Florida Courier - September 12, 2014

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Former Courier director relives 9/11 tragedy See Page B1

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VOLUME 22 NO. 37

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SEPTEMBER 12 – SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

ARE WE AT WAR? President Obama to expand airstrikes to Syria, vows to destroy ISIS/ISIL ‘wherever they exist’

BY ANITA KUMAR AND LESLEY CLARK MCCLATCHY WASHINGTON BUREAU /MCT

WASHINGTON – President Obama on Wednesday said he would launch airstrikes in Syria against the self-described ‘Islamic State,’ also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The president intends to exMICHELL PROTHERO/MCT pand strikes in Iraq, pledging a Kurdish Peshmerga fighters along a frontline position protect a main U.S.-led coalition to destroy the militants “wherever they exist,” highway between Kurdish-occupied land and ISIS/ISIL fighters.

inside Syria. Senior administration officials said Saudi Arabia has offered to host the training.

The House of Representatives planned to vote on the $500 million request next week, while the Senate was weighing how or when to take it up.

The campaign in Syria and wider strikes in Iraq would dramatically broaden what had been a limited U.S. mission to protect efforts to help refugees threatened by the Islamic State inside Iraq. While sending U.S. air power into the skies over Syria, Obama said he also would escalate airstrikes in Iraq, “beyond protecting our own people and humanitarian missions, so Asks for money that we’re hitting ISIL targets as Obama also renewed his reIraqi forces go on offense.” quest to Congress to arm and Obama said he was ordertrain moderate Syrian rebel See OBAMA, Page A2 forces to counter the militants

as he expanded the U.S. role in an armed conflict he spent years trying to avoid.

“With a new Iraqi government in place, and following consultations with allies abroad and Congress at home, I can announce that America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat,” he said from the White House.

“Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy,” said of the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL / UM VS. FAMU

A Wildcat in Ratterland

Dead or alive?

DOC launches inmate deaths website

BY DARA KAM THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

Inmate Bryan Kendzia called his mother from Okeechobee Correctional Institution on May 13– hours before he slashed himself with razor blades. Within two days, he was dead as a result of an apparent suicide.

Sketchy details about Kendzia’s death and those of several other inmates are now available online as part of Department of Corrections (DOC) Secretary Michael Crews’ effort to give the public a behind-the-scenes glimpse when prisoners die.

Hundreds die yearly

KIM GIBSON / FLORIDA COURIER

Angela K. Gibson, a Bethune-Cookman University alumnus, supported the FAMU Marching ‘100’ during their appearance at the UM-FAMU game at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens. The Hurricanes beat the Rattlers, 41-7.

The site is ripe with statistics about how many deaths have occurred behind bars – 213 out of an inmate population of more than 100,000 so far this year – since 2000. Viewers can see data specific to each of the state’s prisons, and the information is broken down by gender and cause, including cancer, HIV and homicide.

The site also reflects the 87 “pending” investigations into inmate deaths Crews recently referred to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, where the corrections chief spent his career prior to being appointed secretary by Gov. Rick Scott nearly two years ago.

Limited information Crews acknowledged that, be-

NFL player’s shove of Marching Wildcat goes viral

BY ASHLEY D. THOMAS FLORIDA COURIER

TAMPA – Marquel Ballard is at the center of a recent social media storm involving BethuneCookman University in Daytona Beach.

The freshman trombonist was on the receiving end of a shove from the National Football League’s Carolina Panthers kicker Graham Gano during the Marching Wildcats’ halftime performance during Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

As halftime was ending, Gano practiced field-goal kicks while the Wildcats were still on the field performing their routine.

“We went onto the field and we were about to start our dance

ALSO INSIDE

routine,” Ballard explained. “He gave me a shove, then another shove. I didn’t know who he was.

“The first time he shoved me and I didn’t move; the second time I did.”

See SHOVE, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS NATION | A3

Black parents: Trouble seeks our sons Bodycams sales up since Ferguson shooting

‘Unfortunate situation’ Gano wanted to get in a few field-goal attempts before the start of the third quarter. The entire incident was captured on video. It went viral among news stations and Twitter feeds.

The band’s director, Donovan Wells, said he didn’t see the incident on the field, but saw the video online.

“Honestly I didn’t see it. It was brought to my attention when we were loading back up on

See RAINEY, Page A2

BUSINESS | B3

Six in 10 millennials don’t have a credit card COMMENTARY | A2 COURTESY OF YOUTUBE

An NFL player’s push of a Bethune-Cookman University band member lit up social media this week.

Peniel Joseph: How Ferguson exposed civil rights generational divide

COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: REV. JESSE L. JACKSON SR.: A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD | A5

FOCUS

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SEPTEMBER 12 – SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

How Ferguson exposed a civil rights generational divide The racial crisis in Ferguson, Mo., has uncovered a divide within the Black community – one based on generation, class and the cloudy political vision offered by African-American politics in the Obama age.

When asked who is the leader of the ongoing protests since the killing of Michael Brown – protests that have triggered Missouri’s governor to declare a state of emergency and curfew – one young man from St. Louis answered, “Do we have a leader?

No,” and he went on to suggest that the martyred Brown, himself, offered the best example of leadership for Ferguson’s angry and alienated young people.

Two tracks Protests on the streets of that city operated on two separate tracks: Civil rights leaders organized effective nonviolent marches even as young protesters, and some would-be outlaws, descended into violence and looting in parts of the city. Leaders such as the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton visited Ferguson, but their pleas for calm were ineffective.

Ironically, the Black person who provided arguably the most visible leadership during the Fer-

PENIEL E. JOSEPH GUEST COMMENTARY

guson events was Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, whose forceful yet compassionate presence and policing tactics helped to temporarily defuse the escalating crisis.

That young people in Ferguson refused to heed calls for nonviolence should come as no surprise.

Demonstrations at the height of the civil rights era featured sporadic incidents of violence waged by angry Black Americans outraged at racism and poverty, but unwilling or unable to commit to the discipline of nonviolence. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. encountered these episodes in Birmingham, Ala., and Memphis, Tenn., and was famously heckled when he visited Watts in the aftermath of Los Angeles’ 1965 rebellion.

Can’t relate What makes the current situation different from the 1960s is that we have no Stokely Carmichael or Black Panthers who can

properly relate to the young people in and outside of Ferguson, who have used the language of violence to convey rage and disappointment.

Make no mistake. Brown’s killing is not the root cause of Ferguson’s violence. It’s merely the spark that triggered it.

Poverty, segregation, unemployment and a climate of antiBlack racism haunt tiny Ferguson and the wider St. Louis metropolitan area. Riots, Dr. King reminded us, are “the language of the unheard” and oppressed.

It’s no wonder, then, that local young Black men and women can’t identify a single Black leader or organization as the leader of the chaotic demonstrations in which they have participated.

National Black political leaders from the civil rights era have tried, through organizational outreach, speeches, media – both traditional and social – marches and demonstrations to reach out to and stay connected with a new generation of young people. But this effort bumps up against the limitations of resources and outreach.

No advocates America’s racial underclass, the off-the-grid hustlers and en-

RAINEY from A1

cause of public-records exemptions, much of the information in the online reports is blacked out. Releasing even the scant information available could shine a more unwelcome spotlight on his beleaguered agency, Crews conceded.

But, he said, “If we were trying to cover anything up or to hide anything, I wouldn’t be comfortable putting anything up there at all. When you see some of these investigations, and we’ve said this all along … it’s going to generate questions.”

Cleaning house The inmate mortality website – http://www. dc.state.fl.us/pub/mortality/ – is part of a Crews’ response to a furor sparked

by Miami Herald reports earlier this year that Darren Rainey, a mentally ill inmate at Dade Correctional Institution, died af-

OBAMA from A1

ing 475 American troops to bolster the nearly 1,000 U.S. troops who are advising Iraqi forces at joint operations centers in Baghdad and Irbil. But he stressed anew that he would not commit U.S. combat troops and would instead use U.S. air power to help on-theground fighting by other forces.

“I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Obama, who campaigned in 2008 vowing to end the war in Iraq. “It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.”

No timetable Officials, who have cautioned that defeating the Islamic State could take years, gave no timetable on when the Syrian strikes might occur, saying the U.S. would not “telegraph” its intent.

Obama likened the approach to fighting the militant group by using targeted military airstrikes to support other countries’ ground troops to “one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.”

“After 13 years of war since 9/11, the decision by the president to take on a new fight against this enemy was not an easy one,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said earlier Wednesday in a speech to the Council on

Darren Rainey, a mentally ill inmate at Dade Correctional Institute, was killed after being forced to stay in a scalding hot shower for two hours. His death is prompting incremental changes within the Florida Department of Corrections. ter guards allegedly forced him to shower in scalding hot water as punishment two years ago.

In just a few months, Crews fired the warden at the prison, cleaned house at other institutions where

‘This plan does not put American boots on the ground. It does all the things that we said needed to be done. And it has to be done quickly...’

Rep. Eliot Engel of New York Ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee

Foreign Relations.

Obama explained the need to change course, saying that while the Islamic State does not yet threaten the U.S. homeland, it is a growing threat to the Mideast, Europe, and potentially the U.S. “If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region, including to the United States,” he said. “Our intelligence community believes that thousands of foreigners – including Europeans and some Americans – have joined them in Syria and Iraq. Trained and battle-hardened, these fighters could try to return to their home countries and carry out deadly attacks.”

Diplomatic efforts In Baghdad, Secretary of State John Kerry met Wednesday with new Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbadi, at the forefront of the fight.

“We stand by Iraq as it continues to build a government that meets the needs of each of Iraq’s diverse communities, and we stand by them as they fight to overcome the single greatest threat that their government, their families, and their neighbors face to-

day,” Kerry said.

Kerry announced that the U.S. is providing another $48 million in humanitarian aid from non-governmental organizations to help the nearly 2 million refugees in Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. U.S. aid now totals more than $186 million in fiscal 2014, according to the State Department.

Earlier on Wednesday, Obama met with his National Security Council in the Situation Room at the White House as lawmakers and the public continued to call for a more aggressive response.

‘Yes’ to the military An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday showed that 61 percent of voters believe the U.S. taking military action against the Islamic State is in the nation’s interest, vs.

13 percent who do not.

That’s a significant increase since last year, when the U.S. was considering similar action against Syria’s government after its reported use of chemical weapons. Only 21 percent said action was in the nation’s interest then, while 33 percent said it was not.

Support for action has

trepreneurs who many Black elites ignore or demonize, rarely sees political leaders of any color advocating for them. The divide, while generational on the surface, is also fueled by class, as young people with education, networks and access tend to view politics as a long-term process – one that comes with victories, but also compromise and setbacks.

Millions of young Blacks have no entrée to the nuances of American democracy and racial struggle. Their world is more painfully straightforward and wrenching – Black folks get shot in the streets with no hope of justice.

The ideal response to this tragedy, one that our national civil rights narrative promotes but, in fact, was never entirely true, is for the entire Black population of Ferguson to put on their best church clothes and nonviolently show the world what happened to Michael Brown. But in the age of Obama, these young people find the lessons of the civil rights era increasingly hard to comprehend.

What progress?

Certainly, the frequency of police killings of Black men, the Iraq War-styled police presence in Ferguson and the numbing

inmates have died under questionable circumstances, instituted new protocols for punishing wayward corrections workers and launched the website.

“At least from a leadership standpoint, and my own personal standpoint, we’ve got nothing to hide,” Crews told The News Service of Florida in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “People die in our society every day…and that also happens in our institutions. This is a way for us to gain the public trust and public confidence in our agency. We are about doing the right thing. We’re not going to let the actions of a few fail to conform to the way we want to do business dictate the direction our department is going to go.”

Sued, investigated Crews and his agency are under fire from the public and from former workers. Four Department of Corrections investigators are suing the agency, saying they’ve been punished for calling attention to a cover-up about an in-

grown since the Islamic State beheaded two American journalists, brutal acts videotaped and released to the world.

Among the most vocal, Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who played a central role in the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 in the mistaken belief the country harbored weapons of mass destruction, urged Obama Wednesday to be more aggressive. “Our president must understand we are at war and that we must do what it takes, for as long as it takes, to win,” he said.

The U.S. began airstrikes in Iraq on Aug. 8 to protect U.S. personnel and facilities, to support humanitarian efforts and to back Iraqi forces. As of Wednesday, it had conducted a total of 154 strikes.

The U.S. military has conducted two humanitarian operations of 32 airdrops of food and supplies in Iraq – near Mount Sinjar and near Amirli. In total, the U.S. military provided more than 800,000 pounds of aid, including 45,500 gallons of water and nearly 122,000 meals ready to eat.

Actions reconsidered Obama had long sought to minimize U.S. involvement in Syria, where a civil war pits President Bashar Assad’s Iran-backed forces against the Islamic State and weaker insurgent groups, including alQaida’s affiliate, the Nusra Front. Most of the groups also are fighting the Islamic State.

But Obama was forced to reconsider after an ac-

persistence of racial segregation and violence makes talk of racial progress ring hollow.

That puts civil rights leaders in a tough spot. They’re wary of being too critical of President Obama’s track record on race and poverty, aware that Attorney General Eric Holder is his staunch ally and conservatives as “race hustlers have pilloried them” eager to arouse the rabble.

But perhaps most importantly, the very constituency they often claim to speak for – the voiceless Black youth who have come out in Ferguson over the past few weeks – find these leaders’ voices indistinguishable from the political ‘white noise’ that only unfettered violence seems capable of breaking through.

Peniel E. Joseph is founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and a professor of history at Tufts University. He is the author of “Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America”, “Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama”, and “Stokely: A Life.” Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

mate’s death.

The whistleblowers claim they started an investigation into allegations of prison guard misconduct at Franklin Correctional Institution in 2013.

That investigation revealed that an earlier probe into the 2010 death of an inmate “was false and misleading.”

The FBI is reportedly scrutinizing Suwannee Correctional Institution, where an inmate-led riot injured five prison guards in October. The April 2 death of inmate Shawn Gooden at the facility is one of nine mysterious inmate deaths being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

On Tuesday, the same day the mortality website launched, Disability Rights Florida sued Crews and Wexford Health Systems, a private vendor that provides health care services to prisons in the southern portion of the state, alleging that torture and abuse of prisoners, including Rainey, had been ignored for years.

knowledgment by top U.S. officials that the Islamic State can’t be crushed without addressing its presence in Syria. He authorized the first U.S. surveillance flights of Islamic State targets in Syria and launched an effort to build an international coalition to fight the group through military, humanitarian and other means.

Senior administration officials insisted the strikes would not boost Assad because he has little sway in the Islamic State strongholds in Syria.

Going to Congress Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was pleased that Obama is seeking congressional approval on his standing request for lethal aid to arm moderate Syrian rebels.

“I think the American people realize the brutality . . . with the beheadings, I think that was a gamechanger for a lot of Americans,” Engel said. “This plan does not put American boots on the ground. It does all the things that we said needed to be done. And it has to be done quickly. . . . Every single day, they’re getting bigger, they’re getting stronger and they’re acting like a government.

They’re controlling things, they’re taxing, they’re selling oil. Now is the time to stop them.”

William Douglas, David Lightman and Ali Watkins of the MCT Washington Bureau contributed.

Crews did not address the lawsuits, but insisted that “99.5 percent” of the department’s 24,000 workers do the right thing, and he’s intent on sending the message to others about his expectations.

“We’re not going to tolerate that crap. That’s the bottom line. We’re through with that. It doesn’t matter who you are or how long you’ve been here or what rank you are or how many family members you’ve got. Right is right, and wrong is wrong,” he said.

Not ‘who we are’ Crews’s mission to clean up his agency has led him on a trek to visit prisons throughout the state.

“What has happened to us…is it embarrassing? Absolutely. But the distinction I ask you to make is that while those people, they reflect on our 24,000 members, but they don’t represent who we are,” Crews said after leaving Lawtey Correctional Institution Tuesday afternoon.

SHOVE from A1

the bus,” Wells told the Florida Courier’s sister newspaper, the Daytona Times. “After seeing the incident, we had some concerns, but I didn’t see any malice. They were both working in the same area. His kick was bringing him to the same area. It was just an unfortunate situation.”

‘All is forgiven’ Gano later apologized for his actions, calling Ballard and offering him two tickets to a future game.

“I just spoke with my friend Marquel Ballard from BethuneCookman’s marching band and all is forgiven!” Gano tweeted from his Twitter account on Monday afternoon.

“I accepted his apology. I was like, ‘It’s all fine. I knew you were just doing your job,’” Ballard said.

The tickets Mallard scored are for seats and field passes to the Carolina-Atlanta game in December.

“I’m excited about going to the game,” Ballard said.

The freshman is also looking forward to his next performance with the band. The Sunday performance was only his second time on the field.

SEPTEMBER 12 – SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

NATION

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‘A trip to the store can mean their deaths’ Parents of Black sons believe trouble seeks their boys

BY DAVID E. EARLY SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS (MCT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — It’s the time of year when hundreds of thousands of American parents are shipping their children off to college for the first time. For most, it’s a time of celebration.

But for the Black parents of college-bound sons, the rite of passage has long come with a quiet, unique sense of dread.

These parents grapple with a scary open secret: Young Black males — more than any other demographic group — are haunted by cultural stereotypes that foster fear, discrimination and police harassment. Sending sons away to other parts of the country greatly magnifies those fears, particularly since last month’s fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a White police officer in Ferguson, Mo. The uneasy preparation for life as a young African-American male often begins when Black males are in their early teens, and goes on for years. Black parents simply call it “The Talk.”

“I taught him to keep his hands where cops can see them,” said Amelia Ashley-Ward of San Francisco, whose son, Evan, says he has been stopped three times by police for no apparent reason in the Tennessee town where he attends college. “I taught him that police are not your friends and that every traffic stop can lead to damage that can never be undone.”

Began during slavery Evan Ward said each time he was stopped, he had passengers.

“We were not speeding, or playing loud music or bothering anyone,” said the 22-year-old, who attends Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

“We got pulled over for being young African-American males riding in a decent automobile.”

But Ward, remembering his mom’s advice, gave “Yes, officer” responses, even when the cops were brusque. So all three times, Ward said, he drove away without so much as a ticket.

Steven Millner, a professor in the Black Studies Department at San Jose State University, says stereotyping young Black males began during slavery and has piled on over the decades.

“Unfortunately, people have not evolved on this issue, and that puts young Black men in-

Poll: 70 percent of Blacks think police use excessive force

to numerous circumstances that can quickly turn tragic,” Millner said.

Tagged as troublemakers He pointed to Trayvon Martin, 17, who was shot dead in 2012 in Sanford by a neighborhood watch commander, and Oscar Grant, 22, shot and killed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit officer in 2009 in Oakland, Calif. Like Brown, both young men were unarmed.

According to Millner, young Black males are tainted by broadbrush images — that they are undereducated, undisciplined and hypersexual; athletic, entertaining and promiscuous; violent, brutish and irresponsible. Even their appearance — from dreadlocks to baggy pants to hooded sweatshirts — is used to tag them as troublemakers and thugs.

Some stereotypes are perpetuated by ugly facts, such as the high rates of inner-city black-onblack crime.

Even civil rights activist Jesse Jackson once told an interviewer, “There is nothing more painful to me, at this stage in my life, than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery — then look around and see somebody White and feel relieved.”

But millions of young Black males who don’t reflect such archetypes must also deal with the widespread fears sparked by the negative images.

SUSAN TRIPP POLLARD/CONTRA COSTA TIMES/MCT

A cousin of Oscar J. Grant III, Charmaine (no last name), pays her respects at his gravesite at Lone Tree Cemetery on July 8, 2010, in Hayward, Calif. Bay Area Rapid Transit officer Johannes Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Grant on New Year’s Day 2009 at a BART station in Oakland.

Prejudged by cops, others Worried African-American parents strenuously warn their young sons to always stand down to police and authority figures.

Phyllis Daugherty of Ferguson attended Brown’s funeral and found herself overwhelmed by incredible sadness as she thought about her college-bound son, Pierre, 18.

“I tell him to always pull over for police in a public place, never ... on a side street,” Daugherty said. “You must never give them any reason to harass you, lock you up or shoot you.”

Barry Krisberg, a criminologist at the University of California, Berkeley, , said young Black males tend to be prejudged almost everywhere by cops and hosts of others. But when it comes to dealing with police, the message is: “To leave that situation alive, you have to accept second-class citizenship. If they assert their constitutional or civil rights ... terrible things can happen.”

From left: Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin and Oscar Grant all were young Black men who were unarmed when killed.

No ‘post-racial’ peace Some Black parents point to the 2008 election of the nation’s first African-American president as the reason behind some of the racial animus. Many hoped a “post-racial” peace would ensue. Instead, African-Americans largely believe the election rekindled old hatreds and set off unapologetic venom in politics.

“How deep-seated is this negative image of Black men that they would not show respect for someone like President Obama,” said Amos Brown, senior pastor of Third Baptist Church of San Francisco. He said treatment of the president “reflects how hateful they feel about all of us.”

Police officers in California are trained in community relations, racial profiling and ethical street

tactics, in the hopes of giving fair treatment to everyone, said Alan Deal, executive director of POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) in Sacramento.

“The approach in basic training is completely colorblind,” he said. “We focus on the specific behavior or the crimes reported.”

But Krisberg said the reality is far more complex. The trouble, he said, comes with the countless individuals, including cops, deeply imbued with stereotyped beliefs.

Always on their minds When many officers look at a young Black male, Krisberg said, scientific research shows “they are subconsciously seeing a dangerous animal and experiencing an increased heart rate and fear

Sale of body cams way up since Ferguson shooting gy,” Heckman said.

Digital Ally stock rose from $3.83 on Aug. 8, the day before the Ferguson shooting, to close $23.04 on Sept. 3 on Nasdaq, while Taser went from $12.38 to $16.74 in the same period.

Casey Van Zutphen, a portfolio manager for Mesa, Ariz.-based investment firm Intrinsic Wealth Counsel, said the headlines surrounding Ferguson could well be driving the change in stock prices. But he warned that analyzing stock based on current events is like choosing stock based on the flip of a coin.

“With Ferguson … it could fade away, or it could become the reality for police officers,” Van Zutphen said.

TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE

After the shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager, by Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson, an overwhelming number of African-Americans give low marks to police departments for not holding officers accountable for misconduct, using the appropriate amount of force and treating racial and ethnic groups equally, according to a poll by Pew Research Center and USA Today.

Some 70 percent of Blacks say police departments do a poor job of holding officers accountable for misconduct and an equal percentage say police departments do a poor job of treating racial and ethnic groups equally.

Some 57 percent of Blacks think police departments do a poor job of using the right amount of force.

levels. Training could help a little, but this is deep-seated stuff.”

Beatrice X. Johnson of San Jose said her concerns about her teenage son at the time of the 2009 BART shooting spurred her to become co-founder of the Oscar Grant Foundation. She said she hopes that by witnessing the protests and legal procedures surrounding the Grant case, her son, Akeem Aziz, now 19, is better prepared for the discrimination she knows he will experience.

“As Black mothers of sons,” Johnson said, “there is no peace when we know a trip to the store can mean their deaths. What can happen to our sons is in our hearts and minds all the time.”

TARA MOLINA/CRONKITE NEWS/MCT

Body cameras are often no larger than a lipstick case and action record cannot be deleted or altered by police officers or police departments.

Taser International, a company that makes wearable cameras, others get major stock boost

Black man that sparked the riots in the suburb of St. Louis.

“The Rialto study was a watershed moment — when you tell police chiefs body cameras bring an 88 percent reduction in complaints, they listen,” said Steve Tuttle, Taser’s vice president of strategic communications.

as in 2012 and 2013, and reported results similar to those in Rialto, according to separate studies. Since testing the cameras, the Mesa Police Department bought 300 cameras for its 780 sworn officers and signed a five-year contract with Taser for their operation.

BY CAMARON STEVENSON CRONKITE NEWS SERVICE (MCT)

Drop in force

Five-fold stock hike

WASHINGTON — Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser International has seen about a 35 percent increase in its stock price since the Ferguson, Mo., riots boosted interest in police wearing body cameras, one of the company’s products.

Taser was one of several manufacturers to see stocks rise recently, but a company official said it was just part of a larger increase that began well before the highprofile shooting of an unarmed

That study of the use of 66 body cameras by officers in Rialto, Calif., also reported a 59 percent drop in use of force. It was released in spring 2013; Taser stock started to climb that fall.

The body-camera technology is a wearable camera, often on an officer’s chest or glasses, that records everything the officer sees or does in real time. The recordings cannot be altered by officers or by their departments.

Mesa and Phoenix police departments tried out body camer-

One of Taser’s main competitors in the body-camera market, Digital Ally, saw a five-fold rise in stock prices from the time of the Ferguson incident to the close of business on Sept. 3. Digital Ally Chief Financial Officer Thomas Heckman said the situation in Ferguson focused attention on a problem that’s been around for a while.

Ferguson is “a tragic circumstance, but if any good could come of it, it’s this new awareness of a need for this technolo-

Call for change He also said that the stock market needs to be looked at on a global scale.

“If you think about it from a larger perspective — the U.S. economy — a few days of problems from a very small town in the heart of the country are going to have very little effect on the U.S. GDP (gross domestic product),” he said.

But in the short term, events like Ferguson can have a noticeable effect on stock prices, Tuttle said.

“There’s always a rise in stock when there’s more interest in what the company provides,” he said.

The Aug. 9 shooting in Ferguson also brought a call for change: A petition created Aug. 13 at whitehouse.gov, demanding that all state, county and local police be required to wear body cameras, got more than 100,000 signatures in less than a week.

That makes it eligible for review and a response from President Barack Obama.

EDITORIAL

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SEPTEMBER 12 – SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

America is a political candy land Have you seen the Jamie Foxx movie “Django Unchained”? If you haven’t take a look at it because the film mirrors the 2014 political landscape relative the AfricanAmerican voters and citizens.

In “Django Unchained,” the movie depicts a notorious plantation and slave master that used and abused Black slaves to gain riches and wealth.

The plantation was called “Candy Land” and politically speaking, African-Americans are living in a political “Candy Land” right this very moment.

In slavery days, everything Blacks did was done to enrich devilish slave masters.

Today, everything done by African-Americans in a political context is done to benefit non-Black

LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT

politicians.

We vote for them and their neocolonialist Negro political puppets, we contribute to their political campaigns, we endorse them, we volunteer for them, we praise them and we honor them.

Nothing in return And, what do we get for all of our political efforts? We get absolutely nothing.

To the Black man and Black woman, the American political

system is permeated with modern day carpet baggers and slave patrols!

Most of the Black elected officials and politicians in America wouldn’t even go to sleep and dream about hiring a Black political consultant, a Black media consultant, a Black printer, pollster, caterer or other political professional!

So what do politicians do? They talk about jobs for you but they give all the jobs they can to carpetbaggers!

Political opportunists Don’t take my word for it. Ask your favorite candidate if his campaign workers come from his state, his city, and in the case of Black politicians, from that Black politician’s community.

So how does the politician control the Black voters? The politician uses modern day political slave patrols!

Slave patrols (called patrollers, pattyrollers or paddy rollers by

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: AIRPLANE LEGROOM

PATRICK CHAPPATTE, THE INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK TIMES

Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 226 ISIS/ISIL – These radical Islamic fundamentalists are great at public relations and social networking. They call themselves “The Islamic State,” as if they are an internationally recognized sovereign nation. If they are attacked – as they surely will be – they can argue to Muslims worldwide that the attack is on the world’s only Islamic ‘state,’ not on terrorism. I’m not playing their game. Thus, I will forever refer to them as “ISIS/ISIL,” as should everyone else.

This group beheaded two Americans and uploaded the video to the Internet, thus provoking a 9/11 reaction at a fraction of the money and complex planning that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda invested. Bro. Prez is absolutely correct to go slow, as this is the same attempt to inflame American opinion to support waging a Bush-Afghanistan/Iraq-type “war on terror” which saps our energy and finances for decades. That was bin Laden’s goal all along – and he succeeded.

I hope Obama will not allow America to be drawn into what is essentially a regional civil war between various factions of Sunni and Shia Muslims, a war that had ebbed and flowed for more than 1,300 YEARS. (That is more than 13 CENTURIES. America itself isn’t even 300 years old.)

Why are we even interested in what

QUICK TAKES FROM #2: STRAIGHT, NO CHASER

CHARLES W. CHERRY II, ESQ. PUBLISHER

happens there? Oil – and Israel. People laughed in 1977 when President Jimmy Carter tried to establish a national energy policy and cut America’s dependence on Middle East oil, calling it “the moral equivalent of war.”

Had America worked with diligence and foresight to wean our economy and way of life off the “crack cocaine” of imported oil, we wouldn’t give a damn about what happens in Iraq, Syria or Libya. Our Saudi Arabian “dope dealers” – who have financed both al Qaeda and ISIS/ISIL – would have to spill the blood of their own citizens to protect their oil “stash” that provides their opulent way of life.

Contact me at ccherry2@gmail.com; holler at me at www.facebook.com/ ccherry2 and ‘like’ the Florida Courier and Daytona Times pages. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Opinions expressed on this editorial page are those of the writers, and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of the newspaper or the publisher.

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the slaves) in the days of slavery were organized groups of three to six White men who enforced discipline upon Black slaves in the antebellum U.S. southern states.

They policed the slaves on plantations and hunted down fugitive slaves. Patrols used summary punishment against escapees, maiming or killing them. Slave patrols were first established in South Carolina in 1704, and the idea spread throughout the southern states.

Today, the political slave patrols are composed of Negroes from faraway places that show up in Black communities only at election time to persuade and convince every Black voter that no matter how wicked, how beastly, how exploitative, how insensitive, how uncaring, how disrespectful or how evil politicians are that pale politician is “all right”!

Who do you love?

The US political party that should love Black people the most

shows their appreciation for all of the Black votes they get by spending money with every race of people but Black people.

In political purchasing transactions, Hispanics get more money than Blacks, women get more money than Blacks and even gays get more opportunities in political purchasing transactions than Black people do.

There is one exception, so to speak. In slavery days Black people were considered to be only 1/5th, or 20%, as valuable as a non-Black. Today, in politics, Black political professionals are only worth only about 2% of the worth of White political professionals!

And, the slave patrols will tell you we are better off!

Buy Gantt’s book “Beast Too” Dead Man Writing” online or anywhere fine books are sold.

Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net.

Write your own response at www.flcourier.com.

Obama’s biggest weakness: He’s weak If I didn’t see it with my own eyes I never would have believed it. Here was President Barack Obama talking with his Russian counterpart, President Dmitry Medvedev, about giving a message to incoming President Vladimir Putin. They thought the microphone was off but the whole world will hear the discussion plainly. He goes, “Tell Vladimir to please wait until after my re-election. Then I could be much more flexible.” Shaking hands President Medvedev says, “Yes I will transmit your message to Vladimir.”

We were very curious if not somewhat shocked.

What was he about to give up? Now it appears to be the Ukraine, as we knew it.

Putin was about to go Stalin style and invade a neighboring nation and the US was going to let it happen.

Well, the rest is history. This squeamish approach to foreign relations appears to be a major trait of our president who is supposed to be the leader and valiant fighter for the free world. It appears that isn’t the case.

HARRY C. ALFORD NNPA COLUMNIST

We are approaching the anniversary of 9/11 and Jihadists have eleven planes to play with.

Where is our outrage?

Where is the bravery and aggressiveness to get those planes and take out the militias?

The leadership we used to have is gone until we find a true leader to guide our great nation.

Syria is far worse! Chemical weapons have been used on women and children and all the White House can do is sell “wolf tickets” about drawing a line in the sand. That line has been scratched out by the “feet” of Dictator Assad and two rival groups, both some form of Jihadists. This nation is a three ring circus of terror. We could have had a handle on it in the early stages but our President feared to make a move.

Once again, his fear overtakes his obligation and 11 missing jets The pleas for increased the world gets worse and security by our Libyan Am- worse. bassador, J. Christopher Stevens, went ignored. This Not a JV team Our intelligence inreticence by our President and Secretary of State Clin- formed the White House of ton caused his death as well this new off shoot of Al Qaeas three of his staff. The da, ISIS, which was gaining President still can’t make a ground in Syria and threatstrong move in Libya. To- ening to invade Iraq. Iraq day, Al Qaeda like mili- was sitting there like a deer tias our carving up the na- in front of head lights. In his tion and we just appear to rush to get our troops out ignore it. There are elev- Obama left the nation unen missing commercial jet trained and ill prepared to planes and we don’t have a protect itself from the hosclue who took them. Listen! tile factions that surround

it. As ISIS was considering, the President made an arrogant statement to the press about them. He referred to them as a junior varsity team that had delusions they were the Lakers basketball team.

Two months later, ISIS rushed into Iraq and snatched 40% of the land all the while performing medieval style massacres wherever they went. This group now has over a billion dollars in cash from the banks they seized and modern US military equipment they got from the fleeing Iraqi troops. Mass murder is their trade mark and all the White House could do in the beginning is to send some food. We are now dabbling in helicopter rescues, light equipment and some air strikes here and there. The bitter truth is that we must be very lethal with ISIS.

Meet war with war No one in their right mind wants to make war.

Sometimes, a nation has to meet war face to face. If it comes before you, you must act aggressively and win or become defeated and beholden to the new conquerors. There is no in between and somehow this person we elected twice feels he can wait it out for two more years and get the hell out of Washington, DC with all the money accumulated along the way.

Harry C. Alford is the co-founder, president/ CEO, of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. Write your own response at www.flcourier. com.

US can’t be world policeman I was struck by how quickly various pundits jumped upon President Obama’s comment regarding ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) in which he stated that “…we do not have a strategy yet…” Why the surprise? Why any outrage?

The statement was brutally honest.

There is a famous saying, in effect, if you do not know where you are going, any road will get you there.

This is the point that many right-wing and liberal commentators seem to be missing. In the age of instantaneous news, there seems to be the expectation of instantaneous decision-making.

Real life does not lend itself to such an option.

BILL FLETCHER, JR. NNPA COLUMNIST

the destruction of the country and the proliferation of sectarian conflict; and the ongoing war in Afghanistan have all contributed to a situation whereby clerical fascists, including but not limited to ISIS, have been able to grow.

Added to this has been the U.S.-supported, Shiitedominated government in Iraq that engaged in the alltoo-common retribution against Sunnis after years of persecution. And, of course, there is the Syrian civil war that started with a popular, Terrorists groups in- democratic protest that was creasing violently suppressed by the ISIS is the creation of ma- Assad government, fueling a levolent U.S. foreign poli- military conflict which ISIS cies. The collaboration with utilized for its own ends.

Saudi Arabia that resulted, ultimately in the growth The magic button of Al Qaeda; the first war Into this situation various with Iraq (1991) that prob- nation-states and political ably would never have hap- organizations have entered, pened had Saddam Hussein many of them strategic, as been clearer on U.S. inten- well as on-again/off-again tions; the second war with allies of the U.S.A. Is such a Iraq (2003) that resulted in situation resolved through

a few missile strikes? A few bombardments? Perhaps a few hundred paratroopers or Special Operations units?

There are too many people in Washington, D.C. — and in the U.S. as a whole —who would have loved to have heard President Obama suggest that by merely pushing a button that the U.S. could demonstrate its leadership. Perhaps with the click of a switch the entirety of the ISIS leadership can be zapped away into the Phantom Zone? I hate to break it to you – and to Fox News – but it simply does not work that way.

When one is dealing with a criminal organization, e.g., the Mafia, or a clerical fascist organization, e.g., Al Qaeda; ISIS, the problem is not resolved at light speed, regardless of how quickly one receives information on cable news channels.

Wake up, pundits: welcome to the 21st century.

Bill Fletcher, Jr. is the host of The Global African on Telesur-English. He is a racial justice, labor and global justice writer and activist. Write your own response at www.flcourier.com.

SEPTEMBER 12 – SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

EDITORIAL

‘The dream and the hope of the slave’ Editor’s note: This is the first of Cassandra’s regular column about living in Africa.

When asked by Florida Courier Publisher Charles W. Cherry II to write articles about our experiences in Ghana, West Africa for the newspaper, I was thoroughly elated!! My pulse pumped, my heart thumped and my mind went totally blank!

Not that I don’t have plenty to share and am definitely a person of many, many words – both appropriate and inappropriate – but I found myself not knowing where to start! So I decided to just go with the mind flow and grab whatever floats by! Kind of like shooting fish in a barrel: I’m bound to come up with something! So, here goes…

Hi, I’m Cassandra!

I’m from Louisiana and I live in the Motherland! I’m an avid Facebook blogger of sorts and absolutely love to write!!

I post regularly on Facebook about our escapades and exciting experiences and adventures while living in the capital city, Accra and, since our permanent arrival here, there have been many! Too, it’s a convenient way for the folk back home to keep up with us and know we’re okay “waaaaaaaaaaay over yonder ‘cross the water”, as they call it!

WHY did we move to Africa – Ghana, in particular? Not many years ago, if someone had alluded to the “Motherland”, my imagination would have taken me no further than my Mother’s house on my “Mother’s land” in my little hometown! To go to Africa was definitely NOT on my “bucket lists” of things to do in life. For us, Africa was as far away as heaven and not as fondly envisioned.

I think that was due to our limit-

CASSANDRA DIANE BACK TO THE HOMELAND

ed exposure to Africa via Tarzan movies and National Geographic magazines in the doctor’s office.

My husband “Baby” discovered Ghana first while visiting with a friend in 2001. His friend had traced his roots to Sokade Gbogambe, a small village in the Volta Region, and invited a few to accompany him on one of his returns. I came later in 2005.

Although the airline lost our luggage for twelve days of our two-week vacation AND we had to wash and wear our clothes over and over AND our Friends thought we’d taken ALL of our pictures on the same day because we had on the same clothes AND my luggage had spent our vacation in Lagos, Nigeria while Baby’s had set, obviously, on the tarmac in the rain at the Frankfurt airport AND the airline never compensated us for the wet and molded clothing in Baby’s suitcase, I thoroughly enjoyed my maiden visit “back home.” The cheers and smiling faces and “Akwaabas” and “Welcome home, brother and sister” yelps from the sea of Black faces gathered outside the airport terminal exit made me absolutely certain that “I had arrived!”

Talked constantly We both found a magnetic spiritual and emotional affection for this paradise. Returning to the US, we’d talk incessantly about our visits; the people; the land; the wealth; the poverty; the culture; the progress and the lack there-

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VISUAL VIEWPOINT: DIGITAL PRIVACY

of; the feeling of “belonging”; the beauty; the dualities; the singularities; the love of life; the heartbeat of freedom.

Our friends would shake their heads when we’d come around and sit there like deer caught in the headlights knowing they were in for yet ANOTHER never-ending tale of our past trips. They would sit resignedly – as true friends should – in their front-row seats previewing our ever-developing episodes of “We’re going to Ghana, y’all!”

We were pumped up and continuously made plans to repatriate. We set our goal for five years – although we had no earthly idea just HOW we’d make this daring relocation event a reality.

Our small businesses could barely afford our upkeep in the Central Louisiana town where we lived, let alone sponsor a full exodus east! But we stuck to our plans, sold everything that wasn’t nailed down, closed the family business and threw caution to the wind. We called my Sister “Peaches” with our final plans, asked if she wanted to come, got an affirmative and we ALL – like the Beverly Hillbillies - “loaded up the truck” and moved!

Those same friends, who in the long run began to doubt our actual passage, were finally able to bid us adieu in 2011. This might not have been Beverly Hills – muddy streets, corn fields, stray animals, naked children, flooded gutters and all – but moving on the corner of Diamond and Gold Streets in the Motherland was just as good…and better!

ADAM ZYGLIS, THE BUFFALO NEWS

tours of Ghana since 2006, our false sense of familiarity with life here was stark and obvious when we actually set up housekeeping.

Visiting ain’t like living here.

We soon found out that we were in another land in another time, where time itself was staunchly implanted in the traditional past, while simultaneously modernizing and morphing into the future at breakneck speed.

We had to settle in and embrace – rather than repel – a world as peculiar to me as outer space.

Baby had traveled the world but I had only traversed “from sea to shining sea.” However, our transition has gone slowly, but surely, well.

Being from the “country,” we didn’t have a whole lot of environmental adjusting to do. We were accustomed to the bad roads, overgrown terrain, quietude, free-running chickens, goats and sheep in the road, oinking pigs, herds of cows passing the house, clothes hanging on the lines in Learning experience the fresh air, the sweet smell of We’ve learned much during our dirt when it rains, the laughter almost four years here. Although of children running around the we had visited and conducted neighborhood, the sound of frogs

after the flooded streets drain, the neighborhood stores on every corner, the dust, the heat, the loud music, the spicy foods, the familiarities; the funerals on Saturday; the eating of collard greens with your fingers; the recovery of ancient instincts abruptly abandoned here centuries ago that reclaim us as WE reclaim us.

It’s different Life in the Motherland is definitely different from “waaaaaaaaaaay over yonder ‘cross the water,” but somehow the same. We’ve come full circle – we’re back to where we started – and mighty GLAD to be here!

Yep, we have learned and laughed and lived and loved (and loathed) much in the Promised Land and, believe ME, I will tell you ALL about it in the weeks to come. ‘Hope you’ll JOIN ME!

Contact Cassandra at Back to the Homeland Tours on Facebook, or www.weregoingtoghana.com. Write your own response at www.flcourier.com.

Republican Tim Scott doesn’t run from his Blackness In the past, I have been extremely critical of so-called Black Republicans, as well as so-called Black conservatives – and that’s not going to change. Too often they feel the need to check their Blackness at the door under the perverted guise of currying favor with Whites within the party.

These are the type of Blacks that many in the party want to showcase. Getting on FOX News Channel seems to be their ultimate prize of validation. Most of these Blacks have no relationship with our community; and come across as so extreme that no one takes them seriously, other than FOX. Yet, many of these Blacks have become the public face of Black Republicans.

But South Carolina senator, Tim Scott, is everything a true Black Republican could and should be.

He is Black and proud of it. His Blackness is what he is; his values are who he is.

RAYNARD JACKSON NNPA COLUMNIST

Booker serves with Scott South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, an Indian-American, appointed Scott to fill the U.S. Senate seat that was vacated by Jim DeMint in 2013, making him the first Black senator from South Carolina and the first from the South since 1881; Republican Blanche Kelso Bruce of Mississippi had been the last.

Prior to his appointment to the Senate, Scott was elected in November 2010 to represent South Carolina’s 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, the first Black Republican from the state since George W. Murray in 1897. Scott has also served in the South Carolina Gen-

eral Assembly (2009-2011) and on the Charleston County Council from 1996-2008. He and Corey Booker (D-N.J.) are the only two Blacks serving in the U.S. Senate.

Made it a point to be real To his credit, Scott has not bought into the ridiculous notion that you can’t be Black and Republican, too. I have never heard him make the asinine statement that “I am not a Black senator, I am a senator who happens to be Black,” as though he was just walking down the street and “Blackness” suddenly jumped all over him.

Scott fully embraces opportunities presented by the national party to expand the base of the party; while being very cognizant that his first obligation is to the people of South Carolina. They are not mutually exclusive goals.

Scott has made it a point to visit all eight Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)

in his state. He actively embraces and seeks opportunities to meet and engage with Black voters of South Carolina whether they vote for him or not.

Several times a year he goes undercover and works low-wage jobs so he can learn what his average constituents go through. He does all this with no media fanfare or staff.

Diverse staff Another major criticism I have made about Black Republicans is their refusal to hire Blacks on their staffs. This is not the case with Scott. His office is like a mini-United Nations. He actually has Blacks who have authority to make things happen. By doing do, he is opening doors for them to be future powerbrokers within the party.

Two months ago, Scott authored a non-binding resolution in the Senate promoting diversity in hiring. According to Scott, “The

The invisible achievement gap Across the country it’s back to school time. I hope it is a year full of promise and not disappointment and added stress for all children, especially those most vulnerable. I also hope this school year begins with a renewed commitment by all teachers and school administrators to help every child succeed.

Every year too many children don’t get the respect and extra help they need to reach their full potential. Children of color, poor children, English learners, and children with disabilities are especially likely to be left behind.

And there is another group of children – those in foster care – whose special needs too often are ignored. Many school districts do not even know which students are in foster care and are not tracking their performance.

Foster care challenges So now I am grateful that in California findings about educational outcomes for public school students in foster

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN NNPA COLUMNIST

care have been well documented in a 2013 study by The Center for the Future of Teaching & Learning at West Ed commissioned by the Stuart Foundation and a 2014 follow-up report by The Center and the California Child Welfare Indicators Project linking student outcomes to their foster care experiences. They found the odds against foster student success are worse than we thought and call this “The Invisible Achievement Gap.” While there has been a positive federal push to improve educational stability and success for children in foster care and some strong advocacy and good laws in California to protect them, these important data reports, a collaboration between California’s Departments of Education and Social Services, were the state’s first effort to examine and report educational outcomes

for these students in every county. They found children in foster care: • Were more likely than other students to change schools during the school year. About 1 in 10 students in foster care attended three or more schools during the year compared to about 1 in 100 of the general student population and their “low socioeconomic status” peers (those eligible for free and reduced-priced lunch or whose parents have not received a high school diploma); • Were more likely than the general student population to attend the lowest performing schools.

• Had the lowest participation rate in the statewide testing program, making it impossible to accurately determine how they are performing.

• Fell into “below basic” and “far below basic” performance levels for English language arts and mathematics at twice the rate of the statewide student population and performed worse than their low socioeconomic status peers.

They performed similarly to English learners and

students with disabilities in English, but did worse than all groups in math.

• Had a lower graduation rate; 58 percent, compared to 84 percent for all students, 79 percent for low socioeconomic status students, 65 percent for students with disabilities, and 60 percent for English language learners.

Congress and the administration have acted to improve educational stability and success for children in foster care, but more is required.

We must all work together to get child welfare and education agencies in more states — and eventually every state — gathering data on how children in foster care are doing in every school district and taking appropriate action to help them succeed.

We must not let any of our children remain invisible or go without the help they need to receive a quality education.

Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Children’s Defense Fund.

Write your own response at www.flcourier.com.

ultimate goal of the resolution was to hopefully heighten awareness of the opportunities to create the workforce of the future, today.” Republican senators, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Rob Portman of Ohio all signed on as co-sponsors.

Through his actions, Scott has proven that Black Republicans don’t have to check their Blackness at the door. Being Black and Republican is not an either/or proposition; but rather a both/ and proposition. Now, if we can just get more party members to understand the importance of what Scott is doing.

Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a Washington, D.C.-based public relations/government affairs firm.

He can be reached through his Web site, www.raynardjackson.com. You can also follow him on Twitter at raynard1223.

Sick of outdated workplace standards At the start of my career in the early 90s I had learned to accept the fact that men earned more than women.

At the time I was so overjoyed to be employed that income inequality was not a big issue for me. Over the years I became an excellent employee and proved to be just as hardworking and dependable as my male coworkers. It was then that I started to ask the question, why am I not paid the same as my male peers?

Small business owners – and especially women small business owners – have been getting squeezed by outdated workplace standards that don’t work for our families, don’t work for our employees, and allow big business competitors to leave women workers behind. Local small business owners know their workers by name and want to treat them like family.

Women showed up That’s why I support updating the rules so everyone has fair access to equal pay and earned sick time, so no small business gets undercut by low-road competitors.

And that’s why women small

MARY RICE GUEST COLUMNIST

business owners turned out and voted for earned sick time and helped pass this measure in Orange County.

Even though the sick time measure won’t take effect because of political meddling, small business voters sent an important message: politicians who are against earned sick time are siding with big corporate interests, not local small businesses. When big businesses pay women less and don’t offer sick time my customers have less money in their pockets and my business suffers.

Mary Rice is the owner of the Braids and Weave Factory and a member of Main Street Alliance, a national network of small business coalitions working to build a new voice for small businesses on important public policy issues. Write your own response at www.flcourier.com.

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SEPTEMBER 12 – SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

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SEPTEMBER 12 – 18, 2014

SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE

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REMEMBERING 9/11

I SAW THE TWIN TOWERS FALL Editor’s note: This is one story of an occasional Florida Courier series entitled ‘Survivor’s Stories, First Person.’ We highlight the lives of Floridians who have survived life-changing events, as described in their own words. Ed Hashey, formerly the Florida Courier’s creative director, survived the September 11 attacks, and for five years he was silent about what he saw. He spoke about 9/11 for the first time exclusively to the Florida Courier in 2006.

BY ED HASHEY SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

I

’ve had some tough experiences. But nothing prepared me for what would be one of the worst days in my life.

Still, I’m humble enough to know I can’t complain. I am alive, and lucky – and I feel somewhat guilty about that fact.

For the last five years since witnessing that horrible event up close and personal, I have not complained. I remained silent out of respect for those who suffered and died, along with the anguished families they left behind.

I thank God for every day given to me, no matter how bad it gets sometimes. I know inside that it will never be worse than what unfolded in front of me on September 11, 2001.

Calm before the storm This story actually begins in 1999. I am a graphic designer and illustrator, and I was immersed in a freelance project to redesign the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) newspaper. This took me around the world, starting with the WSJ Europe publication in Brussels, Belgium in 1999, then to the Asian WSJ in Hong Kong in 2000, then finishing up at the WSJ’s New York office in 2001.

Their headquarters are – were – located in the upper floors of 1 World Financial Center, directly across the street from what were the World Trade Center towers.

It was my sixth visit to Lower Manhattan. I decided to ask my wife Jeanne if she wanted to join me this time, as my birthday is September 13. We wanted to celebrate it together, especially since we didn’t see much of each other due to my busy schedule.

We flew in on the afternoon of September 9 into Newark, N.J., and stayed at a hotel in Times Square. The following Monday was a normal opening workday.

I took the Number 1 and Number 9 subway lines from Times Square to the WTC station at Cortland Street.

The weather was perfect outside. It was the typical WSJ workday; eight hours of work and a typical lunch at one of the hundreds of local restaurants.

After finishing my workday, it was back up to Times Square to spend the evening with Jeanne.

We dined at a simple pizza joint.

She told me she walked up and down Fifth Avenue all day, and her feet were killing her.

After asking her what she was doing for the next day, she said the hotel concierge gave her a bunch of coupons, including one for free admission to the observation deck of the World Trade Center. I replied, “Great.

You can go up to the towers in the morning and do lunch with us after that. I can show you where I work.” We decided to get to bed fairly early, and leave around 7:30 a.m. on September 11 for 1 World Trade Center.

A normal day We woke up to a beautiful Tuesday morning, got breakfast, gathered our belongings and headed out for the day.

We got about halfway to the subway station; Jeanne had a confession.

“I don’t think I can make it today,” she said. “My legs are killing me from all that walking yesterday.”

So I escorted her back to the hotel and she prepared a hot bath and turned on the ‘Today Show.’ She felt bad for bowing out at the last minute. I told her not to worry, and that we could try again tomorrow. I then headed back to the subway.

I was reading a book about the Red Sox/ Yankees rivalry and listening to my iPod. It takes about 20 minutes to get down to Lower Manhattan from New Jersey. I looked at my watch; it was 8:40 a.m., and my stop at Cortland Street was next.

Leaving the train, I walked up to the street exit, and right as I saw daylight, I heard a huge explosion and then many pieces of falling debris, some the size of car hoods, started falling around me and the large crowd of people with me at the station.

The noise hurt my ears and I could feel the heat from the fireball above. I fell down twice as the large crowd began to scramble for safety. What happened?

Witness to hellish destruction

JIM WATSON/US NAVY NEWS/MCT

and to this day I cannot get the image of this one man in a plaid, outdated suit, orange or brown in color. He was bald, maybe 50 years old or so.

It is true what they say about shock. Everything in your brain starts playing in slow motion. This whole time I felt helpless, as if I was in a trance waiting for some logical end to the whole thing.

Second tower hit

TODD PLITT/KRT

“Two men next to me argued whether the first object coming down was a body; after about three seconds, the argument was over.”

The mass of people in the train station responded by frantically reversing course and heading back into the train station, but there were too many people trying to exit.

Many of us squeezed against the side of the World Trade Center complex, trying not to be hit by the falling debris. After about a minute, the debris stopped falling. I looked up and saw smoke and flames; the distinctive smell of kerosene lingered in the air.

There were several parked limousines and cars damaged from the debris.

Broken shards of glass were everywhere, and some pedestrians were injured. A few paramedics arrived and began administering first aid. Police began setting up barricades, while firemen started driving up and pulling out fire hoses.

I decided to cross over Liberty Street. I looked up and saw the first tower engulfed in flames that quickly turned into thick black smoke. Eyewitnesses said a plane had crashed into the building.

From our perspective, we were thinking it was a small plane, but I remember one man saying it was a jet. This made sense, as the explosion was huge. I knew this was the north tower, the one with the big antenna on top.

I decided to cross back over the street closer to Tower Two. Police arrived and instructed us to clear the area.

People die All of this time, my eyes were fixated on the damage above. To my horror, I started seeing people jump to their deaths. I have always wondered three things with respect to dying: first, what it would be like to die in a plane crash; second, what it would be like to die falling as we all have dreamed about; third, if we die before we hit the ground. But I never wanted to bear witness to any of it.

As each person fell, I started praying. Two men next to me argued whether the first object

coming down was a body; after about three seconds, the argument was over. We were not sure where to go or what to do. People in the crowd screamed and gasped in horror as each person fell to their death. Police and firemen alike were scrambling for cover. Chaos ruled.

Bodies were landing on awnings, on the cement pavements, on the shrubbery. Each time a body hit, it made a sound similar to that of a sack of flour hitting the ground. There is no time to look away in a situation like this. There were mists of blood in the air each time a body landed.

Almost every person was alive before they made impact, some kicking and screaming, others calm and choosing to land on their backs. Others were smoldering and unconscious. Most poignant was a brave couple that jumped together and obviously wanted to somehow be in control of their own fates. I remember the clothes they wore,

Then I heard a loud noise of an aircraft. A rapidly moving shadow was visible in the sky. I looked up and remember seeing another large airline jet smash into the second tower.

This explosion seemed much closer. You could hear the jet engines throttle up just before impact, and it slammed into the building so fast, it was just a blur. I fell to the ground again, feeling the heat of the huge fireball that grew from the explosion directly above me.

The markings on the aircraft were distinctly that of United Airlines. Then it became clear to me that this was no accident. This was terrorism.

A wave of panic soon hit me. Were there more jets coming in? Will the towers collapse and kill us all? Are there bombs on the ground?

How big is this attack?

Survival instinct I felt a rush of adrenaline as I ran into an entryway of a bank across the street. Flying debris destroyed the windows all around us. Cops and firemen were among the large crowd of people running for their lives.

I ducked behind some tables and waited for debris to stop falling, and I heard the distinctive sounds of metal and broken glass ricocheting everywhere.

The police regrouped and used bullhorns to give evacuation orders to either go up Broadway or go over the Brooklyn Bridge. I starting walking briskly up Liberty Street, and as I passed the entrance area to Tower Two, I saw a fireman coming out with a very large Black woman on his shoulders.

She was moaning. He stood her up against a round shrubbery pot, and I saw that her Please see 9/11, Page B2

CALENDAR AND OBITUARY

B2

SEPTEMBER 12 – SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

Jazz legend Gerald Wilson dies at 96

STEPHANIE MILLS AND GLENN JONES The Soul Food Festival will be Jacksonville’s Metropolitan Park on Sept. 13. Artists will include Stephanie Mills, Glenn Jones, Chante Moore, Kelly Price and The Whispers. Tickets: www.ilovesoulfood. com.

BY MORIBA CUMMINGS BET.COM

BOBBY BROWN

Tickets are on sale now for Tampa Funk Fest 2014 with performances by Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, Bobby Brown, Ralph Tresvant, Johnny Gill, Fantasia and Doug E. Fresh. The festival will be Oct. 18 at Raymond James Stadium. More information: www.funkfest2014.com.

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR

Howard Hewitt at the Times Union Center for the Performing Arts.

Tampa: Bible-Based Fellowship Church in Carrollwood is to commemorate the first anniversary of the Rev. Anthony C. White as senior pastor on Sept. 13 with a luncheon at the Rusty Pelican at 11 a.m. Tickets for $30 can be purchased by calling the church at 813-264-4050. Special guests will be comedian Ms. V and musical artist Damita.

Jacksonville: Tickets are on sale for an Oct. 3 concert featuring Keith Sweat, El Debarge and

West Palm Beach: MSNBC’s Tamron Hall will be the guest at the Urban League of Palm Beach County’s Youth Empowerment Luncheon on Sept. 12 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.

Fort Lauderdale: A Dillard High School of Fort Lauderdale reunion is scheduled Sept. 19 at Mt. Hermon AME Church, 401 NW Seventh Terrace. The speaker at the 10:30 a.m. service will be Dr. Edison Jackson, president of Bethune-Cookman University.

Coral Gables: Israel Houghton and New Breed along with Miel

San Marcos are scheduled at the Almavision Miami radio anniversary on Sept. 12 at BankUnited Center.

Miami: The Back to Love Tour with Anthony Hamilton and Chrisette Michelle makes a stop at the James L. Knight Center on Sept. 20. Michelle also is scheduled at the Ritz Theatre in Jacksonville on Sept. 19.

St. Augustine: Tickets are on sale now for an Oct. 11 show at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre featuring Earth, Wind & Fire.

Daytona Beach: The Halifax Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America will hold

9/11

Reality hits When I arrived back at the room, Jeanne was in tears. I gave her a big hug, and she felt me trembling.

Then we watched on the television in disbelief as the first tower collapsed. Two thoughts came to my mind: What happened to those firemen? Did they get all the people evacuated in time?

I lay down on the bed and so many emotions flowed over me. I learned that Washington, D.C. was under attack. My brother worked as a Navy corpsman in the White House clinic. Was he OK? Eventually, I did make contact with everyone, including colleagues at the Wall Street Journal. And we were all lucky.

I was sad, angry, nervous, and happy to be alive, but humbled and completely overwhelmed by others’ deaths that day. I can’t stop seeing the visions of bodies falling. I still pray for their families.

And then there is fate.

What would have happened if my wife decided to visit the World Trade Center’s observation tower that

its 30th anniversary luncheon meeting at noon on Sept. 25 at the Halifax River Yacht Club, 331 S. Beach St. Speaker: Retired Navy Captain Robert J. Silah.

More information: Call 386-2358635 or email learymm4@gmail. com .

Tampa: Candy Lowe hosts Tea & Conversation every Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at 3911 N. 34th St., Suite B. More information: 813394-6363.

St. Petersburg: Macy Gray is scheduled Oct. 10 at Janus Live.

St. Petersburg: The Steve Harvey “Act Like A Success’’ Tour will stop at The Mahaffey on Oct. 18.

“ THE

The music community is morning the loss of jazz musician Gerald Wilson, whose career spanned more than seven decades. He died of pneumonia Sept. 8 in his Los Angeles home. He was 96.

A Shelby, Miss. native, Wilson grew up to become quite the experienced jazz staple. He played and composed for the likes of Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington, and even arranged music for jazz and blues icons Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughn and Bobby Darin.

In the 1930s, Wilson served as a trumpeter for Jimmy Lunceford, arranging the famous jazz numbers “Hi Spook” and “Yard Dog Mazurka.”

Following his stint with Lunceford and serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Wilson settled in Los Gerald Angeles in the 1940s Wilson and has remained there ever since.

In his later years, Wilson became known for his white hair and dramatic dance-like conducting style.

“I choreograph the music when I conduct,” he told the Jazz Times in 2011. “Accent everything — all the high points.”

Throughout his career, Wilson has earned six Grammy nominations, including recognition in 1999 and 2004 for best large jazz ensemble for “Theme For Monterey” and “New York, New Sound.”

Closer to his passing, the legend took his knowledge to the classroom, teaching jazz at California State University, Northridge; California State University, Los Angeles; and University of California, Los Angeles.

Wilson leaves behind his wife, Josefina Villasenor Wilson, a son, two daughters and four grandchildren.

FIRST GREAT

THRILLER

from B1

polyester suit was melted to the back of her body.

Pieces of melted clothing and burnt flesh were falling off her. The fireman collapsed in exhaustion. Then, about two dozen of his colleagues went running into the building in heavy gear.

I had a real bad feeling that they were all in grave danger.

I realized I needed to get back to Jeanne to assure her I was safe. So I start running north up Broadway. I kept trying the phones but nothing worked; all circuits were busy.

I tried getting on the subway, but electrical power had failed and the subway system was on lockdown.

So I ran to my Times Square hotel room, which took about 30 minutes.

STOJ

OF THE FALL.” Joel D. Amos, MOVIE FANATIC

Smoke pours from the Pentagon Building in Washington, D.C. minutes after a hijacked airliner crashed into the southwest corner of the building, during the 9/11 terrorists attacks. morning? For this, I have to believe there are guardian angels. They certainly had too much to cope with that day.

New York City was a ghost town that afternoon.

No whir of traffic, only the constant wail of sirens heading south to the horror downtown.

Leaving the city It took us two days to get out of Manhattan. Luckily, Jeanne’s college roommate lived in Montvale, N.J. Our journey home started with a long walk to Madison Square Garden with our luggage, then taking the PATH subway train to New Jersey. The train stopped abruptly just before the Newark stop, and we had to evacuate due to a bomb threat.

We finally got picked up after a round of cellphone tag and arrived at our friend’s home, only to learn that four families on the block had family members missing. This humbled me quickly. The next day we drove back home to Sarasota, ironically the same place President George Bush was when he was notified of the attacks.

How 9/11 affected me I first thought this event would make me an angry, bitter person filled with hatred. But actually the opposite has occurred. I have a higher level of compassion for people, but with a resolve not to put up with

nonsense or ever let my guard down. We live in a dangerous world, but we must live free.

I have come to terms with the reality that this will never leave my mind. Almost every day, something triggers a memory; the sound of a jet, anyone crying, movie trailers, etc. But I am more acutely aware of how precious everyone’s lives are, and will never take life for granted.

Even in the midst of the evil that happened that day, I saw all much good. There were storeowners handing out flip-flops to women who abandoned high heels in panic. There were firemen and policemen who after several disruptions, kept regrouping and kept on trying. Many made the ultimate sacrifice. I remember an Asian paramedic cradling an elderly man who was bleeding from his head, comforting him. And most of all, I remember how compassionate people were in general, helping each other out despite the panic.

I have always felt that people’s true colors come out in times of crisis. I am a witness. The people of New York City shined that day, and continue to do so.

They are all my heroes, and my heart goes out to anyone who was a victim of that day.

Ed Hashey, a Sarasota resident, now teaches fifth grade at Wilkinson Elementary School in Sarasota.

“ENGROSSING

AND

TERRIFYING Jeremy Smith, AIN’T IT COOL NEWS

” .

UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND CROSS CREEK PICTURES PRESENT IN ASSOCIATION WITH EXCLUSIVE MEDIA AND ENDGAME ENTERTAINMENT A JERSEY FILMS/DOUBLE FEATURE FILMS PRODUCTION LIAM NEESON “A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES” DAN STEVENS DAVID HARBOUR BOYD HOLBROOK MUSIC MUSIC EXECUTIVE SUPERVISOR MARY RAMOS BY CARLOS RAFAEL RIVERA PRODUCERS KERRY ORENT ADI SHANKAR TRACY KROHN JOHN HYDE MARK MALLOUK LAUREN SELI G ON NIGEL SINCLAIR PRODUCEDBY DANNY DEVITO MICHAEL SHAMBERG STACEYWRITTEN SHER FORTOBITHENSCREEN ARMBRUST BRIAN OLIVER THE BASED NOVEL BY LAWRENCE BLOCK A UNIVERSAL RELEASE AND DIRECTED BY SCOTT FRANK © 2014 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

STARTS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19

CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES

S

SEPTEMBER 12 – SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

B3

BUSINESS

Six in 10 millennials don’t have a credit card Some years ago, David J. Young II, shown in Beaumont, Texas, received credit cards while in college and carried several thousand dollars in charges on them as he looked for full-time employment.

BY BECKY YERAK CHICAGO TRIBUNE (MCT)

More than six in 10 millennials don’t have a credit card, and only a minority who do have them pay off the entire balance every month, aT:4.625" new study shows.

Bankrate.com, an online publisher of personal finance news, said 63 percent of adults ages 18 to 29 don’t have credit cards.

DALLAS MORNING NEWS/ MCT

“Millennials may think they’re staying out of financial trouble by forgoing credit cards, but they’re doing a disservice to themselves and their credit scores,” Bankrate.com credit card analyst Jeanine Skowronski said in a statement. “The responsible use of credit cards is one of the easiest ways to build a strong credit score, which is essential for qualifying

for insurance policies, auto and mortgage loans, and sometimes even a job.”

Also, only 40 percent of millennials pay their entire balance every month, and 3 percent admit to missing payments completely.

Harder to get Bankrate.com believes that student-loan debt is making younger consumers wary of carrying cred-

it cards in their wallets.

Also, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility & Disclosure Act of 2009, called the CARD Act for short, made it harder for Americans under the age of 21 to get credit cards.

Among older adults, about a third have no credit cards, and, among those who have credit cards, more than half pay off the entire balance every month.

The survey was conducted on Bankrate.com’s behalf by Princeton Survey Research Associates, which did land-line and cell phone interviews in English and Spanish with 1,161 U.S. adults from July 31 to Aug. 10. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

Twitter to start testing ‘buy’ buttons

BY KATIE LANDAN LOS ANGELES TIMES (MCT)

T:10"

Impulse shopping online got a little easier Monday with Twitter’s announcement that it will begin testing a “buy” button on tweets.

The San Franciscobased company plans to gradually roll out a product that will enable users to make purchases with just a few taps.

“This is an early step in our building functionality into Twitter to make shopping from mobile devices convenient and easy, hopefully even fun,” Twitter said in a blog post.

Twitter has tapped Stripe Inc., a San Francisco-based payment company, to allow credit card purchases with only a few clicks, Twitter’s head of commerce, Nathan Hubbard, told Bloomberg News.

Partnered with Amazon This isn’t the first time Twitter has dabbled with e-commerce.

In May, Twitter teamed up with Amazon.com to make it possible for users to add products to their Amazon shopping carts through tweets. To do so, users respond with “#AmazonCart” to tweets containing links to products from the online retailer.

Other social media sites have shown interest in ecommerce in the last few years, including Facebook.

In 2012, Facebook added an e-commerce feature allowing users to buy and send gifts to one another, but later discontinued it and instead is testing a buy button in its ads, according to TechCrunch.

Pinterest’s ‘Rich Pins’

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Social bookmarking site Pinterest is also dipping into e-commerce with “Rich Pins,” which give more details about a product, including the price. No buy feature exists yet.

To e-commerce expert, Ken Wisnefski, the gradual addition of the buy button seems desperate. “While this new feature is intriguing, it’s not likely to make a huge impact on the revenue of Twitter,” Wisnefski said in a recent report.

“The nature of Twitter is quick, fast information, not e-commerce,” he said.

For now, Twitter’s buy feature will only be used by select nonprofits, retailers such as Home Depot and artists such as Keith Urban.

B4

SPORTS

SEPTEMBER 12 – SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

GEORGE SKENE/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT

Crews work on Citrus Bowl construction on Sept. 5 in Orlando. The stadium is reflected in nearby Lake Lorna Doone.

Home of Florida Classic gets makeover in effort to host college-football title game

BY MATT MURSHEL ORLANDO SENTINEL (MCT)

ORLANDO — Dust billows and heavy machinery echoes through the construction site on the corner of Church Street and Rio Grande Avenue.

It’s the home of one of the city’s top reclamation projects, a $207 million renovation of the 78-year old Florida Citrus Bowl.

But a ribbon-cutting to unveil the remodeled stadium won’t quickly be followed by a college-football national-championship game in Orlando. There’s elite competition from cities that have hosted Super Bowls for college football’s premier game, making it far from a given Orlando will one day host the event.

And there are other hurdles as well.

Florida Citrus Sports leaders face the challenge of needing to raise millions of dollars just to bid on the championship, plus a requirement to go back and upgrade the just-refurbished stadium.

More suites To meet minimum requirements set by the College Football Playoff committee, the Citrus Bowl will need to add 27 additional luxury suites. The suites would cost $8.5 million and were approved along with other stadium funding on the condition they would only be added if the Citrus Bowl were hosting a national-championship game.

In addition to the expanded seating costs, bowl

officials would need at least $15 million for a proposed operating budget to stage the championship game.

Florida Citrus Sports Chief Executive Officer Steve Hogan said his group will raise the funds needed to fulfill the title-game requirements.

Premium seating Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said the framework for the premium seating is in place and was something accounted for by local officials during the planning of the renovation.

Orlando opted not to invest in luxury suites that would be rarely used, but instead to add that premium seating once the right to host a marquee title game was secured, which would be 2018 at the earliest.

“The way we designed and constructed the Citrus Bowl was to have it accommodate exactly what we’re hosting now, which is a 61,000-seat stadium. …

The number of seats and club seats and everything that we have is perfect,” Dyer said. “… We also created some space that can be enhanced if we need to add some additional premium spaces … for a nationalchampionship game.

“It’s the amount of premium seating that we don’t need except once every 10 years — say, if we got into that rotation and we’re going to host the game once every 10 years.”

Economic impact Other cities competing to host the national-ti-

tle game are setting aside about $15 million operating budgets for the game.

The budget includes giving the College Football Playoff up to $10 million to help host the event.

It’s a price Orlando officials are willing to pay, according to Dyer.

“I think we understand that there is some upfront capital investment, but the return on that investment will be hundredfold,” he said.

When Sun Life Stadium in the Miami area hosted the BCS National Championship Game in 2013 before the shift to a new postseason format, the estimated economic impact was close to $250 million in revenue. That doesn’t include the public-relations impact of having South Florida mentioned repeatedly by TV and print media covering the game.

Optimistic despite competition Bowl officials who want to bring that revenue to Central Florida are optimistic they can make it happen despite going up against cities with new venues and experience hosting Super Bowls.

“The reconstruction of the Orlando Citrus Bowl is certainly going to make it possible for us to bid for the … championship game, and it’s a natural fit for our community,” Dyer said.

Local officials began talking about the possibility of hosting a national championship back in 2001 but quickly realized it would only be possible if

Janay Rice stands by her man during their ‘horrible nightmare’ The wife of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, posted a statement on Instagram calling Monday and Tuesday a “horrible nightmare.’’

Her Instagram profile is private, but the Baltimore Sun has confirmed that the statement was intended to be made public.

The Ravens terminated Rice’s contract after TMZ released a video Monday showing the running back knocking his wife out in an elevator.

The video shows Rice punching his then-fiancee Janay Palmer in an elevator Feb. 15 at the Revel Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, N.J. Prior to this video being released, a video showed Rice dragging an unconscious Palmer out of

the aging Citrus Bowl went through a massive overhaul. Despite roadblocks and an economic recession, the stadium renovation finally began this year.

“I think people are going to realize that it was the right thing to do,” Hogan said. “Not only the business that we have, but what’s possible in the immediate future.”

Site of Florida Classic Fans will get their first look at the stadium during the Florida Classic on Nov. 22. And though the Citrus Bowl won’t be complete until closer to April, the facility will operate as

STOJ

normally as possible while hosting the 2014 state highschool-football championship games and the Russell and Capital One bowls.

Hogan said that, although the stadium will be part of the equation, the city itself offers a lot to those deciding whether to play a national-title game in Orlando. From the international airport to the multitude of hotels and tourist attractions, he sees Orlando as a destination that can’t miss.

He’s also quick to point out the stadium renovation will bring far more to Orlando than just the chance to host a national-championship game. He said the overhaul was critical to attracting other high-profile events, such as popular neutral-site regular-season college-football games and international soccer matches, along with keeping current bowls in Orlando.

“I never thought that the national championship would define this facility,” Hogan said.

Sights on 2017 Dyer has his sights set on the biggest prize.

Dallas is set to host the first College Football Playoff title game at the end of this season, while Glendale, Ariz., will host the game at the end of the 2015-16 season, and Tampa will host it at the end of the 2016-17 season.

The earliest Orlando could be in the mix to host the game would be at the end of the 2017-18 season.

AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, is set to host the first College Football Playoff title game, and event organizers have invited other bowl leaders to tour their facilities and review their game plan for both landing and hosting the big event.

“I think that’s great that they come,” said Tommy Bains, who leads the com-

mittee running events at AT&T Stadium. “We all can benefit, and we all can get better and learn from one another.”

More state improvements Tampa earned its spot in the rotation by completing a 7,000-page proposal that highlighted its commitment to providing unique experiences for college athletes playing in the title game. Tampa Bay Sports Commission Executive Director Rob Higgins flew to the College Football Playoff offices to personally deliver the group’s bid.

Jacksonville and Miami hope to be next in line, with both venues investing in their own stadium improvements and using their previous successful experiences hosting Super Bowls as proof they’ve got what it takes to help run college football’s biggest game.

That includes sparing no expense to land the championship.

“We’re going to spend some money like we did when we were chasing the NFL,” said Rick Catlett, president and CEO of Jacksonville’s Taxslayer Bowl.

Will keep trying Will Orlando be able to match the efforts of others with the benefit of local NFL franchises bolstering their bids?

Dyer said he would be disappointed if the city doesn’t get chosen in the next round of collegefootball national-championship host sites, but he wouldn’t give up on trying to bring a big game to Orlando.

“I’m always disappointed when we don’t land something that we go after,” he said. “I would hope we’re very competitive with our bid. If we are not successful, I would want to learn and make sure we’re successful the next time.”

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE FOR BLACK STUDENTS. NO EXCUSES. The classic guide from Florida Courier publisher, lawyer and broadcaster CHARLES W. CHERRY II PRAISE FOR ‘EXCELLENCE WITHOUT EXCUSE’: “This guide for African-American college-bound students is packed with practical and insightful information for achieving academic success...The primary focus here is to equip students with the savvy and networking skills to maneuver themselves through the academic maze of higher education.”

– Book review, School Library Journal • How low expectations of Black students’ achievements can get them higher grades; • Want a great grade? Prepare to cheat!

• How Black students can program their minds for success; • Setting goals – When to tell everybody, and when to keep your mouth shut;

KENNETH K. LAM/BALTIMORE SUN/MCT

Ray Rice, right, and his wife, Janay, made statements to the news media on May 5 at the Under Armour Performance Center in Owings Mills, Md., regarding his assault charge for knocking her unconscious in a New Jersey casino. the elevator. He received a two-game suspension then by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Here is Mrs. Rice’s statement on Instagram: “I woke up this morning feeling like I had a horrible nightmare, feeling like I’m mourning the death of my closest friend. But to have to accept the fact that it’s reality is a nightmare in itself. No one knows the pain that the media & unwanted options from the public has caused my family. To make us relive a moment

in our lives that we regret every day is a horrible thing. To take something away from the man I love that he has worked his ass of for all his life just to gain ratings is horrific. THIS IS OUR LIFE! What don’t you all get. If your intentions were to hurt us, embarrass us, make us feel alone, take all happiness away, you’ve succeeded on so many levels. Just know we will continue to grow & show the world what real love is! Ravensnation we love you!”

• Black English, and why Black students must be ‘bilingual.’ …AND MUCH MORE!

www.excellencewithoutexcuse.com Download immediately as an eBook or a pdf Order softcover online, from Amazon, or your local bookstore ISBN#978-1-56385-500-9 Published by International Scholastic Press, LLC Contact Charles at ccherry2@gmail.com

Facebook ccherry2 excellencewithoutexcuse

for info on speeches, workshops, seminars, book signings, panel discussions.

Twitter @ccherry2

STOJ

SEPTEMBER 11 – SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

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.

New upand-coming model Shalisa describes herself as edgy, sexy, and unique.

She loves fashion and considers the runway her second home. She says to “look out, Shalisa is going to take modeling to a higher level.” Contact Shalisa at facebook.com/ shalisawest or on twitter @_shalisaw.

CREDIT: Sosdezign

Maba Ba is a native of Dakar, Senegal, and currently lives in New York where he is pursuing a passion in acting and filmmaking.

He played division football at Old Dominion University and graduated with a degree in computer science and international business.

Contact him at baempire@gmail. com.

CREDIT: Gabrielle Linden photography.

shalisa

maba ba

Paramount gets Rock’s comedy after major bidding war EURWEB.COM

Paramount has emerged the winner of an intense bidding war over distribution rights to Chris Rock’s upcoming comedy “Top Five.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio is now in exclusive talks for worldwide rights in a deal that could approach or cross $13 million.

Rock directed, wrote and stars in the movie as a comedian trying to reinvent himself as a serious actor just as his reality-TV star fiancée (Rosario Dawson) talks him into broadcasting their wedding on her show. Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld and Kevin Hart among those making cameos.

The property sparked an immediate bidding war after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival Sept.

6. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the deal making became even more frenzied after “Top Five” received rave reviews, prompting virtually every major U.S. distributor to chase the film.

Sources say paperwork isn’t finalized, but that all sides want it to work out. UTA is representing domestic rights to Top Five, while FilmNation has international.

Chris Rock and Rosario Dawson will star in new film “Top Five.’’

BET’s programming director steps down Loretha Jones helped network get ‘Game,’ ‘Being Mary Jane’ FROM WIRE REPORTS

Loretha Jones is leaving BET Networks after a six-year run as president of Original Programming, during which she oversaw original programming, news, development, planning and acquisitions.

According to Deadline.com, Jones announced her departure on Friday, Sept.

5, but it had been ruLoretha mored for a while.

Jones The day prior, BET announced the appointment of Pete Danielsen as executive vice president of Program Planning, Scheduling & Acquisitions.

Reporting to Debra L. Lee, Chair-

man and CEO of BET Networks, Danielsen took over half of Jones’ portfolio.

In a statement confirming Jones’ exit, BET said she would remain a creative consultant for the network, working on several projects, including the movie “Beyond The Lights” and BET’s first miniseries, “The Book of Negroes,” which are wrapping, according to Deadline.

BET also announced that Darrell Walker, executive vice president and general counsel, will assume day-today operations for BET programming until a replacement is announced.

Stephen Hill, president of Music Programming and Specials, will remain in his current role along with Danielsen.

Grateful for experience Jones was instrumental in BET’s pickup of cancelled CW sitcom “The Game,” which relaunched on BET to a whopping 7.7 million viewers. She

also was key in the signing of BET’s producing deal with “The Game” duo of Salim and Mara Brock Akil that led to another hit, BET’s first drama series “Being Mary Jane.”

In addition to helping with “The Game” acquisition, which ushered original scripted series on BET, Jones also locked the deal for BET sibling Centric to bring back cancelled VH1 show “Single Ladies” as the channel’s first scripted series.

Jones held previous gigs as executive vice president of MTV Films/ Paramount Pictures and senior vice president of MTV Films/MTV Home Entertainment.

“Over the course of my career at Viacom, I have had an amazing opportunity to work with some of the finest creative people in the business and oversee a slate of original programming that makes me extremely proud,” Jones said in a statement.

“It’s been an incredible journey at BET Networks and I am grateful for the experience.”

Is Paris pregnant? Rumors swirl about baby bump FROM WIRE REPORTS

Pregnancy rumors are surrounding Michael Jackson’s 16-year-old daughter after she was spotted by the paparazzi on a dinner date sporting what looked like a baby bump.

A source was quoted by the Daily Star newspaper as saying: “I saw her at dinner and she twice made a toast drinking water instead of wine. That and the prominent stomach bulge got people talking.”

News that the troubled star may be expecting her first child comes just days after she was reportedly spotted looking at engagement rings with her supposed boyfriend.

Paris has stayed away from the spotlight for the past year while attending therapeutic boarding school Diamond Ranch Academy in Utah following her attempted suicide last June.

The teen – who has grown close to her Paris biological mother Debbie Rowe over the Jackson past 12 months – was given the all clear from doctors in May and is reportedly adamant she won’t return to the $14,000-per-month private school this fall.

B6

F0OD

SEPTEMBER 12 – SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

S

The perks of

pickling

Popularity grows with younger generation who want to preserve food, cut costs

Above are jars of colorful pickled produce, including, from left, pickled cherries, cucumbers and carrots by Kristy Page along with asparagus and okra by Felix Muzquiz.

BY ROBERT RODRIQUEZ THE FRESNO BEE (MCT)

It used to be that pickling was something only your grandmother did. But that doesn’t apply anymore.

Younger generations are embracing pickling as a way to explore their interest in food, preserve the season’s bounty and cut their food budgets.

These days, pickling is so trendy that it’s even been parodied by the comedy show “Portlandia.”

In one skit, the actors’ penchant for pickling gets out of control as they drop everything from parking tickets to dead birds into jars of vinegar.

Jokes aside, pickling pros say the practice doesn’t have to be long and involved. There is a method called quick pickling that does not require sterilizing jars and lids. You store the finished product in the refrigerator and it’s good for a month.

“Plus, once people see how easy it is, then they realize that they can do it, too,” says Kristy Page of Fresno, California, who has been pickling for several years. “And once you really get into it, there is almost no limit to what you can pickle.”

JOHN WALKER/ FRESNO BEE/MCT

Quick pickling Page has pickled everything from cherries to curried cauliflower. The pickled cherries are loaded with fall-like flavors of star anise, cinnamon and cloves, which Page uses as a topping on pork, in salads and on ice cream.

Quick pickling requires just a few ingredients: vinegar, sugar, salt and spices. Page likes to buy a Mexican spices pickling mix found at some Hispanic grocery stores. If you can’t find that, popular pickling spices include bay leaves, celery seed, turmeric, garlic, coriander, mustard seed, cinnamon stick and black pepper.

Pickling newbies can try just about any vegetable they like, but keep in mind that vegetables with tougher skin hold up better in the pickling process. Cucumbers, carrots, radishes and peppers are good choices.

Andrea Garza has been pickling for 10 years and knows several people who have gotten into the hobby as a way to preserve the abundance of vegetables from their backyard gardens.

“Others want to try and save a little money,” Garza says. “Either way, it is becoming popular.”

Plenty of hot peppers On her blog, Crazy Crayons — www.crazycrayons.wordpress. com — Garza recently wrote about pickling three pounds of jalapeno peppers using the canning method of sterilizing jars and lids.

That many peppers may seem like a lot to most people, but not for Garza.

“I have learned from experience that between the amount of chilies we eat and the number of jars I give away, I need roughly 15 per year,” Garza wrote recently on

her blog. “Needless to say, I will be pickling again next week.”

Veteran pickler Felix Muzquiz is a fan of preserving cauliflower, carrots, peppers, okra, green beans and asparagus. Last year, she pickled carrots and hot peppers and was pleased with the results.

“It looked really beautiful with all those fall colors of red, yellow, orange and green,” Muzquiz says.

“It really is a nice way to keep the flavors of the season.”

For those who actually want to try to make pickles, Muzquiz recommends adding a fresh grape leaf to the jar to keep the pickles firmer and crisper. She also slices off the blossom end of the cucumber.

“Pickling is really a blast,” Muzquiz says. “And it gives you a very satisfying feeling to be able to do preserve something like food.”

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PICKLED SWEET CHERRIES 1/3 cup sugar plus 1 tablespoon 1 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt 1 star anise (optional) 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half 6 whole cloves 1/2 cup white vinegar 1 3/4 cup water 1 pound fresh cherries, pitted In a small saucepan, combine 1 3/4 cups water with the sugar, salt, star anise, cinnamon stick and cloves.

Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, 3 minutes.

Remove from the heat and let steep five minutes. Stir in vinegar. Place cherries in a 1-quart (4-cup) glass jar.

Pour in enough vinegar mixture to cover cherries and almost completely fill the jar; you can either strain out the whole spices or place them in the jar.

Place the jar on a wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and no more than 2 weeks.

JALAPENO CARROTS 2 cups white vinegar 1/3 cup sugar Pinch of salt 1 tablespoon pickling spice mix.

Several carrots (enough to fill small jar) and three jalapeño slices.

In a pot, combine white vinegar, sugar, salt and spices. Heat on high until the mixture comes to a boil.

Lower heat and simmer for 30 seconds. Turn heat off, set aside.

Slice carrots into sticks, place into jar. Pour the brine into the jars and add three jalapeno slices. Let cool before putting the lids back on. Refrigerate for three hours before tasting. Store in refrigerator.

TOORSHI 1 bunch of celery, cut into strips, 2-4 inches in length 1 bunch of baby carrots 1 head of cabbage, broken into pieces 1 head of cauliflower Brine: 4 cups of white vinegar 3 cups of water 1/2 cup of salt 1 teaspoon sugar Cut vegetables and place in a gallon jar. Bring brine to a boil and then pour over vegetables. Put lid on container.

Vegetables should be ready to eat in three days.