Florida Courier - October 30, 2015

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National homelessness expert speaks at Florida conference See Page B1

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OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 5, 2015

VOLUME 23 NO. 44

A TALE OF TWO HBCUs This year, sports archrivals Bethune-Cookman University and Florida A&M University have one thing in common: leadership turmoil at the top of both institutions. ments for renovations to the president’s residence and whether two purchase orders for $300,209 and $71,529 had received board approval. There were also questions about four employee bonuses, which trustee Chairman Rufus Montgomery described as “irregularities and improprieties” that had not been approved by the board.

“It’s a violation of state law,” said Montgomery.

Mangum denied the allegations.

COMPILED FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS

manding justice for Mangum. About 150 congregated outside the governor’s office, where their representatives met with members of Scott’s staff.

“It was an act of malfeasance on the part of the FAMU Board of Trustees,” said student body Vice President Justin Bruno, a junior from Orlando. “There needs to be some grounds for their insinuations. …They need to have grounds. They need to have evidence.”

TALLAHASSEE – In a dramatic three-hour Oct. 22 meeting, members of Florida A&M’s Board of Trustees made failed attempts to fire President Elmira Mangum and sparked students to march to Gov. Rick Scott’s office in support of the embattled president.

Mangum narrowly survived two motions by votes of 7-5 and 6-6 respectively that could have led to her ouster – the latest episode Chairman quits in a series of public conflicts Rattlers rattled A day after trying unsucbetween the president and several trustees.

Within hours of Thurs- cessfully to fire Mangum, Discussion during the day’s votes, FAMU students Montgomery resigned. meeting centered on pay- marched to the Capitol, deAn appointee of Gov.

KIM GIBSON / FLORIDA COURIER

There’s drama at Florida’s two leading Historically Black Colleges or Universities, and it’s not just during halftime at the annual Florida Classic football game.

Rick Scott, Montgomery announced his decision in an email to fellow trustees that described his relationship with Mangum as “broken and irreparable.”

“An expected spirit of cooperation with the board’s

responsible efforts to hold the president accountable has not materialized and is not likely to occur with the current board,” he wrote, adding that the challenges facing FAMU “require an effective working relationship

HOMECOMING WEEK 2015

Continuing the tradition

between the board chair and the university president.”

Montgomery, a Republican lobbyist based in Atlanta, will remain a member of the Board of Trustees, while See HBCUs, Page A2

Sheriff: ‘She started this’ Deputy fired, student criticized COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS

Leading Black women across the nation are expressing outrage this week over the videotaped violent incident showing a White police officer in Columbia, S.C. grabbing a Black 16-year-old female high school student around her neck, flipping her desk; then dragging her across the floor and tossing her across the classroom.

“I was shocked and immobilized to watch the brutal officer physically abuse a young girl because she ‘disobeyed’ his orders. She may have been disobedient, but she did not deserve to be dehumanized and, indeed, defeminized,” said Dr. Julianne Malveaux, a Black press columnist and former president of the Bennett College for Women.

“Imagine the national outcry if a young White girl, blonde hair streaming, was so brutally tossed about in a classroom.”

Previous history

COURTESY OF THE THURSTON FAMILY

Numerous Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) celebrated Homecoming last week, including Atlanta’s Morehouse College. Perry “Trey” Thurston III (left), continues the tradition of three generations of Morehouse Men who are members of the Thurston family. His father, Perry E. Thurston, Jr. (right), is a 1982 Morehouse graduate.

The outrage grew this week as it was learned that the officer, identified by students as Deputy Ben Fields of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, was previously accused of battery and using excessive force.

The Department of Justice and the FBI are investigating Monday’s incident, videotaped by students in the classroom. Posted on See STUDENT, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS NATION | A6

Bacon, hot dogs and ham linked to cancer

FAMU to host national ‘Ban the Box’ forum SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

FLORIDA | A3

HEALTH | B3

Controversial bear hunt cut short

Some confusion about breast cancer guidelines

ALSO INSIDE

ORLANDO – Florida A&M University (FAMU) will host a national forum titled, “Ban the Box: Eliminating Barriers to Reentry” on Nov. 12 at 6 p.m. at the FAMU College of Law in Orlando.

The forum will bring together panelists from a

cross-section of professions, including academia, entertainment, law, and advocacy, from around the nation to discuss the ramifications of “banning the box” – preventing premature or illegal consideration of criminal background information in higher education and the workforce – and the role it may play in preventing re-

habilitated ex-offenders from re-entering society as productive citizens. (“The box” refers to the checkmark made on a “box” in many job applications that ask whether an applicant has been arrested or convicted of a crime.)

Judge Greg Mathis, a social activist and star of the award-winning show “Judge Mathis” will join a group of academic and legal scholars, social activists, and community leaders to bring awareness to the issue.

The symposium will fea-

ture famed civil rights attorney Theodore “Ted” Shaw, the Julius Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law and the director of the Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina. Shaw is one of the nation’s foremost civil rights litigators and has presented affirmative action cases before the U.S. Supreme Court several times during his accomplished career.

Anthony Dixon, Ph.D., FAMU alumnus and author See FORUM, Page A2

COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: CHARLENE CROWELL: CRUSHING WEIGHT OF STUDENT LOAN DEBT HURTS US ALL | A4

FOCUS

A2

OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 5, 2015

STUDENT

reputation and we’ve heard about he’s a really…dangerous man to get involved with. He returned asking, “‘Do you want some of this too?’” she recounted. Fearing his violence, she said she peacefully placed her hands behind her back.

from A1

multiple social media platforms, the viral videos were quickly picked up by national news outlets.

It has become a familiar scene. In recent years, such videos have led to escalating protests of police misconduct in Black communities.

Forced to watch Other students in the classroom appeared stunned and immobile as they watched the scene unfold.

Malveaux said the demeanor of the male students reminded her of how Black men have historically – including during slavery – “been forced to watch the denigration of Black women, who have been raped and beaten to ensure that the men of our race will stand frightened and mute in the face of oppression. Watching a classmate brutally torn and tossed from a desk, anyone with the inclination to speak up must have feared brutal retaliation.”

Disruptive student Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told local media that the deputy, assigned to the Spring Valley High School as a resource officer, went to the classroom after being summoned by school officials who said the teen was disruptive, refused to put away her cell phone at a teacher’s request, and refused to leave the classroom.

Fields was first suspended from the sheriff’s department without pay, pending completion of an investigation. Lott, who said the teen swung at the officer as he grabbed her, announced Wednesday that Fields has been fired.

“The maneuver that he used was not based on the training or was acceptable,” Lott said. “That is not proper technique and should not be used in law enforcement,” Lott said.

Student to blame?

However, Lott argues that the student was still to blame for being insubordinate and disrespectful to her teacher and for refusing the orders of the teacher and a vice principal to leave the classroom.

“The student was not allowing the teacher to teach and the students to learn.

She was very disruptive,

COURTESY OF YOUTUBE

In this screenshot of video shot by a student, Officer Ben Fields wrestles a 16-yearold girl to the floor before dragging and tossing her across the classroom. she was very disrespectful.

She started this.”

Lott said that although the toss was against department policy and gave him “heartburn,” the teacher and the vice principal in the classroom supported what the deputy did with the student.

“The teacher and the school administrator, in their statements (to investigators), both fully supported the actions of Fields,” Lott said. “They both said he acted appropriately, he didn’t use excessive force.”

Top school administrators disagreed, however, banning Fields from all district schools after video

of the incident went public.

Students arrested Although the officer has been fired, Lott said the unidentified student remains charged with disrupting school, a misdemeanor in South Carolina.

The student’s attorney, Todd Rutherford, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday that contrary to official reports, the student was injured in the incident.

“She now has a cast on her arm, she has neck and back injuries. She has a Band-Aid on her forehead where she suffered rug burn on her forehead,”

HBCUs

$2.2M and honored five outstanding leaders including Governor Rick Scott, Ms. Lucille O’Neal, Mr. Tony Jenkins, Rev. Dr. Gerald Lord and Mr. Jeff Feasel. It was one of the largest events hosted in the history of Volusia County. Over the past three years, the gala has raised $7.5M and hosted nearly 2,000 guests,” he writes.

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Vice Chairman Kelvin Lawson will become acting chair until a new election is held.

“With this change, we are recommitting ourselves to a conciliatory approach as we continue to provide leadership in the best interest of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University,” Lawson said in a statement.

Montgomery and some other trustees have repeatedly clashed with Mangum in recent months.

Trustee Tonnette Graham, the president of FAMU’s Student Government Association, objected to the votes because she said the board should take public comment first. But Montgomery proceeded anyway.

On the march Even as the trustees were voting, FAMU students were siding with Mangum. In the hours that followed, they gathered on the steps of Lee Hall, FAMU’s main administration building, calling for Montgomery to resign. Then they marched to Scott’s office, where they met with members of the governor’s staff.

“When you make a decision at 7:30 in the morning over the phone to remove our president without hearing my concerns and my voice, I have a very big issue with that,” FAMU Student Senator Brandon Johnson, who helped lead the march, said. “She’s doing an excellent job.”

Former university Trustee Marjorie Turnbull, a Mangum ally who left the board last spring, credited students with forcing an end to the months-long impasse between Mangum and Montgomery. She also said Montgomery had made a wise decision in stepping down.

“I do not believe there was any positive outcome for him continuing as chair,” Turnbull said.

“He has been opposed to her since the first day she took office. And if the university is going to move forward, the board must have a chair that is willing to work in a collegial manner with the president.”

Stop ‘meddling’ State Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, a Tampa Democrat who has led efforts to support Mangum during the conflict, also hailed Montgomery’s resignation “because he set a tenor of mistrust.”

Joyner, whose law and undergraduate degrees are from FAMU,

Rutherford said.

Another student, Niya Kenny, 18, who told her classmates to tape the incident and openly voiced her disdain for the violence, was also arrested.

“Seeing her being thrown across the classroom like that was really traumatizing. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like that in my life and it just really broke my heart to watch it,” said Kenny, interviewed with her mother and attorney on CNN. Kenny was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after the 16-yearold girl was escorted out of the classroom.

“We’ve heard about his

Rufus Arthenia Montgomery Joyner urged Montgomery to “examine his past behavior…and really accept the fact that there’s a woman at the helm without micromanaging and meddling by the board.”

Turnbull said the trustees could move past the conflict and accept Mangum as the university’s first woman president.

“There are certain board members for whom the fact that she’s a woman has been a barrier,” Turnbull said. “I do not believe that’s the case with the majority of the board.”

Attorney Chuck Hobbs – a FAMU grad, Mangum ally and popular blogger – thinks the board and president should go on a retreat and use mediation to resolve their differences.

But if they can’t, he said, FAMU supporters should “put outside pressure on what I call the gang of six that sought her ouster… to do the honorable thing and resign completely from the board of trustees.”

Wildcat conflict In Daytona Beach, BethuneCookman University presented its highest honor, the Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Leadership Award, to Florida Gov. Rick Scott during Homecoming Week despite a public outcry from alumni, and B-CU President Dr. Edison O. Jackson got a two-year extension on his employment contract.

“It is with great pleasure that I announce the extension of President Edison O. Jackson’s contract with Bethune-Cookman University. During the October 2015 meeting, the Board of Trustees voted to renew the President’s contract for two additional years, ending in June 2018,” B-CU Board Chairman Joe Petrock wrote in an emailed letter dated Oct. 23.

Jackson has made “undeniable strides since taking office in 2013” according to Petrock, who goes on to brag about the university’s latest fundraising event.

“President Jackson and I cofounded the Mary McLeod Bethune Legacy Awards Gala, which recognizes leaders who have made a great impact on our institution and community.

“The most recent 3rd annual event hosted 811 guests, raised

Serious questions Still, storm clouds are on the horizon.

In a six-page letter dated Sept.

15 that was publicly revealed by the Florida Courier three weeks ago, Pompano Beach-based attorney Johnny L. McCray, Jr., a longtime member of the B-CU Board of Trustees, issued an ultimatum demanding that his fellow board members bring in forensic auditors to probe the school’s finances for fraud and fiscal mismanagement.

If they refused, McCray wrote that he would file lawsuits against individual board members and request a state and federal criminal investigation.

No direct response Neither Jackson nor his administration have responded directly to McCray’s demand, though Jackson emailed a letter last week to B-CU stakeholders that seem to take shots at McCray – and at the Florida Courier.

“I cannot tell you why those who oppose our ascent to greatness want to use the media to damage our brand. I cannot tell you why people who say they love B-CU engage practices that ultimately challenge our ability to promote student success. I cannot tell you why those who claim to promote the University would pose threats that impugn the credibility of the University’s leadership,” Jackson wrote in his email.

B-CU has never submitted a direct response to the Florida Courier regarding McCray’s letter, despite multiple requests. Jackson and Petrock were both “unavailable” when they were provided with alternate dates by the Florida Courier editorial staff for onehour recorded telephone interviews to answer questions about McCray’s letter.

Petrock’s letter did not indicate whether McCray’s demand was discussed during the same board meeting in which Jackson’s contract was extended. Unlike FAMU, B-CU board meetings are generally closed to the public because B-CU is not a publicly-funded institution.

Influential support Last week, McCray picked up

‘Just standing by’ “I read an article earlier this year that referred to Black girls as ‘Pushed out, over-policed and under-protected.’ This came to my mind when I saw the video,” said Dr. Elsie Scott, founding director of the Ronald W. Walters Leadership and Public Policy Center at Howard University.

“The young lady was pushed out of school by a police officer who clearly seemed to be using more than necessary enforcement. Then when I saw the Black male teacher just standing by, I felt bad that she had no one to protect her. We are seeing increasingly more cases where Black girls and women are being subjected to abuse

some influential support.

Three of B-CU’s largest and most powerful national alumni chapters – Daytona Beach, known as the school’s “mother chapter;” Miami-Dade; and Palm Beach – all sided with his call for a forensic audit.

In a letter dated Oct. 19 signed

by Chapter President Shirlyon J. McWhorter, B-CU’s Miami-Dade Alumni Chapter stood squarely behind McCray and tied Jackson with B-CU’s former chief financial officer – who left two previous schools and B-CU under questionable fiscal circumstances.

‘Deeply concerned’ “…(O)ur chapter membership is deeply concerned about the lack of transparency and accountability since the hiring and eventual resignation of B-CU’s former Chief Financial Officer, Emmanuel Gonsalves, a longtime business intimate of current B-CU president Edison Jackson,” McWhorter states.

“Numerous sources – including articles in the press and a petition drafted and circulated earlier this year by alumni nationwide – have called attention to not only Gonsalves’ actions at BCU but also at Medgar Evers College in New York City and the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATT).

“Gonsalves’ time at Medgar Evers College, COSTAAT, and BCU have two important things in common: He was forced to resign amidst financial scandal at each institution and he and Dr. Jackson worked together at each at oft times overlapping intervals at all of the above universities.”

Signature forged?

The letter cites McCray’s allegation that $5.6 million was paid to a vendor as a consequence of a

FORUM from A1

of numerous books including “Up From Incarceration,” which chronicles his journey from prison to a doctoral degree, and Western Carolina’s Bardo Distinguished Professor Kofi Lomotey, Ph.D., who will discuss the role of higher education in providing reentry opportunities, will join Mathis and Shaw.

FAMU alumnus and Talla-

and over enforcement. We must start placing more attention on the plight of females in the criminal justice system.”

No feminist outrage The Rev. Omarosa Manigault, a reality television star who pastors in Los Angeles, called for White female counterparts in civil rights to rise up.

“Where are the women’s rights organizations like the National Organization for Women when little Black girls are being treated in this inhumane way? Where is the outrage?” Manigault said.

“This young lady was treated like a thug or a thief, instead of a pupil sitting in a class room behaving like a regular teen.”

Parents speak More than a dozen parents and community members spoke out at a Tuesday night meeting of the Richland 2 School District, with some saying the issue wasn’t about race but about finding ways to handle defiant students, according to The Associated Press.

One speaker, Craig Conwell, said he was angry, urged board members to take action, and said the officer should have been fired immediately.

“If that was my daughter … that officer being fired would be the least of his worries,” Conwell said, according to the AP. “We are sick and tired of Black women being abused. You can say it’s not racist all you want to.”

Content from the Trice Edney Newswire and Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times / TNS was used to prepare this report.

contract signed without Jackson’s knowledge.

“This is troubling because there is no mention that Dr. Jackson ordered any audit or other investigative inquiry to discover the cause and culprit of those signatures…we stand firmly in support of Johnny McCray…

“Our support for Attorney McCray also extends, if circumstances require it, to his preparedness to “prosecute a derivative lawsuit, on behalf of the University” as well as the summoning of “state and federal law enforcement officials to investigate whether embezzlement or other criminal acts may have been committed against the University.”

‘Overwhelming approval’ B-CU’s Board of Trustees also received a similar letter dated Oct. 17 from the Palm Beach County Alumni Chapter, represented by President Sylvia L. Howard-Gibson.

“With the overwhelming approval of the chapter members at our meeting on Saturday, October 17th, I am expressing the will of the members to implement the recommendation by Trustee Johnny L. McCray, Jr. for a forensic audit,” Howard-Gibson writes.

“A forensic audit of the University’s books and records from 2011-2014, and as my chapter has voted to include 2015, will continue to provide more clarity and transparency…. Conducting a forensic audit does not seem outlandish in light of the recent discoveries of financial inconsistencies.”

Log on to www.flcourier.com to read the various letters mentioned in this story.

Margie Menzel of the News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

hassee Mayor Andrew Gillum; FAMU alumnus Umi Selah, executive director of the Dream Defenders; Sharon Ames Dennard, Ph.D., clinical psychologist, community activist, and business owner; and former Orlando Judge Belvin Perry will round out the panel.

More than 19 states and 100 cities and counties have passed “ban the box” laws. Also, momentum is gaining for similar federal legislation.

To register and learn more about the forum, go to: bit.ly/ famubanthebox.

OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 5, 2015

FLORIDA

A3 area to west of Apalachicola Bay. With 112 bears reported killed as of Sunday in the East Panhandle, Eason said that’s a sign that there are more bears in the woods.

Eason also noted that hunters were reported to have been scouting for bears in the East Panhandle prior to the start of the hunt.

Other areas where the hunt was allowed were the South region, which includes Broward, Collier, Hendry, Lee, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach counties; the Central region, which includes the St. Johns River watershed to the Ocala National Forest; and the North region, which goes from Jacksonville west to Hamilton and Suwannee counties.

Citations, warning

RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS

On Oct. 23, Marian Galss, right, Cynthia Labinsky, center, and Jim Bronzo, left, protest the black bear hunt in Orlando. The bear hunt started Oct. 24 at dawn.

Florida’s controversial bear hunt ends after just two days

BY JIM TURNER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

State wildlife officials will take some time to review the first bear hunt in 21 years – shut down Sunday night quicker than they expected – to make adjustments before the next one.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials, who acknowledged on Oct. 25 that the agency “underestimated the hunter success for the first day,” said a number of scenarios from the planned weeklong hunt – cut down to two days – still have to be factored into future planning.

Black bears hadn’t been hunted in Florida for 21 years and they’re relatively naive about being prey.

The weather was ideal for hunting over the weekend.

There was an abundance of hunters, and some went out ahead of time to scout for bears. The population of bears – the state expects

to have updated statewide projections next year – has been growing.

“We’re going to take all the information from this year, and take a look at it, and consider everything we’ve got, and learn as we go, and consider how to adjust the management for the future,” said Diane Eggeman, commission director of hunting and game management.

‘Management tool’ The commission has been pursuing other methods of reducing humanbear conflicts for years, such as getting more communities to require bearproof trash containers.

But state officials remain adamant that the hunt is a “management tool” for the increasing bear population, estimated around 3,000 in Florida.

Opponents, who called the hunt a “disaster” for the state’s recently threatened black-bear population, said the commission should limit who is al-

lowed back in the field for future hunts and better define future targets.

Chuck O’Neal, director of the Seminole County group Speak Up Wekiva, which failed earlier this month to persuade a circuit judge to block the hunt, said the agency needs to first determine if the hunt “adversely impacted” the state’s blackbear population.

“I can’t see any point of this hunt being successful by any means,” said O’Neal, whose group has filed suit challenging the commission’s ability to approve bear hunts. “The 320 quota was supposed to be over in seven days. How can they rejoice over that?

It’s just one spin after another.”

One kill per hunter O’Neal said the state needs to impose a lottery system to limit the number of hunters, prohibit female bears from being killed, increase the minimum weight limit of bears

we’re still very confident we’re within those sustainable limits.”

Most killed Oct. 24

that can be killed from 100 pounds to 200 pounds and prohibit anyone who killed a bear in this year’s hunt from being able to get a permit for a future hunt.

A total of 3,778 bearhunt permits were issued at a cost of $100 to Florida residents and $300 for outof-state hunters.

Each permit allowed a hunter a single kill.

The sales brought the agency more than $376,900, which will be used to reduce humanbear conflicts.

The hunt was ended Sunday night with 295 bears having been reported killed, 25 fewer than the targeted statewide quota.

“When we started this, we started with harvest objectives that were very conservative and very mindful that we are doing this for the first time in 21 years,” said commission Executive Director Nick Wiley.

“There are uncertainties.

But we put many good buffers in place, because it was those uncertainties and

Fish and Wildlife officials said Sunday that though the projected one-week hunt went quicker than expected, the numbers remain within the 10 percent “harvest” objective.

“From biological sustainable population perspective, none of these numbers are worrying to us,” said Thomas Eason, director of the commission’s Division of Habitat and Species Conservation. “We have large, resilient growing bear populations.”

Most of the bears killed in the hunt were taken Saturday, Oct. 24, in the East Panhandle and Central Florida bear-management regions, which were both closed to hunters on Sunday.

The state divides Florida in to seven bear management units. Four with the largest bear populations were opened to the hunt.

Hunting areas Officials had used a 2002 estimate of 600 bears living in the East Panhandle region to set a quota of 40 bears. That area includes the northwestern Big Bend

As of Sunday night, 21 bears were reported killed in the South region and 23 in the North region.

Wiley noted that in the South region, Big Cypress National Preserve was closed to bear hunting and a number of large private land owners had not opened their land to hunters.

“That’s a factor that I believe does figure, just availability of places to go, that figures into this,” Wiley said.

Commission Division of Law Enforcement Maj. Craig Duval said officers issued two citations Saturday.

A hunter in the East Panhandle region was issued a citation for killing a cub that weighed just over 40 pounds. To prohibit the killing of cubs, the rules for the hunt required targeted bears to weigh more than 100 pounds.

Bear bait?

The other citation went to a hunter in the Central region for using bait to lure a bear.

The penalties in both cases are second-degree misdemeanors if the hunter is a first-time offender.

A warning was also issued to a hunter in the Central region for killing an 88-pound bear, while investigations are underway into other cases of baiting bears.

Several hunters were also found hunting without their permits. Duval said those hunters were “educated” on the law that requires hunters to carry their permits.

Duval said there were no reports of hunters being injured.

Bill would boost age to operate jet skis

Front row from left to right: Kenneth Francis, Call Me MISTER Program manager; Claylo Brown, donor; Attorney Willard Payne; Curtis Powell Call Me MISTER student; and Dr. Nathanial Glover, President of Edward Waters College. Back row: Tony Hill, former Florida state senator; Pastor Gary Webber, Southside Baptist Church; Dr. Robert Gibson, attorney; and Charles Spencer, Edward Waters board member.

NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

$20K donation will help Edwards Waters produce more Black male teachers JACKSONVILLE – Edward Waters College (EWC) has received $20,000 in donations toward its Call Me MISTER scholarship program.

Former Florida State Senator Tony Hill presented the check to President Nathanial Glover during

an Alumni Presidential Reception during the college’s homecoming festivities last weekend.

The Call Me MISTER program was created to help increase the number of African-American males who teach on the elementary lev-

el. According to the Department of Education, African-American men only make up two-percent of the 4.8 million educators across the country. Less than one-percent of them teach in elementary schools.

“You won’t be it if you can’t see it,” said Hill. “That is why we are so adamant about ensuring this program is successful because we know it will change lives.”

Open to Black males The scholarship program is open to African-American males majoring in elementary education and

pays for the last two years of coursework. Recipients of the “Call Me MISTER” scholarship must teach in an inner-city elementary school in the Duval County Public School System for at least five years.

Edward Waters College is hoping to have at least 15 to 20 “Call Me MISTER” scholars every spring and Fall semesters. Students interested must be admitted into the institution to qualify for this scholarship.

For more information about the program, contact Ken Francis, the Call Me MISTER manager, at 904476-9004 or via email at k.francis@ ewc.edu.

The minimum age to operate a personal watercraft, such as a jet ski, in most Florida waters would increase from 14 to 16 under a proposal (SB 644) filed Monday for the 2016 legislative session by Sen. Jeremy Ring, DMargate.

The age change would make it unlawful for owners of personal watercraft to allow the machines to be operated by youths younger than 16.

The fine for allowing an underage operator would remain the same, a $50 civil penalty.

The bill, filed a little more than three months after two 14-year-old boys from the northern Palm Beach County village of Tequesta vanished at sea after motoring out the Jupiter Inlet in a 19-foot SeaCraft, does not address the age of boat operators.

EDITORIAL

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OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 5, 2015

The crushing weight of student loan debt hurts us all As the cost of higher education has risen, students and their families have increasingly turned to student loans to cover costs. Today, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), 41 million consumers collectively owe more than $1.2 trillion in debt.

What is less commonly known, however, is that millions of student loan borrowers are delinquent or in default on $175 billion in student loan balances. To frame it another way: more than one in four student loan borrowers are either delinquent or in default.

stances student borrowers and co-signers face.

But one of the biggest problems facing student loan borrowers is servicers’ failure to help them avoid default and distress by enrolling into any of several repayment plans that might help them out of a financial pinch.

Repayment struggles

Repayment alternatives

With that kind of red ink, the CFPB began a public inquiry that has now led to over 30,000 comments sharing the difficult struggles of student loan repayments, as well as remedies to cure this growing trend. Many of these struggles can be traced back to student loan servicers – the companies hired by the Department of Education to collect loan payments and, in theory, assist borrowers if they get into trouble.

Consumers reported a litany of servicing woes to the CFPB, reminiscent of those that affected mortgages and foreclosures just a few years ago. Lost paperwork, misapplied payments and difficulty correcting errors are just a few of the unfortunate circum-

Federal loans offer options to alter loan repayments. Deferring payments due to unemployment or income-based repayments that adjust to each borrower’s capacity to repay have helped many borrowers to financially cope. Depending upon the type of federal loan and employment secured, some loans may be forgiven after years of prompt payment and public service.

Even with these options, 70 percent of federal direct loan borrowers in default actually met income requirements for lower monthly payments attached to incomedriven repayment plans, according to a report released by the General Accounting Office earlier this year. Additional evidence

CHARLENE CROWELL NNPA FINANCIAL WRITER

suggests that borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans can avoid default more easily compared to borrowers who do not enroll.

For CFPB, this disturbing data point prompts questions as to how well or even if borrowers knew all their available options.

Comments filed with CFPB suggest that some servicers provided either conflicting or inaccurate information that denied the best loan remedy. In some cases, the remedy offered increased loan costs. In other instances, late payment processing often created higher interest charges and late fees.

“There are no consistent, market-wide federal standards for student loan servicing and servicers generally have discretion to determine policies related to many aspects of servicing operations,” states CFPB’s report.

Other effects “A growing body of evidence suggests that rising levels of student loan indebtedness may also have had spillover effects on other segments of the economy – potentially limiting borrowers’ access to credit, diminishing savings, reducing homeownership, threatening retirement security, and inhibiting borrowers from pursuing careers as healthcare providers and educators in underserved communities, or as

A plea to save the family phone This really struck me in the immediate aftermath of the South Carolina flood. I have two friends – a couple – who live in Charleston. I called them to check on their situation and quickly realized that they almost never answer their home line.

I decided to call the husband in the couple, a gentleman who has been like a brother to me for more than thirty years, on his cell phone. We connected and everything was fine, including their house, and no one was hurt. We spoke for a while then said goodbye.

Lost contact It was after we hung up that it struck me that I have not spo-

BILL FLETCHER, JR. NNPA COLUMNIST

ken with the wife in the couple on the phone in years. Once upon a time I would call their house and, regardless of who answered, we would get into a conversation, catch up on family, friends, etc. It might be that if I was calling the husband and the wife answered, that we might start discussing something that was going on in her life. We have all been that close.

Yet, what has happened over time is that, as we all move towards near-total reliance on personal cell phones, I have found that I speak less and less with her, to the point of being disconnected from the family. The more I thought about it, I realized that this was not the case with this family alone. It was an increasing tendency for many families.

Once upon a time, you could find out much more about a family depending on who answered the phone. There might have been pieces of information that you would never have stumbled across had it not been a spouse, partner or child who answered the phone rather than the person you were specifically calling.

The modern-day hobo Back in the day, you didn’t need a GPS system on your smartphone to find the Black community in any city or town.

All you had to do was to find the downtown area and then look for the railroad tracks.

For example, in Tallahassee, it is as easy to find Florida A&M University now as it was to find the school 50 years ago. FAMU is on one side of the railroad tracks and FSU, Florida State University, is on the other.

Train-hopper As a young boy in Atlanta, I spent a considerable amount of time on trains. I would oftentimes catch the train in the proj-

LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT

ects and ride the train to other parts of the city.

No, I wasn’t in the dining car or the sleeping car, I rode in the freight cars. You see, I was hobo-ing since the age of about 12 years old.

Well, I can’t hop a train these days because the trains move much faster. Don’t even try to jump onto a MARTA (Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority)

Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 268 QUICK TAKES FROM #2: STRAIGHT, NO CHASER

CHARLES W. CHERRY II, ESQ. PUBLISHER

Hail yeah! Your humble writer is back after being AWOL from this page. Why? You’ll understand by and by…

HBCU BS – An African proverb says, “When the elephants fight, the grass gets crushed.” Dysfunctional HBCU leadership and top managers are the elephants; the grass is the faculty, staff and stu-

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: BEAR HUNTING IN FLORIDA

BILL DAY, CAGLE CARTOONS

entrepreneurs,” the report continued.

To effectively alleviate student debt burdens, the CFPB along with the U.S. Treasury and Department of Education have together endorsed a set of principles to guide student loan servicing reforms. These principles would apply to both private and federal loans. In part these principles call for: • Publishing information about the practices of lenders and servicers, along with information on the performance of private and federal student loans; • Holding loan servicers accountable for violations of contractual agreements, federal regulations and consumer laws at both the state and federal levels; and I am not talking about being nosey. I am talking about better understanding people, including friends.

Direct dial?

Some of you are saying that I should just call the wife in the couple. But that misses the point.

Not all relationships are the same, and this is particularly the case between men and women. It is one thing for the wife to answer a phone and speak with a male friend. It is another thing for that male friend to call the wife directly. I am not passing judgment or saying what should be; I am saying what is.

Our worlds are narrowing. In the case I mentioned, rather than my becoming more and more connected with the family, my bond with the husband remains If you just have to freak, so to speak, you had better freak with professionals. In legitimate brothels or whorehouses, the workers have to be examined by doctors on a weekly basis. They are tested for sexually transmitted diseases and also for contagious diseases like flu, tuberculosis, and a variety of other stuff.

Two heads are always better than one, but in the words of Bob Marley, “One Love” is better than that!

Everyone can recognize a Ho beau. In fact many people have a Ho beau. They just don’t know they have one!

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.

Charlene Crowell is a communications manager with the Center for Responsible Lending.

Contact her at Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org. stable or intensifies, whereas my connection with the rest of the family dwindles. This seems to speak to a larger social problem as we turn in on ourselves, frequently reading or watching programs that our respective ‘niche market’ is interested in, and forgetting that we are on a planet of billions with myriad interests and experiences from which we can learn.

The family phone may be on its way out. The question we have to ask is whether that is representative of a broader deterioration in our own ability –and willingness – to learn, and equally, to strengthen bonds.

Bill Fletcher, Jr. is the host of “The Global African” on Telesur-English. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and at www. billfletcherjr.com.

Only God can judge you and your man or woman, but it is not very safe to have multiple sex partners or have a partner that has multiple sex partners.

Be careful

companionship. Seniors, and young people too, be careful with who you decide to sleep with.

If you are old enough to have an AARP card and you’re looking for a spouse or committed mate, take your eyes off of that man or woman that will leave home at 11 p.m. two or three times a week to go to a club or set to slow dance (or grind on) multiple people until 3a.m. in the morning. That is not a good look!

Respect yourself! Don’t be a Ho beau and don’t let a Ho beau spoil your love life!

I’m worried about the senior citizens that will do almost anything in their search for love or

Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net.

dents who just want to do their jobs, get reasonably paid on time via direct deposit (not bouncing checks), and get good educations, respectively.

I have contacts within multiple HBCUs from students to top administrators. There’s a dismaying similarity when I sift through those conversations: dictatorial, ego-driven leadership; ass-kissing or back-stabbing trustees; a refusal to ask hard questions of top management; a woeful lack of accountability and transparency; the continuing desire to handle dirty laundry “behind closed doors;” the

wish to “kill the messenger” rather than confront unforeseen challenges; and low morale among faculty and staff who provide direct services to students.

Lemme tell y’all something.

It’s not our jobs as journalists – and that’s what we are – to protect Black individual or organizational incompetence. It’s also not our jobs to serve as attack dogs for people with personal agendas who are too cowardly to challenge the moral and operational “dry rot” within the institution whose paycheck may be keeping a roof over their heads.

train or any high-speed train anywhere in the world.

Slow trains are gone, but you can still be a hobo! Today, hobo is spelled differently and even has a different meaning. The new hobo is the “Ho beau!”

If you are in love with a woman or a man that disrespects you, sleeps around and shares time, money and body parts with someone other than you, you have a Ho beau!

Be safe

Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher

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

• Directing servicers to provide accurate information to borrowers and provide effective student loan servicing.

“Good student loan servicing is the key to successful loan repayment,” said Leslie Parrish, Deputy Director of Research at the Center for Responsible Lending. “No borrower should default because the servicer failed to give them the attention they deserved. The CFPB and Department of Education must work together to comprehensively reform student loan servicing.”

Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Sales Manager

W W W.FLCOURIER.COM

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

Jenise Morgan, Senior Editor Angela van Emmerik, Creative Director Chicago Jones, Eugene Leach, Louis Muhammad, Lisa Rogers-Cherry, Circulation Penny Dickerson, Staff Writer Duane Fernandez Sr., Kim Gibson, Photojournalists

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You got something to say about what’s going in in your institution?

Then (1) anonymously send documents which justify your allegations (documents speak for themselves and we post them for readers) OR (2) stand up and let us quote what you say, name and all.

We don’t do stories from “an anonymous source.”

Can’t do that, but still want to accuse somebody of criminal or immoral behavior? Then have two seats…

Contact me at ccherry@gmail. com.

Central Florida Communicators Group, LLC, P.O. Box 48857 Tampa, FL 33646, publishes the Florida Courier on Fridays. Phone: 877-352-4455, toll-free. For all sales inquiries, call 877-352-4455; e-mail sales@flcourier.com.

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The Florida Courier reserves the right to edit any submission, and crop any photograph, for style and clarity. Materials will not be returned.

OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 5, 2015

Five things I hate about being a Black entrepreneur The creation and development of Black-owned businesses is the single most important issue in the African-American community today.

Holding marches, voting for the right politician and sharing a lunch counter with White people aren’t going to give us true power in a capitalist society. We’re only going to be able to get ahead by creating our own businesses and owning things, which will then create our jobs.

Controlling wealth and resources will also translate into additional political power, which will then open the door to solving some of the most pressing matters that we are faced with today.

Feasting over scraps White people aren’t hiring Black people at the same rate they are hiring other Whites. While the rest of America moans and wails over 6 or 7 percent unemployment, Black people are expected to cheer when our unemployment rate is 12 percent. So, just like during slavery, we are expected to feast over the scraps that have been left by a society that was structured around our oppression, marginalization, mass incarceration and familial extermination.

With that being said, Black people must commit to being builders, not borrowers and beggars.

Waiting for the White man to save you is like an abused wife hoping that her violent husband will boost her self-esteem. There is nothing more ridiculous than depending on someone else to feed and educate your children. Some might even say that it’s a form of mental illness.

Brave Black business owners are fighting to claim our economic independence, but it’s not easy. Many of us haven’t been taught how to survive on our own, and it’s even worse when some of the greatest White supremacists in America also happen to have Black skin. So here are a few things I’ve found to be most difficult about being a Black entrepreneur: 1. Lack of access to capital.

Banks are mostly run by White people. White people loan money to each another. So, while White start-up companies often find millions to finance even bad ideas, the best Black-owned businesses end up starving for capital.

The Small Business Administration, even with a Black president in office, loans almost nothing to Black businesses, and this is DESPITE the fact that many of the banks in America became rich by using slave labor.

2. Lack of support from smallminded people. If you ever want to be ostracized by members of your family, tell them that you’re quitting that good corporate job to start your own business. Be-

DR. BOYCE WATKINS GUEST COLUMNIST

cause most of us were never taught about the risks of depending on your oppressors to pay your bills, many of us believe that a high salary actually means you have real power or have made meaningful progress.

Being a Black entrepreneur might lead to some relatives making fun of you for not making enough money, or asking why you don’t have a “real job.” It’s sad, because many of us can’t imagine life without working for the White man, primarily because we were raised to think this way from birth.

Even though you might be dedicating your life to the company you work for, you can’t pass that job onto your children when you die. When you roll over and pass away from a heart attack, they will push you out of your chair, replace you by the end of the week, and pretend you were never there in the first place.

It’s often after years of racist insults, not getting the jobs they are qualified for, and seeing all of the good jobs and promotions go to the White guy down the hall that a lot of Black people are starting to say “f**k this,” and leaving their corporate plantation for good.

Some might ask if you should have ever been there in the first place.

3. Lack of expertise. Since integration, Black people have forgotten how to build our own institutions. We believe that jobs are things that someone else gives to us, rather than something we can create for ourselves.

We can also have an intense fear of the uncertainty that comes with freedom, where you’re the one making the decisions that most impact your life. This lack of understanding can cause many of us to freeze up and let life pass us by. When you allow your fear to make all of your decisions for you, you’ve basically made yourself into a non-factor in the game of life.

One of the reasons I left Syracuse University and created The Black Wealth Boot Camp is so like-minded Black people can share ideas and resources, which I find to serve as a major impediment to the fear that many of us feel when going out on our own.

Just like slaves running away from the plantation, the journey north is not nearly as scary when you have other people to lean on. Many of us are first-generation economic liberators, and it can be difficult to learn what you need to know.

4. Lack of trust from other Black people. I rarely hear a

Black person complain about the hundreds of dollars he spent at Wal-Mart, going to the movies, or buying a new car from Ford. I also never hear things like, “All those White business owners are crooks with bad service.” But familiarity can breed contempt, which leads some Black people to believe that any Black person requesting payment for their services must somehow be a crook.

The same guy who just spent $250 on a pair of Nike sneakers might call a Black man a scam artist because he tried to sell him a $20 book. The dude who just dropped $80 at the movies two days earlier might not donate $10 to a Black institution because he thinks the organization is going to pocket his cash.

Most of the corporations we give our money to don’t even hire very many Black people. So, common sense suggests that even if we have to pay a premium to support a Black-owned business, it would make sense to give our money to institutions that are hiring people who look like us.

The Black unemployment rate is typically twice as high as that of Whites. White companies aren’t hiring Black people at the rate they should, and among Black people who actually get the jobs, many of them hate going to work.

In a recent Black Wealth Boot Camp survey, over 50 percent of our respondents said they hate their jobs; 16 percent were unemployed; and over 95 percent of them said they’d been victims of workplace discrimination.

The conclusion of this data is very simple: The ONLY way for the Black man or woman to find quality, satisfying employment opportunities is to develop businesses within our own communities.

5. Lack of mutual support from other ethnic groups. Some people say that Black people don’t have the ability to create jobs, but that’s not true at all. Actually, we create millions of jobs for other people on a regular basis.

Some refer to Black communities as “liquid money,” because we are the only group of people in America who will let other people set up businesses in our neighborhoods, suck us dry financially, and give nothing back – not even jobs. We are trained at a young age to sign our own economic and political death certificate by gaining an early-life addiction to giving our resources to those who want to see our children either dead or in prison.

In America’s economic system, Black people are an expendable, low-value resource, like chickens being raised in small coops so they can be slaughtered and served at KFC. In his popular book, “Black Labor, White Wealth,” Dr. Claud Anderson says this: “We have further handicapped ourselves by some of our own be-

Justice (and what else?) on the National Mall As a somewhat skeptical attendee at the “Justice or Else” rally commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 1995 Million Man March, I hoped that at least one of the scheduled speakers would provide concrete guidance on critical issues of confrontation with the police; the use of economics as a weapon in the ongoing campaign for equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity; and the never-ending psychological attacks on the minds of Black folks.

Several speakers touched on these issues, but not one gave them the attention they so desperately require.

Cops and youth It would have been helpful if someone with deep expertise had provided young Black folks, especially Black teenagers and young adults, with concrete advice on what to do when confronted by police.

Another issue included in the rhetoric of several speakers –but not emphasized by any of the ones I heard – was the most effective ways we can use our individual and group economic resources as a forceful weapon in this moneydriven society.

If the people in Ferguson had gone to the White store owners in that city and demanded that they do something about the killing of Michael Brown or lose them as

the thousands of attendees. Columnist Tingba Muhammad, with passion and talent, explained the pivotal role that Hollywood has A. PETER played in this psychological warBAILEY fare.

Warfare is exactly what it is. In TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM movie after movie, people of colcustomers, there would have been or – especially Black folks – are deno need to demonstrate and chant picted as inferior to Whites in all human endeavors XXX slogans.

With Black folks reportedly making up 65 percent of Fer- Laughed at Africans guson’s population, those White In a segregated movie theater in storeowners would have dealt Tuskegee, Ala., I, along with dozwith that situation swiftly and de- ens of other Black youngsters agcisively. Those interested only in es 7-14, would cheer enthusiastitheir profits would have thrown cally as Tarzan the White man and that police officer under the bus. his chimpanzee beat up on AfriIn significant instances, our sup- can warriors. We ridiculed and port determines whether business laughed at African people in those operates in the red or black. That’s and many other movies and televia weapon for promoting and de- sion programs. fending our interests. It’s too bad The only national leaders that I this was not clearly delivered to am aware of who consistently and those gathered on the Mall. forcefully warned us about that kind of psychological warfare were Media brainwashing Brother Malcolm X and Dr. C. DeFinally, I wish at least one speak- Lores Tucker. One rarely hears any er had outlined in some detail how of today’s “national leaders” deal movies, television, school text- with this critical subject.

Here are some other impresbooks, newspapers, magazines, song lyrics, the Internet, etc. are sions about the rally: • Anesthesiologist Dr. Keith used as instruments for psychological attacks on our minds by the Hunter: “The march had great energy and assembled many differproponents of White supremacy.

While at the event, I came ent ages and peoples. I especially across an article in the March 18, appreciate the call for unity with 2014 issue of the Final Call news- First Peoples and Latino folks as paper that was worth reading to our collective oppression should

EDITORIAL

A5

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: REGULATING DRONES BUT NOT GUNS

ADAM ZYGLIS, THE BUFFALO NEWS

by money, and by giving all of our money away to our oppressors; we leave ourselves weak and defenseless.

Some of us believe that if we whine and cry loud enough and explain our plight to others, someone will come along and give us what we want. The truth is that others end up laughing at us.

No one respects a group of people No plan that have to beg in order to feed “We have been a key capital- their children. istic element in the national empowerment plan of others – as a Here’s a newsflash source of free or cheap labor. Yet, Most powerful White people we have never had a national emdon’t give a *&^ %$ about Black powerment plan of our own.”

What Dr. Anderson is saying unemployment, mass incarcerais that everyone wants to eat the tion, urban violence, miseducachicken, but no one cares about tion, poverty or any of the other the well being of the chicken or things that affect our communihis family. Black people, you are ties. As much as your political scithe chicken and other people are ence teacher may have told you eating well because of your exis- that we all have equal access to tence. They expect you to be loy- the American dream, the majority al to their products and services, of White people have no interest but they would never be loyal to in saving you. Many are surprised yours. at how little interest we have in Go into a predominantly Jew- saving ourselves. ish, Indian or Chinese neighborTo the Black business owners hood and start a business. No who are striving for a better life, matter how good your product or I applaud you. You are the pioservice is, and no matter how ef- neers who will be remembered by ficiently priced, they WILL NOT our great grandchildren 100 years GIVE YOU THEIR MONEY. While from today. For those of you who we might think that this kind of are investing in Black businesses treatment is a form of racism, others might define it to be a key to as either co-owners or customers, I applaud you as well. For economic survival. those who think Black businesses are a waste of time, I feel sorry ‘Economic fortification’ for you. This world is going to eat For thousands of years, a vari- you alive. ety of ethnic groups have survived Economic power is a form of with what I’ve often referred to as warfare. We must educate our“Economic fortification.” This basically means supporting busi- selves on how this game works, nesses in your own communi- and position ourselves to win. It ties, to ensure that the money you will take decades to achieve our spend stays within your own fi- goals, but the battle is worth it. nancial ecosystem. Think of it like The well being of our children being on a spaceship with limit- hangs in the balance, so we must ed oxygen. If you recycle your air, commit ourselves to rising above you will survive longer than if you the ignorance – no matter the send all of your air out the back of cost. the spaceship.

Dr. Boyce Watkins earned a Economic fortification is critical in a world where money and Ph.D. in Finance and is founder power make the difference be- of The Black Wealth Boot Camp tween life and death. The majori- (http://theblackwealthbootty of political decisions are driven camp.com). liefs and behaviors. Our dogged pursuit of integration is one example. In so doing, we have destroyed our communities, diluted our numerical strength and become dependent upon others. We have been further handicapped by our inability to practice group economics in a capitalist democracy.

not be confused if the violations seem to be purposely presented as separate and apart. I appreciate the call for frugality during holidays as withdrawal of our dollars from this time of the year can cause financial pain to evil business people. I appreciate the call for 10,000 fearless men to stand between our people and lawless police. I felt that young people might have benefitted from some more concrete suggestions in addition to the character and morality upliftment that we definitely need.”

• Howard University Professor Josh Myers: “The beauty of the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March was the different voices that participated. The turnout represented a range of different representations of the Black community. The takeaway of the march for me was that we should use these moments of convening to learn from each other’s struggles and fortify ourselves in the face of the various issues we continue to face. We might better forge ahead when we know that there are others committed to the same kinds of struggle that we are. So the opportunity to convene was a crucial component of the march.

Also, I am most excited about the economic boycott that has been planned as one of many action items. It is an action that even those may disagree with each other can participate in collectively.

As such, it is a start to build an operational unity out of the diverse tapestry of Black struggle that was represented at the march.”

• Composer, producer, director Chapman Roberts: “As I strolled through the Washington Mall with

the intention of basking in the sun on the stairs of the National Gallery with the large overflow crowd, I was at first subliminally cognizant of that slightly uneasy “something is missing” feeling. Suddenly it kicked in that it was the proverbial “first time” thrill accompanied by the adrenalin rush only a new adventure can induce. With that, I noticed the marked absence of old tension which had been replaced by a sense of the bucolic, in fact Peace. In that state of epiphany, I contentedly embraced the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March as a sign that finally all of we many thousands had voluntarily come together seemingly of one mind, purpose and spirit and in that sense truly overcome. And I was glad.”

• Anthony Dennison: “The march was all-inclusive of the entire African-American community as opposed to the last march 20 years ago that excluded women.

This event let the nation see that African-Americans are serious about issues facing our community such as police brutality. Minister Farrakhan squandered his chance to say something meaningful when the world was watching him. The rally...titled ‘Justice or Else,’ never defined the meaning of else!”

Min. Louis Farrakhan reportedly described the rally as “the beginning of a movement.” Let’s hope that’s the case.

A. Peter Bailey, whose latest book is Witnessing Brother Malcolm X, the Master Teacher,” can be reached at apeterb@verizon. net.

NATION

TOJ A6

OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 5, 2015

Bacon, ham and hot dogs linked to cancer World Health Organization issues warning about processed and red meat

BY TONY PUGH TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

According to the panel, data from 10 studies suggests that every 50 grams of processed meat consumed daily hikes the risk of colorectal (colon) cancer by 18 percent. Consumption of processed and red meat has also been linked to death from heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses.

The 22-member International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) team of experts analyzed data from 800-plus studies of cancer risk in humans. More than 700 of the studies involved red meat and more than 400 dealt with processed meat.

While health experts have long warned of the cancer threat posed by diets high in processed and red meats, the IARC report is the most prominent yet to make the connection.

“This could be a game changer,” said Bonnie Liebman, director of nutrition at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “The IARC is considered the world’s authority on what causes cancer. When IARC speaks, the scientific community listens.”

Meat industry balks But will the message resonate with millions of Americans whose diets are built around red and processed meat?

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

The World Health Organization released a report this week suggesting that bacon and other processed meat is as dangerous as smoking.

Q&A ABOUT PROCESSED MEAT AND CANCER Q: Should people stop eating meat?

A: Meat has known health benefits. Many national health recommendations advise people to limit intake of processed meat and red meat, which are linked to increased risks of death from heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses.

Q: What does it mean that red meat was classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans?”

A: It’s based on limited evidence showing links between eating red meat and developing colorectal cancer. It means that while a positive link has been observed, there could be other explanations that could not be ruled out.

Q: What does it mean that processed meat was classified as “carcinogenic to humans?”

A: It means there is convincing evidence, based on epidemiological studies, that eating processed meat causes colorectal cancer.

Q: Is the risk higher in certain groups: children, the elderly, women or men?

A: The available data did not show that.

“It’s hard to know whether it will affect what people actually eat,” Liebman said.

The meat industry is working hard to make sure that it doesn’t.

On Monday, the North American Meat Institute said the IARC findings defy “both common sense and numerous studies that found no link between meat and cancer and other studies that stress the benefits of balanced diets that include meat.”

“It was clear sitting in the IARC meeting that many of the panelists were aiming for a specific result, despite old, weak, inconsistent, self-reported intake data,” said Betsy Booren, the meat institute’s vice president of scientific affairs.

“They tortured the data to ensure a specific outcome.”

Support for panel Dr. Christopher Wild, the director of the Interna-

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WASHINGTON — America’s love affair with savory, cured meats hit a rough patch Monday when a World Health Organization panel declared that processed meats — like ham, hot dogs, bacon and corned beef — cause cancer in humans.

The WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer also determined that red meat, like beef, pork and lamb, probably cause cancer in humans as well.

The panel’s action puts processed meats preserved by curing, smoking or adding preservatives in the highest category of carcinogens, with tobacco and asbestos. Even lean turkey and chicken, which have lower levels of fat than beef and pork, can be dangerous when processed as delicatessen-style fare. The new classification reflects more the mounting evidence of processed meats’ link to cancer than its level of risk.

“For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal cancer because of their consumption of processed meat remains small, but this risk increases with

the amount of meat consumed,” said a statement from Dr. Kurt Straif of the WHO agency.

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tional Agency for Research on Cancer, acknowledged that “red meat has nutritional value,” but he maintained that the study data supports “current public health recommendations to limit intake of meat.”

The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) called on Americans in 2011 to avoid processed meat altogether and to eat no more than 18 ounces of red meat a week in order to cut their cancer

risk. On Monday, the group hailed the IARC report.

“For years AICR has been recommending that individuals reduce the amount of beef, pork, lamb and other red meats in their diets and avoid processed meats like bacon, sausage and hot dogs,” said Susan Higginbotham, the institute’s vice president of research.

Fatality stats About 34,000 people worldwide die of cancer each year because of diets high in processed meats, according to the Global Burden of Disease Project, an independent research group. It estimates that diets high in red meat account for 50,000 cancer deaths each year worldwide.

That compares to roughly 1 million deaths from smoking, 600,000 from alcohol consumption and some 200,000 because of air pollution, the IARC reported.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture are expected to issue updated dietary guidelines later this year.

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

IFE/FAITH

OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 5, 2015

Why debates are mustwatch TV See page B4

SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE

SOUTH FLORIDA / TREASURE COAST AREA

Halloween tricks and treats See pages B5 & B6

WWW.FLCOURIER.COM During his speech at Stetson University, national homelessness expert Donald Whitehead, right, shows the Emmy he won in 2000.

TAKING ON

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SECTION

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Florida conference sheds light on poverty plight in state, nation

HOMELESSNESS

More than 280 Volusia County educators registered to attend the 2015 Poverty and Homeless Conference held at Stetson University in DeLand on Oct. 23.

BY PENNY DICKERSON FLORIDA COURIER

P

overty and homelessness have lathered the Florida landscape with statistics growing at a rate that far surpasses the state’s ability to promote tourism.

According to the 2014 annual homeless assessment report, a staggering 31,000 individuals suffer from homelessness in Florida every day. The disturbing figure represents the third largest in the entire country behind California and New York.

Currently, Florida also holds 18 percent of the nation’s children and youth who experience homelessness and 15 percent of the nation’s unsheltered veterans. These numbers underscore that across the state of Florida, this problem needs to be addressed.

And it’s not only homelessness, it’s poverty too. It is estimated that 35 percent of all households in Florida find it difficult to afford necessities such as housing including 1 million households living below the national poverty line and 2.1 million struggling financially.

‘In this country, one of the reasons it’s been so difficult to make an impact on homelessness is we don’t know how many homeless people there are. As strange as that may seem, there are so many different numbers and so many different organizations who work on behalf of the homeless.

That’s why conferences like these are so important.’

Donald H. Whitehead

National homelessness expert

Students share their poverty testimonies at the conference. From left to right are Stetson University seniors Chantial Vasquez, Tiffaney Langhorn, Alexander Greene and Chyina Powell. Bryanna Anderson, right, attends Mainland High School in Daytona Beach.

‘Embarrassing’ progress

tant,” added Whitehead.

The aforementioned statistics collectively damper America’s most popular peninsula’s sunny appearance. To shed light on Florida’s role in the nation’s poverty plight, national homelessness expert Donald H. Whitehead, Jr. visited DeLand. He delivered the keynote presentation for the 2015 Poverty and Homelessness Conference held at Stetson University on Oct. 23.

“I’ve been doing this for about 20 years and in some ways, the progress we’ve made is almost embarrassing.

Part of that is understandable,” said Whitehead.

“In this country, one of the reasons it’s been so difficult to make an impact on homelessness is we don’t know how many homeless people there are.

As strange as that may seem, there are so many different numbers and so many different organizations who work on behalf of the homeless. That’s why conferences like these are so impor-

Accomplished advocate Whitehead’s resume reads like the accomplishments of statesmen. From the humble beginnings of a Cincinnati youth who overcame homelessness and addiction, he is now one of the nation’s foremost experts on homelessness.

His non-profit experience and servitude is vast and spans two decades.

Included are former posts as executive directors of the National Coalition for the Homeless and the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Whitehead is also former assistant director at St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore, program director at Ohio Valley Goodwill and grant manager at Goodwill of Greater Washington.

of directors for the National Coalition for the Homeless, the oldest and largest advocacy group in America working exclusively with people experiencing homelessness. The Congressional Black Caucus has awarded him with a special recognition, and he has served on advisory committees for President Barack Obama and former presidents George H. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Whitehead further created the “Homeless Think Tank” for the city of Cincinnati to develop a strategy for providing services to the homeless population. The “think tank” model is now officially incorporated in the city’s continuum of care process and has been used as a “best practices” example in communities throughout the United States.

Presidential adviser

Author and actor

In addition to serving two terms as president of the board, Whitehead currently serves as a member of the board

In 2011, Whitehead published his See HOMELESSNESS, Page B2

B2

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR St. Petersburg: The 18th Annual African American Health Forum is Nov. 7 at the Johnnie Ruth Clarke Health Center, 1344 22nd St. S. A Midtown Memorial Wellness Walk, Run & Bike is at 7:30 a.m. The forum is 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Registration details: Email Tyhisia Alexander at talexander@hcnetwork.org.

Miami: Martin Dixon’s I’m So Hood Comedy Tour stops at the James L. Knight Centr on Nov. 25.

CALENDAR Nov. 12, at the Tampa Marriott Westshore. More information: www.tbabj. com.

Orlando: The Legends of the Old School tour makes stops at the CFE Arena in Orlando on Nov. 6 and the Bank United Center in Coral Gables on Nov. 20.

Performers include Vanilla Ice, Salt N Pepa, Coolio, 2 Live Crew, Color Me Badd, Rob Base, DJ Laz and Gucci Crew II. Tampa: Catch comedienne Sommore Nov. 13-15 at the Tampa Improv in Ybor City.

Fort Lauderdale: The Soweta Gospel Choir makes a stop at the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale on Nov. 22. The concert starts at 6 p.m.

Fort Lauderdale: The African-American Research Library and Cultural Center will channel the ambiance of the Islands of the Bahamas on Nov. 6. This age 21-and-over event is scheduled from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. The cost is $10.

Location: 2650 Sistrunk Blvd. More info: 954-3576210.

St. Petersburg: Chaka Khan has a show at the Mahaffey Theater on Nov. 13.

Tampa: Eric Deggans, NPR’s TV critic, will speak at the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists’ Griot Drum Awards & Scholarship Banquet on

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

Tampa: The Hillsborough County NAACP’s annual Freedom Fund Dinner is Oct. 30 at the Embassy Suites on Spectrum Boulevard. More information: www.hillsboroughnaacp. org.

OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 5, 2015

STOJ

BETTY WRIGHT

Catch Betty Wright, Clarence Carter, Shirley Murdock and Bishop Bullwinkle at the 1828 Southern Soul Music Festival at 2 p.m. on Nov. 28 at Water Works Park, 1710 N. Highland Ave., Tampa. More information: 813444-2986.

KARINA IGLESIAS

“America’s Got Talent’’ finalist SVET and Karina Iglesias of “The Voice’’ will perform Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. following a hip-hop summit at the Miramar Cultural Center.

Concert tickets: www.miramarculturalcenter.org.

LIL WAYNE

Lil Wayne and Yo Gotti are among the scheduled performers at the HIT Music Festival on Nov. 7 at the University of South Florida Sun Dome.

Miami Dolphins help students get ready for Halloween

PHOTO COURTESY OF MIAMI DOLPHINS

South Florida students, Miami Dolphins players and cheerleaders went on a shopping spree Tuesday for Halloween costumes.

HOMELESSNESS from Page 1

first book titled “Most Unlikely to Succeed.” The memoir chronicles his embattled family life with five siblings and an unstable household disrupted by homelessness. Whitehead’s background is casebook tragic and includes a domestic crime committed by his grandfather: the elder shot and killed Whitehead’s father who had become overtly abusive to the entire family following a car accident that left him scarred.

The aftermath negatively affected Whitehead who states in a book excerpt that he lived a “Jekyll and Hyde” existence: “By day I was the class vice president, the prom king, most likely to succeed, a football player. I was even selected to be “councilman for a day” in Cincinnati. After school hours, I was an addict who had already tried almost every drug that didn’t require needles. I knew that this was not how I wanted to live. The only problem was, I just couldn’t stop.”

A childhood fixation with imaginary friends perhaps led Whitehead to an acting career. He performed in six movies and in 2000 received a regional Emmy for a role in the Showtime movie “Open the Sky.” An occasional stand-up come-

dian, Whitehead is a highly sought after motivational speaker, but does not view the status of homelessness in America as a laughing matter.

“Of the many people running for the office for president, how many have you heard talking about homelessness?”

Whitehead asked his DeLand audience comprised of educators and community advocates. “If they have, it’s been a minute or two and on issues that are important to them but certainly not to those people who are suffering in poverty.”

Counting homeless heads In a riveting presentation, Whitehead outlined the nation’s poverty and homelessness status by first “framing the issues.”

One of the most important is how America is able (or unable) to both identify and count homeless citizens.

“I just want to underscore the difference in understanding numbers to frame this issue so that you can see the magnitude,” said Whitehead. “It’s going to be hard to do because we use different numbers based on what advocacy organization you’re working with at the time.”

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, one of the largest agencies in the country that works for homelessness, on a single night in this country over 578,000 people are homeless. The caveat is that they only count those in shelters and on the street.

For this reason, numerous people are missed.

Conversely, the National Education Association (NEA) conducts a more comprehensive count of homeless people including those in shelters, transitional housing, and they also count people living doubled-up.

“If you live in a place where you don’t control how long you stay, you’re homeless and according to NEA, in 2013 there were 2.5 million homeless children alone,” explained Whitehead.

“To wrap your head around that for a minute, their count is over the course of a year, but even if all of the kids had one parent, that would be 5 million homeless, and if some of the parents have more than one kid that would equate to 3.5 million homeless people,” Whitehead added and further expounded that “it’s really incredible that we haven’t come up with a methodology to get us a little closer to the number of homeless in America. There are countless individuals living doubledup, in abandoned buildings, and in the woods.’’

Who can afford Florida?

“Why do we have over 40 million people in poverty and only 3 million who are homeless?” asked Whitehead. “They say things like they don’t do enough to budget or they don’t work enough, but the reality is they don’t have any choice but to become homeless.

If you work 40 hours per week in the richest country in the history of the world, you should be able to afford a place to live,” added Whitehead. He followed with a breakdown on what it really costs to live in the Sunshine state.

A Florida resident who works 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year will need to earn $19.39 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent. Minimum wage workers need to work 56 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

Florida, specifically Central Florida, is actually spending about $31,000 on chronically homeless people when it would only cost about $10,000 to put then in a housing unit. He noted that in 2013, there were over 69,000 students in Florida’s public schools that were homeless.

“That represents 18 percent of the total national figure,” said Whitehead. “So, that is startling to me that in the happiest place on earth, we have one of the largest homeless populations.”

DAVIE – Miami Dolphins players took some time off Tuesday to go shopping with students from Miami-Dade and Broward County Schools for Halloween costumes.

The Dolphins included alumni Elmer Bailey, Chris Conlin, Troy Drayton, Mark Duper, Lorenzo Hampton, Mark Higgs, Mack Moore, Lousaka Polite and Twan Russell, cheerleaders and the team mascot T.D. The students were selected by their school principals and had the opportunity to shop for their new outfits to wear on Halloween.

“These students that are here today were all recipients of the September Star Award. Those are our students that have shown excellence in academics, effort and behavior for their homerooms. So they had an extra treat to be able to come here and pick out costumes with the Miami Dolphins,” Markham Elementary Principal Craig Saddler said.

More than 50 students from Markham Elementary in Broward County and Carol City Elementary in Miami-Dade looked for costumes as princesses, ninja turtles, firemen and batgirls.

“We had a blast today. The kids all picked out great costumes. They came in super excited about this holiday and to get their new outfits,” Duper said.

At the conclusion of the event, the students were treated to pizza.

Call for advocacy This year the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that communities would be able to prioritize young adults for the first time. According to Whitehead, the plans in Washington were to work hard to first get veterans off the street, second the chronically homeless, and once that is done, resources will be available to give to families.

“To me that’s a very hard sell,” said Whitehead. “To say that anyone is more of a priority, especially a child who doesn’t have a choice in the matter.”

During his presentation at the Poverty and Homelessness Conference, Whitehead shared that advocates need to do two things: Tell Congress to put back every penny it cut from housing vouchers in 2013.

Cutting 70,000 vouchers in the middle of a housing crisis was irresponsible, he said. “We can’t allow that reduced number to become the new baseline for the program. This year’s budget needs to replace those lost vouchers and bring the program up to the same scale as it would have been without the socalled sequester.’’

Build a stronger grassroots network that is ready to demand action for the millions of people who need housing assistance and aren’t getting it. “We

need bold new thinking that goes beyond the current programs, like a renter’s tax credit and full funding of the National Housing Trust Fund. We need a lot more organizing,” Whitehead added.

Most of all, he said, “We need to challenge the parameters of what Washington feels is possible right now – demanding resources that match the scale of the problem and that offer real solutions to homelessness in America.

“We have to make our voices heard if it’s something that’s important to us,” Whitehead urged.

“Now is a good time make a phone call, email or whatever way you choose to get in touch with your state legislature to have your voice heard in this issue.”

Penny Dickerson is a 2015 “Equal Voice” Journalism Fellow of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, a private, nonprofit grantmaking organization that seeks to increase the public’s understanding of the issues and policies that affect families living in poverty. Through profiles, vignettes and features, Dickerson’s series hopes to shift public perception and broaden awareness in areas that critically affect the definition of poor people of color by reporting from four quadrants of the state – Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach and Miami.

S

OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 5, 2015

HEALTH

B3

Some confusion about new breast cancer guidelines American Cancer Society now advises women to get mammograms at 45 instead of 40

NEW GUIDELINES FROM AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY • Women should undergo regular mammography starting at age 45.

• Women 45 to 54 years old should be screened annually.

• Women 55 years and older should transition to screening every other year, or have the opportunity to continue screening annually.

• Women should have the opportunity to begin annual screening between the ages of 40 and 44.

• Women should continue screening mammography as long as their overall health is good and they have a life expectancy of 10 years or longer.

• Clinical breast examination is not recommended for breast cancer screening among average-risk women at any age.

BY JONEL ALECCIA THE SEATTLE TIMES (TNS)

The American Cancer Society aimed for clarity with revised breast screening guidelines released last week, but some doctors and patient advocates worry that most women will still be confused about their care.

Women at average risk of breast cancer should start getting mammograms at age 45, and get them annually until age 55, when they should be screened every other year, the new guidelines say. Plus, women can skip routine breast checks.

That’s a change from the 2003 American Cancer Society advice, which recommended mammograms every year starting at age 40, plus regular manual exams by doctors.

And it’s closer to, but still different from, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations that say most women can wait until age 50 to start getting mammograms and then get them every other year.

Hot debate for years The result? Many women still won’t know what to do, said Dr. Joann G. Elmore, a University of Washington professor of medicine and epidemiology who studies breast screening.

“I think the practical effect might be confusion,” Elmore said. “Women may be frustrated by the variability of these back-and-

STACEY WESCOTT/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS

Breast cancer “survivor and fighter’’ Valerie Berry, then 45, poses for a portrait at her Chicago in 2010. forth guidelines.”

Questions about when and how often women should get mammograms have been a hot debate for years, including the USPSTF guidelines used as a basis for government healthinsurance programs.

The new guidance likely won’t help, said Teri Pollastro, 55, a patient advocate with Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center who has been living with Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer for years.

“I think it’s going to be more confusing, personally,” Pollastro said. “My hope for these guidelines is that they will spur a conversation between their primary care doctor and

the patient about what is the right age for me: Is it 40 or 45?”

‘Don’t panic’ Prompting such conversations is the point of the new guidelines, which were based on a rigorous, systematic review of evidence published this month in JAMA. A panel of researchers spent more than two years reviewing all available data about breast cancer screening, said Ruth Etzioni, a Fred Hutch biostatistician who helped draft the recommendations.

The study showed that regular screening exams in women aged 40 to 69 reduced the number of breast cancer deaths. The

recommendations aimed to balance the known benefits of mammogram screening with potential risks and harms, including problems with over-diagnosis and overtreatment, Etzioni said.

“They’re saying you don’t all have to run for mammograms at age 40,’” Etzioni said. “It’s giving women more flexibility. In a way, it’s saying, ‘Don’t panic.’”

Decline in deaths About 230,000 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and more than 40,000 die, according to the ACS. Deaths from breast cancer have declined steadily since about 1990, thanks to better

detection and treatment, the study authors said.

But defining when and how to screen women based on trustworthy science has been difficult, Etzioni said. The new guidelines attempt to reconcile what is known with what is not, she added.

“It’s really a new understanding of the limits of the evidence,” she said.

For example, the evidence showed little benefit from clinical breast examinations, the annual manual exams in which doctors or other health providers feel a woman’s breasts to detect palpable lumps or other problems.

But the recommendation that women at average risk skip such exams is bound to be controversial, said Dr. Benjamin O. Anderson, a University of Washington professor of surgery who directs the Breast Health Clinic at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

“I am actually disappointed in that,” said Anderson, who is also a Komen Scholar with Susan G. Komen, the national cancer advocacy group. “The issue with clinical breast

exam is that it has not been studied in the same way.”

What about underserved?

He said he hoped doctors would continue the exams.

And a Seattle patient advocate who works with poor and minority women says she worries that the new guidelines still don’t adequately reflect the people she sees.

“Research does not include the underserved population,” said Bridgette Hempstead, chief executive of Cierra Sisters, a breast cancer support group for Black women.

“We will let them know about the new national guidelines. But we will say, ‘Now you need to have a very firm conversation with your provider.’”

It’s not clear what effect, if any, the new ACS guidelines will have on insurance coverage of mammograms, Etzioni said. In the U.S., the Affordable Care Act and some state laws require most private health plans, Medicaid and Medicare to cover breast cancer screening.

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

B4

Meet some of

FLORIDA’S

finest

submitted for your approval

OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 5, 2015

STOJ

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.

These masqueraders participated in the Seventh Annual Miami Broward One Carnival’s Parade of the Bands at the Dade County Fairgrounds on Oct. 11.

The Florida Courier staff selected them as this week’s Florida’s Finest – for obvious reasons.

PHOTOS BY CHARLES W. CHERRY II / FLORIDA COURIER

Why presidential debates have turned into must-watch TV

BY MARK Z. BARABAK LOS ANGELES TIMES (TNS)

half a century of presidential debate history.

The surprise breakout hit of this television season isn’t some Kardashian spinoff or another cheesy competition among aspiring songsters.

It’s the prime-time presidential debates, which have attracted huge national audiences and shaped and reshaped the 2016 race long before the calendar turns, or any real votes have been cast.

Much of that can be credited to Republican Donald Trump, a singular personality when it comes to getting noticed, and to Bernie Sanders, the charismatically cantankerous Vermont senator, who is Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chief Democratic rival and the year’s other political phenomenon.

In a sense, the two are cast members, along with the rest of the presidential candidates, in a wonky form of reality TV. “We can’t wait to see who’s going to do what onstage, and how they respond to one another,” said Marty Kaplan, a former Democratic campaign strategist who teaches in the communications school at the University of Southern California.

How they’ve changed

Entertaining, educational The next installment came Wednesday, when Republicans held their third face-to-face meeting at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

There are, of course, substantive reasons for voters to tune in. Amid the scripted sound bites and prerehearsed zingers, candidates do reveal pieces of their personalities, offer their political philosophies and even answer specific questions about issues and what they would hope to achieve in the Oval Office.

Kathleen Hall Jamie-

ROBERT GAUTHIER/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Republican presidential candidates Ben Carson, left, and Donald Trump share a light moment during the GOP debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on Sept. 16. son, a University of Pennsylvania expert on political communication, notes that debate viewership traditionally rises in economically anxious times such as these, especially when a race is perceived to be as competitive as the wideopen 2016 contest. “Just because it’s entertaining doesn’t mean you’re not going to learn things,” Jamieson said.

Memorable moments Presidential primary debates used to be the province of high-minded civic types, playing to an audience of campaign insiders and other political obsessives watching from a handful of early-voting states. There were plenty of memorable and politically

significant moments.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan assumed command of the GOP race by taking control of a New Hampshire debate after the moderator tried shutting him down in a dispute over who was allowed to participate. “I am paying for this microphone!” Reagan, who financed the session, famously bellowed.

In 1984, Democrat Walter Mondale deflated Gary Hart’s “new ideas” campaign by seizing on a fastfood slogan, demanding, “Where’s the beef?”

But it is only in recent campaigns that debates have played such a major role sorting the field at such an early stage, overriding the influence of big donors and the political establishment by elevating the likes of Ben Carson

— and Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain in 2012 — and diminishing favorites such as Scott Walker and Florida ex-Gov. Jeb Bush.

Instantaneous evaluations Carson, a former neurosurgeon with no campaign experience, surged to the fore of the GOP field after a well-regarded performance in his first debate and now leads the race in Iowa, the first state to vote next year.

Wisconsin Gov. Walker, who once topped the polls in Iowa and was considered a front-runner nationally for the Republican nomination, dropped out after largely sleepwalking through his two times onstage.

On the Democratic side, former Sens. Jim Webb of Virginia and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island dropped out last week after their widely panned performances in the party’s Oct. 13 debate.

It is arguable whether the skills of a good debater are required to be a good president. But there is no doubt that they are more important than ever for anyone hoping to win the White House.

“You’ve got so many millions of people watching and so many instantaneous evaluations of their performance, any candidate that doesn’t measure up, it gets magnified in a way that wasn’t true before,” said Alan Schroeder, a journalism professor at Northeastern University who wrote a book covering

The nature of primary debates, and the audience they attract, started changing when the cable TV networks took over. Instead of the Nashua Telegraph hosting the contestants in a high school gym, and a candidate footing the bill the way Reagan did, the debates turned into nationally broadcast spectacles — and much-hyped branding opportunities — featuring celebrity journalists roaming razzle-dazzle soundstages.

When it comes to grabbing voters’ attention, nothing else comes close.

Fox News attracted 24 million viewers for the first Republican session in August — three times the expected audience — making it the most-watched presidential primary debate in history. The second GOP debate on CNN drew nearly 23 million viewers, and the Democrats’ first debate, also on CNN, drew an audience of more than 15 million viewers.

From the candidates’ perspective, must-watch TV has turned the debates into must-be-there events.

In today’s fragmented media environment, no presidential hopeful can afford to pass up a chance to address such a massive audience, even if it means precious time away from fundraising and one-onone campaigning in Iowa, New Hampshire and other crucial early-voting states.

“Campaigns need to stimulate interest and create demand,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican communications strategist who worked on both of Mitt Romney’s presidential races. “If you give away that opportunity, somebody else will take it and run with it.”

STOJ

OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 5, 2015

BY AIMEE BLANCHETTE STAR TRIBUNE (MINNEAPOLIS)

HALLOWEEN

B5

ith Halloween upon us, let’s add some panache to all those pumpkins.

While carving is a time-honored tradition, it’s also time consuming, takes some skill and requires dealing with the slimy insides. (Eek!) So forget the knife altogether. There are thousands of other ways to dress up your pumpkins for the season. We wanted to scare, er, share some ideas on how to turn your plain-jane gourds into smashing pumpkins.

Jack-o’-lantern

Description BUTTON BOO

FINGER-PAINTED PUNKIN’

BLACKBOARD GOURD

twine or white yarn l Plastic spiders or die-cut felt spiders l Glue or sewing pins

ss

ss

l Gauze l Cheesecloth or

white crepe pape l Googly eyes l Adhesive

ss

l Nontoxic paints l Little fingers for painting ss

l Chalkboard

paint l Chalk

ss

w

The kids can decorate and redecorate their pumpkins as many times as they like.

Apply a few coats of chalkboard paint and let dry 24 hours before drawing your design with chalk.

l White butcher’s

w

No-carve pumpkins are perfect for toddlers.

Give them some nontoxic paints, a paint brush (better yet, just let them use their fingers) and allow them to create what inspires them. We finished off this toddler’s art with a window cling silhouette and ribbon. Optional: If the pumpkin is going to sit outside, apply a layer of sealer or varnish before and after to help the paint stick and protect the pumpkin. If you want the creation to last for years, use a faux pumpkin.

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Turn your pumpkin into a mummy by gluing on a pair of googly eyes. Next, secure one end of your fabric with a tack, glue or double-sided tape; wrap around the pumpkin as many times as you’d like, then secure the end again. Instant pummification.

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MUMKIN

50 buttons depending on their size l Hot glue gun and glue or sewing pins

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Start by gluing one end of the twine to the bottom of the pumpkin. Loop the twine up toward the stem and continue to wrap it all the way around the pumpkin vertically. Then start wrapping the twine loosely around the stem and continue to make loose loops from top to bottom. Use hot glue or sewing pins to secure the twine when needed. Secure a few spiders to your web, and voilà!

l Approximately

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TANGLED WEB

Difficulty

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Buttons are unexpected and add a touch of whimsy to your jack-o’-lantern. With a pencil, draw out your design or words.

Pin the buttons into place. It’s helpful to lay out the buttons on a table first to see which ones fit nicely.

Materials

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CRAFTY CORN

for the ears (we used patterned paper)

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l Tacks or

or gemstones l Hot glue gun

and glue

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Add some bling to your boring pumpkins using gemstones or simple brass tacks.

Lightly trace your design with a pencil, then start bedazzling.

and glue l Something

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GOURD-GEOUS

l Candy corn l Hot glue gun

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It’s an owl! It’s a cat! It’s a hedgehog! Your craving for carving will be long forgotten when you experience the three-dimensional effects you can give your pumpkin using candy corn or another holiday favorite. To get started, outline the shape of your creature’s face with a pencil. Follow the shape you’ve drawn by gluing just a few rows of candy corn or covering the whole pumpkin as shown here. Play with the shape of the eyes and nose on a table before gluing them to the pumpkin. This design takes awhile, but it’s not as scary as it looks.

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PHOTOS BY TOM WALLACE/STAR TRIBUNE

FOOD

B6

FROM FAMILY FEATURES

Transform your house into Frankenstein’s lab with a few party tricks and Halloween treats. Set the scene with a mad scientist-themed sweets table and carry it home with a crazy good menu featuring frightfully yummy appetizers, mocktails and, of course, treats.

Tricks for your treats • Chili Mac Cup Concoction: Use a regular muffin pan to bake mac and cheese cups – a fun twist on the kids’ favorite. The macaroni cups are the perfect chili topper for a hearty fall favorite.

• Little Monsters Mocktail: Play mixologist with a perfect potion recipe featuring a few easy ingredients: apple juice, club soda and deli-cious drops of Treatology flavor concenAPPLE PIE POTION Makes: 8-10 servings 1 bottle (1 liter) club soda, chilled 5 cups apple juice, chilled 7 drops Wilton Treatology Warm Cinnamon Graham Flavor Concentrate 3 drops Wilton Treatology Creamy Vanilla Custard Flavor Concentrate 4 drops Wilton Yellow Color Right Performance Color 1 drop Wilton Blue Color Right Performance Color In large pitcher, combine club soda, apple juice, Warm Cinnamon Graham and Vanilla Custard flavors and colors. Whisk until well combined. Serve immediately or chill until ready to serve.

CANDY CORN CUPCAKES Makes: 2 dozen cupcakes 1 package (16.25 ounces) white cake mix Egg whites, water, vegetable oil to prepare mix 17 drops Wilton Orange Color Right Performance Color 3 drops Wilton Yellow Color Right Performance Color 1 package (10 ounces) Wilton Limited Edition Candy Corn Candy Melts Candy 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream 2/3 cup solid vegetable shortening 2 tablespoons honey 1 teaspoon Wilton Imitation Clear Vanilla Extract 2 cups confectioners’ sugar (about 1/2 pound) Candy corn for garnish (optional) Heat oven to 350°F. Prepare muffin pans with baking cups.

In large bowl, beat cake mix, egg whites, water and colors with electric mixer at low speed 30 seconds. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl; beat at medium speed 2 minutes. Divide batter evenly among baking cups, filling about 2/3 full.

Bake 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pans on cooling grid 5 minutes.

Remove from pans; cool completely on grid.

In medium microwave-safe container, combine Candy Corn Candy Melts Candy and heavy cream. Microwave at half (50 percent) power 1 minute. Stir. Microwave on half power in 30-second intervals, stirring between each, until melts are almost melted. Stir thoroughly until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

In large bowl, beat shortening with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add Candy Melts mixture and beat until smooth.

Beat in honey and vanilla. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

Top with candy corn, if using.

OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 5, 2015

trates in taste-tempting Cinnamon Graham and Creamy Vanilla Custard flavors. Serve up these mad scientist mixtures in food-safe Wilton plastic beakers.

• Candy Corn Craze: Halloween wouldn’t be the same without candy, especially candy corn. Wow guests with your inventive use of the iconic Halloween flavor. Infuse limited edition Candy Corn flavored Candy Melts Candy into cupcake icing.

• The Guest of Horror: You can’t have a mad scientist Halloween party without Frankenstein. This easy buttercream cake makes a big state­ment, a fantastic centerpiece for your sweets table and will make others green with envy over your decorating skills. The Color Right Performance Color System makes it easy to mix the precise shade of Frankenstein green.

For more Halloween party ideas and inspiration, visit www.wilton.com.

MAC AND CHEESE CUPS WITH CHILI Makes: 24 servings 2 tablespoons butter 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 2 cups milk 8 ounces white American cheese, shredded 1 package (8 ounces) Monterey Jack cheese, shredded 1/4 teaspoon onion powder 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 package (16 ounces) elbow pasta, cooked and kept warm 2 cans (25 ounces each) chili Heat oven to 350°F. Prepare two muffin pans with vegetable pan spray.

In large pan, melt butter over medium heat.

Stir flour into butter and cook 2 minutes on medium heat, stirring con­stantly. Gradually whisk milk into flour mixture and cook until thickened, stir­ring constantly. Reduce heat to low and stir in cheeses, onion powder, dry mustard and pepper. Stir in cooked pasta.

Divide evenly into prepared pans. Bake 15 minutes or until bubbly. Cool in pans 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in saucepan, heat chili according to package directions. Serve each macaroni cup on top of 1/4 cup chili.

Tip: To make ahead, refrigerate macaroni and cheese cups in muffin pans after baking.

When ready to serve, remove from pans and microwave 30-45 seconds each until heated through.

STOJ

FRANKENSTEIN CAKE Serves: 12 6 cups favorite cake recipe or mix 4 cups Wilton White Ready-To-Use Decorator Icing (4.5pound tub) Wilton Color Right Performance Color System Wilton Black Icing Pouch with Tips Wilton Large Candy Eyeballs Tools: Wilton 6-by-3-inch Round Pan Wilton 10-by-16-inch Cooling Grid Cake plate Wilton Cake Leveler Wilton 13-inch Angled Spatula Wilton 12-inch Disposable Decorating Bags Prepare cake according to box instructions and make two layers using 6-inch round pans. Bake and cool on cooling grid.

Prepare Spring Green icing using this color tint formula from the Color Right Performance Color System: 4 cups icing + 30 Y + 6 B. Stack layers on cake plate for a two-layer cake, using leveler as needed. Ice cake sides smooth with green icing.

Use black pouch icing without tip to cover top of cake. Use tip of spatula to create spiral effect. Use black pouch icing with star tip to pipe pull-out bangs around top edge and two hair strands on cake top.

Prepare a disposable decorating bag with green icing; cut a hole in point of bag the size of tip 3. Attach candy eyeballs with dots of green icing. Pipe green eyelids.

Use black pouch icing with round tip to pipe dot nose and neck bolts, outline mouth and stitches.