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DECEMBER 28, 2012 - JANUARY 3, 2013

VOLUME 20 NO. 52

IN THE 13th GRADE

BY LYNN WADDELL AND MC NELLY TORRES FLORIDA CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING

Pepper Harth has always loved music. After high school, she studied voice and acting in New York.

Her life took several turns. She married, had three children, divorced and sold real estate in New Jersey.

She moved with her children to Seminole, Fla., in 2007. Work was not as plentiful in Florida as she had expected. She got by singing at nightclubs and weddings.

PART 3 For Florida college students age 35 and older, 90 percent must take remedial math courses before they can begin college-level studies.

wanted to do something more with her musical talents. Harth applied for federal financial aid and enrolled in the music degree program at St. Petersburg College in Seminole. Now 50, she aspires to use her future degree to Wanted more practice music therapy in Last year, at 49, the sin- the health care industry.

Harth’s plans were set gle mom decided she

back, however, when she took the placement test that all Florida students must take before entering community college. She failed the math section. She wasn’t surprised: Math was never an easy subject for Harth in school, and that was more than 30 years ago.

Failing the math section

didn’t mean she couldn’t go back to school. But it did mean that she had to take two remedial math courses before she could move on to college-level algebra. That turned into three semesters of remedial classes – she had to repeat one course.

Because the remedial courses don’t count for credit toward her music degree, Harth’s educational journey will take longer than she expected. It’s increasing her student loan debt – threehour courses cost in-state residents between $300 and $350 at St. Petersburg College.

And it’s costing Florida taxpayers who subsidize higher education, as well Chad Carroll, 36, needed to take remedial math classes See STUDENTS, Page A2

when he enrolled in Miami Dade College. He wasn’t alone.

Florida homes sales jump

CHRISTMAS 2012 / OPA-LOCKA

Spreading holiday cheer

State becoming a seller’s market again COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS

COURTESY OF THE CITY OF OPA-LOCKA

Opa-Locka City Commissioner Timothy Holmes, dressed as Santa, smiles with area residents during the city’s annual bicycle giveaway on Dec. 22. Local businesses got together to donate more than $9,000 in bikes, toys and gift cards.

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

FLORIDA | A6

Gift for Floridians: State’s jobless rate drops a little PASSINGS | B2

A glance at some of the newsmakers who died in FINEST | B5 Meet Lunié Elie 2012

See HOMES, Page A2

After Newtown, some states move to ease gun rules

BY RICHARD SIMON LOS ANGELES TIMES / MCT

Good employment news: More truckers needed

Florida’s housing market continued to rebound in November, with existing home sales and median prices making double digit increases over last year.

Existing home sales closed during the month were 24.4 percent higher than a year ago. Pending sales, those signed but not closed, were even stronger. Sales expected to close within 90 days catapulted 45.8 percent last month from November 2011.

The increase was accompanied by a boost in median price, a combination that Florida Realtors President Summer Greene said is expected to continue through 2013.

In November, half of homes sold for more than $150,000, up 11.2 percent.

The average price was $223,301, a 10.6 percent increase.

“Every month in 2012 has reported a higher median price than the same month in 2011. This comes as no surprise, as investors grab inventory at the lower end of the market,” according to Florida Realtors research analyst Erica Cross.

“The positive change in median price has correlated with sellers receiving more of their asking price. In November, single-family sellers received

As Congress gears up for a fight over possible new gun restrictions, lawmakers in some states have pushed in the opposite direction – to ease gun rules – since the Dec. 14 massacre of 20 first-graders and six women at a school in Newtown, Conn.

None exactly matched last week’s proposal by Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Association, to train and deploy armed volunteers to help guard schools around the country.

Legislation has been proposed, however, to allow teachers or other school workers to carry firearms in schools in at least seven states: Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

‘Last line’ “I want a last line of defense,” said Jason Villalba, a Republican and newly elected Texas state representative who plans to introduce the Protection of Texas Children Act to allow schools to designate staff members as armed “mar-

shals” provided they undergo special training.

Some lawmakers have gone further, proposing that any teacher with a permit to carry a concealed weapon be allowed to bring it into school.

“It is incredibly irresponsible to leave our schools undefended – to allow madmen to kill dozens of innocents when we have a very simple solution available to us to prevent it,” said Oklahoma State Rep. Mark McCullough, a Republican who plans to sponsor legislation to

Regulating guns A 2011 ranking of state restrictions on gun sales, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, lists California as the state with the strongest laws.

Gun laws by state

Most restrictions

Least restrictions

NOTE: Map based on state laws; some cities and counties have their own restrictions

See GUNS, Page A2

Source: Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 2011 Graphic: Scott J. Wilson and Paul Duginski, Los Angeles Times

ALSO INSIDE

COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: LUCIUS GANTT: TODAY’S BLACKS STILL TREATED LIKE SLAVES | A4

Mass.

Conn.

R.I. Del. Md.

© 2012 MCT

FOCUS

A2

DECEMBER 28, 2012 – JANUARY 3, 2013

Sodom and Gomorrah, thy name is America Marijuana is now legal in the states of Colorado, Washington and California. Voters okayed casual pot smoking on Election Day in Washington and Colorado.

They had already been smoking weed in California for medicinal purposes.

So is this just another sign of how the values in America are being eroded?

A long fight There has long been a fight to eliminate God from our culture. More than 20 years ago, one woman, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, took her fight to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop prayer in schools because she was an atheist and didn’t want her daughter to be taught how to pray.

Decades later, politicians and advocates are taking God out of the oath of office for politicians as well as the oaths taken in court for testimony. There’s even a

BARBARA HOWARD GUEST COLUMNIST

movement to take all mention of God out of the Pledge of Allegiance and off dollar bills.

They want all mention of God and religious statements off all government buildings. Some organizations and/or individuals want crosses taken down from land where they’ve stood for almost a century. One national political party even took the mention of God out of their election platform and booed the effort to re-insert His name after negative reactions by some of their delegates.

Students can no longer begin their sports activities with a prayer. Cheerleaders were even

made to destroy their signs that gave God credit for their lives.

Marriage has now been redefined – after thousands of years – to include the union between people of the same sex. Gay marriage was on the ballot in four states in the November elections and won with overwhelming support.

Bowed to pressure Black preachers, who stand in their pulpits every Sunday to “preach the Word of God, have seemingly turned a blind eye to the Gospel as they have bowed to political pressure to stop using the Christian definition of marriage as a means of discrimination against what is now referred to as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) community.

White political commentators have accused “the Christian Right” of being too focused on Christianity at the expense of other lesser religions (e.g. Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism) even though 73 - 76 percent of the U.S. population define themselves as Christians. (The “lesser” religions account for around 4 percent of the population while a little less than 20 percent define themselves as having no religious affiliation.)

So even though the majority of Americans consider themselves as Christians, the 44th president of the United States has declared that America is no longer a Christian nation. And those who are Christian and conservative find themselves victims of persecution and accused of being racists.

As those of us who are Christian celebrate Christmas and declare, “Jesus is the reason for the season,” atheists are suing cities and municipalities to have any outward display of the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and the three wise men taken off public land or governmental areas.

War against Christianity So as we watch the news showing total destruction of property and the senseless murder of human beings in Muslim countries in the raging fight between religious factions, we seem to ignore the ever-growing war against Christianity right here in America.

We used to say “Merry Christmas”; now people greet you with “Happy holidays.” The efforts of Americans to be all-inclusive have literally destroyed our right to be “real” Christians. The political move toward full “diversity” has caused Christians to forget their family values.

Even as we mourn the deaths of

HOMES

GUNS

from A1

from A1

92 percent and townhousecondo sellers received nearly 93 percent of their original list price. Realistic sellers who price their house to market conditions are even receiving multiple offers.”

allow teachers and principals to carry firearms in schools after they undergo training.

More restrictive

Hot market “The sizzle is back,” Greene said in a statement last week. “With home sales strongly trending up and the supply of homes for sale drying up, the market is hot.”

Condominium sales were also robust. Closed sales of townhomes and condominium units jumped 18.3 percent in November from last year. Pending sales were up 30 percent during the same period.

Buyers coming back Florida Realtors chief economist John Tucillo, said the state’s housing stock is becoming more valuable across the board, a sign that buyers are back. Interest rates also appear to be assisting, with the interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropping to 3.35 percent, down more than half a percentage point from

FLORIDA COURIER FILES

Despite high levels of foreclosures, Florida’s residential real estate market is regaining steam. a year ago.

Nationally, home sales rose 14.5 percent from November 2011. In the South, existing-home sales rose 7.9 percent in November from October and 17.2 percent a year ago. The median price in the South was $157,400, up 10.5 percent from a year ago.

Median prices across the nation rose for the ninth consecutive month, the longest streak of year-to-year increases prices since 2004.

“Momentum continues to build in the housing market from growing jobs and a bursting out of household

STUDENTS from A1 as federal taxpayers who support her Pell Grant.

Not alone Remedial classes in math, reading and writing are seeing a surge of students at Florida’s 28 community and state colleges – schools where all students are welcome as long as they have a high school diploma or G.E.D. From 2004 to 2011, Florida’s remedial education costs for both students and schools ballooned from $118 million to $168 million. The vast majority of students in these “developmental courses” are in some stage of going back to school after a break.

An analysis by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting and StateImpact Florida found that in the 2010-11 school year, 85 percent of students taking remedial classes were age 20 or older.

The trend with older students has been building for some time, but was accelerated by the Great Recession. Laid-off workers and those like Harth, who want to train for new lines of work or bolster their résumés, have been flooding onto college campuses.

Rusty skills It isn’t just the weak job market that has been encouraging them to do this. The federal government is providing record amounts of financial aid. When they get to campus, however, many find that their basic skills in math, reading and writing have deteriorated to the point that they are too rusty to take college-level courses. That’s especially true with math.

Four of every five first-year, full-time students over 20 had to

formation,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

Florida’s housing stock inventory fell to a 5.1-month supply and is half of what it was two years ago.

Florida’s market is tipping toward sellers. Months’ supply of inventory is at 5.1-months for single-family homes and 5.3-months for townhouse and condos, dipping below the 5.5-month threshold that signifies a balanced market.

Michael Peltier of The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

take remedial math courses, according to the 2011 Florida College System Readiness report using 2009-10 data. For those age 35 and older, the rate increased to 90 percent.

Hunter R. Boylan, director of the National Center for Developmental Education, says older students’ need for remedial math is natural.

“You read every day, but when was the last time someone said, ‘Excuse me, can you help me solve a polynomial equation?’”

Boylan said. “It’s a skill that atrophies quickly and because it is not used regularly, it goes away.”

More aid available Historically, college enrollment by older students peaks during economic downturns. This recession is no different – except the spike is higher and more federal financial aid is available.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 created the biggest boost in federal student financial aid since the G.I. Bill. Federal funding for grants and student loans has continued to climb under President Obama.

Funds available for the Federal Pell Grant Program, the largest form of federal aid that students do not have to repay, grew by more than $15 billion.

In Florida, students gladly took up the offer of more generous financial aid. As college enrollments shot up, so did the number of students requiring remedial classes. Indirectly and inadvertently, the new federal dollars placed a greater demand for remediation courses on Florida’s community colleges.

Older students taking remedial courses said the availability of financial aid was a determining factor in deciding to go to college. José Ramos is one of them.

Ramos is a phlebotomist – he

Several states have pushed for stiffer regulations. In California, lawmakers have proposed strengthening already tough state gun laws, including requiring a permit and background checks for anyone who wants to buy bullets.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, vetoed a bill last week that would have allowed gun owners with concealed weapon permits to carry their firearms into schools and other public places.

Snyder objected that it didn’t let institutions opt out and prohibit weapons on their grounds.

The different legislative responses underscore the difficulty of reaching a political consensus on guns, an issue that often divides lawmakers by geography as much as party affiliation.

Support for gun control

takes blood samples for health tests. A Pell Grant enabled Ramos, 46, to pursue a nursing degree at St. Petersburg College.

More family time “Being the only provider in a household and for what I make, you can’t survive and go to school,” said Ramos, a father of four. “Normally, right now, I wouldn’t be in school. I’d be working two jobs supporting my family and not able to see my son grow up like I did my daughter.”

Ramos says he can earn more with a nursing degree and spend more time with his family. Financial aid allowed Ramos to reduce his hours at work and concentrate on his studies. But his education has also taken longer than he anticipated due to his need for remedial math.

Ramos didn’t score high enough in math on the entrance exam to take college-level algebra. Like Harth, he had to take remedial math courses and repeated one. He spent hours studying in the college’s learning lab in order to pass.

“I was disappointed and I hated to repeat math,” Ramos said of learning that he had to take the remedial courses. “But I guess it’s part of any job because no matter what you go into, you are going to be using math. I just don’t think you will be using X’s and Y’s unless you are in something like engineering.”

Burning out St. Petersburg College reading instructor Patricia Smith oversees the campus learning lab where Harth and Ramos have regularly studied and received tutoring. Smith considers them success stories – they’ve persevered through the remedial classes and continued on with their studies.

In 2007, Florida’s Office of Pro-

20 wonderful little angels senselessly murdered in Connecticut, our attention has been turned to gun control instead of the death of the value of love and human life in a young man’s psyche.

People make decisions We are made to forget that human beings make decisions, good or bad, and should be held accountable for their actions. We blame everything but the person and forget that all actions have consequences and only we are to blame.

So while everyone runs away from what was once glorified as Christian values, those of us who are true to our faith know that in spite of what is “politically correct,” we are Christians still and will be held accountable by God. And Jesus is still the reason for the season. Lest we forget, we will suffer the same fate as Sodom and Gomorrah.

Barbara Howard is trade and travel goodwill ambassador to Kenya and Florida state chair of the Congress of Racial Equality and writes a column, “The Politics of Blackness.”

Contact her at bhoward11@ bellsouth.net. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

measures is much higher in Democratic strongholds in the Northeast and West than in Republican bastions in the Midwest and South, according to polls. But sometimes the divisions are much closer.

Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, a Democrat, complains about “too many guns” and plans to seek gun control legislation.

In neighboring Virginia, Gov. Robert McDonnell, a Republican, said the idea of arming school personnel was worth a discussion.

“If people were armed, not just a police officer but other school officials who were trained and chose to have a weapon, certainly there would have been an opportunity to stop aggressors coming into the school,” McDonnell told WTOP radio in Washington.

Reactions vary The idea of arming teachers or administrators has drawn plenty of criticism.

“I’ve not heard from a single teacher or administrator who said that they want to go to school armed with a gun,” said

gram Policy Analysis & Government Accountability reported that 48 percent of all remedial students don’t complete all of their college prep courses, let alone graduate. Statistics on the dropout rate of older students who require remedial courses are not available. Anecdotally, instructors say the rate is higher among older students.

Many reasons Some laid-off workers find new jobs and no longer have the time or inclination to stay in school.

Older students also typically deal with outside stresses such as childcare and work. In recent years of recession and war, Smith said, she has taught homeless students, war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and single parents fighting eviction from their homes.

As Smith sees it, even though many students don’t complete their programs, the ones who do make the added expense and instruction worthwhile.

“A lot of them are diamonds in the rough and could go on to do better things,” she said. “We might be the last people our students ever see who encourage them to keep them going or turn them off from education. We have a huge amount of pressure on ourselves to turn out students who are learning more, and not just making passing grades, but to make it in the work force. If you can’t read properly, how are you ever going to make it as a nurse?”

Even though older students often have greater needs for remediation, Smith and other instructors said they typically are more focused and determined to succeed than younger students.

“They know it’s their last shot at something,” Smith said. “They will be more focused and they

Meg Gruber, president of the Virginia Education Association.

“Why in the world would you even think of doing this?” added Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Assn. He said Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown “did everything right. ... But you can’t stop somebody with an automatic assault rifle from shooting out a window and coming through.”

Betty Olson, a Republican state representative in South Dakota who proposes allowing teachers with concealed weapon permits to bring their firearms into schools, said she had gotten a favorable response.

“We’ve got a few antigun liberals who think that that’s crazy, allowing anybody with a gun into the school,” she said. “Never mind those lunatics.”

South Carolina state Rep. Phillip D. Lowe, a Republican who proposes to allow concealed weapon permit holders who undergo rigorous training to bring guns into school, agreed.

“There’s always some people who are opposed to anything with the letters G-U-N,” he said.

will help bring up the younger students in the class and actually act as nurturers and be great role models for younger students.”

Never too late Harth said she’s more driven in her studies now than when she was younger.

“I tell everyone go to school while you are young because it is really difficult when you are a single mom and have had many, many years out of school and there is so much other stuff in your head.”

She’s utilized all of St. Petersburg College’s resources – the instructors, the advisors, the learning lab, the tutors and study groups – to help her get through her courses, particularly math.

“The support here is unbelievable. But you have to work at it.

You really have to be self-disciplined.”

Although it’s not required, she sees an academic advisor every semester to make sure she is on the right path with her courses.

Now that she’s completed her remedial math coursework, she’s tutoring students in other subjects and expects graduate in 2013.

“I used to think I was too old to go back to school, but now I say never give up. It’s never too late.”

The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting is a nonprofit news organization supported by foundations and individual contributions. For more information, visit fcir. org. StateImpact Florida is an educating reporting project of NPR, WUSF in Tampa and WLRN in Miami. For more information, visit http://stateimpact.npr.org.

DECEMBER 28, 2012 – JANUARY 3, 2013

FLORIDA

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Good employment news: More truckers needed Association reports need for thousands of truck drivers

BY JC REINDLE DETROIT FREE PRESS (MCT)

In much of the country, there is a clear shortage of speedy and direct routes to the middle class.

Yet there remains at least one accessible profession – truck driving – where industry experts see a lack of bodies to fill available seats and collect substantial paychecks.

In a nationwide report last month, the American Trucking Associations estimated a current need for 20,000 to 25,000 bigshipment, long-distance truck drivers.

Beyond that, the expected rise in shipping demand coupled with retirements would open up nearly 100,000 new driving jobs in each of the next 10 years, the report said.

“So it’s an opportunity for a lot of people,” said Bob Costello, the report’s author and the trade group’s vice president.

“You don’t need a college education. You need to be a safetyconscious, hard-working individual.”

REGINA H. BOONE/DETROIT FREE PRESS/MCT

Demand will increase A new long-haul truck driver can generally expect to earn $38,000 to $44,000 before taxes in the first year, according to interviews with trucking company recruiters, industry analysts and training schools. Experienced drivers can earn around $50,000 to $65,000 a year, although much depends on the type of hauling and the number of miles driven.

“Carriers are competing with each other for those individuals who are high-quality truck drivers,” said Walter Heinritzi, executive director of the Michigan Trucking Association.

“The demand for freight will continue to increase – that’s pretty much acknowledged – but the number of people choosing to go into trucking has not increased.”

Some trucking companies will reimburse new hires for training school, but usually in monthly increments of $150 to $200. Major specialized schools in the Detroit area, for example, charge

Tyomni Floyd, top, of Detroit, is shown on Dec. 4 during her third week of truck driver training school at Suburban CDL Truck Driving and Training School in Romulus, Mich. December 4, 2012. She is a single mom hoping that this new career will bring financial stability to her family. about $6,000 for tuition for multiweek training programs.

Career change for many Lara Dowdy, director and cofounder of Driver Training School in Romulus, Mich., said about a third of the school’s trainees are young people entering trucking as a first career.

Others are generally older, middle-age individuals making a career change, including military veterans, ambulance drivers, police officers, nurses and former business owners.

At Suburban, trainees spend their first days in classrooms and on driving simulators before they try maneuvering around orange cones in a parking lot with a real 18-wheeler.

By the third week, they are driving local roads with a trainer in their cab. But unlike the driver’s education vehicle most peo-

ple learned to drive in, there’s no passenger brake pedal in these big rigs.

More women drivers Tyomni Floyd, 29, of Detroit was in her final days of training earlier this month at Suburban in Romulus. A single mother with two young daughters, Floyd lost her job in July as a care worker for people with disabilities. Her previous work experience had been in fast food. Despite great effort, she had trouble finding work.

“I was looking around and around, and I still couldn’t find anything,” she said.

Floyd’s father was once a truck driver for Chrysler, but she had not seriously considered the profession for herself until she ran into a training school recruiter at a job fair in October.

Newly retired Detroit Public Schools teacher Denise Laven-

der, 59, of Whitmore Lake, Mich., decided to try trucking for different reasons.

“When I retired I said I’d like to be able to travel and see the countryside, and I think this is a great way to do it and get paid to do it,” Lavender said.

Lifestyle change She admits that learning to double-clutch 10-speed and 13-speed transmissions was trickier than she imagined. “Maybe it’s because I’m older now,” Lavender said with a laugh.

She finished Suburban’s program this month with a job offer in hand from Ann Arbor, Mich.based Con-Way Freight.

Industry experts say new drivers often sour to the trucking lifestyle and spending weeks away from home.

“The real story is when people go through those programs, how

long do they stay in the trucking business?” asked Norita Taylor, spokeswoman for the OwnerOperator Independent Drivers Association.

Not for everyone Mike Hinz, vice president of driver recruitment for Wisconsin-based carrier Schneider National, predicts the truck driver shortage will result in a pay increase of 5 percent to 8 percent in the next year and a half.

But he cautions against jumping into the profession just because the money is good.

“A lot of times people come into the industry without recognizing just what a challenge it can be,” Hinz said. “It certainly is not just holding onto a steering wheel; there’s a lot of professionalism and maturity that go into it.”

Report: Florida led nation in death sentences in 2012

Perfect score on SAT puts Philly teen in elite group

BY JEFF WEINER ORLANDO SENTINEL (MCT)

TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE

A report by a national nonprofit group that studies the death penalty found that Florida put more people on death row in 2012 than any other state.

The Death Penalty Information Center’s report says only nine states executed prisoners this year. Texas, with 15, executed the most defendants.

Florida executed three.

However, Florida far exceeded other states in new death sentences: 21 defendants were sentenced to die in Florida through mid-December, the report says.

Double digits in California That’s more than twice Texas’ figure for the comparable period. California, with 14 death sentences, was the only other state to reach double digits.

Overall, the report found death-penalty use in 2012 “continued to decline, with fewer states endorsing capital punishment, relatively few death sentences being imposed, and executions being carried out at half the rate of the late 1990s.”

A Dec. 11 report by Central Florida News 13 TV station aired information about the execution of Manuel Pardo, a former police officer.

Nationally, the number of death sentences in 2012 was the second-lowest since 1976, said the center, which has no explicit stance on the death penalty but is generally critical of its use.

“The death penalty has been declining in use for about a decade and that continued in 2012,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the group.

“There are now less states with the death penalty, as Connecticut abolished it this year.”

New cases in Duval County Dieter said that the majority of new death-penalty cases in 2012 were in a small minority of states, with Florida, California, Texas and Pennsylvania

accounting for 65 percent of new death sentences.

Often, he said, the inception of those cases is even more local, with prosecutors in individual jurisdictions contributing larger quantities of death-penalty cases. For example, several of Florida’s new death cases in 2012 came from Duval County, the center’s research shows.

“That’s reflective of the philosophical position ... of the prosecutor about how to proceed, and what’s the threshold for a death-penalty case,” Dieter said.

406 still on state’s death row Three people were executed in Florida in 2012: Robert Waterhouse, convicted of raping and murdering 29-year-old Deborah Kammerer in Tampa Bay David Alan Gore, a serial rapist who admitted to killing four women and two teenage girls in the 1980s Manuel Pardo, a former police officer who killed nine people in the late 1980s.

There are 406 people on death row in Florida, according to Department of Corrections records.

Morehouse adds LGBT classes to curriculum

BY CANDACE BAGWELL BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM

The controversy over samesex lifestyles is now going from legislatives floors to college classrooms.

In 2013, Morehouse College will offer students the opportunity to enroll in a course on the history of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

Just a year ago, the historically Black college found itself under scrutiny for banning crossdressing on campus. Several students felt the policy was directed toward LGBT students.

According to the school’s newspaper, The Maroon Tiger, the course will explore the interrelation between the Black experience and being LGBT. The class also will focus on key concepts such as Black

feminism, methodology and critical cultural theory. The course syllabus identifies the study as “an interdisciplinary survey of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) culture and politics.”

Administrators are hoping the new class will encourage Morehouse students to adopt a more tolerant and inclusive attitude as well as influence other HBCUs to do the same.

Cameron Clarke, an AfricanAmerican teen from Philadelphia, attained a perfect score on this year’s Scholastic Aptitude Test, joining an elite group of 360 U.S. students.

More than 1.66 million pupils took the college preparatory test in the spring of 2011, but Clarke, a Germantown Academy senior, was among the few to score a perfect 2,400. His target college: Princeton University.

It was an achievement that the teenCameron ager, in his humility, Clarke didn’t want to “brag or boast” about, said his father, Peter Clarke, in an interview with BlackAmericaWeb.com.

“He really didn’t want anyone to know about his score, so he didn’t tell anyone at Germantown Academy about it when he got the result in June,” said the elder Clarke, manager of the Jamaican Reef Restaurant and Lounge in South Philadelphia’s upscale Penn’s Landing neighborhood.

Hard work and perseverance Clarke’s extraordinary feat began receiving public attention after Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Jenice Armstrong heard about it “through happenstance,” his father said, and published the news in her column.

“He is the one who set all this in motion,” said the elder Clarke of his child’s accomplishment. And, the gratified parent said he told his son, “I am very proud of you, but I am also very happy for you because you did this on your own.”

In an interview with the Inquirer’s Armstrong, the 18-year-old scholar said his perfect score required hard work and perseverance. This was the second time Clarke took the test – the first time he scored 2,190, which is better than 98.5 percent of

all test-takers. However, the highschooler knew it did not reflect his full potential.

“I put in a lot of work,” Clarke said.

“I took a prep class with some of my friends, and I did a lot of practice tests from a book.

Extraordinary ability at young age “But that only prepares you so much,” he added. “The difference between getting, like, a 2,400 and a couple of points lower is just focus.

“You can screw up or mess up on the smallest of things. And I just feel like on that particular day, I was focused and I got kind of lucky, I guess, that I didn’t make any mistakes.”

But Clarke had also shown extraordinary ability from an early age. His parents, Mary Jones, a Spanish teacher at Father Judge High School, and his father, the restaurant manager, took him for an IQ test at age 4. He scored a 151.

And he distinguished himself during his time at Germantown Academy, which he attended since pre-school. Clarke is first cellist in the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, is also a member of Germantown Academy’s Math Club, a math tutor, writes for the school newspaper and a member of the school’s cross country team.

‘Renaissance man’ Young Clarke is “an extraordinary young man who represents all the best things of his generation,” said Richard Schellhas, the headmaster of Germantown Academy’s Upper School, in an interview with BlackAmericaWeb. “He is smart, funny and a true Renaissance man in the breadth of his talent.”

This year’s SAT saw the largest class of test-takers in history, according to officials, and also the most diverse. Forty-five percent of test-takers were minority students (up from 44 percent in the class of 2011 and 38 percent in the class of 2008).

EDITORIAL

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DECEMBER 28, 2012 – JANUARY 3, 2013

Blacks’ use of mobile devices fuels explosion of social media Channel surfing over the weekend, I stopped on a favorite old romantic comedy that was centered on a relationship that blossomed over emails. The movie isn’t even all that old, yet its premise now seems almost ancient.

Because as we all know, in today’s world, there is a plethora of ways other than email to connect socially.

Social media has exploded over the last 20 years. There is simply no way to avoid it; no matter how bah-humbug you may be over all this “newfangled” connecting.

According to Nielsen’s latest Social Media Report, the total time spent on social media in the U.S. on both personal computers (PCs) and mobile devices (smart phones and tablets) jumped 37 per-

Computers first

CHERYL choice PEARSONOverall, more and more people are connecting to the MCNEIL NNPA COLUMNIST

cent between July 2011 and July 2012, from 88 billion minutes to 121 billion minutes.

As you know from reading this column regularly (right?), we love our mobile devices. Smartphones saturate more than 50 percent of the total mobile phone market. African-Americans account for 62 percent of smart phone owners; and tablets are owned by 20 percent of American households. It makes sense that our increased connectivity through the penetration of mobile devices has fueled the explosion of social media.

internet and are connecting for longer periods of time.

During the same time period, time spent on PCs and smartphones was up 21 percent. Of our time on the Internet, the report shows that we spend more time on social networks than on any other sites, with computers still our device of choice.

However, it also reports that app usage has seen the biggest growth in accessing social content. Accessing mobile apps now accounts for more than onethird of social networking time across PCs and mobile devices. That is a 76 percent increase in social app time over last year.

And, where do we like to visit? Facebook is the reigning champ of time spent on

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: CLIFFHANGING CONTINUED

social media whether people are getting there via their PCs, mobile web browsers or a mobile app. This is how the top social networks rank in the analysis of unique PC visitors in the U.S. over the last year: • Facebook: More than 1.5 billion • Blogger: 58,518,000 • Twitter: 37,033,000 • WordPress: 30,945,000 • LinkedIn: 28,113,000 • Pinterest: 27,223,000 • Google+: 26,201,000 • Tumblr: 25,634,000 • Myspace: 19,680,000 • Wikia: 12,594,000 The report’s data reiterates what I have shared in previous columns: Americans are multi-taskers. Having a mobile device on-hand while watching TV is almost a requisite activity. Fortyone percent of tablet owners and 38 percent of smart phone owners use their device daily while watching the TV.

Twitter key driver

“Nielsen Twitter TV Rating.” The service will be a While shopping and looksyndicated-standard metric ing up product information, around the reach of the TV people are also chatting with conversation on Twitter. their connections via their social networks, often about Better informed the show they are watchHow many of you have ing on TV. This is especially true on Twitter, which has tweeted during your favorite emerged as a key driver of show’s season finale or during an extraordinary mosocial TV interaction.

During June 2012, more ment on a reality show?

You know what all of this than a third of active Twitmeans, don’t you? We conter users tweeted about TVrelated content, which is an sumers are better informed and more connected evincrease of 27 percent from ery day. Because of the exthe beginning of the year. ponential growth of social Chances are, you’re one of word-of-mouth and social them, as all of the research engagement, this means we shows that Black consumers hold even more power than are 30 percent more likely to before. visit Twitter than the average demographic and that Cheryl Pearson-McNeil we watch 40 percent more is senior vice president of TV than other groups.

Public Affairs and GovernThis behavior is so prev- ment Relations for Nielsalent Nielsen and Twit- en. For more information ter announced this week a to www.nielsenwire.com. new measurement service Click on this story at www. available at the start of the flcourier.com to write your Fall 2013 TV season called own response.

Today’s Blacks still treated like slaves

Taylor Jones, El Nuevo Dia, Puerto Rico

Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 162 The National Rifle Association – The NRA press conference last week was a clown show, complete with Code Pink protesters as well as NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. (The guy physically reminds me of Adolph Hitler – is it just me?)

Hypocrisy was on full display. The NRA’s only proposal: guns in schools to be paid for by taxpayers.

That’s a reactive strategy that depends on somebody shooting a perpetrator rather than preventing Wayne one from showing up at LaPierre the schoolhouse door.

(Full disclosure. Last week, I called for a certified police officer in every school and ‘hardening’ school security. But those are two components of a broad, comprehensive strategy against gun violence.)

Adolph Give the NRA credHitler it. They stick to a triedand-true formula that always works in America – FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real) and misdirection.

It especially works on the older, predomi-

quick takes from #2: straight, no chaser

Charles W. Cherry II, Esq. PUBLISHER

nately White “severely conservative” NRA membership, many of whom worship the gun as God. If False Evidence of terrorism allowed George W. Bush and Barack Obama to curtail legal and privacy rights since 9/11, False Evidence of school massacres can increase gun sales and blunt common-sense gun control measures.

LaPierre then “misdirected” the honest search for solutions by blaming Hollywood movie violence, videogame violence, Satan, the “criminal class,” the “political class,” mental illness, the feds for lack of gun-crime prosecution, and the media for reporting it all. Not a peep about the availability of the high-capacity weapons used in the last three mass shootings.

The NRA’s rabid leadership, its silent, gun-worship membership, and cowed politicians all have blood on their hands.

Nothing new about that.

Contact me at ccherry2@gmail.com.

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

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Happy Holidays to all of the friends, fans and readers of The Gantt Report.

I have spent a lot of evenings recently watching the rebroadcast of the “Roots” television series.

Many people my age claim they can’t watch the series because of the way our ancestors were treated in the fictionalized show that depicted the early days of writer Alex Haley’s family. Well, I say the way Blacks were treated on “Roots’ is pretty much the same way African-Americans are treated today.

We’re still regarded as inferior, we’re still regarded as lazy and shiftless, we’re still regarded as unintelligent and we’re still regarded as being less of men and women than our white neighbors in America.

I watched “Roots” to see how we survived slavery.

On the show and in real life Blacks were beaten, hanged, lynched, castrated, decapitated, whipped, raped, slapped and scorned.

We survived We survived in spite of slaves that loved their slave masters more than they loved themselves. We survived in spite of slaves that would help the save masters more than they helped each other. And, we survived even though our families were bought, sold and separated from each other and

Lucius Gantt THE GANTT REPORT

never seen again as a complete family.

As strange as it may seem, the characters in “Roots” came to life on the screen and many of those same type characters are living today. Too many AfricanAmericans right now think they can’t do anything without the blessings and assistance from the offspring of slave masters.

We can’t work unless we work for the White man, we can’t speak unless we speak the words of the White man and the way the White man wants us to speak. We can’t stand unless the White man wants us to stand and we can’t fight unless the White man wants us to fight.

Slapped with oppression Yes, we have some Fiddlers, Toms, Jemimas and Jezebels running around today telling us to bow down and accept whatever treatment people in power wants us to have. They tell us every day to turn the other cheek when we’re slapped with oppression, when we’re hit with exploitation and when we’re punched with brutality by the very people who

swore under oath to protect and serve all Americans.

I don’t expect people my age to watch or to like the “Roots” television series but you should encourage Black children and youth to watch the show on TV or DVD. Everything is not cool! You can say your White friends and coworkers are not like the Whites portrayed on “Roots” but you can also say that many White people and White families benefited from slavery via free labor, land grabs, unsolved killings and denial of voting and other basic human rights.

Struggle continues My children know about my past and the past lives of other African-Americans that were subjected to the terrible times of slavery because I told them about it.

If you’re afraid to talk to your children about Black history and African history at least you can let them watch Roots.” Perhaps they will be motivated and inspired to be strong, brave men and women and to never give up because the struggle continues even after the TV show is over.

Buy Gantt’s book “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” at any major bookstore and contact Lucius at www. allworldconsultants.net.

Click on this story at www. flcourier.com to write your own response.

Strategy for giving to charities, non-profits We’ve all heard the adage, “the more you give, the more you receive.” I believe that most people are willing to give, but uncertain about how to make the most meaningful contributions. It’s perfectly fine to give as opportunities arise.

However, being proactive about charitable giving allows you to deliberate about how you “invest.” That’s right, charitable giving is an investment and should be treated with as much forethought as any other investment.

Although my family has always made charitable contributions, I’ve spent the last few years developing a specific giving strategy for us. Here are the things I considered:

Identify a cause In deciding where to invest, I began by identifying areas where my family is most passionate. Having school-age children, my husband and I are particularly passionate about education. Our goal is to ensure that we prepare our sons academically to compete in a global society. Beyond this, it is also our desire to help as many students as possible achieve success, particularly disadvantaged students.

Decide what you’ll invest

MICHELLE THORNHILL TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

rely on individual contributions. However, stretching yourself too thin by contributing to multiple organizations might not be as valuable as focusing on one or two to concentrate on. Again, you want to make sure the organization supports a cause that is important to you.

Research your charity Giving in any form is a commitment, which is why it’s important to know whether the organization you choose is registered and reputable. Several sources evaluate charities and compile findings in an online database of registered organizations (see references below).

If you’re unable to find a specific charity using these resources, contact the organization directly to request documentation, including: 501(c) (3) status; IRS Form 990; or its most recent annual report.

For local organizations, or national organizations with regional offices, you can also contact your state government for verification.

As you begin to set goals for 2013, make sure creating a giving strategy is on your list.

After you identify what you’re passionate about, give careful thought to what you will invest – time, talent or treasures. When we think of charitable giving, we typically focus on treasures (or money). Thinking more broadly allows you the opportunity to This article has been prepared for incontribute in a way that works best for you, formational purposes only. The accuracy even when you may not have the financial and completeness of this information is resources. not guaranteed and is subject to change.

Since each individual’s financial situaSelect an organization tion is unique, you need to review your fiOnce you’ve decided how you will invest nancial objectives to determine which apand a cause you want to help, determine proaches might work best for you. Click on where you will invest. Whether volunteering this story at www.flcourier.com to write or providing financial resources, nonprofits your own response.

EDITORIAL

DECEMBER 28, 2012 – JANUARY 3, 2013

The real and racist origins of the Second Amendment Why does the US Constitution guarantee a right “to keep and bear arms”? Why not the right to vote, the right to a quality education, health care, a clean environment or a job? What was so important in early America about the right of citizens to have guns?

And is it even possible to have an honest discussion about gun control without acknowledging the racist origins of the Second Amendment?

Here’s what the second amendment to the Constitution says: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

The dominant trend among legal scholars, and on the current Supreme Court, is that we are bound by the original intent of the Constitution’s authors. Clearly its authors aimed to guarantee the right to a gun for every free White man in their new country.

Here’s why The answer, advanced by historian Edmund Morgan in his classic work, American Slavery, American Freedom, the Ordeal of Colonial Virginia, sheds use-

BRUCE A. DIXON BLACK AGENDA REPORT

ful light on the historic and current politics and self-image of our nation.

Colonial America and the early US was a very unequal place.

All the good, cleared, level agricultural land with easy access to transport was owned by a very few, very wealthy White men.

Many poor Whites were brought over as indentured servants, but having completed their periods of forced labor, allowing them to hang around the towns and cities landless and unemployed was dangerous to the social order. So they were given guns and credit, and sent inland to make their own fortunes, encroaching upon the orchards, farms and hunting grounds of Native Americans, who had little or no access to firearms. The law, of course did not penalize White men who robbed, raped or killed Indians. At regular intervals, colonial governors and local US officials would muster

A5

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: AMERICA’S GUN CULTURE

the free armed White men as militia, and dispatch them in murderous punitive raids to make the frontier safer for settlers and land speculators.

Slavery remained legal in New England, New York and the midAtlantic region till well into the 1800s, and the movements of free Blacks and Indians were severely restricted for decades afterward.

So colonial and early American militia also prowled the roads and highways demanding the passes of all non-Whites, to ensure the enslaved were not escaping or aiding those who were, and that free Blacks were not plotting rebellion or traveling for unapproved reasons.

Built on blood Historically then, the principal activities of the Founding Fathers’ “well regulated militia” were Indian killing, land stealing, slave patrolling and the enforcement of domestic apartheid, all of these, as the Constitutional language declares “being necessary to the security of a free state” whose fundamental building blocks were the genocide of Native Americans, and the enslavement of Africans.

CARDOW, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN

The Constitutional sanction of universally armed White men against Blacks and Indians is at the origin of what has come to be known as America’s “gun culture,” and it neatly explains why that culture remains most deeply rooted in White, rural and smalltown America long after the end of slavery and the close of the frontier.

With the genocide of Native Americans accomplished and slavery gone, America’s gun culture wrapped itself in new clothing, in self-justifying mythology that construes the Second Amendment as arming the citizenry as final bulwark of freedom against tyranny, invasion or crime. Embracing this fake his-

tory of the Second Amendments warps legal scholarship and public debate in clouds of willful ignorance, encouraging us to believe this is a nation founded on just and egalitarian principles rather than one built with stolen labor on stolen land.

Maybe this is how we can tell that we are finally so over all that nasty genocide and racism stuff.

We’ve chosen to simply write it out of our history.

Bruce Dixon is managing editor of BlackAgendaReport. com. Contact him at bruce. di xon@blackagendareport. com. Click on this story at www. flcourier.com to write your own response.

Don’t deflect the blame; stand up to evil After the tragedy in Newton Connecticut, I had sudden and irrational thoughts about pulling my kids from the very school district where I serve on the school board.

Even knowing all the procedures, safety measures and plan for such crises, the events in Newtown raise instinctive fears.

I felt a deep sense of concern for my children’s safety and the safety of their friends and teachers. In the end, I realized they are as safe as humanly possible.

Didn’t believe it Watching the Newtown story unfold, I was in a state of disbelief. My heart pounded as I felt a parent’s panic. I don’t know how it feels to lose a child, but it’s my worst nightmare.

To hear that so many children were gunned down in their home away from home and how their teacher stood her ground in their defense – it’s still difficult to comprehend.

Yet that is the nature of evil. Evil

STACY WASHINGTON PROJECT 21

comes when you least expect it.

Evil takes.

Evil takes lives. It takes innocence. It steals our sense of safety and contentment.

Evil doesn’t care if the bullets hit children. It doesn’t care if bullets are the weapon of choice. Evil plans on the unpreparedness of the victims.

Gun-free zones are meaningless. They only ensure evil is more likely to do its bidding there because evil is a coward. Evil doesn’t want to face the consequences of its actions. It often kills, maims and destroys and then kills itself to avoid answering to why it destroyed hopes and dreams and shattered the delicate balance of a community’s daily routine.

Evil knows that, long after it’s

dead and gone, partisans will debate the inanimate objects used to perform the heinous deeds. If it chooses guns, cries for gun control will ensue. If it uses bombs, the ingredients will be more tightly regulated and controlled.

Evil can win Evil knows that it’s easier to demonize guns than address the truly serious issue of mental illness. Evil knows politicians have an aversion to address something so difficult in a meaningful and definitive manner. And if we leave this discussion to angry mobs screaming for gun control – which solves absolutely nothing – evil wins.

But we can address root causes and develop sensible solutions without – as happened through radical tweets – calling for killing National Rifle Association members. Besides, why go after NRA members who own guns, are trained in their use and prefer to hunt than be hunted. The NRA also promotes respect

Gun worship and two sets of killers As many people in the nation grieve the cold-blooded murder of 20 little children and six of their teachers in Newtown, Conn., it is obvious that the chickens are coming home to roost in a society that consistently glorifies violence in endless movies, television programs, video games, songs and all kinds of death-dealing guns easily available to everyone, including potential killers.

Of course, most people who soak up this glorification don’t become killers; but enough do so to persist as a major problem in this country.

There are basically two sets of killers who have been produced by this combination of glorifying killing with guns and making them easily accessible. One consists of low-income Black males, mainly in large urban centers, who frequently kill each other for ridiculous reasons: “You bumped me and didn’t say excuse me,” “You dissed me,” “You invaded my turf,” “You messed with my drug money,” “You messed with my woman,” “You looked at me the wrong way,” “You got the latest fashionable jacket and I want it.”

Know each other In most instances of these, it’s not a case of strangers, as, in the majority of such encounters, the victim and the killer have a previous relationship to some degree. This raises the question of how we help low-income Black males to peacefully resolve their social conflicts.

A. Peter Bailey TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

That’s not the question with the second set of killers - middle-income White males, who make up most of the mass murderers. The reasons behind their killings are harder to discern, as they ruthlessly and randomly kill people, including innocent 6 and 7-year-old children.

Occasionally, the collateral damage of Black-on-Black conflict will be accidental killing of a small child; but I have never heard of one of them deliberately going into a school and mowing down first graders.

Different analysis It’s revealing that in this society, street killings by low-income Black males elicit feverish commentary from politicians, journalists, and academicians about “The pathology of Black males,” while commentary on middleincome White mass murderers most often focuses on the pathology of the particular individual.

Killings by any Black male is always portrayed as a defect of all Black males; while, killings

by White males is described as a personal defect. The concept of “The pathology of White males” apparently is never considered or entertained.

The most significant connec-

tion between the two sets of killers is that they watch the same violence-glorifying movies. television programs and play with the same gory video games.

Some supposedly intelligent people have insisted that these pop culture mainstays really have little, if any, connection to those actions of those young killers. It’s true that most young people who immerse themselves in this kind of ‘entertainment’ don’t end up as murderers. But these connections affect enough young Black and White males to make them wreakers of havoc in their communities.

And if watching many hours of movies, television programs and spending many more hours playing with killing-focused video games have no effect on the minds and actions of increasing numbers of young killers, then one must believe that corporations are wasting their money when they spend billions of dollars for 30-60 second commercials designed to motivate people to purchase their products.

We know they are not wasting their money.

These pop culture icons, along with the easy availability of all kind of guns, are a key reason why the chickens are coming home to roost to a gun-worshipping country.

Contact A. Peter Bailey at apeterb@verizon.net, or 202716-4560. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

for the proper use of firearms and provides training in their safe handling. Scapegoating won’t save lives.

Mental illness is the issue. The very nature of our mental health system, and it’s “treat-and-street” attitude, leaves families illequipped to deal with mental illness and coping with a deranged family member. Addressing this won’t be fun and it’s not great for media, so many politicians won’t even bat an eye at it. But, once there’s another tragedy such as Newtown, they’ll scream about America’s “gun culture.” Politicians are free to have a media-friendly tantrum, but adults must engage in serious discussion. The facts don’t support the assertion that owning a gun leads to more violence.

It’s also odd that President Obama and his supporters created an immensely unpopular health care takeover that seemingly lacks mental health reform that might stop another Newtown.

Be prepared Preparedness is also important, yet often overlooked. Having someone in a school who is armed and trained in tactical weapons seems sensible. Any zone deemed gun-free is naturally a target for a coward seeking to harm a large group. That’s now an undeniable truth.

We must be cognizant we will never be completely rid of evil.

And evil won’t go away if the government bans guns.

Let’s try to steer this tragedy into a productive problem-solving mode.

Let’s stand up to evil. That’s the only way to deal with it.

Stacy Washington is a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 Black leadership network. Contact her via Project21@nationalcenter.org. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

An open letter to parents Like every American, Barack and I are absolutely heartbroken about the unspeakable tragedy that occurred last week in Newtown, Connecticut. And like so many of you, our first reactions were not as a President and First Lady, but as a Mom and Dad. We were asking ourselves, what if this had been our town, our school, or our girls?

And we know that all across the country, it’s not just adults who are asking questions right now – our children are looking for answers as well. Like us, they want to know, why did this happen? Could it happen again?

And as parents, all of us can take the time to hold our kids close and talk with them about the things that truly matter: our love for them, the importance of extending that love to those affected by this tragedy, and how that love truly defines our great American community.

We are trying

MICHELLE OBAMA FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES

children who carefully followed instructions and comforted each other amidst the chaos; the neighbors and faith leaders who have come together to support one another.

And finally, we can tell them that it’s our job now to stand with the people of Newtown – to pray for them and to find ways, large and small, to show them that they are not alone in their grief.

Follow their example It is now up to us to carry the memory of those who were lost in our hearts and to follow their example every day, living our lives as they lived theirs – with courage, determination, hope and love.

Those are the values that give us our strength as Americans and that we return to in times of crisis – not just because they help us heal, but because they define who we are, as a people and as a nation.

May the memories of those we lost be a blessing to their families, their community and our country, and may God be with the people of Newtown as they begin the slow and painful work of healing and moving forward.

We can tell our kids that we’re doing everything we can to keep them safe and make sure they feel loved – and so are their teachers, coaches, faith leaders, Scout leaders and everyone else who plays a role in their lives.

We can remind them to be grateful for the educators who work every day to help them achieve their dreams – and for the first responders who risk their lives at a moment’s notice to protect ours.

We can tell them about the extraordinary people of Newtown Click on this story at www.fland how they have responded to unspeakable tragedy: the educa- courier.com to write your own tors who sprang into action; the response.

TOj A6

FLORIDA

DECEMBER 28, 2012 – JANUARY 3, 2013

Gift for Floridians: State’s jobless rate drops a little

BY MICHAEL PELTIER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – Florida’s jobless rate fell in November to 8.1 percent, its lowest rate since late 2008, sparking optimism from Gov. Rick Scott who outlined a list of economic bright spots last week.

The November rate was a 0.4 percentage point drop from October and 2 percentage points lower than November 2011, the Department of Economic Opportunity reported on Dec. 21.

Florida continued to close in on the national jobless rate, which fell 0.2 points to 7.7 percent in November.

Florida’s figure translates into 760,000 workers unable to find employment. The number of employed Floridians in nonagricultural jobs, meanwhile, rose 83,000 to 7.4 million, an increase of 1.1 percent over a year ago, according to DEO figures.

Gains in Tampa, losses in Panhandle Regionally, 16 of 22 metro areas had year-to-year job gains in November 2012.

Tampa/St. Petersburg/

Clearwater led the state by adding, 22,900 jobs, an increase of 2 percent.

Crestview/Fort Walton Beach saw job losses of 2,000, or 2.5 percent.

Speaking to the News Service on Dec. 21, the governor said the employment figures join a series of other recent economic indicators – housing starts, exist-

ing home sales, job listings – that point to an economic resurgence across the state.

For working families, however, the key to any success is getting off the

unemployment line.

“The biggest thing for families is that more families are employed,” Scott said. “It’s the biggest issue they deal with.”

macy’s week of wonderful

Leisure, hospitality employment grows Scott in a statement said the numbers reflect a continued resurgence in Florida’s economy, which showed signs of strength across multiple sectors.

“For many of Florida’s families during this holiday season there could be no greater gift than a regular paycheck,” Scott said.

“Florida's economy continues to improve as evidenced by the more than 24,000 Floridians that filled private-sector jobs created in November, for one of the largest over the month rate declines in more than 20 years.”

Among the strongest sectors, leisure and hospitality employment grew by 31,200 jobs, or 3.3 percent, from a year ago.

Other strong sectors were trade, transportation and utilities, up 24,700 jobs, or 1.6 percent, and businesses services, which grew by 1.9 percent, or 20,700 jobs.

Government employment continued to shrink, with most of the 9,300 lost government jobs coming at the state and federal level.

Construction employment remained weak, falling by 3,900 jobs, or 1.2 percent.

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Florida cities captured nine of the top 10 spots in the percentage of homes in foreclosure in September, according to data released last week by the non-profit Center for Housing Policy and the Urban Institute.

Miami/Fort Lauderdale/ Pompano Beach led the nation in the percentage of homes in foreclosure, with 17.8 percent. Other top Florida cities were Port St. Lucie (15.6 percent), Tampa/St. Petersburg (15.6 percent), Palm Coast (15 percent) and Deltona/Daytona Beach/Ormond Beach (14.9 percent).

The area of Vineland/ Millville/Bridgeton, N.J. was the only non-Florida city in the top 10, coming in second with a 16.6 percent rate. The Miami/Fort Lauderdale/Pompano Beach area had the dubious national honor of also posting the highest rate of mortgages at least 90 days overdue.

More than one in five mortgages (22.3 percent) in the southeast Florida metropolitan area is considered seriously delinquent.

The figures for September were released on Dec. 20 – the same day Florida Realtors reported significant gains in existing home sales in November, a trend that includes higher home prices and pending sales.

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December 28, 2012 - January 3, 2013

New Year’s traditions around the world See page B4

SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE

‘Chocolate Nutcracker’ among events happening in state See page B5

SUN COAST / TAMPA BAY

|

SECTION

www.flcourier.com

LEADER OF THE HOUSE

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Florida Rep. Perry Thurston recently became one of the state’s top Democrats, but there’s already talk about him becoming ‘the people’s lawyer’ – Florida’s attorney general. empowerment and jobs workshops along with restoration of civil rights workshops for ex-felons in Broward.

Various committees He was re-elected in 2008 and 2010. During the 2008-2010 legislative session, he was the Democratic Ranking Member of the Finance and Tax Council and the Criminal & Civil Justice Council.

Other committees, subcommittees or councils he’s served or is serving on include Higher Education and Workforce, Appropriations, the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act, Safety and Security, Business Regulation, Courts, Education Innovation and Career Preparation.

And any time there’s a hot issue with legal or political significance – “Obamacare,” reapportionment, the 2010 Census count, the “stand your ground” law and Trayvon Martin’s tragic killing, public education, the independence of Florida’s judiciary – Thurston sends an e-mail blast with his point of view.

FLORIDA COURIER FILES

In 2009, Thurston spoke at a Coalition for Smart Justice meeting in Tampa that focused on reforming Florida’s criminal justice system.

BY STARLA VAUGHNS CHERIN SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

F

lorida Rep. Perry Thurston, Jr. recently made history when he was chosen to lead Democrats in the Florida House of Representatives as “minority leader,” the leader of the party that has fewer members in the House.

(For this legislative term, Democrats are in the “minority” because there are more Republicans in the state House.)

Florida Democratic leaders have asked Thurston to consider a candidacy for Florida attorney general. Currently, Republicans fill all Florida Cabinet positions. The position, currently held by Pam Bondi, will expire in January 2015.

Thurston could add his name to another Florida historical list if he runs and wins a state Cabinet position. He would become the first Black person elected to a statewide Florida Cabinet office since 1868.

(The late Doug Jamerson, a St. Petersburg native, was a former Florida House representative who ran for state education commission in 1994 and lost. Gov. Lawton Chiles later appointed him secretary of the Florida Department of Labor in 1995.)

Thurston says he’s looking into running for the statewide office.

“I’m pleased the Democratic Party shows such confidence in me, and I’m exploring the possibility,” he said.

‘United caucus’ Thurston strives to promote party harmony to maximize the chances for legislative and political success while promoting the House Democrats’ legislative agendas.

“In the coming months, we will work as a united caucus to offer common-sense solutions to the challenges Floridians continue to face. We will be the loyal opposition that respects the institution, but we will be forceful with our voice for policies that protect middle-class families,

This year Thurston and Democratic leaders again took up the issue of election reform. They acted in response to what they believe were attempts by Gov. Rick Scott and Florida Republicans to disenfranchise voters by changing voter registration rules and reducing early voting days. Last month, some voters ended up waiting up to eight hours to vote and vote tabulations were delayed in some of Florida’s largest counties.

Since then, Scott directed Secretary of State Ken Detzner to study election processes and the impact of changes mandated by the Legislature in 2011. Hearings begin in January. Thurston appointed Rep. Janet Cruz, D-Tampa, to lead Democrats on the election issue in the House.

“There’s been a lot of talk about bipartisanship and we expect that we will address this in a bipartisan fashion,” Thurston said.

Morehouse, then UM

SULE JOHNSON AND CHARLES W. CHERRY II / FLORIDA COURIER

Thurston stands with the leadership team of the current Florida House Democratic Caucus.

‘Great accomplishment’ Florida Democrats picked up five seats in the state House by defeating four Republican incumbents and winning an open seat. The GOP still enjoy a 76-to-44 advantage in the 120-member chamber, but the results mean House Republicans are no longer a two-thirds majority not subject to veto.

“For the first time since the ’80s, we are in a position to affect the agenda,” Thurston said. “We have the ability to be relevant. More now than in 20 years, it is a great accomplishment for Democrats in Florida,” Thurston exclaimed.

“My job as the House minority leader is to recruit candidates, raise money and get more Democrats elected. We did that this election, and that is how we were able to accomplish having 44 members in the Florida House of Representatives.”

Election reform coming

A 1982 graduate of Morehouse College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in finance, Thurston carried on an honored tradition. All 15 uncles and aunts on his father’s side and six on his mother’s side attended college.

Thurston finished law school at the University of Florida in 1987 and started his legal career at the Broward County Public Defender’s Office before moving on to private practice.

This year, Thurston and his wife Dawn celebrated two major family educational achievements. Their daughter Alison graduated from Princeton University and traveled to Uganda on a fellowship.

Son Perry III, nicknamed “Trey,” is now a freshman at Morehouse, his father’s alma mater, where he majors in business and plays on the college’s football team.

Come full circle

COURTESY OF THE THURSTON FAMILY

The Thurston family (left to right) – Perry, Jr., Perry III, Dawn and Alison – pose with their pastor, the Rev. Anthony Burrell, of Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Pompano Beach. the state’s public education system and our dedicated public employees,” Thurston told colleagues immediately after being unanimously elected as minority leader.

At the forefront In 2006, Thurston was elected state representative for House District 93 in Broward County. He’s been unafraid to take on unpopular issues since his first year in the Florida Legislature.

A criminal defense attorney in South Florida, Thurston has been a longtime advocate of automatic restoration of the civil rights of ex-felons who have served their time and otherwise completed their criminal sentences.

“It’s an important issue in my community and it causes disenfranchisement of a good part of my community. It affects jobs, earning a living to be a contributing part of their family and voting,” Thurston said. “It has taken the heart out of our community. It destroys communities and systematically bars men from doing what they need to do.

“Instead of disenfranchisement in states like Florida, there should be one United States with one policy. Sometimes it is a matter of someone who did something when they were 18 or 19 who served their time and are productive members of the community, but continue to be dragged down by this.”

Thurston regularly holds economic

When Thurston speaks on the floor of the Florida House, he often refers to his upbringing in his beloved community.

It’s where everything happened for him –even meeting his wife.

His favorite sixth grade teacher, Katherine Johnson, introduced him to Dawn Broad while he was at now-110-yearold Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Pompano, the church he has attended all his life. Thurston was there praying for God’s help on an upcoming law school test. Six years later, they were married.

He is the product of a close-knit family and community where from kindergarten through sixth grade, he and all of his elementary school teachers also attended Mount Calvary. His paternal grandmother, Rosa Mae Thurston, raised her 15 children at Mount Calvary and taught Sunday School there for 57 years.

“If I did something in school, I’d get it at home and church. It never occurred to me I was from a lower socio-economic area. I was happy, had self-esteem, experienced a lot of discipline, and most of all, a lot of encouragement. Now I have returned full circle to represent the community where I grew up,” Thurston said proudly.

T

DEATHS IN 2012

B2

DECEMBER 28, 2012 – JANUARY 3, 2013

STOJ

A final goodbye A glance at some of the newsmakers who died in 2012 Neil Armstrong would always be taking that first step onto the moon, and Dick Clark was forever “the world’s oldest teenager.’’

Some of the notables who died in 2012 created images in our minds that remained unchanged over decades.

Sadly, for others an established image was shattered by a fall from grace.

Whitney Houston ruled as a queen of pop music, but years of hard living harmed her voice while erratic behavior and a troubled marriage took a toll on her image. And Joe Paterno, Penn State’s longtime coach, won more games than anyone in major college football, but was ultimately fired amid a molestation scandal involving an assistant coach that scarred his reputation.

Among the political figures who died were George McGovern, Democrat presidential nominee who lost to Richard Nixon in a historic landslide, and ex-Sen. Arlen Specter, the outspoken Pennsylvania centrist.

The year also saw the deaths of a number of TV stars, including Larry Hagman, who played oil baron J.R. Ewing on “Dallas.’’

Others in entertainment and the arts who died included Etta James, Andy Griffith, Ernest Borgnine, Sherman Hemsley, Donna Summer, Michael Clarke Duncan and Don Cornelius.

Here is a roll call of some of the people who died in 2012.

JANUARY Bob Anderson, 89.

Olympic fencer and movie sword master, he donned Darth Vader’s black helmet and fought light saber battles in two “Star Wars’’ films. Jan. 1.

Jessica Joy Rees, 12. She became a nationally recognized face of child cancer with a blog that chronicled her fight against brain tumors. Jan. 5. Brain cancer.

Jimmy Castor, 71. Funk and soul saxophonist, singer and songwriter whose tune, “It’s Just Begun,’’ morphed into an anthem for generations of musical acts. Jan. 16.

Johnny Otis, 90. He wrote and recorded the R&B classic “Willie and the Hand Jive’’ and for decades evangelized black music to white audiences as a bandleader and radio host. Jan. 17.

Etta James, 73. Blues singer best known for her performance of the enduring classic “At Last.’’ Jan. 20.

Complications from leukemia.

Kevin H. White, 82. Former Boston mayor who led the city for 16 years including during racially turbulent times in the 1970s and was credited with putting it on a path to prosperity. Jan. 27.

FEBRUARY Don Cornelius, 75. As host of “Soul Train,’’ he helped break down racial barriers and broaden the reach of Black culture with funky music, groovy dance steps and cutting edge style. Feb. 1. Self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Angelo Dundee, 90.

Trainer who helped groom Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard into world champions. Feb. 1.

Whitney Houston, 48.

She ruled as pop music’s queen until her majestic voice was ravaged by drug use and her regal image ruined by erratic behavior and a tumultuous

marriage to singer Bobby Brown. Feb. 11. Accidentally drowned in a bathtub.

Katie Hall, 73. Former Indiana congresswoman who was a key sponsor of the 1983 legislation that established a national holiday for Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Feb. 20.

MARCH James Q. Wilson, 80.

Political scientist whose “broken windows’’ theory on crime-fighting helped launch a nationwide move toward community policing. March 2.

James T. “Jimmy’’ Ellis, 74. As frontman for The Trammps, he belted out the refrain “Burn, baby burn!’’ in the 1970s-era disco hit “Disco Inferno.’’

March 8.

APRIL Mike Wallace, 93.

Dogged CBS reporter who took on politicians and celebrities in a 60-year career highlighted by on-air confrontations that helped make “60 Minutes’’ the most successful primetime television news program ever. April 7.

Dick Clark, 82. Everyouthful television entrepreneur who helped bring rock `n’ roll into the mainstream on “American Bandstand,’’ and later produced and hosted game shows and the year-end countdown from Times Square. April 19.

MAY Junior Seau, 43. Homegrown superstar who was the fist-pumping, emotional leader of the San Diego Chargers for 13 years. May 2. Apparent suicide.

Lloyd Brevett, 80. Renowned double bassist who helped carry ska music from Jamaica to the world as a founding member of the band The Skatalites. May 3.

Donald “Duck’’ Dunn, 70. Bassist who helped create the gritty Memphis soul sound at Stax Records in the 1960s as part of the legendary group Booker T. and the MGs. May 13.

Chuck Brown, 75. Widely acclaimed as the “Godfather of go-go’’ for styling a unique mix of funk, soul and Latin party sounds.

May 16.

Donna Summer, 63.

Disco queen whose pulsing anthems such as “Last Dance,’’ “Love to Love You Baby’’ and “Bad Girls’’ became the soundtrack for a glittery age of drugs, dance and flashy clothes. May 17.

JUNE Herb Reed, 83. Last surviving original member of 1950s vocal group the Platters who sang on hits like “Only You’’ and “The Great Pretender.’’ June 4.

Rodney King, 47. Black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the spark for one of the most destructive U.S. race riots. June 17. Accidentally drowned.

JULY Andy Griffith, 86. He made homespun Southern wisdom his trademark as a wise sheriff in “The Andy Griffith Show’’ and a rumpled defense lawyer in “Matlock.’’ July 3.

Stephen R. Covey, 79.

Author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’’ and three other books that have all sold more than a million copies. July 16. Complications from a bicycle accident.

William Raspberry, 76.

He became the second Black columnist to win a Pulitzer Prize for his widely

LIONEL HAHN/ABACA PRESS/MCT

Whitney Houston is shown at the 2004 World Music Awards in Las Vegas in September 2004. The singing superstar died Feb. 1 at age 48.

Etta James

Sherman Hemsley

read syndicated commentaries in The Washington Post. July 17.

Sally Ride, 61. She blazed trails into orbit as the first American woman in space. July 23. Pancreatic cancer.

Sherman Hemsley, 74.

Actor who made the irascible, bigoted George Jefferson of “The Jeffersons’’ one of TV’s most memorable characters and a symbol for urban upward mobility. July 24.

John Atta Mills, 68. He was elected president in the closest vote in Ghana’s history and then led the West African country amid newfound oil wealth. July 24.

AUGUST Al Freeman Jr., 78, a longtime soap opera star and actor who portrayed Elijah Muhammad in Spike Lee’s 1992 movie “Malcolm X.” Aug. 9.

George Hickman, 88.

One of the original Tuskegee airmen and a longtime usher at University of Washington and Seattle Seahawks games. Aug. 19.

Phyllis Diller, 95. Housewife-turned-humorist who aimed some of her sharpest barbs at herself, punctuating her jokes with her trademark cackle. Aug. 20.

Neil Armstrong, 82. He became a global hero when as a steely-nerved astronaut he made “one giant leap for mankind’’ with a small step onto the moon.

Aug. 25.

Chris Lighty, 44. A hiphop mogul who helped the likes of Sean “Diddy’’ Combs, 50 Cent and Mariah Carey attain hit records and lucrative careers outside music. Aug. 30. Apparent suicide.

Donna Summer

Don Cornelius

in a landslide. Oct. 21.

Arlen Specter, 82. Outspoken ex-U.S. senator from Pennsylvania whose switch from Republican to Democrat ended a 30-year career in which he played a pivotal role in several Supreme Court nominations.

Oct. 14. Complications of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

NOVEMBER Milt Campbell, 78. First African-American to win the Olympic decathlon in

OCTOBER George McGovern, 90.

Former U.S. senator and a Democrat who lost to President Richard Nixon in 1972

William Raspberry

1956, he went on to play professional football and become a motivational speaker. Nov. 2.

Larry Hagman, 81. Actor whose predatory oil baron J.R. Ewing on television’s nighttime soap opera “Dallas’’ became a symbol for 1980s greed. Nov. 23.

Hector “Macho’’ Camacho, 50. Puerto Rican boxer known for skill and flamboyance in the ring as well as for a messy personal life and run-ins with the police. Nov. 24. Gunshot.

Al Freeman Jr.

Michael Clarke Duncan

DECEMBER Dave Brubeck, 91. Jazz composer and pianist whose pioneering style in pieces such as “Take Five’’ caught listeners’ ears with exotic, challenging rhythms. Dec. 5.

Jenni Rivera, 43. California-born singer who became a superstar adored by millions in a male-dominated genre of MexicanAmerican music. Dec. 9.

Plane crash.

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SEPTEMBER Rev. Sun Myung Moon, 92. Self-proclaimed messiah who turned his Unification Church into a worldwide religious movement and befriended North Korean leaders as well as U.S. presidents. Sept. 3.

Michael Clarke Duncan, 54. Hulking character actor whose dozens of films included an Oscar-nominated performance as a death row inmate in “The Green Mile’’ and such other box office hits as “Armageddon,’’ `’Planet of the Apes’’ and “Kung Fu Panda.’’ Sept.

3. Heart attack.

Chris Stevens, 52. U.S. ambassador to Libya and a career diplomat. Sept. 11.

Killed during an attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya.

Rodney King

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TOJ

DECEMBER 28, 2012 – JANUARY 3, 2013

FOOD

Seafood Celebrate with

B3

FROM Family Features

The holidays are the perfect time to gather with your nearest and dearest to create lasting memories. But who says you have to follow the same traditions as in years past? For a fresh take on the holidays, celebrate with a Spanish-inspired feast of seafood.

Seafood is a culinary mainstay in various parts of Spain, and it’s a big part of Nochebuena celebrations. Nochebuena is the name Spaniards give to Christmas Eve, but you can enjoy a Nochebuena-style dinner any time during the holidays with these delicious recipes from Martín Códax Winery in Rias Baixas, Spain. Here’s how: • Start off with a beautiful Lobster Salad with Asparagus Herb Mayonnaise. It’s easier than you think to season your favorite mayonnaise and use it to top steamed lobster, and it’s an impressive way to start a meal.

• Serve this simple, yet elegant, Pan-Seared Cod Fish on top of Crispy Bacon Mashed Potatoes, then top it all off with a savory White Bean and Olive Tapenade.

These dishes are perfect to pair with an Albariño, like the one from Martín Códax, a crisp, elegant and dry white wine that is often dubbed the “wine of the sea,” due to its natural complement to seafood. Learn more at www.martincodaxwines.com.

Lobster Salad with Asparagus Herb Mayonnaise Yield: 4 servings 1/2 pound thin asparagus, tough stems removed 1/4 cup chopped mixed fresh herbs, such as chervil, parsley, tarragon or chives 1/3 cup mayonnaise 2 tablespoons champagne or sherry vinegar 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 2 tablespoons walnut or hazelnut oil 2 1 1/4-pound lobsters, steamed, tail and claw meat removed from shell 4 cups mixed baby lettuce Juice of 1 lemon Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper Prepare large bowl of ice water, and set aside.

Bring shallow pan of salted water to a boil. Add asparagus and blanch until bright green and just tender, about 2 minutes. Remove and plunge into ice water bath to stop cooking, reserving asparagus water. Once asparagus is chilled, remove from ice water bath, pat dry and set aside.

Place herbs into blender and puree with 2 to 3 table­spoons reserved asparagus water until smooth.

Whisk mayonnaise with pureed herbs and 1/2 the lemon juice. Then season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Whisk vinegar, mustard and remaining half of lemon juice together in large bowl. Slowly whisk in walnut or hazelnut oil until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and set aside.

Slice lobster tail into 1-inch pieces. Cut asparagus in half on diagonal. Add sliced lobster, asparagus and baby lettuces to dressing and toss gently to coat.

Spoon herb mayonnaise onto 4 plates in a circular pattern. Divide lobster evenly over plates. Place asparagus around it; mound salad greens in center of each, and top each with lobster claw. Serve.

Pan-Seared Cod Fish Yield: 4 servings 46-ounce filets black cod, skin on 4 sprigs fresh thyme, roughly chopped 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil Kosher salt Pinch of cayenne pepper Pat fish dry with paper towels and season on both sides with thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pinch of cayenne. Heat butter and olive oil in large non-stick skillet over medium high heat. When butter is melted, add fish, skin side down, and cook until skin begins to get crispy and golden, about 5 minutes. Turn fish and cook until golden and firm, about 3 to 5 minutes, spooning some of the butter over filets to keep moist.

To serve: Mound mashed potatoes onto four serving plates. Place fish diagonally over mashed potatoes. Spoon tapenade over fish and top each with a slice of bacon.

White Bean and Olive Tapenade Yield: 4 servings 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 114-ounce can white beans, drained and rinsed 1 anchovy, optional 1/3 cup oil cured black olives, roughly chopped 1 small orange or lemon, 2 tablespoons juice, 1 teaspoon zest 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper Soak onions in cold water. Heat olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium to high heat. Add beans and anchovy, and cook without stirring until beans begin to fry, about 5 minutes. Add olives, juice and zest. Stir and continue to cook until beans become golden and slightly crispy, about 5 more minutes.

Drain onions and squeeze dry. Turn off heat, stir in onions and parsley and season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Set aside until ready to serve.

Crispy Bacon Mashed Potatoes Yield: 4 servings 1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered 4 slices bacon 1/2 cup half and half, warmed 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted Freshly grated nutmeg Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper Place potatoes in large pot of cold salted water.

Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce heat to medium and continue to boil until potatoes are fork tender, about 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let potatoes rest in hot water for 5 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the starchy water.

Meanwhile, place bacon in large cold skillet. Turn on heat and cook until crispy, turning once, about 7 minutes. Drain bacon on paper towels, reserving bacon fat.

Warm half and half slightly over medium heat in the same pot potatoes were boiling in. Add potatoes and 1 tablespoon reserved bacon fat. Using potato masher, mash potatoes until smooth. Add melted butter and season with a pinch of nutmeg, salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste. Cover to keep warm while fish cooks.

TOj B4

STOJ

DECEMBER 28, 2012 – JANUARY 3, 2013

New Year’s is creeping ever closer, so it’s time to ask yourself the question: What are you going to do? No, seriously, what are you doing to do? It’s hard to keep track of all the traditions that have sprung up around the world, for one thing, and it’s even harder to figure out if you’ll end up going full American this year or spicing up your New Year’s party with some exotic traditions (like eating grapes).

Below are some of the more interesting variations on New Year’s Eve celebrations.

— Jon Wolper, McClatchy-Tribune

A brief history of the Times Square ball drop 1907: At the request of Adolph Ochs, then-publisher of The New York Times, the paper’s chief electrician built a 700-pound ball out of wood and iron. He fitted it with 100 25-watt light bulbs, and it was lowered from a flagpole atop One Times Square as midnight hit.

1920: The ball received its first of many upgrades, changing to a 400-pound model made of wrought iron.

1942-1943: The ball-dropping ceremony in Times Square continued uninterrupted until these two years, when there was no event due to the World War IIera “dim-out” of the New York

City skyline.

1955: The iron ball was upgraded again. This time it was one made from aluminum, which weighed only 200 pounds. Versions of the same aluminum ball with different sorts of lighting configurations were dropped until 1998.

2000 to present: The ball made the first of what would become a flurry of changes over the next decade. The 2000 iteration of the ball was built by Waterford Crystal, had a six-foot diameter and weighed 1,070 pounds. And the spectacle has continued to increase — the

2009 version of the ball had a 12-foot diameter and weighed more than 11,000 pounds.

Despite the weight, the many lights on the ball had become dynamic and computer controlled. No longer was the ball a beacon; now it was a dazzling light show. That combination of tradition and technology has ushered the Times Square ball, without hiccup, into the second decade of this century.

Unique New Year’s traditions from around the globe If you were born and raised in the U.S., you might think our insistence on having fireworks and dropping glass spheres on New Year’s Eve is downright normal. But you’re just used to it. Here are some of the stranger traditions for the holidays — or at least strange when seen through an American lens.

Brazil. In Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, New Year’s Eve is all about the lucky underpants. People go for red if they’re looking for love and yellow if they’re after some extra cash.

Finland. To celebrate the New Year, some Finnish people cast molten tin into containers of water and, when the tin hardens, take its perceived shape as an indicator of how the coming year will go. For instance, a heart or ring shape signifies a wedding, and a pig shape (which is a very specific shape to glean from hardened tin, but we digress) stands for lots of food.

Panama. Panama gets a bit more violent with its celebration, burning effigies of public figures, called munecos. The idea is the effigies stand for the old year; destroying them leads the way into the new one. But it’s still pretty creepy (at least to us) to disfigure a model of, say, Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera, and then dance around it, celebrating.

Belarus. Who would have thought this little landlocked country would have the granddaddy of all unusual traditions? On New Year’s Eve, unmarried women participate in a game in which piles of corn are placed in front of each one. A rooster is released, and whichever girl’s corn pile it goes to first will be the first to marry in the coming year. Meanwhile, the entire population of Brazil looks down at its red underpants and heaves a sigh of great disappointment.

Want good luck in the new year? Watch what you eat The traditions don’t end there.

You’d be amazed by how many foods, in different parts of the world, signify good luck, long life or personal fortune. Here are a few of the most interesting.

The Grape-Mongerer. If you want good luck in the coming year, you better like bite-sized fruits. As per tradition, Spaniards gorge on 12 grapes as midnight approaches to ensure prosperity over the next 12 months.

Let’s Get it Started. Decide to celebrate in the American South

TEAK PHILIPS/ ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH/MCT

In the American South, blackeyed peas are eaten for good luck on New Year’s Day.

SOURCES: Good House Keeping; Travel and Leisure; Go Southeast; www.timessquarenyc.org

and you’ll probably be given some black-eyed peas either on New Year’s Eve or Day. Eating the peas is supposed to bring good luck to the consumer, but they’re an acquired taste, so make sure they’re at home in a good recipe before chowing down.

The Cabbage Patch. In Germany, Ireland and some parts of the U.S., cabbage is eaten because it’s green, much like money is green, and so it resembles good fortune. Yum! Illustration by Paul trap/ MCT

Auld Lang Syne lyrics Everyone who’s anyone knows the melody to “Auld Lang Syne,” the 200-plus-year-old Scottish poem by Robert Burns that has become synonymous with ringing in the New Year. But do you know the words? If not, throw your arms around your nearest neighbor’s shoulders and start singing these lyrics as soon as the countdown ends.

Should old acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind?

Should old acquaintance be forgot, And old lang syne?

CHORUS: For auld lang syne, my dear, For auld lang syne, We’ll take a cup of kindness yet, For auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!

And surely I’ll buy mine!

And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, For auld lang syne.

CHORUS We two have run about the slopes, And picked the daisies fine; But we’ve wandered many a weary foot, Since auld lang syne.

CHORUS We two have paddled in the stream, From morning sun ’til dine; But seas between us broad have roared Since auld lang syne.

CHORUS And there’s a hand my trusty friend!

And give us a hand o’ thine!

And we’ll take a right good-will draught, For auld lang syne.

CHORUS

TOJ

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

DECEMBER 28, 2012 – JANUARY 3, 2013

Meet some of

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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.

lunie elie

tevon

Model Lunié Elie, 21, started doing test shots two years ago and currently works with magazine executives across the globe to build her brand. She recently launched a YouTube channel called “My Journey To Becoming A Model” while balancing medical school and work. She says she is “determined to become the entrepreneur she has always dreamed of.”

Contact Lunié at facebook.com/ TheLunieElie.

Graduating from Tennessee State University with a degree in speech communication and theater, Tevon is very versatile in arts having the opportunity to be involved with film work coming out in 2013 to include: “The Game’’ (football player) and “Hunger Games 2’’ (peacekeeper), among others. He also has worked on the Disney movie “Let It Shine,’’ “Ricky Smiley Morning Show,’’ “Necessary Roughness’’ and “Single Ladies.’’ He also is in the 2013 Spirits of Black Men’s Calendar. Contact Tevon via e-mail at Tevplunkett@yahoo.com or facebook.com/TevonPlunkett.

Faith Norton will portray “Claire’’ in the Dec. 29 production of the “Chocolate Nutcracker.’’

ANDRE MCCLAIN

Ringmaster Andre McClain will lead the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey show Jan. 2-6 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.

The “Built to Amaze!’’ tour continues in Orlando Jan. 10-13 and in Jacksonville Jan. 1721. More information: www.ringling. com.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID DIMETRE

COURTESY OF RINGLING BROS AND BARNUM & BAILEY

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR St. Petersburg: Legendary R&B singer Mavis Staples is scheduled at the Mahaffey Theater on Jan. 19 for an 8 p.m. show.

Jacksonville: Jazz and Blues artist Cyrus Chestnut will be at the Ritz Theater in Jacksonville on Jan. 5 for a 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. show.

Orlando: Kingdom Life International Center with Drs. Michael and Samantha Phillips will host a New Year’s Eve celebration at 5232 S Orange Ave. at 9 p.m.

Special music guests and a balloon drop. More information: 407-944-1211.

Ocoee: The City of Ocoee is ac-

cepting parade registrations for its seventh annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Unity Parade presented by the City of Ocoee’s Human Relations Diversity Board. It is Jan. 21 at 10 a.m. Parade registration forms are available at www. ocoee.org or 407-905-3100.

Tampa: The American Brain Tumor Association hosts its inaugural Breakthrough for Brain Tumors Tampa 5K Run & Walk on Feb. 9 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. More information or registration: www.breakthroughforbraintumors.

Orlando: Comedian Bruce Bruce joins Sheryl Underwood and Tony Rock at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre on Feb. 1 for an 8 p.m. show.

Tampa: Tampa’s Downtown

on Ice will take place through Jan. 5. Tickets are $10 for 90 minutes on the ice and covers skate rental. The rink is open from 4 p.m. until 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday nights and Friday nights until 10 p.m.

On Saturdays, the rink is open from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. and Sunday from noon until 9 p.m.

More information: tampasdowntownonice.com.

Hollywood: Funny man Sinbad will perform at the Hollywood Hard Rock Live Jan. 13 for a 7 p.m. show.

St. Petersburg: First Fridays are held in downtown St. Petersburg at 250 Central Ave. between Second and Third Avenues from 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. More information: 727-393-3597.

Alvin Ailey dancers to appear in Jacksonville’s ‘Chocolate Nutcracker’

BY PENNY DICKERSON SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

A production of Laverne Reed’s “Chocolate Nutcracker’’ continues this week in Jacksonville. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (Ailey II) company members will dance lead roles in the Dec. 29 production.

Jacksonville native David Adrian Freeland, Jr. returns home as the “Cavalier-Prince.” Freeland began his early training at Jacksonville Center of the Arts (Kezia Rolle) and additionally trained at Juilliard, Nashville Ballet, and the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance.

Ailey II company member Jenna Graves will dance the “Princess” and “Sugar Plum” roles while Jacksonville’s Faith Norton will be featured in the role of “Claire.”

The fundraiser is sponsored by the Gamma Rho Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. All proceeds benefit chapter scholarships and community programs.

Performances are at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the Times Union Center for Performing Arts Moran Theatre.

David Adrian Freeland Jr.

Jenna Graves

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DECEMBER 28, 2012 – JANUARY 3, 2013

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