Florida Courier - September 16, 2016

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CELEBRATING OUR 10TH YEAR STATEWIDE!

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SEPTEMBER 16 – SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

VOLUME 24 NO. 38

SPARED

A Florida Supreme Court decision may decrease the number of convicted murderers the state will eventually put to death.

COMPILED FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS

TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Supreme Court on Sept. 8 overturned a death sentence for an intellectually disabled murderer, following a seminal U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case.

Freddie Lee Hall was senFreddie tenced to death Hall for the 1978 kill-

The more that “vaping” – e-cigarettes – takes hold in England, the better the odds that smokers there will succeed in their attempts to stop using regular cigarettes.

These parallel trends, reported Wednesday in the BMJ medical journal, don’t prove that electronic cigarettes help smokers kick the habit. But that possibility is looking more and more likely, experts said.

Smoking prevalence in the United Kingdom fell significantly from 2014 to 2015, and that’s a sign that something over there is working, according to an editorial that accompanies the study.

“Successful quitting through substitution with e-cigarettes is one likely major contributor,” wrote John Britton, director of the UK Center for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies at the University of Nottingham. “The challenge for public health is to embrace the potential of this new technology and put it to full use.”

More likely to succeed Health experts in England have been contemplating the smoking-cessation benefits of e-cigarettes for several years. A previous study of English smokers found that would-be quitters who vaped were about 60 percent more likely to succeed compared with smokers who tried to go cold turkey or used nicotine replacement products, like patches or gum.

This time, researchers from University College London wanted to see whether the prevalence of e-cigarette use among active smokers – and especially among those trying to quit – had anything to do with a smoker’s likeliSee E-CIGS, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

Zika undercount hides extent of virus spread NATION | A6

Black poverty and 9/11

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VOLUME 19 NO. 37

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SEPTEMBER 16 - SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

While President Barack Obama pushed his plan this week to get Americans back to work in an economy with Black employment now at 16.7 percent, African-Americans learned more grim news.

Blacks have the highest rate of poverty in the country at 27.4 percent, up from 25.8, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010’’ report issued by the Census Bureau also shows that the poverty rate for Black children is at 39 percent.

The number of people living in poverty rose by 2.6 million, from 43.6 to 46.2 million people. The SHASHANK BENGALI/MCT numbers reflect a dire trend; it is Gwen McKenzie sits in front of a doublewide trailer last year she the fourth consecutive annual inwas sharing with her two children and several grandchildren, in crease, reaching the highest levMidnight, Miss. A new report shows Mississippi having the high- el in the 52 years that the Census Bureau has tracked the statistics. est poverty rate in the country at 22.7 percent.

‘Culture of complacency’ by offshore drilling companies

$51,846, a decline of 1.7 percent.

(Median income for Asian and Hispanic households was not statistically different.)

The overall poverty rate last year was 15.1 percent, an uptick from 14.3 percent. It is the third consecutive year that the poverty rate has risen. The 2010 rate was the highest since 1993, the report noted, but was 7.3 percentage points lower than the pover15.1 percent ty rate in 1959. Between 2007 and total poverty rate 2010 the poverty rate increased The number of Blacks living by 2.6 percentage points. under the poverty line – which is $11,139 for an individual in 2010 Hispanics’ rate – rose to 10.7 million, up 1.6 per- also increases cent.

Poverty rose among all racial The median household income and ethnic groups except Asians. in 2010 was $49,445, a dip of 2.3 The number of Hispanics in povpercent from the previous year.

The median income for Black erty increased from 25.3 percent households in 2010 was $32,068, to 26.6 percent. For Asians it was flat at 12.1 percent. The number down 3.2 percent from $33,122.

The median income for White of Whites in poverty rose from 9.4 households also dropped, to a percent to 9.9 percent. lesser degree, from $52,717 to See WORSE, Page A2

A new Census report shows 27.4 percent of Blacks are living in poverty while 39 percent of America’s Blacks kids are considered poor.

10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

Federal investigation puts primary blame for spill on BP

BY NEELA BANERJEE TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU/MCT

WASHINGTON – British Petroleum (BP), Transocean and Halliburton all violated federal safety regulations leading up to last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a federal investigation concluded, in findings that could be crucial for the Justice Department investigation and numerous lawsuits surrounding the disaster.

“The loss of life at the Macondo site on April 20, 2010, and the subsequent pollution of the Gulf of Mexico through the summer of 2010 were the result of poor risk management, last-minute changes to plans, failure to observe and respond to critical indicators, inadequate well control response, and insufficient emergency bridge response training by companies and individuals responsible for drilling at the Macondo well and for the operation of the Deepwater Horizon,” the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management concluded.

Joint probe The report, released Wednesday, was the result of a joint investigation conducted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Coast Guard into the causes behind the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig the night of April 20, which killed 11 men and resulted in a leak that spewed nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over several months.

Each entity conducted a separate report that the agencies issued jointly Wednesday, but the Ocean Energy Management report delves into the decisions made in the weeks leading up to the disaster and those made that evening that converged to touch off the well blowout and rig explosion.

The report’s conclusions about a global failure to observe the best safety practices and to communicate effectively in such a dangerous undertaking as drilling a deepwater well echoed findings released earlier in the year by a presidential comSee REPORT, Page A2

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/MCT

A place to remember, reflect Elsie Goss-Caldwell of West Philadelphia holds a photo of her son Kenny next to his name at the new World Trade Center memorial in New York City on Sept. 11. Her son died in the 9/11 attacks 10 years ago.

B-CU professor won’t face sexual battery charges

BY ASHLEY THOMAS FLORIDA COURIER

Battery charges will not be filed against a Bethune-Cookman University professor accused of sexual misconduct by one of his students.

In May, Crystal Albury, then a political science major at B-CU, filed a criminal complaint with the Daytona Beach Police Department against Sampson Oli, who was her academic adviser at the time. The complaint resulted in criminal charges being brought against Oli – and a retaliatory lawsuit against the student.

According to a charging affidavit filed with the State Attorney’s Office in Volusia Coun-

ty by the Daytona Beach Police Department, the B-CU student accused Oli of kissing her on the face and lips and fondling her breasts while she was in his office in February 2011.

The report states that Albury immediately informed administrators, who removed her from Oli’s classes, as previously reported in the Florida Courier.

Lack of evidence In an e-mail statement the Courier received Tuesday from Florida Assistant State Attorney Shannon Peters, the case has been dismissed because of lack of sufficient evidence to move forward with charges.

Peters stated that “the charges

were dismissed against Sampson Oli (State filed a No Information). There is insufficient evidence to prove the crime of Battery beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.”

The professor worked in BCU’s Social Sciences department – the same department where four other male professors were fired from in 2009, allegedly for sexual harassment of female students.

Professor responds Oli, who denied the charges, was subsequently suspended

by B-CU with pay pending an investigation. He was not fired summarily as were the four proSee PROFESSOR, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS NATION | A3

West won’t quit Black Caucus Jacqueline Kennedy had issues with MLK New date set for King memorial dedication SPORTS | B4

Serena’s friends: She regrets outburst FINEST | B7

Meet Deandra

ALSO editoRial: ChaRleS W. CheRRy ii: RaNdoM thoUghtS oF a FRee BlaCK MiNd | a4 INSIDE CoMMeNtaRy: gleN FoRd: MlK aNd the Myth oF the BlaCK ChURCh’S SUppoRt | a4

Airport security in a post 9/11 world

Champions follow hazing cases to the end

BY ANDREAS BUTLER FLORIDA COURIER

DAYTONA BEACH – Nearly five years have passed since Robert Champion died from a hazing incident within the Florida A&M University (FAMU) marching band during the Florida Classic in Orlando but the legal aftermath continues.

On Tuesday, the only suspect who got jail time asked judges to reverse his criminal sentence.

Dante Martin’s attorney’s stood before the Fifth District Court of Appeals (DCA) in Daytona Beach. In the audience were Champion’s parents Pamela and Robert Sr.; they have been a fixture at all the trials.

Champion, 26, was one of six drum majors who led FAMU’s marching band in 2011. He died on Nov. 19, 2011 during the annual Florida Classic Robert weekend, which has Champion been a critical fundraiser for Florida’s only public historically Black college. The Florida Classic is the Rattlers’ annual rivalry football game against Bethune-Cookman University that features a “battle of bands.”

Following a performance at the then-Florida Citrus Bowl that was part of the Florida Classic, Champion participated in a hazing ritual called “Crossing Bus C.” He had to walk down the aisle of a large chartered passenger bus from the front to the back while being pushed around, punched, kicked and beaten with drumsticks and mallets by other band members.

Champion died soon after the ordeal. An autopsy by the Orange County medical examiner’s office concluded that he died of bleeding in soft tissues of his body that was caused by the beating administered during the hazing ritual.

Settled the lawsuits Early in the legal proceedings, the Champions settled wrongful death lawsuits against the bus company, Fabulous Coach Lines, and the driver of the bus, Wendy Mellette. The amounts of the settlement have never been publically disclosed.

In September 2015, a month before a civil jury trial was set, the Champions settled with FAMU for $1.1 million, an apology and placement of a commemorative plaque in their son’s memory on the FAMU campus. They also settled with the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando – where the bus was parked during the tragedy – for $800,000.

Wide-ranging impact

SPORTS | B4

Preview of NFL season

ALSO INSIDE

Still on their mission

FLORIDA COURIER / 10TH STATEWIDE ANNIVERSARY

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“Death Row,” the place where hundreds of prison inmates are awaiting execution, is located at Florida State Prison in Raiford, between Gainesville and Jacksonville.

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E-cigarettes may help smokers kick the habit

ing in Leesburg of 21-year-old Karol Hurst, who was seven months pregnant.

Florida’s Death Row population is disproportionately African-American. Of 388 Florida State prison inmates who are locked up and awaiting execution, 153 are Black, including two females.

Black adults compose approximately 15 percent of the state’s adult population, but are almost 40 percent of Florida’s total Death Row population.

Five years ago, the Florida Courier reported on the 10th anniversary remembrances of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and published a story recognizing the highest rate of Black American poverty in more than 50 years.

In the wake of Champion’s death, then-university President James Ammons and longtime marching-band

COMMENTARY: LUCIUS GANTT: LOCAL PROSECUTORS ARE DEFENDING THE DEVIL | A2 COMMENTARY: GLEN FORD: BLACK YOUTH LEARN NATURE OF THE DUOPOLY BEAST | A4

See MISSION, Page A2

A2

FOCUS

SEPTEMBER 16 – SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

Local prosecutors are defending the devil

or killing Black men, women and Black children, how can they get away with their wicked actions?

Their biggest tool

In 2016, there were more than a few philosophical and sometimes violent confrontations between African-American citizens and law enforcement officers.

There are good cops and bad cops, and also good and bad Black people.

Every American has a right to disagree, complain or protest about the way they are treated by people who are employed as, and are supposed to be, public servants.

each other.

Who is the man in the middle? The man in the middle is the prosecutor or the state attorney!

States attorney are the devil’s defenders!

For or against

They decide

Americans can also exercise their rights to be for or against “patriotism.”

When Blacks protest the socalled National Anthem, the United States flag or the badges worn by people that may wear flags on their uniforms, those Blacks are despised, denigrated and, in some cases, even hated.

Yes, the emotions and feelings, of Blacks and cops oftentimes differ widely. But I believe both Blacks and members of law enforcement should hate the middleman far more than they hate

Prosecutors decide if Blacks have been profiled, falsely arrested, indicted, or over-charged.

They also decide if policemen have committed assault and murder, or if they have committed no criminal offense at all!

Any day – or in too many cases, every day – an evil prosecutor can make a victim look like a criminal and a criminal look like a victim.

If devilish prosecutors can do devilish things to both Black suspects and police officers suspected of beating, choking, shooting

LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT

Well, the biggest tool in the devilish state attorney tool box is the grand jury!

A grand jury is a legal body that is empowered to conduct official proceedings to investigate potential criminal conduct and to determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may compel the production of documents and may compel the sworn testimony of witnesses to appear before it. It is separate from the courts, which do not preside over its functioning.

The United States and Liberia are the only countries that retain grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing.

Two functions Grand juries perform both accusatory and investigatory functions. The investigatory functions of the grand jury include obtaining and reviewing documents and other evidence and hearing the sworn testimony of witnesses that appear before it.

The grand jury’s accusatory

function is to determine whether or not there is probable cause to believe that one or more persons committed a certain offence within the venue of the district court.

A grand jury in the United States is usually composed of 16 to 23 citizens, though in Virginia it is composed of lesser numbers for regular or special grand juries.

What a devilish state attorney does that all Americans should be upset about happens when a prosecutor acts like a “defense counsel” for one party or another. More often than not, prosecutors take on the role of defending the devils!

Subject to manipulation In police misconduct cases, for instance, evil states attorney will use a grand jury to determine if a cop should be charged with misconduct or a criminal or murderous act.

If they don’t want a bad cop to get indicted, all they have to do is compose a “jury” of people sympathetic to law enforcers, and let cops say all of the nice things they desire to the grand jury – without cross-examination or evidence to the contrary.

They can submit or withhold any evidence that they want to such as withholding body cam-

era videos, dashboard camera videos and statements from eyewitnesses if he thinks they will tell the truth, instead of rubberstamping what will be said by bad cops.

If a 12-year-old child is shot by police and prosecutors can’t disparage him or he has no criminal record, the devil’s defenders will disparage his parents, his siblings or even his neighborhood.

Black voters at fault The sad part about all of this is that most wicked prosecutors are voted into office by AfricanAmerican voters!

Every time a Black voter casts a ballot for a devil defender just because he runs for office as a member of the Democratic Party, those voters are not only political fools. They are traitors to their race!

When bad cops never get prosecuted for bad actions and activities, blame the devil-defending prosecutors even more than you blame the police officers!

Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere.

“Like” The Gantt Report page on Facebook. Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants. net.

MISSION

E-CIGS

Director Julian White were forced out of their respective positions. The FAMU Marching “100’’ band was suspended from performing.

Champion’s death also prompted the Board of Governors of the State University System to investigate FAMU’s handling of hazing on campus. Inspector General Derry Harper released a stinging report concluding that FAMU lacked the internal controls needed to identify and fight hazing before Champion was beaten by his fellow band members.

The year after Champion was killed, the economic impact of a Florida Classic in Orlando without the Marching “100” was felt when the country’s largest Black HBCU event attracted its lowest turnout since the mid-1990s.

hood of kicking the habit.

The researchers examined data on nearly 80,000 smokers who took part in England’s Smoking Toolkit Study from 2006 to 2015. In the last quarter of 2006, 10.6 percent of quit attempts succeeded. By the first quarter of 2015, the success rate had climbed to 18.6 percent, according to the study.

Meanwhile, the proportion of smokers who also vaped increased from virtually zero to 21.3 percent during the same period, the researchers found.

Vaping was even more popular among smokers who were trying to quit, with 35 percent of them using the electronic devices in 2015. That embrace of e-cigarettes coincided with a drop in use of more conventional nicotine replacement products.

from A1

Charged, convicted Fifteen former band members, including Champion’s fellow drum majors, were criminally charged. Most negotiated plea deals with Orlando prosecutors.

Martin, who was accused of organizing the fatal hazing activity, went to trial. He was convicted of manslaughter and hazing and received the harshest sentence of all the perpetrators, a 77-month sentence prison term that his lawyers appealed to the Fifth DCA. He has approximately four years left to serve.

Manslaughter, a second-degree felony in Florida, is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The maximum for felony hazing, a third-degree felony, is five years.

Martin’s attorneys are arguing that the state hazing law is unconstitutional and too broad, and that Martin wasn’t given a fair trial. A decision on the appeal is expected within 30 days.

SPARED from A1

Sent back Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court sent Hall’s case back to the Florida high court after rejecting the state’s use of a “rigid” IQ score in determining whether defendants should be shielded from execution because they are intellectually disabled.

Attorneys for Hall, now 71, had presented evidence in state courts that he had an IQ score of 71. The Florida Supreme Court, however, said Florida’s legal threshold for considering an inmate intellectually disabled was a score of 70.

But the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision in 2014, saying Florida’s use of an IQ score of 70 “creates an unacceptable risk that persons with intellectual disability will be executed, and thus is unconstitutional.”

Life, not death In the Sept. 8 ruling, the Flori-

from A1

FLORIDA COURIER FILES

Pamela and Robert Champion Sr. have endured a five-year ordeal of lawsuits and courtroom hearings in the wake of the 2011 hazing death of their son, Robert, a drum major in the FAMU Marching “100’’ band.

Perpetrators ‘rewarded’ “We are still hoping justice will be done,” Robert Champion Sr. asserted. “A crime was committed. We need to show that we will not take violence, hazing and murder on the regular.”

Mrs. Champion said, “We have a concern with how the case is with regard to those who are responsible for our son’s death. It looks like many have been rewarded.

“Many have received probation. Two have gotten out of probation, two had requested their records sealed and one got to visit his family in another part of the state. And this case today shows that it’s not being taken seriously.”

Not a ‘sport’ “An attorney called my son’s death ‘a sport’ and ‘a competition.’ This could open doors for

da Supreme Court vacated Hall’s death sentence and instead imposed a sentence of life in prison.

“After careful consideration of the parties’ briefs, the voluminous record, and the United States Supreme Court’s decision, we withdraw our prior opinion and conclude that Hall has demonstrated that he meets the clinical, statutory, and constitutional requirements to establish that his intellectual disability serves as a bar to execution,” Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and justices Barbara Pariente and James E.C. Perry agreed in the majority opinion.

Justice R. Fred Lewis concurred in the result, though he did not sign on to the majority opinion. Justice Peggy Quince was recused from the case.

Lifelong disability Hall’s IQ scores ranged from 52 to 80 in numerous tests over four decades. But, based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s guidance, the state’s high court relied on other evidence that “overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that Hall has been (intellectually disabled) his entire life,” the majority wrote.

other killings. We are losing our kids…The time is now. It’s not getting any better. This is the time to take a stand. We cannot lose any of our kids to senseless violence,” argues Robert Champion Sr. “We have to look at the educational institutions. We must look at Florida A&M. They are yet to accept responsibility for what happened. That’s a problem. If you know that you have a problem but don’t admit it… how could you address it? We want to make sure that no other family has to deal with this,” declared Pamela Champion.

The Champions are keeping their son’s memory alive through the “Be A Champion” Foundation that was created shortly after the student’s death. It tries to prevent hazing in schools, bands and athletics.

Education and support “We want to educate and pro-

vide support,” Mrs. Champion said. “We must educate on what hazing really is. It’s violence.

Everyone is responsible. The educational system, justice system and everyone needs to be educated. We have worked with the U.S. Department of Education, been at the White House, at summits and we’ve done two webinars.”

“All lives matter,” Champion Sr. told the Florida Courier.

“Anyone who loses a child is affected by violence. That child is gone. You never know the true potential of a kid. My son was killed in school. We are trying to raise awareness through the educational system first. We want to make life better for all children.”

The “Be A Champion” Foundation is planning an event in Decatur, Georgia on Nov. 19.

That day already has been designated to honor their son’s memory.

“Here, the record evidence amassed over nearly 37 years, and the unrefuted testimony at the 2009 evidentiary hearing is that Hall meets the medical definition of intellectually disabled,” the majority opinion said.

But Justice Charles Canady, in a dissent joined by Justice Ricky Polston, argued that, instead of vacating his death sentence, the Supreme Court should have sent Hall’s case back to a lower court for an evidentiary hearing.

“The proffered evidence was not subjected to adversarial testing, and its credibility was not evaluated by the trier of fact,” Canady wrote. “The majority thus errs by relying on proffered evidence to support its conclusion that Hall has presented sufficient evidence to establish that he is intellectually disabled. It is a cardinal error for an appellate court to step outside its proper role and make findings of fact based on a proffer.”

‘Pay attention’ The Sept. 8 ruling “is about judges having to pay attention to the experts,” said defense law-

yer Marty McClain, who has represented more than 200 defendants facing the death penalty.

Rather than using a fixed number IQ score, the U.S. Supreme Court in Hall’s case instructed Florida courts to take into consideration other evidence such as past performance, environment and upbringing when determining whether defendants are eligible for the death penalty.

The ruling will likely have an impact on a number of other cases involving defendants who are intellectually disabled but who may have IQ scores higher than 70, defense lawyers predicted.

“It’s certainly an important case for Mr. Hall, and it is important to other people facing the death penalty because, when the courts review IQ scores that go up above 70 and fall below 70, this is the follow-up to that major U.S. Supreme Court case, and it shows that identifying and diagnosing intellectual disability is not an exact science yet,” Pete Mills, an assistant public defender in the 10th Judicial

Not conclusive The researchers found no conclusive link between vaping and attempts to quit smoking. But their calculations showed that “for every 1 percent increase in e-cigarette use, the success of quit attempts increased by 0.098 percent,” according to the study. In addition, for every 1 percent increase in vaping among smokers trying to quit, the success rate of quit attempts rose by 0.058 percent, the study said.

If e-cigarette use really is helping smokers quit, that means 54,288 people in England who were able to stop smoking in 2015 can thank vaping for their success. Although roughly two-thirds of them can be expected to fall off the wagon, that still leaves about 18,000 “long term ex-smokers” as a result of e-cigarette use, the study authors wrote.

It may not sound like much of an improvement, but it’s “clinically significant because of the huge health gains from stopping smoking,” the researchers wrote. “A 40-year-old smoker who quits permanently can expect to gain nine life years compared with a continuing smoker.”

Circuit who is chairman of the Florida Public Defender Association’s death penalty steering committee.

“This shows the Florida Supreme Court understands that they need to look at the science and common sense when considering these issues when determining whether something is constitutional or not.”

Horrific childhood Defense lawyers had presented evidence that Hall, the 16th of 17 children, was tortured by his mother and abused by neighbors. Relatives testified that his mother had tied him in a “croaker” sack, swung it over a fire, and beat him; buried him in the sand up to his neck; tied his hands to a rope attached to the ceiling and beat him while he was naked; locked him in a smokehouse for long intervals; and held a gun on him and his siblings while she poked them with sticks.

Dara Kam of the News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

SEPTEMBER 16 – SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

FLORIDA

A3

Zika undercount hides extent of virus spread That’s what medical experts are saying about Florida’s methods of reporting disease

tourists (in Miami Beach), and we were very transparent about where they came from. But in terms of the technical count for the state, CDC will count them in their (state) of residence.”

Counting concerns

BY DANIEL CHANG MIAMI HERALD/TNS

MIAMI – For months, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and state agencies have reported almost daily on the public health crisis posed by the spread of Zika.

From the first three travel-related cases identified in January, to the emergence of local Zika infections in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood in July, followed by the discovery of mosquitoes infected with the virus in Miami Beach in September, the governor and state officials have vowed to keep Floridians informed so they can prepare.

“We’re going to put out accurate and timely information,” Scott told a group of reporters following a Zika roundtable with civic leaders in Miami Beach in August. “We want everybody to be prepared. We all have to take this seriously.”

Not timely, accurate But the information issued by the governor and state agencies has not been timely or accurate — cases announced as “new” are often several weeks old, because of a time lag in diagnosis — and excludes details that public health experts say would allow people to make informed decisions and provide a complete picture of Zika’s foothold in Florida.

“I don’t think the message has been strong enough, in terms of ‘We have a problem,’” said Ar-

EMILY MICHOT/MIAMI HERALD/TNS

Florida Surgeon General Celeste Philip and Gov. Rick Scott announce that mosquitoes were spreading Zika in Miami Beach during a press conference on Aug. 19 at the Miami-Dade County Department of Health. At the gathering, Scott said three tourists had been infected in Miami Beach. But infections to out-of-state residents were not included in Florida’s Zika case count. thur Caplan, director of medical ethics for New York University Langone Medical Center. “It makes no sense — unless you see it through the eyes of the impact on tourism. I think that’s money driving reporting rather than public health.”

Over the past month, as local Zika infections have spread beyond MiamiDade, with cases cropping up in Broward, Palm Beach and Pinellas counties, Florida officials have: Stopped providing detailed information on epidemiological investigations

into local Zika infections; Refused to identify all the locations where Zikapositive mosquitoes were trapped in Miami Beach; And underreported the number of local Zika infections in Florida by excluding anyone who is not a state resident.

Methods criticized Not reporting local Zika infections to tourists is particularly egregious to Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Min-

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nesota.

“That’s just wrong,” he said. “To get a true picture of what’s going on in Florida, you want to know, among anyone who was in Florida, who acquired it there. … That’s how it should be counted. If they’re not, then that sounds to me like they’re trying to minimize their number of cases.”

The Florida Department of Health has been criticized before for its disease reporting methods, most notably for taking hundreds of HIV cases off the books in February as then-State Surgeon General John Armstrong was under fire for a spike in infection rates.

The agency later explained that some cases had been shifted to the year of diagnosis or to the state where the individual resides to avoid double counting.

Philip responds State Surgeon General Celeste Philip has said that, similar to HIV reporting, Florida’s method for documenting local Zika infections adheres to standards set by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC guidelines state that Zika cases are counted in the state where the person lives — regardless of where exposure might have occurred.

“There has been a lot of interest in how we count HIV cases, and it has to do with place of residence,” Philip said following an August news conference on Zika.

“So the governor announced that we had three (Zika) cases associated with

But Florida chooses how to report local Zika infections to the public, Osterholm said, and counting all infections in the state is “standard protocol, in terms of how disease reporting is done.”

“You’re trying to figure out where they were exposed,” he said. “If somebody catches malaria on a trip and comes back to Minnesota, we don’t count that as malaria in Minnesota.”

On Sept. 7, the state health department, in response to questions from the Miami Herald, said eight out-of-state residents have contracted Zika in Florida but are not included in the total count.

Mara Gambineri, a spokeswoman, said the health department tracks those cases “as they are still important for us to be aware of, but the cases are not reported in our case counts. The department reports cases of Florida residents.”

That means there have been at least 64 local Zika infections in Florida this year, not the 56 cases reported so far by the health department.

Out-of-state cases On Aug. 19, the governor, visiting the Miami-Dade Department of Health, reported that three tourists were infected within a 1.5-square-mile zone of South Beach.

Scott said the visitors came from New York, Texas and Taiwan. But neither the governor nor the health department said those cases would be excluded from the state’s tally of local Zika infections until a week later when the Herald asked.

Gambineri did not respond to questions about the place of residence for any of the out-of-state people infected in Florida.

However, one of them might be another New Yorker. A woman from Brooklyn who has been living and working on Miami Beach since Aug. 5 contacted the Herald to report that she had contracted Zika in Florida, and that the state had been unaware of her case even though she tested positive at a commercial lab, which sent her results to New York’s health department.

Confirmed cases The vast majority of infections in Florida have been imported by residents who caught the virus while traveling abroad in places where Zika is widespread.

Statewide, health officials have confirmed 700

travel-related cases, including 80 pregnant women, as of Sept. 9. The health department has refused to say how many local infections involve pregnant women.

The agency also has stopped issuing details of active investigations into local Zika cases. On Sept. 1, the health department began reporting only a summary of the total number of investigations in each county.

Previously, the agency had listed each investigation by county, with the number of people tested for Zika and the results of those tests.

Gambineri explained the change in an email: “The department is working to ensure the information is easy to understand. It had become confusing.”

More info needed Communicating a public health crisis requires more than a tally of infections and active investigations, said Andrew Pekosz, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology with Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“There’s no one piece of information in an outbreak like Zika that is absolutely, 100 percent critical to know because everything is contextualized,” he said.

Pekosz said the time and effort required to investigate cases, wait for diagnostic test results and verify local spread of the virus can slow the flow of information and make it difficult for public health officials to communicate the relative risk of contracting Zika.

“The most important thing,” he said, “is to identify the geographic areas where there’s a high potential of mosquito transmitted cases.”

Being general But while the health department has identified two general areas in MiamiDade with ongoing spread of Zika, Florida officials have chosen not to inform the public about precisely where they found mosquitoes that carry the virus.

After announcing on Sept. 1 that mosquitoes in three Miami Beach locations had tested positive for Zika — a first in the nation — Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services identified only one of the places: Miami Beach Botanical Garden, which had closed three days prior.

A fourth batch of mosquitoes in Miami Beach that tested positive for Zika was announced on Sept. 9.

The agriculture department has refused to identify all locations, citing exemptions under Florida statutes governing the sharing of confidential or exempt information and investigations into the spread of the virus, said Jennifer Meale, a spokeswoman.

EDITORIAL

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SEPTEMBER 16 – SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

Black activists won’t apologize for solidarity with Palestinians This summer saw a major development in the struggle against anti-Black racism in the US and beyond.

Activists from more than 50 organizations came together in the Movement for Black Lives and published the Vision for Black Lives, which identifies key aspects of the oppression of Black people and puts forth solutions to the systemic violence and oppression that target Black people in the United States.

This statement proposes a set of demands for activists to advance that address racialized poverty, police violence, environmental racism and myriad other issues that plague Black communities in the United States.

Some opposition While the vision inspired activists in the US and around the world, not everyone was excited.

The Vision for Black Lives statement was immediately met with a slew of criticism from Zionist organizations and publications. The criticism focused on how the statement declares solidarity with the movement for Palestinian liberation.

It is unsurprising that organizations such as the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) – in this case, the Boston Chapter – reacted with hostility to the vision for its solidarity with Palestinians. The organization states that it is committed to building support for Israel. What is a little striking is the JCRC’s rejection of the entirety of the Movement for Black Lives because of its stance on Palestine.

Since the state-sanctioned murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012, the 2014 Ferguson uprising in response to the police murder of Michael Brown and the countless other Black lives lost to police violence, a movement has coalesced around a rallying cry that should be uncontroversial: Black lives matter. This latest stage in the struggle for Black freedom has transformed the conversation around racism in the US and is forcing people to take a stand on what the Vision for Black Lives accurately names a war on Black America.

In its response to the vision statement, the JCRC has virtually nothing to say about the main issues that the statement addresses: rampant police violence, economic devastation and other realities of the racist nightmare for Black people.

Instead, it focuses on a small, though important, portion of the statement.

Tepid response The JCRC’s response does say that “we recommit ourselves unequivocally to the pursuit of justice for all Americans and to working together with our friends and neighbors in the African-American community, whose experience of the criminal justice system is, far too often, determined by race.” This, the one line in JCRC’s statement that addresses anti-Black racism in the US, is tepid at best.

It is also a lie. A previous line says that JCRC “cannot and will not align ourselves with organizations” that use the word “genocide” to characterize Israel’s violence, indicating that the organization’s “commitment” to anti-racism is actually highly equivocal. An anti-racism based on the premise that its proponents agree with JCRC’s embrace of Zionism is not anti-racism at all.

That Zionist organizations are willing to reject the current battle for Black lives raging in the

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER AND KHURY PETERSEN-SMITH GUEST COMMENTARY EMAD HAJJAJ, JORDAN

Our freedom cannot be bought at the expense of another’s oppression. Claiming solidarity to us so long as we remain silent on the oppression of our Palestinian sisters and brothers is insulting. As the Dream Defenders recently stated in their response to this Zionist backlash, “True solidarity does not come with strings attached.”

United States when its activists find common ground and solidarity with Palestinians simply reaffirms what we already knew: Zionism is racism.

Because the very principle of Zionism dictates that Jewish people be granted greater privileges by the State of Israel than its non-Jewish subjects, the result is necessarily a system of apartheid and inequality. This comes at the expense of other groups, particularly Palestine’s non-Jewish indigenous inhabitants.

Systematic dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, along with other forms of brutal violence by Israeli police and military, are the daily practices of the Israeli state. This is only possible through the racist dehumanization of the Palestinian people. It follows, then, that US organizations committed to Zionism as a core principle will only make a limited commitment to anti-racism here.

Demonizing Israel?

JCRC’s statement accuses the Vision for Black Lives of seeking “to isolate and demonize Israel singularly amongst the nations of the world.” This is simply false; the Vision for Black Lives statement identifies a number of oppressive regimes backed by the US and projects carried out directly by the US military to oppress people abroad.

There are, however, many Israeli practices that are extraordinary – even among the world’s imperial states. These include its systematic arrests and ‘trials’ of children in military courts and its use of 19th-century practices and language regarding the colonization of Palestinian land. After all, where else in the world today does a government talk openly of “settlements” and “settlers”?

Israel also maintains an apartheid regime with distinct laws and services that only apply to Jewish people. While we have no illusions that the US or South Africa are countries of equality, at least similar White supremacist laws in these places were defeated by freedom struggles decades ago.

Superficial criticism The Vision for Black Lives’ characterization of Israel was a basis for other organizations and publications to disagree with the document.

The Anti-Defamation League, which characterizes the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel as anti-Semitic, issued a response to the vision that, unlike the JCRC, acknowledges the existence of mass incarceration and other oppressive reali-

ties for Black people in the US. But the ADL opposes the document for referring to Israel as an apartheid state, which it calls a “gross mischaracterization.”

The head of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, also argues that “it’s repellent and completely inaccurate to label Israel’s policy as ‘genocide.’” Similarly, writers with +972 Magazine took issue with the language that the vision uses to describe Israel’s violence toward the Palestinians.

The progressive English-language news site based in Israel, which features writers who advocate for the human rights of Palestinians, greeted the vision warmly, with writer Amjad Iraqi explaining that “Black activists have delivered a powerful message to the Palestinian people: you are not alone in your struggle.” +972, however, has published three separate posts (including Iraqi’s) that argue that the vision is wrong for characterizing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians as genocide.

Condescending response In the most extensive article on the subject, Dahlia Scheindlin argues – with incredible condescension – that the authors of the Vision for Black Lives should retract their use of the word. Unable to believe that Black activists looking at the same facts as her could rationally draw different conclusions, Scheindlin attributes the charge of genocide to describe Israel’s practices to “a rush job and a superficial form of groupthink.”

Though the Vision for Black Lives’ primary purpose is not to call attention to Palestine, the platform actually presents some key facts and arguments to justify its use of the terms “apartheid” and “genocide.”

For example, the vision statement notes that Palestinian homes are routinely bulldozed to make way for Israeli settlements and that Israel has more than 50 laws on its statute books that discriminate against Palestinian citizens of the state.

The United Nations has defined the crime of genocide as including a deliberate policy to impose conditions of life on an ethnic, racial or religious group to bring about the group’s total or partial destruction. By seriously examining the situation, it is entirely reasonable to argue that Israel is trying to destroy the Palestinian people and is therefore committing the crime of genocide.

Neither the ADL nor any of the +972 Magazine bloggers who take issue with the platform respond to this context. They argue, instead, that Black Lives Matter activists should not use

the word “genocide” because it is divisive and that Jewish readers take offense.

But with growing criticism of Zionism within the Jewish community, not all Jewish groups responded the same way.

No strings attached Jewish Voice for Peace responded both to the vision, and to Zionist organizations’ opposition to it, by declaring that the group “endorses the Movement for Black Lives platform in its entirety, without reservation.”

IfNotNow, a Jewish youth group formed in response to Israel’s 2014 attack on Gaza, and JVP’s Jews of Color Caucus, have issued similar statements of support.

Greenblatt of the ADL describes the characterizations of Israel as an apartheid state and calls for support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as “offensive in tone,” while Scheindlin calls on the Movement for Black Lives to “correct” the “genocide language.”

Sheindlin states that “adopting slogans of certain activists” contributes to “the inevitable and understandable emotional turmoil” and that, therefore, “many now question the level of partnership and support that so many Jewish actors are eager to provide.” Scheindlin argues, and Greenblatt suggests, that the horrific truth of Israel’s US-backed practices should be obscured in the name of tactfulness.

We reject this logic entirely; the pursuit of justice should be guided by that alone, even if it makes those unwilling to acknowledge the full depths of injustice uncomfortable. After all, there is nothing tactful about the act of genocide.

Strange bedfellows It may come as a surprise to see the ADL and +972 Magazine writers on the same side of this question.

The ADL, while purporting to defend civil rights, contributes generously to anti-Muslim and anti-Arab racism in the US and abroad and allies with the very US urban police departments on the front lines of the war against Black America.

Indeed, in 2015 it commended the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department for participating in an ADL training — just shy of the first anniversary of the department’s repression of the Ferguson uprising.

The ADL characterizes any critique of Israel as anti-Semitism. +972 Magazine, on the other hand, regularly publishes criticisms of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, publicizes egregious acts taken by the Israeli military and covers Palestinian protests with sympathy.

Faulty constitution Both camps seem to take for granted, however, Israel’s constitution as a Jewish state, one that continues to uphold the legal privileges of Jews over the rights and equality of non-Jews.

Many of the +972 bloggers criticize the worst violence of the Israeli military and police forces without acknowledging that the state’s reason for being, as

Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher

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a country that exists for Jewish people first and foremost, makes it incompatible with equality for Palestinians – or any non-Jews.

The Vision for Black Lives proposes a movement that seeks to end global racism – with its mutually devastating effects on Palestinians, Black people in the US and around the world. In their responses to that movement, some of these organizations and individuals are saying that the value they see in Black lives is predicated on their support for, complicity in, and toleration of the crimes the State of Israel commits against the Palestinian people.

While we understand the nuanced differences between these various arguments we are responding to, and that not all of them disavow the entirety of the vision statement, we find the many points of commonality that are of great cause for concern. They have shown that their support for our liberation is conditional; that so long as we, as Black people, remain silent or reserved in the face of ethnic cleansing, we may have a right to live free of fear and oppression.

Freedom for all That is not the meaning of liberation. Our freedom cannot be bought at the expense of another’s oppression. Claiming solidarity to us so long as we remain silent on the oppression of our Palestinian sisters and brothers is insulting. As the Dream Defenders recently stated in their response to this Zionist backlash, “True solidarity does not come with strings attached.”

And in these heavy days of racist violence in the US and Palestine, we are inspired to see more people and organizations making the connection. We will continue to do our parts to build the struggle for Black lives and to support the fight for Palestinian freedom.

We will build on efforts like the 2015 Statement of Black Solidarity With Palestine, and various delegations of Black activists to Palestine and Palestinian activists to the US that foster solidarity between both movements for the mutual benefit of each – and the liberation of all oppressed people.

Darializa Avila Chevalier is a 2016 graduate of Columbia University, where she was an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine and Mobilized African Diaspora. She helped launch the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign Columbia University Apartheid Divest. She lives in New York.

Khury Petersen-Smith is one of the co-authors of the 2015 Statement of Black Solidarity With Palestine. He lives in Boston.

This article previously appeared in The Electronic Intifada.

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SEPTEMBER 16 – SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

EDITORIAL

Black youth learn the nature of the duopoly beast Movements are difficult phenomena to measure. Scholars bicker over where and when to pinpoint the beginnings of social movements, or when they have petered out, or the difference between dead movements and those that are merely dormant.

However, we can now be certain that the surge of grassroots Black political action that gained international attention through fierce resistance to police repression in Ferguson, Mo., two years ago, is a full-blown “movement” with the potential to shake the foundations of the prevailing order.

Real movements have profound, lasting effects on the worldviews of a broad strata of the populations from which they emerge. Lives are no longer simply lived; they are set in motion – towards a goal and against an oppressor.

Tradition re-emerges The movement that went under the general heading of Black Lives Matter has permeated the consciousness of young Black people, reigniting the seemingly dead coals of a previous mass movement that was violently crushed two generations ago.

The Black Radical Tradition reemerges in an era when capitalism is in permanent, fatal crisis and U.S. Empire thrashes about like a vampire exposed at sunrise.

You can be confident that this movement has taken firm root when the Democrats howl in distress at their inability to count on the votes of Black youth – while most of their elders and the supine and corrupt Black Misleadership Class huddle near the latrine of Hillary Clinton’s obscenely overstuffed Big Tent, now also home to hordes of refugee Republicans, the job-exporting filthy rich, and their retainers in the “national security” and regimechanging, earth-scorching establishment.

Neither evil Black Millennials will not vote for Donald Trump, the White nationalist. But many see no earthly reason to support Hillary Clinton, either.

They don’t buy into her reincarnation from the ghoulish co-president who railed against young Black “super-predators,” condemning unprecedented multitudes of Black people to prison,

GLEN FORD BLACK AGENDA REPORT

Jill Stein’s “Power to the People” platform is generally compatible with the historical Black political consensus. And neither Stein nor Green Party vice presidential nominee Ajamu Baraka has slept with the devil.

Our first interest in traveling to Cuba was in 1999. I was in Kingston, Jamaica working with our chapter there, the Jamaican Chamber of Commerce. While we were walking down the street we ran into the Cuban ambassador for Jamaica.

The brother was dressed like a typical professional brother from somewhere in the States. We were three minutes into the introductory conversation before he exclaimed, “When are you going to Cuba?” I retorted, “We are not allowed to go to Cuba.”

‘Get a license’ He said, “That is a myth! You can go if you get a license from your government. Contact our consulate in Washington, D.C., and they will show you the process.” That began our official re-

Why Belcher is wrong It’s not that they are unaware of Clinton’s promises, but that they don’t believe anything she says, and are convinced that she is not an agent for the kind of change they demand. She’s a historically proven part of the problem, the solutions to which must come from the Black community, itself.

Belcher warns that, without a huge, near-unanimous Black turnout in November, the election could be a replay of John Kerry’s loss to George Bush in 2004.

That’s unlikely, but Belcher no doubt has learned that Democrats won’t spend money on anything Black unless they fear imminent defeat. He is also certainly aware that Hillary Clinton is betting she can more than make up for Black and progressive defections through a full-blown appeal to disaffected Republicans.

Plus, she will vastly overspend Donald Trump, whose billionaire peers are luxuriating at Hillary’s gilded tent in the Hamptons, where she holds forth for hours on a full range of foreign and domestic policy subjects.

to rally our members who were interested. Thirty-six members of the National Black Chamber of Commerce were prepared to travel to this mysterious nation – a nation of people who were predominantly the same ethnicity as us.

Fantastic trip HARRY C. ALFORD GUEST COLUMNIST

lationship with Cuba under the Clinton administration.

We had sanctions with Cuba, which meant you could not do normal business or travel with the nation. There was a strict process to follow with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). OAFC was onerous, but they did show us the path we had to take. We received the license within four months. It took a lot of back and forth, but we remained persistent.

Another requirement was to hire a certified OFAC-approved certified travel agent. After approval, it took about two months

Two European-Americans tell nothing but the truth Every now and then, an American journalist, educator or politician will tell the whole truth about how White supremacist atA. PETER titudes and actions have wreaked BAILEY havoc on people of color.

A recent example of that exTRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM tremely rare truth-telling was given by Lawrence O’Donnell, host home of what are now called Naof MSNBC’s “The Last Word with tive Americans. I once saw a flyer pasted on a government buildLawrence O’Donnell.” ing in Washington, D.C., statHistorical review ing, “We (the indigenous people) With clear, precise, blunt lan- have been fighting against illegal guage, he explained in thorough immigration since 1492.”

O’Donnell was speaking in detail how Europeans invaded and took control of a land that support of descendants of those for many centuries had been the people who right now are fighting

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE

“very compelling” – despite the obvious fact that it’s just another “lesser evil” argument. He concludes that many skeptical Blacks are “not aware of Mrs. Clinton’s plans regarding police conduct, mass incarceration and structural racism broadly.”

and who endorsed the abandonment of millions of poor women and children to the depredations of a “workfare” marketplace.

“That stuff comes up unprompted,” said Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher, who sounded the alarm to party brass after conducting a series of focus groups with young Blacks in Cleveland, Ohio, and Jacksonville.

In presenting his findings to Hillary as solution his paymasters, Belcher selected Cornell Belcher advises the statements from the disturbingDemocrats to “make Hillary the ly large numbers of focus group members that see no urgency in vehicle for a community centric agenda” – meaning, local probvoting for Clinton. lems can be solved by voting for Clinton – and by making “Trump’s ‘Part of the problem’ racism real.” Clinton’s stances on “For the fact they got Hill- mass incarceration and police viary against Donald Trump,” said olence need to be communicated a non-college Black man from “more effectively.”

Cleveland. “It’s to tell you that it’s In other words: pretend to lisjust the lesser of two evils either ten; deploy key buzzwords that way you go. If you choose Hilary, make Clinton appear empathetic she was part of the whole prob- to Blacks; blow Trump up as the lem that started sending Blacks ultimate danger to Black lives; to jail.” A college graduate woman and keep reminding young Blacks from Jacksonville said of Trump, that Clinton has changed from her “He might be the devil but she has Black-bashing days in the White been in bed with the devil, why House – even though she has nevvote for any of them?” er claimed to have needed, or unBelcher urges the Democrats dergone, a metamorphosis. to respond to such “pessimists” A significant section of young and “cynics” by changing the sub- Black people has become imject to Barack Obama and “tying mune to this crap. Their eyes are Trump to violence against Black on movement-building and Black bodies.” Belcher writes that the self-determination. And, just as latter approach and language is you can’t unmake monstrosities

Cuba travel changes are for the better

A5

African-Americans were greeted with love by the Cubans. Tendollar lobster dinners; $3 bottles of Havana Club Rum; a $10 cover charge at the famous Tropicana nightclub; the best cigars in the world; fine accommodations to give lifetime memories. Six months later, we went back again.

Word of our travel got around.

Our board members were thinking we could charter a 747 widebody jet on the next trip. But all of a sudden, the door slammed shut.

The Bush administration had taken over, and the process was quite different. We inquired about obtaining another license for travel and were told, “Forget about it!” There was a new “sheriff” at OFAC and travel to Cuba virtually ceased unless you were a member of Congress or someone well conefforts by European-Americans to take some of the small amount of land that they still own in order to advance their economic interests.

There’s a second case in which a European-American tells the truth about his people’s track record of brutality when dealing with people from other racial, ethnic and nationality groups.

History of Europe Those who are surprised or shocked about what is currently happening in Europe vis-à-vis the Muslim refugees wouldn’t be if they had read a column written by European American military analyst Ralph Peters in 2006. The following is just a part of what Peters wrote about his fellow Whites: “The notion that continental Europeans, who are world champion haters, will let the impoverished Muslim immigrants they

PATRICK CHAPPATTE, LE TEMPS, SWITZERLAND

like the Clintons and Trump, you be inferred that’s what he thinks. can’t snuff out a worldview that has been transformed by a period Already done of intense struggle.

The atrocities Blow suspects Trump is planning to commit Hillary apologist have already been carried out Even after two generations of by Hillary Clinton and Barack relative quietude, the Black Rad- Obama. The First Black President ical Tradition blossoms anew. is the unchallenged champion Which is in stark contrast to the of charterization, having creatstink emanating from the mouth ed a national alternative charter of New York Times pundit Charles school system through the coerBlow, who these days moonlights cive power of his Race to the Top as a rent-a-cop at Hillary’s Big program, which Clinton heartily endorses.

Tent.

The Clinton co-presidency did, Blow is on the same page as Belcher, week after week per- indeed, flood Black communities forming the same two-step of al- with cops, setting off the greatternately kissing Hillary’s neth- est surge in Black mass incarer-parts and Satanizing Trump. ceration in modern U.S. histoHis column has become an in- ry, while President Obama is the tellectual desert – until Septem- Police Militarizer-in-Chief, havber 5, when it became a house ing increased Pentagon transfers of mirrors, in which Hillary and of arms and battle equipment to Obama’s politics are reflected on- local departments 24-fold in his first years in office. And of course, to Trump.

The occasion was Trump’s visit it was Bill Clinton who destroyed to a Black church in Detroit. Blow “welfare as we knew it” 20 years quoted part of Trump’s remarks ago last month, with Hillary’s blessing. to the congregation: “I believe we need a civil rights agenda of our time, one that en- The real option sures the rights to a great educaAs Cornell Belcher’s Black miltion and the right to live in safety lennials said, Hillary “was part of and in peace and to have a real- the whole problem that started ly, really great job, a good-paying sending Blacks to jail,” and “she job, and one that you love to go to has been in bed with the devil, every morning.” why vote for any of them?”

Then, Charles Blow offers what Jill Stein’s “Power to the Peohe calls his own “translation”: ple” platform is generally com“I want to further weaken pub- patible with the historical Black lic education through more char- political consensus. And neither ters and vouchers. I want to flood Stein nor Green Party vice presiyour neighborhoods with more dential nominee Ajamu Baraka police because you can’t con- has slept with the devil. trol yourselves. I want you to stop freeloading, get off welfare, and Glen Ford is executive editor get a job.” of BlackAgendaReport.com. EActually, Trump said none of mail him at Glen.Ford@Blackthat, although it could honestly AgendaReport.com. nected along that level.

That was heartbreaking to us.

For 12 years, we were blocked from returning to our brothers and sisters 90 miles off the coast of Florida.

Opened up Fortunately, the Obama administration has a different view of things. Slowly, travel to Cuba began opening up again. Now, traveling to Cuba is as easy as it has ever been. American commercial flights are now going on a daily basis. The demand is making available hotels limited.

However, a cottage industry in the nation is Airbnb. You can rent rooms from licensed Cuban citizens, including homes along the beaches and nice neighborhoods.

The entire tailored package is quite reasonably priced. Some villas provide seven bedrooms with a bathroom for each, modern kitchen and a coastline view. With 7 – 14 people, the cost is quite reasonable.

A resurgence of Cuba travel has arrived. We are forming an easy format that is consistent with the confine to ghettos take over their societies and extend the caliphate from the Amalfi Coast to Amsterdam has it exactly wrong. The endangered species isn’t the “peaceloving” Europeans lolling in his or her welfare state, but the continent’s Muslim immigrants and their multi-generation descendants – who were foolish enough to imagine that European would share their toys...

Muslims ‘lucky’

current rules. Our first visit will occur in late October and we are so excited! The beautiful people, fantastic art, Afro-Cuban music (which originated directly from the Congo via slavery), beautiful people (physical fitness is required), perfect weather and anything the Caribbean has tropical cuisine, historical sights and the tropical aura but at reasonable costs. It is going to be so nice to reconnect with our people!

The drought is over!

Our office is studying up on the process and will begin promoting consulting excursions for our members. On our first trip we will participate with the Cuba Chamber of Commerce in a business trade fair with more than 4,500 participating exhibits at the FERIA Trade Show.

Yes, my brothers and sisters it is time to reconnect.

Harry C. Alford is the cofounder and president/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. Contact him via www.nationalbcc.org. act, they over-react with stunning ferocity.

“One of their more human (and frequently employed) techniques has been ethnic cleansing...Far from enjoying the prospect of taking over Europe by having babies, Europe’s Muslims are living on borrowed time...When Europeans feel sufficiently provoked and threatened – a few serious terrorist attacks could do it – Europe’s Muslim will be lucky to be deported.”

O’Donnell and Peters deserve props for telling the truth and nothing but the truth about the White supremacist attitudes and actions of Europeans and people of European descent.

“Don’t let Europe’s current round of playing pacifist dress up fool you. This is the continent that perfected genocide and ethnic cleansing – the happy-go-lucky slice of humanity that brought us such recent hits as the Holocaust A. Peter Bailey’s latest book is and Srebrenica.... When Europeans feel sufficiently threatened – “Witnessing Brother Malcolm even when the threat is concoct- X, the Master Teacher.” Contact ed nonsense – they don’t just re- him at apeterb@verizon.net.

TOJ A6

NATION

SEPTEMBER 16 – SEPTEMBER 22, 2016 Two weeks later, panic broke out at Los Angeles International Airport when loud noises led to rumors of an active shooter. Several terminals were evacuated, and passengers and TSA officers alike breached security doors to flee to the airport tarmac.

Panicked people, Boyd said, were “chasing off in all directions like a herd of gazelles running from thunder. TSA has no plan in the event of an incident, except to tell people to run away from the noise, or dump them into the street in a nice tight crowd for a terrorist target.”

The hassles of slipping off shoes, pulling laptops out of bags and emptying coins from pockets have spurred applications for expedited security screening. Known as TSA PreCheck, the program lets low-risk travelers ease through checkpoints without removing shoes.

$85 for PreCheck

TIM JOHNSON/TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson pets a trained dog on Sept. 7 at Reagan National Airport, where the dog works with a Transportation Security officer at a passenger checkpoint.

Airport security in a post 9/11 world More than 2,600 firearms were seized last year and checkpoints and major mishaps continue despite heightened measures.

BY TIM JOHNSON TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON – Year after year, more Americans attempt to board planes with concealed firearms in their carry-ons. They also come with hidden swords, hatchets, sharpened ninja stars and even gunpowder.

Invariably, the response from passengers when officers from the Transportation Security Administration seize the weapons is: Oops, I forgot I had it.

“It’s always astonishing to me that people can forget they have a weapon in their carry-on,” said

TSA Administrator Peter V. Neffenger. “I’m not sure why people continue to do this.”

Not everyone buys the excuse of forgetfulness.

“They didn’t forget their pants.

It’s beyond me,” said David Borer, general counsel of the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents the nation’s 42,000 or so transportation security officers.

Familiar drill Whether the reason is memory lapse or a desire to be prepared should armed terrorists once again try to commandeer an aircraft, the seizure of a record 2,653 firearms last year at airport checkpoints is but one aspect of an evolving security panorama as the nation passes the 15-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The security ritual now has a familiar rhythm: Shoes off. Laptops out. Everything through the X-ray machine. Nearly 2 million passengers endure the drill each

day. Many hate it. A few get unruly.

The tools deployed by the security agents — including fullbody scanners — get ever more sophisticated while the most basic of questions go without a satisfying answer: Do all the security measures work? Are terrorists truly deterred? Are we safe?

Here to stay Experts agree on only one thing. Heightened airport security is here to stay.

“It’s going to take a long time before we stop taking our shoes off,” said Bruce Schneier, a security technologist and fierce critic of the TSA. It’s hard to pick apart the security procedures the federal government has adopted and not arrive at the conclusion, as Schneier has, that much of it is “security theater.”

Seeming failures abound. An audit last year found that TSA officers found weapons only three times when undercover investi-

gators passed through airport security checkpoints 70 times with weapons or mock explosives, a failure rate of 95 percent. The then-administrator lost his job.

“We are not safer than before 9/11, regardless of the money and energies spent to change airport security,” said Michael Boyd, an aviation consultant and longtime former airline executive based out of Evergreen, Colo.

“The TSA approach is a dud. It is a giant bureaucracy with zero accountability for failure.”

Drill fail Events in the past month underscore how TSA officers, who are unarmed, behave in the face of potential terror.

On the night of Aug. 14, when false reports circulated of gunshots at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, TSA officers and civilian security guards left their posts and joined a stampede of hundreds of travelers.

Borer said TSA policy was for officers to “run, hide, fight,” in that order, in the event of any attack, and that the officers had not been disobeying orders. Still, the incident raised questions about what might unfold in the event of a real terrorist attack.

‘No plan’

Some 12,000 applicants a day pony up the $85 for five-year memberships, after waiting six weeks for appointments, and total numbers have surpassed 3.5 million.

According to Secretary Jeh Johnson of the Department of Homeland Security, 96 percent of PreCheck passengers spend an average of five minutes or less at security checkpoints.

“We’ve turned security into have and have-not,” Schneier said: the PreCheck passengers who’ve paid their money and the rest of the traveling public.

Marshals under fire Even the famed air marshals, whose numbers soared after Sept. 11, have come under fire.

The program, which puts armed agents on high-risk domestic flights, costs more than $820 million annually.

In theory, the marshals are the last line of defense before a terrorist hijacking. In practice, more air marshals appear to have been arrested for felony crimes they themselves have committed than make arrests in the line of duty.

When the bureau responded to a freedom of information request earlier this year by ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative newsroom, more than seven years after the request was made, it acknowledged that air marshals had been arrested 148 times from 2002 through the early 2012 for various crimes unrelated to their work.

While air marshals attended to “thousands” of medical emergencies and non-terrorist incidents involving unruly passengers, they apparently carry out few arrests of real terror suspects. A Federal Air Marshal Service spokesman, Thomas H. Kelly, did not address a request for a breakdown of incidents.

A Tennessee Republican U.S. lawmaker, John J. Duncan, said in 2010 that the air marshals service had made an average of 4.2 arrests per year from 2001 to 2010, adding that “we are spending $200 million per arrest.”

Grand jury to look into possible cover-up by Chicago police in shooting

BY STEVE SCHMADEKE CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS

CHICAGO – A grand jury will be impaneled to investigate a possible cover-up by Chicago police in the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald at the request of a special prosecutor appointed in July to investigate the matter.

Patricia Brown Holmes, the special prosecutor, said Monday she has enough evidence to present to a grand jury as Laquan she made her reMcDonald quest that one be convened.

Judge LeRoy Martin Jr., the presiding judge of Cook County’s criminal division who appointed Holmes, said he would convene a special grand jury to hear evidence.

Holmes, a former Cook County judge, later told reporters that a grand jury investigation is the fairest way to handle the case rather than make a charging decision on her own.

Did officers lie?

Martin named Holmes to look into whether the officers lied to justify the October 2014 shooting of the 17-year-old. Her investigation also could extend to police supervisors who were involved, said the lawyers who had asked the judge to appoint a special prosecutor.

The dashboard camera video of White Police Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting the Black teen 16 times has caused a firestorm of controversy and led to calls for major reforms and a U.S. Justice Department investigation of Chicago police practices. The accounts of several officers dramatically differed from the video.

Holmes, who is African-American, had been among four candidates proposed for the post by a coalition of about 25 community groups, prominent attorneys and a member of McDonald’s family who sought the appointment.

Coalition’s request In February, the coalition filed a petition asking that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate not only McDonald’s shooting but also the officers at the scene. State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez opposed a special prosecutor during her hard-fought reelection effort earlier this year, but after her primary loss, she withdrew her opposition.

Judge Vincent Gaughan, who is overseeing the criminal case against Van Dyke, appointed Kane County State’s Attorney Joseph McMahon as a separate special prosecutor to handle Van Dyke’s prosecution.

The video showed Van Dyke opening fire within seconds of exiting his police SUV as McDonald walked away from police with a knife in his hand, contradicting many of the officers’ written accounts that the teen had lunged with the knife.

NANCY STONE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS

Jason Van Dyke approaches the bench of Judge Vincent Gaughan at Leighton Criminal Courts Building on June 30 in Chicago for a hearing to discuss the special prosecutor in Van Dyke’s upcoming trial.

Federal prosecutors also have been looking into possible charges against those officers for many months.

Mayor criticized Citing sources, the Chicago Tribune has reported that the federal inquiry has branched into possible obstruction of justice

by the officers at the scene. In addition, the city inspector general’s office, which has the power to investigate and make recommendations on employee matters and policies, is looking into the matter.

For the better part of a year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fought the release of the dash-cam video

of the shooting. A judge ordered Emanuel to release the video in November 2015, more than a year after the shooting occurred.

Van Dyke was charged with murder hours before the video was made public, leading some to accuse Emanuel of being complicit in a cover-up and fueling weeks of protests.

HEALTH FOOD || HEALTH TRAVEL | |MONEY SCIENCE | BOOKS | MOVIES | TV | AUTOS LIFE | FAITH | EVENTS | CLASSIFIEDS | ENTERTAINMENT | SPORTS | FOOD COURIER

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SEPT. 16 – SEPT. 22, 2016

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Young Blacks starring in new TV shows See page B5

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UPPA/ZUMA PRESS/TNS

President Barack Obama attempts to block a shot by personal aide Reggie Love during a basketball game on June 16 at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, left, watches the play. The president’s checkup early this year showed that he’s “very healthy.’’

H PRESIDENTIAL H

BY MATT PEARCE LOS ANGELES TIMES TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

How much should presidential candidates tell the public about their health?

Hillary Clinton, 68, was recently diagnosed with pneumonia, and the public didn’t know about it until two days later, when she abruptly left a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony feeling unwell and needing to be helped into a vehicle.

If Donald Trump, 70, were elected, he would be older than any previous president at the start of his first term — and, like Clinton, he hasn’t released detailed records about his health beyond a doctor’s letter. Both candidates promised Monday to release more detailed medical records soon.

But the idea of presidential candidates, or sitting presidents, disclosing their health history is relatively new.

And though recent presidents have released detailed updates about their health, there is no law mandating disclosure.

PROGNOSES There’s a history of American presidents and presidential candidates keeping their medical issues from the public.

Obama’s ‘very healthy’ America has a rich history of presidents and presidential candidates hiding their health problems from the public, sometimes successfully and sometimes with serious consequences.

What have recent presidential health disclosures looked like?

The report for President Barack Obama’s most recent physical examination, in February, by White House physician Ronny L. Jackson is two pages long.

It lists basic vital information such as his height, weight, body mass, resting heart rate and blood pressure, as well as numbers from laboratory tests for his cholesterol, glucose and vitamin D levels, among other information.

The report also lists the results of tests for Obama’s physical and neural health, lists the medication he is taking (which includes the occasional use of nicotine gum) and says he drinks alcohol only occasionally.

“All clinical data indicates that the president is currently very healthy and that he will remain so for the duration of his presidency,” the report concludes.

A similar report for George W. Bush in 2006 was four pages long and included a lengthy medical history.

Clinton ‘fit to serve’ What have Trump and Clinton’s doctors’ letters looked like?

Others had illnesses Why does it matter?

Nearly half the presidents in the nation’s history have had significant illnesses or injuries while in office, including most of the presidents since the start of the 20th century, according to academic research on presidential health. Many of those presidents hid their health problems from the public.

Grover Cleveland had a secret surgery for oral cancer during his second term in 1893, survived and served until 1897, and his surgery was not revealed to the public until 1917, nine years after his death.

Woodrow Wilson had a serious stroke in 1919 that in effect ended his ability to run the country, yet his condition was kept secret. His wife, Edith, quietly took over his work until his term ended in 1921.

Wilson’s successor, Warren Harding, didn’t have much better luck: In poor health for years, he died in office in 1923 while traveling in San Francisco. His wife declined to have an autopsy done.

Hemorrhage, heart attack

OAKES DE MANDEVILLE/SIPA USA/TNS

LLOYD FOX/BALTIMORE SUN/TNS

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is shown at a memorial service at the National 9/11 Memorial on Sept. 11 in New York before she left due to illness.

Donald Trump speaks on Monday to the National Guard Association of the United States conference, held in Baltimore, Md.

In 2015, Clinton released a two-page letter from her doctor that discussed Clinton’s medical history, including her hypothyroidism — a type of hormone deficiency — and the concussion she suffered in 2012 after she was weakened by a stomach virus and dehydration.

The letter also disclosed her blood pressure, respiratory rate, cholesterol levels, as well as her exercise habits, which include yoga, swimming and weight training.

“She is in excellent physical condition and fit to serve as president of the United States,” wrote Dr. Lisa Bardack, chairwoman of internal medicine at CareMount Medical in Mount Kisco, N.Y., who has been Clinton’s physician since 2001.

Trump’s health ‘excellent’ The letter released by Trump’s doctor in December is four paragraphs long, and said Trump had had no significant health problems over the last 39 years.

The letter gives figures for Trump’s blood pressure and his prostate blood test, says he takes 81 milligrams of aspirin and a “low dose” of cholesterollowering statin daily, and variously describes Trump’s health as “astonishingly excellent,” “extraordinary” and “excellent.”

“If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,” said Harold N. Bornstein, a gastroenterologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York who has been Trump’s physician since 1980.

Paralysis caused by polio did not prevent Franklin Roosevelt from taking office and serving with distinction starting in 1933. But by Roosevelt’s fourth campaign in 1944, his health was failing.

He won and then died of a cerebral hemorrhage in April 1945, leaving Vice President Harry Truman to finish World War II. Dwight Eisenhower had a well-publicized heart attack during his first term in 1955. Doctors weren’t sure whether he would survive a second term, but he ran for re-election the next year, won and lived until 1969.

Among other health problems, his successor, John F. Kennedy, had Addison’s disease, an adrenaline deficiency, which his team denied during his 1960 campaign — a lie that may have helped Kennedy win the razor-thin election against Richard Nixon. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

Lyndon Johnson, Kennedy’s successor, flouted that type of discretion. After Johnson had gall bladder surgery in 1965, he lifted up his shirt to show reporters his scar.

Public or private?

How much should candidates disclose?

Since vice presidential candidate See PROGNOSES, Page B2

CALENDAR

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SEPTEMBER 16 – SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

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PROGNOSES from Page 1

FRANKIE BEVERLY & MONICA

95.7’s Beats by the Bay Music Festival is Oct. 22 at Vinoy Park in St. Petersburg.

Performers include Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, Joe, Monica and August Alsina.

MARY J. BLIGE

The King and Queen of Hearts Tour featuring Maxwell and Mary J. Blige stops at the American AirlinesArena in Miami on Nov. 29.

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR St. Petersburg: Catch Tracy Morgan on Nov. 11 at The Mahaffey Theater and Nov. 13 at Hard Rock Live Orlando.

Plant City: Community members and leaders are invited to the free, informational Partnership Recruitment Prayer Breakfast from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 17 at Bethel Baptist Church, 804 W. Renfroe St. RSVP by calling 850-414-5620 or email info@ococfl.org.

St. Petersburg: Lauryn Hill – The MLH Caravan: A Diaspora Calling! Concert stops at The Mahaffey Theater on Dec. 6.

Jacksonville: Tickets are on sale for the

“Puttin’ on the Ritz’’ show on Oct. 7 at the Ritz Theatre.

Palm Beach Gardens: The Urban League Young Professionals of Palm Beach will present a first-time homebuyer seminar on Sept. 20 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Gardens Branch Library, 11303 Campus Drive. Website: www.ulyppbc.org.

Jacksonville: The Times Union Center for the Performing Arts will be the site of an Oct. 28 show featuring Anthony Hamilton, Lalah Hathaway and Eric Benet.

Fort Lauderdale: The Keb’ Mo’ Band will perform Sept. 22 at the Parker Playhouse.

Daytona Beach: Tickets are on sale for an Oct. 22 show with Jeffrey Osborne and Gerald Albright and Oct. 23 at The Mahaffey in St. Petersburg.

Thomas Eagleton dropped out of the 1972 presidential race after the disclosure that he had been hospitalized for depression, “the health status of presidential candidates has been seen as fair game by the press,” George J. Annas wrote in a 1995 article for the New England Journal of Medicine.

Health disclosures by modern presidential candidates, although generally standard since then, are still sometimes an uneven affair.

Democratic hopeful Eugene McCarthy refused to release his medical records in 1976, calling them private.

Bill Clinton resisted releasing his health records during his first run in 1992, leading the New York Times’ doctor-reporter Lawrence K. Altman to declare that the Democrat had been “less forthcoming about his health than any presidential nominee in the last 20 years.”

Clinton continued to resist releasing his full records during his re-election in 1996, which led Republicans to repeatedly raise questions about whether he was hiding a secret health issue. His opponent, Bob Dole, issued detailed medical results and made his doctor available for an interview.

Not standard practice Obama initially released a one-page letter from his doctor in 2008 with no supporting documents, then later released lab tests and echocardiograms. His opponent, John McCain, gave reporters several hours to review 1,200 pages of health records.

The release of health records has not been standardized practice compared with the release of tax records, which is common for candidates (with the notable exception of Trump, who has declined to release his).

Although 96 percent of respondents in a 2004 Gallup poll said the president’s health was “important,” 61 percent of respondents said presidents should have a right to choose to keep their health records private like everyone else.

Candidate’s decision Without a legal mechanism to force disclosure for such records, “you really need the public to hold them accountable,” said Robert Streiffer, associate professor of bioethics and medical history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

But the bar for disclosure should be high, Streiffer said. He defined the threshold as “a condition that has a significant chance of seriously undermining the person’s ability to perform the core compe-

MARGARET SUCKLEY/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

President Franklin D. Roosevelt is shown in February 1941 with his dog Fala and Ruthie Bie, granddaughter of a gardener who worked for the Roosevelt family. This is a rare photo showing Roosevelt in a wheelchair. tencies of the presidency if they are elected.”

Former White House physician Lawrence C. Mohr said that although “the American people are entitled to know the health status of their president and presidential candidates … the release of any medical information has to be the decision of the candidate and not the doctor.”

Doctor’s prognosis If disclosure happens, Mohr said, “the information should be accurate, it should be complete, it should be timely, and it should include whatever medicine is being prescribed, and the physician should offer some prognosis about how long it will take to get well.”

Mohr, who was a White House physician during the Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations, said public understanding was also an important part of disclosure.

“Just because a president has an illness doesn’t mean that’s a disqualifying factor if that illness can be effectively treated,” Mohr said, pointing to Roosevelt’s long years in office.

The things that are really important, Mohr said, are not the name of the illness or the specific diagnosis, but whether the president can think clearly, act appropriately and communicate effectively.

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SEPTEMBER 16 – SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

FOOD

B3

Boost every moment with versatile peanut butter FROM FAMILY FEATURES

Whether you’re a fitness junkie, busy parent, sleep-deprived student or diehard sweet tooth, peanut butter is an ingredient that sticks for all of life’s moments. With a healthy boost of protein and energy, peanut butter is perfect as an on-the-go snack, fuel for a workout, a reliable family meal or a decadent dessert.

There’s no shortage of delicious ways to pack peanut butter into diverse dishes throughout the day: • Add peanut butter to your favorite fruit smoothie for a nutty new flavor.

• Encourage children to experiment with the essential spread and go beyond PB and J by replacing fruit for the jelly or stirring peanut butter or peanut butter powder into their yogurt.

• A simple peanut butter and honey sandwich makes a great on-thego snack you can throw in your gym bag or tuck away in a drawer at work.

• Add peanut butter to a sauce or salad dressing for an extra zip of flavor and protein.

Find more creative ways to enjoy peanut butter with these winning recipes from Southern Peanut Growers’ annual PB My Way recipe contest, and explore additional dishes that celebrate this versatile ingredient at peanutbutterlovers.com.

VEGGIE SAMMIES WITH PEANUT BUTTER SATAY SAUCE Recipe courtesy of Ben M., San Francisco, California Serves: 2 4 tablespoons creamy peanut butter 3 tablespoons lime juice 2 tablespoons water 4 teaspoons hoisin sauce 2 teaspoons soy sauce 2 teaspoons sriracha 2 French baguette rolls (6 inches each)

1/2 cup sliced cucumber 1/2 cup white onion 1/2 cup red bell pepper 1/2 cup purple cabbage 1/2 cup fresh cilantro In small bowl, combine peanut butter, lime juice, water, hoisin sauce, soy sauce and sriracha. Mix well.

Spread sauce on both sides of bread then layer with cucumber, onion and bell pepper. Top with cabbage and cilantro leaves.

GRACELAND MINI CUPCAKES Recipe courtesy of Linda D., Coconut Creek, Florida Serves: 36 Cupcakes: 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 4 ripe bananas 1/2 cup light sour cream 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature 2 tablespoons canola oil 3/4 cups sugar 2 large eggs, at room temperature 1 large egg white, at room temperature 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Peanut Butter Filling: 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter Bacon Topping: 4 slices bacon 1/2 cup brown sugar Frosting:

8 ounces low-fat cream cheese 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar Heat oven to 350 F. Line cupcake tins with paper liners and lightly spray with cooking spray.

To make batter: In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Stir to combine and set aside.

In small bowl, mash bananas and add sour cream. Mix well and set aside.

Using electric hand mixer, beat butter, oil and sugar until incorporated, about 3-5 minutes. Add eggs, egg white and vanilla. Mix until combined.

Slowly add half the dry ingredients and mix until almost incorporated. Add sour cream and banana mixture and gently fold into batter. Add rest of dry ingredients until combined.

Spoon batter into lined cupcake pans. Bake 18-20 minutes and let cool.

After cooling about 30-45 minutes, use paring knife to cut small circle in middle of top of cupcakes and remove plug, creating a well about halfway down cupcake. Add peanut butter to piping bag and fill each hole. Set aside.

In medium bowl, dredge both sides of bacon slices in brown sugar. Place on foil-lined baking sheet; bake 10 minutes. Flip and bake another 6-8 minutes.

Remove bacon from oven and place on plate to cool. Once cool, chop bacon and set aside.

To make frosting: In large bowl, com­bine cream cheese, butter, peanut butter and vanilla extract. Mix until combined. Add confectioners’ sugar and mix until well-combined.

Add frosting to piping bag.

Pipe a dollop of frosting onto each cupcake and sprinkle with candied bacon pieces.

PEANUT APPLE CHICKEN CURRY Recipe courtesy of Jess A., Berkeley, California Serves: 4 Sauce: 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 teaspoons curry powder 1/4 cup scallions, chopped 1 cup creamy peanut butter 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar 1 3/4 cups apple juice 1 3/4 cups coconut milk 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional) Chicken: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 small yellow onion, chopped 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch strips

1 medium apple, peeled, cored and chopped salt, to taste pepper, to taste cooked rice (optional) To make sauce: In medium to large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic, curry powder and scallions. Saute 1 minute.

Add peanut butter, vinegar, apple juice, coconut milk, brown sugar and cayenne. Bring to simmer, reduce heat and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, about 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in large skillet, heat oil. Add onion and stir fry about 2-3 minutes until onions start to become opaque.

Add chicken and apples, and stir until chicken is cooked completely.

Add peanut sauce and cook until heated evenly, about 2-5 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve warm over rice, if desired.

SPORTS

B4

NFC NORTH PREVIEW A look at the NFC North heading into the 2016 NFL season, with teams listed in predicted order of finish

GREEN BAY PACKERS • Coach: Mike McCarthy, 11th season (104-55-1, .653) • Last season: 10-6, 2nd place • Playoffs: beat Washington, 35-18; lost to Arizona, 26-20 (OT) • Outlook: Aaron Rodgers remains at or near the top of NFL quarterbacks, and that alone bodes well for a team that has been a consistent playoff team since Rodgers took over for Brett Favre. Rodgers gets wide receiver Jordy Nelson back from a knee injury, and Randall Cobb

SEPTEMBER 16 – SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

has developed into a consistent threat.

A slimmed-down Eddie Lacy anchors the running game. The defense has been an issue over the years, but coordinator Dom Capers has a worthy unit that features prominent pass rushers Julius Peppers and Clay Matthews, as well as former first-round safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and reliable cornerback Sam Shields.

MINNESOTA VIKINGS • Coach: Mike Zimmer, 4th season (18-14, .563) • Last season: 11-5, 1st place • Playoffs: lost to Seattle, 10-9.

• Outlook: With Teddy Bridgewater gone for the season with a knee injury, GM Rick Spielman took the bold step of trading for Sam Bradford rather than going with journeyman Shaun Hill as the starting quarterback. The Vikings are clearly in a win-now mode, and if Bradford can

STOJ

work well with highly regarded offensive coordinator Norv Turner, the Vikings should be back in the hunt for a playoff spot. The defense is rock-solid.

DETROIT LIONS

• Coach: Jim Caldwell, 3rd season (18-14, .563) • Last season: 7-9, 3rd place • Outlook: Caldwell got a reprieve after recovering from a dreadful start last season, as new GM Bob Quinn retained the veteran coach. Quarterback Matthew Stafford is one of the NFL’s more prolific passers, but he lost the retired Calvin Johnson as his primary target. The Lions signed Bengals free agent Marvin Jones to fill his spot, and Golden Tate is back.

The Lions also signed reliable veteran Anquan Boldin. The defense is average, although fourth-year defensive end Zig-

gy Ansah is a bright spot.

CHICAGO BEARS • Coach: John Fox, 2nd season (6-10, .375) • Last season: 6-10, 4th place • Outlook: The Bears believe they have one of the best one-two receiver combinations in the NFL with Alshon Jeffery and Kevin White now that White is ready to play after missing last year with a leg injury. That’s good news for quarterback Jay Cutler, who quietly had an efficient year in 2015 with 21 touchdown passes and only 11 interceptions. Fox still is patching things together on defense, especially with a re-tooled group at linebacker. There’s very little pass rush, though, so this could be another long year for the Bears.

ARIZONA CARDINALS

NFC WEST PREVIEW

• Coach: Bruce Arians 4th season (34-14, .708) • Last season: 13-3, 1st place • Playoffs: Beat Green Bay, 26-20 (OT); lost to Carolina, 49-15, in Conference Championship.

• Outlook: There’s plenty of Super Bowl talk in Arizona, and the outspoken Arians doesn’t mind a bit. He’s uberconfident in his team and his quarterback, Carson Palmer, despite Palmer’s mediocre performance in last year’s playoffs. Palmer had four touchdown passes and six interceptions in two playoff games, and he imploded in the NFC Championship Game against the Panthers. His confidence seems intact, but you can’t ignore what happened last year, or the fact he has only one playoff win. Larry Fitzgerald remains a vibrant receiver at age 33, and tailback David Johnson was terrific last year as a rookie. The defense is outstanding on the back end with cornerback Patrick Peterson and safety Tyrann Mathieu, and Calais Campbell is a terrific defensive end. But this group isn’t yet in a class with the Seahawks.

A look at the NFC West heading into the 2016 NFL season, with teams listed in predicted order of finish

LOS ANGELES RAMS • Coach: Jeff Fisher, 5th season (27-36-1, .430) • Last season: 7-9, 3rd place • Outlook: Football is back in Los Angeles for the first time in more than 20 years, and while Rams fans there are ecstatic to have their team back, they may have to be patient before they see a consistently successful team. Jared Goff was the centerpiece addition in the offseason, but the No. 1 overall draft pick will start the season with a clipboard, as Fisher opts for the more experienced Case Keenum, the former Texans backup. Todd Gurley had a terrific rookie season once the tailback returned from a knee injury, and receiver Tavon Austin has re-upped on a long-term deal. Aaron Donald is the start of the defense, and Robert Quinn is an excellent pass rusher.

JANE TYSKA/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP/TNS

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Trevone Boykin (2) attempts to pass as he's pressured by the Oakland Raiders' James Cowser (47) during a play which resulted in a safety for the Raiders in the second quarter of preseason action at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS • Coach: Pete Carroll, 7th season (6036, .625) • Last season: 10-6, 2nd place • Playoffs: Beat Minnesota, 10-9; lost to Carolina, 34-21.

• Outlook: The Seahawks remain an elite team with the core of their Super Bowl championship group mostly intact. There is one notable exception, though: tailback Marshawn Lynch, who retired after last season. The Seahawks are counting on 2013 second-round tailback Christine Michael to pick up the slack, and Michael had a promising preseason. Quarterback Russell Wilson remains the dominant player on offense, and he has developed into a sensational player. He’s willing to run, but he’s more interested in getting the ball downfield in the passing game, with Jermaine Kearse and Doug Baldwin his primary targets. The defense has lost a couple of key players through free agency, but the Seahawks still have Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril. This is still a very good team that will be in contention for the division and the Super Bowl.

NFC SOUTH PREVIEW A look at the NFC South heading into the 2016 NFL season, with teams listed in predicted order of finish

CAROLINA PANTHERS • Coach: Ron Rivera, 6th season (47-32-1, .594) • Last season: 15-1, 1st place • Playoffs: Beat Seattle, 31-24; beat Arizona, 49-15 in Conference Championship; lost to Denver, 24-10 in Super Bowl.

• Outlook: The defending NFC champions go into the season with just about the same team that went to the Super Bowl, with one notable exception. The Panthers opted to rescind the franchise tag from toptier cornerback Josh Norman, who signed with Washington. Cam Newton comes off an MVP season, and he gets back former first-round receiver Kelvin Benjamin, who missed last year with a knee injury.

The defense remains sound, despite Norman’s loss, with Luke Kuechly leading the way. Star Lotulelei, Kony Ealy, Charles Johnson and Thomas Davis are also excellent defensive players. The big question is whether Carolina can break the recent run of bad luck among Super Bowl losers. No team that lost the Super Bowl one year has gotten back to the big dance since the 1993 Buffalo Bills.

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS • Coach: Dirk Koetter, 1st season • Last season: 6-10,

4th place • Outlook: Quarterback Jameis Winston should benefit from his rookie season, and he appears to have a much firmer grasp of the system under new head coach Dirk Koetter. Former first-round pick Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson head a solid group of receivers, and tailback Doug Martin is coming off a 1,402-yard season. The defense is anchored by reliable tackle Gerald McCoy, and the Bucs went heavy on

2 01 6

SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS

PREVIEW

By Bob Glauber | Newsday

free agency by bringing in defensive tackle Robert Ayers, cornerback Brent Grimes and linebacker Daryl Smith. This is a team that looks ready to take the next step and jump into the playoff conversation.

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS • Coach: Sean Payton, 11th season (87-57, .604) • Last season: 7-9, 3rd place • Outlook: Payton signed a long-term contract in the offseason, and Drew Brees isn’t going anywhere, so this team will once again revolve around its two biggest personalities. The question now is whether there’s enough of a supporting cast to get the Saints back into playoff contention. Brees remains one of the league’s elite quarterbacks, and look for 2014 first-round receiver Brandin Cooks to be a major focus of the passing game. Newly-signed Coby Fleener also will see plenty of passes, and Mark Ingram returns as the feature back. Defense remains the big question mark. Second-year pass rusher Hau’oli Kikaha is out with a torn ACL, and the Saints signed Paul Kruger after his release from Cleveland. Safety Jairus Byrd is healthy, and he teams with Kenny Vaccaro.

ATLANTA FALCONS • Coach: Dan Quinn, 2nd season (8-8, .500) • Last season: 8-8, 2nd place • Outlook: Quinn got off to a terrific start last year, but the Falcons flopped after beginning 6-0. Matt Ryan remains one of the league’s more efficient quarterbacks, but 21 touchdown passes last season, down from a career high of 32 in 2012. Julio Jones is a major receiving threat, and he’s joined this year by Bengals free agent Mohamed Sanu. Devonta Freeman leads a non-descript running attack. Quinn wants his defense to more closely resemble the Seahawks teams he ran as defensive coordinator, but 2015 first-round pick Vic Beasley was a disappointment with just four sacks last season.

• Coach: Chip Kelly,1st season • Last season: 5-11, 4th place • Outlook: Kelly gets his second coaching opportunity after being fired by the Eagles with one game left in the 2015 season. He inherits a weak team with plenty of limitations at quarterback. Blaine Gabbert starts over Colin Kaepernick, who still hasn’t recaptured the form that helped him get to the Super Bowl after the 2012 season. Torrey Smith leads a so-so receiver group, and Carlos Hyde is the top running threat. Kelly’s up-tempo offense may not result in immediate production. The defense has been hurt by the recent retirements of Patrick Willis, Chris Borland and Justin Smith, leaving Navorro Bowman as the best player on that side. The 49ers drafted former Oregon star DeForest Buckner to improve the defensive line.

NFC EAST PREVIEW A look at the NFC East heading into the 2016 NFL season, with teams listed in predicted order of finish

NEW YORK GIANTS • Coach: Ben McAdoo,1st season • Last season: 6-10, 3rd place • Outlook: McAdoo takes over for Tom Coughlin, who parted ways with the Giants after 12 seasons that included two Super Bowl championships. It’s an excellent situation for McAdoo because the Giants still have a franchise quarterback in Eli Manning, and GM Jerry Reese spent big in free agency to fix a woeful defense. Linemen Olivier Vernon and Damon “Snacks” Harrison, as well as cornerback Janoris Jenkins and first-round cornerback Eli Apple are welcome additions to a defense that finished 32nd and last in 2015. There’s no reason the Giants can’t contend for a playoff spot.

WASHINGTON REDSKINS • Coach: Jay Gruden, 3rd season (13-19, .406) • Last season: 9-7, 1st place • Playoffs: Lost to Green Bay, 35-18.

• Outlook: It was a breakout year in 2015 for quarterback Kirk Cousins, but the team isn’t willing to invest in him longterm just yet. Cousins is back on a oneyear deal as the team’s franchise designation, and he’ll need another big season to get the multi-year deal he wants.

Gruden did a terrific job steering Washington through the difficult transition away from Robert Griffin III, and East title was well earned, albeit against mediocre opposition within the division.

There’s plenty of talent on offense, with tight end Josh Reed and receivers DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon leading the way. An already solid defense added

cornerback Josh Norman.

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES • Coach: Doug Pederson, 1st season • Last season: 7-9, 2nd place • Outlook: The blockbuster trade that sent Sam Bradford to the Vikings for a first-round pick in 2017 and a fourthrounder in 2018 signals the Eagles are ready to cast their lot sooner rather than later with No. 2 overall pick Carson Wentz. That means this could be a rough transition period for first-year head coach Doug Pederson, but the Eagles believe Wentz’s huge upside eventually will translate into plenty of playoff appearances ahead. Even with Bradford, the Eagles weren’t much of a threat, with no depth at wide receiver, questions at running back and a defense in transition.

DALLAS COWBOYS • Coach: Jason Garrett, 7th season (45-43, .511) • Last season: 4-12, 4th place • Outlook: Another year, another injury for Tony Romo. His broken collarbone early last season doomed the Cowboys, and now it’s a broken bone in his back that will keep him out as long as two months. Romo vows to return and lead the team to the playoffs, but rookie quarterback Dak Prescott will have to be light years better than last year’s cast of woeful backups. Prescott had a promising preseason, but the task becomes much more difficult against defenses that actually will game-plan against him. The Cowboys’ defense is average at best, and will start the season without pass rusher Demarcus Lawrence (four-game suspension for substance abuse violation).

STOJ

SEPTEMBER 16 – SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

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.

Sean “Diddy” Combs has hit the top of the Forbes 2016 “Cash Kings” list for the second year in a row. According to Forbes, he raked in $62 million in 2016. Along with his music, Combs is getting major bucks for his lucrative Ciroc vodka deal and other non-music ventures. Also known as “Puff Daddy,’’ his Bad Boy Reunion Tour runs through the fall.

Issa Rae will star in and executive produce “Insecure,’’ a series on HBO exploring the friendship between two African-American women who deal with their sometimes stormy relationship while grappling with conflicts inside and outside Black culture. The series debuts Oct. 9. Rae became an Internet sensation back in 2011 with her her YouTube series “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.’’

New Black-themed comedies offer edgy, honest perspectives

BY GREG BRAXTON LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

An African-American woman from a community outreach nonprofit group is addressing a gradeschool class when one student interrupts: “Why you talk like a White girl?”

Click!

A plus-sized Africa-American woman is seducing her White onand-off boyfriend, promising a night of carnal delight: “Come get this chocolate pie!”

Click!

A young African-American man is confronted outside his parents’ house by his disapproving father, who accuses the son of always asking for money. He tells his son he can’t come into the house because “I can’t afford it.”

Click! Click! Click!

These scenes come from three new African-American-themed TV comedies debuting in the fall in a medium still largely dominated by shows about Whites. Each is the product of distinctive African-American talents who created and star in them. Each is notable for its edgy, honest depiction of Black life – a rarity on American television.

HBO’s ‘Insecure’ The depictions of situations, nuances, cultural references, language and interactions within and outside the African-American universe that confront the key characters in the series will be recognizable to many Black viewers, particularly since they are largely unfiltered through a mainstream prism. But the writers and producers of the shows also believe that general audiences will find universal truths and situations that they can identify with.

The scene of the woman addressing the students is an introduction to HBO’s “Insecure,” which was co-created and stars Issa Rae, who developed a huge following with her popular YouTube series “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.”

In the show, which premieres Oct. 9, Rae plays a twentysomething navigating humorously uncomfortable situations in her per-

sonal and professional life.

More shows “Loosely Exactly Nicole,” which premiered last week on MTV, stars comedian Nicole Byer (MTV’S “Girl Code”) as a slightly fictionalized version of herself — a rotund, charismatic aspiring actress reaching for her slice of the Hollywood dream. In addition to her occasional lover, Byer also has a considerable sexual appetite.

Also premiering last week was FX’s “Atlanta,” created by Donald Glover (“Community”). Glover, who also serves as writer, director and executive musical director of the show, stars as a broke and nearly homeless young man to trying to turn his life around — and hopefully reverse the disappointment of his parents — as the manager of his rapper cousin.

The three shows are launching at a time when the volatile topic of race — particularly when it comes to the presidential race, the shootings of unarmed African-American males by police and movements such as #BlackLivesMatter — is center stage on the national scene.

Single and unsettled None of the shows are overtly political or topical. They share similarities — the main characters are single and unsettled personally and professionally, “Atlanta” and “Insecure” have a hiphop sensibility, and the N-word is peppered through both shows.

But the comedies have their separate identities, projecting a vivid — and often provocative — view of African-American life rarely projected on mainstream television. While popular shows such as “black-ish” and “Empire” have won favor with White viewers as well as people of color, these new shows are told from a younger perspective.

‘Allowed to work’ Byer, who is an executive producer and writer of her show, echoed Rae’s enthusiasm in a separate interview.

“It’s great that the voices of young people of color are being

respected and that we’re being allowed to work,” Byer said. “All three of us are pretty hands-on our shows, if not fully hands-on, which is incredible.”

More significantly, “Insecure,” “Loosely Exactly Nicole” and “Atlanta” offer a sharp counterpoint to such past and present shows as “Girls,” “Sex in the City,” “Friends,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “New Girl” that revolve mostly around young White characters.

“Insecure,” which Rae created with former talk-show host and writer Larry Wilmore (“blackish”), explores the sometimes dicey relationship friendship between two Black women wrestling with conflicts inside and outside Black culture.

Beyond ‘Girls’ The show is a breakthrough for HBO, which has been repeatedly criticized in past years for showcasing shows about White women while ignoring stories about women of color.

“Girls,” created by and starring Lena Dunham, has particularly come under fire for its focus on young White characters even though it is based in New York City.

Set in Inglewood, “Insecure” features Rae’s character, named Issa Dee, dealing with the awkwardness of being a single Black woman: Her long-standing relationship with her live-in boyfriend Lawrence (Jay Ellis) appears to be going nowhere fast.

Her job at the nonprofit agency is also problematic — the organization, geared to assist people “in the hood,” is predominantly staffed by White people. She often props herself in front of a mirror, giving herself pep talks.

For all races Rae believes “Insecure” presents universal truths that will be identifiable for all races.

“There are things about being female and being Black in the show, but that’s not at the forefront,” said Rae. “We’re dealing with regular people who just happen to be Black. There’s nothing high stakes, and that’s just fine.

Hopefully everyone who watches

MATTHIAS CLAMER/FX

Donald Glover stars as Earnest Marks in “ Atlanta,’’ a new comedy series on FX. will be able to point and say, ‘Hey, I know that person. I know what they’re going through.’”

The humor of Byer in “Loosely, Exactly Nicole” is more overthe-top, with Byer exhibiting an energetic — and highly sexual — persona. Her character lives in a crummy Van Nuys apartment.

Her two closest friends are White — her gay roommate, Devin (Jacob Wysocki), and BBF Veronica (Jen D’Angelo). She’ll do anything to get an acting job — she paints the face of the son of her Asian friend so she can pose as his mother during an audition.

Tone of ‘Atlanta’ “Atlanta” represents the singular, quirky vision of Glover that contains elements of dark humor and even violence. Describing the offbeat structure of the series during the summer session of the Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour, Glover indicated that the series is more about tone than narrative.

He portrays Earn Marks, who is so broke and irresponsible that Van (Zazie Beetz), his girlfriend and mother of his young daughter, is close to kicking him out of

their home. But he thinks he can pull his life together if he can persuade his up-and-coming rapper cousin Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry) to hire him as his manager.

More than comedy Glover is better known to mainstream audiences than Rae or Byer, and viewers used to his nerd role on “Community” may be mystified by “Atlanta.” A shooting and its aftermath in the first and second episodes are mostly played for laughs.

Most of the young AfricanAmerican men demonstrate little ambition or responsibility, spending their days smoking weed and playing video games. Earn does not appear to be a devoted parent or partner. Alfred carries a gun around, and is quick to pull it out.

Glover said at TCA that some viewers familiar with his work may be thrown off by the series.

“Some of them will be “Oh, that’s cool.” Some of them will be like ‘I hate this thing. I don’t get him.’ That happens a lot. I think people are always, like ‘I don’t get this guy,’ like ‘I don’t understand him.’ and that’s, I think, good. Like, I think that’s really good, actually.”

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EDUCATION

SEPTEMBER 16 – SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

S

States experiment with recovery high schools As the nation struggles with an opioid-addiction epidemic, states increasingly have experimented with schools that enroll only kids who have drug and alcohol addiction problems as a way to help them.

BY TERESA WILTZ STATELINE/TNS

BOSTON – This summer, Melvin Matos did something that he never thought he would do: graduate from high school.

He’d started drinking at 14, and quickly moved on to pills and pot. By the time he turned 16, Matos could see where his life was heading — some of his buddies already had died from drugs and drink.

After a stint in rehab, Matos decided to enroll at the William J. Ostiguy High School in downtown Boston, one of five public “recovery high schools” in Massachusetts.

There, in addition to his academic classes, he participated in group therapy and 12-step meetings, submitted to regular drug tests — and formed friendships with kids facing similar struggles.

Nationwide problem This fall, Matos will enroll in a local community college and pursue his dreams of a pro baseball career. He’s convinced that if he hadn’t gone to Ostiguy, he’d still be using alcohol and drugs.

An estimated 1.3 million 12to 17-year-olds have a substance abuse disorder. Those 12 to 19 years old account for nearly 12 percent of all admissions to publicly funded rehab facilities — and about half of all students who return to traditional schools after treatment relapse within a year. Teens who relapse are less

TERESA WILTZ/THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS/TNS

Lyonel Traversiere is the school operations coordinator at William J. Ostiguy High School in Boston. Recovery high schools like Ostiguy are designed to help teens with addiction stay sober. likely to stay in school and are more likely to skip school.

Proponents say recovery high schools like Ostiguy greatly reduce the chances of a relapse and ultimately save taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars by diverting one teen from the criminal justice system.

One in Jacksonville As the nation struggles with an opioid-addiction epidemic, states increasingly have experimented with recovery high schools that enroll only kids who have drug and alcohol addiction problems as a way to help treat and support them.

Today, there are 27 public or charter recovery high schools in 11 states, including Texas, Minnesota and New Jersey.

This month, Florida will open its first public recovery high school, in Jacksonville. In July, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, signed a bill to create a four-year pilot program to allow public school students to attend the state’s lone recovery high school, which is private.

Expensive schools

Funding sources

Other schools are slated to open soon in Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and Colorado Springs, Colo., according to the Association of Recovery Schools (ARS), a Denverbased nonprofit membership organization that provides support and accreditation services to the schools.

“Recovery high schools can be a potential diversion for these kids, keeping them out of homeless shelters, foster care and the juvenile justice system,” said Kristen Harper, executive director of the ARS. Getting a recovery school up and running is far from easy.

The schools are expensive.

Recovery high schools typically spend $16,000 to $18,000 per student each year, according to the ARS. That’s compared to the national average of $10,700 for regular public schools. (Ostiguy spends about $32,000 per student, according to its principal, Roger Oser.)

Class sizes typically are small — the better to give students, many of whom have fallen behind academically, intensive support.

Some schools have fewer than 15 students and none has more than 100, according to Andrew Finch, an associate professor at Vanderbilt University who has researched recovery schools for more than a decade.

Most public and charter schools rely on a combination of public funding and private donations. Some charge a small tuition fee to cover the costs of drug testing and support staff.

Often schools are run by a patchwork of agencies and nonprofits. For example, the recovery schools in Massachusetts were formed as alternative public schools a decade ago as part of a statewide, interagency plan to combat substance abuse.

High cost One out of 10 people aged 12 and older in the state was dependent on alcohol or other drugs.

The state estimated that addiction costs $77 million each year in incarceration and $167 million in hospitalization.

Ostiguy in Boston is funded by the Massachusetts Department of Education and the Department of Public Health. It operates in collaboration with the Action for Boston Community Development, a nonprofit human services organization, the Gavin Foundation, a substance abuse agency, and the Boston Public Schools.

The academic portion of the school is paid for with tax dollars, and the rest of the program is paid for through grants and fundraising. (The school’s annual budget is $450,000, Capaci said, but should be twice that to adequately fund its activities.)

The school welcomed its first students in 2015, but there were only five of them. This year, the school will admit at least 10 students, which Capaci considers a small victory after a year of efforts to find students willing to seek help.

“We had so many learning curves. But with the heroin epidemic, it really made sense to bring this program to our state,” Capaci said. “We just jumped in and I’m so glad we did.”

Positive results How successful the recovery schools are in helping kids avoid relapse is hard to gauge. Vanderbilt’s Finch said there is little data on the relapse rates for the schools.

But preliminary research shows “quite positive results,” particularly with reducing marijuana use, said Paul Moberg, a research professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. (The two are collaborating on a national multi-year study of recovery schools.)

At Ostiguy, where 61 students were enrolled for the 2013-14 school year, results were mixed.

Sixteen of 21 seniors graduated.

Eighteen students advanced to the next grade, six did not advance but remained enrolled, nine returned to their home school, four pursued a GED and eight are no longer enrolled in any school.

When your list is long and time is short,