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OCTOBER 2 – OCTOBER 8, 2015

VOLUME 23 NO. 40

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STILL OPEN

At the last minute, Congress gives final approval to stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown. BY LISA MASCARO TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU / TNS

WASHINGTON – Congress forestalled a federal government shutdown Wednesday, but with another fiscal deadline looming, Republican leaders are opening negotiations with President Barack Obama to prevent the next crisis. Hours before a midnight deadline, the House overwhelmingly approved legislation to fund government offices and services for the next few months through Dec. 11 – without any of the cuts to Planned Parenthood that conservatives sought. The strong bipartisan vote, 277-151, matched a similar compromise in the Senate, which passed the bill earlier Wednesday with wide support, 78-20 as more than half the Republican senators joined Democrats.

Signed quickly

veto any bill that cut funding to Planned Parenthood, welcomed the bipartisan accord as it opens talks with Speaker John A. Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on a broader budget compromise. Obama swiftly signed the stopgap spending bill, which includes $700 million to fight wildfires in Western states. The willingness of Boehner and McConnell to defy anti-abortion conservatives in their own party to keep the government running for the next 10 weeks may open the door for a more comprehensive budget deal or perhaps a series of mini-accords to resolve looming year-end issues. Talks with Obama took on added urgency after Boehner announced he would resign at the end of October. Conservative Republicans had succeeded in forcing Boehner out, but their leverage OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/MCT weakened after colleagues abandoned their strategy of threatening a government shut- Government operations in the the U.S. Capitol dome, covered in scaffolding, will See OPEN, Page A2 continue.

The White House, which had vowed to

WATER ON MARS

Mankind’s second home? Scientists using observations from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter said they’ve found powerful evidence that salt water routinely flows on the Martian surface. If so, it’s possible that life may exist on Mars right now, and the planet could someday support human life.

Remember or forget? Scott, Cabinet discuss Dozier’s future COMPILED FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS

TALLAHASSEE – Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet began discussions Tuesday on the future of the shuttered Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, a former state-run reform school where children are alleged to have been abused and died. However, no decisions were made as the state officials agreed to await a final report expected in January from University of South Florida researchers, who excavated the 1,400-acre site about 70 miles west of Tallahassee and continue to try identify remains.

Horrific abuse For decades, relatives of some boys dispatched to Dozier have struggled to find out what became of them after they went missing amid reports of beatings, torture and sexual assaults at the reform school in Marianna. Survivors who attended the school have described beatings, torture sessions, rapes and the disappearances of boys, many of them after they were taken from dormitories or other school buildings for punishment. Historical documents suggest that more than 100 boys died at the school. School records say 34 boys were buried on the grounds and 31 were shipped home for burial. The remainder are unaccounted for.

COURTESY OF NASA

Scientific research See DOZIER, Page A2

Senate could drop Confederate flag from seal BY BRANDON LARRABEE THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – State senators are scheduled next week to begin considering whether to keep the Confederate flag on the Senate’s official seal, another sign of a growing national tide against icons of the South’s rebellion in the 1860s. The Senate Rules Committee will meet Oct. 8 to begin re-examining the current emblem of the chamber. Under Senate rules, the seal includes “a fan of the five flags which have flown over Florida” – those of the United States, Confederate States of America, France, Great Britain and Spain.

ALSO INSIDE

Second thoughts But there has been a growing backlash against Confederate symbols since June, when a man with White supremacist views opened fire at an African-American church in Charleston, S.C., killing nine people. Since then, Southern states, including Florida, have wrestled with how to reconcile past commemorations of “the lost cause” with shifting feelings about race and the meaning of the Civil War. While many Southerners view displays of the Confederate banner as recognition of their ancestors’ military service and sacrifice, African-Americans and others see

flying the flag as an endorsement of the brutal, slave-driven economy that was a central issue in the war. Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, DTampa, requested in June that the committee consider whether the seal should be changed. Gardiner wrote about how views on symbols can transform over time. “The current Senate seal and coat of arms were first adopted in rule in 1973,” Gardiner wrote. “Florida has certainly changed a great deal since the early seventies. Just as our state seal has been revised over time, I believe a periodic review of our legislative in-

signia would be beneficial.” In a separate letter to Rules Chairman David Simmons, Joyner called explicitly for “the removal of the Confederate flag from the official Senate seal.” Gardiner asked Simmons, RAltamonte Springs, to have a recommendation ready when the next regular legislative session begins in January. Any change to the Senate seal would require a twothirds vote of the Senate. Other legislative efforts are also underway. A pair of bills (SB 154 and HB 243) – sponsored by Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, and Rep. Darryl Rouson, DSt. Petersburg – would seek to ban government buildings or properties from displaying any flag used by the Confederacy during its 1860 to 1865 rebellion.

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

Superintendents issue rebuke of school accountability system NATION | A6

Study shows Asians to surpass Latinos as largest immigrant group in US HEALTH | B4

Is six miles a week the magic number for runners?

COMMENTARY: REV. JESSE L. JACKSON, SR.:POPE OFFERS A PROPHETIC VOICE | A4 COMMENTARY: GLEN FORD: POLICE ‘TRAINING’ IS THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION | A5

FOCUS

OCTOBER 2 – OCTOBER 8, 2015

Why I ain’t getting on the Million Man March bus for ‘Justice Or Else’ When the buses pull out for the Million Man March (MMM) 20 next week, they’ll do it without me. I ain’t going. I missed the 1995 MMM on purpose, too. I had a moment of unclarity ten years ago, and thought seriously about going to the MMM 10th anniversary, but didn’t, and I’m sure I did the right thing. Why? According to the Nation of Islam. the theme of the first MMM was “atonement.” The main problem of Black America was the perfidy of Black men. So a million, maybe 2 million of us converged on D.C., led by figures like Rev. Ben Chavis – who undeniably has a great deal to atone for – to protest against ourselves. Traveling hundreds of miles to the seat of government to “atone” and to protest against myself just didn’t make much sense.

Real conflicts Letting myself appear to be led by a crew as famously patriarchal,

ceration, seasoned with discredited myths about “harnessing Black buying power” and “Justice or Else,” the kind of militant sounding but meaningless trash talk for which Farrakhan is justly famous, available for purchase on T-shirts, pens, tote bags, hoodies, baseball caps and more. As a professional organizer for parts of the 1980s and ‘90s, I know the first thing you do when you bring 3, 30 or 300 people together is you get their contact info. So the first thing I asked brothers returning from the 1995 MMM was, “Did they get your digits? Did they put you on the Million Man Mailing List for future contact?” They all replied that while MMM organizers remembered to collect buckets of money, nobody took names or contact info. They were organized, but not THAT organized. Apparently MMM organizers never for an instant intended to put massive numbers of ordinary Black people into action as anything other than a backdrop to their leaders. The 1995 MMM catapulted Louis Farrakhan, in the eyes of White America and many Blacks as well, as the paramount leader of African-Americans, despite his crackpot racial origin stories, his right-wing economic beliefs, his backward views on women, families and more. A few months later, Farrakhan and Ben Chavis surfaced in Nigeria, holding aloft the bloodstained hand of Nigeria’s looter-in-chief General Sani Abacha, proclaiming him a “good Mus-

BRUCE A. DIXON BLACK AGENDA REPORT

homophobic and misogynistic as the Nation of Islam in the name of “unity” made even less sense. Those were ugly, even deadly tendencies to be fought – not minor quibbles to be ignored for the sake of the day’s display of imaginary Black unity. And what was, what is all this “Black unity” stuff about anyhow? Nobody could tell us exactly in 1995, and nobody can tell us today exactly what it is we’re supposed to be “unified” around, apart from the personalities of our leaders. All that MMM 20 organizers and publicists have to offer this time around are rehashes of the bogus 1995 “atonement” narrative, updated with references to ghetto violence and mass incar-

lim” bidding Nigerians to be patient with continued brutal military rule. That’s how Farrakhan spent the cash and political capital those million Black men on the mall in 1995 earned him.

Not unique In the real world, all that the pretense of “Black unity” has ever done is empower the long line of traditional Black leaders and aspirants – from Booker T. Washington through DuBois and Garvey, to Jesse, Sharpton, the first Black president and the Congressional Black Caucus – and even the current #BlackLivesMatter leadership. Every one of them did or still do claim to represent the supposedly “unified” voice of Black America, or Black youth, and “the movement” – whatever that is. This pretense is the foundation of their leadership credentials and it makes things a lot simpler for White allies and foes alike, both of whom frequently have trouble with the notion that Black America might be a complex, class-divided and sometimes contradictory polity.

‘Bigger than Farrakhan’ Quite a few people told me that the MMM then and now was and still is bigger than Farrakhan and my differences with the NOI. They’re right, but not the way they imagine. It IS bigger than Farrakhan because it’s about the way we expe-

DOZIER

What’s its future? State Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, who requested the Cabinet discussion, said after the meeting that he doesn’t know what the future holds for

OPEN from A1

down over the Planned Parenthood money. The vote tally Wednesday showed that most Senate Republicans had no interest in a repeat of the politically damaging 2013 shutdown, which came after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, led conservatives to fight Obama over the Affordable Care Act. In the House, however, most Republicans voted against it.

Secret calls Hoping to fend off the next crisis, Boehner and McConnell initiated private talks with Obama earlier this month. In two previously undisclosed calls – one on Sept. 17 and a follow-up on Sept. 23 – the men discussed a broader two-year budget deal. Boehner’s announced resignation frees him from the risk of ouster by his conservative flank and the speaker has indicated he wants to “clean up the barn”

I’m done I’m through supporting leaders whose leadership depends on our failure to challenge and criticize them when they deserve criticism. I’m finished with thin-skinned leaders who don’t tolerate open discussion of differences and who cannot or will not build bottomup democratic organizations. I’m done with leaders who don’t encourage ordinary to get deeper into politics and economics, and who don’t work to empower ordinary people to come up with their own visions and plans of how to build pieces of the new world. Malcolm X was done with Saturday D.C. picnic-marches back in 1963, so we won’t even talk about that.

Bruce Dixon is managing editor of BlackAgendaReport. com. Contact him at bruce.dixon@blackagendareport.com.

Boys, worried that the history of Dozier may be lost if the site is overly redeveloped. “Until they find the remaining bodies, they should never let any kind of buildings be put on that property,” Fudge said. “Those boys … you know when we were sent there, we didn’t expect to be beaten, and we certainly didn’t expect to die.”

from A1

From September to December 2013, USF researchers led excavations at or near Boot Hill, an unmarked cemetery on school grounds. Using ground-penetrating radar, DNA samples and search dogs, they probed for unmarked graves of boys reported missing over the years. Bones, teeth and other artifacts were recovered and have been submitted for DNA testing. Erin Kimmerle, a forensic anthropologist at USF, said researchers have completed their field work but left the post-excavation status of Dozier to state officials. Researchers found the remains of 51 people at the site, of whom six have been identified. “Of the six identifications we’ve had, four were to direct siblings. So, even though they are quite elderly now, it’s brothers and sisters,” Kimmerle said. “I know they are extremely grateful to all of you (Scott and the Cabinet), as we are for the opportunity to take on this project and bring this history forward.” An investigation by the U.S. Justice Department documented some of the abuse and led to the closure of the school. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement concluded in 2010 that, although it found dozens of graves, there was insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges.

rience Black leadership. It’s about the way we imagine our own responsibility in the struggle. MMM and its successors are about using mute and “unified” Black masses to lend credibility to the incredible, legitimacy to the illegitimate. MMM is about resurrecting and reinforcing the 120-year-old tradition of top-down Black leadership that ignores the needs of most of their supposed constituencies.

State obligation

EMILY MICHOT/MIAMI HERALD/MCT

In 2008, Roger Kiser visited the graveyard containing the remains of young boys who died at the former Dozier School for Boys in Marianna. Kiser was sent to Dozier at age 12 and says he was often beaten with a leather whip reinforced by a slab of sheet metal. the property, which Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam called the “gateway to Marianna.” “I don’t know any one of us can answer that question by ourselves,” Atwater said. “I think it’s clear … the reality of economics, you also heard the importance of the spiritual, there are people’s whose lives were lost there. How can it be a site for good in the future? What should be seen and known there? I don’t know.”

before he steps down. “The president and Speaker Boehner and I spoke about getting started in the discussions last week, and I would expect them to start very soon,” McConnell said. The back-channel talks have only inflamed conservatives, who want their leaders to confront Obama, rather than compromise with him. “If he’s using that as a vehicle to bypass conservatives, I’m not happy about that,” said Rep. John Fleming, R-La. Now, though, with Boehner on his way out, the embattled speaker has little to lose in crafting a deal with Obama. “There’s a number of issues we’re going to try to deal with over the coming month,” Boehner said this week. “I’m going to take this one day at a time and do what we can on behalf of the American people.”

End sequester The common goal of the White House and Congress is to undo the so-called

Atwater added that a funding request may be made to the state Legislature to help cover internment costs when remains are matched through DNA testing with surviving family members.

‘Dark chapter’ Putnam, while noting some of the buildings have issues that range from asbestos to simple years of neglect, suggested the state consider recreational or ed-

ucational uses for the land north of Interstate 10. “We all are painfully aware of the dark chapter that Dozier represents in our state’s history,” Putnam said. “This is our opportunity to bring that to a close and start a new chapter, a brighter chapter for the resources on that parcel, for the community of Marianna.” But Charles Fudge, a former resident of Dozier School for

Planned Parenthood funding In the budget deal, do you think Planned Parenthood funding should me eliminated or maintained?

32%

60%

Eliminate

Don’t Maintain know If the government shuts down, who do you blame? Sept. 2015 Republicans

Democrats

40%

Don’t Both equally know

26%

23%

11%

Sept. 2013

39%

36%

Republicans

Obama administration

17%

Don’t Both equally know

Source: Pew Research Center Graphic: Staff, Tribune News Service

sequester cuts that they agreed to in 2011, when Boehner first became speaker with the House majority. Many lawmakers in both parties have since sided with the Pentagon or domestic agency heads who say those reductions are too deep, and could damage the economy. But the budget talks could spill into broader negotiations on other outstanding issues that have vexed Congress and could

lead to crises later this year. Among them are the need to raise the debt ceiling next month to allow continued borrowing to pay the bills and avoid a default and the expiration of transportation funds for highway projects Oct. 31. The White House cautioned Republican leaders Wednesday against trying to bypass Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,

Dale Landry, president of the NAACP’s Tallahassee branch, said Florida needs to pay costs, even if it’s capped at $5,000 per family, to help pay for transportation and services when remains are turned over to relatives after DNA matches. “Those remains are remains of Florida’s children and a few men,” Landry said. “We did not handle this ceremoniously from the beginning. We need to ceremoniously handle this from now on.” The state originally had hoped to sell the Dozier site, a move that was put on hold by the investigation.

No plan Secretary of State Ken Detzner said after the meeting that his agency, which includes the Division of Historical Resources, would be able to handle any historical artifacts and records, but so far hasn’t been given any such directions. “I don’t have any plan,” Detzner said. “If they ask us to be a part of the process, the governor directs me to do that, we will.”

Jim Turner and Tom Urban of The News Service Of Florida contributed to this report.

in talks with the administration. “If Republicans in Congress are interested in negotiations, then they should walk over to Senator Reid’s office and to Leader Pelosi’s office, and accept their invitation to engage in bipartisan negotiations,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “Republicans are going to need the support of Democrats in the House and the Senate in order to pass this legislation.”

New speaker The talks come as House Republicans are set to take an initial vote next week on their new leadership team, as Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California appears close to locking the votes to become the new speaker. Down the leadership ladder, fierce battles are playing out for the No. 2 job, as well as the majority whip. One lawmaker called a closed-door meeting this week “a good therapy session” as Republican lawmakers aired their con-

cerns on the party’s direction in Congress. Meanwhile, the fight over Planned Parenthood’s nearly $500 million a year in federal funding continues. Efforts to defund the organization ramped up after covert videos showed officials discussing the use of aborted fetus tissues for medical research. Even though federal funds cannot be used for abortion except in extreme circumstances, including rape and abuse, conservatives want to send the organization’s funds to other clinics. The House passed a new measure Wednesday to eliminate Planned Parenthood’s funding as an addendum to the broader government funding bill, but it is not expected to pass the Senate. A separate effort is underway to pass similar funding restrictions under special budget rules that could result in passage that would force Obama’s threatened veto.

Staff writer Michael A. Memoli in Washington contributed to this report.

OCTOBER 2 – OCTOBER 8, 2015

FLORIDA

Settlement could offer more housing options for people with mental illness

FROM THE NEWS SERVICE

BY MARGIE MENZEL THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – The state Department of Children and Families has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Disability Rights Florida and move toward providing more options for people who are mentally ill to live in their communities instead of in state mental hospitals. The advocacy group sued the department on the grounds that Florida was violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by not providing enough community placements for people who were ready to be discharged from mental hospitals overseen by DCF.

Nowhere to go “We noted that there were individuals in there who were declared ready for discharge, yet they weren’t being discharged because there was nowhere for them to go,” Molly Paris, a Disability Rights Florida staff attorney, said. “The lawsuit was an effort to get the state to provide more resources in the community.” Paris said that in 2013, advocates noticed a pattern at Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee, Northeast Florida Hospital in Macclenny, and the South Florida State Hospital in Pembroke Pines. People would be discharged from the hospitals to the community, she said, and often were placed in assisted-living facilities, which Paris described as “like a mini-institution. …That’s not really normalization. That’s not like living in the community.” “They were kind of set up for failure,” she said. “They weren’t given a lot of support, a lot of services – and then before you know it, they’re back in the hospital.”

Pilot programs The settlement came as Gov. Rick Scott calls for more coordination and better streamlining

Justices won’t reconsider UCF athlete case

MARSHA HALPER/MIAMI HERALD/TNS

A man bicycles past an assisted living facility home in Miami. State officials want to place people with mental illnesses in community-based facilities rather than state institutions. of the state’s mental-health services. Last week Scott said he’ll propose more than $19 million for mental-health and substanceabuse treatment in his recommended budget for the fiscal year that will start July 1 – including $12.8 million for community behavioral health services that help people transition from state facilities to their communities. Scott also signed executive orders in July and earlier this month creating pilot programs in Broward, Pinellas and Alachua counties to conduct inventories of all state programs that address mental-health needs. Department of Children and Families spokeswoman Michelle Glady said the budget items were developed several months in advance of the settlement agreement. The settlement requires the Department of Children and Families to ask the Legislature for funding for a pilot program that would make better use of what is known as the Florida Assertive

Community Treatment program to serve more people with varying degrees of needs. Currently, FACT teams provide intensive wraparound services – counseling, case management, housing, medication and transportation. But not everyone who transitions from a mental hospital to community-based care continues to need all those services.

Few ever leave “A review of the FACT discharge data has shown that very few FACT participants ever leave the program as a result of increased stability and subsequent transition to a lower level of care,” said the settlement agreement. It also noted that the Department of Children and Families “hypothesizes (this) may be occurring because FACT participants who clinically and functionally are ready for lower levels of care may nonetheless not be transitioned because they risk losing their housing subsidy.”

By the terms of the settlement, participants in the pilot program will receive vouchers allowing them to buy services and community supports, including rental assistance. The department will provide an assessment tool to determine the extent of their needs. According to the department, the average cost per year of treating someone at a civil state mental health hospital is $103,437, while the average cost per year for FACT services in $12,540. Currently there are 31 FACT teams across the state, each mandated to serve no more than 100 people. Each FACT team includes a psychiatrist, a peer specialist and a team leader, along with an independent advisory committee to help the team develop resources in its community. Under the settlement agreement, Paris said, the pilot program will be launched in Duval and Hillsborough counties. “None of this is going to happen overnight, but it’s a start,” she said.

The state Supreme Court has turned down a rehearing request in a case filed by the parents of University of Central Florida football player Ereck Plancher, who collapsed and died during conditioning drills in 2008. Justices ruled in May that Plancher’s parents were limited to collecting $200,000 in damages because UCF Athletics Association, Inc., which administers the university’s athletics department, is covered by the state’s sovereign-immunity laws. A jury in 2011 said Plancher’s parents should receive $10 million, but the 5th District Court of Appeal in 2013 rejected that award because of sovereign immunity. The Supreme Court upheld that decision, prompting attorneys for Plancher’s parents to file a motion for rehearing in June. The Supreme Court issued an order Friday turning down the rehearing request. With the Supreme Court’s May ruling, Plancher’s family would need to convince state lawmakers to pass what is known as a “claim” bill to be able to collect more than $200,000.

Organizations representing Florida’s school superintendents and teachers say that the state’s latest standardized test can’t be trusted.

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

JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/ BAY AREA NEWS GROUP/ MCT

Superintendents issue rebuke of school accountability system BY JIM SAUNDERS THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

…AND MUCH MORE!

TALLAHASSEE –Less than a month after the Department of Education touted the validity of a new standardized test, Florida school superintendents issued a statement on Sept. 25 saying they have “lost confidence” in the state’s publicschool accountability system. “We have witnessed the erosion of public support for an accountability system that was once a model for the nation,’’ the Florida Association of District School Superintendents said in the statement. “Florida school superintendents stand ready to work with all stakeholders and the Department of Education to develop a viable accountability system and regain the trust of our students, teachers, parents and communities.” Superintendents took the stance after state Education Commissioner Pam Stewart met with the association during its fall conference last week in Tampa. The rebuke came after months of controversy about the new Florida Standards Assessment, which was plagued by technical problems this spring, including computer glitches and a cyberattack.

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‘Rushed and flawed’

• How low expectations of Black students’ achievements can get them higher grades; • Want a great grade? Prepare to cheat! • How Black students can program their minds for success; • Setting goals – When to tell everybody, and when to keep your mouth shut; • Black English, and why Black students must be ‘bilingual.’

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

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In addition to saying superintendents had lost confidence in the accountability system, the association also made a series of recommendations, including that the state should not apply the results of the spring 2015 test to students, teachers and schools. “In this high stakes environment, students, teachers, and schools should not be impacted by a rushed and flawed administration of new, untried assessments,’’ the association said. Stewart and other state officials this month touted a new study that said the Florida Standards Assessment is valid. The finding, in a study conducted by Alpine Testing Solutions and edCount, LLC, allows the Department of Education to begin using the test to calculate school grades and results that are incorporated

into teacher evaluations under the state’s performance-pay laws. “I think that we certainly can take away from this report that the FSA accurately measures the student’s knowledge of the Florida standards,” Stewart told reporters during a conference call after the study was released.

Done deal Some Republican legislative leaders also indicated the study effectively resolved the issue for them. “This validity study, combined with the Legislature’s efforts during the 2015 session to reform student testing, have strengthened our school accountability system. ... The Florida House will continue to support standards and accountability measures that provide our students with a first-rate education and prepare them for success in today’s world,” House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said in a prepared statement after the study was released. But critics questioned the department’s rosy characterization of the study, and the superintendents’ statement Friday also raised questions about the conclusions being drawn. The association, whose president and CEO is Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, called for an “extensive review of the accountability system, including the multiple changes that have been implemented over the last several years. Special attention needs to be given to learning gains so that a year’s growth in a year’s time is considered a learning gain.”

Teachers agree After the superintendents group issued the statement, Florida Education Association President Andy Ford also blasted the accountability system. “Let’s be honest, the collapse of the testing system this spring proved that Florida’s accountability system is a house of cards,’’ Ford, whose teachers union has long criticized the system, said in a prepared statement.

EDITORIAL

OCTOBER 2 – OCTOBER 8, 2015

Blacks can still have an impact on GOP Instead of complaining that the GOP ignores them and the Democrats take them for granted, Blacks, especially Black Republicans, should do what disaffected Southern Democrats and tea party Republicans did when they felt that the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively, were disrespecting them – they took action! Southern Democrats took over the GOP in the South and more recently the tea party transformed the GOP leading to victories in the House and Senate. There is an old saying that if you want to be heard and have leverage in politics, bring money or votes. Blacks bring neither to Republicans and are ignored but do bring votes to the Democrats.

No demands What do they get for their votes? They demand nothing, let their Black president run all over them and ignore their interests in favor of other voter groups who demand and get attention – Hispanics, gays, and the abortion lobby. What do Blacks get: crime ridden cities controlled by Democrats, high unemployment, inferior urban schools, and a back seat to the children of illegal immigrants. So, on both sides of the political ledger, Blacks get little, if any, respect. However, there still is hope for Blacks to show some form of political sophistication just as the tea party has – through targeted political action.

Vote in primaries The GOP primary season is only months away. With 16 con-

CLARENCE V. MCKEE GUEST COMMENTARY

tenders for the nomination, how many Black political pundits and GOP leaders are advising Blacks to take the necessary steps to vote in those primaries, especially in states with significant Black populations? In 2012, Charles W. Cherry II, publisher of the Florida Courier, Florida’s only statewide Blackowned newspaper, encouraged his readers to register as Republicans so they could support Herman Cain in the Florida GOP primary. Cain dropped out but Cherry’s idea was masterful. That would have given Blacks leverage and maybe gotten the attention of Romney whose campaign generally acted as if Blacks didn’t exist in Florida and elsewhere. With the large number of GOP candidates, the same principal could work in 2016.

Get involved Cherry is not alone. SiriusXM radio host and journalist Karen Hunter, who is Black and Republican, has urged Blacks to change party affiliation and get involved in Republican primaries. She believes that voting and helping to determine the GOP nominee will put pressure on both parties. She has written that Blacks should “stop being mad and upset and neglected and overlooked and start using the ample power we have.”

Political parties don’t deserve respect The Gantt Report is read around the world and wherever TGR readers are, politicians are there also. There are also political parties everywhere. Political parties are in the United Kingdom, in the United States, in Europe, in Africa, in Asia, they are in the Caribbean and they are in South America. You can love your political party, but don’t even go to sleep and dream about respecting it. No political party – wherever it is – deserves your respect. Individuals do!

Don’t get me wrong There are a few “good” people in most political parties. But if you look at the mass membership of any political party you will find devils, beasts, racists, crooks, criminals, drug users, people

LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT

abusers, con men, whores, and some of every other kind of men and women! You see, the political party in a nation, state, community or a neighborhood is usually made of from residents of that place. Whatever kind of people you will find in your neighborhood, so to speak, you can find in the political parties of that neighborhood! Don’t be surprised if the elected official and party member that represents you takes a bribe, gets caught with drugs, gets accused of domestic violence, or gets

Pope offers a prophetic voice The political crossfire against Pope Francis has begun, with conservatives assailing the pope for not understanding modern markets. One columnist condemned him as a false prophet, standing against “modernity, rationality, science and…the spontaneous creativity of open societies.” Republicans are outraged that at , the pope’s stunning encyclical addressing our relationship to God’s creation of nature and calling on us to change our ways to meet the challenge of climate change.

REV. JESSE L. JACKSON, SR. TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

building walls, the pope represents the voice of Jesus that calls for caring for the stranger on the Jericho Road. While conservatives worship Adam Smith and the marketplace, the pope scorns the false idol of materialism, rejects the Rejects materialism “magical conception of the marWhile the Republican presiden- ket.” “To claim economic freedom,” tial campaign has been fixated on

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: OBAMA AND PUTIN

The “switch and vote” idea could produce interesting results and is worth pursuing. Just look at Florida, a must-win for Republicans, which will hold its winnertake-all primary in March.

The numbers There are already nearly 57,000 registered Black GOP voters and another 219,000 with no party affiliation (Independents), both of which have been, as usual, virtually ignored by the GOP establishment. If the 57,000 already registered GOP voters were mobilized by one or two of the remaining contenders after the Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina primaries, as well as 50,000100,000 of the Black Independents, the result could mean taking Florida’s winner-take-all prize of 99 delegates. The question is which of the 16 will make it to Florida and have the funds to compete and make such an effort?

Impact players Florida’s Black Republicans, and Independents, should wake up and realize their potential power to make an impact in Florida and on the GOP primary process. South Carolina is another key early primary state where such a strategy might work. The South Carolina AfricanAmerican Chamber of Commerce has initiated an informational campaign to persuade Black voters to reflect on the possibility of voting for someone who is not a Democrat in the 2016 presidential primaries and the general election. The Chamber’s president, Stepulled over by cops for drunk driving.

Seen it all In my 20-year career as a government lobbyist, I’ve seen politicians of both major political parties accepting money and other “gifts” from people. I’ve seen married political party members soliciting prostitutes and seeking sex from staff members and colleagues. I’ve seen actual fistfights take place that involved members of political parties. I’ve seen elected officials knock on the door and enter drug houses! The profession of the members of political parties that permeates the houses of representatives and the senates of Congress and of state legislatures is the legal profession. There are probably more lawyers that are elected political party members than anything else. Mind you, the elected official lawyer is not the million-or billion-dollar trial lawyer. He is not the big-time personal injury lawyer, and he is not the lawyer-savhe wrote in the encyclical, “while real conditions bar many people from real access to it, and while possibilities for employment continue to shrink, is to practice a doublespeak which brings politics into disrepute.” Liberals, on the other hand, shudder at the pope’s embrace of life and continued commitment to the church’s rejection of abortion. This pope has called for a “jubilee” that, among other things, offers greater forgiveness for those who have divorced or had abortions. Francis is the first pope to come from the South, from Argentina in his case. He named himself after Saint Francis of Assisi, who, the pope noted, “lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony with God … (showing) us just how inseparable is the bond between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society and interior peace.”

BOB ENGLEHART, THE HARTFORD COURANT

phen Gilchrist, has noted that “we have the first minority and female governor in the state . . . the first Black Senator since Reconstruction. Those are some very significant firsts on the Republican side of the aisle that African-Americans can no longer just stay silent about.” GOP candidates should be knocking at their doors. Such a strategy might just work. A recent Public Policy Polling survey found Donald Trump would win 37 percent of the vote from South Carolina Republicans and Ben Carson would pick up 21 percent. With these numbers, the other candidates, especially Bush, who is tied with Cruz at 6 percent, have nothing to lose by employing such a strategy.

Nothing to lose With such a plan in Florida, South Carolina, and other targeted states, the other candidates could make a significant appeal to Black voters on basic issues such as sanctity of life, school choice, the importance of family, and support for small and minority-

Clarence V. McKee is president of McKee Communications, Inc., a Florida-based government, political, and media relations consulting firm. This commentary was originally published at Newsmax.com.

ior that fights death penalty cases and does a lot of pro bono (free) work. The political party lawyer that runs as a member of a political party is more often than not the lawyer that can’t make a great deal of money practicing law.

Those political parties are tricky! They can make you think they are for you when they are really only for themselves or for some other group!

Good and bad I don’t discourage you or anyone from joining and becoming active with the political party you desire. I’m just saying political parties are like most other groups: they have good, loyal, faithful, sensitive, considerate members. They also have slimy, despicable, greedy, inconsiderate, unfair members. When you choose who you want to serve as your elected official, don’t casually or merely make your decision based on membership in a political party. Look at the man or woman. Look at their political and community history; compare your friends to theirs. Study their current and past relations with Black people, Black businesses, Black media and Black political causes.

No party The pope’s visit will spark major political disputes, as partisans pick and choose phrases to club their opponents with. But the pope has no party. He carries the message of the Gospel, of Jesus born into poverty, who dedicated his ministry to the poor. Jesus taught us to come to the aid of the poor, to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, care for the sick and visit the prisoner. We would be judged, he taught, for “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Jesus of Nazareth ministered to the poor, and that alarmed the rich and powerful, who reacted with fear and anger.

CREDO OF THE BLACK PRESS The Black Press believes that Americans can best lead the world away from racism and national antagonism when it accords to every person, regardless of race, color or creed, full human and legal rights. Hating no person, fearing no person. The Black Press strives to help every person in the firm belief...that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.

Dr. Valerie Rawls-Cherry, Human Resources

Charles W. Cherry, Sr. (1928-2004), Founder Julia T. Cherry, Senior Managing Member, Central Florida Communicators Group, LLC Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Cassandra CherryKittles, Charles W. Cherry II, Managing Members

Finally, you should know whomever funds and finances political parties are the people that control political parties. The 90 percent of your votes that go to one political party’s candidates and not to the opposition party means little or nothing when your political wants and needs are considered. When you go to the polls in the next election, vote for the man or woman you trust and you respect. Political parties don’t deserve respect; individuals do!

Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere. Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net. not sacrifice people at the “altar of money” or worship the “golden calf.” He calls on us to amend our ways so we can meet the challenges of climate change, poverty, war and division. He is not a policy wonk or a political partisan. His prophetic voice is badly needed in this troubled times. No doubt his message will be distorted and hijacked for partisan political purposes. But beneath that din, we should consider his words, weigh his wisdom and look into ourselves. He is summoning us to unleash our better angels. We would be wise to listen and reflect.

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. is Pope Francis now offers the president and CEO of the Rainworld a prophetic voice. We must bow/PUSH Coalition.

Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Sales Manager

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owned business. They have nothing to lose – Blacks have everything to gain. The concept of Blacks voting in GOP primaries could be the recipe for gaining some leverage, and respect, with the GOP and Democrats as well. With growing concerns that Trump’s rhetoric is alienating Hispanics, the GOP and its candidates can’t afford to leave any voter group political stone unturned. Much is at stake. Election 2016 could be the epitaph for Black and Republican political relevance in presidential elections – or the dawn of a new beginning. The question is who will lead the effort?

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OCTOBER 2 – OCTOBER 8, 2015

EDITORIAL

Police ‘training’ is the problem, not the solution There is no military gear on display in the video of a New York City cop’s take-down of James Blake as the Black former tennis pro leaned against a pole in front of a Manhattan Grand Hyatt hotel – just a White guy in a t-shirt suddenly body-slamming a totally inoffensive person into the sidewalk. But, in fact, the assault on Blake by officer James Frascatore, part of a squad of six plainclothes cops prowling the hotel lobby on East 42nd Street, is a prime example of the militarization of policing in the United States.

Mission and behavior related Although Blake was not seriously injured, his case shares an essential commonality with that of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old shot dead by a White Cleveland cop while playing with a toy gun in a neighborhood park, last November. No tanks or machine guns were involved in that case, either – just a cop with a pistol who shot a Black child from only a few feet away within two seconds of pulling up in an ordinary squad car. The behavior of the victims is incidental to the actual mission of the police. Blake was on the ground with the cop’s knee in his back before he seemed to realize he was under attack. Afterwards, the one-time Harvard student shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if he had put his hands up in a “normal reaction...to defend myself.” The Cleveland cop gave Tamir Rice no time at all to put away childish toys, before neutralizing the target.

GLEN FORD BLACK AGENDA REPORT

Military mission For decades, the essential U.S. police mission has been military in nature. Routine police behavior closely tracks the U.S. armed forces field manual tactical operations guidance on “strike campaigns” to “find, fix, destroy, and capture” the enemy. Speed and decisiveness of action are emphasized, for rapid engagement. The routine police practice of suddenly slamming people to the ground on the slightest pretext – or for no reason at all except to establish immediate control of the person or area – and then pinning them in place with knees or feet to the neck and back, or with the full weight of multiple cops (often yelling “Stop resisting! Stop resisting!” whether there is resistance or not) is a relatively recent development. Cops all over the country engage in similar tactics in street encounters, rapidly closing in on “subjects” (like young, innocent Tamir) and shooting them, afterwards claiming the officer’s life was in danger because of physical proximity to the unarmed victim.

‘Justified’ killings The tactic – moving rapidly to close with the targeted individual – justifies the fatal outcome, whether the victim was engaged in criminal activity or not.

Teaching our dollars to make sense When Donald Trump first spoke about his intentions to run for president and called out Mexicans and Hispanics in general, JAMES here’s what happened. CLINGMAN Yes, there were protests in the streets by Latinos who felt they NNPA COLUMNIST had been insulted by Trump, but further action was taken – not by boycotted; Latinos did not target Latinos but by corporations. it in any way. Why did they feel obliged to cut ties with Trump Trump dumped when he dissed Hispanics? A betAccording to an article by Sarah ter question is, “Why haven’t we Berger of the International Busi- seen companies take any corness Times, “[Macy’s] said they responding action on behalf of would no longer carry Trump’s Black people?” Remember the Indianapolis inmenswear collection, which feacident earlier this year? Corpotured shirts, ties and watches.” Further, “Macy’s is not alone: rations threatened to move their NBCUniversal, Univision, mat- companies out of that city if the tress maker Serta and other com- law that “discriminated” against panies have also cut ties with gay people was not changed. It Trump…The broken deals point took about 24 hours for it to be to the growing influence of His- changed. John Crawford was killed in a panic consumers in the United States. As the Latino demograph- Wal-Mart for holding a BB gun; ic in the U.S. rapidly increases, 12 year-old Tamir Rice was killed so does their buying power, and in two seconds for holding a toy businesses are starting to realize gun; Eric Garner was choked to death on national and TV after that value.” Economics raises its head asking, “Why do you keep bothagain, doesn’t it? Macy’s was not ering me?” Sandra Bland was ar-

Clocks, drones, and the Constitution “Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great.” Those words came from President Obama’s twitter account after a 14-year old Texan named Ahmed Mohamed became worldfamous. The high school student brought his homemade clock to school, but was later escorted out in handcuffs after a teacher reported that he had a bomb. Racism, Islamophobia, draconian “zero tolerance” policies, and base ignorance all played a role in the disgraceful turn of events.

Obama hypocritical When social media turned Mohamed’s name into a household word, the president weighed in with his words of support. But unlike other individuals who felt genuine empathy or outrage about this case, the presidential tweet came with doses of hypocrisy and opportunism. Obama is no protector of the rights of Muslim teens, as Abdul-

MARGARET KIMBERLEY BLACK AGENDA REPORT

rahman al-Awlaki’s family can attest. Abdulrahman and his father Anwar were murdered on the president’ orders in 2011. Both American citizens, they ran afoul of the never-ending “war on terror” and Obama’s political ambitions in the year before his reelection campaign. In the absence of legislation, judicial precedent or any case law, Barack Obama declared that he had the right to assassinate anyone in the world, including American citizens like the Awlakis. Anwar al-Awlaki was never even charged with a crime. Like his predecessors, Obama makes a mockery of principles such as the right to trial when his agenda finds democracy too inconvenient.

These fatal scenarios recur with numbing regularity because the cops are trained in standardized tactics of armed occupation. Black people are killed under roughly the same circumstances in all parts of the nation because cops everywhere are getting the same training. It is not lack of training that breeds killer cops, but the training itself. Under the militarized policing regime, the exercise of individual police “command” authority over civilians has been weaponized to an unprecedented degree. To be sure, cops have always extrajudicially executed Black people – although the national failure to gather such data from local police departments makes assessment of the relative frequency of past and present killings nearly impossible to determine. However, with the advent of federal funding and direction of local police, dating from the beginnings of the national Black mass incarceration regime in the late Sixties, the procedures and legal theory behind invocation of police authority have been generalized and nationalized, as well. A cop’s verbal exclamation, when characterized as a “lawful order” or “command,” becomes a license to kill. Once the order has been issued – no matter how outlandish, or even impossible to comply with – failure to obey is a crime and the basis for rapid escalation of the conflict. Individuals or groups can easily be maneuvered into noncompliance with police orders, followed quickly by death. Every cop knows this, thanks to decades rested and died three days later because she failed to signal a lane change and was smoking in her own car. Did any corporations make threats against anyone on their behalf?

Money and respect

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: GOP VOTERS’ CHOICES

STEVE SACK, THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

of standardized police training as measure that would have halted armed occupiers. the transfer of Pentagon weapons (and the accompanying training) Trained assassins to local police departments. IsraU.S. police are well-trained, el has also played a major role in in the same way that U.S. Spe- training U.S. cops. It is nonsense to ask for more cial Forces are well-trained. The problem with both, is their mis- “training” for police, unless their sion. mission of armed occupation of Green Berets are professional Black communities is cancelled, assassins and terrorists. U.S. po- first. The next step would be to lice specialize in containing, con- ask these Black communities if trolling, terrorizing and incarcer- they want the police there at all, ating Black people, killing many or would prefer to organize their hundreds every year in the proown security, consistent with the cess. principle of self-determination. Since 1968, with the creation There is no U.S. police departof the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, the feder- ment or federal agency that is al government has spent billions qualified to assist in training cops training and equipping local po- to serve the Black community, belice. Homeland Security and the cause that has never been done in Pentagon have left their indelible the United States. mark on U.S. policing. Last sumGlen Ford is executive editor mer, two months before a Ferguson cop killed Michael Brown, of BlackAgendaReport.com. E32 members of the Congressio- mail him at Glen.Ford@Blacknal Black Caucus voted against a AgendaReport.com. Our voting rights are being discarded, our HBCUs are losing millions because of Parent-Plus Loan changes, we are ignored and taken for granted by both political parties, and Black politicians like John Lewis tell us to vote our way out of our problems.

Macy’s and the others punished Trump without being asked to do so, because they respect the $1.5 billion buying power of Hispanics. That’s it, plain and simple. “But annual Black buying power is $1.2 trillion, Jim; why are we ignored?” Major corporations with whom we spend much of that $1.2 trillion each year have a “depraved indifference” to our plight, as Bob Law says. They do not respond to our issues in the same way, because there is no price to pay for not doing so. Politicians slap us upside the head and our big bad NAACP tells us to take a 1,000-mile walk. One of our children gets shot down or beat down and National Action Network says “Let’s ‘maach’ on Washington.” A young Black man is killed in a Wal-Mart and our “leaders” rally in front of that store – for a day. Our unemployment is at an all-time high, despite the “great economy” they say we are in, and the National Urban League writes a report each year telling us how bad things are for Black America.

Tepid responses

War continues

More ruthless

His acolytes love to point out that the president once taught constitutional law. That fact doesn’t count for much in reality but neither do any of the claims that justify continuing a war of terror against the Muslim world. The Obama administration made quite a big show of announcing the “kill list” policy which ended the Awlakis lives. The New York Times was happily used as the messenger when the administration eagerly revealed the inner workings of the assassination decision-making process. There was precious little outrage about the president of the United States acting like a mafia boss, even after Anwar al-Awlaki was rubbed out like a rival gangster. When his son was killed in another drone strike two weeks later the White House pretended it had all been a mistake and tried to cover their crime by claiming that the 16-year old was 21. Needless to say, there were teenage victims of the United States and NATO in Libya in 2011. That was not just a bad year for the Awlakis, but for millions of people first in Libya and then Syria who had the misfortune of being on the wrong side of the regime change line.

These aggressions should not be forgotten because the president decided to jump on the #istandwithahmed bandwagon. He may have Ramadan Iftar dinners at the White House or speak Arabic words at the opportune moment, but his policies against the Muslim world are even more ruthless than those of his much more reviled predecessor, George W. Bush. The president cannot be let off the hook because of a social media post. He bears a great deal of responsibility for the continued animus against Muslim people. By criminalizing an entire region he gives credence to the belief that its people are criminals and unworthy of being thought of as human beings. If the Awlakis can be killed, if Syrians and Libyans can have their countries torn asunder and Pakistanis and Afghans can be victims of drone strikes on presidential whims, then the police can haul off a precocious teenager. Obama has always gotten too much credit and too little scorn because he is disliked by racist, dead-ender Republicans. Of course, if Fox News and Sarah Palin criticize the president’s response to the Ahmed Mohamed case, he is again seen as the bul-

It’s no wonder we don’t get the same respect and support as other groups. The ways we respond to negative issues allow the mistreatment we get from others. Take the “Black Lives Matter” mantra. Of course our lives matter ,and it makes no difference if others have a problem with our saying it. But we have some Black folks who are trying to gain acceptance from others and trying to make others feel comfortable with us by adding to the phrase, “All lives matter,” which is obvious to most people anyway. Saying and acting upon the fact that Black lives matter “less” than all other lives is important, but we must act appropriately upon what we say. Carlos Santiago, president and chief strategist of Santiago Solutions Group, said, “Latino customers represent an opportunity for Macy’s to grow its business model…Macy’s Hispanic base of buyers is significant and growing while the ‘non-Hispanic’ is de-

clining slowly.

Hispanic ‘goodwill’ “They (Macy’s) have to protect their growing loyal base just as their competitors like Nordstrom, JC Penney’s, Target and Wal-Mart are. In this race to capture the new growth, a change in public image is worth millions of dollars in goodwill and loyalty.” The appropriate response to those who transgress against us must be grounded in economics. We spend money at Macy’s, as well as many other corporations. Why have they not spoken and acted on our behalf? As I have written many times, until we are serious about gaining the support of those with whom we do business, they will ignore our plight and take our dollars for granted. Our economic response must be “Black Dollars Matter!” We must teach our dollars how to make more sense.

James E. Clingman, founder of the Greater Cincinnati African-American Chamber of Commerce, is the nation’s most prolific writer on economic empowerment for Black people. Contact him via www.blackonomics.com. wark of enlightenment when he is in fact just the more effective evil. Ahmed was released without being arrested and no charges were filed against him. People all over the world have embraced him and the White House is not alone in rolling out the red carpet of welcome.

Student traumatized But the effects of the traumatic experience have apparently not left him. His father reported that his son has lost his appetite and isn’t sleeping well. Ahmed added that the family is now “torn and confused” by their experience. There are thousands of Ahmeds all over the country, reliving the terror of interactions with police. There are Ahmeds in the Middle East and North Africa who have survived America’s attempts to take their lives. Unfortunately that will all be forgotten when Obama gets his photo opportunity with this teenager. He is lucky to live in Texas and not Syria. In this country the president isn’t trying to kill him.

Margaret Kimberley’s column appears weekly in BlackAgendaReport.com. Contact her at Margaret.Kimberley@BlackAgendaReport.com.

NATION

TOJ A6

OCTOBER 2 – OCTOBER 8, 2015

IRFAN KHAN/LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT

Christy King, with her 3-year-old daughter Joanna, shops in a California supermarket.

Study: Asians to surpass Latinos as largest immigrant group in US BY KATE LINTHICUM LOS ANGELES TIMES / TNS

Asians are likely to surpass Latinos as the nation’s largest immigrant group shortly after the middle of the century as the wave of new arrivals from Latin America slows but trans-Pacific migration continues apace, according to a new study of census data. The surge of immigration that has reshaped the American population over the last half-century will transform the country for several decades to come, the projections indicate.

Immigrant majority Immigrants and their children are likely to make up 88 percent of the country’s population growth over the next 50 years, according to the study by the Pew Research

Center, which has tracked the effects of immigration on the country’s population for the last several decades. The foreign-born, who made up just 5 percent of the nation’s population in 1965, when Congress completely rewrote the country’s immigration laws, make up 14 percent today, the study found. They are projected to be 18 percent of the population by 2065. Increasingly, that population growth will involve Asians. Unlike the Latino population, which mostly shares a common language, Spanish, and many cultural traits, the census category of Asian takes in a vast array of ethnic and language groups, including Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, Indians and Pakistanis. Already, Asian-Americans make up about 6 percent of the

nation’s population, up from just 1 percent in 1965. By the middle of the century they will total 14 percent, the projections say. Asians are expected to constitute 36 percent of the immigrant population by 2055, surpassing Latinos, who by then will be 34 percent of immigrants, the study indicates. Since many Latinos are third- or fourth-generation Americans, they will remain a larger share of the total population, close to one-quarter of all Americans by midcentury.

Positive view Currently, Americans have a more positive view of Asian immigrants than of Latinos, according to a survey Pew did along with the population projections. Nearly half of American adults, 47 percent, said immigrants from

Asia have had a mostly positive effect on American society. Only 26 percent said the same about immigrants from Latin America, with 37 percent saying they thought the effects of Latin American immigration had been mostly negative. Immigrants from the Middle East fared worse in public opinion, with just 20 percent saying their effect on the country has been mostly positive, and 39 percent saying their impact has been mostly negative. The survey found that 59 percent of Americans said immigrants, overall, were not learning English in a reasonable amount of time. The Pew study was designed to look at how immigration has changed the racial and ethnic makeup of the U.S. since Congress passed the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act. That law abolished a quota system based on national origin, which had barred most immigrants from outside of Western Europe and led to a sharp increase in immigration from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Today, 62 percent of Americans are non-Latino whites, the report found. That’s down from 85 percent in 1965.

Political differences The survey found that people’s attitudes toward immigration depend on their political affiliation – with Democrats more favorable than Republicans – and also on whether a person knows an immigrant personally, said Mark Lopez, director of Hispanic research at Pew and a co-author of the report. “If you take a look at those who know someone who is an immigrant, fewer will say that crime and the economy are worse for it,” Lopez said. He noted that the poll was conducted in the spring, before Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sparked national debate with calls for much tougher immigration enforcement and criticism of some Mexican immigrants. Among Democrats, 55 percent said immigrants were mak-

ing American society better in the long run, while 24 percent said immigrants were making things worse. Views were nearly the opposite among Republicans, 53 percent of whom said immigrants were making American society worse in the long run, and 31 percent saying they were making things better.

Age differences Younger Americans were more likely to see immigration as a positive thing, reflecting in part the ethnic diversity of their generation. According to the poll, 54 percent of Americans younger than 30 saw immigration as making the country better, while 27 percent said it was making the country worse. Those 65 and older split, 39 percent to 39 percent. The questions were asked about immigrants in general, not only those who arrived in the U.S. illegally. Overall, concerns about the effects of immigration were highest around crime and the economy. About half of Americans say immigrants have made crime worse and have hurt the economy. On the other side, about half of Americans say immigrants have had a positive effect on American culture, improving food, music and the arts. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

More educated The report also noted that immigrants have changed significantly in recent years. They are more educated, for example. In 2013, almost half of all new arrivals from Mexico age 25 or older had completed high school, up from just 14 percent in 1970. More than 1 in 8 had a bachelor’s degree. Among Asian immigrants, 57 percent of those age 25 or older who arrived in 2013 had a bachelor’s degree, up from 47 percent in 1970. The increase reflects the greater levels of education in many parts of the world, the report said.

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LeVar Burton speaks exclusively to the Florida Courier in advance of his November appearance at Rollins College in Winter Park.

ROOTS & DIGITAL RAINBOWS BY PENNY DICKERSON FLORIDA COURIER

eVar Burton is best remembered in the archives of American culture for his debut in the 1977 mini-series “Roots.” In his first audition and role, the 19-yearold was cast as Kunta Kinte, the wide-eyed Mandinka warrior who fled slave masters with the speed of a wild gazelle. Burton’s character not only personified rebellion, he made it look cool. He was a hero who gave Blacks nationwide a license to cheer for their own identity and freedom. “I cannot take credit because there was no master plan on my part. My intention was to do the best I could with what was in front of me, and Kunta was an opportunity of a lifetime,” Burton shared with the Florida Courier. “Suddenly, I was this fledging actor who was given a role I’d been preparing for my whole life. It was a role that became critically important for this entire culture in a real way, around the impact of slavery in this country.”

Career reinvented Four decades later, Burton remains an iconic figure. He masterfully reinvented himself as an award-winning actor, writer, producer, director, and literacy advocate. After the applause for “Roots” subsided, Burton was cast in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in a supporting as Geordi LaForge. And in 1983, he reignited the literacy world as host of the critically acclaimed children’s program, “Reading Rainbow.” When PBS cancelled the show in 2009, Burton bought the rights, and this year he launched Reading Rainbow EDU, a digital learning application that has introduced a new generation to the show. He also managed the most successful Kickstarter campaign to date which will allow classrooms across the country to access it. “I was left with, ‘What do I do with the rest of my life?’” said Burton, who didn’t see his career transition as walking away from Hollywood. “Reading Rainbow was a job being offered that made sense to me, and I knew that PBS was a worthwhile investiture. I also knew how to show up, be prepared, and be the best at what has to be done,” Burton added.

LeVar Burton is an award-winning actor, writer, producer, director and literacy advocate.

IF YOU GO

FAMILIAR FACES OF LEVAR BURTON

The Winter Park Institute presents: LeVar Burton: “The Power of Storytelling: Written, Spoken, Lived. November 5, 2015 7:30 p.m. Knowles Memorial Chapel

Homegrown roots Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr. is known to the world as simply, “LeVar Burton.” He was born in Landstuhl, Germany and raised a military brat. According to Burton, his parents’ relationship “imploded” when he was in the third grade, which left him in the capable hands of his mother, Erma Jean. “I see clearly the task and challenge my mother was faced with being a single, Black woman raising a male child. I am the only boy, and middle child between two girls,” said Burton. “My mother had to ensure that I not just survive my childhood, but that I grow up with the skills and perseverance necessary to make good on the promise that she saw, which was this bright child with limitless possibilities. She wanted me to have an education commensurate with my melanin-challenged classmates,” he chuckled.

Mom’s firm hand Education came first, speaking Standard American English was a must, and success was the only option. Those were the tenets set forth by his mother Erma Jean, a woman who managed her household with a firm hand. “I grew up in a house where you either read a book, or got hit in the head with one,” said Burton who laughed heartily as the memory. “She was an English teacher, so reading was mandatory and you had to be proficient in literacy. I am a grown man and my mother is, has been, and

Kunta Kinte, “Roots”

continues to be a guiding force in my life.” That force was integral throughout Burton’s years at Christian Brothers High School in the city of Sacramento, Cal., where his 83-year-old mother still resides. A graduate of University of Southern California’s School of Theatre, neither Levar or Erma Jean could have imagined his destiny to the degree of specificity it has played out. “I was one of the lucky ones because my mother’s primary job was to instill in me a confidence that there were no limits except those put upon myself,” said Burton. “It was in that crucible that I feel like I was formed. She sacrificed time and time again to ensure that I had unique opportunities to achieve and accomplish, but I had to work hard and establish a standard of excellence,” Burton added. Burton further stated that everything he has done in the realm of education is in homage to the legacy of his mother. He has been able to see the trajectory of his own life through a parenting lens as he raised his son Eian, 35, and daughter Michaela, 21.

‘Triple-blessed’ Three men of note who have molded and shaped Burton’s career and personhood are Alex Haley who authored

Geordi LaForge, “Star Trek”

“Roots:” Fred Rogers, of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and Gene Roddenberry, the originator of “Star Trek.” Collectively, they are a trifecta of greatness whose influence left Burton “triple- blessed.” “I learned the most from Alex, but from all three I learned the importance of the recurring theme: discovering and delivering the authentic voice. I still hear the cadence of Haley’s voice in my head,” said Burton, who emphasized that he met Rogers in the midst of sorting out who he was as young man. “I was on the heels of being nineteen, and the world’s most famous public commodity,” said Burton. “‘Roots’ taught me about the sheer power of the media. Fred helped me anchor success and gave me permission to be who I am.”

Kickstarter fame One of the most palpable testaments of who Burton is rests in the success of his highly lauded Kickstarter campaign. The crowdfunding utility met its 35-day goal of raising $1 million in less than 11 hours. In total, $6.4 million was raised by 105,000 backers – most of whom contributed $50 or less. “I was blown away by the passion people expressed. It really validated for me that I had the right thing at the right

Himself, “Reading Rainbow”

time,” said Burton. “We failed to get support from venture capitalists who were disconnected to our goals. “We weren’t trying to raise money to flip a company; we wanted to improve the lives of kids and learning,” he added.

Rainbow rebranded The new Reading Rainbow EDU is cutting-edge and is compatible with iPad and Kindle. It is the technology world’s No. 1 educational launch complete with engaging supplemental learning content for teachers and students. The product’s “holy grail” is the “Skybrary,” a digital library service that exists in a consumer space with lightly enhanced books. Not only is it interactive, but wrapped in the adventures of discovery kids know and love. “I am grateful. I am a 58-year-old Black man in America. And if you are at all awake, you have some sense of what I have faced to get to where I am in this life and to have accomplished the things I have done,” Burton mused. “I have doubled down on this effort, and really want to be part of the solution of the education crisis in America. “This brand can be a force for good to educate our children. I also want to go back to television, but first I wanted to see that we could reach kids digitally.”

CALENDAR

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Jacksonville: The Festival of Praise Tour featuring Kim Burrell, Fred Hammond, Israel Houghton, Donny McClurkin and Hezekiah Walker will make a stop at the Veterans Memorial Arena in on Oct. 11. Other stops are in Fort Myers, Lakeland, Jacksonville and Pompano Beach. More details: www.festivalofpraisetour.com. Orlando: Comedian Nephew Tommy’s “I Got People Inside My Head Tour’’ makes an Oct. 2 stop at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

OCTOBER 2 – OCTOBER 8, 2015

STOJ

TAMAR BRAXTON

The singer is touring with Mary J. Blige. Shows are scheduled Nov. 6 in Jacksonville, Nov. 7 in Orlando and Nov. 8 in Tampa.

Jacksonville: Multi-instrumentalist Booker T. Jones will be at the Ritz Theater and Museum on Oct. 3 for an 8 p.m. show. St. Petersburg: Catch the group during the first 95.7 Beats By The Bay music festival on Oct. 24 at Vinoy Park. The lineup includes Tyrese, Blackstreet, 112, Whodini and Rob Base. Tampa: The B.E.S.T. program will celebrate its 11th year with a “Diamonds in the Rough” gala on Oct. 17 at the Centre Club, 123 South Westshore Blvd. The program is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Candace McCowan, WFLA reporter, will be the guest emcee. Tickets: www.brainexpansions.org.

BUDDY GUY

The legendary blues guitarist and singer performs Oct. 10 at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood.

Fort Lauderdale: On Oct. 3, Haitian born author Jethro Francois will share his story at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center is at 2650 Sistrunk Blvd. The program is at 3 p.m. More information: www.broward. org/library. St. Petersburg: Tickets are on sale for a concert featuring Chaka Khan on Nov. 13 at the Mahaffey Theater. Tampa: The Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists’ annual Griot Drum Awards & Scholarship Banquet is Nov. 12 at the Tampa Marriott Westshore. More information: www.tbabj.com. Miami: Shaquille O’Neal will host Barry University’s 75th Anniversary Birthday Bash on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. Soho Studios, 2136 N.W. First Ave. Wyclef Jean will perform. Tickets: Call 305-899-1156. Sponsorships: partnerships@barry.edu. Sarasota: The West Coast Black Theatre Troupe will present “The Color Purple’’ Oct. 14-Nov. 21. More information http://westcoastblacktheatre.org. Orlando: The Opal Network Alliance’s South Florida Women’s Summit is Oct. 28-29 at the at the Bonaventure Resort & Spa in Weston. More information: www.onatoday. com.

SHAQUILLE O’NEAL

Shaquille O’Neal will host Barry University’s 75th Anniversary Birthday Bash on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. Soho Studios, 2136 N.W. First Ave. Wyclef Jean will perform. More info: 305-899-1156 or partnerships@barry.edu.

Tampa: Candy Lowe hosts Tea & Conversation every Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at 3911 N. 34th St., Suite B. More information: 813-394-6363.

Dwayne Wade’s chef makes a dream come true

ARE YOU FEELING GAS HIKES AT THE PUMP? IS YOUR WALLET FEELING IT TOO?

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BY ALEX HARRIS MIAMI HERALD / TNS

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MIAMI – When they called his name, Seth Munday dove under his seat. He thought he’d flown all the way from Smithfield, N.C., to shadow a chef and witness Miami Culinary Institute’s recent chef coat ceremony, where MCI’s newest students are awarded white chefs’ coats emblazoned with their names. Instead, Munday was called on stage to receive his own coat and meet his culinary idol, Chef Richard Ingraham.

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Chronic disease Munday, 18, has battled Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammation of the digestive tract, half his life. Five weeks ago, he had intensive surgery to remove the last of his colon, said his mother, Cynthia. He spent two months in the hospital a year and a half ago, where he did nothing but watch the Food Network. His avid TV watching exposed him to Chef Ingraham, who appeared on the show “Chopped” when not serving as personal chef for Miami Heat NBA star Dwyane Wade. As the audience cheered, Munday was gently nudged on stage by the woman who made it all happen – Lizette Linares, a student at the cooking school. The projector screens flanking the stage showed a picture of Munday wearing a robe and holding a wand, superimposed over a movie poster from “Harry Potter.” Munday’s name was written in the signature lightning bolt font. Ingraham, a member of MCI’s culinary advisory board, grinned as he buttoned a crisp new chef’s coat over Munday’s blue button-down. “I told my wife, maybe they needed someone else and they called me instead,” Ingraham told the audience. “I still really can’t believe he wanted to meet me.”

Granting wishes Munday’s meeting with his hero was the work of Linares and the Kids Wish Network, which grants the wishes of sick children. Linares told the audience that she worked for months to pull off the surprise as a way to give back to the community. She was diagnosed with a learning disorder at an early age, and said she was constantly told she would never complete school or succeed. Now, she’s a student at MCI. “I was beaten down by those words, but I rose above it,” she said. “I wanted to pay it forward and prove everyone wrong.”

CHARLES TRAINOR JR./MIAMI HERALD/TNS

Chef Richard Ingraham helped Seth Munday put on a culinary jacket at Miami Dade College’s Miami Culinary Institute on Sept. 23. Munday is an 18-year-old battling Crohn’s Disease. Seeing her hard work come to fruition left Linares overwhelmed with happiness, she said. On stage, Chef Ingraham told Linares he was honored to meet her. “There are grown people that don’t have the chutzpah she has,” he said. Dr. Jose Vicente, president of Miami Dade College’s Wolfson campus, presented Linares with a bouquet to express the school’s gratitude for her hard work. “Here we have a set of flowers for a true flower,” he said. Kendra Kenney, marketing manager for Kids Wish Network, said this surprise was exactly what Seth needed. “He’ll remember it for the rest of his life,” she said.

Food critic Cynthia Munday said her son’s culinary aspirations stretch back a decade. When he was 6, he would critique his Mom’s cooking, except his favorite food, hamburger steak. Munday said culinary school may be in his future, perhaps even at MCI. But for now, he’s just happy he met his idol. “It felt really good – except going on stage. I would not do that again,” Munday said.

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OCTOBER 2 – OCTOBER 8, 2015

SCIENCE

Retired astronaut: Stop taking the fun out of science “What works is engaging (kids) and letting them do things and discover things.”

BY HEIDI STEVENS CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS

Your kid likes science. Despite the subject’s reputation and the fact that schools treat it like the class where fun goes to die, kids are more excited about science, on average, than math, English and social studies, according to a new report. “Kids come out of the chute liking science,” NASA astronaut Mae Jemison told me. “They ask, ‘How come? Why? What’s this?’ They pick up stuff to examine it. We might not call that science, but it’s discovering the world around us.” Then something happens. “Once we get them in school, we turn science from discovery and handson to something you’re supposed to do through rote memorization,” said Jemison, who was the first African-American woman to travel in space when she flew the Space Shuttle Endeavor in 1992.

Bayer partnership Jemison has teamed up with Bayer Corp. to advance science literacy across the United States by emphasizing the importance of hands-on, inquiry-based learning opportunities in public schools. Bayer announced recently that it will provide 1 million hands-on science experiences for kids by 2020. In advance of the announcement, Bayer commissioned a survey of teachers and educators about children’s relationship to science. Ninety-seven percent of parents and 99 percent of teachers Bayer surveyed said science is an “excit-

Mae Jamison NASA astronaut

take me to the Museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum, Brookfield Zoo. Those experiences show you the world all around you and show you the range of science careers.”

Thank-you messages

PETE MARVICH/ZUMA PRESS/TNS

Physician and retired NASA astronaut Mae Jemison testifies before a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill about the impact of Title IV 40 years later on June 19, 2012 in Washington, D.C. ing, creative and interesting subject.” But just 42 percent of teachers call it “exciting, creative and interesting” as it’s currently taught in schools.

Too confusing? An old Onion article titled, “National Science Foundation: Science Hard,” reported findings from a satirical conference “featuring symposia on how hard the Earth sciences are, how confusing medical science is, and how ridiculously un-gettable quantum physics is.” “Take the element of tungsten and work to

memorize its place in the periodic table, its atomic symbol, its atomic number and weight, what it looks like, where it’s found, and its uses to humanity, if any,” a faux chemist said in the Onion piece. “Now, imagine memorizing the other 100-plus elements making up the periodic table. You’d have to be, like, some kind of total brain to do that.” But science doesn’t have to be that way, Jemison said. Especially in the elementary school years. “When you have teachers saying, ‘I don’t have enough time for hands-on

activities,’ we need to rethink the way we do education,” Jemison said. “The drills we do, where you’re telling kids to memorize things, don’t actually work. What works is engaging them and letting them do things and discover things.”

A discovery process If you’re teaching kids about metamorphosis, she said, have them grow a butterfly from a caterpillar. If you’re teaching them about electricity, let them build and wire a flashlight. “A big part of engaging kids in science is not getting the single, correct an-

swer,” Jemison said. “It’s being willing to work with students to discover the correct answer.” Parents play a big role in that discovery process, she said. “I remember saying I wanted to be a scientist when I was in kindergarten,” said Jemison, who grew up in Chicago. “I also wanted to be a fashion designer, an architect and a few other things along the way, but science never went away. “I had great teachers,” she continued. “And I had parents and an uncle and other people who would

As part of Bayer’s campaign, the company urges children and adults to send thank-you messages to mentors who fostered a love of science. Through Oct. 30, you can post a photo, video or written message to SayTkU.com or on social media, with the hashtag #SayTkU. Bayer will donate admission to a science museum or other STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) venue for every thank-you message shared. “The whole idea is to keep kids engaged and not let them think science is something other folks do,” Jemison said. “Science is around us everywhere.” Farming is science. Cooking is science. Even styling hair, she noted, involves science. “When we go to the hairdresser, we want her to know something about pH balance,” Jemison said with a laugh. “Boy, do we ever want her to know something about pH balance!”

HEALTH

OCTOBER 2 – OCTOBER 8, 2015

STOJ

Cost of US health care increasing again Workers’ deductibles rising much higher than their wages BY NOAM N. LEVEY TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON — American workers saw their out-of-pocket medical costs jump again this year, as the average deductible for an employer-provided health plan surged nearly 9 percent in 2015 to more than $1,000, a major new survey of employers shows. The annual increase, though lower than in previous years, far outpaced wage growth and overall inflation and marked the continuation of a trend that in just a few years has dramatically shifted health care costs to workers. Over the past decade, the average deductible that workers must pay for medical care before their insurance kicks in has more than tripled from $303 in 2006 to $1,077 today, according to the report from the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust. That is seven times faster than wages have risen in the same period. “It’s a quiet revolution,” said foundation president Drew Altman. “When deductibles are rising seven times faster than wages … it means that people can’t pay their rent. … They can’t buy their gas. They can’t eat.”

$1,071 average By comparison, workers’ wages increased 1.9 percent between April 2014 and April 2015, according to federal data analyzed by the report’s authors. Consum-

er prices declined 0.2 percent. Raising deductibles and copays has traditionally been a way for employers to keep premiums in check. And the new report shows that premium growth remained modest in 2015. An average employer-provided health plan cost workers $1,071 in 2015. That is down nearly 1 percent from 2014, marking the first time that the survey has documented an absolute decline in workers’ share of premiums. The average family plan cost workers $4,955, up 3 percent from last year. By comparison, employees’ share of health insurance routinely shot up by double digits in the early 2000s. Businesses continued to pick up the bulk of the cost of health coverage for their workers, paying more than $5,000 on average for a single plan and more than $12,500 for a family plan.

Employer health benefits Worker contributions to employer-sponsored health plans Family

$5,000

3,000 2,000 1,000

1999

’01

The survey also rated health using a measure called the Health and Activities Limitation Index, or HALex, which includes factors like whether people need help taking care of themselves or have limitations in the kind of work they can do. The 80 percent of people with the highest HALex scores were considered to be in good shape, compared with the 20 percent of people who had the lowest scores. The researchers found that unemployed and retired senior citizens were nearly six times more likely than the white-collar workers to have a low HALex score. Again, other types of workers scored about the same as white-collar workers. Older Americans with

’03

’05

’07

’09

’11

’13

’15

Increase in premiums and worker contributions, 2005 to 2015 Family Single Total premium: +61%

Employers pocketing savings Employers’ rising health costs are often singled out as a cause for stagnant wage growth in recent years, as businesses have put money into health benefits that might otherwise have gone to workers’ paychecks. There is also growing evidence that the steep rise in deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses such as co-pays are preventing workers from benefiting from the overall slowdown in health care cost growth. A recent report by the Center for American Progress, a leftleaning Washington think tank, showed that employers are largely pocketing savings while passing along higher premiums and

Worker contributions: +83% $4,955

+55%

$2,713 $610 2005

2015

+75%

2005

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, Health Research and Educational Trust

out-of-pocket costs to workers. Unaffordable deductibles are also emerging as a major issue for health plans being sold on marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act. The marketplaces, now in their second year, were designed to help peo-

BY KAREN KAPLAN LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

HALex scores

Single

4,000

Study: Seniors who keep working are healthier Is retirement hazardous to your health? It’s an intriguing question in light of a new study that finds senior citizens who work are in better health than their counterparts who don’t. Researchers from the University of Miami and their colleagues examined data on more than 83,000 Americans who participated in the National Health Interview Survey between 1997 and 2011. All of them were at least 65 years old when they were interviewed, and 13 percent of them were still working part time or full time. The majority of these workers — 61 percent — held white-collar positions. Compared to people with white-collar jobs, those who were unemployed or retired were 2.75 times more likely to report their health as “poor” or “fair.” (The other options were “good,” “very good” or “excellent.”) People with blue-collar jobs, service-industry jobs or who worked on farms rated their health as about the same as their white-collar peers.

in many plans are thousands of dollars. “Deductibles are a big problem for consumers,” said Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, the largest state marketplace in the country. Covered California now requires health plans to exempt some office visits from deductibles so consumers aren’t discouraged from getting necessary care. The average deductible for a silver plan on marketplaces nationwide this year is more than $2,500, according to other research by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

$1,071 2015 Graphic: TNS

ple who don’t get health plans through an employer.

Silver deductible: $2,500 Most of the nearly 10 million people in marketplace plans qualify for subsidies to offset their premiums, but deductibles

Plain soap more effective than anti-bacterial soap MAYO CLINIC NEWS NETWORK/TNS

Previous studies have shown that regular soap is just as effective as antibacterial soap, and with a new study published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, researchers in Korea are contributing more data to support that claim. They tested regular and anti-bacterial soaps against 20 strains of bacteria in a lab, as well as on people’s dirty

Penalties begin Beyond costs, the new report contains more encouraging news about the endurance of employer-provided coverage, as 57 percent of employers reported offering benefits, from 2014. That number has been closely watched, as critics of the Affordable Care Act had charged that many businesses would begin to drop their health plans when the health law began offering Americans guaranteed coverage. As has long been the case, many more large businesses provide health benefits, with 98 percent of firms with 200 or more employees offering their workers at least one health plan. This year, employers with at least 100 full-time workers will have to provide benefits or pay a penalty. The requirement will apply to employers with at least 50 full-time employees in 2016, though Republicans and Democrats are working on legislation that could alter this so-called employer mandate.

hands. The conclusions state: Antibacterial soap containing triclosan (0.3 percent) was no more effective than plain soap at reducing bacterial contamination when used under “real-life” conditions. While not involved with the study, Mayo Clinic infectious diseases specialist Dr. Pritish Tosh said, “The amount of unnecessary antibacterial use has contributed to worldwide problems of antibiotic resistance, and anti-bacterial soaps do not appear to be any more effective than regular soaps.” “As such, with no clear benefit and the risk of contributing to an ongoing problem, there is likely no role for antibiotic soaps in routine use,’’ Tosh added.

JIM RASSOL/SUN SENTINEL TNS

Shown in April 2014, Claire Abrams was still working full time at age 91 as a real estate agent in southern Palm Beach County. Woody Gorbach, then 90, was another agent at the same firm. jobs also fared better on more objective measures of health. For instance, the National Health Interview Survey included information on whether people had ever been diagnosed with serious conditions like cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Compared to those with white-collar jobs, those who were unemployed or retired were 49 percent more likely to have a history of at least two of these health problems.

Blue-collar advantage By this measure, bluecollar workers were in even better health than whitecollar workers: They were 16 percent less likely to have two or more of these health problems. Finally, interviewers asked whether people needed any assistance or special equipment to do things like stand, walk or climb stairs. Unemployed and retired seniors were 88 percent more likely than white-collar workers to have multiple functional limitations, researchers found. In addition, the odds of having two or more limitations

were 16 percent lower for blue-collar workers and 18 percent lower for service workers. “Being unemployed/retired was associated with the greatest risk of poor health across all health status measures, even after controlling for smoking status, obesity, and other predictors of health,” the study authors concluded.

Beyond the numbers The results don’t show that working past retirement age is what made senior citizens with jobs healthier than their nonworking peers. Indeed, the authors acknowledged that the reverse is often true: Health problems force some people to drop out of the workforce. Still, understanding the health benefits associated with working past age 65 could motivate businesses to find ways to accommodate older workers, even if they have some limitations, researchers wrote. The report was published last week in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease, a publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

FOTOLIA

Getting out and moving more is good for your health, and 52 minutes a week may be the goal number for runners, according to a review study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Is six miles a week the magic number for runners? MAYO CLINIC NEWS NETWORK/TNS

When it comes to the idea that running is good for the heart, six miles a week may be the magic goal number. In a review study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, experts found running about six miles a week — or 52 minutes — may add from three to six years to your life. Dr. Edward Laskowski, co-director of the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Cen-

ter, says the study supports the existing body of scientific literature that shows exercise is good for your health. He says, “The great news is that you don’t have to run a marathon to benefit from exercise. Just getting out there and moving more helps. Exercise benefits many things including your cardiovascular system, and it cuts the risk of some cancers.” Laskowski adds that even simple activities such as taking a few five-minute walk breaks at work, or walking while talking on the phone, are effective ways to build activity into your life. The current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans are: • 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week • 75 minutes of high intensity exercise per week.

STOJ

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

OCTOBER 2 – OCTOBER 8, 2015

Meet some of

FLORIDA’S

finest

submitted for your approval

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.

malcolm

Born and raised in the Bronx in New York, Malcolm Melvin aspires to one day become a chef and own his own restaurant featuring Jamaican food as well as other fare as well as own an R&B nightclub. He said his friends would describe him as a “wise person who gives good advice, especially on relationships.” Contact Malcolm at facebook.com/MalcolmMelvin or MalcolmLamarMelvin@facebook.com. Tanari Brown was born and raised in Detroit. The urban model says she loves working hard and partying harder, going shopping and going to the beach. She describes herself as “sweet, down to earth and laid back.” Contact Tanari on Twitter @naturalhazel and email tanarimoore@yahoo.com.

tanari

‘The Black Panthers’ film: Insightful, timely tendency was to escalate a situation, Cleaver’s oratory brought new converts but created other difficulties. “He was a Rottweiler,” says one former member, “an uncontrollable personality.”

BY KENNETH TURAN LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Huey P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver are dead, Bobby Seale is 78, Kathleen Cleaver is 70. The events that turned all of them into national figures are decades in the past. So how is it that “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” comes off as the most relevant and contemporary of documentaries? Part of the answer is that the social crisis that helped to create the Black Panther Party for SelfDefense in the 1960s is still very much with us. You only have to hear a network TV newscaster say nearly half a century ago that “relations between police and Negroes throughout the country are getting worse” to feel a frisson of despair at how up to the minute that sounds. Also a factor is the skill with which writerdirector Stanley Nelson has told this story. A veteran documentarian, eight of whose films (including “Freedom Summer” and “The Murder of Emmett Till”) have premiered at Sundance, Nelson expertly combines archival footage, photographs, music and his own interviews to assemble the pieces of what is a complicated story.

Making complex history Nelson understands the play of outsized personalities and unexpected events, and he’s helped that enough time has passed for former Panthers to feel comfortable telling their stories, especially to someone of Nelson’s stature in the documentary world. Still, none of this was easy, and the Panthers even today remain nothing if not a controver-

Tyrese Gibson and Taraji P. Henson starred together in “Baby Boy.’’

Hoover’s move

Stanley Nelson’s new documentary, “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,” is now in theaters.

MOVIE REVIEW

the group’s chauvinism.

sial organization. As former member Ericka Huggins says at the film’s start, “We were making history, and it wasn’t nice and clean. It wasn’t easy. It was complex.” As if to prove her point, Seale, one of the organization’s founders, did not agree to be interviewed by Nelson, and former party chairwoman Elaine Brown, who did speak, slammed the finished film and asked unsuccessfully to have her interview segments removed. Despite this brouhaha, the thoughtful approach Nelson takes to the material feels right. He does not look into every skeleton in the organization’s closet, but he doesn’t hesitate to deal with problem areas, including

Serious issues Though “The Black Panthers” empathizes with the outrage that brought the party into existence and the pride individual members continue to take in their work, his tone is measured, not incendiary. Though they evolved into an organization with wide-ranging goals, including decent housing, education, even the dismantling of the capitalist system, the Panthers were started by Newton and Seale as an Oakland self-defense organization dedicated to stopping police brutality. The black panther, Newton said, strikes only if aggression continues. California gun laws made it legal for citizens to bear arms, and the Panthers got their first publicity break in 1967 when they went to

Tyrese to hook up with Cookie on ‘Empire’

Sacramento to protest a potential change in the statute. When they ended up on the floor of the Legislature (almost by accident, in one account) their black leather jacket and beret look blew people away. As one member recalls, “We had swagger.”

The leaders One factor “The Black Panthers” underscores is how much individual leaders influenced the organization’s actions. Newton was arrested in the shooting death of an Oakland police officer (“Free Huey” became a ‘60s battle cry, and he ultimately was released after a hung jury). Writer Eldridge Cleaver, a literary star after writing “Soul on Ice,” became the face of the party, with mixed results. As an articulate provocateur whose natural EURWEB.COM

It’ll be Jody and Yvette all over again this season on “Empire.” Tyrese Gibson confirmed last week that he will play a love interest of Taraji P. Henson’s character Cookie Lyon, reuniting with the actress on screen for the first time since they starred in 2001’s “Baby Boy.” “Me and Taraji, we gotta do

While the Panthers worked hard to connect to poor Black communities, creating a free breakfast program for schoolchildren that served 20,000 meals a week in 19 communities, their violent rhetoric had made an unswerving, unscrupulous enemy of J. Edgar Hoover, the omnipotent head of the FBI. Convinced that the Panthers were the biggest threat to national security, Hoover expanded the scope of COINTELPRO, the bureau’s secret counterintelligence division, to include the Panthers and determined to use any means necessary to undermine and destroy the group. Of all the stories told in “Black Panthers,” perhaps the saddest is the 1969 death of Fred Hampton, the charismatic 21-year-old chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party who was gunned down by the Chicago police under circumstances so suspicious that a lawsuit brought by the family led to a $1.85 million settlement. An organization that stubbornly resists being pigeonholed, the Black Panther Party emerges from this documentary with its significance enhanced but some of its tactics questioned. Seeming to speak for the film is Stanford history professor Clayborne Carson. “The leaders,” he says sadly, “were not worthy of the dedication of the followers.” what we do,” Gibson, 36, told Wendy Williams in the Sept. 25 episode. “I’m coming to get my girl back,” he said to thunderous applause. Gibson and Henson famously played angry and passionate lovers Joseph “Jody” Summers and Yvette in the John Singleton film. “All them dudes on there kissing on my girl … I’m kinda done with seeing all that,” Gibson added.

FOOD

Easy dinners

OCTOBER 2 – OCTOBER 8, 2015

STOJ

FROM FAMILY FEATURES

all is a busy time for families on the go, but dinner can still be approachable and wholesome. One easy solution: transform a simple everyday side dish into a meal that will have your family asking for more. These recipes, created in partnership with lifestyle expert Sandra Lee, feature Bob Evans’ collection of highquality, like-scratch side dishes ranging from mashed potatoes to macaroni and cheese. The sides, found in the refrigerated section of most local grocery stores, are made with real ingredients and the perfect blend of seasonings to make entrees taste just right. Find more mealtime solutions that put side dishes at the forefront at Farm Fresh Ideas (bobevans.com/recipes), a club that provides recipes, a personalized recipe box and helpful tips in the kitchen. MACWICH Prep time: 5 minutes Cook time: 10 minutes Servings: 4 8 slices garlic bread, frozen 1 package Bob Evans Macaroni and Cheese 4 slices cheddar cheese 16 dill pickle chips (optional) 1 can tomato soup, prepared (optional for dipping) In large non-stick skillet over medium-low heat, heat 8 bread slices for 3 minutes and flip over to evenly warm through. Prepare macaroni and cheese according to package directions. Place 1/2 slice of cheddar cheese on each piece of garlic bread. On 4 pieces of garlic bread, evenly spoon 4 ounces (about 1/2 cup) of macaroni and cheese on top of cheddar cheese/ garlic bread slices. Place remaining 4 slices of garlic bread on top of macaroni and cheese stack. Toast both sides for an additional 2 minutes or until bread is toasty brown and cheese is melted. Serve with dill pickle chips and tomato soup for dipping. ORZO WITH ITALIAN SAUSAGE, MUSHROOMS AND SPINACH Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes Serves: 4 4 tablespoons butter, divided 1 cup uncooked orzo pasta 1 can (14.5 ounces) low sodium chicken broth 1 pound hot or Italian sausage 1/2 cup diced onion 1 cup sliced mushrooms 1 tablespoon freshly minced garlic 10 ounces baby spinach 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese salt and pepper, to taste In a large sauce pan over medium-high heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter and add orzo. Stir until lightly browned. Add chicken broth and bring to boil. Cover. Reduce heat and simmer about 15 minutes, until orzo is tender and liquid is absorbed. Meanwhile, in large skillet over medium heat, add sausage and crumble with potato masher until fully cooked, about 5 minutes. Add onion and mushrooms, and continue to cook until onions are translucent and mushrooms are tender. Add garlic and saute 30 seconds or until garlic becomes fragrant. Turn heat down to low. Add spinach and cover pan to allow spinach to wilt. Set aside until orzo is done. When orzo is done, add sausage mixture and Parmesan cheese and mix well. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. MIXED BERRY COBBLER Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Serves: 6-8 1 package Bob Evans Glazed Apples 1 cup frozen sweet cherries 1 cup blackberries or raspberries 1 cup pear, diced Heat oven to 375 F. In large mixing bowl, mix together glazed apples and fruits. Pour into 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Bake uncovered for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. While fruit is baking, mix together ingredients for streusel. Streusel Topping 1 cup packed light brown sugar 1 cup uncooked rolled oats 2/3 cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon cinnamon 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces Mix together brown sugar, oats, flour and cinnamon until evenly combined. With fingertips, blend in butter pieces until small clumps form and butter is well incorporated, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle topping evenly over fruit and place back in oven uncovered. Bake until streusel is lightly browned and fruit is tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let set 5 minutes before serving.

TIME-SAVING TIPS These simple tricks from Sandra Lee will cut minutes off your busywork, so you can get to the more important things like enjoying fall with your family. 1. Shave minutes off meals using tools in original ways: An ice cream scoop makes cookies and meatballs in a flash; an egg slicer quickly cuts mushrooms and berries. 2. To further speed up slow cooker prep time, keep favorite premixed seasoning packets, pre-sliced vegetables and jarred sauces on hand. 3. Desserts need not be made from scratch to have a homespun feel. Dip packaged cookies in chocolate, embellish bakery cupcakes or create lollipops from candies.

Give sides center stage

BAKED POTATO PIZZA Prep time: 5 minutes Cook time: 10 minutes Serves: 12 1 package Bob Evans Sour Cream & Chive Mashed Potatoes 1 cup bacon, cooked and crumbled 2 premade large pizza crusts 1 cup cheddar cheese Heat oven to 450 F. In bowl, mix together mashed potatoes and bacon crumbles. Place each pizza crust on cookie sheet. Spread half of mashed potato mixture evenly over each pizza. Top each pizza with cheddar cheese. Bake 8-10 minutes or until cheese is melted and lightly golden. Cut into wedges and serve.