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Send your photos or videos from New Year’s celebrations Candles and other items representing the principles of Kwanzaa decorate a table at Friday’s celebration.
Kwanzaa Heritage and unity
Jobless claims in Rowan don’t follow nation’s trend BY KATHY CHAFFIN kchaffin@salisburypost.com
While the number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits throughout the nation dropped unexpectedly this past week, the manager of the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina office in Salisbury said that wasn’t the case here. To the contrary, Debbie Davis said more people filed claims here. “Now my perception includes a lot of people who are filing for temporary unemployment,” she said. “We had some companies that closed for two weeks at Christmas.” Davis said an employee has to be laid off for a week before being able to file a claim. The Labor Department said Thursday that nationally, new unemployment claims fell by 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 432,000, the lowest since July 2008, according to the Associated Press. That’s much What will people better than the rise to 460,000 learn from troubles that Wall Street economists of the past decade? 2A expected. The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, fell for the 17th straight week to 460,250, the story said, the lowest since September 2008, when the financial crisis intensified. The crisis led to widespread mass layoffs, sending jobless claims to as high as 674,000 last spring. Analysts cautioned that the weekly data could be artificially low due to seasonal factors such as the Christmas holiday and recent snowstorms. Still, the AP story said many economists saw the claims figures as a positive sign that employers could soon step up hiring. In Rowan County, Davis said a few of the company officials that she has talked with are hiring. “There’s a new project that will likely bring some construction jobs,” she said.
A lost decade for many workers
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New GPS units lead some travelers astray HUGH FISHER/SALISBURY POST
Dancers of the Kujimani Creative Arts Team celebrate in motion at Friday’s Kwanzaa celebration, hosted by the Rowan Blues and Jazz Society, at the Looking Glass Artist Collective on Lee Street.
Celebration continues to draw locals together BY HUGH FISHER hfisher@salisburypost.com
wanzaa — the holiday created by Dr. Maulana Karenga in 1966 to celebrate African heritage — is something that many Americans, black and white alike, don’t fully understand. For years now, Eleanor Qadirah has worked to change that. She’s organized local Kwanzaa celebrations to bring knowledge of African heritage, and good old-fashioned fellowship, to locals for over a decade. “I just love being a pioneer,” she said, smiling as she sat for a break from last night’s Kwanzaa celebration at Looking Glass Artist Collective. This is the first year the Lee Street venue has been the site of the Kwanzaa celebration. In the past, she said, events have been held at different community centers, or wherever space was available on New Year’s Day. “This year, we have really got a lot of diversity and participation,” Qadirah said. “Some folks have said, you
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can’t change little Salisbury,” she said. But Qadirah believes that changes in downtown Salisbury have gotten people hungry for more culture and more chances to learn, like last night’s event. Traditionally, Kwanzaa starts on Dec. 26 and ends on Dec. 31. It’s a philosophical and cultural holiday, not a religious one. Each night, one of seven guiding principles — unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith — is the subject of meditation and discussion. Usually, a feast on New Year’s Eve draws the celebration to a close, with an exchange of gifts and celebration of traditional African music and art. Friday night’s celebration had all those elements and more. By singing and dancing, lighting candles and taking part in discussions of history and culture, those gathered tried to have a better understanding of the nations and people in African-Americans’
Deaths Please recycle this newspaper
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — In a holiday hurry, Jeramie Griffin piled his family into the car and asked his new GPS for the quickest way from his home in the Willamette Valley across the Cascade Range. It said he could shave 40 minutes off the time of the roundabout route he usually takes to the in-laws’ place. Following the directions, Griffin and his wife headed east on Christmas Eve and into the mountains, turning off a state highway onto local roads and finally getting stuck in the snow. They had no cell phone serv- GRIFFIN ice and ran short on formula for their 11-month-old daughter. After taking exploratory hikes, trying to dig out and spending the night in their car, the distraught couple filmed a goodbye video.
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14-year-old among two killed by gunfire in Cabarrus County
1910s and 1920s. But Kafajouffe, who goes by the nickname “Dr. K,” said it’s important to keep the proper focus and perspective, given what we know now
CONCORD — A 14-year-old was shot and killed Friday afternoon in a parking lot, and a suspect is charged with murder after a separate incident left a man dead from a gunshot to the head. The teenager who was killed was identified as Oscar Martinez of 331 Melrose Drive SW, Concord. A 911 call came in to the Concord Police Department at approximately 3:42 p.m. about a person being shot in a parking lot at 557 Cabarrus Avenue West. When officers arrived, they found a Hispanic victim dead from at least one gunshot
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Eleanor Qadirah and Curlada Kafajouffe sample traditional African food at Friday’s Kwanzaa celebration. past. Helping lead the celebration was Dr. Saleef Kafajouffe, a Michigan native who was joined by his wife, Curlada. Kafajouffe traced Kwanzaa to Marcus Garvey’s “back to Africa” movement of the
Jimmy Franklin Morgan Evelyn Stewart Smith Delores B. Kincaid Mildred Holden Monroe
Joseph Urban Mary B. Padgett Virginia M. Clontz Constance Middlebrook
Richard Frank Rupp Gerald “Gerry” Williams Mary Lee Carnes Davis
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