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SEPTEMBER 14 - SEPTEMBER 20, 2012
VOLUME 20 NO. 37
UNDER ATTACK ON 9/11 On the same day America remembered the 2011 destruction of New York’s World Trade Center, a U.S. ambassador and three others are killed and two American diplomatic buildings in the Middle East are attacked. Coincidence – or design? Egyptian protesters climb the walls of the U.S. Embassy while others chant anti-U.S. slogans during a protest in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012.
COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS
The U.S. dispatched an elite group of Marines along with two warships to Tripoli, Libya on Wednesday following a mob attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. U.S. officials are investigating whether the violence – initially blamed on an anti-Islamic video – was a terrorist attack planned to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11.
Building overrun Libya’s interior minister said Wednesday that the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was killed when armed Islamists overran the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city, in a day of rage that also struck the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, where demonstrators hauled down the American
AP PHOTO/ NASSER NASSE
More fallout from Champion killing
flag, tore it to pieces and burned it. Originally, Obama administration officials believed that the incidents were sparked by outrage over the release of a movie trailer that conservative Muslims in both countries said denigrated Islam and its holiest figure, Mohammed. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged that as the likely cause in a statement. “Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet. The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others,” she said. “But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind.” But a U.S. counterterrorism official told the Associated Press (AP) that the Benghazi violence was “too coordinated or professional” to be See ATTACK, Page A2
CAMPAIGN 2012 / DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
The race to re-election begins
FAMU fights legal responsibility; state alleges lack of controls COMPILED FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Here’s an update of the latest key events surrounding the killing of Florida A&M University Marching “100’’ drum major Robert Champion, who was beaten to death by his band mates during a hazing ritual after the Florida Classic football game in Orlando on Nov. 19, 2011: On Monday, FAMU filed a legal motion asking a judge to permanently dismiss or defer ruling on the wrongful death lawsuit filed against the school by Champion’s parents. The school’s argument: Robert Champion is responsible for his own death from hazing. In a 23-page motion filed in an Orlando-area circuit court, FAMU’s attorneys essentially said that Champion, an adult, allowed himself to be beaten to death when he decided to “cross Bus C,” as the band’s hazing ritual was named. Attorney Rick Mitchell of the GrayRobinson law firm of Orlando wrote that Champion knew the dangers of hazing. He signed an anti-hazing pledge with the university months before he was beaten to death. He witnessed two other students submit to the hazing ritual immediately before him. And for several months previously, Champion had debated with his friend and fellow drum major Keon Hollis about whether to go through with it. “Respectfully, as a 26-year-old adult and leader in FAMU’s band, Mr. See FAMU, Page A2
SNAPSHOTS NATION | A3
Major tribute to Frederick Douglass
EVENTS | B2
Jacksonville AKAs celebrate 70th anniversary SPORTS | B5
Olympic medalist sued by parents FLORIDA | A6
Black Women’s Roundtable convenes in Florida
ALSO INSIDE
FINEST | B5
Meet Cybil
MARGOT JORDAN PHOTOS
The Obama family (Michelle, Barack, Sasha and Malia) ended the DNC in Charlotte, N.C. last week, thus officially kicking off the sprint to the November presidential election. Read pages A4 and A5 for commentaries on the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.
State voter purge list is less than 300 people BY MICHAEL PELTIER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
A controversial list of 2,600 allegedly illegal voters has been whittled to 207, Florida election officials said Wednesday after running the names through a federal immigration database. Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner said the names, about 8 percent of the initial list, would be forwarded to local election officials as early as next week. The revised list was released the same day as an agreement was announced between the state and voting rights groups over efforts to remove non-citizens and other ineligible voters from the ranks.
‘Every vote counts’ “We want every Florida vot-
er to be confident that their vote is protected and not hurt in any way by the illegal activity of others,” Detzner said in a statement. “We know that every vote counts, especially here in Florida where only 537 votes decided the presidential election in 2000.” Wednesday’s announcement marks the latest development in a months-long battle between voting rights advocates, state and federal elections officials over Republican-led efforts to cull the ranks of voters and eliminate those not eligible to cast ballots. Voting groups, which filed suit in federal court to stop the purge, said the new agreement would help prevent the targeting of minorities, who disproportionately turned up on earlier lists of questionable voters.
More than 92 percent of the names on the state’s original list of “illegal” voters were wrongly identified, which would have prevented them from voting. RICARDO RAMIREZ BUXEDA/ ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT
“The citizens of Florida have taken another step toward realizing the right to vote, without any undue barriers imposed by the state,” said Penda Hair, codirector of Advancement Project, a plaintiff in the case.
At Scott’s request
state election officials last year began looking at whether ineligible voters were showing up in the rolls. To find out, the state began comparing voting rolls with drivers’ license data, coming up with an initial list of 2,600 names
At Gov. Rick Scott’s urging,
COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: CLARENCE V. MCKEE: THE GOOD, BAD, UGLY OF RNC IN TAMPA | A5
See VOTERS, Page A2