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AUGUST 31 - SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
VOLUME 20 NO. 35
DÉJÀ VU On the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Isaac hit Haiti, sideswiped Cuba, spared South Florida and walloped New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. COMPILED FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS
NEW ORLEANS – Hurricane Isaac struck the Gulf Coast Tuesday evening hours before the seventh anniversary of catastrophic Katrina, packing 80 mph winds, and the outer bands of hurricane-force winds and storm surge battered New Orleans. Landfall came in Plaquemines Parish at 6:45 p.m. southwest of the CAROLYN COLE/LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT mouth of the Mississippi River, the Evacuees at Belle Chasse Auditorium in Plaquemines Parish, La. waited for Hurricane Isaac National Hurricane Center reportto approach on Tuesday. For some, it was their second night at the shelter. Many of their ed. By 7 p.m. in downtown New Orhomes were flooded on Wednesday. leans, winds bent trees like rubbery
Blacks air concerns during RNC
2012 U.S. OPEN / NEW YORK
‘Young gun’ advances
Tampa protests target voter suppression
As the Republican National Convention took over Tampa this week, some African-Americans about town and a few at local protests said they were already sick of it, especially considering their concerns about voter suppression. Black diners at the Open Café, a popular spot in Tampa to get soul food and talk politics, said that while they hadn’t been downtown near the delegates of the convention, they were sick of what they were hearing in the media coverage. One comment that had people around town buzzing was Republican U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin of Missouri’s comment about abortion. Akin said abortion shouldn’t be considered in cases of rape because “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to shut the whole thing down” to prevent a female rape victim from becoming pregnant. One diner, Melvin (who declined to state his last name), said, “I think the idea of them trying to tell women what they should do with their bodies, I think that’s out of line because anySee RNC, Page A2
SNAPSHOTS CALENDAR | B2
Gymnastics champions coming to Florida
WORLD | A6
FINEST | B5
Meet Maba
ALSO INSIDE
See ISAAC, Page A2
Judge ends the fight over voter registration FROM THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
BY SOMMER BROKAW FLORIDA COURIER
Magazine’s ‘slavery’ treatment of first lady sparks outrage
posts, rain pelted down, and the waters of Lake Pontchartrain churned white-capped waves ashore. By the Florida Courier’s press time Wednesday night, more than 750,000 Gulf Coast-area homes and businesses were without power – more than 650,000 in Louisiana alone, according to officials at Entergy, the state’s largest electricity provider. Isaac, a Category 1 storm, lingered over the Gulf Coast and inland areas for two days, and tested the multibillion-dollar effort to improve and fortify a New Orleans flood-control system that failed
MARGOT JORDAN PHOTO
Plantation (Broward County) native Sloane Stephens, age 19, beat veteran pro Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round of the U.S. Open tennis tourney on Tuesday. Stephens is the youngest pro player to be currently ranked in the world’s top 50 women players.
The battle between voting rights groups and state election officials over get-out-the vote restrictions is officially over after a federal judge entered a final order that has been signed off by both sides. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued a permanent injunction preventing the state from adopting voter registrationgathering restrictions that were put in place by lawmakers in 2011 as part of a larger elections bill. Hinkle’s ruling, which was agreed to by all parties, solidifies a preliminary opinion rendered in May in which the federal judge said major provisions of the law were unworkable and therefore unconstitutional. The lawsuit was brought by a group of voting rights organizations that challenged restrictions, which included reducing the time limit for turning in voter registration from 10 days to 48 hours, which Hinkle said would unduly burden a voter’s right to cast a ballot. Hinkle said the short time frame was unworkable and would, among other things, make it impossible for groups to use the U.S. mail to transmit registration forms to election officials. “If the goal is to discourage voter-registration drives and thus also to make it harder for new voters to register, the 48-hour deadline may succeed,” Hinkle wrote in May. “But if the goal is to further the state’s legitimate interests without unduly burdening the rights of voters and voter registration organizations, 48 hours is a bad choice.” Hinkle also barred the state from requiring volunteers to sign a form that misled voters about the penalties for unknowingly submitting forms with inaccurate information on them. Voter registration organizations are expected to get back to work immediately.
COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: BEN JEALOUS: NAACP WATCHING FOR ‘GAME CHANGERS’ AT CONVENTIONS | A4