Florida Courier - August 21, 2015

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VOLUME 23 NO. 34

FIREARMS AND FORGIVENESS

Two pastors and a gun expert opine on self-defense and forgiveness from biblical and practical perspectives.

BY KARSCEAL TURNER SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

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s self-defense biblical? Are Christians required to forgive, as in the case of the Charleston massacre families forgiving the young White supremacist who killed their relatives?

Dr. Charles A. Harper, III, pastor of Paradise Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, answers with an emphatic “yes” to both questions.

Armed in church The Second Amendment supporter has possessed a concealed weapons permit for 15 years and at one time carried a firearm to church. He also vigorously advocates selfdefense.

“I have the right to protect myself against the criminal element. You do what you have to do to protect yourself. The Bible says, ‘Watch and pray.’

There’s nothing wrong with protecting one’s family and property while doing so legally,” Harper added.

“As a Second Amendment supporter, I feel Christians have the Dr. Charles A. right to protect themselves, Harper, III but most people don’t because of personal preference.

However, for those who have undergone the proper firearms and weapons training, it’s perfectly alright to do so.”

Harper also said the shooting in Charleston, S.C. was a very personal thing to many churchgoers.

“The Charleston shooting is a very touchy subject. When

CURTIS COMPTON/ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION/TNS

her dead,” Harper said. “When questioned by news reporters how he felt about the man who cold-bloodedly killed his wife, King, Sr. replied, ‘I’ve got to forgive him, I’ve got to love him.’ I don’t think I’ve grown to that point yet.

“That was the ultimate.

It was the ultimate expression of forgiveness that I’ve seen. I was not yet a Christian, but looking back, I can Killed in church Harper, who was born and say that King, Sr. had grown to raised in Atlanta, recounted the point spiritually where he a story about forgiveness he could do that,” Harper added. says changed his life.

“Martin Luther King, Sr. was God’s protection preaching one Sunday (at EbDr. Terry Turner, pastor of enezer Baptist Church in At- Mesquite Friendship Baptist lanta) and his wife was on pia- Church in Mesquite, Texas, no. A mentally disturbed man See GUNS, Page A2 walked up to his wife and shot you focus in on it from a Christian perspective, it is very difficult when put in a situation like Charleston to forgive. One has to dig very deep within themselves.

“I taught about this some weeks ago and I posed this question: ‘Does forgiveness negate justice?’ The answer is, ‘No, it does not.’

Lawmaker seeks apology for ‘Groveland Four’ FROM THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

A Senate Democrat filed a proposal Tuesday calling for the state to apologize and posthumously exonerate four Black men − known as the “Groveland Four” − accused of raping a White woman in 1949 in Lake County.

Sen. Geraldine Thompson, DOrlando, filed a proposed resolution (SCR 136) for consideration during the 2016 legislative

ALSO INSIDE

Black pols call for chairman’s resignation

BY MARGIE MENZEL THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE − As relations between Florida A&M University’s president and board chairman reached a new low this week, lawmakers who are FAMU alumni called Wednesday for Chairman Rufus Montgomery to resign his post − but he quickly refused.

Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner of Tampa, Sen. Dwight Bullard of Miami, Rep. Mia Jones of Jacksonville, Rep. Alan Williams of Tallahassee and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum − all Democrats and FAMU alumni − called for Montgomery’s resignation following months of conflict.

“It is apparent that it has reached a point where it’s unreasonable, divisive, and detrimental to the university, to the students and to the graduates,” Joyner said.

Montgomery responded with a statement saying he would stay on the job.

“While certain elected officials have always stood behind FAMU, their vantage point doesn’t afford them the same level of interaction or responsibility required of the chairman of the board and other trustees,” he wrote. “For the good of the institution and to prevent charges of undue political interference, I hope that our elected officials will allow our board to do the job we were appointed to do.”

The exchange follows the latest clash Monday, when Montgomery accused FAMU President Elmira Mangum of insubordination for hanging up on him. Also Monday, she sent him a letter saying he’d violated her employee rights.

She wrote that Montgomery had called her while she was busy, wanting to speak with her immediately, and ignored her requests for time to revamp her schedule.

Pastor Dimas Salaberrios led a noon prayer service at the sidewalk memorial outside When addressing the ques- Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C. the day after a White supremacist killed nine tion of mandatory forgiveness, Harper said “spiritual maturi- people there.

Charleston resonates

FAMU drama continues

Won’t go

Question of ‘maturity’

ty” is the main issue.

“It depends on where one is spiritually,” Harper said. “The thing you have to understand about a statement like ‘turning the other cheek’ is that it depends on where you are in your growth.

“Jesus on the cross gave the ultimate statement of turning the other cheek. After being spat on, nailed to a cross, his last statement was, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ Most of us do not grow to that point.”

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AUGUST 21 – AUGUST 27, 2015

session, which starts in January.

The proposal would seek to clear the names of Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd and Ernest Thomas and points to “egregious wrongs” perpetrated against the men by the criminal justice system. The resolution said the men had alibis but were arrested in the alleged attack.

Greenlee, Irvin and Shepherd were severely beaten in the basement of the county jail. Thomas

fled and was shot several days later by a posse in Madison County.

Greenlee was sentenced to life in prison, while Irvin and Shepherd were sentenced to death, but the U.S. Supreme Court in 1951 overturned the Irvin and Shepherd convictions and ordered a retrial.

While the two men were being transported from Florida State Prison to Lake County for a pretrial hearing in November 1951, sheriff’s officials fatally shot Shep-

‘NEGROES WITH GUNS’ PART 6 Editor’s note: The title of this series is taken from the 1962 book titled, “Negroes with Guns” by Robert F. Williams, a North Carolina native and Marine Corps veteran who advocated armed self-defense by African-Americans.

herd and wounded Irvin in what was purported to be an escape attempt.

Irvin and Greenlee served prison time but were later paroled. Irvin Sen. Geraldine died in 1970, while Greenlee died in Thompson 2012, according to Thompson’s resolution.

Along with seeking exoneration of the men, the resolution also seeks pardons for Irvin and Greenlee.

‘Dire’ situation “We want to move it out of the personal,” said Gillum, who as a former FAMU student body president also served as a trustee. “The situation and the circumstances are so dire … that we stand here as caring alumni of Florida A&M University to request humbly that the chairman look past himself and look past the president and the personality conflicts between the two of them and step aside as the board chairman.”

Two weeks ago, trustees approved a plan for Mangum to provide them with comprehensive monthly progress reports between now and a November meeting, when they will again consider her performance. The trustees also approved an annual evaluation of Mangum, who has See FAMU, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

Val Demings running for Congress again FAMU gets state funds for firstgeneration students CALENDAR | B2

Adams among stars slated for Joyner reunion

COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: GEORGE CURRY: JULIAN BOND – A DEDICATED LIFE OF SERVICE | A5

FOCUS

A2

AUGUST 21 – AUGUST 27, 2015

Happy birthday, Marcus Mosiah Garvey!

This is not a history lesson. It is simply about homage, recognition, and appreciation of a Black man who loved his people so much that he sacrificed beyond what most of us would say is reasonable.

Marcus Garvey cared so much about his people that he kept coming back, even after being stymied and stigmatized by the White establishment as well as by some of his own people. After all of the negative experiences he suffered at the hands of his enemies, he kept coming back to fulfill his mission of raising the consciousness of Black people, organizing Black people, and leading Black people to economic prosperity.

From the grave He even promised to come back in death as a whirlwind or a storm, bringing with him millions of formerly enslaved Africans who would aid us in our fight for freedom and keep the pressure up until we have succeeded.

When you think about how

JAMES CLINGMAN NNPA COLUMNIST

hurricanes that hit the United States originate near the West African coast, it makes you wonder if Brother Marcus is not fulfilling some of his prophecy.

And considering the debacle that Firestone Tires suffered with all of the lawsuits against it a few years ago, I wondered then if Marcus was taking his retribution for that company’s role in thwarting his work to connect Blacks in the U.S. with our brothers and sisters in Liberia and West Africa via the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). What goes around comes around!

Loved Black people Marcus Garvey was principled, he had backbone, and he was fearless – all because he loved his people dearly. Love is the most powerful weapon we have. If

Black folks had “Marcus Garvey Love” for one another, imagine where we would be as a people.

Brother Garvey’s life should be celebrated just as other icons of the Black experience are commemorated. How can we continue to leave him out? After all, Garvey did what many of those we honor each year only talked about: he demonstrated the viability of economic control of our resources.

Garvey showed our people how to pool our dollars and how to do for ourselves; he carried us to new heights, collectively, by utilizing our own resources to build the UNIA and numerous Black owned businesses.

Jealousy, envy Unfortunately some Blacks were jealous and envious of Marcus’ ability to rally the people, to get Black people to raise huge sums of money, to march and demonstrate in overwhelming numbers, to turn out the vote in unprecedented fashion, and to deny the takeover of the UNIA by ‘outsiders.’

Black ‘leaders’ of his time even came up with a “Marcus Must Go” campaign. Anytime a strong Black man or Black woman stands up for our people, it is almost inevitable that another Black person will lead the charge against them.

Too often we forget − if we ever knew it at all − the importance of our brothers and sisters who stood tall on our behalf. Marcus Garvey, born August 17, 1887, is certainly deserving of our recognition and our honor. His words, “All I have I have given you,” are exemplary of this man’s love for us.

We should be proud of his accomplishments, and it would be wonderful if we would emulate his spirit, his love, and his tenacity as we make our way to economic freedom.

I close with a portion of Garvey’s letter from the Atlanta prison to which he was sentenced as a result of trumped-up charges and a “kangaroo court.” He was later deported to Jamaica, his birthplace.

“I have sacrificed my home and my loving wife for you. I en-

trust her to your charge… I have left her penniless and helpless to face the world, because I gave all, but her courage is great, and I know she will hold up for you and me…

‘Count on me’ “After my enemies are satisfied, in life or death I shall come back to you to serve even as I have served before. In life I shall be the same; in death I shall be a terror to the foes of Negro liberty.

If death has power, then count on me in death to be the real Marcus Garvey I would like to be.”

The appropriate way to honor Garvey is by practicing what he did. Honor him by following his example for self-empowerment.

Happy Birthday, Marcus Mosiah Garvey!

James E. Clingman is the nation’s most prolific writer on economic empowerment for Black people. His weekly syndicated newspaper column, Blackonomics, is featured in hundreds of newspapers, magazines, and newsletters.

FAMU from A1

been on the job for little more than a year.

Detailed reports At the early August meeting, Vice Chairman Kelvin Lawson proposed that Mangum provide monthly progress reports. Trustee Bettye Grable suggested that the president also include supporting documentation.

Trustee Lucas Boyce, however, said he didn’t want the board to “hamstring” Mangum with additional requirements, especially in light of recent efforts to “reset” their relationship.

“I would prefer we allow the president to do the report, and then if it doesn’t have the meat and the information that we require as a board, then we make the motion that we tie all these criteria to it,” he said. “In the spirit of the reset, we should give her the benefit of the doubt.”

Boyce was the only trustee to oppose requiring the supporting data. But Mangum was unfazed, saying she’d designed a tool for providing data as well as narrative information in her reports.

“At six months, you’ll see where we are, but you’ll also see the progress we have made and the activities associated with it,” she told the trustees.

The board also agreed to a proposal to review Mangum’s reports and receive a verbal update from her to its November meeting.

Contentious relationship In July, trustees concluded that Mangum, formerly the vice president for planning and budget at Cornell University, hadn’t met expectations in four of 10 categories. Two trustees contended she hadn’t met expectations in any of them.

Among other things, trustees have complained about Mangum’s hiring decisions and poor communication with them. But they have also been accused of micromanaging FAMU’s day-to-

FAMU supporters are concerned about the constant disruption with regard to the school’s top leadership. day operations.

But it was clear that Mangum had already taken steps to improve relations with at least some of the trustees.

Trustee Robert Woody − who earlier this summer had given Mangum one of her poorest evaluations − thanked her last week for a series of phone calls and a recent visit to Gainesville, where he also serves on the board of Santa Fe College.

“I’ve been getting calls every Friday, and she’s been keeping me abreast of various issues,” Woody said.

He added that Mangum had attended meetings in Gainesville with University of Florida President Kent Fuchs, Santa Fe College President Jackson Sasser and Alachua County Schools Superintendent Owen Roberts, along with a reception for local leaders and FAMU alumni.

Board retreat?

As the early August meeting wound down, trustee Belin-

GUNS

da Shannon urged the board to consider expectations for its own performance as well as Mangum’s. She also noted that the board is likely to hold a retreat in the near future and suggested it use part of the time “really refining our vision.”

“We’ve spent a tremendous amount of time over the last several meetings on the presidential evaluation,” Shannon said.

“We’ve spent time giving statements on internal relationships.

But I think that we as a board also have some work to do in clarifying what we represent as a board and how we expect to get to that result.”

At the time, Mangum said that it would not be “constructive” to take offense at the board’s moves.

“We’re doing everything we can to cooperate and meet their needs for information and involvement,” she said. “That’s the best we can do.”

Legislators want inquiry In June, Joyner, Bullard and

I think it’s better that I remain anonymous on that,” Turner said.

from A1

Why so forgiving?

addressed what he sees is an innate conflict of a pastor being armed in church.

“I think in carrying a weapon that can take a person’s life or that could be detrimental to the health of a person, and standing in the pulpit preaching at the same time, does not exemplify a very strong faith in God and God’s protection,” he explained.

“However, I firmly believe that God helps those who help themselves as well. For those preachers who do choose to carry, more power to them if they want everyone to know,” he added.

“I just prefer to not be one of those preachers who is recognized as being a gun-toting preacher at the same time that I’m preaching love and preaching that God will take care of you and that we should trust

Turner said the Christian movement is built out of suffering.

“Suffering has been a big part of Christianity since its inception,” he acknowledged. “As African-Americans in this country, we have found ourselves since being in this county forever in a mode to forgive and move beyond those who have mistreated, abused, and inflicted us.

“Forgiveness is a big part of who we are as a people.

Christians are encouraged to forgive because the Bible tells us that if we do not forgive others, God will not forgive us. So forgiveness is a major part of who we are as believers.

“When you notice that churches have forgiven and moved on, it is them putting into practice what is instilled in Scripture.

Forgiveness is the key to

Samuel Hayes III

Dr. Terry Turner

in Him. We firmly believe that ‘All things work for the good of those who love the Lord and those who are called according to his purpose.’”

Strapped or not?

Turner was cagey as he addressed the subject whether he’s personally armed. Texas is an “open carry” state.

“I chose not to reveal whether I carry or not. I believe it’s a personal preference. I don’t think if one chooses to carry, not everyone needs to know that you are carrying,” Turner said.

“As for my personal preference while preaching,

Jones led lawmakers calling on the Board of Governors − which oversees the state university system − for an inquiry into whether the trustees were overstepping their authority.

“We’re not asking for the board of trustees to rubberstamp any issues or initiatives that the president has,” Williams said Wednesday. “But we are asking for a united front, a team, and we don’t have that.”

The elected officials said they’d been inundated with calls and emails as the situation escalated. They also said that only Gov. Rick Scott, who appointed Montgomery to the board, could intervene. But Joyner noted that the appointments of four trustees would be up at the end of 2015.

Mixed reactions Meanwhile, the possibility of yet another short-term FAMU presidency drew mixed reactions from supporters of the university.

“She’s a very smart lady,” said former state Sen. Al Lawson, who

being a healthy Christian; forgiveness is key to who we are as believers.

“People must understand what it takes for them to inherit the kingdom of Heaven,” Turner said.

lost a bid to be FAMU president in January 2014, when Mangum was hired. “But sometimes things are just not meant to be.”

Bob Ruggles, the retired dean of FAMU’s School of Journalism and Graphic Communications, said he was “very worried.”

“I think if it gets to the point where the board fires her, it’ll be a precipitous decision,” he said.

“They need to give her time to get things straightened out and let her work on the goals that they set, and let’s see where it goes.”

Mangum ‘undermined’ Leon County Commission Chairwoman Mary Ann Lindley said she doesn’t give Mangum “high points for her charm and communication skills.”

“Largely, though, I think the trustees − they have hired this woman, and then to immediately begin undermining her is outrageous, and very unprofessional,” Lindley said. “And I don’t know where in corporate or academic or political life you see that.”

lievers as his servants.

“The greatest warriors were in the Old Testament.

They fought battles in order to maintain holiness and righteousness in order to protect God’s people,” Turner concluded.

‘Aggressive servants’

Decisive action

Turner believes armed self-defense in the church is biblically proper.

“Sometimes servants have to be aggressive in order to protect the things of God and the kingdom of God. If you have an offender who comes into the church and takes the lives of believers, we believe that God does help those who help themselves.

“If someone comes into our service destroying and killing us, and another believer decides to protect his brothers and sisters in Christ, he is leaning on the adage that God also makes warriors − not only prayer and spiritual but also physical − when we trust in the Lord. God uses those be-

Weapons expert Samuel Hayes III delivered his take on self-defense in a church setting.

“A church security team and those involved must reconcile with the fact that in a violent critical incident, their responsibility just might be to kill the hostile aggressor in church,” Hayes said.

“When the time comes, whomever has the shot better clear their head, take decisive action and kill the shooter with righteous indignation as quickly and deliberately as possible,” Hayes said. “There is a potentially huge psychological effect that goes with that, not to mention the social stigma and negative

impact that could have on the congregation.”

A ‘red flag’ “Looking back at Charleston, a weird White dude in street clothes with a bad haircut would have most certainly been a red flag for me. I’d like to think that my response would have resulted in his demise via multiple rounds to the face, or a crushed trachea with the collection plate, Bible or hymnal,” Hayes affirmed.

“I carry everywhere.

Those who know me know not to even ask. Concealed is concealed. If you don’t see it, don’t worry about it. If you do see it, things just got real. Duck,” he concluded.

Karsceal Turner is an award-winning independent journalist regularly covering Central Florida human interest features and sports.

AUGUST 21 – AUGUST 27, 2015

FLORIDA

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Planned Parenthood seeks injunction against AHCA after abortion allegations

BY MARGIE MENZEL THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – Planned Parenthood fired back Monday against allegations that three Florida abortion clinics provided second-trimester abortions without proper licenses, seeking an emergency injunction against the state Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) “to protect women’s access to safe, legal abortion.”

As grounds for the injunction, Planned Parenthood said AHCA was ignoring a 2006 agency rule, which defined the first trimester as “extending through the completion of 14 weeks of pregnancy as measured from the first day of the woman’s last menstrual period.”

Tallahassee attorney Julie Gallagher, who represents Planned Parenthood and is a former AHCA general counsel, said the agency had been conducting regular inspections and reading patient records and reports based on that definition since 2006.

“Nobody has ever deemed these procedures to be second trimester,” Gallagher said. “Suddenly, after nine years of using language that we agreed to in a rule challenge – and everybody’s been on the same page for nine years – suddenly they’re saying that these procedures that are performed and documented this way are now second-trimester

procedures, and illegal at that.

And we say, ‘No, they’re not.’ “

Offices investigated The proposed injunction, filed in Leon County circuit court, follows Gov. Rick Scott’s order last month that AHCA investigate 16 Planned Parenthood offices that perform abortions to ensure they were following state laws.

The order came as Planned Parenthood was under fire nationally following the release of a series of undercover videos by the pro-life group Center for Medical Progress, including footage that showed a Planned Parenthood doctor discussing the disposition of fetal tissue.

During the controversy that ensued, Scott called the videos “deeply troubling” as he announced the investigation.

AHCA said last week that three Planned Parenthood clinics – in St. Petersburg, Fort Myers and Naples – were licensed to perform only first-trimester abortions but also performed some procedures in the second trimester.

The agency’s documents indicate that AHCA defined the start of the second trimester differently than the clinics. The clinics considered the first trimester to last 13 weeks and six days, while state investigators used a rule defining the second trimester as the “portion of a pregnancy following the 12th week and extending through the 24th week of gesta-

The Agency for Health Care Administration states that Planned Parenthood clinics in St. Petersburg, Fort Myers and Naples were licensed to perform only first-trimester abortions but also performed some procedures in the second trimester. tion.” The documents said abortions were performed, for example, at 13 weeks and three days and 13 weeks and four days.

Ready for a fight AHCA issued a statement Monday indicating it is ready to fight Planned Parenthood in court.

“Planned Parenthood self-reported that they were performing unauthorized abortions during the second trimester at three of their Florida clinics,’’ the AHCA statement said. “The agency looks forward to litigating this matter.”

The three clinics were told “to immediately cease performing second trimester abortions,” an AHCA spokeswoman said earlier this month, and could face fines of up to $500 per violation.

Gallagher said the three clinics are the only Planned Parenthood facilities in Florida that aren’t licensed to perform second-trimester abortions; the others perform both. She said part of the reason for seeking the injunction was to protect the clinics and their staff members from facing further action, including potential criminal charges, although none has occurred to date.

Politically motivated?

Meanwhile, Gallagher said, the clinics have stopped performing abortions within the disputed date range.

“At our expense, we’ve taken to redirecting these patients to different facilities for services that they want and need,” she said.

“It’s a great disruption to the daily operation of the facilities and

FAMU receives $110,000 that will go to firstgeneration students

Former Orlando police chief running for Congress again FROM WIRE REPORTS

Former Orlando Police Chief Val Demings announced Monday she will run again next year for the congressional seat held by Republican Daniel Webster.

The district, Congressional District 10, is expected to be substantially redrawn during a special legislative session that started last week and was scheduled to end Friday.

The changes likely would make the district friendlier to Democratic candidates, such as Demings. She lost to Webster in 2012 Lawmakers are redrawing the state’s congressional map after the Florida Supreme Court ruled last month that current districts violated anti-gerrymandering requirements.

TALLAHASSEE – The State University System of Florida Board of Governors’ Foundation has awarded Florida A&M University (FAMU) $110,000 to help provide scholarship support to first-generation students.

The funds are the result of a $5 million donation to the system by the Helios Education Foundation, which specified that the investment earnings should go to scholarships supporting first-generation students.

“On behalf of the entire FAMU community, I would like to express our gratitude to the Board of Governors’ Foundation and the Helios Education Fund for investing in the futures of the students we historically serve, and for helping to provide access and opportunity to students who may have never had the opportunity to fulfill their dreams of going to college,” said Dr. Elmira Mangum, president of FAMU.

Matching program Each year, the foundation distributes funds to Florida’s 12 state universities.

Florida also has a program in which the state matches contributions, doubling the scholarship awards.

“As a result of these scholarships, nearly 25,000 people have obtained a university education – many of whom may not have had the opportunity to do so otherwise,” said Board of Governors’ Chair Mori Hosseini. “Thanks to the generous donation from Helios, the Board looks forward to continuing to fund this important cause for years to come.”

Mangum encouraged the FAMU community to match the foundation’s efforts.

‘Straight talk’ candidate

COURTESY OF FAMU

Dr. Elmira Mangum, FAMU president, is shown with Florida University System Chancellor Marshall Criser III. “We look forward to receiving matching funds from the state and I encourage all FAMU supporters and stakeholders to join the Florida Board of Governors’ Foundation in investing in first-generation students by making a contribution earmarked for this cause to the FAMU Foundation,” she said.

24,000 helped Through the scholarships, the system has assisted more than 24,000 first-generation students in continuing their ed-

ucation. For the 2013-2014 school year, the scholarships helped 5,203 State University System students. Of those, 2,715 students were first-time recipients of the scholarships and 2,488 were students who had previously been awarded.

“Promoting access to higher education is an important priority for the Board of Governors,” said State University System Chancellor Marshall Criser III. “I’m proud of the talented students who are pursuing a higher education and positioning themselves for bright careers.”

Security for governor, others was close to $3 million THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

Protection for Gov. Rick Scott, First Lady Ann Scott, other officials and the governor's mansion cost the state about $2.9 million, according to an annual report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The report covers fiscal year July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2015. The largest parts of the costs were for salaries and overtime. The cost of security and transportation for the first family was

also to the patients.”

She also said that a fourth Planned Parenthood clinic, in Pembroke Pines, cited by AHCA for improperly labeling fetal remains that were temporarily stored in a freezer, was in compliance with state law.

“That was an extra requirement, not mandated by Florida laws or rules,” Gallagher said. “ Planned Parenthood has denounced the state’s allegations as politically motivated.

“Nearly a decade ago, state officials made it clear that Planned Parenthood is operating fully within the law, and nothing has changed,” Barbara Zdravecky, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, said in a statement. “The state’s actions are patently disingenuous and constitute a wholly unwarranted political attack.”

just under $2.37 million, while 97 details for governors and governorselect from 35 states, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, along with Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Republican Governors Association and former President George W. Bush, came in at $530,330.

A number of the details covered out-of-state governors campaigning for Scott such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's October appearances in Boca Raton and Plantation – $2,026.16

– and in St. Lucie and Indian River counties – $460.58. The biggest expense went to a May 22 to July 2 detail involving Bondi that was $216,240.

Another $95,290 was needed to cover expenses involving the Republican Governors Association's annual conference last November in Boca Raton. The security for Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush on Feb. 27 was $504,15.

Demings did not discuss the possibility of a redrawn district in a statement issued Monday to announce her candidacy.

“I hear from people everywhere, who are struggling to make ends meet, who fear injustice in the criminal justice system, and who want to be able to afford college for their kids,’’ she said in the statement.

“They want someone who won’t shy away from addressing these issues head on. Just as I took on crime in Orlando by straight talk and bringing people togethVal er, I will work to move our Demings state and country forward in Congress.”

Webster beat Demings in 2012 by a margin of 51.7 percent to 48.3 percent in a district that included parts of Orange, Lake and Polk counties.

Career in public service In her statement, she added, “I love Florida, and my life has been committed to public service. I grew up in Jacksonville and watched both of my parents work low-paying jobs as a maid and janitor to provide for me and my six siblings. My parents sacrificed dearly so that we would have a chance at the American dream.

“The shot at the American dream that my parents worked hard to provide for their children is getting slimmer especially for people who grew up like me. The current leadership in Washington and Congressman Dan Webster are failing to provide the opportunities and support to working families in Florida and across the country.

Demings worked as a social worker after graduating from Florida State University and went on to become a police officer and then Orlando’s police chief. She is married to Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings and they have three children.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

EDITORIAL

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AUGUST 21 – AUGUST 27, 2015

How Democrats can be the death of #BlackLivesMatter A year after the police murder of Michael Brown, an incipient mass movement struggles to congeal and define itself.

The emergent movement is rooted in resistance to systemic state violence and repression in Black America. Yet its trajectory wobbles under the push and pull of the contending forces that have been set in motion, and is further distorted by relentless pressures from a power structure that pursues simultaneous strategies of both cooptation and annihilation.

Physical annihilation is a constant threat to the “street” component of the movement, such as the young people of Ferguson, Mo., whose defiance of the armed occupation inspired a national mobilization, and whose urban guerilla language resonates in all the inner cities of the nation. They are the cohort whose social existence has been shaped and defined by a mass Black incarceration regime inaugurated two generations ago as the national response to the Black movements of the Sixties.

Cops were afraid The fact that many of the cops that occupied Ferguson during last week’s anniversary of Michael Brown’s murder were physically afraid – and that the “street” brothers and sisters were demonstrably not – is all the proof we need that Black youth in what we used to call the “ghetto” remain eager to confront their tormentors.

Physical annihilation, or a lifetime of social death through imprisonment, is also only a presidential executive order away for the “above-ground” activists of the movement, whose comings, goings and communications are carefully tracked by the First Black President’s secret police. The various components of what is collectively called the Black Lives Matter movement are on the domestic enemies list of Homeland Security, overseen by Jeh Johnson, a Black man, and the FBI, under the

GLEN FORD BLACK AGENDA REPORT

overall direction of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, a Black woman.

What the Obama administration has spent the year trying to do is co-opt the same activists they are building dossiers on, in preparation for possible future detention. There are clear limits, however, to the enticements that can be offered by an administration that, like all Democratic and Republican governments in the United States for the past 45 years, is totally committed to maintenance of the Mass Black Incarceration regime – albeit with some tinkering at the margins.

Dems dominate The greatest asset of the movement cooptation project is the Democratic Party, an institution that thoroughly dominates Black politics at every level of community life. Not only are Black elected officials overwhelmingly Democrats, but virtually all of the established Black civic organizations – the NAACP, the National Urban League, most politically active Black churches, fraternities and sororities – act as annexes of the Democratic Party.

Two generations after the disbanding of the Black grassroots movement and the independent politics that grew out of that movement, the Democratic Party permeates political discourse in Black America. And the Democratic Party is where progressive movements go to die.

If the emerging #BlackLivesMatter movement allows itself to be sucked into Democratic Party politics, it is doomed. To the extent that it, and other movement organizations, have gotten mon-

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: #BLACKLIVESMATTER

ey from labor unions, they are accepting Democratic Party cash, since organized labor in the U.S. is also an extension of – and a cash cow to – the Democrats.

Why disrupt? #BlackLivesMatter activists may convince themselves that they are confronting the ruling class electoral duopoly by disrupting presidential candidates’ speeches, but the tactic leads straight to cooptation.

What is the purpose? If #BLM’s goal is to push the candidates to adopt better positions on criminal justice reform, what happens afterwards? The logic of the tactic leads to either a direct or indirect, implicit endorsement of the more responsive candidate(s). Otherwise, why should #BLM – or the candidates – go through the exercise?

Former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor Martin O’Malley, whose draconian street-sweeps resulted in the arrest of 750,000 people in one year – more than the total population of the city – submitted a fullblown criminal justice system proposal after being confronted by #BLM. Will it be graded?

RICK MCKEE, THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE

publican White Man’s Party.)

son, William “Lacy” Clay.

No core demands

Must oppose Dems

The #BLM tactic avoids formulation and aggressive agitation of core movement demands. But, a movement is defined by its demands. That’s one reason that the current mobilization is best described as an “incipient” movement – a mobilization with great promise.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. denounced Democratic president and sometimes ally Lyndon Johnson over the Vietnam War in 1967, and rejected even the appearance of collaboration with the ruling class duopoly. King understood that his job was to move masses of people towards their own empowerment, not to act as an interest group or lobby in the corridors of the system. (Malcolm X, and later, the Black Panther Party, would have pilloried King if he had.)

Half a century later, the Democratic Party is full of Black officials.

But in light of their performance in office, this is more evidence of defeat than victory. Two months before Michael Brown was murdered in Ferguson, 80 percent of the Congressional Black Caucus – four out of five full-voting members – supported continued Pentagon transfers of military weapons and gear to local police departments, including the Black congressman representing Fergu-

The Democratic Party, like its Republican duopoly cousin, is a criminal enterprise, polluting the politics of Black America. Any sustained Black movement must, of necessity, be in opposition to the Democratic Party and its civic society annexes. They are the enemies within, the people who have facilitated the mass Black incarceration regime for two generations. “Lacy” Clay and his CBC colleagues have killed thousands of Michael Browns.

People’s core demands ring out in every demonstration. When Black protesters shout, “Killer cops out of our neighborhood,” they aren’t referring to a couple of especially bad apples; they’re talking about the whole damn occupation army.

That’s why the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, which holds its national conference in Philadelphia, August 22 and 23, believes “Black Community Control of the Police” is a righteous, self-determinationist demand.

Other groups may feel strongly about other demands, and that’s fine. Movements are lively places.

But a movement cannot congeal without core demands.

weapons that we can’t go to sleep and dream that we can obtain.

the sight of a rat, whether twolegged or four-legged.

Power in unity

The worst lion

If a war is going on and you want to defend yourself, defend your community and protect your wives and children, you may want to consider putting together an army.

You may need an army because fighting with marches hasn’t calmed the war-like storm. Praying to the same God your attackers pray to hasn’t saved you. Sitting-in hasn’t lifted you up. Voting hasn’t benefited you in the way that you are always told it would benefit you!

Black people can’t fight like two countries fight, because the people that attack us have powerful

But there is power in Black unity! The right community leadership can encourage us to put our differences aside and work together for at least a moment.

I know that an army of Black sheep led by a lion can defeat an army of lions led by a White sheep!

What we need to know right now is who is our lion? Don’t you dare shout out any old name that comes into your head!

Lions, like people, are different. Some Black community lions live in the concrete jungle, dodging traps every day, avoiding badge-wearing hunters and stalkers. They can survive on what they can hustle up and live on what they can catch.

Then there are Black community pussycats that may have their hair cut like lion hair. They may have the same skin color that a lion has, and they may even have the same ancestry as other lions.

But that pussycat won’t fight anything. He will take off and run at

The worst Black community lion is the infamous Zoo Lion, the lion that only does what the zoo keeper tells him to do, what the zookeeper tells him to say, and he only acts in the way the zookeeper tells him to act.

Who do you want to lead you in the battle against injustice, against police brutality, against poverty, against joblessness, against exploitation and against modernday racist oppression?

If there is a war being waged against African-Americans and Black communities, perhaps we need to import some soldiers to fight to make things right, rather than fight to march arm-in-arm to sing “We Shall Overcome” day after day and year-in and year-out!

for good reason. It’s hard to get a large group (especially of Black people) to agree on ANYTHING. Then, most of these huge boards are composed of preachers/religious leaders, teachers/educators, politicians, etc. – with very few successful Black entrepreneurs.

Why is that?

Successful entrepreneurs know time is money. They believe in and understand evidence-based accountability. They demand full disclosure and complete transparency from HBCUs. They understand they have a legal fiduciary responsibility to the SCHOOL and NOT to individual leaders. They

know they can be sued for violating that responsibility. They won’t put up with HBCU bullshiggety for long.

Another issue. Can you name a Black Republican who can call Gov. Rick Scott’s cell phone to have any discussion whatsoever about FAMU? Do you think Scott gives a damn about what Black Democratic politicians think about dumping somebody he appointed as FAMU’s board chairman? Do you now understand why Black Republican contacts are necessary in politically-charged situations like this?

ISIS – The largest forced mass

Democratic lobby?

Is #BLM in the business of rating candidates? If so, then the group is inevitably acting as a Democratic Party lobby/constituency, and is wedded to certain electoral outcomes. At that point, it ceases being an independent movement, or an example of independent Black politics. It’s just another brand of Democrat.

If the goal is to pressure candidates to put forward “better” positions on criminal justice or other issues, then what #BLM is actually doing is nudging Democrats towards incremental reform.

In the absence of radical #BLM demands, all that is left are the petty reform promises that can be squeezed out of Democrats.

(None of this works with the Re-

War in a Black community I’ve been reading some of the writings of my friends, colleagues and even some of my enemies.

I discovered that many of those persons are describing attacks taking place in African-American communities as acts of war!

A war can certainly be more than an open, armed conflict between two countries or between factions in the same country.

A war can also be described as any active hostility, conflict or strife. It can be a war between the sexes, a war on poverty, a war on drugs, a war on crime, etc.

The worst war In my opinion, the worse kind of war you can have, the most volatile war you can have. The most deadly and damaging war you can have is a race war!

A race war doesn’t care who gets hurt. History can teach you that there is no war bloodier than a race war!

Now, in the news reports, opinion columns, blogs and Internet

LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT

posts I’ve perused, some writers have described what is going on in some states, some cities and some neighborhoods as a war against Black people.

Well, I can’t disagree with the way things appear when Blackhawk and aApache helicopters are flying around the ‘hood, and I see armored personnel carriers and SWAT teams at “launch sites” on the Black side of the railroad tracks.

I can’t deny that there has been a constant and significant increase in the number of acts of hatred, the number of ethnic slurs being used and said, the number of racist flags waved and racist symbols being openly shown and

Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 265 QUICK TAKES FROM #2: STRAIGHT, NO CHASER

CHARLES W. CHERRY II, ESQ. PUBLISHER

FAMU foolishness – I’ve written before how HBCU leadership – especially boards of trustees full of personal politics and petty jealousies – may cause the eventual death of HBCUs. How? First, the boards are generally too big, anywhere from 10 to 40 people. That’s a recipe for disaster in itself. Boards of multinational corporations aren’t that big, and

displayed, the number of Black churches being attacked, firebombed and destroyed.

I can’t deny that Black women, men and children are being choked, hung and shot down in broad daylight in Black communities, just like people that are being shot in combat zones!

Gather an army

Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher

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Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere. Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net. migration of human beings in 50 years is unfolding as millions are fleeing the ISIS war in Syria and Iraq, walking through Turkey, and getting on rafts to Greece − much like desperate Cubans float to South Florida.

There will soon be a ground war against ISIS with a true coalition, including Europe, the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and a few others.

Why? Because otherwise, millions of Brown people, mostly Muslims, will continue to wash up on the shores of Europe to escape ISIS brutality. You know Greece, Spain, Germany, Great Britain, and Russia ain’t gonna have that…

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AUGUST 21 – AUGUST 27, 2015

Julian Bond − A dedicated life of service Horace Julian Bond was born Jan. 14, 1940 in Nashville, Tenn., into a family of privilege.

His father, Horace Mann Bond, was a noted educator who served as president of Fort Valley State University in Georgia, where such notables as W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Robeson were frequent guests. His mother, Julia, was a librarian.

During their formative years, most Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), established during the Reconstruction Era to provide higher education for formerly enslaved African-Americans, were headed by Whites. Bond’s father was the first Black president of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, his alma mater.

Attended Morehouse Young Julian was sent off to George School, a private Quaker boarding school near Philadelphia, and later enrolled in Morehouse College.

At Morehouse, Bond chose a life of activism that would become the hallmark of his life.

This is significant because many Blacks born into a life of privilege distanced themselves from the nascent civil rights movement.

I remember how incensed I became when Condoleezza Rice boasted in a Washington Post interview that, “My parents were very strategic. I was going to be so well-prepared, and I was going to do all of these things that were revered in White society so well,

GEORGE E. CURRY NNPA COLUMNIST

that I would be armored somehow from racism…”And it got worse, as I noted in a column on Rice.

Different values Referring to Rev. John W. Rice, Jr., she said, “My father was not a march-in-the-street preacher. He saw no reason to put children at risk. He would never put his own child at risk.” Julian Bond’s father, who had more blueblood credentials than Rev. Rice, obviously instilled a different set of values in him.

Bond dropped out of Morehouse College to join the civil rights movement, first as cofounder of the Atlanta student movement that organized local sit-ins on the heels of the 1960 lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, N.C. He was also a co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). It was in his capacity as communications director of SNCC that I first met Julian Bond during the summer of 1966, after I had completed my freshman year of college. I spent that summer as a volunteer in the Atlanta headquarters, watching him interact with the media and carefully polishing SNCC’s national image.

Julian also wrote poetry. I don’t

Saddened by death of Julian Bond The news that Julian Bond passed away at 75 saddened me REV. deeply. America has lost a true JESSE L. and still vital champion for justice.

JACKSON, President Obama, hailing Bond SR. as a hero and a friend, noted that “Julian Bond helped change this TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM country for the better. And what better way to be remembered than desegregate Atlanta’s lunch counthat.” ters, parks and theaters.

Realizing that young peoOn the path ple could take risks too costly At a very young age, Bond for adults with families, at 20, he helped forge the emerging civil helped found SNCC, the Student rights movement, and was in ma- Non-Violent Coordinating Comny ways, a founding father of the mittee. He became its secretary New South that we now see still in and head of its communications in formation. In 1957, as a student at part because he was seen as orgaMorehouse College, son of a col- nized, level-headed and eloquent. lege president, varsity swimmer, head of the literary magazine, intern for Time magazine, he was on Big picture Julian was ahead of most in the the path to success.

But the success he chose was to movement for understanding the make history, not money. He was big picture. He realized that civil arrested after organizing some of rights could not be achieved withthe first student demonstrations to out economic rights, and that eco-

Newspaper columnist

BENJAMIN F. CHAVIS, JR. NNPA COLUMNIST

“I tell young people to prepare themselves as best they can for a world that grows more challenging every day – get the best education they can and couple that education with real-life experience in social justice work,” said Bond.

The question for today’s generation of African-American youth is this: What can be learned from Julian Bond’s living legacy and applied to the Black Lives Matter movement?

The importance of having structure, stated principles, and organization were central to Bond’s sense of youth leadership development. One of the reasons why Bond and SNCC were effective in the 1960s is because of their internal discipline and national organizational structure. SNCC was militant and outspoken, but SNCC was well-structured. It was not a spontaneous, loosely-organized, student-run organization.

A5

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: HILLARY CLINTON

remember many of his poems, but I still recall part of one we recited all summer: Look at that girl shake that thing, We can’t all be Martin Luther King.

Don’t ask me why I remember that nearly 50 years later.

The messenger In SNCC, Julian was not a key organizer, as some stories have suggested. The organization had legions of field organizers who became legends in the movement, including Bob Moses, Cleveland Sellers and Courtland Cox. Julian’s role was to communicate SNCC’s message to the media – and he did that well.

The incident that catapulted Bond to international fame was his opposition to the Vietnam War. Dr. King did not publicly turn against the Vietnam War until his speech at Riverside Church in New York on April 4, 1967, exactly a year before his assassination.

In 1965, Julian was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. Shortly before he was scheduled to take office, he endorsed a statement by SNCC opposing the Vietnam War.

Georgia politician

STEVE SACK, THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

Perhaps his lowest point came when Bond and former SNCC chairman John Lewis competed for the same Congressional seat in Georgia. Bond’s estranged wife charged – and later recanted – that Julian was a habitual user of cocaine. Lewis challenged him to a urine test. Julian replied he would agree on one condition – that Lewis hold the cup. There was no drug test and John Lewis went on to defeat Bond and remains in office today.

In one of at least four tweets Lewis sent after Bond’s death, he said, “We went through a difficult period during our campaign for Congress in 1986, but many years ago we emerged even closer.”

vice, serving as board chairman of the NAACP for 11 years, being co-founder and a trustee of the Southern Poverty Law Center, hosting “America’s Black Forum” television program, teaching, and in demand on the lecture circuit.

Several years ago, Jesse Jackson, who is not prone to giving out compliments, said to me unprompted: “Julian is always right on public policy. I can’t think of one time I have disagreed with a position he has taken.”

For that, we all can all be grateful. And we can be grateful that instead of retreating to a life of privilege, Julian’s entire adult life was dedicated to fighting injustice.

president, a symbolic nomination (he was only 27 and the constitutionally required age is 35) “about the wave of the future.”

ald a post-civil rights America…It couldn’t eliminate structural inequity or racist attitudes,” he said, even suggesting Obama’s election fomented such attitudes.

The Georgia House accused Bond of treason and refused to seat him. A federal appeals court upheld the decision. But on Dec. 5, 1966, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld his right to free Other paths Though he never ran for pubspeech or ordered Georgia to seat him. Bond spent two decades in lic office again, Julian Bond found other paths to public serthe state House and Senate.

nomic rights would not advance if America kept throwing resources and lives into war abroad. He became an early and outspoken critic of the Viet Nam war.

After the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, Julian led voter registration drives. At the remarkable age of 25, he was elected to the Georgia State House. The sitting legislators demanded that he repudiate his opposition to the Vietnam War. When he refused, they refused to seat him. Three times his constituents reelected him; three times the House denied him his seat. Finally, the Supreme Court ruled their actions unconstitutional.

In January 1967, Bond took his seat, and served in the House and Senate for the next two decades.

He was a national hero for having stood on principle even at the cost of his political career.

In the embittered 1968 Chicago Democratic presidential convention, Bond led an insurgent Georgia delegation and was stood to second the nomination of Eugene McCarthy for president. With the convention floor in bedlam and demonstrations raging outside the hall, Bond was nominated as vice

The legacy of Julian Bond The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) family pauses to mourn the passing of civil rights leader Julian Bond. But we also know that it is important to highlight those lasting lessons from Bond’s legacy that apply to today’s struggle for freedom.

Brother Bond was a personal friend and colleague in the civil rights movement during the past 50 or more years. He was not only a skillful and articulate orator, Bond was also a great writer not unlike W.E. B DuBois and James Baldwin.

EDITORIAL

the Black Lives Matter movement, one challenge is how to build a sustainable studentand youth-led movement for justice with an effective structure and infrastructure.

I am confident and admire the progress that the Black Lives Matters movement has already achieved. Learning from the past helps to avoid difficulties of the past.

Denise Rolark Barnes, chairperson of the NNPA and publisher of The Washington Informer, observed that Bond’s “lifelong dedication and commitment to political and economic empowerment, journalistic diversity and integrity, and educational equality served as a beacon for others to follow. His presence and voice will be sorely missed, but his words remain true for the NNPA: ‘Good things don’t come to those who wait. They come to those who agitate!’”

We will all strive to keep the living spirit of Julian Bond’s legacy alive in our current and continuing struggle for justice, equality and empowerment. May his valued and respected spirit be passed on to future generations of freedom fighters.

Julian was a penetrating columnist for the NNPA, as he used his pen to stir the consciousness of millions of people about the plight of Black America and others who cried out for equal justice.

Bond was one of the early leaders and cofounders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and worked tirelessly to lead young African- American student leaders across the nation to the forefront of the civil rights movement. SNCC successfully shaped how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) saw Youth, take notes Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. the value of African- AmeriWith the Internet and socan college students in the cial media being the preferred is the President and CEO vanguard of the freedom means of communication of the National Newspaper movement. among young leaders today in Publishers Association.

History of service Bond served as legislator, scholar, teacher and leader. He was a founder and first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center. He taught at the University of Virginia and lectured widely, receiving more than 30 honorary degrees. He chaired the NAACP for 11 years.

He had experienced firsthand the slight and shackles of segregation – and organized to end them.

He knew firsthand the suppression of the right to vote and helped build a movement to challenge that.

To his final years, his intelligence, clarity and passion continued to instruct. He understood that, as he put it, “America is race,” from the founders to the Civil War to the civil rights movement to Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Sandra Bland.

He knew that Barack Obama’s election and re-election was a measure of the progress that had been made but “didn’t her-

George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine, is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service and BlackPressUSA.com.

Act for change To his final days, he urged people into motion, knowing that only when people mobilized and acted could anything change.

“We look back and see giant leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King,” he taught, but the civil rights movement was “a people’s movement. It produced leaders of its own; but it relied not on the noted but the nameless, not on the famous but the faceless. It didn’t wait for commands from afar to begin a campaign against injustice. It saw wrong and acted against it; it saw evil and brought it down.”

Julian Bond was a leader of exceptional clarity and insight. He made a dramatic contribution with his life. He had a strong mind and courage to break strong chains, and he will be deeply missed.

Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. is founder and president of the Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

Another giant has fallen Many of us woke up on August 16 to the news that Julian Bond, a hero who was at the forefront of the civil rights movement, had died.

Julian was only 75 years old, and as many of us approach that number, we are especially saddened because we know there is so much more to be done for equal rights to become a reality.

If it were not for people like Julian, we would not have come as far as we have come or made the progress we have made to date.

I lived in Atlanta, Ga., when neither Julian nor I had white hair. We were great friends.

Walked together I remember how we’d walk down the streets of Atlanta laughing and talking about all the great issues of the day, as well as our hopes and dreams for the future. (We chose to walk because in those days, we were always sure someone was listening inside buildings.)

One of Julian’s fondest hopes was to become chairman of the board of the NAACP. He ultimately did that and I was happy he shared that with me in our walking and talking sessions.

When I moved from Atlanta to Michigan, Julian came to Flint, Mich., where I had gone to work for the Michigan Education Association. He needed to get to Saginaw, Mich. for a speech he was to do there, and he asked me to drive him there. That was before I was familiar with the Michigan snow!

A joker

DR. E. FAYE WILLIAMS, ESQ. TRICE EDNEY WIRE

me on that occasion!

Well, after the jokes and dinner and a lot of laughter, I had to drive back to Flint in the snow on a wing and a prayer because the snow was so heavy that all the road signs were covered with snow and I had to guess that I was going the right way.

Some years later, I saw Julian in the Rayburn Congressional Office Building, and we reconnected with my telling him, “You know I am on the road as much as you are now,” and he asked if that meant I was driving a truck by chance!

Eternal activist I didn’t see my friend much in recent years, but whenever we met, he had a new joke. The only time that was not the case was just a few weeks ago when I saw him in Philadelphia at the NAACP Convention. That was the last time I was to see him.

I didn’t get a chance to talk with him, but he was praised, and rightly so, by NAACP President Cornell W. Brooks. He was a bit grayer than the last time we talked, but he was the eternal activist to the end, and I am glad to have called him my friend.

I drove him there, and he told me so Dr. E. Faye Williams is national many jokes − one that is too raunchy to repeat here. Because he had such a president/CEO of the National Condry sense of humor, no one would ever gress of Black Women. Contact her at have believed some of the ones he told www.nationalcongressbw.org.

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Julian Bond is shown in May 1998 when he became the national chairman of the NAACP. CHUCK KENNEDY/ TNS

A LIFETIME of civil rights From co-founder of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to chair of the National NAACP, Julian Bond was a longtime leader in the battle for justice for all.

BY DAVID COLKER AND LAURA J. NELSON LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

I

n the late 1960s, civil rights leader Julian Bond was such a compelling figure that he was talked about as one day becoming the first Black president of the United States.

Charismatic and eloquent, he had numerous key accomplishments, including co-founding the landmark Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and leading numerous protests.

His public profile shot up in 1968 when he gave a rousing speech in favor of peace candidate Sen. Eugene McCarthy at the Chicago Democratic National Convention. His name was even placed into nomination for vice president.

“That nomination changed my entire life,” Bond told the Los Angeles Times in 1987. He became a regular on news commentary shows and a favorite on the college lecture circuit.

Future accomplishments followed, including serving as board chairman of the NAACP. But although Bond remained in the public eye for decades — commenting not just on African-Amer-

ican issues, but also on environmental matters, gay marriage and other topics — he did not fulfill his dream of gaining national political office.

Bond was not someone who connected well with grassroots voters.

“I wasn’t particularly cut out for politics,” he said in the Times interview.

A hero, a friend Bond, 75, died Aug. 15 in Fort Walton Beach, according to a statement by the Southern Poverty Law Center, where Bond served as president in the 1970s.

His wife, Pamela Horowitz, told The Associated Press that he had been suffering from vascular disease. Bond and Horowitz primarily lived in the Washington, D.C., area and were vacationing in Florida.

“Julian Bond was a hero and, I’m privileged to say, a friend,” President Barack Obama said in a statement Sunday. “Justice and equality was the mission that spanned his life.”

Reaction to Bond’s death came from many who worked with him during the civil rights movement, including Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who in 1986 beat

LEADERS REMEMBER BOND President Barack Obama: “Julian Bond was a hero and, I’m privileged to say, a friend.’”

Congressman John Lewis: “We went through a difficult period during our campaign for Congress in 1986, but many years ago we emerged even closer.”

NAACP CEO Cornell Brooks: “The life and legacy, the eloquence of Julian Bond’s example, yet speak to the present and future of the NAACP and the nation.”

Rev. Jesse Jackson: “A friend and fellow traveler who with courage, set the moral and academic tone of our generation.”

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed: “…We have lost a real exemplar from the city of Atlanta, the state of Georgia and the nation.’’

Julian Bond (front) is shown with members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1963.

Bond in a bitterly fought battle for a congressional seat nomination.

“He became one of my closest and dearest friends,” Lewis said on Twitter. “We went through a difficult period during our campaign for Congress in 1986, but many years ago we emerged even closer.

“Julian was so smart, so gifted, and so talented. He was deeply committed to making our country a better country.”

Charming but tough Bond, who was a dashing figure and a natty dresser, had as many as 100 speaking engagements a year. He wrote several books and was a popular professor at American University and the University of Virginia. He hosted “Saturday Night Live” and appeared in a handful of movies, including as himself in the Ray Charles biopic “Ray” (2004).

Despite his reputation for charm,

Southern Poverty Law Center Co-founder Morris Dees: “He advocated not just for African-Americans, but for every group, indeed every person subject to oppression and discrimination, because he recognized the common humanity in us all.”

NNPA President and CEO Benjamin F. Chavis: “As an effective chairman of the NAACP, cofounder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Georgia State Senator, college professor and columnist for the NNPA, Julian Bond was a gallant warrior who championed the interests of Black America.”

Bond was not afraid to come out swinging against policies and politicians he opposed. In 1982, when he was a Georgia state senator with a national platform given his fame, Bond called President Ronald Reagan in a Times interview an “amiable incompetent” who is practicing a “new form of social Darwinism — survival of the richest.”

As for Alabama Gov. George Wallace, Bond referred to him in 1971 as “the hillbilly Hitler.”

Bond didn’t spare a newer generation of Southern Democrats when he felt they were in the wrong. In 1976, when presidential candidate Jimmy Carter said there was “nothing wrong with ethnic purity” being maintained in urban neighborhoods, Bond lashed back during a question-and-answer session at the University of Southern California.

See BOND, Page B2

The Rev. C.T. Vivian: “Anyone who would risk their lives for any period of time, and then stay with the struggle until they’re president of the largest organization that we have for justice, is a person that we should all highly respect and, at his death, should honor.’’

Rev. Al Sharpton: “… The country has lost a champion for human rights. The work of Mr. Bond will be missed but not forgotten as we march forward for civil rights.”

NNPA Chair Denise Rolark Barnes: “His lifelong dedication and commitment to political and economic empowerment, journalistic diversity and integrity, and educational equality served as a beacon for others to follow.’’

National Urban League CEO Marc Morial: “He was a bridge between the civil rights pioneers of the 1960’s and the dynamic young activists of today, employing both a deep sense of history and a keen instinct for action.”

NAACP Washington Bureau Chief Hilary Shelton: “Julian embodied someone who was meticulous in their assessment of the problems and challenges of the African-American community and people who supported civil rights and human rights everywhere.’’

SCLC CEO Charles Steele, Jr.: “Julian Bond was a passionate and charismatic human rights activist; a transformative and triumphant civil rights leader whose eloquent voice made him a symbol and iconic figure of the 1960s civil rights movement.’’

CALENDAR

B2

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Tampa: Caregiver’s Helping Hand’s 6th Annual Day Of Pampering For Moms to Be is Oct. 9 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at University Area CDC, 14013 North 22nd St. The non-profit volunteer organization needs donations. Questions: 813379-8966 or email Caregiverstampa@gmail.com.

Pompano Beach: Men’s Day with The Brotherhood of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church is 11 a.m. Aug. 30. The location is 800 NW 8th Ave. Miami Gardens: Recording artist Flavour performs Aug. 28 in a fundraising concert for the African Museum and Cultural Center at the Betty Ferguson Recreation Complex starting at 7 p.m. www.

AMACBenefitConcert.eventbrite.com. A gala and awards ceremony is Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Nine O One Event and Conference Center, 901 NW 183rd St. More information: 305-450-5316.

Fort Lauderdale: An African Wardrobe Festival takes place Aug. 29 from noon to 8

AUGUST 21 – AUGUST 27, 2015

p.m. at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, 2650 Sistrunk Blvd.

Tickets are $30. More information: www.africanwardrobefestival.org.

Miami: Chris Brown’s “One Hell of a Nite Tour’’ stops at the AmericanAirlines Arena on Sept. 3 and the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa on Sept. 4.

Tampa: Funkfest 2015 takes place Aug. 22 at Raymond James Stadium. Artists include Jodeci, Dru Hill, Trick Daddy, SWV and 2 Live Crew.

More information: www. funkfesttour.com.

Clearwater: Legendary concert jazz pianist Lillette Jenkins-Wisner, known as “Queen of the Keys,’’ gives what’s being called a farewell performance Sept. 10-13 at Ruth Eckerd Hall. The concert will feature Jade Simmons.

Orlando: Catch Sasheer Zamata, a “Saturday Night Live’’ comedienne, on Aug. 26 at CFE Arena for an 8 p.m. show.

Orlando: The rapper T-Pain is scheduled to take the stage at the CFE Arena in Orlando on Aug. 27.

Tampa: The Tampa Bay Black Heritage Festival and the Entrepreneur Collaborative Center will present “Business Planning; Sales & Marketing and Technology” seminar on Aug. 29 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2101 E. Palm Ave. Register at www.tampablackheritage.org.

St. Petersburg: R&B singer Keith Sweat takes the stage Sept. 5 at the Mahaffey Theater, 400 1st Street S.

STOJ

YOLANDA ADAMS JAZMINE SULLIVAN LENNY WILLIAMS The Allstate Tom Joyner Family Reunion returns to Orlando Labor Day Weekend. The talent lineup includes Yolanda Adams, Jazmine Sullivan and Lenny Williams. More information: Blackamericaweb.com.

Orlando: The Opal Network Alliance’s South Florida Women’s Summit is Oct. 2829 at the at the Bonaventure Resort & Spa in Weston. More information: www.onatoday. com.

St. Petersburg: Tickets are on sale for a Nov. 13 show featuring the legendary Chaka Khan at the Mahaffey Theater.

Orlando: STAR 94.5 presents Tamia at the House of Blues Orlando on Aug. 29 for a 7:30 p.m. show.

Miami: Catch actor and comedian Martin Lawrence on Sept. 11 at the AmericanAirlines Arena’s Waterfront Theatre and Sept. 12 at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa.

JAZMINE SULLIVAN Orlando: Reggae artists Beres Hammond and Tarrus Riley perform Aug. 22 at Hard Rock Live Orlando.

Sept. 20, Orlando’s Amway Center on Sept. 23 and Tampa’s Amalie Arena on Sept. 24.

Miami: Janet Jackson’s Unbreakable World Tour stops at AmericanAirlinesArena on

Tampa: Candy Lowe hosts Tea & Conversation every Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at

South Carolina’s Marching 101 will pay tribute to band’s biggest fan

BOND

from Page 1 Carter’s words, Bond said, “were offensive to me.

They cannot be apologized for. I think they are offensive to anyone who can trace their ancestors to other countries.”

BY ROBERT S. BLUE II SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

At an HBCU, halftime isn’t a break in the action. It’s just the beginning. While the football players demonstrate agility with high-flying catches, spectacular runs and hard-hitting tackles, marching band members work tirelessly to perfect their craft of high-flying drum majors, spectacular blends of passion through music, and the hard-hitting but unique and unmistakable sound of the marching band.

South Carolina State University’s “101’’ started humbly in 1918, a simple regimental band performing military drills and assisting with music at Sunday schools and wherever else it was needed. The band slowly but steadily evolved from a service band to a part of the school’s Department of Music, to a prominent band whose name rings from coast to coast.

The 101 makes appearances across the country, from bowl parades to NFL games. The band has made its mark, winning Atlanta’s annual Honda Battle of the Bands competition in 2011 and 2014.

So acclaimed is the band’s reputation, the 101 was featured last October in the VH1 movie “Drumline: A New Beat.” The character Dr. James Lee from the original film was inspired by former South Carolina State band directors.

Painful loss to Lewis

South Carolina State University’s Marching 101 band will perform Sept.

6 during the MEAC/SWAC Challenge at the Orlando Citrus Bowl.

Tribute to Moore Every band has its heart and inspiration. For the 101, that inspiration was exuberant fan and honorary band member Eddie “Eddie Moe” Moore Jr. He was fatally struck by a vehicle in December 2014 at age 58.

Moore, who was known and loved throughout Orangeburg, was a man whose life was a testament to how the Marching 101 could bring together an entire city of people. He was a man who loved South Carolina State, a man who attended every South Carolina State football game for decades and stood every week at the front of the crowd, leading the cheers and the roar of the crowd, both for the football team and when 101 came to play.

When Moore would appear, the crowd had always gone berserk.

The football team saw him as one of their own and the 101 saw him as their inspiration. Moore would run onto the field and dance his heart away to the sounds of the 101. The fans would feel a thrill so powerful it would move them to their feet.

At the 11th annual MEAC/SWAC Challenge presented by Disney, members of the 101 will wear patches on their uniforms commemorating Moore.

Members are moved by generations of 101 bands previous to them, driven by the urge to exceed expectations week after week, inspired by those who are lost to us but still live through the music of the band. It’s what makes them who they are.

Robert S. Blue II is a senior journalism major at South Carolina State University.

But for all his plain speaking, Bond didn’t always fully connect with voters looking for an aggressive leader.

The loss to Lewis over the congressional seat was particularly painful for him. “I don’t think I will ever get over that,” Bond said in the 1987 interview.

Early on in the campaign, he was ahead by more than 30 percentage points. But Lewis, a scrappy politician in contrast to Bond’s polish, forged ahead and won in a runoff.

“Julian Bond doesn’t seem to have that aggressive instinct like Jesse Jackson,” Loch Johnson, a University of Georgia political scientist, said in a 1987 Times interview. “He’s a kind of intellectual politician in the mold of Gene McCarthy or Adlai Stevenson.

“There’s a role in politics for the intellectual, but as the examples of McCarthy and Stevenson well illustrate, it’s hard for such people to get elected.”

Family of academics

‘M4’ ready for opening performance in Orlando

BY TANEE NEWBY SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) Golden Lions is preparing for an eventful 2015-2016 school year.

The team opens the season against the South Carolina State Bulldogs in the 11th annual MEAC/SWAC Challenge presented by Disney in Orlando. As the football team gears up for the game, so will the Marching Musical Machine of the Mid-South – more commonly referred to as “M4.’’

Armed with more than 200 members, M4 is directed by John Graham along with assistant directors Darryl Evans and Harold Fooster.

Graham hails from Little Rock, Ark., and was born to musical parents. His mother is a pianist and his father played clarinet and French horn. A graduate of Little Rock Central High School, where he was the first African-American drum major, he went on to attend University of Central Arkansas, where he continued to study music and play in the band. He became the director of the Marching Musical Machine of the Mid-South in 1994.

YOLANDA ADAMS

The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff band is called the Marching Musical Machine of the Mid-South, more commonly referred to as “M4.’’

Performed for Obama M4 has made appearances at the Gateway Classic, professional football games, on national television and in countless “Battle of the Bands” competitions. The band also participated in the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009.

For the opening performance in September, M4 has been preparing for months.

“We don’t treat it any different than our home games,” Graham said of the game in Orlando. “Our preparation is the same. It’s perfection; we strive for perfection. We’ve played on big stages, we try to go out, do

what we do and do it well, and be consistent with it.”

The season-opening show has been planned down to the smallest detail.

“If they don’t show up to this, they’re going to miss something special,” Graham said of fans and alumni who might be considering a trip to Florida next month.

Tanee Newby is a May 2015 UAPB graduate. She earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mass Communications/Broadcast Journalism.

Horace Julian Bond was born on Jan. 14, 1940, in Nashville, Tenn. Both parents were academics: His father was an administrator at historically Black colleges and his mother was a librarian. Bond recalled that historian W.E.B. DuBois and singer Paul Robeson were among the guests at the family home.

In 1957, Bond enrolled at prestigious Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he attended a class taught by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He also lettered in swimming and helped found a literary magazine.

But his activist side had been kindled — he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960 and led protests against segregation at public facilities. He left the college in 1961 but returned a decade later to finish his bachelor’s degree in English.

In 1965, he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, but members of the Legislature blocked him from taking his seat, primarily because of his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War. It took a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1966 for him to finally take his post. He

LENNY WILLIAMS 3911 N. 34th St., Suite B. More information: 813-394-6363.

Jacksonville: Multi-instrumentalist Booker T. Jones will be at the Ritz Theater and Museum on Oct. 3 for an 8 p.m. show. stayed in the state Legislature, first in the House and then the Senate, until 1987.

That was a particularly rough year for Bond.

“He surely took a fall,” his friend Roger Wilkins, a history professor at George Mason University, told The Washington Post in 1998. “For all of us who went through the heat of the ‘60s, there really was a post-traumatic stress syndrome.”

‘No finish line’ Bond eventually seemed to rally on several fronts.

He married Horowitz, an attorney, in 1990. In 1998, he took over as board chairman of the NAACP at a time when the organization was mired in debt and seemed woefully dated. He later brought it back into the news with fiery statements in opposition to then-President George W. Bush.

Bond also became known as an ardent backer of LGBT rights, to the dismay of more conservative African-American groups.

As always, the main thrust of his activist life was civil rights, a battle he expected never to end.

“There is no finish line in this fight,” he told the Times in 1998. “You always have to keep on running.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t have successes.

“You can have a victory.

But then you have to start again.”

In addition to his wife, Bond is survived by daughters Julia Bond and Phyllis McMillan; sons Jeffrey, Michael and Horace; sister Jane Moore; brother James; and eight grandchildren.

Bond was to be cremated and his ashes scattered in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday. A memorial celebration could take place in Washington next month.

NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS ACTION, To: Thomas Campbell, Respondent, From: Confidential Clerk of Family Court -Bethany Christian Services, Petitioner has brought a civil action (#15-18700) against you to terminate your parental rights of a child: Minor Male (DOB: 3/7/15). A hearing has been scheduled at the Family Court, 500 N.King St, Wilmington, DE on 9/9/2015 at 3 pm. If you do not appear at the hearing the Court may terminate your parental rights without your appearance. If you wish to be represented by an attorney in this matter but cannot afford one, you may be entitled to have the court appoint an attorney to represent you for free. For more information please contact Confidential Clerk, Family Court 302-255-0244.

S

AUGUST 21 – AUGUST 27, 2015

PERSONAL FINANCE

B3 rate increases for men who lost a spouse or single men in general.

The hypothetical person that the consumer group used in its research on insurance pricing was a 30-year-old female who has been driving since age 16 with no accidents or moving violations. She has a high school diploma, works as a bank teller and drives a 2005 Honda Civic, which she owns. She also lives in a ZIP code with a $30,000 median household income and has insurance most recently purchased three years ago.

Tampa in study

FOTOLIA/TNS ]

In the 10 cities studied, four of six major insurers – Geico, Farmers, Progressive and Liberty – increased rates on state-mandated liability coverage for widows by an average 20 percent.

Study: Widows often see hike in auto insurance rates

BY TIM GRANT PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE/TNS

Women whose husbands die should not expect to receive much sympathy from many of the nation’s major auto insurers; it’s more likely that widows can expect to have their car insurance rates raised.

The Washington, D.C.-based Consumer Federation of Ameri-

ca found most major automobile insurance companies vary their prices depending on marital status.

“It surprised us especially that when a husband dies, most major auto insurers would increase the premiums for the surviving widow,” said Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the consumer federation. “Most of the major insurers charge all single people —

whether they’ve never been married, separated, divorced or widowed — higher rates than those who are married.

“Insurers claim that married people are safer drivers,” he said.

“But there are no publicly available studies that have shown that, and we are not aware that state insurance departments have insisted that auto insurers prove there is a causal relationship.”

Not State Farm In the 10 cities studied, four of six major insurers — Geico, Farmers, Progressive and Liberty — increased rates on statemandated liability coverage for widows by an average 20 percent. The fifth insurer, Nationwide, sometimes increased rates for widows.

The sixth insurer, State Farm, did not vary the rates it charged because of marital status. All State Farm rate quotes were the same regardless of whether the driver was single, separated, divorced, widowed, a domestic partner or married.

The consumer federation research did not compare similar

More than half of Americans have gone a year without a vacation

BY HUGO MARTIN LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

If you haven’t taken a vacation in a year, you aren’t alone.

More than 135 million Americans, or 56 percent, say they haven’t taken a vacation in the last 12 months, compared to 126 million Americans, or 52 percent, who reported going without a vacation for a year in 2014, according to a telephone survey of 1,000 Americans.

Another 15 percent of those surveyed said they haven’t been on vacation in seven to 12 months and 10 percent said it has been four to six months, with 16 percent saying they have been on vacation within the last three months, according to the survey.

CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

A lovely vacation on a cruise ship such as the Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas (above) might be appealing for many. But a great number of Americans are afraid to take some time off for fear they’ll be replaced or have too much work waiting when they return. go on vacation.

A survey last year by the U.S. Travel Association found that 40 percent of Americans who were questioned said they put off va-

cation because they don’t want to return to a mountain of work.

Another 35 percent said they feel no one else can do their work while they are on vacation

and 22 percent said they worry that they will be seen as replaceable if they take time off, according to the online survey of 1,303 Americans.

Insurance commissioner: Flood rates are ‘unfairly discriminatory’ THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty wants Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, to be patient when it comes to Florida’s approach to tackling national flood-insurance rates.

McCarty, in response to a Brandes letter last week, said he agrees that rates for Floridians through the National Flood Insurance Program “are unfairly discriminatory.” However, McCarty added that the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology is already working on the issue.

Push for change Established in 1968 to advance consumer interests through research, advocacy and education, the Consumer Federation of America represents about 300 consumer groups across the nation.

The organization is calling for state insurance departments to investigate the issue. It will share the findings of the study with all state insurance departments and with the Federal Insurance Office, which is considering the issue of insurance affordability.

“The ‘widow penalty’ and other pricing related to marital status provides still another reason for state insurance departments to examine insurer pricing more carefully,” Hunter said.

Column addresses question about Social Security TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Fear of being replaced The survey by the insurance company Allianz Global Assistance echoes previous studies and polls that show Americans are denying themselves vacation even when their employers offer it.

The Allianz survey did not ask why people are putting off vacation time, but other surveys have found that Americans fear being replaced or fear they will accumulate a backlog of work if they

In the study, the researchers also increased the widow’s age to 50 and found the price differences persisted.

“Unfortunately, it’s not unusual that the insurance industry is using socio-economic factors rather than how we drive to price auto insurance,” said Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the consumer group and former insurance commissioner for the state of Texas. “The public has indicated in surveys that rates should be based on how you drive, and we agree with that.”

The cities studied in the survey are Baltimore; Tampa; Louisville, Ky.; Chicago; Minneapolis; Houston; Denver; Oakland, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; and Phoenix.

The research used quotes from the websites of the auto insurers for the minimum liability insurance required by states. For each quote in the 10 cities, all car driver and insurance characteristics were held constant except for marital status.

Brandes wrote to McCarty last week asking for the state to determine if national flood-insurance rates for Floridians are “excessive, arbitrary, or unfairly discriminatory.”

Transparency sought Florida makes up 37 percent of the polices under the National Flood Insurance Program, and Brandes noted that premium increases this year in the federal program can reach 18 percent for primary residences and 25 percent for non-primary residences.

“Floridians deserve to know

if the rates they are paying are based on fact or fiction,” Brandes said in a prepared statement accompanying his request to McCarty. “I believe it is the role of the state to provide that transparency.”

The state commission is expected to develop improved future flood-projection data for insurers and flood-modeling firms

by July 2017, McCarty wrote to Brandes. McCarty said his office will request the actuarial study that was used by the National Flood Insurance Program so Florida can review the federal rates.

‘Across the board’ rate McCarty added he doesn’t believe the federal rates would have been approved in Florida if they had been required to go before the Office of Insurance Regulation. McCarty noted that the federal program bases its ratings by averaging together into a single rate coastal and non-coastal zones to create a single “across the board” rate.

In Florida, the single rate “would be considered unfairly discriminatory from an actuarial perspective which would not pass scrutiny under Florida law,” McCarty wrote.

This column is prepared by the Social Security Administration.

For fast answers to specific Social Security questions, contact Social Security toll-free at 800-7721213 or visit www.socialsecurity. gov.

Q: If I get Social Security disability benefits and I reach full retirement age, will I then receive retirement benefits?

A: Social Security disability benefits automatically change to retirement benefits when disability beneficiaries reach full retirement age. In most cases, the payment amount does not change.

The law does not allow a person to receive both retirement and disability benefits simultaneously on one earnings record.

Q: What are Compassionate Allowances?

A: Compassionate Allowances are Social Security’s way of quickly identifying severe diseases and other medical conditions that qualify a person for disability benefits without waiting a long time. Compassionate Allowances permit Social Security to target the most obviously disabled individuals for allowances and faster payment of benefits based on objective medical information that we can obtain quickly.

Compassionate Allowances are not separate from the Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income programs. Find out more at www. socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances .

Q: What is Supplemental Security Income (SSI)?

A: SSI is a needs-based program that pays cash assistance to people with limited income and resources who are age 65 or older, blind or disabled. Children with disabilities can get SSI, too.

SSI is funded by general tax revenues — not Social Security taxes.

To find out if you can get SSI, and how to apply, visit www.socialsecurity.gov/disabilityssi/ssi.html.

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FOOD

AUGUST 21 – AUGUST 27, 2015

FFROM FAMILY FEATURES

As the kids head back to school, there’s no better time to make a fresh start in the kitchen, too. Substituting nutritious ingre­dients such as sorghum in your favorite grain-based foods is an easy way to upgrade your family’s menu this fall.

Some of the traditional snacks kids love most — such as cakes, cookies and doughnuts — can all be prepared using sorghum, a gluten-free cereal grain grown throughout the world. This highly versatile ingredient is naturally high in fiber, iron and protein, and can be used in a wide range of preparations. In fact, white food-grade sorghum can be milled directly into whole grain flour to produce foods such as brownies, breads, pizza dough, pastas, cereals, pancakes and waffles.

Whether it’s a power breakfast to fuel the day, a sweet lunchbox treat or a tasty after school snack, these recipes showcase how simple it can be to give your kids’ favorite treats a nutritious makeover they’ll be thrilled to sample.

For more nutritious back to school recipes and tips for cooking with sorghum, visit www.HealthySorghum.com.

SORGHUM PANCAKES Recipe provided by Barbara Kliment 1 3/4 cups sorghum flour 1/4 cup cornstarch 3 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup powdered buttermilk 2 eggs 3 tablespoons melted butter 1 1/2 cups water Heat oven to 200°F. Combine dry ingredients. In separate bowl, beat together eggs, melted butter and water; add to dry ingre­dients and mix just until well blended. Heat large skillet or griddle over medium-low heat. Spray pan with cooking oil. Wet fingertips under faucet and shake them over hot griddle.

If water droplets “sizzle,” heat is right to begin making pan­cakes.

For large cakes pour 1/4 cup of batter into pan; for small use 2 tablespoons of batter.

Cook until bubbles form on top; flip and cook until golden brown on bottom. Trans­fer to baking sheet and keep warm in oven while making rest of pancakes. Serve warm with butter and syrup.

CHEWY OATMEAL TOFFEE COOKIES Recipe provided by Kate Lange 1 cup butter, softened 2 eggs 2 cups light brown sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 cup sorghum flour 3/4 cup unbleached white flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/8 teaspoon allspice 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon cloves 3 cups oatmeal 1 cup coconut flakes 1 (10-ounce) package almond toffee bits

Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease cookie sheet. Cream butter, eggs, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl until light and fluffy.

Mix flour, salt, soda, allspice, cinnamon and cloves; add to butter mixture. Beat until well blended. Stir in oat­meal, coconut and toffee bits with spoon. Drop by rounded teaspoons about 2 inches apart onto prepared sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 1 minute; remove to wire rack.

MILO DOUGHNUTS Recipe provided by Karla Lubben 1 egg 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup milk 2 tablespoons melted shortening or lard 1/2 cup sifted sorghum flour 1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder Dash of cinnamon Dash of salt 8 cups vegetable oil Glaze: 1/2 cup powdered sugar 2 teaspoons warm milk 1/2 teaspoon vanilla In large bowl, beat together egg and sugar.

Stir in milk and shortening. Sift together all dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to egg mix­ture and stir to combine. Chill dough for 30 minutes. On lightly floured surface, flatten dough to 1/2-inch thickness with your fingertips or rolling pin. Cut out doughnuts using a doughnut cutter or two sizes of round cookie cutters. Transfer doughnuts to waxed paper and allow to dry for 10 minutes. In deep heavy pot or electric fryer, heat oil to 375°F. Using wire spatula dipped in hot oil, carefully transfer doughnuts into hot oil. Cook 2-3 doughnuts at a time turning them when brown on one side. Remove to paper towel or racks to drain.

For glazed doughnuts, combine powdered sugar, milk and vanilla flavoring. Drizzle on doughnuts or sprinkle doughnuts with powdered sugar or mixture of cinnamon and sugar.

Celiac-friendly substitutions: 2 teaspoons vanilla extract: Use 2 tea­ spoons X-Tra Touch vanilla or any other gluten-free vanilla.

3/4 cup unbleached white flour: Replace with 6 tablespoons chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour and 6 tablespoons sweet rice flour, or use 3/4 cup commercial gluten-free flour.

3 cups oatmeal: Replace with 3-4 cups of any glutenfree, ready-to-eat flake cereal slightly crushed, or glutenfree crispy rice cereal.

1 (10-ounce) package almond toffee bits: Verify product is glutenfree or use 1 3/4 cups chopped almonds or walnuts.

STOJ

STOJ

AUGUST 21 – AUGUST 27, 2015

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

Meet some of

FLORIDA’S

finest

submitted for your approval

B5

Think you’re one of Florida’s Finest?

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

dustin

Dustin Wilson is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a major in African-American studies. One of his favorite pastimes is long boarding.

He also wants to be involved in the music industry as a rapper and likes to model.

Contact Dustin at facebook.com/dustin.f.wilson or smalltownboii@gmail.com.

Credit: 429media

dominique Dominique Durant of Daytona Beach is a phlebotomist for Quest Diagnostics.

She currently owns her own essential body oil company called Serene Aromas.

She is an aspiring model. Dominique can be contacted on Facebook as Dominique Nicole and Instagram @I_am_dominiquenicole.

Photo credi: Nathaniel Hickley of Nick Hick Photography

UNIVERSAL PICTURES/TNS

Neil Brown Jr., Aldis Hodge, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell and O’Shea Jackson Jr. star in “Straight Outta Compton.”

‘Straight Outta Compton’ conquers box office during opening weekend

BY SABA HAMEDY LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

“Straight Outta Compton” lifted the box office out of its August funk, debuting at No. 1 in the U.S. and Canada with an estimated $56.1 million.

The robust haul was not shocking given the huge fan following for N.W.A, the rap group on which the movie is based, as well as the intense media coverage and strong word of mouth that came with the release. The movie posted the biggest August opening ever for an R-rated film, and it has the No. 1 opening for any musical biopic.

Co-financed by Universal Pictures and Legendary

Pictures for $28 million, “Straight Outta Compton” follows N.W.A from its scrappy beginnings in the mid-’80s to its unlikely success to the death of member Eazy-E. N.W.A members Dr. Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, and Ice Cube, a.k.a. O’Shea Jackson, served as co-producers.

Unknown cast Most of the cast is relatively unknown: Cube’s son O’Shea Jackson Jr. plays his father, Corey Hawkins plays Dre, Jason Mitchell plays Eazy-E, Neil Brown Jr. plays DJ Yella and Aldis Hodge plays MC Ren. Nicholas Carpou, Uni-

versal Pictures’ head of domestic distribution, said few expected the film to open as strongly as it did.

“I think there was great hope that it would resonate,” Carpou said, “and it did that, but it also turned around the box office.”

The summer box office cooled in August after a slew of films, including superhero reboot “Fantastic Four,” disappointed. But with help from “Straight Outta Compton,” the box office this weekend will be up about 2 percent versus the same weekend a year ago, when “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” led with $28.5 million, according to research firm Rentrak.

Year-to-date, the box office

is still up about 6 percent.

L.A. shows up Moviegoers had overwhelmingly positive responses toward “Straight Outta Compton,” giving it an A grade, audience polling firm CinemaScore said.

Critics were slightly less enthusiastic but on the whole still positive. The film had an 88 percent positive rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

As expected, the film played especially well among younger moviegoers and Black audiences.

About 51 percent of ticket buyers were younger than 30, and 46 percent were Black. More surprising:

About 52 percent of the audience was female.

The top-grossing theater for the film was in Atlanta, but the next nine were in Los Angeles.

“L.A. by far was the biggest,” Carpou said. “When you look at our exit polls, it makes sense. Plus, the boys (N.W.A) are locals.”

Successful marketing campaign Music biopics can be hard to pull off. Last year Clint Eastwood’s “Jersey Boys,” which dramatized the rise of the Four Seasons and followed a highly successful Broadway show, failed to draw fans to movie theaters. It debuted with just $13.3 million in ticket sales. The Warner Bros. release went on to make about $47 million domestically, less than what “Straight Outta Compton” made in its first weekend.

The N.W.A film had a

successful marketing campaign, spawning across social media platforms including Facebook and Snapchat, where users could use the “straight outta” logo and insert their own location. Buzz for the film began in February at the Grammy Awards with a promotional spot featuring Dre and Cube revisiting their hometown of Compton.

But the release of “Straight Outta Compton” also came with heightened security. Cinemas in major cities across the country hired additional guards, a precaution taken in the wake of fatal theater shootings including one last month at a screening of “Trainwreck” in Lafayette, La. Universal offered to offset the cost of additional security guards, partnering with exhibitors who requested support.

No security incidents have been reported during screenings for “Straight Outta Compton.” Instead, the movie has become yet another hit for Universal, which has had a record year thanks to “Furious 7,” “Jurassic World” and “Minions.” Earlier this month, the studio announced that it grossed $5.53 billion at the worldwide box office, marking the highest-grossing year ever for a studio.

Beats ‘Mission Impossible’ “Straight Outta Compton” was the sixth No. 1 opening of the year for Universal. It also marked the studio’s 12th weekend on top of the domestic box office.

Coming in second in the U.S. and Canada, Paramount Pictures’ “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation” added $17 million in its third weekend. Its North America haul to date is about $138 million.

Warner Bros.’ “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” debuted in third with $13.5 million, slightly lower than expected but on par with some lower tracking estimates.

B6

BACK TO SCHOOL

AUGUST 21 – AUGUST 27, 2015

S

ping, a category that has seen a 42 percent jump in spending over the past decade, the retail group said.

The season starts as early as July and stretches through Labor Day. Coupled with tax-free holidays that crop up in many states this month, the period has become the second-biggest time of year for many stores after the holidays.

During the back-toschool period, “tax-free holidays are second only to Black Friday,” said Scott Markley, a spokesman for Wal-Mart.

This year, the nation’s largest retailer has rolled out a new line of Casemate school supplies and expects its children’s moviethemed backpacks, lunchboxes and notebooks, adorned with characters from “Minions,” “Frozen,” “The Avengers” and “Jurassic World,” to be popular sellers.

$630 per family ALYSSA POINTER/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL/TNS

Jayla Taylor grabs a decorated folder while she shops for school supplies at Target in West Milwaukee, Wis., on Aug. 8, 2014.

Youngsters have influence in back-to-school spending

BY LORRAINE MIRABELLA THE BALTIMORE SUN/TNS

BALTIMORE — Fiveyear-old Cayden Richey had one criterion for his new back-to-school shoes: They had to be fast.

Shopping last week with his college-age sister at Famous Footwear in suburban Baltimore, the soon-to-be kindergartner slipped on a pair of Skech-

ers, dashed down an aisle and was sold.

Around a corner, Nora Wach, 7, remained undecided in her search for just the right shoes: probably flats, but maybe sneakers.

“Every year before school, I get her a pair of shoes,” and the third-grader can be particular, said Karen Ceanfaglione, Nora’s grandmother.

As the back-to-school

shopping season ramps up, it’s not surprising that the tastes of even the youngest pupils play into purchases for school. According to the National Retail Federation, a growing number of parents say their children influence as much as half of their purchases.

“Children probably have far more sway than parents want to admit to in their purchasing decisions,” said

Ken Perkins, a research analyst with Retail Metrics.

“But … everybody has a budget. And at the end of the day, what you’re going to buy is going to have to fit into that.”

Second to Black Friday As retail sales have slowed this summer, retailers are counting on a boost from back-to-school shop-

The National Retail Federation’s school spending survey, released last month, showed that parents expect to trim their spending this year. The average family with children in grades K-12 plans to spend $630 on electronics, apparel and other school needs, down from $669 last year, according to the survey, conducted for the NRF

by Prosper Insights & Analytics. Total spending is expected to reach $24.9 billion.

And much of that spending will be driven by students’ choices.

The NRF’s survey shows that more than three-quarters of parents say children have a direct influence on up to 50 percent of their purchases. That’s up from about 72 percent of parents who answered that way two years ago.

Another survey, by the market research firm Mintel, found that one-third

of back-to-school shoppers said children have a strong influence on items they purchase and nearly 40 percent of parents said they end up spending more on products for their children than when they are shopping for themselves.

Time for ‘self-expression’ Eighty-four percent of parents with children ages 6 through 11 said they sometimes or often ask their kids for their opinion when buying clothing for them, Mintel’s survey said.

At Wee Chic Boutique in suburban Baltimore, owner Bridget Quinn Stickline has filled the shop with apparel that is attractive to young customers — graphic T-shirts, vests and Under Armour athletic pants, shorts and jackets.

“Clothing is self-expression,” Stickline said. “Even if kids can’t explain that to you, they relate to certain colors and certain prints, and if you hold up a T-shirt, they’ll pick one.”

Once children get spending money of their own, they become more likely to spend to prepare for a new school year. Roughly 1 in 5 preteens is expected to spend his or her own money, nearly $77 on average.

And about two in five teens will chip in nearly $82, according to the NRF survey.

“These fashion-savvy kids are very much committed to starting the school year with the best locker decorations and the best sneakers and the best graphic T-shirts, and if mom and dad only agree to buy a few of those things, they are going to be sure to go in for the rest of the items they want,” said Kathy Grannis Allen, an NRF spokeswoman.

“These teenagers and preteens … really want to have a role in what they wear and what they show up to school with.”