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OCTOBER 25 - OCTOBER 31, 2013
VOLUME 21 NO. 43
TAKING HEAT The Obama administration budgets $684 million in advertising – with none to Black-owned newspapers – to drive traffic to a website that doesn’t work. And even his friends aren’t happy about the botched ‘Obamacare’ launch.
COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS
WASHINGTON – Republicans have always been harsh critics of Obamacare. Now President Obama’s signature health care law is taking heat from Democrats, too. More than three weeks after the problem-plagued rollout of the federal marketplace where consumers can sign up for health insurance, support for major provisions of the Affordable Care Act is weakening among some Democrats, who want to see someone
fired over the botched debut. Another issue that has not received much attention is the fact that the Obama administration budgeted $684 million for advertising, publicity, and marketing, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Spending millions now Much of the money is scheduled to be spent in October, November and December of this year and targets the working poor, young people who are or
those who gave up their insurance because of the cost. Approximately 25 percent of this target audience is non-White. Eighty-six percent have a high school education or less. Market research has shown that young adults say it’s often a parent, a girlfriend or a sibling who will push them to sign up for something like health insurance, said Julie Bataille, who is helping lead the outreach for the Obama administration, so the campaign will “make sure moms are aware.”
OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/MCT
President Obama speaks about the Affordable Care Act in the Rose Garden of the White House on Monday, Oct. 21. In a telephone meeting last month, members of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the trade group representing some 150 Black-owned newspapers, were told that
the Obama administration To the rescue had not made Black newsA team of African-Amerpapers and their affiliatican preachers sent a leted websites and social media platforms part of their ter to President Obama afObamacare media adver- firming their “commitment tising blitz. See OBAMA, Page A2
GRAMBLING STATE UNIVERSITY / TIGER FOOTBALL
United in their defiance
Florida Courier ‘survivor’ dies New Orleans resident succumbs to colon cancer FROM THE FLORIDA COURIER STAFF
Sheila Hightower St. Etienne, a former Jacksonville resident who moved to New Orleans, was displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and wrote about the experience for the Florida Courier over a number of years, died Oct. 22 in New Orleans of colon cancer. She was 57.
Post-Katrina life From May through October 2006, she wrote a six-part series of stories in the Florida Courier’s “First Person Survivor Story” series describing the storm, how she survived by evacuating to Jacksonville with her two elementary school-aged children and three cats, and her eventual return to New Orleans to begin rebuilding. Her last 2006 installment ends with See ST. ETIENNE, Page A2
MAX FAULKNER/FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM/MCT
Former Grambling State Head Coach Doug Williams, shown here last year, helped convince Grambling football players to return to the field. The players refused to play a game last week against Jackson State University, protesting unsafe locker room conditions and other issues. See a related No Chaser column on Page A4.
Girl’s suicide could hasten cyber-bullying crackdown BY MARGIE MENZEL THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
MIKE FUENTES/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/MCT
Assistant Principal Jennifer Young holds cell phones at Arlington High School in Arlington, Texas. Due to textmessage bullying, the school confiscates cell phones and students have to pay a $15 fine to get them back.
ALSO INSIDE
Polk County (Lakeland-area) Sheriff Grady Judd, who last week arrested two middleschool girls for their alleged roles in the suicide of a third girl, says there’s a message for bullies and their parents. “When are we going to stand up, as a society, and say, ‘Bullying is unacceptable and there are consequences?’” he said. Judd’s department arrested 14-year-old Guadalupe Shaw and 12-year-old Katelyn Roman on charges of felony aggravated stalking in the suicide of Rebecca Sedwick, who jumped to her death last
month at an abandoned cement plant in Lakeland. The case has drawn national attention because it is alleged to have included cyber-bullying, with Sedwick facing online messages such as, “You’re ugly,” “Why are you still alive?” and “Go kill yourself.”
Additional penalties Now, Judd, who is president of the Florida Sheriffs Association, is calling for other types of penalties for cyber-bullying. That includes counseling and anti-bullying classes, angermanagement classes through the Florida Department of JuSee CRACKDOWN, Page A2
COURTESY OF THE ST. ETIENNE FAMILY
Sheila St. Etienne survived and thrived for more than six years after being diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer – the most advanced form of the disease.
SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3
State cashing in on Crist not welcome gambling money at Young’s funeral NATION | A6
FINEST | B5
Obama wants Morehouse Man for security post
Meet Brian
FOOD | B4
Halloween treats for goblins of all ages
COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: JIM CLINGMAN: BLACK ELECTORATE NEEDS MOST, GETS LEAST FROM POLITICiaNS | A5