LAWT-11-03-2011

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L.A. Watts Times Vol. XXX, No. 1256

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

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IBRA ~ Your rewards come not only from what you do, but from who you are! Give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back and work some wonders. You are full of positive energy this week; use it to your advantage. Soul Affirmation: I care deeply about the feelings of others.

CORPIO ~ Practical matters may seem like nuisances that are only there to spite your sunny mood this week. The vibration has its place though, and if you apply yourself to practical things, you’ll have a lot accomplished by the end of the week. Avoid spinning your wheels on impossible projects or relationships. Soul Affirmation: Distant love is sometimes sweeter.

AGITTARIUS ~ Excellent vibrations accompany you to meetings and appointments or anywhere where your gifts of communication can be used. You’ll have managers eating out of your hand if you choose to exercise a little charm. Soul Affirmation: I call on my creative talents to pay my bills.

APRICORN ~ Charming, simply charming! You have everything going for you this week, so make the most of it.

You are capable of handling many projects and equally capable of asking for help if you need it. Soul Affirmation: My imagination is the source of my happiness.

QUARIUS ~ If you acknowledge your need to be with someone this afternoon, the universe will probably provide. Ask for help if you need it. There are many resources available to you that you could be drawing from. All you have to do is ask. Soul Affirmation: I accept fate and see good in it.

ISCES ~ Watching the sunrise will help quell any impatience that may arise within you this week. As you watch the sun kiss the sky, imagine that the universe is embracing you with love. Soul Affirmation: I judge no one, especially myself this week.

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RIES ~ Don’t let worry put a strain on your relationships. Concentration is key, but be as light-hearted as possible.

Open up to romantic feelings. Let love come to you. It may come from inside.

Soul Affirmation: Shining brightly is something that I can do even in shadows.

AURUS ~ The time has come to forgive and forget. Take the first step in reconciling a friendship. You thought no one knew, but you may be romantically attracted to an old pal. Soul Affirmation: Helping others is the true measure of my worth.

EMINI ~ When you let go of pain and fear, you are a force to be reckoned with. Use your talents for regeneration to create a new reality for yourself, one that is filled with joy and happiness. Turn away from inner thoughts that are anything less than positive. Soul Affirmation: I enjoy living in my dream.

ANCER ~ Treat yourself with kindness, and let love be your guiding light.

The past few weeks have been rather hard on your personality, but you’ve come through a troubled time with flying colors. Soul Affirmation: I am what I consistently do.

EO ~ Critical voices should be tuned out this week. You are in the mood for a pleasant week, and you shouldn’t let anyone keep you from your just rewards. Relax with friends who you can share positive vibes with. Soul Affirmation: I get because I give.

IRGO ~ Unexpected company may arrive, or an invitation may be extended. Use good judgment and set realistic bound to protect your valuable personal time. Drive carefully. Soul Affirmation: I make the first step and the universe will come to my aid.

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13 BlackFacts.com November 3, 1992 Carol Moseley Braun, an Illinois Democrat, becomes the first African American woman elected to the Senate. She (along with Edward Brooke) is one of two African Americans to serve in the Senate in the 20th century.

November 7, 1966 Edward W. Brooke is elected the first Black U.S. Senator (R-Mass.) in 85 years.

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President Obama seeks to ease Wealth disparities the burden of student loans likely to grow SPECIAL TO THE NNPA FROM THE FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN

BY GEORGE E. CURRY THEDEFENDERSONLINE.COM A widening gap between the megarich and the rest of society, documented in a recent congressional study, is likely to create even larger economic disparities between African Americans and Whites.

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File The Congressional Budget Office Marc Morial, president of the (CBO) issued a report that stated: “For the National Urban League, to President 1 percent with the highest income, averObama: The widening wealth gap age real after-tax household income grew between Whites and minorities has by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007.” wiped out gains made over that last By contrast, for 60 percent of the popula30 years and could foreshadow even tion in the middle of the income scale (the more inequality if not addressed.

21st through 80th percentiles), the growth in average real after-tax household income was just under 40 percent. For the 20 percent with the lowest income, their after-tax income grew by only 18 percent over that same period.

The 47-page CBO report is titled “Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007.” It showed that the share of after-tax household income for the top 1 percent more than doubled over the period studied, rising from nearly 8 percent in 1979 to 17 percent in 2007.

The most affluent 20 percent of the population received 53 percent of after-tax household income in 2007, an increase of 10 percent over 1979. Put another way: The top 20 percent earned more after-tax income in 2007 than the combined income of the other 80 percent of Americans.

These figures are fueling the heated debate over the Occupy Wall Street movement that has spread throughout the country and around the world. But that discussion has virtually ignored the plight of Blacks, who have already seen the wealth gap widen during the most recent recession.

A State of the Dream report issued earlier this year by United for a Fair Economy chronicles African Americans’ stalled economic progress.

“In 1947, Blacks earned 51 cents to each dollar of White median family income,” the report recounts. “By 1977, Blacks were earning 56 cents on each dollar in White income, a gain of five cents. Most of those gains were made in the 1960s.

“Then, as the backlash took hold, progress slowed —and stopped. By 2007, Blacks earned slightly over 57 cents (57.4 cents) to each White dollar, a gain of just one penny in thirty years. Two years later, as the Great Recession set in. Blacks lost a half-cent, ending at 57 cents to each White dollar of median family income.”

Such erosion has led to the widest wealth gap on record between Blacks and Whites.

In July, the Pew Research Center issued a report that stated, “The median wealth of White households is 20 times that of Black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households.” It explained, “These lopsided wealth ratios are the largest since the government began publishing such data a quarter century ago and roughly twice the size of the ratios that had prevailed between these groups for two decades prior to the Great Recession that ended in 2009.”

The bursting of the housing bubble in 2006 and the high unemployment rates have devastated communities of color.

Median home equity for Whites declined by 18 percent between 2005 and 2009, from $115,364 to $95,000. Meanwhile, Blacks lost 23 percent of their home equity, from $76,919 to $59,000.

Black long-term unemployment was also higher than that of Whites, which is usually the case during a recession. Black unemployment increased from 8.6 percent to 15.6 percent during that period; White employment rose from 3.7 percent to 8 percent.

Black wealth, already much less than Whites, worsened.

“From 2005 to 2009, inflation-adjusted median wealth fell by 66 percent among Hispanic households and 53 percent among Black households, compared to just 16 percent among White households,” the Pew report stated. “As a result of these declines, the typical Black household had just $5,677 in wealth (assets minus debts) in 2009, the typical Hispanic household had $6,325 in wealth; and the typical White household had $113,149.”

The $5,677 in Black wealth in 2009 was less than half of the $12,124 in Black wealth just four years earlier.

In order to get ahead in the future, clearly African Americans will need to diversify their financial holdings beyond housing. As the Pew report noted, “Whites and Asians are much more likely than Hispanics and Blacks to own financial assets. More than 80 percent of Whites and Asians own interest-earning assets in financial institutions, compared with about 60 percent of Hispanics and Blacks. Whites and Asians are also three to four times as likely as Hispanics and Blacks to own stocks and mutual funds shares … A sizable minority of U.S. households own no assets other than a motor vehicle. In 2009, that was true of 24 percent of Black and Hispanic households, 8 percent of Asian households and 6 percent of white households.”

The racial and ethnic wealth gap was already horrendous. Reports of a wider economic divide between the haves and have-nots have shown that the problem is getting even worse.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is taking steps to ease the burden of student loans, the White House said on Tuesday, potentially helping millions of cash-strapped college graduates in a tough economy.

President Obama plans to accelerate a plan to cap student loan payments at 10 percent of income, moving up the start date to 2012 from 2014.

“Steps like these won’t take the place of the bold action we need from Congress to boost our economy and create jobs, but they will make a difference,” he said in a statement.

The loans initiative will be the third such move by President Obama in as many days, following action to aid homeowners and boost hiring of military veterans. The White House wants to show he is an activist president battling a “do-nothing” Congress.

The loan changes do not require approval by Congress.

Republican lawmakers blocked a $447 billion jobs plan put forward by President Obama last month because it raises some taxes.

The White House estimates the loan changes could cut monthly payments for 1.6 million graduates.

Student debt will also be forgiven after 20 years, compared with 25 years

AP Photo/Ed Andrieski

President Barack Obama speaks to students and faculty at Auraria Events Center in Denver on a recent trip. Obama outlined a plan to allow millions of student loan recipients to lower their payments and consolidate their loans. under current law.

More than 36 million Americans have federal student loan debt, but

only 450,000 have so far taken advantage of the existing income-based repayment program.

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

More than a photographer or a photo journalist, Guy Crowder was a photo historian — and his body of work justifies that title

BY JENNIFER BIHM “His works vividly demonstrate the diversity, hope, sorrow and joy that is the Black community of Los Angeles,” former Jet Magazine editor Aldore Collier once wrote about photojournalist Guy Crowder, who died October 30 in Riverside. For him, photography, far from being a mere business venture,

was a powerful vehicle for increased social and political awareness …”

According to news reports, 72year-old Crowder suffered a stroke, which subsequently led to his contracting pneumonia.

Dubbed by some in the community as a “photo historian,” Crowder captured some of the most notable people and moments in American his-

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tory for over three decades before he retired in the late 1990s. His photographic collection included Sammy Davis Jr.; Michael Jackson during an L.A. performance; Alex Haley at a book signing; L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley’s victory celebration; and jazz musician Wynton Marsalis at the Baldwin Hills Elementary School.

Several notables praised Crowder.

Said former Supervisor Yvonne Burke, “Guy was not only a great photographer, he was an active community leader. He was respected throughout the county of Los Angeles, and all who worked with him admired his dedication to helping people and particularly helping young people of our community. He will indeed be missed by those of us who worked with him, and called him a friend.”

“Guy Crowder is passing on to a new life,” said retired L.A. City Councilman Nate Holden. “But in this life here, he did so many good things for people. He was one of the finest photographers that we have known in this city.”

“I am deeply saddened by the passing of my friend,” said City Councilman Herb Wesson.

“In his own way, he played an important role in documenting the life of the African American community in Los Angeles. My wife, Fabian, and I extend our condolences to his family, and we will keep them in our thoughts and prayers.”

Guy Crowder: Legendary Sentinel photographer passes.

Crowder started out in the late 1960s looking for photography jobs at several Los Angeles newspaper and news organizations. They all rejected him, claiming that he was “overqualified,” even though no Blacks worked

for any of those institutions at the time.

But Crowder used his camera anyway.

Sheer determination brought him out to movie premieres, receptions, political rallies, sporting events and See CROWDER, page 5

‘G.O.P. Is The New Black,’ claim billboards

The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s (AQMD) Clean Air Award has been presented to Metro in the category of “Promotion of Good Environmental Stewardship.” The award went to Metro for its achievement in being the first major transit agency in the nation with a fleet run entirely on alterative fuels.

SPECIAL TO THE NNPA FROM THE FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN Conservative activist, Apostle Claver KamauImani, who recently said that Democrats are the party of the Klu Klux Klan, is the prominent image on two of the four ads, which the group hopes will “stir up a storm on the plantation.”

The signs definitely have people talking. One sign in particular that hangs over Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in East Austin is drawing mixed reviews from residents there. It says: “Martin Luther King, Jr.,

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was a Republican.” But this is a controversial claim that has never been substantiated.

Austin NAACP president Nelson Linder said that he feels the signs are disrespectful and that Black voters should vote based on whether issues that affect the community, including unemployment and police brutality, are addressed by either party.

“Martin Luther King was about civil rights and social justice. That’s not the current Republican Party.”

The signs are also up in Houston, Ohio and South Carolina. These are areas where high concentrations of people of color typically vote for the Democratic party.

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Courtesy of Florida Sentinel Bulletin

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

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New NAACP program targets childhood obesity

BY BEN WROBEL, GUEST WRITER SPECIAL TO THE NNPA FROM THE ATLANTA VOICE WASHINGTON — With a few steps to the left and a few steps to the right, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin recently helped the NAACP in its renewed focus on healthy living and childhood obesity.

Benjamin danced the “Cupid Shuffle” with students from Washington, D.C.’s Ward 7 and Ward 8, two areas with the highest obesity rates in the city.

The exercise took place during the NAACP’s launch event for its Childhood Obesity Advocacy Guide at the historic Thurgood Marshall Center.

“It is no secret that if not eradicated, childhood obesity will be one of the many causes of premature deaths and chronic disease for our

AP Photo/Gerry Broome

Benjamin Jealous, president of the national NAACP, speaks during an interview in Raleigh, N.C. children,” said NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous.

“The NAACP treasures the lives of our children and will stand with communities to fight against any systemic or environmental barriers that inhibit one’s opportunity to live a healthy life.”

Jealous and NAACP Director of Health Programs Shavon Arline introduced the guide along with a panel of health experts, including Benjamin. The guide provides direction for combating childhood obesity in three highlighted policy areas: external environment, food environments and school-based policies.

It calls for more recreational areas, increased access to healthy,

CROWDER Continued from page 4 fundraisers, where he shot pictures and garnered clients. Through his persistency, he developed a reputation that eventually landed him jobs with several newspapers, including the Los Angeles Sentinel. Then in 1974, Los Angeles

AP Photo/Mobile Press-Register, Mike Kittrell

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin in Bayou La Batre, Ala. affordable food in order to combat “food deserts” and a renewed focus on healthy policies in schools, such as more physical activity and nutritious food options.

“The three advocacy approaches were chosen for the guide because they are the primary policy areas that affect childhood obesity,” Arline said. “They also serve as some of the most appealing causes around which to mobilize communities, particularly because the issues are easy to identify and affect community members in tangible and direct ways.”

“With active units in every state throughout the United States, we believe we are well-equipped to engage community and state leaders in this fight to save this and the next generation,” Arline added.

Childhood obesity is a major issue in communities of color, where children are more likely to be obese and live in unsafe communities where there are few opportunities for physical activity and limited access to healthy food.

In the United States today, 38 percent of Latino children and 34.9 percent of African American children are overweight or obese, compared with 30.7 percent of White children.

“We are emphasizing good eating habits, lots of exercise, lots of play. We want Americans to have fun, and to enjoy being active,” Benjamin said. “We are intending to create communities and environments where the healthy choices are the easy choices, and the affordable choices.”

Joining the NAACP leaders were CommonHealth Action President and co-founder Natalie S. Burke, whose organization co-wrote the report, and John Govea, senior program officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which funded the report.

Courtesy of the Atlanta Voice

County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn hired Crowder as a staff photographer, making him the first African American to be hired by the Board of Supervisors as a staff photographer.

A true glimpse of Crowder a as a professional can be gleaned from the voices of some of his colleagues: other See CROWDER, page 15

Iraq War veteran named Rose Parade grand marshal PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — J.R. Martinez, the “Dancing With the Stars” contestant, “All My Children” daytime soap opera star and Iraq War veteran seriously burned when his Humvee hit a land mine, was picked Tuesday to lead Pasadena’s 123rd Tournament of Roses.

He also will toss the coin before kickoff of the 98th Rose Bowl Game in honor of all wounded military personnel.

The Tournament of Roses Association said Martinez was a perfect fit for the “Just Imagine ...” parade theme celebrating the power of imagination, inspiration and determination to encourage people to reach higher and try harder.

“To be able to participate in this iconic American tradition on New Year’s Day is something I could only imagine,” Martinez said in a statement. “I believe everything happens for a reason, and I’m grateful the events of my life have provided me with the opportunity to share my message of hope and possibility on New Year’s Day.” The parade and football game are being held on Jan. 2 rather than New Year’s Day, which falls on Sunday. The association has a

AP Photo/Nick Ut

Fan favorite: Leading the Jan. 2 procession of Pasadena’s 123rd Tournament of Roses floats will be J.R. Martinez, the “Dancing With the Stars” contestant, “All My Children” daytime soap opera star and Iraq War veteran seriously burned when his Humvee hit a land mine. never-on-Sunday rule.

Tournament President Rick Jackson said Martinez is an inspiration because of his courage and dedication to helping all Americans facing challenges.

“His outlook on life is admirable

and we couldn’t be happier to have the chance to celebrate the New Year with him as we entertain the millions of fans around the world during the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game,” Jackson said.

See ROSE PARADE, page 14

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

Lawyer: Cain accuser wants to be allowed to talk

BY KASIE HUNT ASSOCIATED PRESS

AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Sweatin’ it out: At the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Monday, Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain, denied he sexually harassed anyone.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The lawyer for one of two women who reportedly accused Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain of sexual harassment in the 1990s said Tuesday he had asked their former employer to waive an agreement and allow her to talk openly about her allegations.

Joel P. Bennett, a Washington lawyer who specializes in employment cases, said in media interviews that his client wants the National Restaurant Association to waive confidentiality so she can respond to Cain’s claims that the complaints were “totally baseless and totally false.”

A spokeswoman for the restaurant association, Sue Hensley, said Tuesday night that the group had not been contacted by Bennett. Cain, a Georgia businessman best known as the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, was head of the association at the time of the complaints.

Bennett told The Associated Press he would have more to say after he meets with his client Wednesday. In an interview Tuesday

night on CNN, he said he stood behind his client. “I know her very well,” he said, “and I’m sure she would not make a false complaint.”

The New York Times reported Tuesday night that the National Restaurant Association gave a female employee a year’s salary in severance pay, $35,000, after she said an encounter with Cain made her uncomfortable working there.

The newspaper cited three people with knowledge of the payment to the woman, who was not Bennett’s client.

One of Cain’s rivals, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, appeared to take a jab at Cain when she met Tuesday night with supporters at a Baptist church in Marshalltown, Iowa.

Though not mentioning Cain by name as she stood in the pulpit, Bachmann said: “This is the year when we can’t have any surprises with our candidate. We have to have a candidate that we can know, when we put them into office, we can trust them with their record of what they have done and who they are.”

Cain, meanwhile, spent Tuesday much as he did Monday, going from interview to interview to defend himself. There was time for politicking, too: He met Tuesday night with Republican senators at a restaurant near the Capitol as part of a meetand-greet strategy with lawmakers whose support he is seeking.

Cain’s contradictory explanations — he also denies he has changed his story — have raised questions about details of the allegations and about his current ability to manage a crisis in the national spotlight. The accusations surfaced just as had risen in national polls in the GOP nomination fight two months

before the leadoff Iowa caucuses.

He said Tuesday night on Fox News that he believes there are some Democrats who want him defeated because he’s an unconventional candidate “achieving some unexpected, unconventional results,” and there could be some on the right “who do not want to see me because I am not the establishment candidate.”

Cain, who is Black, said he believes race is also involved “but we don’t have any evidence to support it.” He added: “Relative to the left, I believe that race is a bigger driving factor. I don’t think it’s a driving factor on the right.”

In Sunday night’s original report, by Politico, at least two women who had complained about Cain were said to have agreed to settlements that included stipulations that they not repeat their allegations in public.

Cain’s evolving answers to questions in a host of media interviews this week led one rival campaign to suggest he’s not being up front about the accusations.

“If you are the front-runner and you plan to be the nominee ... be forthcoming so that you are vetted, and we don’t get into a situation where you’re our nominee and we find out things after the fact,” John Brabender, a strategist for Rick Santorum’s campaign, said at forum hosted by National Journal. “We’re still waiting for clarification from the Cain campaign.”

But Cain said that rather than the allegations hurting, his fundraising was actually surging — “the highest it has been since I’ve been in this campaign,” he told Fox News.

The campaign took in as much See CAIN, page 7

Supreme Court could decide to review health care reform SPECIAL TO NNPA FROM AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPER The nation’s highest court could decide whether to review President Barack Obama’s health care reform law as soon as Nov. 10, Politico reports.

Five opponents of the law as well as the Obama administration have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether the law’s requirement for all Americans to buy insurance is constitutional. Five of the six requests have been sent to the court already, according to Politico.

Opponents of the law, including 26 states, the National Federation of Independent Business, Liberty University and the Thomas More Law Center, and petitions from the Obama administration, will be under consideration.

In a private conference on Nov. 10, the court could decide if it wants to hear the issue. It would announce its decision Nov. 14. Justices could also defer a decision until a later conference.

Politico said the Supreme Court is expected to hear the issue because the administration has asked and circuit courts have issued conflicting decisions on whether the mandate is constitutional.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

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CAIN Continued from page 6 as $400,000 in a single day, said Mark Block, Cain’s chief of staff.

Will the controversy undermine Cain in Iowa and beyond?

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad was willing to hear the candidate out.

“Iowans are pretty fair-minded people and just because somebody makes an accusation — anybody that is in a high-profile position is potential to have people make these kinds of accusations,” Branstad said. “I think Iowans will, you know, carefully look at the real situation and not jump to any conclusions.”

Over the past two days, Cain has admitted he knew of one agreement between the restaurant association and a woman who accused him of sexual harassment. He has said the woman initially asked for a large financial settlement but ultimately received two to three months’ pay as part of a separation agreement. Cain also acknowledged remembering one of the woman’s accusations against him, saying he stepped close to her to make a reference to her height, and told her she was the same height as his wife.

He has said he is not aware of agreements or settlements with any other women, though Politico — which first disclosed the allegations — reported that the trade group had given settlements to at least two female employees who accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior.

Beyond that, Cain has offered a series of sometimes-conflicting statements over what happened and didn’t happen, and what he knew about financial payouts.

By Tuesday, Cain was chalking up the confusion to semantics, saying he was aware of an “agreement” but not a “settlement.”

“It looked like I had changed my story,” Cain told CNN. “I didn’t change my story.”

He acknowledged he’d made the problem worse for himself over the course of the previous day.

Tuesday night he said, “I absolutely agree we could have been better prepared. Mea culpa on being better prepared.”

On Monday, Cain first said he had no knowledge of settlements with any women who had complained about inappropriate sexual behavior. He later admitted he knew of one agreement.

The damage control amounted to a real-time crisis management test for a candidate who is just introducing himself to the country and who has based his campaign on his decades-long background in business management that includes stints at Godfather’s Pizza, Pillsbury, Coca-Cola and the Department of the Navy.

At a time of 9.1 percent unemployment, Cain is pitching himself as a businessman who can solve problems.

He already was taking heat over the management of his campaign, insisting that his lack of staff in early voting states simply

amounted to an unconventional approach, even as former employees griped about a candidate with no plan. Now, his approach to solving his own political predicament has raised questions about how he would perform as president handling the nation’s crisis.

“Where he has run into some trouble is, ‘Does the story change?’

Because when the story changes, people equate that with guilt,” said Eric Dezenhall, who runs a top crisis communications firm. “The very act of a change in and of itself can suggest that there’s a problem.”

“Contrasts are big news, and one way to touch up someone claiming business competence is to dredge up something that says it’s not true, that the competence is a phantom,” Dezenhall said.

Cain has promised to surround himself with professional staff if elected president.

“Part of being a leader is surrounding yourself with good people, and that is what I do,” he said during a recent campaign appearance in Alabama, explaining that he doesn’t believe a candidate needs to be an expert in every policy area to be a good president.

But, since the harassment allegations became public, Cain’s staff has contributed to the conflicting accounts — even offering flat denials that there was any factual basis to the story.

Separately, chief of staff Mark Block has a lawyer investigating whether a charity he founded, Prosperity USA, improperly gave goods and services to Cain’s presidential campaign earlier this year.

On the harassment allegations, Cain initially told the AP that he couldn’t remember any details of any accusations. Hours later, he acknowledged remembering the one woman’s complaint.

By Tuesday, he attributed the lapses in memory to being under so much pressure during a day of media appearances.

“After 12 hours over the day, many events, many interviews, I was able to gradually recall more and more details about what happened 12 years ago,” he said. “I wasn’t given the opportunity to think about it for a day before I was forced to start answering questions.”

Politico said it had started asking Cain’s campaign about the allegations on Oct. 20 — 10 days before the story was published late Sunday.

Cain said Monday that Politico had also provided his campaign with the name of a second woman who, Politico reported, also received a settlement after complaining of sexually inappropriate encounters with Cain.

Associated Press writers Ken Thomas and Laurie Kellman in Washington, Shannon McCaffrey in Georgia, and Thomas Beaumont and Philip Elliott in Iowa contributed to this report.

Inmates freed after crack penalties are eased AP Photo/Seth Perlman

BY JESSICA GRESKO AND JOHN O’CONNOR ASSOCIATED PRESS SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Antwain Black was facing a few more years in Leavenworth for dealing crack. But on Tuesday, he returned home to Illinois, a free man.

Black, 36, was among the first of potentially thousands of inmates who are being released early from federal prison because of an easing of the harsh penalties for crack that were enacted in the 1980s, when the drug was a terrifying new phenomenon in America’s cities.

“I did more than enough time,” Black said outside his family’s Springfield, Ill., home, where family and friends had gathered to celebrate over dinner. “I feel like I can win this time. I’m a better man today than I was then.”

The 1980s-era federal laws punished crack-related crimes much more severely than those involving powdered cocaine — a practice criticized as racially discriminatory because most of those convicted of crack offenses were Black.

More recently, the penalties for crack were reduced to bring them more in line with those for powder, and Tuesday was the first day inmates locked up under the old rules could get out early.

Some 12,000 prisoners are expected to benefit from reduced sentences over the next several years, with an estimated 1,900 eligible for immediate release as of Tuesday. On average, inmates will get three years shaved off their sentences. The reductions do not apply to people found guilty of crack offenses under state laws.

Black said like many of his peers, he started smoking crack in high school and began selling it partly to support his habit. He said he was a low-level dealer and that he didn’t realize the mandatory minimum sentence he faced when he pleaded guilty in 2003 and was given a 15-year prison term.

With changes in the law, good behavior and credit for time served in jail, he was freed from the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kan., after 8? years locked up for the crime. His projected release

Antwain Black, 36, relishes his freedom Tuesday in Springfield, Ill. He was among the first of potentially thousands of inmates released early from federal prison (Black was in Leavenworth) because of an easing of the penalties related to crack that were enacted in the 1980s. originally was Oct. 3, 2013.

“I didn’t think it was fair and I still don’t think it’s fair now,” Black said. “I know guys who aren’t coming home, still, because of these laws that were placed upon a certain race of people,” he said.

Kentucky inmate Darryl Flood, 48, thought he would have to wait until 2013 to get out of prison, more than a decade after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute crack. But on Monday a judge approved his release two years ahead of schedule.

Susan Cardwell, his sister in Haymarket, Va., said she was expecting him to arrive on a bus on Wednesday. She said she cried after getting a call from his lawyer with the news.

“He wants to get out, get a job and get his life back together,” she said in a telephone interview. “He says he’ll work two jobs if he has to.”

Under the old system, a person convicted of crack possession got the same mandatory prison term as someone with 100 times the amount of powdered cocaine. Five grams of crack, about the weight of five packets of Sweet N’Low, brought a mandatory five years; it took 500 grams of powder to get the same sentence.

The law was seen as racially unfair because Blacks made up the majority of people convicted of crack crimes, while Whites were more likely to be found guilty of offenses involving powdered cocaine.

In 2010, Congress reduced the disparity in sentences for future cases. Last summer, the U.S. Sentencing Commission decided to apply the measure to inmates doing time under the old rules.

Chris Burke, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, said that he could not say exactly how many people would be let out Tuesday but that officials were working around the clock to process hundreds of orders from judges granting early release. In certain cases, prison officials have been

given a grace period of several days to free inmates, Burke said.

The releases are the result of months of work by prosecutors, public defenders and judges across the country. Inmates’ requests for sentence reductions were decided on a case-by-case basis, with courts taking into consideration such factors as the prisoner’s behavior behind bars and threat to society.

In San Antonio, the federal public defender’s office reported that it had about 15 to 20 inmates eligible for immediate release. In St. Louis, the office said it submitted 30 to 50 petitions asking for inmates to be set free right away.

In the eastern district of Virginia, which has the highest number of affected inmates anywhere in the country, public defender Michael Nachmanoff said that judges had ordered the immediate release of about 75 people.

Black, who earned a high school equivalency diploma and college credits behind bars, likes to cook and hopes to open a restaurant.

“It’s a blessing just to see them smile, for me to be home” he said, referring to the friends and family who welcomed him home. “It lets me know I am loved. It’s been a long ride, too. It’s been a while.

They held fast for me. I’ve got a lot of people counting on me so I’ve got to fly right this time.”

Jessica Gresko contributed from Washington.

Black Facts November 5, 1974 Mervyn M. Dymally is elected lieutenant governor of California, becoming the first Black to so serve. Prior to that, he was the first Black in the California State Senate.

November 5, 1968 Shirley Chisholm becomes the first Black woman elected to Congress, representing the BedfordStuyvesant, a section of Brooklyn, New York.

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

By Brandon I. Brooks Co - Managing Editor Former South Los Angeles drug kingpin, “Freeway” Ricky Ross is out of jail and back in the streets putting in work. This time around, his work is a little diơerent than before. Instead of contributing to the detriment of our community by dealing crack cocaine, Ross is using his dope man celebrity to help uplift and educate people around the world about the harsh realities of the dealing drugs.

Ross, now in his early 50‘s has been touring the country speaking to all ages, mainly youth and ex-offenders about the importance of education and empowerment.

He shared with the Watts Times that he may have to go back to jail for violating his parole because he is not allegedly not suppose to talk with ex-oơenders.

He and his lawyer feel this is unfair practice and biased toward Ross and many minorities as it’s almost impossible for him to avoid dealing with ex-oơenders being that his is one and his core message speaks to assist that core forum.

“I’m just as passionate about this (speaking out to youth) as I was about the drug game,” said Ross. “See I was willing to die for the drug game. I was willing to die for it, I was willing to kill for it. I didn’t mind going to prison. Going to prison was just part of the job. This is the job I chose, if I go to prison then so be it.”

It’s obvious the passion inside of Ross isn’t lost, it’s just been redirected toward positive energy and uplifting people.

THE BEGINNING In order to understand “The Real Freeway” Ricky Ross we have to go back to when it all began.

The story of Freeway Rick is deeper than just drugs and jail or some type of rap industry hype.

This story dates back to the beginning when Ricky Donnel Ross was a young child growing up in South Los Angeles, living illiterate.

Ross feels that not being able to read and write is what ultimately led him down the wrong path.

F E AT U R E

“I grew up in South Central Los Angeles, my mom and dad separated when I was four months old,” shared Ross. “My mom raised me. My mom worked.

Basically, when I got out of school she was going to work. So I was at home most of the time with just me and my brothers and sisters. We later started playing football in the streets with the older guys. When she would leave, we would go out and play football in the middle of the street with the older guys and hang out.

Going to school wasn’t really important to us at that time. We didn’t have an understanding of the value that it was going to bring us. My mom was a good person, good Christian person who went to church every Sunday just about, may miss some Sundays but very rarely missed church on Sundays. Read the bible. We had a great relationship. We have our diơerences but overall we have a great relationship. Still today, she is 85 years old and we are still good.”

Ross hid his illiteracy his entire life up until he went to prison. As a youth, to avoid being called out by friends or teachers, when it was time for him to read in class he would do something “stupid” to get kicked out and sent to the principal’s oƥce. He would prefer a swat from a teacher rather than the embarrassment of being referred to as dumb or a “dummy.” This allowed him to get by even through high school without anyone noticing.

“Those things hampered me, say for instance in high school, right before I started selling drugs, I was a good enough tennis player to go to college,” said Ross. “I had colleges that were talking to me, like Long Beach State but I couldn’t read or write. I couldn’t pass any of the tests.”

After not making it into a college or a university, Ross went back to South Central and started hanging with his family and old friends. It’s important to note that all of his younger siblings, brothers and sisters, all

L.A. Watts Times WEEKENDER

gang banged.

“I didn’t gang bang because I started playing tennis,” said Ross. “But at one time I wanted to gang bang. I knew everybody from the neighborhood but I never considered myself a gang member. So when I go back to the neighborhood. Now I am hanging with them, I start doing more of the things they do. Go to the lowrider jumps, the hops and back to the football games on the block. They had grown ups playing football in the park, they’re drinking and smoking weed and just in this whole little pot that I had been out from because of tennis.

Tennis had kind of kept me out of it. Now I am back in it and I start hearing this stuơ about cocaine, it started running through my mind and I am getting really interested I started getting really interested and just one day one of the guys I had met had a situation and he came back from San Jose State University and he had some cocaine and he introduced it to me for the first time. It was around 1979.”

THE GAME Ross got into the so called “game” with $125. It was the early 80‘s and the crack epidemic had just got its legs. Many people thought he was crazy for being interested in what back then, many in our community deemed a White man’s drug because most Black people couldn’t aơord the expensive cocaine habit.

Well in came crack cocaine, a freebase form of cocaine, smokable and, most importantly, a cheap form of cocaine.

“All of the other barriers that stood in my way in other businesses didn’t stand in my way in this game,” said Ross. “It was just so easy for me to walk in, it’s like an open door and all you have to do is just want it and go in.”

The cocaine industry was unbiased toward Ross and his illiteracy. The dope industry didn’t care what color he was or if he spoke clearly. He found his call-

LEFT: Ricky Ross with Snoop Dogg RIGHT: Ricky Ross with Dr. Dre

connect, Blandon and when they finally caught the two ing. Business was business and he gained a reputation in the midst of a deal, it was a wrap. Some rumor that for handling his around the city. there was an actual Freeway Rick task force designed Freeway Ricky Ross was born and the reputation to take down the kingpin. led him to meet his “connect,” the man that would change his life forever, Oscar Danilo Blandon - a NicaBlandon went on to testify against Freeway Rick raguan dope dealer with ties to the Contras - a ragged which led to Ross being convicted in 1996 to serve life band of mercenaries and ex-land owners trying to in prison. After a technical error found by Ross himself overthrow the Sandinista-led government in Nicarabehind bars while studying law, his sentence was later gua with the help of U.S. Congress and the CIA. reduced to 20 years on a legal technicality related to “My profit margin shot up,” shared Ross when refthe California Three Strikes Law. Ross was released in ereeing to how his life changed after connecting and 2009. dealing with Blandon on a regular basis.

“I was able to get quantities that I wasn’t normally BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES able to get. The purity was 98%. Now I have the best product with the best price. I used to think that God Since Rick Ross prison release, he has been hard at put me on earth to be the coke man.” work with his trucking company a and a social media At the height of his career, he became the dealers, website, www.freewayenterprise.com. dealer. He was known as the “pusher’s, pusher”. BeNo business move is more noticeable and anticipating in Los Angeles that house millions of people you ed than his life story being adapted for the big screen can only imagine by legendary director how powerful he and writer Nick Casmust have been. savetes who is known Ross shared with for directing John Q, the Watts Times that The Notebook and he made up to $3 adapting Blow from a million in just a day ~The Real Freeway Ricky Ross screenplay. and it’s estimated he “What I am looking made close to a bilfor this story is to reallion dollars over the span of his dope dealing career. ly set the dope game straight,” said Ross. I want to lay He claims to have owned over 40 properties (the ones it all out what the dope game really is, what it’s really not. I believe if these kids don’t have the whole truth, he can remember) and its rumored he was very generthey can’t make decisions. And I believe that a lot of ous with his lady friends. Ross said he gave his girltimes they are not giving us the whole truth. They are friends allowances of $25,000 a month. just giving us a piece of it.

Ross rolled with a small crew of about 20 guys and You have to put the message out there that what they did everything together. Ross was a natural born you believe is not really what it is. That’s what I’m hopleader. He succeeded because he allowed his crew to ing my movie will show the kids. The dope game isn’t shine and not live under his every move. He empowwhat you think it is, it’s a trap from the start. ered his crew with money and enough of it that they never had to feel as though they needed had to deWILL THE REAL RICKY PLEASE STAND UP pend on him. This meant that the crew was always loyal and tight because everyone was eating and living In addition to spreading his new message, Ross also like a man on their own. wants to set the record straight on how he truly feels GETTING PINCHED about the multi-platinum selling rap artist Rick Ross, who is currently signed to Warner Bros. Records and Dope dealers mainly pay the price of their profesfirst began his career under the guidance of Jay-Z. sion by losing their life “I think he is selfish, or going to jail. For Rick inconsiderate of my feelRoss, he paid the price of ings and how I felt,” said jail.

Ross. He didn’t contact “I always knew I was me and ask me. going to go to prison,” I call him William Robsaid Ross. “I had too much money to get away with it.”

Ross would go to jail in 1989 for 5 years. He was oơ the radar until then but after getting out the Ricky Ross with authorities were watchCongresswoman ing. They were really Maxine Waters watching his friend and

“I used to believe that God put me on earth to be the coke man.”

Thursday, November 3, 2011

9

erts, the name his mamma and daddy named him and call him. I think he is a fantastic artist. I believe if he would have paid his dues, he would have made it as William Roberts. By him taking my name, it opened up doors for him that normally wouldn’t have been open for somebody. He was able to get meeting that he normally wouldn’t have got. Even though people knew my name they didn’t know what I looked like so it was easy for him to slide between the cracks.”

TRAGEDY TO TRIUMPH I don’t know if the rap artist purposely took image of The Real Freeway Ricky Ross and when I say image I mean down to the beard and the shaved head. The only diơerence as for appearance is the weight as the rapper is much heavier than the original Rick Ross. In addition, The Real Freeway Ricky doesn’t wear sunglasses, ever.

The rap artist Rick Ross never once reached out to The Real Freeway Ricky Ross. They have spoken but it wasn’t until The Real Freeway filed a law suit. They were in touch and The Real Freeway said that the rapper stopped taking his calls.

There is no rule that says a person has to ask for approval but there is an unwritten “street code” that says you should receive a proper blessing if you wish to use a person’s name.

The Real Freeway Ricky Ross is trying to change his legacy from being known as a notorious drug lord in American history to being someone that is remembered for how he turned his life from a tragedy to triumph. He has to battle it out with the rapper for his image and name but it’s no doubt that regardless of the outcome, The Real Freeway Ricky Ross will stand up for what he believes in.

COVER/FEATURE PHOTOS BY LEREEF / PATRICK BASTIEN

www.lawattstimes.com

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

SPORTS BEAT

Congressman Rush compares NCAA to the Mafia

BY BRAD PYE JR. Notes, quotes and things picked up on the run from coast to coast and all the stops in between and beyond.

QB Michael Vick (two TD passes) and his Philadelphia Eagles looked like “the dream team” they were supposed to be in Sunday night’s 34-7 smashing victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

Vick and company, which includes LeSean McCoy, (career best 185 yards and two TDs), DeSean Jackson, et. al. will go against Coach Lovie Smith’s Chicago Bears in Monday Night Football.

QB Cam Newton and his Carolina Panthers may have cost Coach Leslie Frazier a shot at Stanford’s Heisman Trophy nominee Andrew Luck by losing to the 1 win, 8 losses Minnesota Vikings, 24-21, as the Miami Dolphins (0-7) went winless along with the Indianapolis Colts (0-8), 27-10 losers to the Tennessee Titans.

Check this out: Cam Newton had a career high in that 24-21 loss against the Vikings with 290 yards passing and three TDs. Newton joined Peyton Manning as the only rookie QB to have four 290-yard passing games.

Saturday’s long-awaited LSUAlabama battle between No. 1 and

AP Photo/Jonathan Moore

Terrell Owens: The NFL wide receiver works out during a practice session at Calabasas High School in Calabasas, Calif.

No. 2 will have to go some to top the Oct. 29th classic featuring Stanford QB Andrew Luck’s three- overtime, 56-48 victory over the USC Trojans’ Matt Barkley, Robert Woods, Curtis McNeal, Marc Tyler (who suffered a dislocated shoulder against Cal), Kyle Prater (got his first USC TD against Cal), Marquise Lee, defensive stars T.J. McDonald and Nickell Robey (returned an Andrew Luck interception for six) and the rest of the Trojan team at the Coliseum Saturday night before a packed house. McNeal’s fumble spoiled his 145 yards and two-TD day as a sub for Marc Tyler.

USC’s Curtis McNeal fumbled the Trojans’ undefeated season away into the end zone as Stanford escaped with a thrilling 56-48 win for Coach David Shaw’s Cardinals, owners of the longest winning streak in the nation: 16 in a row.

USC visits Coach Jon Embree’s 18 University of Colorado 11 Friday night, Nov. 4.

Can UCLA keep up its winning ways against Arizona State (4-1, 62) Saturday at the Rose Bowl? I doubt it, even though the Bruins looked impressive in Saturday’s 3114 win over Cal. Even Jerry Rice, Jr., played in his first game as a Bruins and caught two passes for 17 yards. The Bruins’ big heroes against Cal were QB Kevin Prince, 163 yards rushing to register 100yards by a UCLA QB in years.

Johnathan Franklin rushed for 45 yards on the day to move into 12th placed on the all-time UCLA rushing list. Derrick Coleman ripped off 80 yards and a pair of TDs. Baylor QB Robert Griffin III passed for 425 yards, but his team lost to Oklahoma State, 59-24.

Baylor hopes to bounce back against Missouri at home Saturday. Now hear this: Griffin went into the game against Oklahoma State leading the nation in passing efficiency, completion percentage and points responsible for.

Just call West Virginia’s Geno Smith the “snow man”: Smith passed for a pair TDs and ran for another one in a driving snowstorm to pace his team to a 41-31 win over Rutgers.

Coming up on Nov. 12 is the next Pac-12 game of the year between No. 7 Oregon and Andrew Luck and his No. 4-rated Stanford Cardinals. Oregon’s two superstars QB Darron Thomas and tailback LaMichael James returned for the Ducks’ 43-28 win over Washington State. But the duo wasn’t at its best.

Come Nov. 12, this dynamic duo should be ready to shake, rattle and roll against Coach David Shaw’s unbeaten Cardinals. Meanwhile, the Oregon Ducks travel to the University of Washington. Two African American QBs will be on display in this one. Oregon’s Darron Thomas against the Huskies Keith Price (St. John Bosco High).

Now hear this: Former Crenshaw High great De’Anthony Thomas has found the end zone 11 times for the Oregon Ducks, a school record for a true freshman.

De’Anthony Thomas scored twice in the Ducks’ 43-28 win over WSU. He produced his TDs on a 45-yard run and 93-yard kickoff return.

By the way, two Black head coaches have their teams ranked among top 25 teams in the nation.

David Shaw’s Stanford Cardinals (8-0) are ranked No. 3., and Kevin Sumlin’s Houston Cougars (8-0) are rated No. 18.

Penn State’s Joe Paterno collected the 409th victory of his career with a 10-7 win Saturday over Illinois to top Grambling’s Eddie Robinson’s old record of 408.

Locally, All-Pro Broadcast Inc.’s Willie Davis was a part of Eddie Robinson’s record run. Willie went on to win honors on the late Vince Lombardi back-to-back Green Bay Packers Super Bowl championship teams.

The Minnesota Vikings Adrian Peterson went into action Sunday against QB Cam Newton’s Carolina Panthers with a chance join Jim Brown and Emmitt Smith as the only NFL running backs with 750 rushing yards and eight TDs in five consecutive seasons to start a career.

Peterson had 712 yards going against the Panthers. Peterson added 162 yards and two TDs to join Brown and Smith in that 24-21win over the Panthers.

See SPORTS BEAT, page 15

AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., takes part in a congressional roundtable Tuesday on college sports, at which participants offered perspectives on the current state of NCAA athletics on Capitol Hill in Washington.

BY FREDERIC J. FROMMER ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic congressman compared the NCAA to the Mafia over how it controls the lives of student athletes.

“I think they’re just one of the most vicious, most ruthless organizations ever created by mankind,” Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush said of the NCAA at a congressional forum on college sports Tuesday. “I think you would compare the NCAA to Al Capone and to the Mafia.”

Rush made the accusations at the forum called to look at the impact of “back-room deals, payoffs and scandals” in college sports. The congressman spoke after hearing from a couple of mothers of former student-athletes who complained of ill treatment by schools after their sons suffered injuries.

“Congressman Rush obviously doesn’t know the NCAA,” Bob Williams, a spokesman for the organization, said in an email Tuesday night. “The NCAA and its member institutions provide over $2 billion per year in scholarships, financial assistance and academic support to student-athletes ... second only to the federal government.

Student-athlete success is our mission.”

One mother, Valerie Hardrick, said the University of Oklahoma refused to grant a waiver for medical hardship that would allow her son, Kyle Hardrick, to play basketball at junior college after transferring from OU. Prior to Tuesday’s forum, Hardrick’s family provided to The Associated Press documentation showing that team doctors

diagnosed him with a torn meniscus in his knee and wrote down on practice logs that he should be held out because he was hurt.

Hardrick’s family said the university has refused to pursue the waiver unless the family agrees to a settlement that would prohibit him or his family members from enrolling at Oklahoma or any of the universities governed by its board of regents. The proposed settlement also would prevent the Hardricks from filing a lawsuit against the university.

“My insurance does not cover all of Kyle’s medical bills,” an emotional Valerie Hardrick said.

“The University of Oklahoma refused to pay for Kyle’s surgery, his rehab and his medication. The university actions also allowed Kyle to be released without appropriate medical treatment before consulting his original surgeon.”

Kyle Hardrick, a forward who played a total of 6 minutes during his two seasons with the Sooners, said he has since transferred to a community college in Kansas but isn’t able to play without the waiver.

Jeff Capel, Hardrick’s coach at OU, wrote a letter on behalf of Hardrick in September saying a medical hardship waiver is justified in his case. Capel was fired after last season and is now an assistant coach at Duke.

In response to phone and email messages left for Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione, the university issued a statement late Tuesday night saying it had informed the Hardricks it “would facilitate the opportunity” for the family to seek a hardship waiver and asserting it had “acted responsibly in this matter.”

See NCAA, page 15

Thursday, November 3, 2011

11

More wrangling over estate of late James Brown

BY MEG KINNARD AND SUSANNE M. SCHAFER ASSOCIATED PRESS

AP Photo/Bravo, Wilford Harewood

No role models: Phaedra Parks, left, and Sheree Whitfield star on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” which debuts Sunday at 9 p.m. EST on Bravo.

‘Housewives’ star says reality TV spawns bullying

BY NICOLE EVATT ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK (AP) — Fans of Bravo’s “Real Housewives” reality franchise often tune in for the catfights and drama, but one Atlanta housewife says the genre may encourage bullying.

“Unfortunately, I do think that reality TV has spawned a whole culture of bullying,” said Phaedra Parks in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. “I believe that the behavior you see on reality TV does not exactly exemplify how adults should be conducting themselves.”

Highlights of the series, which has been replicated in seven cities across the country, include volatile tempers, verbal outbursts, name calling and allegations of mean tweeting — and who can forget the infamous New Jersey table flip seen ’round the world?

The last season of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” kicked off with a chaotic, physical altercation at a baby christening, while the new season in Beverly Hills, Calif.,

has focused on veteran cast mates ganging up on and ostracizing new girl Brandi Glanville, going as far as hiding her crutches while she had a broken foot.

But Atlanta housewife and recording artist Kandi Burruss says bullying was around long before their hit TV franchise.

“A lot of people try to find reasons or ways to blame people or situations for their grief or sadness,” Burruss said. “Personally, I think reality TV is a mimic of what’s happening in real life, not the other way around. People have always had arguments, and there’s always been cliques.”

Parks said she believes parents need to monitor what their children watch and insists that series like hers are not meant for young viewers.

She also said she thinks reality stars should set a better example.

“We have to say that violence is unacceptable,” Parks said. “We have to learn to resolve our issues by communicating effectively.”

Season 4 of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” premieres on Bravo on Nov. 6 at 9 p.m. EST.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Trustees who say they were unjustly removed from the charitable trust of the late soul singer James Brown urged South Carolina’s Supreme Court on Tuesday to strike down the estate settlement.

The justices questioned an attorney for former trustees Adele Pope and Robert Buchanan about their contention that then-South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster didn’t have the authority to push through the deal that ended years of fighting among Brown’s heirs. Pope and Buchanan asked that the settlement be reorganized by a lower court.

The dispute began shortly after the “Godfather of Soul” died of heart failure on Christmas Day 2006 at age 73. The performer’s death touched off years of bizarre headlines, beginning with his widow Tomi Rae Hynie being locked out of his 60-acre estate and photographers capturing her sobbing and shaking its iron gates, begging to be let in.

AP Photo/Brett Flashnick

Meet the Browns: Deanna Brown Thomas: One of James Brown’s daughters leaves the South Carolina Supreme Court (in Columbia) after justices listened to arguments by lawyers for the family and trustees of the estate of James Brown on Tuesday.

McMaster, who ultimately brokered a settlement in 2009, said the dispute over the estate would have continued without his intervention.

Half a dozen of Brown’s adult children had bickered for years after their father’s death before agreeing

Four Tops musical leader Rountree dies at 61 LAS VEGAS (AP) — A key behind-the-scenes associate of the famed Motown quartet the Four Tops, George Rountree, has died. He was 61.

The Sun reports that Rountree, who worked as the group’s musical director for more than 30 years, died Sunday in a Las Vegas hospital.

Rountree, known simply as “Tree,” also performed other roles for the group, including arranger, composer and keyboardist.

Rountree, a Detroit native, performed with some of the music industry’s biggest stars, including the Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Mary Wilson, Martha Reeves, Frankie Valli, Bill Withers, Freda Payne and David Ruffin.

AP Photo/Brett Flashnick

Meet the Browns: Yamma Noyola Brown Lumar, left, Deanna Brown Thomas, center, and Venisha Brown, daughters of James Brown, leave the South Carolina Supreme Court (in Columbia) after justices listened to arguments by lawyers for the family and trustees of the estate of James Brown on Tuesday.

to the settlement. They said they support the deal and want the litigation to end so that the trust can be put to its intended use: funding education for needy children in South Carolina and Georgia.

But Pope and Buchanan, who were removed as trustees by a circuit judge who approved the deal, sued over the 2009 deal.

That complex settlement gave about half of Brown’s assets to an education fund for needy children, a quarter to his widow and young son and the rest to his adult children, arguing that they were not party to the negotiations that led up to the settlement and were removed because of their opposition.

“The attorney general has absolutely no authority to step into litigation and purport to sign settlement agreements,” said James Richardson, an attorney for Pope and Buchanan.

Richardson argued that the judge who approved the McMaster plan was misinformed over what role the state’s chief prosecutor should play in such cases.

Under McMaster’s deal, a professional manager took control of Brown’s assets from the estate’s trustees, wiping out crushing debt — more than $20 million Brown had borrowed for a European comeback tour — and opening the way for thousands of needy students to receive full college scholarships.

The plan allowed a financial manager to cut lucrative deals that put Brown’s music on national and international commercials for such products as Chanel perfume and Gatorade.

Brown was renowned for making famous hundreds of iconic musical works, including hits like “I Feel Good” and “A Man’s World,” and known internationally for his flashy performances and dynamic stage presence. But years of drug problems and financial mismanagement caused his estate to dwindle.

See JAMES BROWN, page 12

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

To jurors, Michael Jackson’s doctor remains silent attorneys claim Jackson gave himself the dose when Murray left the room.

Jurors were presented with LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors dueling scientific evidence to suphearing the involuntary manslaughport each side’s theory, although ter case against Michael Jackson’s even a defense expert noted he doctor will not hear directly from would not have given the pop the man whose fate they will soon singer propofol in his bedroom for be asked to decide. any sum of money.

Murray told police two days after Jackson’s death that he had been giving the singer the powerful anesthetic nightly for nearly two months. After the singer’s death, police found bags with basic medical equipment and vials of propofol, but not the advanced equipment prosecutors and experts say the doctor should have had to administer propofol.

Pastor and attorneys spent Tuesday afternoon finalizing jury instructions, which will give the panel its guidelines for how to view the case. Prosecutors are saying that while Murray was engaged in lawful practices during his treatment of Jackson, he was criminally negligent in many of his actions. The panel will be told that they can consider whether Murray should have known that Jackson’s death was a foreseeable consequence of his actions.

Defense attorneys will be able to highlight the testimony of five character witnesses — which jurors will be told can be sufficient to create reasonable doubt — to illustrate seven traits they claim the doctor has displayed throughout his career: being attentive, informative, AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool skillful, cautious, compasThe defendant: After deciding not to testify in his own defense, Dr. Conrad sionate, loyal and knowledgeable.

Murray now awaits closing arguments in his involuntary manslaughter trial.

They can also consider Instead, the panel will have to Murray of his rights to testify or whether the character witnesses demonstrated that Murray is selfconvict or acquit Dr. Conrad remain silent.

Spectators, including Jackson’s less and not financially motivated.

Murray based on the testimony of 49 witnesses and hundreds of mother, father, brother Randy and Prosecutors have cast him as pieces of evidence, including one sister LaToya, watched from the greedy and eager to please Jackson, lengthy police interview with the audience as the judge asked who had agreed to pay the physiMurray, “Have you made up your cian $150,000 per month. The cardiologist. singer died before the contract was The seven-man, five-woman mind?”

Murray paused, looked at all finalized. panel didn’t get to hear Murray Although they won’t have any announce his decision Tuesday, but his lawyers, seemed to sigh and were rather told by a judge after said, “My decision is I will not tes- direct testimony from the Houstonbased cardiologist to consider, the testimony from a pair of medical tify in this matter.”

Pastor said Murray had proper- jury will be able to review the docexperts that there would be no more ly weighed his options and added, tor’s lengthy police statement, in evidence presented to them.

They were given Wednesday “I certainly will respect that deci- which he both detailed his treatments to Jackson and left out any off, which prosecutors and defense sion.”

Murray, 58, has pleaded not references to his frequent phone attorneys will use to craft their closing arguments — the final guilty in connection with Jackson’s use on the morning the singer died.

It is just one of the more than words of the case before delibera- June 2009 death. He faces up to four years behind bars and the loss 300 pieces of evidence that were tions begin.

Murray’s decision Tuesday of his medical license if convicted. presented during the trial, which so Prosecutors contend Murray far has lasted six weeks. came after 22 days of testimony AP special correspondent and serious thought by the doctor, gave Jackson a fatal dose of the who told Superior Court Judge anesthetic propofol in the bedroom Linda Deutsch contributed to this Michael Pastor the day before that of the singer’s mansion. Defense report.

BY ANTHONY MCCARTNEY AP ENTERTAINMENT WRITER

he hadn’t ruled out taking the stand. In the moments before the announcement, with jurors still in the room and the judge huddling with attorneys at a sidebar conference, the doctor held his hands in front of his face, as if in prayer.

Jurors were excused from the courtroom while Pastor advised

Calendar Listing:

Casting all performers!

Back Stage Magazine’s 19th annual Actorfest event returns to Los Angeles on Sat., Nov. 5.

Don’t miss casting calls with NBC, Telemundo, mun2, and Disney Parks and Resorts.

Casting directors from “Social Network,” “Modern Family,” “The Help,” “Inception,” “Dolphin Tale,” “Cougar Town,” the new “Mission: Impossible” — and more.

Los Angeles, October 12, 2011— Back Stage magazine will partner with NBC, Telemundo, mun2 and Disney Parks & Resorts to produce an open audition on Nov. 5 during Actorfest, a oneday event for performers, which is being held at the California Market Center.

Basic admission is free!

Every year, Back Stage takes the performing arts community to new levels and provides career opportunities and development during Actorfest in both New York and Los Angeles.

Sponsors of Actorfest in Los Angeles include the Art of Acting Studio, the Atlantic Acting School, AFTRA and SAG. Some of the confirmed speakers and participants include: Jeff Greenberg (“Modern Family,” “Frasier”); Laray Mayfield (“Social Network,” “Footloose” [2011], “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”); Kerry Barden (“The Help,” “Dolphin Tale,” “Winter’s Bone”); John Papsidera (“Inception,” “The Dark Knight,” “Burlesque,” “Zombieland”); Dorian Frankel (“Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Parks and Recreation”); Brett Benner (“Cougar Town,” “One Tree Hill,” “Scrubs”); April Webster (“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” “Super 8,” “2012,” “Star Trek”); Michael Testa (“Ringer,” “Cold Case,” “Make It or Break It”); Holly Powell (former head of casting for CBS, East Coast, and for CBS Miniseries); and Mark Teschner (“General Hospital”), among others.

The open-call auditions brings diverse and fresh faces to networks and casting agencies that are seeking talent for new and existing entertainment program-

ming. Hundreds of performers gather in line the night before for a chance to earn television exposure.

An attendee, Abrielle Roman, was discovered at Actorfest’s Nickelodeon audition. She shot a pilot for Nickelodeon and has since signed with a top agent.

Los Angeles Actorfest will be: Sat., Nov. 5, at 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

(Early attendance recommended.)

The California Market Center 110 E. 9th St. Los Angeles, CA 90079 During Actorfest, attendees will be able to: • attend workshops hosted by casting directors, agents, managers and instructors • visit the Exhibit Hall, where performers can find the tools they need to advance and invest in their careers including headshot photographers, acting coaches to the stars, voicetraining professionals and more • participate in casting calls with big-name networks and studios • take part in “Meet & Drop” sessions with popular casting directors for feedback on presentation • interact with peers in the networking café Though basic admission is free, everyone must register to attend.

Admission includes the exhibit hall, open casting calls and entry to the café.

Special pricing packages are available for workshops and panels. Seating for workshops is on a first-come basis.

Meet & Drop sessions are free to attend.

Actorfest is for all age groups.

Anyone under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a legal guardian, who does not need to register for the event.

Only interested persons should register for the event. A “parent” badge will be provided at check in on the day of the show.

For more information on the event, location specifics and audition details, interested candidates can visit www.Actorfest.com.

JAMES BROWN Continued from page 11 At the time of the settlement, the exact value of Brown’s assets was not made public and attorneys said his accounts had little money in them. In 2008, some of his possessions were auctioned for $850,000, in part to pay down debt, and all agreed future income from music and movie royalties and the use of Brown’s highly marketable likeness was what remained at stake.

The attorney general’s office argued in court filings that Pope and Buchanan hadn’t conducted a proper appraisal of Brown’s estate. It also claimed the two had paid themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars from the sale of Brown’s household and personal effects and claimed $5 million in fees. They also said McMaster was justified in getting involved because he must look after those who might benefit from a charitable trust under state law.

But the justices grilled Assistant Attorney General Sonny Jones about the top prosecutor’s authority to upstage the court-appointed trustees, Pope and Buchanan.

McMaster said after the hearing that he stuck by the settlement, adding it meant royalties would be put to immediate benefit of providing scholarships.

“We believed the settlement was a very good one for ... the education of the poor children, because there was a danger that they would get nothing,” said McMaster, who first saw Brown perform in 1960 and came to know him in later years.

“He was a remarkable and generous man. ... He will educate thousands of children because we were able to protect this trust.”

It could take months for the justices to rule.

One of Brown’s daughters, Deanna Brown Thomas, said his children hope for a swift end to the litigation, which also has delayed the family’s plans to build a shrine to Brown like Elvis Presley’s Graceland.

She added the children agreed to a settlement because of their father’s commitment to children and their education, despite finishing only seventh grade himself.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

13

Eddie Murphy stars in the action-comedy ‘Tower Heist’

BY DWIGHT BROWN NNPA FILM CRITIC In this “Occupy Wall Street” age, pitting the working class against the superrich is highly topical. Throw in a Bernie Madoff character, and there should be more than enough reasons for the proletariats to rise up and give greedy, callous billionaires grief. This action comedy’s heart is in the right place, but its screenplay and direction are not.

The Tower is a luxury high-rise condominium on the edge of New York City’s Central Park. Josh (Ben Stiller) manages the building’s quirky staff and caters to its super-rich clientele. He cozies up to Wall Street financial wiz investor Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), who treats him like a servant.

When Shaw is arrested for conducting a Ponzi scheme, Josh is shocked. He talks the building’s board into letting Shaw invest the staff’s pension. Uh-oh!

All the money is gone. Shaw is cavalier, feigns his innocence and, after a brief house arrest, will likely go free.

His haughty demeanor irritates Josh.

That irritation turns into rage when the popular, elderly doorman Lester (Stephen Henderson), who’s given all his savings to Shaw, attempts suicide.

Josh seeks revenge. He concocts a plot to rob Shaw with a motley crew: the lazy concierge (Casey Affleck), a deadbeat tenant (Matthew Broderick), a dimwit elevator operator (Michael Pena), a full-figured maid (Gabourey Sidibe) and a street hoodlum from his Queens neighborhood named Slide (Eddie Murphy). Does the rich man stand a chance?

In an interview Eddie Murphy boasted that he had concocted the idea

for film. Writers Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson crafted his whims into a screenplay. The script’s most obvious flaw is that it feels sketchy, underdeveloped and preposterous. The plot defects are deeper than a New York pothole.

Why is Shaw so sure he’ll go free when so much money is missing? Why does an investigating FBI agent (Tia Leone) give Josh so much inside information on a case in which she should be tight-lipped? Details. Details. Details.

There is the occasional, snarky oneliner: a young, new lawyer bargains for Josh’s release and tries to intimidate an FBI agent. Agent: “You’ve only be a lawyer for three days, and you’re trying to bribe the FBI?” Lawyer: “Sharks are born swimming.”

Action comedies are director Brett Ratner’s specialty, as evidenced by his famous “Rush Hour” series. Buddy movies are in his strike zone too — he worked wonders with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. Yet, it’s as if his trick bag has run empty. His direction seems extra feeble due to the weak script. The action sequences lack imagination. He fails to milk the comedy out of scenes that have great potential. He ignores great opportunities for physical humor.

He is not on his game.

The cast tries gallantly to breathe comedy into the movie. The chief joker is Murphy, whose antics are faux ghetto manic. He tosses around swear words and the “N” word, but is never convincing. He’s too bourgie for the part. Yet he exhibits an impish charm that is ultimately disarming. Let your guard down and you will chuckle.

Stiller is in his element as the wronged and self-righteous working class hero. Sidibe is quite funny, even if

AP Photo/Universal Pictures, David Lee

Newest comic duo: Ben Stiller, left, and Eddie Murphy team up in “Tower Heist.” her Jamaican accent is amateurish. The scenes in which Murphy and she flirt may be the best in the movie. Affleck and Broderick are fine. Henderson is touching as the old codger who lost everything.

None of the production elements stand out. Not the cinematography (Dante Spinotti), the editing (Mark Helfrich), the art direction (Nicholas Lundy) or the music (Christophe Beck).

Is there a reason to see this film? If

a movie about working-class misfits sticking it to a rich SOB strikes your fancy, maybe you’ll ignore the imperfections and laugh.

Visit NNPA Film Critic at DwightBrownInk.com.

A BRETT RATNER FILM

UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND IMAGINE ENTERTAINMENT PRESENT IN ASSOCIATION WITH RELATIVITY MEDIA A BRIAN GRAZER PRODUCTION BEN STILLERMUSICEDDIE MURPHY “TOWER HEIST” CASEY AFFLECK ALAN ALDA MATTHEW BRODERICK JUDD HIRSCH T´EA LEONI MICHAEL PE˜NSTORYA GABOUREY SIDIBE BY CHRISTOPHE BECK EXECUTIVE PRODUCED PRODUCERS BILL CARRARO KAREN KEHELA SHERWOOD

BY BRIAN GRAZER EDDIE MURPHY KIM ROTH BY ADAM COOPER & BILL COLLAGE AND TED GRIFFIN SCREENPLAY DIRECTED A UNIVERSAL PICTURE

BY TED GRIFFIN AND JEFF NATHANSON

BY BRETT RATNER

SOUNDTRACK ON BACK LOT MUSIC AND VARÈSE SARABANDE

© 2011 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

AP Photo/Universal Pictures, Wilson Webb

In this image released by Universal Pictures, Ben Stiller, left, and Eddie Murphy are shown in a scene from “Tower Heist.”

STARTS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4

CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES

MOBILE USERS: For Showtimes - Text TOWER with your ZIP CODE to 43KIX (43549)!

14

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Who’s watching the Success of President Barack supercommittee?

Obama: The God-Factor

BY JULIANNE MALVEAUX NNPA COLUMNIST When President Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011, he committed our nation to a budget-cutting process that may well be cumbersome. The “Supercommittee”, or the Joint Select Committee on Budget Reduction, has a hard timeline of November 23 to propose some $1.5 trillion in cuts. If Congress does not pass the Supercommittee proposals, then an automatic trigger will cut the budget across the board by about nine percent.

I suppose the thinking behind creating the Supercommittee, composed of six Democrats and six Republicans, is that 12 minds are better than 535. The size of the committee may also make it easier for lobbyists! According to Politico, more than 200 lobbyists are pressuring Supercommittee members to protect their interests.

Who will protect the interests of young people, especially those who attend HBCUs? Already, students have been hard hit by budget machinations. Beginning July 1, 2012, students will no longer receive an interest subsidy on their undergraduate and graduate student loans. Before now, while studying, student loans were interest-free, with interest kicking in only when they began repayment.

No more. That will save about $18 billion in the next decade, but at what cost? It is ironic that on one hand, President Obama wants our nation to again lead the world in the percentage of people who are college graduates, and at the same time, yet another hurdle is being imposed on those who want to go to college.

For now, it appears that the Pell Grant of $5,500 for low-income students remains intact. However, the Supercommittee is looking for places to cut, and they are looking everywhere. Absent lobbyists, we will all have to lobby to protect the students who do not have the resources of the health care industry, legal associations and those other 200 crowding Capitol Hill.

To be sure, many of the Supercommittee members are committed to education. Congressman James Clyburn (D-S.C.), for example, is the only Congressional Black Caucus member on the Supercommittee. He has long been a friend of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). He is likely to find allies among other Democrats on the Supercommittee.

However, will they be able to withstand both the Republican zeal to reduce the size of government or the automatic triggers that will take place if the Supercommittee can’t find compromise?

It is also likely that Title III funding, which is specifically targeted to HBCUs, will be on the chopping block. Earlier this month several UNCF presidents met with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to talk about ways that Title III money

BY DR. BENJAMIN F. CHAVIS, JR. NNPA COLUMNIST

Julianne Malveaux can be protected. Those who care about HBCUs must lobby not only CBC members and Congressional Representatives in areas where HBCUs are located, but also any and every voter, especially those on the Supercommittee.

The Committee is co-chaired by Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Congressman Jeb Hensarling (RTexas), and includes Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.), John Kerry (DMass.), John Kyle (R-Ariz.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Pat Toomey (R-Penn.). Congressional representatives include Xavier Becerra (DCalif.), Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and David Camp (R-Mich.).

When you scour the headlines, you won’t find much written about the Supercommittee, even though they are in the throes of meetings and negotiations. We can expect Democrats to protect entitlements and Republicans to resist tax increases, and these are sure ingredients for an impasse. When the Supercommittee was formed, critics from both the left and the right talked about the possibility of it deadlocking — as, in order to attain a simple majority, somebody will have to cross party lines.

The last time we faced a budget impasse, we ended up with a reduction in our Standard and Poor’s rating from AAA to AA+. When it cut our nation’s rating, S&P said their prognosis for the long-term fiscal health of the United States was “poor.”

The Supercommittee may well be out of the news, but it should not be off our radar screen. The dozen members are making decisions that will have long-term consequences. They may well decide to tackle aspects of our tax structure, and they will certainly decide to cut some, if not all, federal programs.

We must all ensure that the Supercommittee will not reduce the deficit on the backs of the poor and the powerless — especially our students.

Julianne Malveaux is president of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C.

We all should well remember that in the aftermath of President Nelson Mandela winning the election in South Africa in 1994, there soon began a growing list of cynics and political pundits who mistakenly believed that President Mandela was compromising too much with the political forces of opposition at the expense of paying attention to the socioeconomic needs of the core of his base constituency in the African National Congress. Today, some of us are hearing similar misplaced remarks and accusations about President Barack Obama, in particular from some African American leaders and critics. It was just three years ago in November 2008 that our votes for freedom were felt and celebrated all over the world with the election of President Obama.

People were literally dancing in the streets. Historic elections of Black people to national and global positions of political and economic power never occur solely in a vacuum. Mandela’s and Obama’s elections respectively, I believe, represented the evidence of the God-factor that ultimately helps to determine the successful outcome of long protracted struggles between those that are oppressed and their oppressors.

The aspirations and struggles of African people for freedom, justice, equality and empowerment have helped to advance the cause of freedom and justice for all people throughout the world. The most brutal forms of slavery, genocide and apartheid for centuries never extinguished or eliminated the Godgiven humanity of African people across Africa, nor across the Americas. Today we must not allow ourselves to get lost in the desert of despair and hopelessness because of the persistence of poverty, unemployment, and injustice even though we have Black presidents in many nations today including the United States. But we should not take what progress that has been made for granted.

The fact of the matter is that both Mandela and Obama not only achieved historic and monumental political victories, they both with their own unique intellect and outstanding leadership abilities have helped to shape the world community better to advance the cause of liberation, freedom and empowerment.

The truth is there is more opportunity today for African Americans to move forward more than ever before if we would work harder together,

Black Facts November 6, 1973 Tom Bradley is elected mayor of Los Angeles at a time that Blacks represent only 15 percent of the L.A. electorate.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.

pool our trillion-dollar resources, and raise up another young generation of freedom fighters, entrepreneurs, and institution-builders.

Thus, I stand firmly for the re-election of President Obama without reservation. We cannot afford to become cynical and hopeless. Real social change does not happen overnight or in three to four years.

But time is on our side because God is on our side if we do the right things at the right times at the right places not just for ourselves but for all people.

Don’t worry this is not a sermon.

It is, however, a sober reminder to those of us who may succumb to some malignant cases of social amnesia or to those who are addicted to that self-destructive disease known as “The Willie Lynch Syndrome.” Yes, there are ample reasons to express concerns and criticisms about the continuing plight of millions of our brothers and sisters in our communities who are crying out for a better quality of life. But engaging in efforts to derail the reelection of President Barack Obama is foolhardy and counterproductive to the overall interests of the African American, Latino American and other progressive constituencies in the United States.

I like to quote old African proverbs because they are so universally relevant to both the contradictions and opportunities that we face

today as we prepare to enter into the 2012 national political season.

A wise man from the Congo once said, “Don’t be fooled by those who want you to exchange your soul for a trinket…… for the eternal is more valuable than a thing that may look good only for one moment in time.” W.E.B Dubois reminded us that the soul of Black people should never be for sale on the auction block of political expediency. Do not let the Tea Party sell you a cup of politically contaminated brew. Stay sober and conscious of what is happening.

Remember Willie Lynch. The 2012 elections in the United States will be the most important elections of our lifetime. This will be a referendum on going forward or going backward. In many states there have measures put in place to discourage and to suppress the Black and other minority vote. We must challenge these repressive voting policies in every state and community.

Be careful what you pray for because our prayers will be answered. That is why I am optimistic. I believe President Obama will be re-elected. But we must not rest as if this is a done deal because it will be a struggle and another historic contest. Don’t miss or forsake your chance and responsibility to participate in civic action. Vote and make an important difference. Yes every vote will count if you vote!

We are at another pivotal time.

Watch closely how the U.S. Congress will handle the next vote on the deficit. Watch the economy turn around to the positive in the face of all the negative commentators. Watch how President Obama will continue to take the high road doing the presidential debates. I am writing this piece for the NNPA from Johannesburg, South Africa where I am reminded that our struggle for freedom is constant. The entire world is watching America and the success of President Barach H. Obama. No, it will not be the Xfactor, but it will be the God-factor that will ultimately win.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr is Senior Advisor to the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) and President of Education Online Services Corporation and the HipHop Summit Action Network.

ROSE PARADE Continued from page 5 Martinez joined the Army in 2002 and was deployed to Iraq in March 2003 as an infantryman with the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. Less than a month later, he was driving a Humvee in Karbala when it hit a land mine.

Martinez was trapped inside the burning military vehicle and suffered burns over 40 percent of his body.

He later became a motivational

speaker and in 2008 was cast as combat veteran Brot Monroe on ABC’s long-running daytime drama “All My Children, which has since been canceled.

Besides his current turn on ABC-TV’s “Dancing With the Stars,” Martinez works with the charities Operation Finally Home, Phoenix Society, USO, Iraq Star and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

STAFF ASSISTANT FOR GROUP HOME Looking for staff for Group Home for the developmentally disabled.

Part time or possible full-time.

Must have first aid, CPR, physical and TB clearance.

Email or fax resume to: Email: confidencareinc@yahoo.com Fax: (323) 290-1012.

Attention: Ms. Rebecca Cornet

SPORTS BEAT Continued from page 10 NFL’s week 8 could be called the week of the running backs. Check these numbers: Fred Jackson ripped off 194 yards from scrimmage as the Buffalo Bills shut out the Washington Redskins. Steve Jackson rushed for 159 yards and two TDs as the St. Louis Rams collected their first win of the season. The San Francisco ’49ers Frank Gore ran for 134 yards and a pair of TDs. The Houston Texans’ Adrian Foster chipped in with 112 yards a TD as his team beat Jacksonville Jaguars, 24-14.

It’s a little known fact that Kenny Washington, the first Black player in the NFL in modern times with the L.A. Rams in 1946, led Lincoln High to all-city titles in both baseball and football before migrating to UCLA to win all-American honors along with Jackie Robinson, the first Black MLB player with the then-Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946.

Washington was recently honored by some Lincoln High alums, and there are plans to build a new stadium in his honor.

“God bless America.”

“God bless” Ron Washington and his Texas Rangers, back-to-back losers in the World Series. After needing only one strike twice to win it all in Game 6, Washington and his Texas Rangers blew the seventh game, 6-2, after getting off to a 2-0 lead.

Only one man of color, Cito Gaston of the Toronto Blue Jays, has ever won the World Series championships — and he did it back-toback.

Washington didn’t win the World Series, but he still deserves AL Manager of the Year honors.

Washington was gracious in losing; and he said: “We just didn’t get it done.” The Cardinals are World Series champions for the eleventh time.

Naturally, Babe Ruth was rated the No. 1 New York Yankee in a poll conducted by USA Today. Of the top five Yankees of all time, shortstop Derek Jeter was the only man of color in the group. There was no “Mr. October” Reggie Jackson or Dave Winfield. Are you kidding me? No, I am not.

And the beat continues.

Ex-Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal has joined with the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots campaign to make sure no kid will be without a toy for Christmas. This is nothing new for “Shaq-a-Clause.” As a Laker and thereafter, Shaq trucked loads of toys to the kids at the Challengers Boys & Club, 50th and Vermont Ave., for his friend Lou Dantzler, the late founder of the internationally famous club.

Some clubs in the NFL could use

15

Qualified “A” licensed Contractors are invited to submit sealed bids by 2:05 P.M., December 1, 2011 to the BurbankGlendale-Pasadena Airport Authority for Project Number E11-17, Fiber Optic and Service Equipment Project – Phase 4B. The Work in general consists of, but is not limited to, service equipment installation at Gate 350, Fuel Yard, Police Air Support and the southwest corner of the AOA fenceline. Project shall include all connectors, mounts, accessories, etc. to make service equipment fully functional and ready to incorporate into the Airport security system as described in the plans and specifications. Fiber optic cable installation from Building 36 to the southwest corner of the AOA shall be included. Plans and specifications can be obtained directly from the Bob Hope Airport Web site at bobhopeairport.com under Business Opportunities. All bidders shall register with the Airport Engineering Department either via website or in person. Bids submitted by firms that have not registered with Airport Engineering will be deemed non-responsive and will not be considered. Call Bobbi Greenspahn at (818) 565-1305 for more information. A pre-bid conference will be conducted on November 16, 2011, at 10:00 A.M. at the Bob Hope Airport Engineering Office, 2800 Clybourn, Burbank, California, 91505, located at the corner of Sherman Way and Clybourn.

Terrell Owens down the stretch drive.

Owens ranks second behind Hall of Famer Jerry Rice in all-time receiving yards. Owens and Randy Moss are tied for second of all time with 153 TDs behind Rice, the all-time leader. Owens put on a one-hour workout at Calabasas High last week.

Eight media people showed up but not one NFL scout showed. Owens’ agent Drew Rosenhaus says he’s going to send all 32 NFL clubs a video of Owens’ workout. Owens has played for five NFL clubs. And he hopes he will play with a winner in his 16th season as a pro. The 37-year old Owens caught 72 passes for 983 yards and nine TDs with the Cincinnati Bengals last season.

Three of the 12 head basketball coaches in the Pac-12 are men of color. They are Oregon State’s Craig Robinson (brother-in-law of president Barack Obama), Washington’s Lorenzo Romar and Stanford’s Johnny Dawkins.

GOVERNMENT LOS ANGELES COUNTY METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (METRO) INVITATION FOR BIDS Metro will receive bids for C1015 Division 1 Cyclone Replacement (Design/Build). The work to be performed is the construction and management work for the Design/Build Replacement of an existing Cyclone assembly, two (2) bellows, cleaning, and refurbish all controls of four (4) bellow units at Metro’s Division 1. California State Contractor’s License Classification B or C43 is required of the Prime Bidder. All Subcontractors must possess appropriate licenses for each specialty subcontractor. Bidders are strongly encouraged to attend the Pre-Bid conference on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 @ 10:00 a.m., Palisades Conference Room 8th Floor located at the Office of Procurement & Material Mgmt, One Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

This contract is a “Two-Step” Procurement Process: 1) Pre-Qualification & Determination of Technically acceptable Proposal; and 2) Lowest Bid Price. “Step One” and “Step Two” bids are due to the Office of Procurement & Material Management, One Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012-2952 not later than 2: 00 p.m. on Monday, December 19, 2011. “Step-One” Technical bids will not be publicly opened. Bidders passing the “Step-One” will be invited for the opening of their sealed bid on a date to be determined.

Project duration is 150 calendar days from effective date of Notice to Proceed. All bids must be submitted on forms furnished by Metro. Bids received later than the above date and time will be rejected and returned to the bidder unopened. Each bid must be sealed and clearly marked IFB No. C1015, “Step One” or “Step Two”.

The non-refundable price for the complete IFB documents (on disk) is $10.00 when picked up at the above address; or $15.00 if disks are to be mailed.

Please contact the Procurement Receptionist at 213-922-1037 to purchase copies.

You may obtain further information, by faxing Deneise Glover at (213) 922-3883.

11/3/11 CNS-2192820# WATTS TIMES

And the beat ends.

Brad Pye, Jr., can be reached at Switchreel@aol.com

CROWDER Continued from page 5 photographers and journalists.

Malcolm Ali: “Guy Crowder was my mentor, my teacher … always willing to share information about photography, and he taught me about event photography. I had the opportunity to work with him many times.”

Bill Jones: “The best friend I ever had; he got me started in this business [photography]. We worked together on a few projects. The last time I saw him was about four years ago.”

Larry Aubry: “An exceptional man and a fine photographer … a real professional … but more important with him,

you knew exactly where you stood … a real straight-up guy and very honest … and a man with a lot of pride. We’re all going to miss him.”

Robert Torrence: “He was a great guy ... a perfectionist at his work. I didn’t work that much with him, but I worked with some of the people who worked with him all the time. All of us knew each other; but I know a lot of things about him and his work, and also his work ethic. Guy Crowder had a great work ethic.”

Sabir Majeed: “He was a very wellrespected photographer, and as I

year at Georgia Tech, presented one of the few positive accounts of college sports at the forum.

“Georgia Tech is a tremendously hard and difficult school, so they definitely put more time into academics than basketball,” he said. “The teachers — they don’t care if you’re a student-athlete, they just care about student.”

Battier described a college regimen at Duke that included a workout at 6:30 a.m., followed by classes, practice between 4 and 7:30 p.m., and wrapping up schoolwork at 11:30 or midnight.

“It is a full-time job,” he said.

Battier called the NCAA’s decision last week to allow conferences to provide student-athletes up to $2,000 in spending money “a great start.”

“Is that a game changer? No. What is a game changer? A game changer is guaranteeing four-year scholarships. That’s a game changer,”

Battier said. “A game changer is, ‘If you commit to our school, and you graduate, we will pay for any graduate degree that you would like to pursue.’“ Ramogi Huma, president of the National College Players Association, called the $2,000 a step in the right direction. But he said it shouldn’t be optional, and that it still leaves a shortfall. His group has calculated the average scholarship shortfall for men’s basketball and football at the Football Bowl Subdivision level at around $3,200.

With just a push at five schools, the NCPA recently got more than 300 major college football and men’s basketball players to sign a petition telling the NCAA and college presidents they want a cut of ever-increasing TV sports revenue.

Associated Press Writer Jeff Latzke in Oklahoma City contributed to this story.

NCAA Continued from page 10 Oklahoma pointed out that any NCAA institution where Hardrick would transfer could also apply for a waiver. However, he has instead transferred to the junior college level, which is not governed by the NCAA. Oklahoma’s statement indicated that athletic officials could not discuss Hardrick’s case in detail because of student privacy guidelines.

The NCAA requires schools to certify that an athlete has insurance coverage for athletically related injuries, up to the deductible of the NCAA Catastrophic Injury Insurance Program (currently $90,000). The insurance coverage can be offered by the school, a parent or a personal policy of the athlete.

Two NBA players also participated in the forum: Thaddeus Young of the Philadelphia 76ers and Shane Battier, a free agent who last played with the Memphis Grizzlies.

Young, who went pro after one

remember, one time, he was on the staff of the Sentinel. I never had any interaction with him, nor any specific details about his work. Only his reputation, that he was highly respected as a photographer. He had retired by the time I got started in photography. Once he was chosen over me to photograph Al Gore at Danny Bakewell’s home, and I was quite sure that he deserved it.”

“He covered everything that you could imagine that would be of interest to the Black community — from school board races, the city council and board of supervisors and state assembly and senate to all sorts of celebrities like Muhammad Ali and the stars of Motown,” head of Cal State Northridge’s Institute for Arts and Media, Kent Kirkton, told reporters recently during an announcement that they had added to their existing collection of Crowder’s work, titled ‘Camera and Community: A Celebration by Guy Crowder.’

“He also did a lot of studio work and business photography, pictures of buildings and employees. He truly captured Black life in Los Angeles from the time he started in the early 1960s to when he retired in the late 1990s.”

Crowder was born in Beaumont, Tex., and relocated to Los Angeles in 1945. He had been married to his wife, Patricia, for 51 years, and he is survived by their son Reginald, four grandchildren and his mother, Ruby Crowder Jones.

Funeral services will be held on Thurs., Nov. 10, 11:00 a.m. at the West Angeles Church of God In Christ, North Campus Sanctuary, 3045 Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles, California. Bishop Charles E. Blake, Jr., will be the officiant.

16

Thursday, November 3, 2011

the joy of a smarter,

stronger

network.

You may have heard. AT&T and T-Mobile are planning to come together.

What will that mean to you?

More cell sites and spectrum means better service sooner.

And it means your Internet is about to take a big leap forward with LTE — a super-fast mobile broadband technology.

We are going to deploy it to more than 97 percent of all Americans, giving you access to a cutting-edge wireless network and all the opportunities it brings.

So, the moment something worth celebrating happens in your friends’ lives, you’ll know.

MobilizeEverything.com © 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved.