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NOVEMBER 20 – NOVEMBER 26, 2015
VOLUME 23 NO. 47
WHAT’S OUR RESPONSE? America will do more of the same against ISIL, according to President Obama. COMPILED FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS
ly one thing was clear: The tragedy that left at least 129 people dead in Paris, the capital of America’s oldest ally, was a game-changer in a 15-month campaign that has failed to contain the Islamic State despite a U.S.-led air war that has included more than 8,100 airstrikes.
America a target
WASHINGTON – The Paris terror attacks yielded fresh urgency in Washington over the need to defeat the Islamic State, but no clear strategy emerged amid warnings from both the government and the militant group that the United States could face similar assaults. During subsequent days filled with second-guessing, competing ideas and bipartisan criticism, on-
Three days after the Paris tragedy, CIA Director John Brennan delivered a chilling prediction that similar terror attacks are likely in store for the United States and allied Western countries. Saying that the French attack was probably not “a one-off event,” Brennan, using a common acronym for the Islamic State, added: “This is something that was deliberately and carefully planned over the course, I
think, of several months. I would anticipate that this is not the only operation ISIL has in the pipeline.” That warning was amplified by a direct threat issued in new video posted on a website the Islamic State has used to broadcast previous messages. In it, a man wearing a turban and military fatigues, identified in subtitles as “al Ghareeb the Algerian,” states: “We say to the states that take part in the crusader campaign that, by God, you will have a day, God willing, like France’s, and by God, as we struck France in the center of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington.” On Wednesday, another video surfaced featuring scenes from news reports CAROLYN COLE/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS about the Paris attacks as Bullet holes can be seen in the windows of Cafe Bonne Biere in Paris on Nov. 15, See OBAMA, Page A2 2015.
2015-16 NBA SEASON
Sports continue around the state The Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade, top, went to the basket in a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Miami on Tuesday. Sports fans can attend college and pro football and basketball games and pro hockey matches all around Florida.
Don’t sell students short Collegians find new power in protests BY THOMAS CURWEN, JASON SONG AND LARRY GORDON LOS ANGELES TIMES / TNS
If the University of Missouri was the spark, then the fire didn’t take long to spread. Since the resignation of its president and chancellor Nov. 10, protesters have organized at more than 100 colleges and universities nationwide. Social media sites have lighted up with voices of dissent, and what began as a grievance has evolved into a movement. Inspired by the marches in Ferguson, Mo., and Black Lives Matter, students are taking to social media to question the institutions they once approached for answers.
DAVID SANTIAGO/ EL NUEVO HERALD/TNS
Borrowing old tactics Calling for racial and social reforms on their campuses, they are borrowing tactics of the past – hunger strikes, sit-ins and lists of demands – and have found a collective voice to address their frustrations, hurt and rage. Their actions seem to have hit the mark. Last week, the dean of students at Claremont McKenna College left the university after students protested her comments to a Latina student with the offer to work for those who “don’t fit our See MIZZOU, Page A2
SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3
Senator looks to keep ‘stand your ground’ change alive BY JIM TURNER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – A senator sponsoring a National Rifle Association-backed change to the state’s controversial “stand your ground” law intends to try to keep the proposal alive after a similar measure died in the House. Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said Wednesday he will continue to push his proposal (SB 344), which could make it easier legally for people to claim self-defense in shooting incidents. A similar bill (HB 169)
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failed Tuesday in a 6-6 vote in the filed for the 2016 legislative sesHouse Criminal Justice Subcom- sion. The bill was approved by mittee, as ties kill legislation. the Senate Criminal Justice Committee last month. Not the end The measure would shift the burden of proof to the state in “Everything is in play until Sine Die,” said Bradley, referring cases involving Florida’s “stand to the Latin phrase for “without your ground” law, which says day” that marks the end of a leg- people can use deadly force and islative session. “I wouldn’t de- do not have a duty to retreat if scribe anything as being the end they think it is necessary to preof the road. … This is good legis- vent death or great bodily harm. The bill was crafted after the lation by the Senate.” The Senate Criminal and Civil Florida Supreme Court ruled Justice Appropriations Subcom- that people who use the “stand mittee on Wednesday voted 5-1 your ground” defense have the to approve Bradley’s bill, which is burden of showing they should
FAMU announces sanctions for NCAA violations
be shielded from prosecution. In such cases, pre-trial evidentiary hearings are held to determine whether defendants are immune from prosecution under the law. The bill calls for placing the burden of proof on prosecutors in the evidentiary hearings.
Beyond original law Sen. Darren Soto, an Orlando attorney who cast the lone vote against the bill Wednesday, called the proposal an “unprecedented burden shift.” See LAW, Page A2
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COMMENTARY: GLEN FORD: BLACK LIVES MATTER GROUP HOPES FOR BIG PAYDAY | A4 GUEST COMMENTARY: STEPHEN JACKSON: BLACK MALE TEACHERS AN ENDANGERED SPECIES | A5
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NOVEMBER 20 – NOVEMBER 26, 2015
From the mouths of babes Before we get into this week’s column, I’d like to first say my prayers go out to all of the families whose loved ones and/or family members were injured or killed in the recent terrorist bombings in Paris, France. Anyone that tells you the best way to please Allah or God is for you to use automatic rifles and other weapons of mass destruction and go out and murder defenseless, unarmed women, children and babies is not only a false prophet and a hypocrite. They are a traitor to their religion and also a traitor to their race! If you’re mad at an army, go after the army and leave the children and other innocents alone.
Lying puppets Now, the so-called mainstream media – and in some cases the Negro media – has suggested that America’s and the world’s Black leaders are primarily 60-or 70-year-old senior citizens that have been bought and sold a long, long time ago. These imperialist puppets will
LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT
lie and tell you the best way to progress is to march, the best way to end police brutality and misconduct is to pray, and the best way to end exploitation and oppression is to have a seat, or sitin! Oh, my brothers and sisters, you’ve been misled, you’ve been okey-doked, you’ve been conned and you’ve been fooled!
Don’t get this twisted Our good and faithful elders deserve love and respect, but we have to stop being bamboozled by these modern-day poverty pimps and “rock star civil rights leaders” that fly into your town on a jet, get picked up in a limo, ride to your church, give a fake, played-out speech or sermon, take up a bountiful collection
from the poor, hurt, mistreated congregation, and then leave town – leaving you broke and still mistreated! Well, The Gantt Report has been writing about what you should do – but you won’t read it. Lucius Gantt has been saying it– but you don’t listen. But when media devils like ESPN and Fox News report about it – now you think you should believe it! You saw “Roots.” Every since slavery days, our future has been in the hands and minds of our youth!
Youthful revolutionaries The Freedom Riders were young adults. The lunch counter protesters were kids in college. Even the racist system of apartheid in South Africa began to crumble only after South African children stood up, protested and fought against the use of the Afrikaans language, which was the language forced on them by their Dutch oppressors! Today, the boys and young men on a Missouri college foot-
ball team showed the old Toms, Jemimas, Jezebels and Sambos how to get the 21st century oppressor’s attention! Prayer is good, but justice, liberty and correctness is not so much about the prayer, the march or the holding of hands and locking arms to sing “We Shall Overcome”. In a capitalist society like America, it’s all about the Benjamins! The athletes and students at the University of Missouri got exactly what they wanted when they decided to hurt the school’s cash flow. Missouri and every other major college in America uses and abuses Black (and other) athletes. They make millions for themselves and make millions to pay coaches. They make millions to pay their friends to provide products and services desired by the college teams! Those young students united and got what they wanted: an insensitive, uncaring devilish school president to resign!
Youth, take notes Young people, listen to me now. Read this column and take notes! Capital is the primary motivat-
MIZZOU CMC mold.” Tuesday night, Jonathan Veitch, the president of Occidental College, said he and other administrators were open to considering a list of 14 reforms, including the creation of a Black studies major and more diversity training, that student protesters had drawn up. Students at the University of Southern California have similarly proposed a campus-wide action plan, which includes the appointment of a top administrator to promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
‘Microaggression’ complaints
Social media revolution Although some of the strategies may seem familiar, it is the speed and the urgency of today’s protests that are different. “What is unique about these issues is how social media has changed the way protests take
OBAMA from A1
well as footage of New York’s Times Square.
Political bickering Some of the heightened debate featured predictable partisan criticism, with Republican lawmakers redoubling their claims that President Obama has pursued weak and indecisive policies against the Islamic State. “The urgency of confronting this threat before attacks reach our own shores is self-evident,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, an Arizona Republican said. Accusing Obama of sticking to “a failed strategy,” McCain added: “The slaughter in Paris was not a ‘setback,’ as the presi-
Buy Lucius Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere. Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net. And, if you want to, “like” The Gantt Report page on Facebook.
der for students of color to negotiate. “Latino and African-American students are often under the belief if they leave their community and go to colleges, that it will be better,” Howard said. “They believe it will be an upgrade over the challenges that they saw in underserved and understaffed schools. But if the colleges and universities are the same as those schools, then there is disappointment and frustration.” In addition, Howard said, when these students leave their community to go to a university, they often feel conflicted. “So when injustice comes up,” he said, “they are quick to respond because it is what they saw in their community. On some level, it is their chance to let their parents and peers know that they have not forgotten the struggle in the community.”
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Nationwide, complaints of racism and Microaggression are feeding Facebook pages and websites at Harvard, Brown, Columbia and Willamette universities, as well as at Oberlin, Dartmouth and Swarthmore colleges. Protesters at Ithaca College staged a walkout to demand the president’s resignation, and Peter Salovey, president of Yale University, announced a number of steps, including the appointment of a deputy dean of diversity, to work toward “a better, more diverse, and more inclusive Yale.” For decades, students have helped drive social change in America, if not the world. Campuses, said University of California President Janet Napolitano, have “historically been places where social issues in the United States are raised and where many voices are heard.” Over the decades, student protests have shifted attitudes in the country on civil rights and the Vietnam War, nuclear proliferation and apartheid, and some of today’s actions are borrowing from tactics of the past.
ing factor in any capitalist country! Focus less on the rally and the march and focus more on the money! Just think what would happen if Black and other athletes that can’t get a bus ticket to go home, can’t buy a ball cap or a shirt, can’t afford Uber or a taxi ride, can’t afford to go see a movie – united and said, “We want to make money off of college games like the college devils do?” Don’t take my word for it. The perfect time to take a united stand would be right before “March Madness!” Money will be made off of tickets, off of TV and broadcasting rights, and off of paraphernalia that bears their numbers and their likenesses! Bootlickers, buck dancers and handkerchief heads, shut your damn mouths. In 2015, the truth came from the mouths of babes! Young people around the world, rise up and unite!
Sick and tired
MICHAEL CALI / SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE / TNS
Concerned Student 1950 at the University of Missouri chant for solidarity and power at a press conference following a protest on Nov. 9 in Columbia, Mo. place on college campuses,” said Tyrone Howard, associate dean of equity, diversity and inclusion at the University of California, Los Angeles. “A protest goes viral in no time flat. With Instagram and Twitter, you’re in an immediate news cycle. This was not how it was 20 or 30 years ago.” Howard also believes that the effectiveness of the actions at the University of Missouri has encouraged students on other campuses to raise their voices. “A president stepping down is a huge step,” he said. “Students elsewhere have to wonder, ‘Wow, if that can happen there, why can’t we bring out our issues to the forefront as well?’”
Students have power Shaun R. Harper, executive director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education, agrees. The resignation of two top Missouri administrators, Harper said, showed students and athletes around the country that they
dent said today. It was an act of war. It is long past time for President Obama to wake up to reality, change course, and adopt a new strategy to achieve the decisive and lasting defeat of ISIL.” McCain, however, offered no suggestions for a modified strategy. Most GOP presidential candidates did not budge from their longstanding agreement with Obama, supported by opinion polls, that American combat troops should not be sent back into Iraq or into Syria.
Safe zone? Rep. Adam Schiff of California, senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, urged Obama and Pentagon leaders to consider setting up a protected area in northern Syria, an idea they’ve long opposed as requiring a substantial number of
have power they may not have realized before. The protests show “we’re all together and we have the power to make the change we deserve,” said Lindsay Opoku-Acheampong, a senior studying biology at Occidental. “It’s affirming,” said Dalin Celamy, also a senior at the college. “It lets us know we’re not crazy; it’s happening to people who are just like you all over the country.” Celamy, along with other students, not only watched the unfolding protests across the country, but also looked to earlier protests, including an occupation of an administrative building at Occidental in 1968. Echoes of the 1960s in today’s actions are clear, said Robert Cohen, a history professor at New York University and author of “Freedom’s Orator,” a biography of Mario Savio, who led the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s. “The tactical dynamism of
American ground troops to enforce. “I don’t think the answer is another massive American ground presence in either Iraq or Syria,” Schiff told NPR. “But I do think we’re going to have to explore things that we didn’t want to embark upon, such as a buffer zone or a safe zone. That allows the opposition to ISIS (a common acronym for the Islamic State) to have a ground from which to be equipped and trained and organized.”
Learned a lesson In a rare display of pique, Obama responded defensively to reporters pressing him on whether his response to the Islamic State has been adequate. “Let’s assume that we were to send 50,000 troops into Syria,” Obama said at a news conference in Antalya, Turkey, after meeting
these nonviolent protests and the public criticism of them are in important ways reminiscent of the 1960s,” Cohen said. “Today’s protests, like those in the ‘60s, are memorable because they have been effective in pushing for change and sparking dialogue as well as polarization.”
Campuses are ‘microcosms’ Although the targets of these protests are the blatant and subtle forms of racism and inequity that affect the students’ lives, the message of the protests resonates with the recent incidents of intolerance and racial inequity on the streets of America. There is a reason for this, Howard said. Campuses are microcosms of society, he said, and are often comparable in terms of representation and opportunity. “So there is a similar fight for more representation, acceptance and inclusion.” The dynamic can create a complicated and sensitive social or-
with other world leaders at a G-20 summit. “What happens when there’s a terrorist attack generated from Yemen? Do we then send more troops into there? Or Libya, perhaps? Or if there’s a terrorist network that’s operating anywhere else – in North Africa, or in Southeast Asia? So a strategy has to be one that can be sustained.” Some defense analysts attribute Obama’s caution to the chaos that has followed earlier U.S. interventions and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, under President George W. Bush, along with the American-backed overthrow in Libya of that country’s late leader Moammar Gadhafi under Obama. Obama again used a series of questions to reiterate his skepticism about a U.S.-enforced safe zone. “Who would come in, who could come out of that safe zone?” Obama asked.
On campuses and off, Harper, of the University of Pennsylvania center, finds a rising sense of impatience among African-Americans about social change. “As a Black person, I think Black people are just fed up. It’s time out for ignoring these issues,” he said. While protests in the 1960s helped create specific safeguards for universities today, such as Title IX, guaranteeing equal access for all students to any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance, a gap has widened over the years between students and administrators over perceptions of bias. Institutions often valued for their support of free speech find themselves wrestling with the prospect of limiting free speech, but to focus on what is or isn’t politically correct avoids the more important issue, Cohen said: whether campuses are diverse enough or how to reduce racism. Occidental student Raihana Haynes-Venerable has heard criticism that modern students are too sensitive, but she argues that subtle forms of discrimination still have a profound effect. She pointed to women making less than men and fewer minorities getting jobs as examples. “This is the new form of racism,” she said.
“How would it work? Would it become a magnet for further terrorist attacks? And how many personnel would be required, and how would it end? There’s a whole set of questions that have to be answered there.” The Obama administration took a smaller step in the immediate aftermath of the Paris attacks: Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper provided their staffs “new instructions that will enable U.S. military personnel to more easily share operational planning information and intelligence with our French counterparts,” according to Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook.
James Rosen of McClatchy’s Washington Bureau / TNS contributed to this report.
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“It doesn’t even change it from preponderance of evidence to the prosecution side, but rather beyond a reasonable doubt,” Soto said. “I believe it’s going well beyond what the original stand-your-ground-bill was intended for.” But subcommittee Chairman Sen. Joe Negron said the proposal is intended to “clarify” the law, and he disagreed that the measure would create any additional burden on prosecutors. “If a prosecutor cannot get a judge to say that in this particular case self-defense wasn’t used, they’re not going to win a jury trial in the real world,” said Negron, an attorney from Stuart.
NOVEMBER 20 – NOVEMBER 26, 2015
FLORIDA
A3 the Classroom, on the Field, and in Life.’”
Corrective action plan FAMU has developed a corrective action plan to address the compliance and reporting issues. It is updating its current Athletics Policies and Procedures Manual to ensure that administrative procedures both within and outside the athletics department are in effect and operational. The Athletics Department Compliance Office will conduct a timely review of track and crosscountry competition results to ensure that students who participate “unattached” in events do so consistent with NCAA rules. The athletics department’s central office will establish procedures to execute tracers for transfer student-athletes to authenticate academic and athletics participation information received directly from a transfer student-athlete or his/her prior institution. The department also will invest in software to assist with tracking student-athlete reports and activities.
Thorough review FILE PHOTO
The Florida A&M Rattlers try to stop Bethune-Cookman University quarterback Quentin Williams during the 2014 Florida Classic in Orlando. This year’s game is Nov. 21 at the Florida Citrus Bowl.
FAMU announces self-imposed sanctions for NCAA violations SPECIAL TO THE COURIER
TALLAHASSEE – Florida A&M University (FAMU) announced self-imposed penalties and other sanctions due to the identification of violations of secondary NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) rules during previous academMilton ic years. The anOverton nouncement was made Monday by Athletic Director Milton Overton. After an internal investigation by the university and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), and a joint investigation by FAMU and the NCAA,
FAMU self-reported findings of violations to the NCAA Infraction Committee regarding the athletics department’s failure, in previous years, to properly administer general student-athlete eligibility and playing season requirements between the 2010-2011 and 2013-2014 academic years, in addition to financial aid requirements during the summer of 2013. These specific violations include (1) student-athletes not completing drug testing forms, (2) student-athletes failing to complete a medical examination within the required time frame, (3) the Department of Athletics failing to provide a number of student athletes with the proper written notification before the reduction of their athletic aid, and (4) the department fail-
ing to monitor appropriately the administration of eligibility and playing season requirements.
$153,255 fee FAMU self-imposed a threeyear probation and annual compliance reporting to the NCAA on its athletics program. While the NCAA has not made its official announcement on the findings, a final disposition is expected to include an additional one-year probation based on the fact that these specific violations were determined to be systemic and recurring in that they were identified in the 2006 NCAA report. FAMU is required to pay a onetime fine estimated at $153,255. These monies will be retained by FAMU and reinvested into the cost of external compliance re-
views. The fine will be assessed to ensure that adequate financial resources are devoted to improving the university’s compliance program. FAMU did not suffer any loss of scholarships, coaches being suspended, or any further ban on post-season play as a result of these Level II violations. In announcing the sanctions, Overton said, “FAMU embraces these penalties since they are aligned with the steps the university is already taking to enhance its reporting and monitoring processes. The university believes that the additional one-year probationary period is necessary to help ensure that corrective actions are taken to make transformational changes needed to reinforce the university’s commitment to ‘Building Champions in
Duval County House races attract candidates
GOP legislators want to crack down on state’s ‘sanctuary cities’
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
BY JIM TURNER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – A group of Republican state lawmakers want Florida to crackdown on cities and counties that provide “sanctuary” for individuals illegally in the country. In one of a series of bills outlined Tuesday, government officials could face fines up to $5,000 a day for enacting policies or encouraging practices that could provide sanctuary to undocumented individuals. The proposal would also allow people who have been the victim of a crime in a sanctuary community, committed by an individual illegally in the country, to sue the local government. The term “sanctuary cities” refers to local governments that in some way do not enforce federal immigration laws and are considered safe harbors for undocumented immigrants. “We’re just saying when the federal government asks for assistance, provide it,” said Yalaha Republican Rep. Larry Metz.
Called costly, harmful But Maria Rodriguez, executive director for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, denounced the legislation as forcing local officials to “essentially turn in families who lack immigration status.” “Beyond the fueling of hate and racism that will further divide communities, this ‘big brother is watching’ bill actually strong-arms local government, at taxpayer expense, to go after its own residents,” Rodriguez said in a press release. “It is not only costly; it will actually harm our safety by undermining the public trust.” Rodriguez added that she expects to see a repeat of four years ago when sweeping legislation aimed at undocumented immigrants failed. “Thousands of Floridians, businesses, law enforcements officials and many others stood up to tell them we are Florida and we don’t want anti-immi-
The fine will be used by the athletics department to enhance compliance and prevent the recurrence of these issues as follows: Contract with an external third-party group to conduct a thorough compliance review in the spring of 2016 Contract with an external third-party group to conduct a thorough evaluation of training/medical program and procedures Add a second full-time compliance official for the 2015-16 year and a third full-time compliance person for the 2016-17 year Provide athletics training department employees with NCAA rules education specific to their respective units on an annual basis “The rapport and transparency we are rebuilding with the NCAA has allowed us to reinvest the fine into improving our operations. Full-compliance with NCAA rules is an integral part of our laser-like focus on moving FAMU Athletics into a best-in-class program,” Overton said. “Athletics compliance and academic support programming are foundational components to improving our department infrastructure, so this investment helps us in our efforts to build champions.”
MIKE STOCKER/SUN SENTINEL/TNS
Maryori Aguilera plays on the porch of the family trailer last year with her mother Cristina Fuentes and sister Emily. A Florida House bill filed this year intends to decrease cash assistance or child care assistance for undocumented immigrants. grant bills. What makes them think we will accept them now?” Rodriguez said.
United front Proponents of sanctuary communities claim there is better cooperation between law enforcement and the immigrant community when immigration issues are left to the federal authorities. Opponents accuse local officials of disregarding federal law, and also say that undocumented immigrants may benefit from taxpayer-funded services. Reps. Carlos Trujillo of Miami and Matt Gaetz of Fort Walton Beach and Sens. Aaron Bean of Fernandina Beach and Travis Hutson of Elkton – all Republicans – joined Metz in the Capitol on Tuesday to outline their proposals. Gaetz accused the federal government of failing U.S. citizens with its immigration policy. “Our borders are porous, enforcement is lax and immigration poses a threat to our physical security, our national security and our economic security,” he said. The bills are a way for Florida to “fight back” against illegal immigration, according to Bean.
California case cited The anti-sanctuary measure was crafted in reaction to the fatal shooting in July of 32-year-old Kate Steinle in San Francisco by an alleged undocumented Mexican immigrant who had previously been deported. “It truly breaks your heart, that this
illegal alien, that should have been in jail, committed this horrible act,” Bean said. Metz, who said the bills aren’t intended to target any specific group, said that he’s seen evidence that Miami has such policies in place. But Karen Woodall of the Florida Immigrant Coalition says many of the deportations from sanctuary cities would be unnecessary, costly and cruel. “I just hope that people will stay focused on real issues rather than reacting to an anti-immigrant sentiment and labeling all immigrants as criminals,” Woodall said.
Three bills filed One of the measures (HB 675, SB 872) both defines and prohibits a sanctuary community, and removes the sovereign immunity local governments have against lawsuits seeking punitive damages. Another proposal (HB 9, SB 118) would increase the civil penalty to a felony for individuals who defy deportation orders. That measure is scheduled to get its first hearing on Wednesday in the House Civil Justice Subcommittee. A third bill (HB 563, SB 750) is intended to decrease cash assistance or child care assistance for undocumented immigrants, and would also require anyone seeking temporary cash assistance to provide proof of applications for employment with three employers.
News Service of Florida Assignment Manager Tom Urban contributed to this report.
Two open House seats in Duval County have drawn additional candidates, including a former state lawmaker looking to return to Tallahassee, according to the state Division of Elections website. Jacksonville Republican Clay Yarborough opened a campaign account Monday to run next year in state House District 12, which will be vacated by term-limited Rep. Lake Ray, R-Jacksonville. Also in the race are Republicans Richard Clark and Don Redman.
Jones term-limited Meanwhile, former Democratic Rep. Terry Fields opened an account last week to run in House District 14, which will be vacated by term-limited Rep. Mia Jones, D-Jacksonville. Also in the race is Democrat Leslie Scott Jean-Bart. Elsewhere last week, Tampa Democrat Lisa Montelione opened Terry an account to try to unseat state Fields Rep. Shawn Harrison, R-Tampa, in Hillsborough County’s House District 63, according to the Division of Elections website. Also in the race is Democrat Mike Reedy.
Lobbying hits $30 mil in third quarter Businesses, groups and government agencies spent an estimated $30.2 million on legislative lobbying from July 1 through Sept. 30, according to a state compensation report posted online Monday. Among the companies that spent heavily on lobbyists during the quarter were AT&T and United States Sugar. Also, various parts of the health-care, gambling and tobacco industries were major players.
Nov. 14 deadline Lobbyists were required by Nov. 14 to file compensation reports for the quarter, and the document posted online Monday broke down the information to show amounts paid by lobbyists’ clients. The $30.2 million total and the amounts for the individual clients, however, are only estimates because lobbyists report most of their compensation in dollar ranges. Nevertheless, it appears that the amount spent on legislative lobbying during the three-month period this year was an increase from 2014. During the third quarter last year, a state document estimated the amount spent at $27.75 million.
EDITORIAL
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NOVEMBER 20 – NOVEMBER 26, 2015
Beyond T-shirts and hoodies Recollections of my 1995 article on the business of college athletics danced in my head when I heard the news about the University of Missouri football team’s refusal to play until the president of that university, Tim Wolfe, resigned or was dismissed. The players said, “due to his negligence toward marginalized students’ experience” and his lax attitude regarding racial issues on campus, they would no longer participate in football activities. Wolfe subsequently resigned.
Players get lost As I noted in 1995, and in several articles on college athletics and the billions of dollars they generate, money is the name of the game. When coaches of college teams earn several million dollars per year and half-billion dollar stadiums are being built, the actual laborers – the players – get lost in the shuffle. The players on the University of Missouri football team are far from being invisible. They made a statement that has divulged an economic vulnerability. There are lessons to be learned and actions to be replicated from this case. According to CBS Sports, “Canceling the game with BYU would cost Mizzou $1,000,000.” Everything boils down to dollars, if you look deeply enough, and the young men on Missouri’s team il-
JAMES CLINGMAN NNPA COLUMNIST
luminated that reality by their actions. The same thing could be done in professional athletics as well, in an effort to change the business as usual approach to racial inequities and mistreatment in the general society. It would be much more effective than t-shirts and hoodies. It’s better than wearing shirts with a nice-sounding slogan on them, or hoodies that connote illegal killings of Black folks, black armbands, or writing something on their shoes.
Took a risk Missouri football players chose the “nuclear option,” as some in Congress would call it. They put their their scholarships and prospective livelihoods on the line by actually doing something substantive rather than symbolic in response to their legitimate concerns about the conditions on their campus. The sacrifice these young people are making cannot be overstated, and I commend them for being strong and committed
Useless Black politics and child poverty There have never been more Black elected and appointed officials, more Black corporate and military functionaries, or more Black faces on TV and in the movies than there are right now. There’s been a Black family in the White House for seven years already and the first lady is from the South Side of Chicago. But what does it really mean to Black children in places like Chicago’s South Side all around the country? The plain and simple answer is, “Not a whole lot.” Current census data pegs the percentage of African-American children under 6 who are growing up in poverty at 38 percent. That’s three out of every eight Black children in the U.S. It’s been just a little higher once or twice in the
BRUCE A. DIXON BLACK AGENDA REPORT
several decades that particular statistic has been kept, but never by much, and not since the early 1980s.
Why? Politics isn’t just about voting, elections and political parties. Politics broadly speaking is about how we humans arrange our collective affairs. And Black politics – as far back as anybody can recall – has nev-
‘Black Lives Matter’ groups hope for big payday This week, the funders of the Democratic wing of the corporate Deep State – most prominently, currency manipulator George Soros – have invited elements of the Black Lives Matter movement to make their case for cash infusions. The Democracy Alliance’s (DA) stated mission is “to build progressive infrastructure that could help counter the well-funded and sophisticated conservative apparatus in the areas of civic engagement, leadership, media, and ideas.” Translation: to transform leftish activist organizations into loyal, dependent annexes of the Democratic Party.
Blacks cut out Back in 2004, Soros and other members of the Democratic Fat Cat Pack all but severed the cash umbilical cord to a host of Black organizations that had grown dependent on “soft” Democratic campaign money. Suddenly, the billionaires were running the Democratic ticket’s Get Out The Vote (GOTV) effort in Black precincts across the country – with virtually all of the old-line civil rights organizations kicked to the curb.
GLEN FORD BLACK AGENDA REPORT
Insulted, embarrassed and desperate for cash, 130 Black groups formed a band of beggars called Unity ’04 under the co-chairmanship of Urban League President Marc Morial, Dorothy Height of the National Council of Negro Women, and University of Maryland political scientist Ron Walters. Walters fired off a letter of protest: “This is an arrogant and divisive usurpation of power and it is destructive of our efforts that began most recently in the Civil Rights movement, where the efforts of Blacks to provide their own leadership in the act of political participation was understood to be the source of their power in the policy system as well.” Democrats went on to lose the 2004 election without the paid services of the “civil rights leadership” – who never regained the steady quadrennial stipend to which they had grown accus-
enough to put core values before fame. They should not have to suffer a loss of individual scholarships and their chances to make it to the professional ranks simply because they took a principled stand against racism. Other athletes have already fought that battle and some are still paying the price decades later. Tommie Smith, John Carlos, Muhammad Ali, Curt Flood, and Craig Hodges, just to name a few, took their stands against the system and took the blows that their peers were unwilling to take. They paid a hefty price for having the temerity to stand up and speak out. The Missouri football players now find themselves in a crucible of consciousness, and we should stand with them and assure that they do not suffer the same fate as their forerunners. If they are “blacklisted” by the NFL, Black people and other sympathizers should boycott NFL games. I pray that someone other than “the usual suspects” will come to the students’ aid and help them work out their situation in the long term. They have done their part by exposing the underbelly of racial mistreatment at the university.
Dollars vs. lives The economic lesson from the players’ threatened “work stoppage,” juxtaposed against Jon-
VISUAL VIEWPOINT: THE BIRTH OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM
DAVID FITZSIMMONS, THE ARIZONA STAR
athan Butler’s life-threatening hunger strike, is quite revealing. Butler’s life was virtually ignored, but when the dollars came into play things changed right away. The message: A Black life does not matter, but Black dollars do matter. Considering all the critical issues facing Black people in this country, we would do well to use economic power instead of relying on political influence to make appropriate changes to our overall condition. We should celebrate the Missouri players for taking the “road less traveled” as they fight for their rights on their campus; they chose
er been aimed at confronting those who wield power, or contesting for that power. Black politics has always been about representation, about which Black faces would best serve as designated spokespeople for the rest of us. It’s been which of them might best broker for our interests, and brokers don’t contest power. The current waves of mass incarceration and gentrification would have been impossible without the active collaboration of large groups of Black preachers, Black business leaders and Black politicians, the kind of Black political class which views its own glittering careers as the indisputable proof that something great is being accomplished on behalf of the oppressed. So far, the newest wave of socalled “movement activists” are walking down that same well-traveled road. They’re asking for more representation, with themselves as the brokers this time. They want town hall meetings and to their
own presidential debates.
tomed during decades of loyalty to the party.
Black organizations for the past 30-plus years, the game will, essentially, be over.”
Controlled by Clinton With the party machinery firmly in the hands of the Democratic Leadership Council, the corporate-funded faction co-founded by Bill Clinton and Al Gore for the express purpose of limiting the influence of Blacks and labor, the Black Unity ’04 groups were definitively put in their place – without two nickels to rub together. As I wrote in The Black Commentator, on October 14, 2004: “Traditional African-American leadership is reaping the shriveled fruits of the narrow path it strode down three decades ago, when the ‘movement’ was demobilized in favor of brokered politics and periodic electioneering. Until now, Blacks were invited to the two- and four-year Democratic electoral party, but not to the permanent power party. Under the new regime, traditional Black organizations have been disinvited from the electoral party, as well. “The goal is clear: The DLC means to prevent Black groups from taking credit for a massive African-American voter turnout against Bush. By sidelining these organizations during the campaign, the DLC hopes to cripple their capacity to mobilize constituencies between elections. Since electoral and broker politics has been so central to mainstream
But as Glen Ford points out, they don’t have demands. They’re not proposing abolition of the crushing burden of student and consumer debt. They’re not championing laws that would make the kinds of mortgage fraud perpetrated by the big banks illegal, or which would let cities snatch underwater homes from the speculators. They’re not educating or organizing parents and communities to resist the wave of school privatizations or to opt out of the standardized testing which provides the fake justification for them. They’re not speaking or mobilizing against the permanent warfare state which swallows fully half the nation’s revenue – money which could be spent transforming cities, industries, economies, and tens of millions of lives. They’re not building new political organizations that value and
Democratic ‘welfare’ Despite insult and injury, the Black sideshow kept playing the Democrats’ tune, albeit for much smaller tips. However, the shock of the loss of status and funding by the Democratic Party resulted in an acceleration of the old-line Black organizations’ historic drift towards dependence on corporate funding. “Movement” leaders promised corporate sugar daddies that they would run their organizations “like a business.” The Congressional Black Caucus, as a body, turned dramatically to the right in 2005, as Black lawmakers scrambled for corporate contributions. The same year, George Soros and his peers formed the Democracy Alliance to terra-form U.S. leftish politics in the interests of the party. Some new Black groups were funded, eventually including ColorOrChange.org. However, a plutocratic purge in 2012 defunded ColorOfChange. org and a number of other outfits “working on issues relating directly to people of color,” according to the Huffington Post. ColorOfChange was later returned to the fold, and by 2015 was listed among the DA’s core “national partners and cross-issue organizations.” Now enter Black Lives Mat-
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substance over symbolism, action over passivity. Rather than merely wearing their complaints on their chests or their shoes, they chose to wear their concerns on their hearts by letting the world know they are quite serious; they took their protest to the only level that gets results – the economic level.
Lots to say This new movement crowd has lots to say about the slippery nebulous demons of White supremacy and institutional racism, but almost nothing against the state and corporate actors who exercise real power. Like the classes of broker-leaders before them, they don’t have answers to gentrification, or the housing crisis or mass incarceration, or much to say to the three out of every eight Black children in poverty. They can only point to their own careers – while declaring how they love their Blackness – and that of the pretty first lady in the White House.
Bruce Dixon is managing editor of BlackAgendaReport.com. Contact him at bruce.dixon@ blackagendareport.com.
ter. The term has evolved from a catchy hashtag popularized by a specific network founded by three Black women, to a catch-all for every group vying for a recognition in the incipient “movement.” This week, some of them will be answering Soros & Company’s cattle-call at the Democracy Alliances headquarters. Two organizations are preapproved for Democratic Party funding. The Democratic National Committee has already endorsed the BlackLivesMatter network, praising “creators” Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, and Alicia Garza by name. Despite the BLM network’s public rebuff of the DNC, BLM pushed for a party-sanctioned presidential debate. Offshoot Campaign Zero has gotten DNC approval to host a town hall presidential candidate forum. Both organizations have been accorded the status and privileges of constituent Democratic Party organizations, such as MoveOn.org. Their journey from “movement” to the Democrat plantation took less than a year – if the moment of impact of Officer Darren Wilson’s bullet in Michael Brown’s brain is the starting point. And now it’s payday.
Glen Ford is executive editor of BlackAgendaReport.com. Email him at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
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NOVEMBER 20 – NOVEMBER 26, 2015
Black male teachers are an endangered species Over the past seven years, DCPS (D.C. Public Schools) stood as the epicenter of education reform. District residents have seen marked improvements. Chancellor Kaya Henderson’s Capital Commitment Campaign is in full swing and enrollment is steadily climbing. Most recently, Henderson with the mayor’s full support, announced the Empowering Men of Color (EMOC) Initiative aimed at serving the population that has experienced the least amount of historical success in our school system. Ironically, DCPS has a major challenge: How to achieve EMOC’s goals without having a solid and significant cohort of strong Black male educators? Research shows that there is a strong link between the lack of male educators of color and the academic and behavioral performance of male students of color. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, 1.7 percent of the nation’s 4.8 million public school teachers are Black men. The majority of Black boys never have the opportunity to be taught by someone who looks like them or to experience an African-American male role model in their classrooms.
STEPHEN JACKSON GUEST COMMENTARY
teachers in a system that has more than 67 percent Black students. While DCPS and other school districts around the country fail to recruit, retain, and develop Black male teachers, DCPS also has another serious challenge: retaining and developing Black male administrators, which includes principals and district level leaders. Over the past 24 months, as the principal of the historic Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, I have watched more than two dozen competent and capable AfricanAmerican male principals and central office supervisors leave DCPS under the current leadership. They include 16 principals, 2 instructional superintendents, and 10 central office directors, managers and specialists. Unfortunately, most of the principals were replaced with White or Black females. A few were replaced with a Black male principal or an assistant principal that were already in the system. In addition, two Black male instrucNumbers dropping tional superintendents were reRecently, the Albert Shanker placed with a Black female and a Institute, a research think-tank, White male. released a report stating that they saw a drop in the number of Black ‘Great White Hopes’ teachers in nine cities, including Black male administrators Washington, D.C. are disappearing in school disAccording to the report, the tricts like DCPS at extremely high largest drop of Black teachers rates. The “Great White Hope” took place in the District between syndrome has taken over urban 2003 and 2011. The percentage of school districts across the counWhite teachers more than dou- try, sending a message that male bled from 16 percent to 39 per- educators of color are not needcent. Black teachers in the Dis- ed to properly educate and lead trict dwindled from 77 percent young men of color. New York City, Newark, New to 49 percent. That’s a 28 percent decrease in the number of Black Orleans and other urban centers
Europeans afraid There are refugees all over the world. But their circumstances weren’t deemed worthy of mention by American corporate media until people began knocking on Europe’s door. Millions from the Middle East and Africa are poised to risk life and limb to cross the Mediterranean from Libya or
The glaring lack of cultural competency at the executive level has taken over urban school districts across the country. Interestingly, there are no Black male educators in senior leadership on the DCPS executive team. Chief of Innovation Dr. Robert Simmons, the leader of the EMOC initiative, is the most recent district office leader of color to disappear. What is DCPS’s issue with retaining and developing Black male leadership? In speaking with nearly all of the principals, instructional superintendents and department heads who left DCPS, a vast majority have cited a lack of respect for their opinion. They shared their personal experiences of being pushed out or encouraged to seek employment elsewhere; others were terminated. Most of them left on their own accord. All expressed frustration and a lack of support from DCPS’s district-level leadership. Each shared similar stories regarding the lack of interest from central office staff in supporting the truly effective practices to drive student support. Many Black principals reported being told that they are “going off the reservation” by district leaders when they strongly advocated for the schools they led. This was often given as a thinlyveiled threat to the principal that
spite their intention to be well informed. The story of a boy living in the MARGARET ruins of his home in Ukraine is deKIMBERLEY scribed with these words: “Hastily formed separatist militias, goadBLACK AGENDA REPORT ed and armed by Moscow, rose up in a rebellion against a new, proSyria, and in so doing they make Western government in Kiev.” White nations and their citizens very nervous. American complicity Thus, the Times has embarked The new pro-Western govon an effort to put its resources behind covering the refugee crisis. ernment would never have takBut if the reporting omits Ameri- en power in 2014 if the United ca’s responsibility for creating the States had not been an accomplice against the former elected presimisery the work is fraudulent. As part of series called “The Dis- dent. As for being goaded by Mosplaced,” the New York Times mag- cow, the people of Donetsk and azine featured the stories of three Lugansk have close ties to Russia children from Ukraine, Syria and and didn’t want to be part of the South Sudan. People in all three American-backed regime. That of these nations are displaced, regime is also responsible for the maimed or dead because of Amer- death toll and is the biggest obstaican machinations. Instead of ex- cle to peace in the region. Nine million Syrians have been plaining these facts to its readers, America’s role is either omitted displaced since the United States or falsified. Readers are left with and its allies attempted regime worthless misinformation de- change in 2011. These people seek
Useless speculation Unsurprisingly, like moths to a flame, terrorism experts are all over TV providing pedestrian speculation about who these terrorists are and why they attacked. Knowing who and why, in this age of terrorism, will do nothing to stop the next attack. In fact, experts are merely repeating much of what they said after similar attacks in London in 2005 and Mumbai in 2008. As I wrote in a column dated July 8, 2005, “It must be under-
ANTHONY L. HALL, ESQ. FLORIDA COURIER COLUMNIST
stood that no matter their collective resolve, there’s absolutely nothing our governments can do to prevent such attacks. That Americans reacted (yesterday) as if those explosions went off in Washington or New York should compel Westerners to focus on calming our collective nerves, instead of fretting about (or worse, trying to figure out) the motivation for and timing of terrorist attacks by Islamic fanatics.” Nothing demonstrates how spooked we all are these days quite like President Obama issuing a press statement on these attacks in Paris even before Hollande had a chance to. Hollande only fueled the terror the terrorists intended to ignite when he declared a state of emergency
VISUAL VIEWPOINT: RUSSIA ACCUSED OF SPORTS CHEATING
No Blacks in leadership
Islamic terrorists attack Paris – again Islamic terrorists perpetrated a series of coordinated attacks in Paris last week in a manner eerily similar to attacks they perpetrated in January, in retaliation for French magazine Charlie Hebdo publishing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The sites targeted include a soccer stadium – where French President Francois Holwas among tens of thousands watching a match between France and Germany – two popular cafes, and a concert hall.
A5
across the country are strong examples of this diseased phenomena in which Black male educators are disappearing and becoming invisible. The question: Does DCPS leadership believe that it is necessary or particularly beneficial for children of color to be taught or led by educators of color? If “Black lives matter,” how can the district successfully lead and turn around urban school systems when Black men are absent and invisible?
New York Times conceals American manipulation The New York Times is called “the newspaper of record” for good reason. It chronicles what the powerful and well-connected think and do because it colludes with them on a regular basis. A quick perusal of the Times usually reveals what presidents and secretaries of state want to have revealed. If President George W. Bush makes the case for invading Iraq, so do the pages of the Times. If the Obama administration wants to look hawkish in an election season, Times reporters are called upon for the selective leaking of news about a “kill list.”
EDITORIAL
and closed all of France’s borders while terrorists were still inside the concert hall slaughtering over 100 hostages in a manner that would make “Jihadi John” proud.
Standing by Then there were hundreds of French Special Forces who were standing by, with their big guns cocked right outside the concert hall, as terrorist gunfire and hostage screams could be heard inside. What the hell were they waiting for … direct orders from Hollande?! But imagine what it portends if just eight terrorists can force an entire country like France into a complete lockdown. Hell, you’d think they were the second coming of the German Luftwaffe. I warned it would be thus in April 2013 after the Boston Marathon bombing: “God help us if al Qaeda ever decided to emulate this feat by coordinating 10 similar bombings, at 10 football stadiums, in the 10 biggest cities in America, all on a
STEVE SACK, THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
his job was in jeopardy when he brought up issues about staffing, autonomy, equitable funding or even school readiness for August openings. I recall in one of our Principal Leadership Academy meetings where Chancellor Henderson was excited about the new initiatives she had planned for the school year. Then she asked her leadership team to stand up. There was not one Black male educator on her leadership team. As a matter of fact, there was not one person of color standing.
No acknowledgement The lack of diversity in DCPS and other urban school districts has become a pervasive issue that few want to acknowledge or attempt to address. It has turned out to be the “elephant in the room” with regard to school improvement and turnaround efforts. There seems to be very little support for and confidence in the Black male educator. He is not valued nor seen as an asset. He is not given a platform or a voice to affect young men of color on a large scale. He is often overlooked and undermined. refuge within Syria and in neighboring nations like Jordan and Turkey. Their catastrophe can be laid directly at the United States. Yet there is no mention of this fact at all. Instead there is a rehash of the discredited official narrative. The Sunni opposition to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad’s and armed gangs did not appear out of thin air. They were acting under the direction of the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The young girl in the Times story would be living safely in her home were it not for their intervention.
U.S. plotting American evildoing in Sudan gets less attention, but has been going on far longer than interventions in Ukraine or Syria. Along with Israel, the United States thwarted Sudan’s effort to remain whole. The breakup of the nation into two countries, Sudan and South Sudan, was the result of years of American and Israeli plotting. South Sudan has oil and the United States has made sure that it is anything but independent. A power struggle and yet another disastrous intervention by Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni
His greatest advantage is often used against him. In many cases, it’s the reason why he isn’t considered the “chosen one” when it comes to educating Black boys. The fact that he is an educator of color disqualifies him from being a part of the movement to empower young men of color. The irony is that the annihilation of the Black male educator is happening right here in Washington, D.C. This is a major challenge that DCPS leadership must address. I implore DCPS to realize that losing African-American teachers and administrators furthers cripples and marginalizes young Black men. Every effort must be made to hire, retain and develop Black men in school and district level leadership positions. We cannot empower them if we don’t hire them.
Stephen Jackson is the former principal of Paul Laurence Dunbar High School of Washington D.C., the first public high school for African-Americans. has produced a predictable trail of death. Museveni is America’s hit man in the region and the boy whose tragic story is told is one of millions of his victims. Instead of facts, we get a gruesome tale of brutality without context. The falsehoods are particularly dangerous to African people because they are made to look like brutes when they have co-conspirators in Washington and Jerusalem. There are countless ways in which Americans are fed lies and are then encouraged to support aggression and atrocities. Displaced persons deserve to have their stories told. They should not be used to make American criminality easier to commit, but that is what the New York Times has done. Of course, that is what the corporate media have always done. Reporting events accurately ought to be their goal. But instead, keeping powerful people happy is what they do best.
Margaret Kimberley’s column appears weekly in BlackAgendaReport.com. Contact her at Margaret.Kimberley@BlackAgendaReport.com.
This should be done notwithstanding that useful idiot, Edward Snowden, still sounding false alarms about a “police state,” while living like a glorified fugitive in one (Russia). It should be done despite national leaders acting as if such surveillance is a greater threat to Western civilization than Islamic terrorism. These latest attacks in Paris should put into sobering, foreboding perspective the handwringing that forced the National Security Agency to scale back its collection of bulk telephone data. Consider the manifest absurdity of a social media company like Facebook conducting more intrusive surveillance to sell you stuff than a security agency like the NSA does to keep you safe. Sadly, all that seems realTime to profile ly worth saying after attacks like It should be self-evident, es- these is, “There but for the grace pecially after bombing al-Qaeda, of God go we.” ISIS, and other terrorist groups for Anthony L. Hall is a Bahamiover a decade now, that our only hope is aggressive surveillance an native with an internation– including profiling – to short- al law practice in Washington, circuit these terrorist cells before D.C. Read his columns and daithey detonate in the heart of our ly weblog at www.theipinionsjournal.com. cities. typical Saturday in the fall, when they’re packed with over 100,000 people watching college football games. Not only would the carnage be 1,000 times more devastating, but based on the reaction to this terrorist attack, law-enforcement authorities would have to lockdown not just the airports as they did on 9/11, but the entire friggin’ country, no?” Meanwhile, what’s the point of deploying military troops on the streets of France to fight cells of jihadi suicide bombers you can’t identify, and who can strike at times and places entirely of their own choosing? That’s like closing the barn door after the horses have escaped, except that they seem to provide a little (misguided) comfort to terror-stricken people.
TOJ A6
NATION
NOVEMBER 20 – NOVEMBER 26, 2015
Waters: Federal agencies’ hiring practices void of diversity TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE
U.S. Representative Maxine Waters recently took the federal government’s financial services agencies to task
for not promoting racial and ethnic diversity in their employment ranks. On Nov. 5, Waters, the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Servic-
es Committee, along with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Hispanic and Asian- Pacific Islanders caucuses, commented on “The Dodd-
Frank Act Five Years Later: Diversity in the Financial Service Agencies” report. The document criticized seven financial services agencies for not imple-
menting the equal employment opportunity portions of Dodd-Frank, the 2010 law mandated Wall Street and other financial firms improve their practices regard-
Here’s to keeping bills low.
ing consumer protection.
Waters disappointed “I am disappointed to find that, more than five years after the enactment of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act and the DoddFrank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that included provisions intended to promote workforce and supplier diversity and inclusion, the federal financial services agencies have largely failed to improve on these critical matters,” Waters said at a press conference on the report. “As communities of color continue to face an insurmountable wealth gap and as AfricanAmerican unemployment remains stag- Maxine nant at 9.2 Waters percent, our nation cannot afford to have a federal government that is out of touch with the needs of racial and ethnic minorities and women and their daily financial challenges.”
Minorities underrepresented The report was compiled by the Democratic staff members of Waters’ committee and focused on the hiring practices, especially of senior management, from 2011-2013 of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Reserve Board (FRB), Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). The report concludes that minorities and women remain underrepresented in the workforce of the agencies in a manner that is out of proportion to their percentages of the American population, minorities and women are significantly underrepresented at the level of senior management, and Black employees generally receive lower performance management ratings than White employees.
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For example, the report showed that the agency with the highest percentages of Whites in senior management is the SEC, with 88 percent and it drops off significantly with Hispanics constituting only five percent at that level, followed by Blacks with four percent and three percent Asian. The study also shows the agencies with the highest level of Black percentage in senior managers are the FDIC and OCC, with 12 percent each. “As this country’s population is increasingly becoming more racially and ethnically diverse, it is well past time for these agencies to move beyond paying lip service to diversity efforts and instead fully embrace diversity and inclusion policies and practices as vital to achieving their missions by adopting sensible recommendations included in the report,” Waters said. She was joined at the press conference by Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and CBC members Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Al Green (D-Texas), Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) and Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio). Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Norma Torres (D-Calif.) represented the Asian-Pacific Islander and Hispanic caucuses, respectively. The members of the three caucuses, known as the TriCaucus, said they want the agencies to fully comply with federal laws regarding diversity, and to insure allegations of discrimination lodged by agency employees are fairly investigated.
This story is special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper.
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Some are a little nervous, others are pros. One thing’s for sure. The 14 Karat Gold Dancers will draw plenty of attention on Nov. 21 during B-CU’s halftime show at the Florida Classic.
THEY PUT THE
glitter
IN WILDCATS’ BAND 14K GOLD DANCERS READY FOR FLORIDA CLASSIC HALFTIME SHOW BY JAHSON LEWIS FLORIDA COURIER
When the Bethune-Cookman University’s Marching Wildcats take to the Florida Citrus Bowl gridiron on Saturday, all that glitters on the field with them will be Gold – the 14 Karat Gold Dancers. The 14 Karat Gold Dancers, also known as 14K, made up of 11 B-CU students, say they’re ready to give a sparkling performance Saturday at the 2015 Florida Blue Florida Classic. The kick off for the football game is 2:30 p.m. at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando. This year’s dance team has 11 ladies on the squad although previous teams have had as many as 18 and as few as five members. The original name was the “Golden Girls” – in 1982-1983. The name was changed to the 14 Karat Gold Dancers in 1984. ‘A GREAT HONOR’ Drianca Baxter, an early education major and 14K captain from Jacksonville, called it “a great honor to be on 14K because when you’re in college and you wanna dance you don’t want to dance for just anybody. You want to dance for the best. And I feel that 14K is the best and I feel that we exemplify that every time we perform.” Performances throughout the season consist mainly of halftime showcases alongside the Marching Wildcats and Sophisticat Flag Corp, which together are known as “The Pride’’ of B-CU. For 14K, the first home game, homecoming and the Florida Classic is the biggest performances of the year for them. “Homecoming is big because there is a lot of people you know there and you know what to expect,” Baxter told the Florida Courier this week. STRESSFUL TIME The dancers practice and prepare vigorously year-round but freshman Jayla Council admits that preparing for the Florida Classic has been stressful.
“It’s stressful, but in the end it’s fun because you’re going to have to push yourself. Like me being a freshman, like seeing the band completely do a 360 and Mr. (Donovan) Wells do a 360 because it’s Classic. When it’s over it’s fun, you can tell that we just had a good show and we all pushed ourselves and we are happy that we executed like we were supposed to,’’ said the psychology and criminal justice major from Nashville, Tenn. Wells is BCU’s band director. Baxter and her teammates wouldn’t offer any specifics about what spectators can expect from the 14K during halftime. The halftime show at the Classic – between the Marching Wildcats and Florida A&M University’s Marching 100 – is a highlight of the football game. “Halftime is what we do. What we are known for,” Baxter offered. She added that there’s an “adrenaline rush’’ during the Florida Classic. “We all give our all out there on the field just to, you know, have a good performance and give them what they expect,” she noted. ‘YOU CAN’T HIDE’ Shakeitha Wade, a junior psychology major from Miami, said her most enjoyable moment participating in her first Florida Classic last year was being able “to breathe again’’ once it all was over. “For me, it is taking that knee at the end of it. You are so excited and so nervous. It’s just a great feeling when you are done knowing we all put on a great show,” she expressed. Sophomore psychology major Cassandra Jean Jacques is nervous about Saturday’s show. Originally from Orange, New Jersey but resides in Miami, Jacques will be participating in her first Classic. “I expect a lot of people from FAMU, Cookman and home. I will be nervous because it’s my first time performing for the Classic so I wouldn’t want to mess up and everyone watching. You can’t hide behind nobody,” she related.
Vintonisha Smith, a freshman, performs in front of B-CU’s marching band during the university’s homecoming last month in Daytona Beach. Senior co-captain Khadejah Folmar performs with junior Shakethia Wade. PHOTOS BY KIM GIBSON/ FLORIDA COURIER
THE OUTFITS The 14K gold dancers are known for wearing some interesting outfits during their performances – usually tight, gold and slinky. Team members said the attire for game days is always custom and new. When choosing them, a dancer said, “We go with a vision, whatever we see that we think would look good on everybody on the team.” The dancers added that they aren’t necessarily looking for comfortability when making their selection but want to look stunning when they step out to perform. This Saturday, expect them to be “dipped in gold,’’ as Shakeitha Wade put it.
Besides the outfit change, Baxter said fans of the 14 Karat Gold Dancers, will appreciate their performance. “We’re just trying to give them 14K. We never want to change the image of what 14K is. So when we hit the field we think about all our former 14K members. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be out here so we just give (the fans) what they want.’’ The Florida Blue Florida Classic game between B-CU and FAMU kicks off at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 21 at Orlando’s Florida Citrus Bowl.
Jahson Lewis, a Florida Courier intern, is a senior Mass Communications major at Bethune-Cookman University.
CALENDAR
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NOVEMBER 20 – NOVEMBER 26, 2015
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‘Once in a Great City’ chronicles glory days of Detroit off the assembly line while (only) 4.1 million people were born in the United States, and the Big Three were making money hand over fist, sociologists at Wayne State University were warning that if current trends continued, Detroit would lose one quarter of its population by the end of the decade, with relatively productive individuals abandoning the inner city to “those who suffer from relatively great housing, educational and general economic deprivations.” The percentage of AfricanAmericans in the city, they predicted, would increase from 28 percent of the population in 1960 to 44.35 percent in 1970.
BY DR. GLENN C. ALTSCHULER SPECIAL TO THE COURIER
Early in 1963, Jerome Cavanagh, the mayor of Detroit, declared that his city was on the move. Having achieved a position as one of the great industrial centers of the world because of the automobile industry, Cavanagh predicted, Detroit “will continue in the future to be as it has been in the past – the envy of every other metropolitan area.” Eliminating blight and “other stifling factors of urban life” through dramatic improvements in neighborhoods, expressways and physical surroundings,” the citizens of the city were “learning how to live together, with understanding as human beings.” Cavanagh’s positive spin barely hid the problems that were just beneath the surface. Detroit, journalist David Maraniss reminds us, “was being threatened by its own design of concrete and metal and fuel and movement and also by the American dilemma of race.” Freeways made it easier for middle-class and affluent Whites to live in the suburbs and work in the Motor City. And the Big Three – General Motors, Ford and Chrysler – were using plants and suppliers outside the city and around the country. Detroit “was dying and thriving at the same time.”
Lingering questions
TONY SPINA/DETROIT FREE PRESS/TNS
Berry Gordy Jr. poses with one of his label’s hit records outside Hitsville USA headquarters on West Grand Boulevard in 1964. Hitsville USA was the birthplace of the Motown sound, where many hit songs were recorded.
BOOK REVIEW
Return to the ‘60s In “Once in a Great City,’’ a beautifully written, vivid and vibrant account of Detroit in 1963, Maraniss captures this moment. His portrait of a city taking its highest flight at dusk brings back to life Berry Gordy’s Motown Records; Lee Iacocca’s Ford Mustang; Walter Reuther’s United Automobile Workers; the “I Have A Dream” speech delivered by
Maraniss thinks it’s worth pondering whether the riots of the summer of 1967 “would have happened, or happened in the same way,” if Detroit has been chosen to host the Olympics (and the world was watching) and/or the Cavanagh administration had “reacted more effectively to control or prevent them.” But he deems his question “unanswerable.” And so, “Once in a Great City’’ leaves its readers to wonder, perhaps fatalistically, about the impact of woefully inadequate urban renewal policies and the failure to enact fair housing laws. And about how much to attribute the fall of Detroit, which declared bankruptcy in 2013, to “a grab bag of Rust Belt infirmities, from high labor costs to harsh weather,” and/or to municipal corruption and incompetence.
Review of Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story. By David Maraniss. Simon & Schuster. 441 pp. $32.50.
Martin Luther King in Detroit two months before he gave it in Washington, D.C.; the campaign to bring the 1968 Summer Olympics to the Motor City; and the ef-
cans, had steady incomes in the 1940s and ‘50s.
forts of civil rights advocates to pass open-housing legislation. Maraniss’ analysis of the “precarious balance between composition and decomposition” builds on historian Thomas Sugrue’s classic study of postwar Detroit, “The Origins of the Urban Crisis.’’ Like Sugrue, Maraniss places great emphasis on the complex dynamics of race. Thanks to the auto industry, Maraniss points out, most Detroiters, including African-Ameri-
Change predicted This economic geography allowed “the vast majority” of them to live in single-family houses, with enough room for pianos, a phenomenon that helps explain why so many Black musicians came of age. But even in 1963, a year in which 7.3 million new cars rolled
Dr. Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He wrote this column for the Florida Courier.
T: 11.5 in
JAGGED EDGE & KID CAPRI The Orlando Classic Tastemasters Official After Party is Nov. 21 at 10 p.m. at House of Blues Orlando, 1490 Buena Vista Drive. Guests: Jagged Edge and Kid Capri.
FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Jacksonville: Pastor Mark Griffin and members of Wayman Ministries will be giving away Thanksgiving baskets on Nov. 21 at 1176 Labelle St. The giveaway is from noon to 2 p.m. More information: Call 904693-1503. Fort Lauderdale: “The Christmas Chocolate Nutcracker” is Dec. 5 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the AfricanAmerican Research Library and Cultural Center, 2650 Sistrunk Blvd. Tickets will be available at the door or through Eventbrite. More information: www.AshantiCulturalArts. com. St. Petersburg: Tone Loc and Digital Underground with Shock G are scheduled to perform Nov. 27 at the Concert Courtyard @ Ferg’s, 1320 Central Ave. Miami: The Comedy Get Down tour stops at the AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami on Dec. 11. The tour features D.L. Hughley, George Lopez, Cedric the Entertainer, Eddie Griffin and Charlie Murphy. Palm Coast: The Community Chorus of Palm Coast will perform
KURTIS BLOW The “Hip Hop Nutcracker’’ featuring Kurtis Blow will be at the Ritz Theatre and Museum on Nov. 29 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
a holiday concert on Dec. 11 at 7 p.m. and Dec. 12 at 4 p.m. The concerts will be held at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 156 N. Florida Park Drive. Donations welcome. More information: 386-986-8899 or www.communitychorusofpalmcoast.com. Tampa: Betty Wright, Clarence Carter, Shirley Murdock and Bishop Bullwinkle will perform at the 1828 Southern Soul Music Festival at 2 p.m. on Nov. 28 at Water Works Park, 1710 N. Highland Ave. More information: 813-444-2986. St. Petersburg: “The Family Blessing,” featuring local performers, will be at the Mahaffey Theater on Dec. 19 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 20 at 2 p.m. Tampa: The Weeknd’s Madness Fall Tour stops at the Amalie Arena on Dec. 17 and AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami on Dec. 19. Opa-Locka: The city’s 19th annual Turkey Giveaway is Nov. 23 at City Hall, 777 Sharazard Blvd. More information: Call 305-953-2800 ext. 2801. 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.
Miami: Christmas in Jazz: A Holiday Show takes place Dec. 11 at the Miami Dade County Auditorium. Coral Gables: The Legends of the Old School tour stops at the BankUnited Center on Nov. 20 and Dec. 5 at the Germain Arena in Estero. Performers include Vanilla Ice, Salt N Pepa, Coolio, Rob Base and 2 Live Crew. St. Petersburg: Bone Thugs-nHarmony and Mike Jones are scheduled to perform Dec. 11 at the Concert Courtyard @ Ferg’s, 1320 Central Ave. Miami Gardens: The City of Miami Gardens will host its fifth annual Science and Engineering Fair Dec. 7 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Thomas University, 16401 NW 37th Ave. It ends Dec. 8 with an awards presentation from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Betty T. Ferguson Recreational Complex, 3000 NW 199th St. More details: Call Hilary Marshall at 305-622-8062.
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Tampa: Candy Lowe hosts Tea & Conversation every Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at 3911 N. 34th St., Suite B. More information: 813-3946363. Fort Lauderdale: Tickets are on sale now to see stage and screen star Audra McDonald perform Jan. 2 at the Parker Playhouse.
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STOJ
NOVEMBER 20 – NOVEMBER 26, 2015
FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT
Meet some of
FLORIDA’S
finest
submitted for your approval
B3
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
‘Concussion’ addresses NFL’s head-injury crisis BY STEVEN ZEITCHIK LOS ANGELES TIMES (TNS)
LOS ANGELES — Long before its Christmas Day release, the fact-based film “Concussion” was generating speculation and even potential controversy. Would the movie — about the NFL’s handling of football’s head-injury crisis — pull punches in how it addressed the topic? And if it didn’t, could it alter perceptions of the country’s dominant sports pastime? Last week, at the AFI Fest, “Concussion” made an early statement on those issues when it screened for the public for the first time. While the jury is out on how the film, which stars Will Smith and is backed by Sony Pictures, will echo in a nation obsessed with all things pigskin, the answer to the first question was resolute: The film does not hold back. That position was encapsulated by its director, the journalistturned-filmmaker Peter Landesman, who in an interview with the Los Angeles Times after the screening said of the NFL, “Not to sound dramatic, but they have death on their hands.”
Smith plays pathologist “Concussion” explores the 21st-century discovery of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease now believed to afflict scores of former NFL players, including the late San Diego Charger star Junior Seau. The condition results from repeated blows to the head and can include a range of debilitating cognitive and emotional symptoms. One of its most insidious features is that it cannot be detected by traditional scans and in fact is only fully diagnosed after death. Shedding a light on all this is Bennet Omalu (Smith), a Nigerian-born forensic pathologist in Pittsburgh who, in 2002, notices a strange set of medical circumstances while performing an autopsy on former Steelers offensive lineman Mike Webster, who had committed suicide. That soon sets Omalu off on a research path that unearths more such
cases, discovered after their sufferer also takes his own life. Needless to say, the doctor quickly runs afoul of the NFL, which seeks, as Omalu’s boss and research partner Cyril Wecht (Albert Brooks) says, to “bury” them. Discrediting Omalu’s research is the least of the league’s measures, according to the movie, which implies that the league played a role in the FBI investigating Wecht and even tormented Omalu’s family.
Compared to Big Tobacco If you’re waiting for the film to give the NFL a pass or a small moment of redemption, it never comes. Instead, NFL figures are shown as shadowy figures who stop at nothing to protect their interests. There are repeated comparisons between the league and Big Tobacco, the film equating the industries in their allegedly suppressing evidence that their product is deadly. The NFL has made no comment on the movie. But its position has long been that it has taken the necessary steps to address these health concerns via such action as a so-called “concussion protocol” that requires players to pass a long series of tests before retaking the field after a sharp blow to the head. The issue of the NFL’s relationship to “Concussion” came to the fore several months ago with reports that the movie had been changed to placate the league. If such changes were considered, they did not appear to make their way into the finished film. “I’m thinking if this is ‘caved,’ jeez, I’d like to think of what the other film” would be, Brooks said at the screening. Landesman said he did not meet with the NFL — he canceled a scheduled meeting with a top executive at the last moment because he felt it would help the NFL more than it would him — and Sony has maintained that it has been unbowed by the possibility of any league reprisal. The studio, which greenlit the mov-
PHOTOS BY DAVID CROTTY/PATRICK MCMULLAN CO./SIPA USA/TNS
Bennet Omalu, along with his family, poses for photos on Nov. 10 at the “Concussion” World Premiere Gala Screening held at TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, Calif.
Will Smith poses for photos on Nov. 10 at the “Concussion” World Premiere Gala Screening in Hollywood. ie after many of its competitors passed, is one of the few corporate-owned Hollywood entities not to have a business relationships with the NFL.
More bad press The head-trauma publicity is just one front on which the league has fought. The NFL has endured a series of public relations nightmares, the latest of which are
revelations of photos of graphic bruises on Nicole Holder allegedly caused by her ex-boyfriend, Dallas Cowboys star Greg Hardy. The bad press does not seem to be dissuading fans. NFL ratings continue their robust performance; “Sunday Night Football,” the game’s crown-jewel telecast, is averaging a whopping 23.6 million viewers halfway through the season, a 10 percent jump over last year. The popularity is high even in non-NFL markets; it was not lost on some viewers that “Concussion” was debuting even as news broke of Robert Iger becoming involved in Los Angeles’ bid to lure one or more NFL teams to the Southern California market.
‘People have to know’ Indeed, the game seems not only immune to off-field drama but may even be helped by it. A recent game featuring Hardy’s Cowboys was up about 25 percent over last year’s matchup on the same weekend between the Ravens and Steelers despite those teams sporting a far better collective record at the time the contest took place. How many of those fans — they of course also include the mil-
lions who play fantasy football — will see a movie or be amenable to its message as a morally complicit sport remains to be seen; after all, much of the information in it has been known for years and documented in journalistic outlets. Key to Sony’s marketing efforts is Smith, a movie star with the mainstream popularity to deliver its message in a wider way. The actor has been candid, if not quite as direct as Landesman, in expressing criticism of the NFL. “For me it was really conflicting,” he told the audience after the AFI screening, noting his son’s status as a former high-school football player in Los Angeles. Smith said he thought about not getting involved due to his love of the game but ultimately felt compelled to make the movie as an educational tool of sorts. “I watched my son play football for four years and I didn’t know. I didn’t know,” he repeated. “That became our quest: to deliver the truth. People have to know.”
Movie a ‘reawakening’ Landesman said he’s not actively trying to change perceptions, and is skeptical he could anyway, at least in the immediate term. “Most fans will see this movie and understand there’s a real problem, an insoluble problem, but also like the bloodlust and will go back to watching.” He said he does believe that in the years to come the issue of head injuries will chip away at interest fans have in watching — and parents have in children playing — the game of football. The director waved aside the concern that the NFL has, or even could, do anything to address the issues. “If you’re playing at a certain level, the violence is baked into the sport,” he said. Omalu, meanwhile, also remains steadfast that the sports has not and in many ways can’t be fundamentally changed. As he walked a premiere after party, lauded by many well-wishers, the doctor said he did believe a big studio film could carry the message in a way his research and raw numbers couldn’t. “I don’t think people are going to watch football differently,” he said in an interview. “But the movie is a reawakening. It’s a way to stimulate what they already know.”
B4
HEALTH
NOVEMBER 20 – NOVEMBER 26, 2015
STOJ
the cost-sharing support.
Still too expensive Brian McGovern, head of the North Jersey Community Research Initiative, says overcoming misperceptions about Obamacare has been one of his staff’s biggest jobs. “It’s always been about trust with some of our patients,” he says. Susan Nash from the Chicago law firm McDermott Will & Emery says for millions of people living paycheck to paycheck, health insurance is still too expensive. “These individuals are having difficulty affording food and housing, and so it’s a calculus: ‘Do I need health insurance? Do I think I’m going to have a catastrophic event or have some large health care expenditures this year?’” Nash says. The government says about eight in 10 of these eligible but uninsured people qualify for subsidies. But some of them will get only a little help from the government — since it is based on a sliding scale of income.
Penalties next year FRED MOGUL/WNYC
Vernon Thomas, a part-time music producer, is trying to decide whether it’s worth it to sign up for health insurance.
Consumer confusion about Obamacare continues Many without insurance don’t understand that subsidies are available BY FRED MOGUL WNYC (TNS)
Recording and mixing music is Vernon Thomas’ passion, but being CEO and producer of Mantree Records is not his day job. He’s an HIV outreach worker for a local county health department outside Newark, N.J. He took what was to be a full-time job in May because the gig came with health insurance —
and he himself has HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. But then the county made it a part-time job — and Thomas lost that coverage before it started. “Benefits are more important than the money you’re making,” Thomas says. The Affordable Care Act’s third open enrollment season started Nov. 1, and federal officials are hoping to reach about a million people like Thomas across the country. Newark has an estimated 112,000 uninsured people, around one-third of the city’s population. It is one of five areas — along with Houston, Dallas, Chicago and Miami — where
the federal government is focusing enrollment efforts. Altogether, Washington will spend more than $100 million on marketing and enrollment.
Needs regular doctor Why has Thomas sat on the sidelines for Obamacare’s first two years? He values insurance and regular health care, but he hasn’t fully understood what the law offered him. He gets the medications that bolster his immune system, care of the federal government’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program. But it doesn’t cover anything else. Thomas says he’d like
more medical care — particularly a regular doctor who could keep an eye on issues that worry him. “Prostate cancer runs in my family on both sides. My mother and her mother and her brother all had diabetes. My mother had hypertension also,” Thomas says. “Fortunately, I have low blood pressure. But now they’re saying I have high cholesterol.”
Cost-sharing support Thomas’ part-time job doesn’t pay a lot, yet he makes too much to get free health care from Medicaid. Because his income is below 400 percent of the
federal poverty guidelines (about $47,000 for an individual), he’s eligible for government subsidies to make an Obamacare plan more affordable, but he says it’s still too expensive — the cost of living in Newark is high for him. So he goes without — and keeps his fingers crossed. “I try not to think about it — getting sick,” he says. Even with a job in a health-related field, Thomas didn’t know the health law’s benefits for people in his income bracket. He didn’t realize that his earnings entitle him to enough assistance from the government to bring his premium down to $100 or less and that he also qualifies for “cost-sharing support,” which picks up much of the deductible and other out-of-pocket expenses. People who make 250 percent of the federal poverty guidelines (about $29,000 for an individual) can get
Other middle-income people would spend hundreds of dollars a month in premiums — and they wouldn’t qualify for the same help with out-ofpocket expenses that Thomas would. That means they could spend hundreds or thousands of additional dollars on a high deductible, if they need significant care. Still, under the law, most people have to get insurance — or face a tax penalty next year of either 2.5 percent of income or $695 per adult and $347.50 per child under 18, with a maximum of $2,085. Even if people know about the penalties, they may not act. The fines for 2016 coverage don’t hit until Tax Day 2017. And for many of people, that’s just too far away — and just too abstract.
This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes WNYC, NPR and Kaiser Health News. Kaiser Health News is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
Depressed? Look for help from real person, not a computer BY LYNNE SHALLCROSS KAISER HEALTH NEWS (TNS)
Almost 8 percent of Americans 12 and older dealt with depression at some point between 2009 and 2012. With that many of us feeling blue, wouldn’t it be nice if we could simply hop on the computer in our pajamas, without any of the stigma of asking for help, and find real relief? Online programs to fight depression are already commercially available, and while they sound efficient and cost-saving, a study out of the U.K. reports that they’re not effective, primarily because depressed patients aren’t likely to engage with them or stick with them. The study, which was published in The BMJ last week, looked at computer-assisted cognitive behavioral therapy and found that it was no more effective in treating depression than the usual care patients receive from a primary care doctor.
Talk therapy Traditional cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is considered an effective form of talk therapy for depression, helping people challenge negative thoughts and change the way they think in order to change their mood and behaviors. Online CBT programs have been gaining popularity, with the allure
of providing low-cost help wherever someone has access to a computer. A team of researchers from the University of York conducted a randomized controlled trial with 691 depressed patients from 83 physician practices across England. The patients were split into three groups: one group received only usual care from a physician while the other two groups received usual care from a physician plus one of two computerized CBT programs, either “Beating the Blues” or “MoodGYM.” Participants were balanced across the three groups for age, sex, educational background, severity and duration of depression, and use of antidepressants. After four months, the patients using the computerized CBT programs, or cCBT, had no improvement in depression levels over the patients who were only getting usual care from their doctors. “Uptake and use of cCBT was low, despite regular telephone support,” the study authors wrote.
‘Need human touch’ Almost a quarter of participants dropped out within four months, and patients noted the “difficulty in repeatedly logging on to computer systems when they are clinically depressed.” “It’s an important, cautionary note that we
FILE PHOTO
Zakeya Foster of Miami, right, says a therapist has helped her to stay on track. Foster, who has been diagnosed with clinical depression, shared her journey with the Florida Courier last year. At left is her mother, Glenda Foster. shouldn’t get too carried away with the idea that a computer system can replace doctors and therapists,” says Christopher Dowrick, a professor of primary medical care at the University of Liverpool, who wrote an accompanying editorial. “We do still need the human touch or the human interaction, particularly when people are depressed.”
Some effectiveness The lack of patient engagement in this study means these programs aren’t the panacea that
busy doctors and cost-conscious health care officials might be hoping for, Dowrick wrote in the editorial. Yet it’s important to note that the study was conducted in a primary care setting, he says, because many other studies on cCBT that show some benefit have been conducted in psychological settings, where patients might be more motivated to engage with these kinds of online programs. Despite the unenthusiastic findings of the study, Dowrick says that do-ityourself treatments like cCBT can still be effective.
But they’re more likely to succeed when people have relatively mild symptoms of depression or are in a recovery stage — the participants in this study were mostly in the category of moderate to severe depression, he says. Computerized CBT is also more likely to succeed, he adds, if the patients are open to seeking help on a computer and when they have a “reasonable amount” of guidance as they go through the program, preferably from a therapist. In this study, he says, participants each totaled roughly six minutes
of telephone support and guidance. Being depressed can mean feeling “lost in your own little small, negative, dark world,” Dowrick says. Having a person, instead of a computer, reach out to you is particularly important in combating that sense of isolation. “When you’re emotionally vulnerable, you’re even more in need of a caring human being,” he says.
Kaiser Health News is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
STOJ
NOVEMBER 20 – NOVEMBER 26, 2015
FOOD
B5
FIG AND BOURBON PECAN PIE Serves: 8 1 refrigerated pie crust 1 cup stemmed, chopped Blue Ribbon Orchard Choice or Sun-Maid California figs 1 cup packed light brown sugar 3tablespoons unsalted butter 2 tablespoons bourbon 3large eggs 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup light corn syrup 1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans, toasted sweetened whipped cream Adjust oven rack to middle position. Heat oven to 375 F. Coat 9-inch glass pie plate with vegetable oil spray. Fit pie crust into plate, flute edge. Chill until ready to bake. In medium saucepan, combine figs, brown sugar, butter and bourbon. Stir over medium heat until butter and sugar melt. In medium bowl, whisk eggs and salt until well blended. Whisk in corn syrup and orange zest. Stir in fig mixture. Sprinkle nuts evenly over bottom of crust. Pour fig mixture over nuts. Bake 35-45 minutes or until center is set, shielding crust with foil after 30 minutes. Cool. Chill until serving. Served with whipped cream. Note: Pie can be made up to 1 day ahead and refrigerated. (Reheat at 300 F for 10-15 minutes.)
FROM FAMILY FEATURES With the holidays fast approaching, opportunities for delicious sweets and elegant drinks are bound to be plentiful. Versatile and available year round, California dried figs are naturally sweet, nutrient rich and full of flavor. They also make a great snack during the busy holidays. Because these figs are dried, they partner well with wine and spirits and can be infused with more flavor to create delectable desserts. For recipes using figs throughout the year, visit valleyfig.com. CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKES WITH FIGS AND PORT Makes: 12 mini-cheesecakes 1/2 cup finely crushed chocolate wafer cookies 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts 2 tablespoons butter, melted 1 1/2 cups stemmed Blue Ribbon Orchard Choice or Sun-Maid California figs 1/2 cup port 1/2 cup sugar 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped 2 tablespoons water 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature 1/3 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 1/2 cup sour cream 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Adjust oven rack to middle position. Heat oven to 325 F. Line 12 (2 3/4-inch) muffin cups with paper cups. In small bowl, stir together crushed cookies, nuts and butter. Spoon about 1 tablespoon crumb mixture into bottom of each cup, dividing evenly; press into even layer. Bake in middle of oven 5-8 minutes, until fragrant. Cut about 1/2 cup figs into 36 thin, lengthwise slices. Place in small heatproof container with lid; set aside. In small saucepan, bring port and sugar to a simmer over medium heat and stir for 1 minute to form clear syrup. Pour 1/2 cup syrup over sliced figs. Cool; cover and chill until serving time. Finely chop remaining 1 cup figs and add to saucepan with remaining syrup. Return to heat and simmer, stirring often, until liquid evaporates. Spoon about 1 tablespoon warm fig mixture over crust in each cup, dividing evenly. With back of oiled spoon, press into even layer. Place chocolate and water in microwavesafe bowl. Heat in microwave on 50 percent power for 2 minutes or until melted, stirring every 30 seconds. Set aside. With electric mixer in large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until creamy. Gradually beat in granulated sugar. On low speed, beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in sour cream, cocoa and vanilla. Beat in melted chocolate. Spoon batter over fig layer in cups. Bake in middle of oven 15-20 minutes, until set. Cool in pan on rack. Chill for 6 hours or up to 2 days. To serve, arrange 3 slices of reserved figs in port syrup on each cake and drizzle with about 1/2 teaspoon syrup. SPIRITED FIG BALLS Makes: 65 balls 1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, divided 1/4 cup chopped, toasted pecans 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 cups finely crushed gingersnap cookies 1 cup stemmed, finely chopped Blue Ribbon Orchard Choice or Sun-Maid California figs
1/2 cup finely chopped, toasted pecans 1/2 cup brandy 1/4 cup butter, melted In food processor bowl, combine 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, chopped pecans and salt. Whirl to fine texture. Spoon into bowl and set aside. In same food processor bowl, combine crushed cookies, figs, 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, finely chopped pecans, brandy and butter. Pulse to blend well. Chill mixture 20-30 minutes. Form rounded teaspoons of mixture into balls. Roll balls in reserved sugar-nut mixture. Place in airtight container. Chill 12 hours. Alternate preparation: make Chocolate and Fig Amaretto Balls by substituting toasted almonds for pecans, crushed chocolate wafer cookies for gingersnaps and amaretto for brandy. Prepare as directed. Note: Balls can be made up to 2 weeks ahead; store in refrigerator. MIDNIGHT GINGERBREAD Serves: 15-18 1 cup stemmed, chopped Blue Ribbon Orchard Choice or Sun-Maid California figs 1/2 cup pitted, chopped Medjool dates 1/2 cup dark raisins 1/2 cup dark rum 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa 1 tablespoon ground ginger 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 3/4 teaspoon ground allspice 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 teaspoon salt 6 ounces unsalted butter, melted 1 cup packed dark brown sugar 3/4 cup dark molasses 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 1 cup buttermilk Lemon-Cream Cheese Frosting 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature 4 ounces butter, at room temperature 2 cups confectioners’ sugar 4 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest In microwave-safe bowl, combine figs, dates, raisins and rum. Cover with vented plastic wrap. Heat on high for 1-1 1/2 minutes or until steamy. Set aside for 15 minutes to cool and absorb rum. Adjust oven rack to middle position. Heat oven to 350 F. Coat 9-by-13-inch baking pan with vegetable oil spray. In medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In large mixing bowl, combine melted butter, brown sugar, molasses and granulated sugar. With electric mixer on medium speed, beat until creamy. On low speed, beat in eggs, one at a time, then but termilk. Gradually add flour mixture, stopping to scrape down side of bowl as needed. Continue to beat for 1 minute, until well blended. Stir in figs, dates and raisins. Scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake in middle of oven 35-40 minutes or until pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs. Cool in pan on wire rack. To frost cake: in mixing bowl, combine cream cheese and butter. With electric mixer, beat until creamy. Beat in confectioners’ sugar and zest. Spread on top of cake. Chill until serving.
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NOVEMBER 20 – NOVEMBER 26, 2015
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FOOD
NOVEMBER 20 – NOVEMBER 26, 2015
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TURKEY DAY TIPS The sight of a beautifully cooked, golden brown bird being brought to the table is one of the most memorable moments of any Thanksgiving gathering. Follow these tips to prepare the perfect centerpiece for your holiday meal: Thawing Your Turkey • For every 5 pounds in weight, thaw in original wrapper for 24 hours in the refrigerator. Thaw faster by covering with cold water in the sink and soaking approximately 30 minutes per pound. • Refrigerate as soon as thawed or cook immediately. For best quality, do not refreeze uncooked turkey.
PHOTO COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES
FROM FAMILY FEATURES
Food. Friends. Family. Football. Thanksgiving would be incomplete without any of them, but the most important is the holiday feast your family and friends have gathered to enjoy while the game plays in the background. Serving up a full holiday spread – from turkey to dessert – that is sure to bring everyone back for years to come is easy with these tips for every stage of the meal.
From a farm family’s table to yours Pair this perfectly pumpkin dessert with a glass of milk for a tasty twist on a holiday favorite. From fourth-generation dairy farmers – Ryan and Susan Anglin and their sons, Cody and Casey, of Triple A Farms in Bentonville, Arkansas – this savory dessert, featured in The Dairy Good Cookbook, is sure to become a tradition in your family, just as it is in the Anglin family. For more recipes, visit MidwestDairy.com. PUMPKIN PIE SQUARES WITH CINNAMON SUGAR YOGURT TOPPING Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes Servings: 16 Crust: 1 cup graham cracker crumbs 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup butter, melted 2 tablespoons low-fat milk cooking spray Filling: 2 cups canned pumpkin
Leave your taste buds dancing for joy With rich, creamy, delicious flavors in every bite, this Sorghum Pecan Praline Cheesecake will leave everyone at your table satisfied. Luscious sorghum syrup, which is naturally high in fiber, iron and protein, surrounds, captures and complements the decadent cheesecake and praline pecan topping. Find more satisfying recipes using sorghum that will keep your taste buds tingling all season long, visit sorghumcheckoff.com. SORGHUM PECAN PRALINE CHEESECAKE Recipe developed by Brenda Watts, Gaffney, South Carolina Cheesecake: 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 1 1/8 cups sorghum syrup, divided 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs 4 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened 1/2 cup sour cream 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 cup sorghum syrup 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 large eggs Topping: 1 package (6 ounces) pecan halves 2tablespoons packed light brown sugar 4 tablespoons sorghum syrup, divided 6 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 3 tablespoons heavy cream 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt Heat oven to 325 F. Lightly spray bottom and sides of 9-inch non-stick springform pan with removable rim. Place pan over center of 3 18-inch sheets heavy-duty foil and securely wrap foil around outside bottom and sides of pan. For cheesecake, in small bowl, combine butter and 2 tablespoons sorghum syrup. In
Roasting the Bird • Baste with extra virgin olive oil. • Place breast-side-up on rack in shallow roasting pan. Cook in 325 F oven. • For an unstuffed turkey, place a stalk or two of celery, seasonings, a cut-up onion and a handful of parsley in the cavity to keep it moist. • Lay “tent” of foil loosely over turkey to prevent over-browning. • Turkey is done when meat thermometer is 180 F or when the red stem on the pop-up thermometer rises. • For easier carving, let turkey stand at room temperature for at least 20 minutes. More Ways to Make the Perfect Centerpiece • Grilled: Grill 15-18 minutes per pound. Air in grill must be between 225-300 F. • Deep Fat Fried: Cook 3-5 minutes per pound in 350 F oil. • Smoked: Cook 20-30 minutes per pound. Air in smoker must be between 225-300 F. • Microwaved: Cook 9-10 minutes per pound on medium power. Rotate during cooking.
2 eggs 3/4 cup sugar 3/4 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt 1/2 cup low-fat milk 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup pecans, chopped Topping: 2 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 cup plain nonfat yogurt Heat oven to 350 F. In large bowl, mix together graham cracker crumbs, oats, brown sugar, butter and milk. Press into thin layer in a 9-by-13-inch pan greased with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes. While crust is baking, in another bowl, beat together pumpkin through salt. Pour over crust and bake for 40 minutes or until set. Sprinkle pecans over filling and bake another 10-15 minutes or until center is set. Cool slightly in pan. Mix together sugar and cinnamon. Mix in yogurt. Top each square with 1 tablespoon yogurt topping.
medium bowl, toss graham cracker crumbs and sorghum butter mixture together until crumbs are moistened. Press crumb mixture evenly into bottom of prepared pan. Bake 8 minutes to form crust; remove from oven and cool 10 minutes over wire rack. In large bowl use electric mixer on medium speed to beat cream cheese, sour cream, brown sugar and flour, 3 minutes, or until well blended and smooth. Gradually add 1 cup sorghum syrup, vanilla and eggs (one egg at a time) and continue beating 3 minutes longer from low speed increasing to medium speed, or until mixture is well blended and creamy. Pour filling evenly over crust in pan. Place pan in center of large baking pan (e.g., roasting pan) and pour 1-inch of hot water in large baking pan, around filled prepared pan. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes or until center is almost set but slightly jiggles. Remove from oven, remove cheesecake from baking pan and gently remove wrapped foil from cheesecake. Place cheesecake onto wire rack to cool 15 minutes. Run thin, sharp knife around edge of pan to loosen edges; cool in pan 2-3 hours in refrigerator. Meanwhile, prepare pecans. Increase oven temperature to 350 F. Line baking sheet with large sheet of parchment paper. In bowl, sprinkle brown sugar and drizzle 1 tablespoon sorghum syrup over pecans. Using large spoon, toss to evenly coat and spread pecans flat over parchment paper-lined pan. Bake pecans 8 minutes or until lightly browned and glazed. Place pan over wire cooling rack, use large spoon to separate and evenly coat pecans; let cool 10 minutes. In heavy duty 1-quart non-stick saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add brown sugar and 3 tablespoons sorghum syrup into melted butter and cook 2 to 3 minutes or until blended and heated through, stirring constantly. Stir heavy cream, vanilla and salt into mixture; continue stirring constantly until praline mixture comes to a boil. Simmer until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Stir occasionally. Remove from heat and let cool. To serve, remove rim of pan from cheesecake. Place cheesecake on large round serving plate. Place glazed pecans flat on top of cheesecake, starting at outer edges and ending in center. Spoon or pour praline topping evenly over top of cheesecake.
HAVE YOUR SIDES AND EAT THEM TOO While the turkey takes center stage on Thanksgiving, surrounding the centerpiece with a variety of delicious side dishes can take your turkey day to the next level. Here are a few popular sides to round out your table: • Potatoes: While mashed potatoes and gravy are always a holiday hit, other serving options, such as roasted potatoes, scalloped potatoes or sweet potatoes, can add variety to a favorite traditional dish. • Fruits and vegetables: From green bean casserole and cranberry sauce to roasted vegetables, corn pudding, can-
died yams and butternut squash, no table is full without a variety of fruits and veggies to choose from. • Noodles: Outside of a traditional potato side, many turkey day tables offer pasta-based sides, such as homemade turkey noodles, macaroni and cheese or pasta salad. • Bread: No Thanksgiving meal can be complete without cornbread, rolls or biscuits – which can also be used to make miniature turkey sandwiches after the meal is over – and a holiday classic, stuffing.