LAWT 03-08-2012

W E E K E N D E R

Vol. XXX, No. 1274

www.lawattstimes.com

Thursday, March 8, 2012

L.A. Watts Times

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Thursday, March 8, 2012

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ries ~ It’s your world as the week begins — and knowing you, you’ll waste no time and take it by storm. They’ll never know what hit ‘em (in a good way), whether it’s your coworkers, your stunned but happy friends or your significant other. But if you’re tempted to keep this pace up from Wednesday through Friday, you’re asking for frustration, a slip-up or even health issues. Rein yourself in, and do some planning instead of acting. aurus ~ Yes, you’re terrific, but at the beginning of the week it’s better to let them figure it out bit by delightful bit. Show what you know rather than expounding at length about it; actions have way more volume than words. Then, starting Wednesday and lasting through Friday, you’re both practical and romantic, plus serious when need be and lighthearted in exactly the right ways. You’re multifaceted, like a beautiful jewel, so shine on! The stars offer you a unique opportunity to transform your life’s path this weekend. emini ~ Take your latest, greatest idea firmly in hand at the beginning of the week. Show it to some pertinent people, and get some great input. Then go for it!

You’re getting assistance from the stars. But beware: From sometime Wednesday through Friday, your usually fantastic communication skills can’t cut through some serious noise and static. Say it twice, in two different media, and keep a record if it’s really important. With the weekend, though, comes the return of your silver-tongued ways, and some other superpowers to boot (the kind that are especially helpful in the realm of romance!). Enjoy! ancer ~ Your outlook is expanding amazingly at the beginning of the week. Re-examine a relationship, an emotion and a usual way of thinking — major enlargement and improvement is possible now. Then, from sometime Wednesday through Friday, your accomplishments may be minor by comparison, but they’ll still feel great. Cross stuff off a few different to-do lists — work, home, personal. This weekend might find you in conflict with someone who plays an important role in your life. eo ~ Dive in head first as the week begins. You’re completely in the swim of things, whether you’re doing some splashy flips or just going with the flow. Bask in your own glory in your downtime. But from sometime Wednesday through Friday, it’s time to get your feet planted firmly on the ground — and to reconsider your short-term and long-term paths. Make conscious choices, and take careful steps. Who’s alongside you? This weekend, you love company on your journey, whether you’re being practical or recreational. And your company is loving you, too. irgo ~ Everybody’s got something to say at the beginning of the week. Leave yourself time to sort the fact from the fiction — and time to recover from the input overload, too. Starting Wednesday and lasting through Friday, you’re more than up for anything and anyone that's coming your way — and you’re likely getting some pretty sweet stuff started under your own steam, too. Work? Romance?

Personal projects? No problem. When the weekend comes, though, you need to put on the brakes a bit.

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ibra ~ At the beginning of the week, delegate the little things to someone who cares — you’re thinking big picture, big-time. (If you have an important appointment or date, set up a reminder — or three!) But from Wednesday through Friday, your careful attention to everything and everyone is what gets you further faster. You might even hear or glimpse something that seems minor in the moment, but just wait. Everything’s coming up roses (or whatever your favorite flower is) this weekend. corpio ~ A certain situation is likely to be a bit tense at the beginning of the week. Will you de-escalate it or add to the existing drama? Find a way to stand up for yourself and also increase the peace. Life looks calmer from sometime Wednesday through Friday, and you should have time to do some excellent prep work — toward what end is entirely up to you. Friends and behind-the-scenes stuff are favored. This weekend, chitchat, gossip and idle speculation isn’t enough for you. agittarius ~ Dynamic only begins to describe you at the beginning of this week. That sense of humor of yours is sparkling, your optimism is contagious and when it comes to fun, you’ve got it going on. Take a little gamble — why not? But if you’re thinking about increasing the stakes from sometime Wednesday through Friday, think again. It’s best to let the situation — whether work, romance or otherwise -- develop a bit. When the weekend comes, you may be so busy laughing, making new friends and expanding your horizons that things fall right into place around you. apricorn ~ The world’s asking a lot of you at the beginning of the week, and your instinct may be to do everything you can to get it all done. Knowing when to set some limits (and what to ask for in return) is key. This kind of giveand-take is in better balance from Wednesday through Friday, and you'll even have time to do a little extra investigation, perhaps in the personal sphere. Finding out more about a loved one or yourself is richly rewarding. quarius ~ You love anything unusual, and your world's likely serving up some funny stuff at the beginning of the week — both humorous and just plain odd. Enjoy investigating all the ins and outs. More practical issues have your name on them from sometime Wednesday through Friday, and you’ll have to handle them sooner or later. (Hint: Later, they’ll be more difficult to grapple with.) This weekend, social or love connections come easily — if you just take the initiative. Add some extra warmth to your wit, and it’s all systems go. isces ~ You might be sympathetic to what you’re hearing at the beginning of the week, but think carefully about how involved you want to get. Sometimes being a listening ear is plenty. Between Wednesday and Friday, you’re extra good at assessing a person or situation in an objective manner. Uncover what’s really going on, then don’t hesitate to take action. And while you may look like you’re relaxing this weekend, you’re definitely turning something over in your heart and mind. It may take a little time, but it’ll lead to a positive step.

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Inside This Edition

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SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — A judge says the issue of building a stadium for the San Francisco 49ers cannot go before Santa Clara voters a second time.

Officials with the 49ers officials praised the ruling Monday and said construction could begin this spring The judge made the ruling Monday in response to a last-ditch attempt by a group to block the city’s stadium deal. The group, Santa Clara Plays Fair, is opposed to city offi-

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L.A. Watts Times Published Weekly – Updates 3800 S. Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008 Administration – Sales – Graphics – Editorial 323.299.3800 - office 323.291.6804 - fax Beverly Cook – Publisher, Managing Editor 1976 – 1993 Charles Cook – Publisher 1976 – 1998 Melanie Polk – Publisher 1998 – 2010 WWW.LAWATTSTIMES.COM Danny J. Bakewell, Sr. ............Executive Publisher & Executive Editor Brenda Marsh Mitchell ..................................Executive Vice President Tracey Mitchell ......................................................................Controller Brandon I. Brooks ..................................................Co-Managing Editor Yussuf J. Simmonds ..............................................Co-Managing Editor Joy Childs ....................................................................Assistant Editor Bernard Lloyd ....................................................Director of Advertising Benjamin Samuels ....................................................Graphic Designer Chris Martin ..........................................................Production Designer EMAIL: wattsweekender@yahoo.com Circulation ..................................................................................50,000 The opinions expressed by contributing writers are not necessarily those of the L.A. Watts Times.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The head of a small hip-hop record label who prosecutors say led a drug trafficking ring that used chartered jets to ship cocaine and cash between Baltimore and Los Angeles has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

City News Service says Ricky “DP” Brascom received the sentence in a Los Angeles court Tuesday, while his brother and partner Jerome “Bro-Bro” Brascom was sentenced to six years.

Both pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges last year.

They were indicted in 2010 with 12 others after a federal investigation dubbed “Operation Snowbird.”

Prosecutors say the men used Ricky Brascom’s company, “Behind da Scenes Entertainment,” to buy large amounts of cocaine in Los Angeles, have it flown in chartered jets to Baltimore, and have suitcases of cash flown back to Los Angeles.

Judge tosses challenge to 49ers stadium deal

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WEEKENDER

2 brothers get prison for LA-based cocaine ring

cials’ approval of $850 million in bank loans to fund the $1 billion stadium. It argued that the bank loan wasn’t part of the measure that voters approved in 2010.

The group tried to put the issue back on the June ballot. The city countered that the loan was an “administrative” act that didn’t need voter approval.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Peter Kirwan sided with the city.

U.S. studies confirm Europe close on ‘God particle’

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BY SETH BORENSTEIN | ASSOCIATED PRESS

13 BlackFacts.com March 11, 1959 “Raisin in the Sun,” the first Broadway play by a Black woman, opened at the Barrymore Theater with Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil in the starring roles.

Lorraine Hansberry’s drama was the first Broadway play with a Black director, Lloyd Richards, in the modern era.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More scientists are getting closer in the search for the so-called God particle of physics that would help explain the fundamentals of the universe. But they still haven’t quite found the elusive Higgs boson (BOE-sahn) yet.

Two teams of physicists using results from a now-closed American accelerator have come up with findings that are similar to

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those already announced by researchers in Europe. They have narrowed where they can find the Higgs boson but haven’t seen it thus far.

The Higgs is key in the standard theory of physics because it easily explains why things in the universe have mass.

The latest work was done at the Fermi National Lab near Chicago. The results are from work by more than 800 scientists and were being announced in Italy on Wednesday.

Has pursuing a higher education become irrelevant among Black youth?

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Visit www.lasentinel.net to vote for Weekender polls.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

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Democrats seek hearing into judge’s Obama email

BY MATT VOLZ | AP HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Two top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee called for a hearing Tuesday to examine a Montana judge’s conduct in forwarding an email that included a racist joke involving bestiality and President Barack Obama’s mother.

Reps. John Conyers of Michigan and Steve Cohen of Tennessee told Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, in their letter that the committee has a duty to investigate the potential consequences of Judge Richard Cebull’s email.

“At a minimum, forwarding this email illustrates poor judgment and of conduct that was unbecoming of a federal judge,” they wrote. “More troubling, however, is the possibility that public disclosure of the judge’s conduct may not only undermine the public's view of his personal credibility and impartiality as a judge, but also the integrity of the ... federal judiciary.”

A hearing would determine whether further investigation or legislative action was needed, they wrote.

Congress can remove a federal judge for misconduct by impeachment in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate confirmation, but such action is rare.

Smith had no immediate response to their hearing request.

At least three complaints have been filed with the San Franciscobased 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals against Cebull regarding the email, which he forwarded to six friends on Feb. 20. One of the complaints was filed by Cebull himself. He asked 9th Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski “to conduct an inquiry as to whether recent activity of mine constitutes misconduct.”

Cebull did not return a message from The Associated Press on Tuesday. He has previously said that he forwarded the email because he disliked Obama and denied allegations of racism. News of the email broke Thursday when it was forwarded to a Great Falls Tribune reporter.

The judge sent Obama a letter of apology Thursday in which he said he accepted responsibility, assured the president that it will never happen again and said he had asked for a judicial review.

“Honestly, I don’t know what else I can do,” Cebull wrote. “Please forgive me and, again, my most sincere apology.”

The White House confirmed Tuesday that it had received the letter.

Cebull was nominated by former President George W. Bush and See RACIST EMAIL, page 13

Rep. Donald Payne of New Jersey dies at age 77

BY BETH DEFALCO AND SAMANTHA HENRY | ASSOCIATED PRESS NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Days before U.S. Rep. Donald Payne died of cancer, it wasn’t the phone calls of encouragement from presidents that cheered him. It was when a Washington hospital orderly recognized the New Jersey congressman as the only U.S. official to visit his village in the African nation of Eritrea.

Hearing from the orderly how much the visit had meant, and knowing he had made a difference in the lives of people struggling against violence and poverty — from his native Newark, N.J., to sub-Saharan Africa — was the reason why Donald Payne had dedicated his life to public service, his brother William said Tuesday.

“He walked with kings, but never lost the common touch,” William Payne said.

Donald Payne, the first black congressional member from New Jersey, passed away Tuesday at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, N.J. He was 77.

The 12-term member of the House had announced in February that he was undergoing treatment for colon cancer and would continue to represent his district. He was flown home to New Jersey on Friday from Georgetown University Hospital as his health took a sudden turn for the worse.

He was first elected in 1988 after twice losing to former Rep. Peter Rodino, who retired after 40 years in Congress.

Payne, often considered one of the most progresAP Photo/Susan Walsh, File sive Democrats in the state’s delegation, was elected to Never lost the common touch: U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, the first a 12th term in 2010. He represented the 10th District, black elected to represent New Jersey in Congress, died See DONALD PAYNE, page 15 Tuesday. He was 77.

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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Calif. prison quells fight involving 70 inmates FOLSOM, Calif. (AP) — Guards quelled a fight among some 70 inmates at Folsom State Prison on Tuesday by firing warning shots and using pepper spray.

There were no serious injuries to inmates or employees in the disturbance that broke out shortly before noon, Correctional Lt. Paul Baker said.

The fighting started on the basketball court and quickly spread to other inmates in the main exercise yard at the prison about 20 miles east of Sacramento. About 650 inmates were in the yard at the time.

“We do believe it was gang-related,” Baker said. “It could be something

as little as a disrespect issue.”

No inmate-made weapons were found, and the minor scrapes and bruises were consistent with fistfights, he said. Three warning shots were fired to help stop the fight in less than five minutes and prevent more serious injuries.

The cause of the disturbance is under investigation. Inmates remained mostly locked in their cells, but those not involved in the fighting could be released as early as Wednesday.

“They’re reviewing the video tapes of the incident as part of the investigation. They’ll get down to the bottom as to who started the riot,” Baker said.

The medium-security prison houses

more than 3,100 inmates, and is California’s second oldest prison, opening in 1880. It is located next door to California State Prison, Sacramento, where 150 inmates rioted in December, sending 11 inmates to outside hospital.

Last month, a convicted child molester was fatally assaulted at Folsom State Prison. Two inmates are being held but have not been charged in the death of 44-year-old Richard Allen Leonard. He was serving a 25-year-tolife term after being convicted in 1998 in Orange County for aggravated sexual assault on a child.

Baker said that assault was not related to Tuesday’s fighting.

WARNING

AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday endorsed a “code of conduct” issued by an influential council of clerics that activists say represents a giant step backward for women’s rights in the country.

Chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm are contained in crude oil, gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum products and byproducts.

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Chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm are also contained in and around oil fields, service stations, refineries, chemical plants, transport and storage operations, including pipelines, marine terminals and tank trucks, and other facilities and equipment that manufacture, produce, process, handle, distribute, transport, store, sell or otherwise transfer crude oil, gasoline, diesel fuel or other petroleum products or byproducts.

The foregoing warning is provided pursuant to Proposition 65. This law requires the Governor of California to publish a list of chemicals “known to the State to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity." This list is compiled in accordance with a procedure established by the Proposition, and can be obtained from the California Environmental Protection Agency. Proposition 65 requires that clear and reasonable warnings be given to persons exposed to the listed chemicals in certain situations.

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Afghan president backs strict guidelines for women

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s president on Tuesday endorsed a “code of conduct” issued by an influential council of clerics that activists say represents a giant step backward for women’s rights in the country.

President Hamid Karzai’s Tuesday remarks backing the Ulema Council’s document, which allows husbands to beat wives under certain circumstances and encourages segregation of the sexes, is seen as part of his outreach to insurgents like the Taliban.

Both the U.S. and Karzai hope that the Taliban can be brought into negotiations to end the country’s decade-long war. But activists say they’re worried that gains made by women since 2001 may be lost in the process.

When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan prior to the 2001 U.S. invasion, girls were banned from going to school and women had to wear burqas that covered them from head to toe. Women were not allowed to leave their homes without a male relative as an escort.

The “code of conduct” issued Friday by the Ulema Council as part of a longer statement on national political issues is cast as a set of guidelines that religious women should obey voluntarily, but activists are concerned it will herald a reversal of the trend in Afghanistan since 2001 to pass laws aimed at expanding women’s rights.

Among the rules: Women should not travel without a male guardian and women should not mingle with strange men in places like schools, markets or offices. Beating one’s wife is prohibited only if there is no “Shariah-compliant reason,” it said, referring to the principles of Islamic law.

Asked about the code of conduct at a press conference in the capital, Karzai said it was in line with

Islamic law and was written in consultation with Afghan women’s groups. He did not name the groups that were consulted.

“The clerics’ council of Afghanistan did not put any limitations on women,” Karzai said, adding: “It is the Shariah law of all Muslims and all Afghans.”

Karzai’s public backing of the council’s guidelines may be intended to make his own government more palatable to the Taliban, or he may simply be trying to keep on the good side of the Ulema Council, who could be valuable intermediaries in speaking to the insurgents.

But either way, women’s activists say that Karzai’s endorsement means that existing or planned laws aimed at protecting women’s rights may be sacrificed for peace negotiations.

“It sends a really frightening message that women can expect to get sold out in this process,” said Heather Barr, an Afghanistan researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Shukria Barikzai, a parliamentarian from the capital Kabul who has been active in women’s issues, said she was worried that Karzai and the clerics’ council appeared to be ignoring their country’s own laws.

“When it comes to civil rights in Afghanistan, Karzai should respect the constitution,” Barikzai said. The Afghan constitution provides equal rights for men and women.

The exception for certain types of beatings also appears to contradict Afghan law that prohibits spousal abuse. And the guidelines also promote rules on divorce that give women few rights, a real turnaround from pledges by Karzai to reform Afghan family law to make divorces more equitable, Barr said.

“This represents a significant change in his message on women’s rights,” she said.

Afghan women’s rights activist See AFGHAN WOMEN, page 16

Thursday, March 8, 2012

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Mayor Bing to deliver 3rd State of City address

BY COREY WILLIAMS | ASSOCIATED PRESS DETROIT (AP) — It’s a critical time in Detroit as Mayor Dave Bing lays out his plans and highlights accomplishments in his third State of the City address.

The annual speech — moved to the Erma L. Henderson Auditorium at City Hall from the Max M. Fisher Music Center to save money — came as Bing, the City Council and leaders of Detroit's municipal unions sought answers to a fiscal crisis that eventually could result in Gov. Rick Snyder’s appointment of an emergency manager.

Details of Wednesday evening’s address were not released in advance, but Detroit's precarious financial situation were the focus.

A preliminary review from the state showed a nearly $200 million general fund deficit for 2011. There also have been cash-flow concerns.

Bing scheduled 1,000 layoffs early this year to save $14 million in the 2012 fiscal year and $45 million the following year. Changes in work

rules and 10-percent pay cuts to city employees, coupled with some city service cuts, also are expected to bite into the deficit.

But “the elephant in the room is the revenue,” said Terry Conley, state and local partner with Grant Thornton, a Michigan-based international accounting and tax firm.

Detroit has struggled with declining property and business taxes with the flight of tens of thousands of residents and hundreds of companies from the city over the past few decades.

“What is he going to cut? Another 2,000 jobs?” Conley said. “As the economy struggles, you have lower incomes being earned by individuals.

That really puts stress on the budget.”

Conley suggested Bing consider lowering the tax rate and broadening Detroit's tax base to include a higher sales tax and increased withholding tax on people working in the city.

More people living and playing downtown would help, he added.

To do that, Bing would have to convince people it’s safe, which may

AP Photo/Detroit News, David Coates, File

He’s got a tough road to hoe: Detroit Mayor Dave Bing lays out his plans and highlights accomplishments in his third State of the City address on Wednesday. be difficult in a city with one of the highest homicide and violent crime rates in the country. Federal authorities last week announced they would

help bolster city police efforts to fight crime on Detroit’s east side.

“To me, I don’t like going and parking in a city parking facility and

having to walk two blocks to (Joe Louis Arena),” Conley said. “I’d like to park in the same complex and see security guards.”

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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Urban League: voting laws threaten equality gains

BY SUZANNE GAMBOA | AP WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Urban League is calling on African-Americans to get out and vote come election time as a means of countering state laws the group says threaten education and economic gains made by Blacks.

Borrowing from the Occupy Wall Street movement, the 101-yearold civil rights group made “Occupy the Vote” the theme for its annual State of Black America report, which was scheduled to be released Wednesday at Howard University.

The report evaluates African Americans’ progress toward equality, and this year’s version “Occupy the Vote to Employ, Educate & Empower” also measures White and Latino equality.

The campaign will include, among other things, a Web site dedicated to monitoring voter laws and providing information on voting requirements. The league also hopes to conduct get-out-thevote bus tours, said CEO Marc Morial.

A concern, Morial said, is that some state laws could widen the equality gap between White and Black Americans by discouraging political participation of African-Americans. He says their votes are needed to ensure continued support of programs that have helped close the equality gap.

“I refuse to operate from a standpoint of, ‘Woe is me,’ ” said Morial, a former mayor of New Orleans. “We have to tell people we are not going

Holder gives legal defense for al-Awlaki killing

BY NEDRA PICKLER | ASSOCIATED PRESS

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial. to let these laws stop us.”

According to the report, improvements in health and education among Blacks have made up for losses in civic engagement, economics and social justice.

“The bottom line is that the recession has caused slippage of progress in the status economically of African Americans and when we talk about these issues, we are trying to ensure that any recovery that’s being articulated and designed is a See URBAN LEAGUE, page 11

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that the decision to kill a U.S. citizen living abroad who poses a terrorist threat “is among the gravest that government leaders can face,” but justified lethal action as legal and sometimes necessary in the war on terror.

Holder’s comments broke the administration’s silence on the legal justifications for its decision to kill American-born al-Qaida operative Anwar al-Awlaki five months ago in Yemen. In a speech at Northwestern University law school in Chicago, he described al-Awlaki as concocting plans to kill Americans but he never explicitly acknowledged the administration responded by targeting the cleric for death.

Instead the attorney general outlined a three-part test for determining when a targeted killing against a U.S. citizen is legal. He said the government must determine after careful review that the citizen poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the U.S., capture is not feasible and the killing would be consistent with laws of war.

The Obama administration has refused to release the Justice Department’s legal opinion on alAwlaki's killing under the Freedom of Information Act and is in court opposing efforts to have it made public.

Responding to criticism from civil libertarians, Holder flatly rejected the suggestion that the Constitution’s due process protections require the president to get permission from a federal court before taking lethal action.

“The unfortunate reality is that our nation will likely continue to face terrorist threats that at times originate with our own citizens,” Holder told a packed Thorne Auditorium, where all 700 seats were filled with law students, who were taking notes on their laptops, and who were joined by Chicago-based federal prosecutors and other observers.

“When such individuals take up arms against this country and join alQaida in plotting attacks designed to kill their fellow Americans, there may be only one realistic and appropriate response,” the attorney general continued. “We must take steps to stop them in full accordance with the Constitution.

In this hour of danger, we simply cannot afford to wait until deadly plans are carried out — and we will not.”

Al-Awlaki’s killing in a joint CIAU.S. military drone strike on a convoy in Yemen sparked a public debate over whether the president should have the authority to kill an American without a conviction and despite an executive order banning assassinations — which Holder called a “loaded term” that doesn’t apply in this case. Until now the Obama administration has said very little about it publicly as administration officials have debated how much to reveal in response to the criticism.

The day that al-Awlaki was killed, President Barack Obama said his death was “a major blow to al-Qaida’s most active operational affiliate” and “another significant milestone in the broader effort to defeat al-Qaida.” But he did not acknowledge publicly that the

AP Photo/Brian Kersey

Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that the decision to kill a U.S. citizen living abroad who poses a terrorist threat “is among the gravest that government leaders can face,” but justified lethal action as legal and sometimes necessary in the war on terror.

United States was responsible for the drone attack, which was confirmed by counterterrorism officials.

Al-Awlaki was a cleric who was born in New Mexico and once preached at an Islamic center in Falls Church, Va. His sermons in English are posted all over the Internet, and his name has been associated with several attempted terrorist attacks. The Justice Department has said that a Nigerian man who tried to blow up an international flight on Christmas 2009 told FBI agents that his mission was approved after a three-day visit with al-Awlaki.

Obama administration officials told The Associated Press that Obama approved al-Awlaki’s killing in April 2010, when he became the first American placed on the CIA “kill or capture” list.

“Any decision to use lethal force against a United States citizen — even one intent on murdering Americans and who has become an operational leader

of al-Qaida in a foreign land — is among the gravest that government leaders can face,” Holder said. “The American people can be — and deserve to be — assured that actions taken in their defense are consistent with their values and their laws.”

Al-Awlaki’s father sued to try to stop the government from killing his son, arguing he had to be afforded the constitutional right to due process. But U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington refused to intervene in alAwlaki’s case because he said the courts do not have the authority to review the president’s military decisions.

Holder pointed out that decision in his speech. “The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process,” Holder said.

At least three recently filed lawsuits have sought to force the Obama administration to publicly release its legal justification for the attack, See HOLDER, page 14

AP Photo/Brian Kersey

Attorney General Eric Holder, center, talks to a group of law students before delivering an address at the Northwestern University law school Monday in Chicago.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

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Md. murder charges Condoms now required for dropped for Los Angeles porn actors abortion doctors

BY JOHN ROGERS | AP

AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Scott Sommerdorf, Pool, File

FILE -Dr. Nicola Riley: Maryland prosecutors on Tuesday dismissed murder charges against her and another out-of-state doctor in the death of a fetus during a 2010 procedure, citing conflicts in expert testimony.

BY SARAH BRUMFIELD | ASSOCIATED PRESS BALTIMORE (AP) — Maryland prosecutors on Tuesday dismissed murder charges against two out-ofstate abortion doctors, citing conflicts in expert testimony.

Cecil County State's Attorney Ellis Rollins announced the dismissal of all charges against Drs. Steven Brigham, 55, of Voorhees, N.J., and Nicola Riley, 46, of Salt Lake City, Utah.

They were charged under a Maryland law that allows prosecutors to pursue murder charges in the death of a viable fetus. The 2005 law had only been used for cases in which defendants were accused of assaulting or killing pregnant women, not to prosecute abortion doctors.

Brigham was charged with five counts each of first- and seconddegree murder related to five abortions in 2010. He was also charged with conspiring with Riley to kill one of those fetuses. Riley was charged with murder and conspiracy in an abortion. Prosecutors did not detail how they determined the viability of the five fetuses.

In a statement, Rollins said the Elkton police department’s investigation showed that “the demise of five viable fetuses” occurred in Elkton, but conflicts in expert testimony would keep the state from successfully prosecuting the cases. The investigation remains open, he said. Rollins did not immediately return messages seeking further comment.

Rollins subjected the doctors to legal jeopardy based on a “farfetched” interpretation of the law, Riley’s attorneys, Stuart Simms and Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum said in a statement. They also noted that the dismissal came a week before a hearing on a motion to dismiss the

charges and denied their client of the chance to hear the court tell her she did not commit a crime.

“Tonight Dr. Riley and her family have the joy of knowing that her liberty is no longer in jeopardy, but that joy is tempered by the knowledge that her reputation and livelihood have been permanently and wrongly damaged by an ill-considered prosecution,” the attorneys said.

In Maryland, licensed physicians can perform abortions before the fetus is deemed capable of surviving outside the womb, and abortions of viable fetuses are permitted to protect the life or health of the mother or if the fetus has serious genetic abnormalities.

Doctors generally consider fetuses to be viable outside the womb starting around 23 weeks. Viability should be left to doctors familiar with all the peculiarities of a case, said Nancy Forster, an attorney for Brigham. Her client had been under a lot of stress in recent months and was thrilled by the news, she said.

“One of the biggest concerns is that this would have a chilling effect on those who need and want and are entitled to abortions,” Forster said.

The investigation began in 2010 after what authorities called a botched procedure at Brigham’s Elkton clinic, in which an 18-yearold woman who was 21 weeks pregnant suffered a ruptured uterus and an injured bowel, according to documents filed in a previous investigation by medical regulators.

Investigators found 35 late-term fetuses in a freezer in a subsequent search of the clinic, the documents show.

In response to the incident, state health officials also drafted new regulations for clinics where surgical abortions are performed.

Brigham lost his New Jersey See CHARGES DROPPED, page 16

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actors in many of the adult films made in the nation’s porn capital must use condoms under a law that took effect Monday, but the prophylactic police aren’t yet on the case.

How they will enforce such a regulation once they do begin enforcement is anyone’s guess.

In Los Angeles, where an estimated 90 percent of the country’s porn films are made, city officials and industry leaders are trying to settle on a way to ensure that there’s more safe sex on the set. Some say health care professionals should be present during a shoot to make sure actors use condoms.

“Today really is a milestone in the advance of health and safety for these adult filmmakers,” said Ged Kenslea, spokesman for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which lobbied for years for the measure.

When the City Council passed the law in January, it gave police, the city attorney, the porn industry and others six months to recommend the best way to enforce the measure. They have roughly four months left.

Until then, it’s unclear whether police or health officials will start showing up at shoots. On Monday,

AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

A new Los Angeles city ordinance requiring adult film actors to wear condoms on set goes into effect Monday. But industry leaders say the new regulation might drive them from the nation’s porn capital. city attorney spokesman Frank Mateljan said he didn’t know the status of enforcement.

To shoot a movie outside of a studio, the law requires a film permit and condom use. The larger porn companies that make the movies on studio soundstages don’t need permits and therefore are exempt from the condom requirement. The companies, however, would need one if they went to a house in a neighborhood to

shoot a scene.

The question is whether smaller companies, in which only a handful of people show up at a house, usually in the city’s San Fernando Valley, quickly make a movie in a day or two and then move on, will pay any attention.

The head of one of the industry’s largest filmmakers said he hadn’t been approached about working out how See CONDOMS REQUIRED, page 15

8

L.A. Watts Times WEEKENDER

F E AT U R E

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Legislature conducts hearings on the status of males of color

by Danny J. Bakewell, Jr. | LAWT Contributing Writer

W

hen Assemblymember Sandré R. Swanson called the hearings to order, not only was the hearing room at the Los Angeles Expo Center filled to capacity but the two overflow rooms were as well. Over 500 people came out last Friday to hear about, and testify about, the status of men and boys of color.

Some of the testimony was shocking, but many of the challenges that males of color have to deal with every day of their lives were well-known and well-documented.

The purpose of the hearing was to inform members of the California Legislature what specific challenges males of color face and how the budgetary decisions that are made in Sacramento aơect the lives of these men day and night.

In his written statement, Swanson said, “In the coming decades, an increasingly diverse Los Angeles will need its young men — all its young men, not just the most privileged — to take their places in society and work to build the economy, educate the next generations, preserve the environment and improve the lives of Angelenos.

As we rebuild our local and national economies, it’s

PHOTO CREDIT: MALCOLM ALI FOR SENTINEL

essential that we stop squandering our human capital.

L.A.’s young men — all its young men — are assets to be treasured.”

The hearings were hosted by Kafi Blumenfield, president and CEO of the Liberty Hill Foundation, and Dr. Bob Ross, president and CEO of The California Endowment. On the panel were several local members of the California legislature, including Assemblymembers Steve Bradford, Mike Davis, Holly Mitchell, Anthony J. Portantino, Tony Mendoza, Bob Blumenfield and V. Manuel Perez.

“Los Angeles needs its young men — all of them.

But today, boys and young men of color face unique and significant barriers to their well-being,” said Blumenfield. “That’s why community leaders in Los Angeles are pioneering approaches to help young men overcome those barriers to lead successful lives.”

Dr. Clyde Odom, senior pastor of Bryant Temple A.M.E. Church, led oơ the hearings by framing the discussions and testimony for the day. Dr. Odom discussed how many of the educational policies of the day that are made to improve and strengthen the challenges of males of color actually work in reverse.

He discussed how young men in the Los Angeles

Unified School District who have learning or disciplinary challenges often are sent to continuation schools.

Dr. Odom pointed out that these young men, who clearly have learning and emotional challenges, end up being taken out of an 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. supportive and supervised school environment and end up in a school where they attend only from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., thus leaving them more hours with no adult support or supervision.

It has been pointed out that investing in young men of color can reap huge dividends for California.

According to a 2007 study by the California Dropout Research Project at UC Santa Barbara, African American and Latino men graduating high school generate $681,130 and $451,360 more per person in additional dollars for the state than those who do not graduate high school. This is due to increased tax revenue and economic productivity as well as the decreased costs associated with poor health or incarceration.

Promising approaches in L.A. have helped inform statewide policy priorities to eliminate obstacles for boys and young men of color. In the last few weeks, empowered high school students exposed a little known policy of pushing students out of school by giv-

www.lawattstimes.com

Thursday, March 8, 2012

ing them $250 tickets for being a few minutes late to school.

The city council just voted to change the policy.

Young people have also organized to increase access to college prep courses in all L.A. high schools and have created hundreds of school-based Gay Straight Alliances that have reduced harassment and violence faced

by young gay men.

“The good news is we know what works. We’ve led successful campaigns to improve health and education outcomes for boys and young men of color throughout Los Angeles,” said Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president and CEO of Community Coalition. “Now we need state policymakers to scale up existing successful programs while identifying and investing in new approaches.”

Many organi-

9

zations who have worked on the issues facing young men of color for years expressed support for the committee and its ability to elevate these issues, including: Brotherhood Crusade, Californians for Justice, Community Coalition, East L.A. YMCA, Gay Straight Alliance, Inner-city Struggle, Khmer Girls and Guys in Action, Labor Community Strategy Center, Policy Link, Movement Strategy Center, Jemmott Rollins Group and Ideate California.

The hearing in Los Angeles is the third in a year-long series of hearings conducted by the California Assembly’s Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color. Additional hearings are planned for Fresno, Coachella Valley and Sacramento.

10

Saints GM: Randy Moss works out with New Orleans

BY BRETT MARTEL | ASSOCIATED PRESS METAIRIE, La. (AP) — The New Orleans Saints held a workout on Tuesday with veteran receiver Randy Moss, who is trying to make a comeback after spending a year out of pro football.

General Manager Mickey Loomis confirmed the workout took place, but the club did not provide any details on how the 35-yearold Moss performed.

New Orleans may be in the market for a receiver this offseason because two of quarterback Drew Brees’ regular targets, Marques Colston and Robert Meachem, are entering free agency, and it remains to be seen whether the Saints can offer the type of contracts that both of them want.

Colston’s agent is Joel Segal, who also represents Moss.

“Randy had an outstanding workAP Photo/Alan Diaz, file out, as expected,” Segal said. “He’s in On the comeback trail: Tennessee Titans’ Randy phenomenal shape.” Moss is trying to come back after spending a year The 6-foot-4 out of the game.

Moss last played in the NFL in 2010, a turbulent sea- when the ball wasn’t coming to son for him in which he bounced him.

During the 2010 season, after from New England to Minnesota he had been traded from New and then to Tennessee.

His best season was with New England to Minnesota, then played England in 2007, when he caught for the Vikings in a loss to the 98 passes for 1,493 yards and sin- Patriots, he praised New England gle-season record 23 touchdowns coach Bill Belichick and criticized in helping the Patriots to a 16-0 Vikings coaches. He released by Minnesota shortly afterward and regular season record.

Moss, a standout at Marshall claimed by Tennessee for the final before beginning his NFL career eight games of the season, but had with the Vikings in 1998, has 954 only six receptions for 80 yards catches for 14,858 yards and 153 and no TDs for the Titans.

Saints coach Sean Payton has TDs in a career that has ranged from the spectacular to the bizarre. often spoken of placing a priority Moss has had more than 1,000 on players’ character and limiting yards receiving in a season 10 off-the-field distractions, but the times, second only to Jerry Rice, coach is apparently open to seeing whether Moss can still play, and who did that 14 times.

Yet he also infamously once giving the receiver a chance to persaid, “I play when I want to play,” suade him that some of the odd essentially confirming criticism outbursts for which he has been that he periodically took plays off known are a thing of the past.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Don’t shake on it: Health advice for UK Olympians

BY ROB HARRIS | ASSOCIATED PRESS “Let’s shake on it.”

Not if you’re one of Britain’s Olympic athletes.

The 550-strong British team has been advised by its top doctor to avoid shaking hands with rivals and visiting dignitaries at the London Games this summer.

The reason: Olympic germs could cost Olympic gold.

And while etiquette experts fear the host country could look rude, the British Olympic Association is far more concerned with illness spreading through the camp and thwarting the country’s bid for glory.

Britain’s minimum target is to match its fourth-place finish at the Beijing Olympics four years ago when it brought home 47 medals.

And BOA chief medical officer Dr. Ian McCurdie believes strong personal hygiene could prove to be the difference between success and failure.

Asked if the traditional British greeting of a handshake should be off-limits, Dr. McCurdie said: “I think, within reason, yes.”

“I think that is not such a bad thing to advise,” he added. “The difficulty is when you have got some reception and you have got a line of about 20 people you have never met before who you have got to shake hands with.”

McCurdie points out that the Olympic village environment could be a “pretty hostile one” for infections.

“Almost certainly, I believe, the greatest threat to performance is illness and possibly injury,” he said.

“At an Olympic Games or any major event the performance impact of becoming ill or even feeling a little bit ill can be significant.

“Essentially we are talking about minimizing risk of illness and optimizing resistance. Minimizing exposure and getting bugs into the system and being more robust to manage those should that happen. Hand hygiene is it. It is all about hand hygiene.”

Will the 10,000 visiting Olympians and hundreds of dignitaries see it that way?

Britain’s authority on etiquette, Debrett’s, isn’t so sure.

“It is the normal English greeting,” etiquette adviser Liz Wyse said. “It is a bid of a sad thing if people are worried about shaking hands

AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle, File

FILE – A friendly but not-so-healthy handshake?: Bronze medalist Sanya Richards, left, of the United States, and gold medalist Christine Ohuruogu, of Britain. The British team has been advised by its top doctor to avoid shaking hands with rivals and visiting dignitaries at the London Games this summer. in case it spreads disease. It’s not very sociable.

“Obviously, there are concerns about keeping in a tip-top physical condition but it does seem a bit extreme to me.”

Wyse describes the “common firm handshake” as using the right hand and a couple of pumps.

“If somebody extends their hand in a friendly greeting and you don’t give your hand back because of hygiene concerns, that could look very rude,” she said. “In the U.K., the handshake is the normal greeting. I find (the BOA advice) a bit odd.”

The U.S. team is issuing no such warnings about handshakes.

“We always encourage our athletes at the Olympic Games to embrace the Olympic spirit and meet, greet and interact with as many different athletes from as many nationalities as possible,” USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said.

British athletes will share rooms in the Olympic village, where they will also dine with athletes from 204 competing nations.

“Being at an Olympic Games means you are normally inside a bubble and so there is effectively quite a limited number of people that you interact with when you are away in another country,” McCurdie said.

“In London we do not believe that is going to be the case. The variety of people the athletes and support staff are going to interact with is going to be huge.”

Thursday, March 8, 2012

11

NFL bounties amount to incentive system run amok

BY HOWARD FENDRICH | ASSOCIATED PRESS To Hall of Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott, the thousands of dollars New Orleans Saints players were paid under their bounty system from 2009-11 is not all that different from the helmet stickers handed out at lower levels of the game.

Little rewards for big plays are as much a part of football as runs and passes.

“I never played the game to take away somebody’s livelihood.

Have I hurt people? Yes. I got paid to make interceptions. I got paid to cause fumbles. And I got paid to make big hits,” AP Photo/Bill Feig,File said Lott, who was with the 49ers, Raiders and This Sept. 4, 1988 file photo shows New Orleans Jets during his NFL Saints wide receiver Eric Martin (84) getting hit

by San Francisco defender Ronnie Lott (42) durcareer from 1981-94.

“It goes back to when ing first half NFL action in New Orleans. To I was 10. Somebody said Lott, the Hall of Fame defensive back, the thouthat if you did one of those sands of dollars New Orleans Saints players things, you would get a were paid under their bounty system from 2009sticker on your helmet. In 11 is not all that different from the helmet stickcollege, they gave you ers handed out at lower levels of the game. Little that recognition if you did rewards for big plays are as much a part of footwell,” Lott said in a tele- ball as runs and passes. phone interview Monday. locker room would talk about and “So, no. I’m not really surprised by it.” reward each other when they take one of Nor, it seems, should anyone.

“The fact that guys in a football See NFL BOUNTIES, page 14

URBAN LEAGUE Continued from page 6 recovery that includes everyone, that it is not just a recovery for some,” Morial said.

But concerns abound among civil rights and minority leaders that new state photo ID and other laws will widen the gap between Blacks and Whites. Several states have implemented laws that narrow the list of acceptable forms of identification needed to vote. Some states have restricted who can register new voters, or they have eliminated early voting days such as Sundays before elections, which are popular among Black churches.

Supporters of the laws have said they will curb voter fraud, but the NAACP has said they are a concerted effort to suppress the vote of minorities, students and the elderly. Some states are offering to provide free IDs, in cases where cost of getting an ID is an issue; but civil rights groups say the laws still will deter legitimate voters, such as Bettye Jones, 76, of Wisconsin.

Jones has been registered to vote in Ohio since 1956. But she moved to Wisconsin, which requires voters to show Wisconsin Department of Transportation-issued driver’s licenses or state IDs. To get one of those, she has to show a birth certificate, as required by federal law. However, Jones was born at home and doesn’t have a birth certificate.

“They know there was an era where Black people, colored people, Negro people, their records were not cared

about,” said Debra Crawford, Jones’ daughter.

Jones is a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the Advancement Project and others challenging Wisconsin’s law as discriminatory.

Morial’s call for an “Occupy the Vote” movement comes as civil rights leaders commemorated the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” violence that erupted around voting rights protests in Selma, Ala. Protesters were beaten and gassed, and some died. Civil rights activists have been using this year’s anniversary events to condemn the new state voting laws.

Black Americans have built a strong record at the voting booth — the 2008 turnout of 65.2 percent of Black eligible voters nearly matched the 66.1 percent turnout of White eligible voters. Although turnout and registration slipped in 2010, 1.1 million more Black Americans showed up to vote two years ago than in 2006, according to Pew Hispanic Center’s research.

Rather than the new ID requirements, other steps can be taken to address fraud, errors and other problems in the voting system, the National Urban League said in its report. Registering people to vote when they turn 18 in the same way young men are required to register for the draft or the way taxpayers are automatically enrolled to start paying taxes are two suggestions made in the league’s report by the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, president of the Hip Hop Caucus, which works to get young people active in elections.

Ewing leads class of 10 into college Hall of Fame

BY DAVE SKRETTA | ASSOCIATED PRESS KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Georgetown great Patrick Ewing and former Kansas star Clyde Lovellette lead a 10-member class that will be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in November.

The class was announced Tuesday in Kansas City.

The two post players will be joined by North Carolina's Phil Ford, Wyoming's Kenny Sailors, Grambling’s Willis Reed and Winston-Salem State’s Earl Monroe.

Also inducted will be Joe B. Hall, who followed Adolph Rupp as the coach of Kentucky, and Dave Robbins, who won more than 700 games at Virginia Union.

Businessmen Jim Host and Joe Dean will go in as contributors.

The induction ceremony is scheduled for Nov. 18 at the Midland Theatre in Kansas City.

The following night, Kansas, Saint Louis, Texas A&M and Washington will play in the semifinals of the CBE Classic at the nearby Sprint Center.

AP Photo/John Raoux

Orlando Magic summer league coach Patrick Ewing.

12

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Raven-Symone to Sentinel Spotlight | Wayne Stamps Stamps has written and created Black characters for step into ‘Sister Act’ television for the past 15 years.

BY BY MARK KENNEDY | ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK (AP) — RavenSymone is all grown up — and going to a convent.

The former cutie from “The Cosby Show” will take over the lead part in Broadway’s hit musical “Sister Act” later this month, playing a nightclub-singerturned-nun.

The 26-year-old actress and singer says she's in rehearsal almost every day of the week from “sun-up to sun-down” to “make sure I have everything down” when she takes over at the Broadway Theatre on March 27.

Raven-Symone says she fell in love with the musical the moment she saw it. “I was definitely one of the audience members dancing in the aisles,” she says. “I think it’s a wonderfully scored and directed and written musical. I’m very excited to be part of this.”

She takes over the role from Patina Miller, who earned a Tony Award nomination in the part and whose final performance is March 18. Whoopi Goldberg, who was the original Deloris Van Cartier in the hit 1992 film, is producing the musical.

While Raven-Symone did a guest spot with “The Boys Choir of Harlem” on Broadway when she was 5, she prefers to think of AP Photo/Dan Steinberg this as her Broadway debut.

“I want to do stuff I haven’t FILE: Multitalented Raven-Symone is done before. I did it at 5 but I all grown up. going to a convent. The don’t remember that, obviously. former “The Cosby Show” actress is So I want to do it for real — a “going to a convent”: She will take big, crowd-pleasing show as well over the lead part in Broadway’s hit as working with these great peo- musical “Sister Act” later this month, playing a nightclub-singer-turned-nun. ple.”

“Sister Act” opened on Broadway in April 2011 after a viding the voice of the teenage stint in London and was nominat- crime fighter Monique in the anied for a best musical Tony last mated “Kim Possible” and her year. It has original tunes by song- own show “That’s So Raven,” writer Alan Menken and lyricist which ran on the Disney Channel from 2003-2007.

Glenn Slater.

More recently, she’s played the The musical’s plot is faithful to the movie: A nightclub singer acci- voice of Iridessa in the animated dentally witnesses a murder by her “Tinker Bell” series, starred in the crime boss lover and flees to a TV series “State of Georgia” in convent to hide. The stuffy nuns 2011, was in a few Cheetah Girl come alive as she teaches them movies and appeared in the film razzle-dazzle and rhythm while “College Road Trip” opposite she, in turn, learns the value of sis- Martin Lawrence.

Born Raven-Symone Pearman, terhood and self-sacrifice.

Raven-Symone will try to stay she says she grew up loving musifaithful to the part. “I can only do cals like “Hello, Dolly!” She also what I can do,” she says. “The role has put out four albums under her is written so well that I don’t want name, including her most recent to deviate too far from the charac- self-titled CD in 2008.

Raven-Symone says she is a ter that she already is.”

Raven-Symone became fam- little nervous about hitting the ous playing the apple-cheeked stage — but not about pleasing Olivia for the last few seasons of critics.

“I’m really not the kind of per“The Cosby Show,” was in “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper” for son who worries about every sinseveral seasons, and played gle review. My thing is my famiCharisse in the two “Doctor ly’s going to watch, and I don’t Dolittle” movies opposite Eddie want to look stupid on stage. So I’m going to make sure that doesMurphy.

Her other credits include pro- n’t happen.”

BY BRIAN W. CARTER SENTINEL STAFF WRITER His hand can be seen in many popular Black sitcoms and animated shows, present and past. Wayne Stamps is a Los Angeles-based writer whose credits include UPN’s “Moesha”; Disney animated series “The Proud Family”; The Disney Channel’s “Phil of the Future”; Nickelodeon’s “Just Jordan” and an upcoming animated series “Da Jammies”; and Bentley Kyle Evans’ “Family Time,” starring Omar Gooding.

Currently, he is writing on TV One’s “Love That Girl” starring Tatyana Ali. “I was such a terrible student in high school,” said Stamps. “I was just so terrible at math and science — I was just really intimidated by it.” He would be encouraged by his English teacher to pursue writing as a possible career in the future.

“It just put that seed in my head about trying to write,” said Stamps.

Some lucky opportunities and chance meetings would present themselves to Stamp during college.

Through a friend’s aunt, who was a technical director on “Moesha,” Stamps would receive a chance to start his writing career.

Stamps recounts his first experiences on the job and how a white lie got him into a sticky situation on the job.

“My first job was on the show ‘Moesha,’ ” said Stamps. “I worked as a production assistant. I kind of lied and said I had a car to get [the] PA job.

And my first job was to pick up Bernie Mac from his hotel.

“So I had to scramble around and get a car.”

Stamps worked with Ralph Farquhar, who created “Moesha,” “The Parkers,” “South Central,” and 1980’s Warner Bros. film, “Krush Groove.”

He paid his dues running errands and performing the usual assistant jobs until Farquhar gave him an opportunity to write a sample script for a popular television sitcom. That sample script would open the door for future opportunities for Stamps.

“We worked on ‘The Proud Family’ together,” said Stamps. “I’ve been with him since 1997. “[And] from there, I just started writing my own projects.”

Stamps has been writer/producer for “Bill Bellamy's Who's Got Jokes?” and radio host Michael Baisden’s late night talk show, “Baisden After Dark,” both featured on the TV One Network.

He’s currently working on a slew of animated series featuring African American characters in a variety of themes.

Sure to be his most popular and probably controversial animated series is “B-Rock: The First Term.”

This series follows President Barack Obama's alter ego, “B-Rock,” a hip-hop, gangsta version of the president, on his wacky adventures as Commando-in-Chief.

“It’s not really for children … I mean you have politics and satire … It deals with pop-culture and all these things,” said Stamps. "

Wayne Stamps, writer and producer Stamps wanted to create a show gear towards adult humor in creating B-Rock. The animated feature can currently be seen on popular media Web sites. Most find the cartoon humorous but, of course, there may be some who don’t.

“I invite the mixed opinion on the show,” said Stamps. “Some people will be offended, some people will get a kick out of it.

“I actually think [President Obama] would get a kick out of it. I don’t think he takes himself so seriously.

“There’s nothing I could do ... that would take anything away from what [President Obama’s] already accomplished.

“There’s nothing mean-spirited about [B-Rock]. It’s all just in silly, wacky fun.”

B-Rock has gotten into several film festivals, including the Annecy Film Festival in France last year, L.A. shorts film fest this summer, and the L.A. Web Series Festival created by Michael Ajakwe Jr. Some of the other programs Stamps is working on are more youth oriented than B-Rock and focus on family, life and issues.

“There is so little programming for kids,” said Stamps. “There’s really no programming for ‘urban youth.’ ” “The Common Family” is another animated series Stamps is shopping around networks. “[It’s] about a guy who is pushing 40 [years-old] and hasn’t quite made it as a hip-hop artist but he’s still refusing to let the dream die,” said Stamps.

He describes it as a “funky yet outrageously dysfunctional family comedy.”

“You get to see the mother/father dynamic, you get to see the grandfather there, the kids and their relationships. It’s a huge musical type of show.”

Stamps also has some live action series he hopes to bring to a television near you.

“What Now Suzy?!” is a live action series that follows a selfobsessed and self-deluded thirtysomething puppet living life as a single girl in the real world.

On the serious side, Stamps hopes to bring to television a gritty drama entitled “The Edge,” which sounds like an urban Degrassi-type of series.

“It’s a drama series about seven kids who go to high school in Watts,” said Stamps. “It’s really... all focused on the kids and the adult drama that they have to deal with in their young teenage lives.”

Ultimately Stamps wants to remain true to his work. He hopes to write and produce shows that will feature positive Black characters and entertain at the same time.

“I always want my writing to be about something,” said Stamps. “I want it to be inspiring. Of course, I want it to be entertaining.

“I want it to be as original as possible, to be fun and to have a different perspective.”

Wayne Stamps is a man on the move in the industry who shows no signs of stopping. Be sure to keep your eye on this talented writer and producer.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

13

Singer Cee Lo Green announces Las Vegas residency

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Singer Cee Lo Green shushes photographers as he poses with the Jubilee! showgirls before the Caesars Entertainment “Escape To Total Rewards” concert in Los Angeles last Thursday. Simultaneous concert events were held in New York, Chicago and New Orleans.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The singer-songwriter behind the Grammy-winning 2010 single “Forget You” and the 2006 hit “Crazy” is settling down — at least for a few months — in a Las Vegas residency.

Cee Lo Green says his semipermanent show, “Loberace,” will launch Aug. 29 at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, and run at least through the end of the year.

“The production will combine Cee Lo's flamboyant sense of style and over-the-top creativity,” producers said in a statement, adding that the show “will be as inspired and visually alive as Cee Lo Green.”

Organizers say the show will include a musical journey through time, with tributes to Price and the Rolling Stones. “Mind-twisting magic and sexified showgirls” are also on tap.

The 37-year-old Green, known for his soulful voice and extravagant costumes, is a coach on the NBC show “The Voice.” His break came in the mid-1990s in the southern rap scene but has evolved to include Gnarls Barkley, a collaboration between him and DJ-producer Danger Mouse, and his 2010 solo album “The Lady Killer.”

The 28 shows through the end of December are scheduled for late nights, and some follow Planet Hollywood’s “Peepshow” production in the 1,400-seat theater.

Green told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he sees himself continuing Sin City entertainment tradition.

“I love the city. I can’t wait to be a part of it. I can’t wait to be officially there,” Green said in an interview. “From this generation I would just like to be able to carry on, and pick up the torch and continue to make Vegas a place to be.”

Smokey Robinson visits Duke Ellington students

BY SUZANNE GAMBOA | ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) — Music legend Smokey Robinson reached out to a new generation of performing artists Friday, telling them they were starting out as he did: “with a love for doing something creative.”

Robinson, 72, visited Duke Ellington School of the Arts, named for the jazz great whose music Robinson said was the first he heard in his life because it was always playing in his Detroit home.

With students standing nearby, Robinson said any of them could follow him as a singing sensation, because “everybody starts with a love for doing something creative.”

“If you see somebody and they are 15 and you say ‘Oh, there's a new artist.’ No, they’ve been doing it since they were 6. Everybody starts with that love, so of course, some of these kids will do that,” Robinson said.

Robinson said he started singing the day he was born “according to my mom.” He sang in various bands in high school, including The Miracles. Just after high school, he

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Singer Smokey Robinson speaks to students at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington last Friday. Robinson will perform at a benefit concert for the school this Saturday at the Kennedy Center. connected with Berry Gordy, with whom he would later form the Motown label. The label’s first hit was Robinson’s “Shop Around.”

He went on to make hits such as “Cruisin’,” “You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me,” “Tracks of My Tears”

and “Tears of A Clown.”

“I thank God for my life because as a baby when I was 3, and 4 and 5 years old, I wanted to be a singer, but I grew up in the ’hood in Detroit and I didn’t know if that was possiSee SMOKEY ROBINSON, page 14

FANTASTIC

“

MOVIE FUN FOR EVERYONE!”

RACIST EMAIL Continued from page 3 received his commission in 2001. He has served as chief judge of the District of Montana since 2008.

The two other known complaints have been filed by the good-government advocate, Common Cause, and by the Montana Human Rights Network.

David Madden, the assistant executive for the 9th Circuit, declined to say whether other complaints have been filed, citing confidentiality in the judicial misconduct process. Cebull and the other groups waived confidentiality when they filed their complaints, he said.

“We have acknowledged receiving Judge Cebull’s complaint and announced that the matter will be investigated. That is the extent of what we can say publicly at this time,” Madden said.

The 9th Circuit has the ability to

censure or reprimand the judge, order that no new cases be assigned to him for a designated period of time or ask the judge to retire. If the conduct potentially constitutes grounds for impeachment, the 9th circuit could refer the matter to the Judicial Conference of the United States, which oversees the federal court system.

Conyers and Cohen wrote that a legislative inquiry is necessary regardless of the results of the 9th Circuit’s conclusions.

The last federal judge to be impeached and convicted was U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous of Louisiana in 2010. Prosecutors said gambling and drinking problems led Porteous to begin accepting cash and other favors from attorneys and bail bondsmen with business before his court.

CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES MOBILE USERS: For Showtimes – Text LORAX with your ZIP CODE to 43KIX (43549)! No charge from 43KIX, std. rates may apply. Text HELP for info.

14

Thursday, March 8, 2012

NFL BOUNTIES Continued from page 11

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Students including India Reynolds, center, perform for Smokey Robinson during his visit to Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, Friday, March 2, 2012. Robinson will perform at a benefit concert for the school on Saturday at the Kennedy Center.

SMOKEY ROBINSON Continued from page 13 ble, so I am living my wildest childhood dream right now,” he said.

Robinson said he is working on a Christmas song and plans another in Spanish. Edward Ellington, son of Duke Ellington, said Robinson told him after they left the school that he is learning Spanish.

A news conference and appearance before a student assembly are part of the Ellington school’s 5-yearold Performance Series of Legends program.

Robinson also planned to perform on Saturday at a sold-out benefit concert for the school at the Kennedy Arts Center.

“I think it’s a shame that many of our schools have had to cut our arts programs and especially the inner-city schools,” said Robinson.

HOLDER Continued from page 6 contained in a secret Justice Department memo. The Associated Press also filed a FOIA request for the memo, which was denied. The AP has appealed.

Hina Shamsi with the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the groups suing for the memo, said if Holder can discuss the targeted killing program publicly, the memo should be released and its position defended in court.

“Few things are as dangerous to American liberty as the proposition that the government should be able to kill citizens anywhere in the world on the basis of legal standards and evidence that are never submitted to a court, either before or after the fact,” Shamsi said. “Anyone willing to trust President Obama with the power to secretly declare an American citizen an enemy of the state and order his extrajudicial killing should ask whether they would be willing to trust the next president with that dangerous power.”

University of Notre Dame international law expert Mary Ellen O’Connell also said the memo should

Previous legends program artists who have given benefit concerts for the school are comedian David Chapelle, a Duke Ellington school alumnus; mezzo soprano Denyce Graves; singer/musician Stevie Wonder; and soul/funk band Earth, Wind and Fire.

Together they have raised $2 million for the school, which is about 80 percent African American, 12 percent white and 6 percent Latino, said Rory Pullens, the school’s chief executive. It has an annual budget of about $5.8 million.

Cornelius Williams, 17, was one of a handful of students who performed a song while Robinson waited to enter the news conference. He said he belongs to the school’s show

choir, which has a “Smokey Robinson/Miracles-kind of group.”

“I feel like he definitely is an inspiration to me to keep doing what I’m doing, to keep learning,” Williams said.

Students shrieked and cheered when Robinson appeared onstage and the enthusiasm didn’t die down when he lectured them to make sure they didn’t neglect their other studies for their art or give in to peer pressure.

Robinson said he grew up in a house of 11 kids and was raised by his sister after his mother died.

Some of his close friends were “gangsters,” he said. But he said he refused to join them, when they asked him to help rob a gas station.

be released to reveal more about the administration’s position.

“From what we know so far, the memo is highly reminiscent of the torture memos written during the Bush administration, in which irrelevant U.S. cases and statutes are cited in order to give the CIA a green light,” she said. “The relevant international law does not permit targeted killing far from battle zones.”

Holder said it’s “not a novel concept” to target enemy leaders for death, pointing out such attacks were made against al-Qaida’s chief Osama bin Laden and during World War II, including shooting down an aircraft specifically because it was carrying Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, leader of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

He said Congress has given the president authorization to use lethal methods under a resolution passed a week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that authorizes the use of all necessary force to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States. He said that authority was not limited to battlefields in Afghanistan, because the nation faces

a threat of terrorism from “a stateless enemy, prone to shifting operations from country to country.”

“It is preferable to capture suspected terrorists where feasible — among other reasons, so that we can gather valuable intelligence from them,” Holder said. “But we must also recognize that there are instances where our government has the clear authority — and, I would argue, the responsibility — to defend the United States through the appropriate and lawful use of lethal force.”

Holder said that doesn’t mean the administration can use military force whenever it wants and that it must respect other nations’ sovereignty before acting alone on their soil. “But the use of force in foreign territory would be consistent with these international legal principles if conducted, for example, with the consent of the nation involved or after a determination that the nation is unable or unwilling to deal effectively with a threat to the United States.”

Associated Press writer Michael Tarm in Chicago contributed to this report.

their opponents out of the game — that’s not surprising at all. It probably happens from the high school level on up. This is not an odd thing. Now the cash rewards and the coach approval?

That formalizes it and takes it to another level,” said Jay Coakley, professor emeritus in the sociology department at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

“But we shouldn’t be surprised at all that the football culture would give rise to someone wanting to take another player out, even if there weren’t something extra on the line,” Coakley added. “That’s just obvious.”

Commissioner Roger Goodell summoned former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams to meet with NFL investigators Monday to discuss whether he also offered bounties while working for other teams.

Goodell was not at the meeting.

After the league made its investigation public Friday, Williams admitted to, and apologized for, running a bounty pool of up to $50,000 over the last three seasons, rewarding players for knocking targeted opponents out of games. The league now wants to know whether Williams — who recently left the Saints to become defensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams — ran a similar scheme while a head coach or assistant with the Titans, Redskins, Jaguars and Bills.

Current Redskins linebacker Lorenzo Alexander, who played under Williams in Washington, said a player could get rewarded for knocking a player out of a game with a clean hit, but only after the fact — not as a preplanned “bounty.” Sometimes players wrote each other checks for such plays.

“It wasn’t always Coach Williams” who paid up, Alexander said.

Several players described their profession as ripe for this to happen: a violent workplace with plenty of cash floating around.

“Everybody knows those things have been around. Some people just unfortunately got caught with their hand in the cookie jar,” said Kyle Turley, an offensive lineman from 1998-07 for the Saints, Rams and Chiefs and one of hundreds of former players who are plaintiffs in concussion-related lawsuits against the league. “It happens a lot on special teams, where they prey on those young guys — the ‘expendables’ as I like to call them — who want some extra money or want to prove their worth so they can stick around longer.”

Think of it as an incentive system run amok.

“A lot of business firms try that sort of thing, whether it’s for rewarding high performance among employees or sales quotes or innovations,” University of Chicago sports economist Allen Sanderson said. “This isn’t all that much different, other than that it involves a little more pain and suffering.”

Several players have said the Saints weren’t the only team with such a system. Others have described extra cash doled out for interceptions or fumbles or blocked kicks; that is against NFL rules, too. Turley recalled contributing to such funds himself, and described seeing an assistant coach — he wouldn’t say who — open a briefcase and pull out wads of cash to toss to players after a victory.

“Every team had their deal,” Turley said.

Al Smith, a Houston Oilers linebacker from 1987-96, said the biggest payout he ever collected from a playergenerated bonus fund was “$500 or

something like that for a big hit. ... It was enough to go on a good date.”

His position coach for his final three seasons? Williams. But Smith said that as far as he knew, Williams never contributed money to the Oilers’ pool.

The NFL absolved Saints owner Tom Benson of blame, but determined that general manager Mickey Loomis and head coach Sean Payton knew about the team’s program. A Saints official told The Associated Press on Monday that Benson is “110 percent behind his guys,” and that the bond among the owner, GM and coach “could not be stronger.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still ongoing.

Punishment for the Saints could include suspensions, fines and taking away draft picks.

“I know it’s going to be pretty severe. Commissioner Goodell is going to have to do something to set an example,” former NFL player and head coach Herm Edwards said. “But I don’t think anybody should lose a job over this, by any stretch of the imagination.”

Hall of Fame tailback Tony Dorsett, who, like Turley, is a former player suing the NFL and its teams, wonders what all the fuss is about.

“I think a little bit too much is being made out of it, personally,” Dorsett said.

“If it was me, and I’m a defensive player, and I’m playing against the Dallas Cowboys, and Tony Dorsett happens to be one of their best players, it would be to our best advantage to get him out of the game. If it’s within the rules of tackling and contact, so be it. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. They’re not telling a guy to mangle somebody or kill somebody. It’s: ‘Get him out of the game.’ ” That said, Dorsett also believes it’s important to make sure players aren’t allowed back in games if they are hurt.

He and other ex-players say more should have been done in the past to warn about concussions and more can be done now to help retired players deal with mental and physical problems they attribute to their days in the NFL. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello has discussed bounties in the context of the league’s “responsibility to protect player safety and the integrity of the game.”

While Gabe Feldman, a law professor and director of the Tulane Sports Law Program, said there isn’t really a direct legal connection between the lawsuits and the NFL’s handling of the bounty issue.

“But certainly from a league image — league perception — perspective, it’s connected,” Feldman said. “It gets to what reasonable steps the league took, or has taken, to prevent unnecessary injury, and what knowledge the league has about risks of injury.”

Feldman doesn’t expect any criminal or civil legal action specifically tied to the bounty system, whether criminal (law enforcement authorities pursuing cases against someone involved in cash-for-hits plans) or civil (players who were injured by hits that earned bonus pay).

“They’re difficult cases to bring, because it’s hard to prove the injury was caused by a tackle with specific intent to injure, rather than a regular tackle,” Feldman explained. “We all know injuries are a part of football. There can’t be legal liability anytime there is an injury.

Otherwise, you can’t have football.”

AP Pro football writer Barry Wilner, AP national writer Nancy Armour, and AP sports writers Brett Martel, Joseph White and Teresa M. Walker contributed to this report.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

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DONALD PAYNE Continued from page 3 which includes the city of Newark and parts of Essex, Hudson and Union counties.

In Washington, he was remembered for his work as a defender of human rights, both at home and abroad.

President Barack Obama, who ordered flags lowered in Payne’s honor, called him a “leader in US-Africa policy, making enormous contributions towards helping restore democracy and human rights across the continent.”

Former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Payne a “force for peace and progress” in New Jersey and throughout the world.

“His impact was immeasurable and his legacy will live on in the lives he has touched,” they said.

Payne was a member of House committees on education and foreign affairs. He served as chairman of the House subcommittee on Africa and had traveled many times to the continent on foreign affairs matters.

He was remembered Tuesday as one of the first U.S. officials to speak out on the situation in Darfur and South Sudan.

“He was fearless in describing what was happening to people; he didn’t mince words;” said Faith McDonnell, a member of the Act for Sudan coalition, who worked with Payne on issues in the region. “This is a huge loss to the people of Darfur, and for all marginalized people, who I really regret won’t have his voice and his helping hand the way others did.”

During an April 2009 trip, mortar shells were fired toward Mogadishu airport as a plane carrying Payne took off safely from the Somali capital. Officials at the time said 19 civilians were injured in residential areas. Payne had met with Somalia's president and prime minister during his one-day visit to Mogadishu to discuss piracy, security and cooperation between Somalia and the United States.

He also had been the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and a congressional delegate to the United Nations.

At home, he was remembered as a trailblazer for African Americans, as an advocate for the underprivileged, and as a gentleman.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker called him a “a humble hero who lived an extraordinary life of contribution and distinction” and “a defender of, and advocate for, the rights, liberties, equal

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Independent Citizen’s Advisory and Oversight Committee (ICAOC) will hold a public hearing on Monday, April 9, 2012, in the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Boardroom located at One Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles.

The ICAOC was appointed under the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) Reform and Accountability Act of 1998, approved by voters in November 1998. The hearing is being held in conformance with federal public hearing requirements outlined in Section 9 (e) (3) (H) of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982, as amended, and public hearing guidelines adopted by the LACMTA’s Board of Directors in 1993, as amended.

The purpose of this hearing is to receive public comments on the result of the independent audit conducted on LACMTA’s accountability of sales tax revenues and expenditures under Proposition A and Proposition C ordinances from July 1, 2010 - to June 30, 2011.

BACKGROUND Proposition A and Proposition C are voter approved ordinances that provide for a one-half percent sales tax in the County of Los Angeles, the proceeds of which are to be used for transportation purposes as specified in the two ordinances.

The Los Angeles County voters approved the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) Reform and Accountability Act of 1998 (the Act) in November of 1998. The purpose of the Act was to provide accountability in the expenditure of Proposition A and Proposition C sales tax revenues through annual independent audits of transportation sales tax expenditures, the creation of an Independent Citizen’s Advisory and Oversight Committee, and public hearings on the independent audit reports. The Act requires an annual independent audit of the Propositions A and C Sales Taxes Revenues and Expenditures.

The Independent Citizen’s Advisory Oversight Committee in accordance with the Act provides this summary of the independent audit for fiscal year ending June 30, 2011.

INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT The Independent Auditor's Report provides schedules of revenues and expenditures for Propositions A and C for fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, showing amounts of transportation sales tax revenues received and expended by the LACMTA. These Propositions A and C schedules were prepared by the LACMTA and audited by the independent accounting firm of Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio & Associates (TCBA). TCBA conducted the audit of the Propositions A and C’s financial schedules in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards in the United States of America.

Based on the results of the audit, the Independent Auditor’s Report provides: • • •

the independent auditor’s opinion on whether the Proposition A and C financial schedules present fairly, in all material respects, the revenues and expenditures of Proposition A and C sales tax revenues; the explanatory notes to the schedules of revenues and expenditures; the independent auditor's report on compliance and internal control over financial reporting of Proposition A and C;

Auditor’s Opinion on Financial Schedule Presentation

opportunities, and dignity of all people.”

Born and raised in Newark, Payne came up through the ranks of Essex County politics. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Seton Hall University in 1957 and taught in Newark schools for 15 years. He went on to become an insurance executive and member of the Newark City Council from 1982 until 1988.

It was his work with the YMCA — starting as a young volunteer at a segregated storefront office in Newark and rising to become the president of the national organization — that opened his eyes to the wider world, according to his brother. He traveled to more than 80 countries as a member of the YMCA’s international board before becoming a congressman, his brother said.

But Payne always remained as firmly rooted in local politics and community concerns as he was in raising awareness on issues from armed conflict to the AIDS epidemic in Africa, his brother said.

“He was committed to causes that impacted on people who had no voice;

people who were forgotten by society,” William Payne said. “My brother had a great deal of compassion, and he stepped out on a lot of unpopular causes.”

Payne was a widower with three children and four grandchildren. His son, Donald Payne Jr., is a Newark city councilman. Services haven’t been announced.

While Payne faced the prospect of a primary challenge from Newark Councilman Ronald C. Rice, his death will open the field in the heavily Democratic district.

Gov. Chris Christie’s office said Tuesday that out of deference to the congressman and his family they would not discuss whether the governor would fill the seat immediately, or let it stand vacant until a special election can be held, which has typically been done.

A public plaza between two government buildings in Newark now bears Payne’s name in tribute to his long career in public service.

Associated Press writer Andrew Miga in Washington contributed to this report. DeFalco reported from Trenton.

The Independent Auditor’s Report provides the opinion that for fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, the LACMTA’s schedules of revenues and expenditures for Proposition A and C present fairly, in all material respects, the revenues and expenditures of Proposition A and C sales tax revenue.

LACMTA’s Schedule of Proposition A and C Revenues and Expenditures (Amounts expressed in thousands)

Proposition A Proposition C

Revenues $ 603,316 785,919

Expenditures $ 614,803 785,020

$1,389,235

$ 1,399,823

Explanatory Notes to Schedule of Revenues and Expenditures The explanatory notes provide background information on the LACMTA, Propositions A and C, and the LACMTA’s accounting policies.

Auditor’s Report on Compliance With Proposition A and C Provisions The report on compliance states that the independent audit included tests of compliance with certain provisions of laws and regulations, noncompliance with which could have a direct and material effect on the determination of the revenue and expenditure amounts within the Schedules. The results of tests disclosed no instances of noncompliance that are required to be reported under Government Auditing Standards.

Auditor’s Report on Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting The report on internal controls over financial reporting states that as part of the audit, TCBA considered the LACMTA's internal control over financial reporting in order to determine auditing procedures for the purpose of expressing an opinion on these schedules and not to provide assurance on the internal control over financial reporting. TCBA noted no matters involving the internal control over financial reporting and its operation that TCBA considers to be material weaknesses.

Written comments on this matter will be accepted through Monday, April 9, 2012. All comments should be addressed to Board Administration, LACMTA, One Gateway Plaza, Mail Stop 99-3-39, Los Angeles, CA 90012-2952. Copies of the Independent Auditors Report on Schedule of Revenues and Expenditures for Proposition A Sales Tax Revenue and Proposition C Sales Revenue are available from Records Management Center at the LACMTA Plaza Level at (213) 922-2342.

CNS#2272852

CONDOMS REQUIRED Continued from page 7 the ordinance would work and how the city would deal with violators.

“We assumed we would be approached but we have not been,” said Steven Hirsch, chief executive and co-founder of the Vivid Entertainment Group. Hirsch said about 90 percent of Vivid’s film shoots are conducted either in its own studio or outside the city.

But he quickly added that his company would immediately begin complying with the law and require that actors use condoms on any film shoots taking place outside a studio in Los Angeles.

Kenslea, the spokesman for the AIDS health care group, said he's heard that, although as many 50,000 porn films a year are made in Los Angeles, only about 200 permits a

month are issued by the city to film them.

“Just because they don’t take out permits does not mean there shouldn’t be regulations,” he said.

Industry officials say the law isn’t needed and that their audiences find the use of condoms a turnoff. They said the industry’s own requirement, that actors be tested for sexually transmitted diseases every 30 days, is sufficient. Hirsch and others have pointed out that there hasn’t been a case of HIV linked directly to the making of a porn film since 2004.

Kenslea and other advocates of using condoms say there have been nine reported cases of HIV involving porn actors since 2004. They said those cases highlight the ever-present risk that someone can acquire the

virus in their private life and then infect others on set.

When it comes to enforcement, Kenslea said, his organization is pushing for the city to use health care professionals, perhaps from a nursing agency, to conduct spot checks. The cost of the inspections would be paid out of fees the filmmakers would pay when applying for permits. The foundation has proposed a fee of $50 to $75.

Filmmakers who are caught violating the requirement would be refused future permits.

Meanwhile, his group is trying to get a measure on the November ballot that would require that Los Angeles County adopt a similar but tougher measure mandating a health permit similar to the ones for nail and hair

salons. Such an ordinance would cover more than 80 other cities that fall within the county.

Some have threatened to leave the city, taking what they say is an $8 billion-a-year business.

Kenslea dismissed that as a “hollow threat.”

“The industry is too entrenched here,” he said, noting that Vivid, Larry Flynt and other prominent filmmakers are all based in the city and so are the industry’s actors and behind-thescenes people.

If any do leave, he said, his organization will follow them and push for similar legislation in those new communities. In the case of one city, his organization won’t have to.

The mayor of Simi Valley, located about a 10-minute drive from the west

San Fernando Valley, where most of the films are made, has proposed an even tougher ordinance than the one in Los Angeles. It is expected to come up for a vote of the City Council within a few weeks.

That law would require that a licensed health care professional be on any porn set to ensure condoms are being used and that the filmmakers turn over an unedited copy of their movie so authorities can see if condoms were used.

“The primary purpose here is it’s a health and safety issue. And secondarily, we don’t want them here,” Mayor Bob Huber said of his city of 125,000 residents. “This is a family-oriented community and we don’t want them setting up their studios in Simi Valley.”

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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Person of the Week | Argie Black was born March 3, 1907, in Ore City, Texas, the first child born to Willie Black and Susie Elizabeth Moon Black. She is the granddaughter of a Native American (Caddo) and a freed slave. Argie became a Christian at an early age and attended Cedar Grove Methodist Church in Ore City with her parents.

Later, the family moved to Marshall, Texas, where she graduated in the 1920s from Central High School, which later became H.B. Pemberton High School. Upon graduation, Argie enrolled in Bishop College, where she pursued a degree in education. She says that her Uncle CJ gave her the entrance fees and money for the first semester.

Argie taught school for a few years in Avinger, Texas, in a community school with grades 1through 12. It was while in Avinger that she met the love of her life Booker T. Rosewell. After a short courtship, she and Booker were married on September 20, 1933. They were married for 67 years until his death on October 12, 2000.

The couple did not have any children, but Argie always said that she wanted to have two daughters.

While in Avinger, the couple were members of Mount Moriah Baptist Church.

The young couple had their eyes

Mrs. Argie Black Rosewell

fixed upon the city and moved to Dallas, Texas. In Dallas, they were members of Good Street Baptist Church, where Argie sang in the choir and was a member of the church’s board of education. Argie worked for an insurance agency while living in Dallas.

In June 1956, after 20 years in Dallas, the couple moved to Los Angeles, Calif., where they settled in the Hyde Park section of the city.

They united with the First Bethany Missionary Baptist Church. Argie became a homemaker, and Booker worked for an aerospace company in El Segundo.

Argie’s faith has always had a major impact on her life. She has been a member of the First Bethany Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles for over 50 years. She has actively worked as a Sunday school teacher and was a president of the Missionary Society for 221/2 years.

Argie has been the chairperson of the uniform committee. She has also served as the leader for the midweek noon prayer service holding prayer service in her Hyde Park home for 11 to 15 people each week.

Argie is a deaconess in the church.

Argie has been active beyond her local church, with involvement in the National Baptist Convention, USA, at the district, state and

national level. She has conducted workshops at all levels. In 1968, she

started going to national conventions. Argie says that traveling to the national convention was her first experience on an airplane. Until 1999, she had missed only one convention, and that was the year her mother died in 1970. Some of the convention locations she has attended include Nashville, Detroit, Kansas City, Dallas, Las Vegas, New Orleans, New York, St. Louis, San Antonio, Richmond and Orlando.

Not only has she represented her church domestically but also inter-

nationally. On behalf of the Baptist church, Argie has traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina; Lima, Peru; The Holy Land, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; Paraguay; Toronto; and Haiti.

Argie was an active gardener until a hip fracture at the age of 102 and planted tomatoes and greens in her backyard each year.

Argie’s siblings, who have all passed away, were Emerson, Irma, and Willie Pearl. She also had two half brothers: Jesse and St. Clair.

AFGHAN WOMEN Continued from page 4 Fatana Ishaq Gailani, founder of the Afghanistan Women’s Council, said she feels like women’s rights are being used as part of a political game.

“We want the correct Islam, not the Islam of politics,” Gailani said.

She said she supported negotiations with the Taliban, but that Afghanistan’s women should not be sacrificed for that end.

Hadi Marifat of the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization, which surveyed 5,000 Afghan women for a recent report on the state of women’s rights in Afghanistan, argued that the state-

ments show Karzai is shifting more toward the strictest interpretations of Shariah law.

“In the post-Taliban Afghanistan, the guiding principle of President Karzai regarding women’s rights has been attracting funding from the international community on one hand, balanced against the need to get the support of the Ulema Council and other traditionalists on the other,” Marifat said.

“The concerning thing is that now this balance is shifting toward the conservative element, and that was obvious in his statement.”

CHARGES DROPPED Continued from page 7 medical license in 2010 after regulators discovered an arrangement under which he would begin second- and third-trimester abortions in New Jersey, and then have the patients drive themselves to Maryland the next day to complete the procedures.

Authorities described the arrangement as an effort to take advantage of Maryland's more permissive abortion

laws. Brigham was not licensed to perform abortions after the first trimester in New Jersey.

Brigham was ordered to stop practicing without a license in Maryland, and the state suspended the licenses of Riley and another doctor who worked for Brigham.

The dismissal was first reported by the Cecil Whig newspaper.