Orlando on July 22 and the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on July 23 in Fort Lauderdale.

‘BRING IT’ LIVE

Dianna Williams and her Dancing Dolls, the stars of Lifetime’s “Bring It!,’’ will perform July 27 at Hard Rock Orlando, July 28 at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, July 30 at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, and July 31 at the James L. Knight Center in Miami.

Clearwater: Catch R&B crooner Maxwell Aug. 4 at Ruth Eckerd Hall.

Miami Beach: Jill Scott takes the stage on Aug. 30 at the Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater.

Jacksonville: Shirley Murdock is scheduled at the Salem Centre in on July 30 and the Palladium Theatre on July 31 in St. Petersburg.

DARREN PERKINS

Dreamers of Tomorrow will present a Christian comedy showdown and praise performance “Laughter without Profanity’’ starring Shirley Murdock.

Others include Darrien “Hair-larious” Perkins, Leatric Lamar, and Tony Tone.

The event is July 31 at The Palladium in St. Petersburg.

Hollywood: Catch Hannibal Burress on July 22 at Hard Rock Live.

Hollywood: Seal performs Aug. 18 at Hard Rock Live.

The show starts at 8 p.m.

Black-on-Black crime

These days, Leroy Quigg is among those trying to secure a city on edge after a Black gunman targeted White officers, killing five and wounding nine.

The topic came up when a young Black man, Joseph Offutt, approached Quigg.

Quigg talked about what needs to be done to those who commit violence.

“It’s not just police shooting a Black guy: It’s Blackon-Black crime,” he said as Offutt, 22, nodded. “If a police officer kills some-

KAREN CLARK SHEARD

Tickets are on sale for the Festival of Praise on Nov. 30 at the Pompano Beach Amphitheater. Performers include Fred Hammond, Pastor Hezekiah Walker, Israel Houghton, Karen Clark Sheard, Regina Belle and Casey J.

one, it should be a full investigation. But when a young Black kid gets killed it should be the same outreach.”

At the memorial, Quigg was constantly approached by families wanting to shake hands and hug. Children wearing police badge stickers looked at him in awe before posing for photos.

Quigg said he gets the

same treatment in south Dallas, where residents have gone from flipping him the bird to waving.

“I walked into 7-Eleven and everybody’s breaking down the door to buy me a soda,” he said.

He’s not sure how long the goodwill can last.

“They’re waving now, so who knows,” he said. “Maybe this tragedy will bring us together.”

BARBARA DAVIDSON/LOS ANGELES/ TNS

COP

from Page 1 beat, who would call him “a White Black brother,” Quigg said.

Climbing out of his squad car to greet a group of gang members on a south Dallas street corner, Smith would “dap” them or knock fists “so smooth, interacting with respect but still gathering info,” Quigg said.

“That’s how we solved a lot of homicides.”

Personal tragedy These days, with tensions running high and crime surging in the city, Quigg said, “If we had more officers like that, it would help.”

But in 2009, Smith, then 43, was gunned down while serving an aggravated-assault warrant on a Black

suspect, whose cousin was later convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

To honor Smith, police parked a flower-draped cruiser in front of headquarters, just as they have now for the five fallen officers. A vigil drew not only police, but also hundreds of Black gang members, a testament to Smith’s police work, Quigg said.

Quigg now encourages protesters and Black residents critical of the department to come see everyday police work to better understand their use of force.

“Ride out with me, with the police officers, and you can see the decisions we make, the split-second decisions,” he said.

Officer’s insight Detective Major Berry, a 14-year department veteran who is also Black

and knew all of the officers killed in the attack, said he tries to explain police procedure to friends and relatives.

“As an everyday citizen, you don’t necessarily understand, ‘Well, why did he pull me over?’” he said. “I can give them that insight.”

One thing that strikes Quigg is how much activists and community leaders seem to care more about police shootings than ongoing crime in Black neighborhoods. In one day last July, he said, two Black men were killed in gang-related shootings on the same road.

“No one mentioned anything: No Black Lives Matter, no preachers. Those two Black men died within 24 hours on the same street, and I didn’t see any protests, any grieving relatives, and I’m asking why?” Quigg said.

UNIVERSAL PICTURES PRESENTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH PERFECT WORLD PICTURES A KENNEDY/MARSHALL PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH CAPTIVATE ENTERTAINMENT/PEARL STREET A PAUL GREENGRASS FILM MATT DAMON “JASON BOURNE” TOMMY LEE JONES ALICIA VIKANDER VINCENT CASSEL JULIA STILES RIZ AHMED MUSIC EXECUTIVE

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Coup attempt in Turkey a ‘gift from God’ for Erdogan

BY MARC CHAMPION BLOOMBERG NEWS/TNS

LONDON – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised “a new Turkey” after the July 15 failed coup. Its shape had already been emerging but the amateurish takeover attempt, which Erdogan called “a gift from God,” gives him additional tools to realize it.

He has made clear that the country he plans would be different in two fundamental ways: Power would be concentrated in the hands of the president, and the old secular elites would have a lesser political role.

Whether overseas markets will cooperate remains a big question given that Turkey has one of the highest current-account deficits among G-20 countries.

The “legacy of a pluralistic, secular, modern society appears to be fading away, replaced by what increasingly appears to be a one-party democracy,” said Gary Greenberg, lead portfolio manager for emerging markets at Hermes Asset Management in London.

The old Turkey’s story is wellknown: Secularists ran the state and the military, which intervened from time to time to cut the religious conservative majority down to size when it gained too much electoral power.

The coup attempt has put a very different country on display, analysts noted, one in which not only the target of the coup but also the alleged plotters are religious conservatives. With secularists apparently on the sidelines, Erdogan now appears to see his chief threat as a former ally: the U.S.-based religious leader Fethullah Gulen.

When the coup attempt began, Erdogan immediately accused the “parallel structure” — a reference to Gulen and his followers — of instigating it. The secularist Republican People’s Party condemned the military’s intervention. The Dogan media group, for years Erdogan’s secularist bete noire, put him on TV (using Facetime) to let the country know he was still in charge.

DEPO PHOTOS/ZUMA PRESS/TNS

Citizens climb onto Turkish tanks on July 16 in Ankarai, Turkey. Turkey’s armed forces said on July 15 they had taken power in the country to protect the democratic order and to maintain human rights.

Within hours of the coup’s failure, 2,800 soldiers and officers had been arrested. On Sunday, Erdogan pledged to cleanse the country of the Gulenist “virus.”

Gulen has denied any involvement, accusing Erdogan of staging the coup himself.

Erdogan now looks set to assert full control over the institutions of state and change Turkey’s hybrid political system, concentrating power in the presidency, rather than in parliament.

He will be helped by the wave of support the coup attempt has produced from ardent followers. On Friday night they were brought onto the streets by Muezzin, who called non-stop from minarets across the country.

That encouraged Islamist youth to go out, giving opposition to the coup a religious overtone. Secularists stayed home.

“I’m not going to run in front of a tank to protect Erdogan,” said a 38-year-old Istanbul advertising executive, who declined to be named. “Educated, westernized

Turks, we have no stake in this country. What happened was not our war. “ On Sunday, Erdogan’s supporters turned out in Istanbul’s conservative Fatih district to hear a speech by the president, surrounded by aides and turbaned imams. “We want the death penalty,” chanted the crowd. Celebratory honking could be heard across Istanbul until late in the night, while tens of thousands obeyed his request to keep vigil on the streets and squares.

That fervor has already given Erdogan the means to purge the judiciary, without having to provide evidence of individual wrongdoing. By Sunday, more than 6,000 people had been arrested, according to Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, adding that the number would rise. Among the detained are 2,700 judges.

Erdogan appears to want to keep the public zeal alive. In Fatih he also told his supporters to “fill up the squares. This is not a situation to let rest. This is not

just a 12-hour operation. We will continue determinedly.”

Naunihal Singh, author of “Seizing Power: The Strategic Logic of Military Coups,” and an assistant professor at the Air War College in Montgomery, Ala., said: “It sounds like he’s trying to engage in mobilization to shape the post-coup world.”

Singh also said Erdogan’s mass purge constitutes “a very risky game” because “it creates civilmilitary unrest, especially if they feel they’re facing physical mob violence. It’s a conscription army, so these are average Turkish citizens, and they’re getting beaten up.”

Next on the agenda will be to ram through constitutional change that would transfer powers from the parliament to the presidency, says Attila Yesilada, an Istanbul-based financial consultant. That’s something Erdogan has been trying to do since he became president in 2014, but has been unable to carry through because he lacks the necessary

votes in parliament.

“I expect him to present parliament with a fait accompli: Either agree to a referendum on constitutional reform, or I will call early elections,” said Yesilada. Given sympathy from the coup attempt and the growing electoral weakness of two opposition parties — the Nationalist Movement Party and the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party — Erdogan could now hope to win the parliamentary supermajority he needs, according to Yesilada.

The scale of Erdogan’s ambitions has been clear since at least 2011. He campaigned then on a platform to transform the country in part through a series of massive construction projects by 2023, the 100th anniversary of modern Turkey’s founding by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Erdogan went on to promise to create “pious generations,” reversing Ataturk’s mission to secularize Turkey. Erdogan has dramatically increased the number of religious schools in Turkey and expanded religious education in ordinary secondary schools. That has led to fears among some that Erdogan wants to create an Islamic republic, something he has always strongly denied.

Among Erdogan’s 2023 goals was to become one of the world’s top 10 economies, with a gross domestic product of $2 trillion (from $720 billion today). A slowing economy, massive bureaucracy and judicial checks and balances on issues such as environmental impact have frustrated those goals.

“From Erdogan’s point of view,” says Yesilada, “if only he could have control over judiciary and economic institutions, he would be able to fix the economy and invest in the projects he desires.” In the wake of Friday’s dramatic events, he appears to be closer to securing that control.

With assistance from Isobel Finkel, Benjamin Harvey and Laura Colby

It’s more than just a birthday.

It’s a day to mark all the days before it, and all the days to come.

That’s what makes it happy.

Start planning the perfect birthday celebration at publix.com/birthdays.

ENVIRONMENT

B4

JULY 22 – JULY 28, 2016

STOJ

$286,831 to the Republican Party of Florida.

By all accounts, the industry has since worked hard to reduce the phosphorous levels from its farms, especially since 2009 when it ceased routine back pumping of nutrient-laden water into the lake.

According to a 2015 report by the South Florida Water Management District, 37 percent of the phosphorous comes from cattle ranches, citrus groves and suburbs to the north that drains into the Kissimmee River, while only 5.8 percent comes from the sugar fields.

Buying sugar land

JOE RIMKUS JR./MIAMI HERALD/TNS

Birds fly from the front of a sugar cane harvester in U.S. Sugar’s fields in Clewiston in this photo from 2008.

Impact of sugar industry’s hold over Everglades Big Sugar geared $57.8 million to campaigns of Dems and GOP, state records show

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS MIAMI HERALD/TNS

WALTER MICHOT/MIAMI HERALD/TNS

Susie Nuttall, a Fisheries & Wildlife Biological Scientist ll with FWC, checks culverts and water levels on Tamiami Trail on Feb. 18, as water managers have begun dumping water from Lake Okeechobee.

Jeb TALLAHASSEE – Fifteen years Bush

after Jeb Bush and Bill Clinton reached a landmark accord to revive the Everglades, billions of dollars have been spent but not much marsh has been restored, and the River of Grass continues to cycle through the same familiar struggles.

Disastrous algae blooms foul coastal estuaries. Seagrass die-offs plague Florida Bay. High water threatens the Lake Okeechobee dike.

Everglades marshes drown under too much water or wither under too little. All the ecological crises of this summer are just deja vu, all over again.

But a review of the key decision points by Florida policymakers over the last two decades shows that one key player in the fate of the Everglades has grown healthier and stronger: Big Sugar.

Big campaign donor The industry, one of the largest producers of phosphorus-laden pollutants in the Glades, has rung up a string of political successes while recording bumper harvests in recent years. That influence has not come cheaply.

Between 1994 and 2016, a review of state Division of Elections records by The Miami Herald/ Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee bureau shows, the sugar industry – led by United States Sugar and Florida Crystals – has steered a whopping $57.8 million in direct and in-kind contributions to state and local political campaigns. (The total does not include federal contributions.)

It appears to be money well spent. On issue after issue, regulators, legislators and governors have erred on the side of softening the impact of adverse rules and regulations on cane growers and other powerful and polluting agriculture interests, including cattle operations north of Lake Okeechobee.

Major battles The sugar industry beat back a voter-approved amendment that would have forced it to pay for cleaning up its own nutrient-rich runoff into the Everglades, instead shifting much of the cost to taxpayers. It won repeated delays of strict water quality standards.

It has fended off calls for buyouts — even after one of the largest companies, U.S. Sugar, offered to sell itself to the state.

And it has undermined attempts to use a second constitutional amendment, Amendment 1, to

Charlie Crist

be used to buy farmland for Everglades cleanup.

“I can tell you, firsthand, that the industry is directly involved with every decision this Legislature makes,” said Eric Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation, which for decades has fought the sugar industry over the causes and solutions of the Everglades and was a chief of staff to former Gov. Charlie Crist.

Florida’s decision makers “always err on the side of agriculture,” Eikenberg said.

But for the legislators who defend sugar and other farmers, “it’s all a matter of perspective,” said Rep. Matt Caldwell, R-Lehigh Acres.

Agricultural champion The 35-year-old three-term lawmaker was in middle school when the Everglades Florida Act was passed in 1994, but he has made his mark as a champion for agricultural interests.

He helped pass a sweeping water policy bill in the first week of the 2016 legislative session that eased restrictions on polluters, and he said that residential development is as much to blame for the phosphorus-laden runoff into the Everglades as the sugar industry.

“Since 1947, the farmland has been urbanized, and 3 million people live west of I-95 on what used to be sawgrass,” he said. “If all sawgrass is equal, the homeowner in Hialeah should have as much chance of his land being condemned for Everglades clean-up as the farmer does. But the farmer lives under the fear that will only happen to him.”

Stakeholder politics Caldwell was among the many well-positioned state leaders, from legislators to Gov. Rick Scott and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who have been the guest of U.S. Sugar at the company property on King Ranch in Texas, one of North America’s premier hunting grounds. He doesn’t dispute the sugar industry’s clout but says it is justified.

“The sugar industry has been involved in stakeholder politics, but it’s equally true their opponents have been myopically focused on the industry’s demise,” he said. Indeed, the Everglades Trust, the West Palm Beach nonprofit aimed at protecting the Everglades, has called for an end to the sugar industry in Florida.

In the last 20 years, the political climate has worked to benefit sugar. In 1998, the state’s alreadypowerful sugar industry was capitalizing on loosening campaign finance laws and the growing Republican clout in Tallahassee.

Pivotal moment Between 1994 and 2016, United States Sugar, the Belle Glade company controlled by the Flint, Mich.-based Charles Stewart Mott and the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, contributed the most: $33.3 million. Florida Crystals, owned by the Palm Beach-based Fanjul family, and its affiliates were next with $12.4 million over the same time.

A pivotal moment came in the 1998-99 election cycle, when Big Sugar, which had long been a contributor to Florida Democrats, became one of the largest benefactors of the Republican Party of Florida.

The RPOF was completing its takeover of the state Legislature.

Jeb Bush was the party’s nominee for governor. The sugar industry bankrolled the party with checks totaling more than $9.7 million – a stunning amount in an era before super PACs and unlimited contributions commonplace.

‘Polluter pays’ The industry was still reeling from the passage of the 1996 “polluter pays” amendment to the state Constitution in which 68 percent of Florida’s voters supported requiring the industries contributing to Everglades pollution to be “primarily responsible” for paying their share of the damage.

Sugar had steered $19.4 million to a group that unsuccessfully attempted to defeat the plan, Citizens to Save Jobs & Stop Unfair Taxes, state records show.

While the amendment passed overwhelmingly, there was one problem with the amendment: It was not self-executing, and the 1997 Legislature refused to implement it.

Then-Gov. Lawton Chiles asked the Florida Supreme Court for an advisory opinion on whether the law could take effect “without the aid of legislative enactment,” but the court ruled that it couldn’t.

Neutered in 2003 It took the Legislature seven years to implement “polluter pays,” but it found a way to effectively neuter it in 2003. Lawmakers capped the 1994 Ever-

glades Agricultural Privilege Tax that was imposed on sugarcane growers at $25 per acre, or $11.3 million a year, and declared that it satisfied the constitutional requirement.

By 2012, a study by the Everglades Foundation found that 76 percent of the phosphorus entering the Everglades Agricultural Area comes from the agricultural lands south of Lake Okeechobee but through the agriculture tax and phosphorus-reduction programs they have financed, the industry has paid only 24 percent of their share of the clean-up costs — about $200 million.

Water standards For the last three decades, every governor has had his Everglades moment. For Jeb Bush it came the same December day in 2000 that the U.S. Supreme Court was deciding Bush v. Gore. He stood at the White House with an assembly of Republicans and Democrats and agreed to a federal clean-up known as the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.

The 30-year plan was essentially a big water storage project aimed at advancing the goals of the 1994 Everglades Forever Act by using of thousands of acres of sugar land to store and clean polluted water from Lake Okeechobee in storm water treatment areas.

The plan also created a regulatory program that would require farmers in the EAA to implement best management practices to reduce nutrient waste. The state and federal governments would share the cost of the program, estimated at $13.5 billion.

If all went as planned the project would be well underway by 2016, relieving the phosphorous load on Lake Okeechobee. It did not go as planned.

2026 deadline In 2001, the state agreed to goals set by the Everglades Forever Act, reducing phosphorus in water to natural levels — 10 parts per billion — or face federal sanctions. But, by 2003, regulators determined the water quality in Lake Okeechobee wasn’t going to meet the standard so they recommended pushing back the deadlines.

Late in the 2003 legislative session, leading lawmakers developed a bill to establish a new deadline: 2026. The sugar industry’s donations for the 200203 cycle: $673,320, including

On June 24, 2008, on the cusp of the onset of the Great Recession, U.S. Sugar made a stunning admission intended to turbocharge Everglades clean-up efforts: It would suspend all sugar operations, sell its 187,000 acres of agricultural land to the state and the land could be used for the long-sought effort to restore the historic connection between Lake Okeechobee and Florida Bay while also safeguarding the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers and estuaries.

The timing was important.

Sugar prices were in decline and the sellout price was a staggering $1.34 billion.

But as the recession wracked Florida’s finances, and U.S. Sugar’s chief rival, Florida Crystals, fought the plan, the state balked at the price.

By May 2009, the governing board of the SFWMD approved a revised proposal to acquire only 73,000 acres in the Everglades Agricultural Area but retain an option to buy another 46,500 acres in 2015.

The state bought only 27,000 acres and by May 2015 sugar prices had risen and the land was producing record profits for Florida’s cane growers. Under pressure from U.S. Sugar, Scott and the SFWMD board rejected the option to buy the land south of Lake Okeechobee for clean-up.

Contributions from sugar to Scott’s Let’s Get to Work political committee by that point were $1 million.

Amendment 1 Environmentalists mounted one final effort to force the Legislature to buy land for Everglades clean-up. In 2014, Florida voters approve Amendment 1, the Water and Land Conservation Amendment by 75 percent of the vote requiring more than $700 million a year to pay for land acquisition to “restore, improve and manage conservation lands … including the Everglades.”

But the Legislature refused to use any Amendment 1 money for land acquisition, including the purchase of sugar land to restore the water flow to the south of Lake O. In 2016, lawmakers passed the Legacy Florida Act, which dedicates up to $200 million a year from Amendment 1 to finance Everglades clean-up projects, though not necessarily land acquisition.

Budget cuts, revenue streams Finally, the sugar industry has persuaded legislators to allow it to rely on “best management practices,” industry-set water quality and land management standards that are often not subjected to state verification and monitoring.

Cuts to district budgets, imposed by Scott’s cap on property tax collections at water management districts reduced industry oversight.

At the SFWMD, budget and staff were cut by more than $140 million — 30 percent — further delaying monitoring, oversight and development of Everglades clean-up. The district was forced to spend down its reserve funds, further reducing the likelihood it will have the money to buy agriculture land for restoration efforts.

By 2013, with the economy rebounding, Scott and the Legislature approved an $880 million water pollution cleanup plan known as “restorations strategies.” The measure capped the Agriculture Privilege Tax for another 10 years and required that $32 million in clean-up funds come from SFWMD reserves.

As property values rose another $21 million in 2015, the former head of the SFWMD, Blake Guillory, proposed the practice of cutting back taxes and suggested leaving the tax rate alone to keep the district from dipping into reserves. Scott was not happy.

Within two weeks, the board of governors reversed the decision and Guillory was forced to resign, to be replaced by Scott’s general counsel.

STOJ

JULY 22 – JULY 28, 2016

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

Meet some of

FLORIDA’S

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submitted for your approval

According to Forbes’ Celebrity 100 list, Dwayne “The Rock’’ Johnson is the highest-paid actor in the world. A popular professional wrestler turned actor reportedly tops the list with $64.5 million. Johnson attributes his rise to his extreme work ethic. He returns this summer in HBO’s “Ballers.”

TNS

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.

In the Emmy Awards’ most diverse list of nominations, Tracee Ellis Ross received an outstanding lead actress in a comedy for her role as Rainbow Johnson in the comedy “Black-ish.’’ If she wins on Sept. 18, she would become only the second Black woman to win in that category. The first and last African-American woman to win that trophy was Isabel Sanford in 1981 for her role in “The Jeffersons.’’

LIZ O. BAYLEN/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Comedian from the South adjusting to L.A. life prayed about it. And everything lined up – from me getting a better job right before I left to save the money. I started working at Nissan building cars. I was an inspector. I was making sure there weren’t any mechanical problems inside the car, any scratches or dings. It was the same thing over again, 1,000 times a day. I said, ‘I can’t see myself doing this kind of work.’”

BY LUAINE LEE TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

PASADENA, Calif. — Comic Jeremy D. Howard was not prepared for what he found when he arrived in Hollywood.

The 28-year-old grew up in Alabama and Nashville, the middle child of seven. With a pastor for a mom and a Home Depot manager for a dad, Howard was the product of solid American values.

“I was raised in the South, and there are certain things that southern people are accustomed to, and do,” he says in the sunny patio of a hotel here.

“I found myself in unique situations,” he laughs. Those unique situations may have been jolting for the pastor’s son, but they fueled his talent.

Brand marketer So he set a deadline for himself: six months and then he’d leave. Piloting his Infinity G35 (which he still has) to L.A., Howard was able to bunk in a oneroom apartment with two other guys for $350 a month.

“I started doing brand marketing; I’d do things like pass out free chips to people.” The pay was good and others would take his shift if he needed to audition.

“Either I was passing out Haagen Dazs ice cream or chips or helping people learn how to use their phone. I would be the guy who would come to Best Buy and train all the Best Buy guys on the phone, and show them cool features about it. Then I’d go to the next store. So I was able to stay mobile just so I could jump to auditions, and then I’d go back to work.”

In new comedy Howard is one of the eight new comics to be featured on a brand new “MADtv,” premiering July 26 on the CW. His specialties are eccentric characters that he invents, like Lily Tomlin did with her ringydingy telephone operator, Dana Carvey with his prissy Church Lady, and Martin Lawrence with his elderly Big Momma.

Hollywood folk are fine fodder for inspiration, says Howard, who creates his characters by observing carefully, taking notes, and then exaggerating their foibles.

But the residents of Hollywood were his biggest shock, he says.

“I just wasn’t accustomed to how loose – everyone’s too free for me,” he shakes his head. “They say, ‘You gotta do what you want, be yourself.’

Everyone has a weird type of opinion. The people are very unique … ”

New Year’s surprise How unique? One of his first experiences on the West Coasts was probably something he wouldn’t write home about.

“It was New Year’s Eve, and one of my friends said, ‘I’d like to stop at my manager’s house and say hello. Are you cool with that?’

This was in my very beginning stages so we went to the house, opened the door, ‘Oh, my gosh,

‘Right direction’

TOMMY GARCIA/THE CW

Jeremy D. Howard (back row, left) is one of the young comics starring in the CW’s new “MADtv” premiering July 26 on the CW. Next to him are: Adam Ray, and Amir K. (Middle row left to right): Michelle Ortiz, Lyric Lewis, and Chelsea Davison. (Front row left to right): Carlie Craig and Piotr Michael. what in the world!’ Half of everyone’s, like, naked. I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to wait in the car.’ She said, ‘No, my manager’s my rep.’

I said, ‘OK. I’m not used to this.

I’m a little uncomfortable.’ So I slowly backed up. “‘What just happened? … This is not what I expected.’ That was the biggest shock for me. It made me know I need to ask a little more questions. When some-

body says, ‘Hey, you want to go over to my manager’s house?’ I have to say, ‘What’s going down over there?’ But the people are very interesting. You think people make up this stuff in movies?

No, it happens in regular life.”

More gigs Actually Howard led a “regular life” for eight years back in Nashville.

He had a steady job at Lowes for seven years. “And everything started to pick up. I started booking a lot of (performing) work down there. ‘OK, big fish in a tiny pond – now it’s time to be that little fish in a big pond,’” he says.

“First I wanted to move to Atlanta, but my friend was moving up here, and he’d give me updates about the business. You know what? I’ll give it a shot. I

Howard still shares digs with two guys, only this time they’re luxuriating in a three-bedroom apartment. Though he performs once a month in Los Angeles with an improv group known as the Mad Jackrats, Howard is hoping that “MADtv” will jettison him onto higher ground.

“I’ve been truly blessed to not have to go through crazy stuff,” he says with a big grin. “People tell you about these terror stories and you think, ‘Oh, my gosh! I don’t want to deal with any of that.’ I didn’t have any of that. The last two years have been phenomenal. That’s when you know everything is right, when you’re where you’re supposed to be.

“Eventually if you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, things push in the right direction.”

B6

FOOD

JULY 22 – JULY 28, 2016

STOJ

FROM FAMILY FEATURES

Ripe vegetables, fresh herbs and fragrant spices all lend vibrant, bold flavors to mouthwatering meals that are worth lingering over with friends.

This is what Mediterranean cooking is all about.

Add some Mediterranean inspiration to your everyday meals with these recipes using Crisco® olive oils to help you turn an ordinary meal into a memorable one.

Use extra virgin olive oil to add a full-bodied flavor to salads, vegetables and meats. Pure olive oil offers a mild, subtle olive flavor with a hint of fruit to sautés and stir-fries. Light tasting olive oil is ideal as an all-purpose cooking oil that can be used for sautéing, roasting vegetables or in baked goods like muffins, cakes and brownies.

For more recipes, visit www.crisco.com.

ROASTED LEMON-GARLIC CHICKEN Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 1 hour 40 minutes Yield: 4 servings Chicken: Crisco® Olive Oil No-Stick Cooking Spray 1 tablespoon Crisco® Pure Olive Oil or Crisco® Light Tasting Olive Oil 1/2 teaspoon oregano 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1 (4 to 5 pound) whole chicken, rinsed with neck and giblets removed Salt and pepper Gravy: 1/2 cup cold water 1/4 cup milk 1 (0.87 to 1.2 ounces) package chicken gravy mix 1/2 teaspoon oregano 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

LAVENDER OLIVE OIL CAKE WITH HONEYED RICOTTA Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 55 minutes Yield: 8 to 10 servings Pillsbury® Baking Spray with Flour 1 3/4 cups Pillsbury­BEST® All Purpose Flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel 1 tablespoon culinary lavender, crushed, plus additional 1 to 2 tablespoons for garnish 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 2/3 cup plain yogurt 3 large eggs 2/3 cup Crisco® Pure Olive Oil 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3/4 cup heavy cream 3 tablespoons honey 3/4 cup ricotta cheese, at room temperature Heat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan generously with baking spray; set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Whisk together sugar, orange peel, lavender and pepper in a large mixing bowl until evenly distributed. Add yogurt, eggs and olive oil; continue whisking until smooth. Whisk in vanilla.

Add flour mixture and gently whisk in until just combined. Scrape batter into prepared pan.

Bake 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes; remove from pan and cool completely.

Whip cream with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add honey and continue to whip until stiff. Add ricotta cheese, a dollop at a time, and beat until fluffy. Slice cake. Top slices with honeyed ricotta and sprinkle with lavender.

Heat oven to 400°F. Spray a shallow roasting pan with rack with no-stick cooking spray.

Mix oil, oregano and garlic. Brush mixture over entire chicken. Season chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Place in prepared pan, breast side down; let stand 30 minutes.

Turn chicken breast side up.

Roast 65 to 70 minutes, basting occasionally.

Chicken is done when meat thermometer registers 170°F or when juices run clear when thickest part of thigh is pricked. Transfer chicken to carving board; tent with aluminum foil.

Allow to rest 10 minutes.

Skim grease from the pan drippings. Place 1/4 cup skimmed pan drippings into small saucepan. Add water, milk, gravy mix, oregano, garlic and lemon juice to pan. Cook, stirring constantly until gravy thickens.

Carve chicken. Place on serving platter. Serve with warm lemon-garlic gravy.

MEDITERRANEAN LINGUINE WITH BASIL AND TOMATOES Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes Yield: 8 servings 1 1-pound box linguine pasta 1 tablespoon salt, or to taste 1/2 cup Crisco® 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil 2 pints grape tomatoes (4 cups), cut in half 1 tablespoon minced garlic 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes Salt and pepper to taste 18 to 20 basil leaves, cut in thin strips 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus additional for garnish Heat 6 quarts water to boiling. Add pasta and salt. Cook for the minimum recommended time on package directions.

While pasta cooks, prepare sauce.

Heat olive oil in large skillet on medium heat. Add tomatoes and garlic. Cook and stir 2 minutes or until tomatoes are soft. Remove from heat. Stir in vinegar and pepper flakes.

Drain cooked pasta. Add to skillet. Cook and stir 1 minute or until pasta is coated and hot. Remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in basil and cheese. Serve with additional cheese, if desired.

MEDITERRANEAN ESSENTIALS Fresh and flavorful ingredients are the key to great Mediterranean cooking, so keep some of these essential ingredients on hand: • Vegetables — tomatoes, onions, shallots, peppers, carrots, spinach, eggplant • Grains — pasta, couscous, oats, barley, corn, rice • Dairy — yogurt, unsalted butter • Beans and legumes — chickpeas, cannellini beans, lentils • Fresh herbs and spices — cumin, garlic, rosemary, fennel, oregano, basil • Cheese — Parmigiano-Reggiano, pecorino, ricotta, Manchego, feta • Condiments — olive oil, balsamic vinegar, olives, capers, honey