February 26, 2014

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White House names two students as HBCU All-Stars ZIRIS SAVAGE

Register Reporter

Webster’s Dictionary defines an all-star as a performer who is famous or very skillful; outstanding performers or participants. According to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (WHIHBCU), North Carolina A&T State University has two allstars.

Leon White and Shakera Fudge are two of 75 students

to be named as HBCU AllStars and will serve as student ambassadors for the White House. By Executive Order 13532, President Barack Obama continued promoting excellence, innovation, and sustainability at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. This year makes the first class of HBCU All-Stars to demonstrate the White House initiative.

White will graduate with a doctorate in mechanical engineering this summer, and

Fudge is a senior double majoring in animal science and laboratory animal science with a minor in chemistry.

Fudge The winners will spend the next year advocating for HBCUs and their continued role in educating on a national scale as well as show-

casing the knowledge students gain from attending HBCUs. “Engaging with the next generation of leaders who White will graduate from HBCUs and go on to make meaningful contributions to society is crucial to the success of our community, our country and

our global competitiveness,” said George Cooper, executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs. “It is a privilege to announce these 75 students who have demonstrated a commitment to both their own academic achievement and making a difference in their communities, and we look forward to working with them as partners in advancing President Obama’s college completion goal.” The students were selected from a pool of

445 applicants.

Fudge beamed with excitement when she received the news. “This is by far my biggest accomplishment.”

White was equally excited in receiving the news. “I am honored to be able to represent North Carolina A&T through this initiative.”

As HBCU All-Stars, Fudge and White will work together to create programs that promote academic excellence and stress the importance of  See ALL-STARS on Page 2

Aggies develop social app

Black Music Guided by pioneers and visionaries

TAYLOR YOUNG

Register Reporter

PHOTO COURTESY OF D. CHERIE LOFTON • WNAA 90.1FM

CLARENCE AVANT talks to the media during the Quincy Jones Gala at the International Civil Rights Museum in Downtown Greensboro. He was honored by the center and received the trailblazer award.

UNIQUA QUILLINS

Register Reporter

Black music has made an impact on the world and holds great weight when discussing Black History Month.

Clarence Avant is an individual who helped grow the Motown era, a musical phase and culture wrapped around the Civil Rights Movement.

Avant, a Greensboro native who attended Dudley High School, is a renowned entertainment industry executive known for his profound business sense and unique dealmaking skills. He served as chairman of Motown Records and is considered one of the most influential African-Americans in entertainment business history. He received the BET Honors entrepreneur award

in 2013.

Known as “The Godfather of Black Music,” Avant managed a club in Newark, N.J. called Teddy Powers Lounge where artists such as Donna Washington and Dakota Staton came to perform. However, one artist Avant recalled the most was Little Willie John who made the hit song “Fever” famous before Caucasian artist Peggy Lee made it a popular hit around the U.S. “Back in those days, a black artist made songs [and] the white artist picked it up and made it into a national hit,” said Avant.

This also happened to R&B artist Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton when she recorded her biggest hit “You Ain’t Nothing but a Hound Dog,” which was taken and re-recorded by Elvis Presley.

According to Mondre Moffett, director of jazz and professor of black music studies, the stealing of black records happened so much that most artists refused to record in fear of their music being stolen.

“It’s still being done today, I think, to some extent,” said Moffett. However, he said because of men like Avant and Robert “Bumps” Blackwell, music theft stopped occurring so frequently.

Moffett feels music would not be as strong as it is today if it had not been for Avant, a musical pioneer and visionary. He explained how Avant was able to look at the components of African-American music and evaluate its needs. “It needed someone to define what it was from the inside-out rather than from the outside in, and he was able to do

that,” said Moffett.

Black music would not exist today had it not also been for American composer and Avant’s favorite artist, Duke Ellington.

“Duke Ellington to me was [someone] who requires you to think,” said Avant. One piece of Ellington’s in particular that Avant is fond of is called “Black, Brown, and Beige.”

“The world is going black, brown, and beige as far as I’m concerned,” said Avant.

Moffett believes Ellington is the most profound American composer of the 20th century and is the most prolific in terms of music composition and capturing the sound of African-American culture, putting it in a context of melody, harmony,  See MUSIC on Page 2

Entertainment tax could affect ticket sales TAYLOR YOUNG

Register Reporter

The university now has to charge tax on all tickets sold through its ticket office due to North Carolina’s expansion of sales tax.

In the past, colleges and universities were exempt from adding tax to admission charges, but this year, they were forced to comply. The 6.75 percent tax affects entertainment, including live events of any kind, a motion picture or film, museums, and plays. So, the tax will heavily affect large ticketed events such as homecoming.

Sam Hummel, assistant vice chancellor of

finance, said meal plans were raised to cover the new tax laws.

Tuition and fees will not be affected by the entertainment tax. As a student, the fees in tuition provide students admission to some campus and sporting events.

“Previously, tickets were being charged a 3 percent “entertainment” tax. The new law repeals that tax, but implements a 6.75% sales tax,” Hummel said. “Student meals in dining facilities were exempt from sales tax. That was repealed, and just like eating a meal in a restaurant, student meals are now subject to sales tax.”

Before the expansion of sales tax, student organizations were permitted to charge an entry

fee at the door for an event without actually selling tickets. Now, people must buy a ticket from the ticket office, or the organization must have the tickets at the door and report the amount of money made at the event. The tax will be taken out of the final amount, and the remaining profit will be given back to the organization.

Personal income taxes were lowered as other taxes were raised. The only people who will benefit from this are people who earn a high salary because they get a tax break. For years, North Carolina had a three-tier system. The high-income earners would pay 7.75 percent income tax, the  See TAX on Page 2

A&T students have developed a new app called Aggiesland that helps students locate parties.

Aggiesland allows students to find parties and social events on and off campus.

Everette Slocum came up with this idea during his freshman year. When Slocum was on the track team and he developed a crew for Aggiesland with some of his teammates. The vision expanded with the development team.

The app also provides users with maps of campus with geographic locations, the option to promote businesses, and check available bus routes.

Neejbeah Reeves, a computer science student, is the programmer for the app. He developed the actual application, and Slocum did the graphics.

Keenan and Kendrick Smith helped push the idea as well. Juanita Weaver, now graduate, helped fund the app.

New teammates were added once they realized they needed a connection with the clubs and parties. Brandon Jackson, Jeffery Lewis, and Sydni Cobb helped bring that connection.

Slocum said that this was something they wanted to do. They saw a need and decided to fill it.

The app was originally released on Jan. 16, 2014 for iOS devices only. The Android app is still being worked on.

Reeves has come across a few complications when it comes to coding an app for Android. Coding an app for Android and iOS are completely different.

When talking about the future of the app Slocum said, “We see this app being something of the norm that you would use on a daily basis, pretty much...a Yahoo for college students in a sense.” He sees it being used during new student orientation, at clubs, and even at the GTA bus station.

Thus far, creating Aggiesland has only cost about $400.

Keenan Smith, one of the masterminds that helped push this project, saw this app as an innovation. He stressed how it is changing the way that young people connect on campus since today’s society is technologically driven.

Smith said, “This app gives me something that college, the education system, couldn’t provide. It gives me a sense of worth and power about myself, and it gives me the opportunity to actually explore into my imagination. This entrepreneurial route is empowering. It is empowering to work with my peers not even out of college yet.”

It is available via iOS 7 and will be made available for Android users soon.

—Email Taylor at tlyoung1@aggies.ncat. edu and follow The Register on Twitter @TheATRegister

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SUICIDE RATES RISE IN COLLEGE

IS STAND YOUR GROUND JUST?

PERSONAL V. BUSINESS

SEVIGNY KILLS IN NEW SERIES

Keep up with breaking news on our Web site. Slideshows, videos and more are available online.

Suicide is the No. 2 leading cause of death among college students.

How can this be stopped?

See what Brianna McFadgen has to say about standing your ground for all people.

Veterans say Michael Sam’s personal life should not disrupt the unity of a team.

Chloe Sevigny takes on a new role for A&E’s new dective series and she is making a killing.

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The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, February 26, 2014

events

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WEDNESDAY

26

Google Information Session Carver Auditorium 6 p.m.

State of the Black Union Proctor Auditorium 6:30 p.m.

THURSDAY

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UNCG students and faculty protest cuts in academic funding

Veteran Care Package Drive Union Exhibit Hall Noon

Biggest Mistake

Merrick Auditorium 5 p.m.

Marketing the African-American

UNCG students and faculty walked out of classrooms in protest on Wednesday, Feb. 19. Along with some alumni, they were upset because of a proposed $12.8 million budget cut for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

Approximately 84 percent of the budget cut will affect funding, which could result in the loss of 390 courses and $400,000 in student support.

Craig, Rm 236 5:30 p.m.

WNAA Natural Hair Seminar Stallings Ballroom 6 p.m.

THURSDAY

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Social Entrepreneurship Fair Proctor Auditorium 11 a.m.

PHOTOS BY SYMONE’ AUSTIN

TAX From page 1

ALL-STARS From page 1 HBCUs until the next HBCU All-Star(s) can be named for the university.

Fudge is from Syracuse, and White is from Upper Marlboro, Md. They both said their HBCU experience has been worthwhile.

Fudge is in her first at A&T. college student. She transferred from community college in Virginia and said her path to college pushed her to be the best.

“I felt left behind coming from community college due to my lack of exposure in my field of interest, and I took off running into my department [once at A&T].”

Her drive allowed her to pursue dreams becoming a veteri-

THE A&T

REGISTER Box E-25 1601 E. Market Street Greensboro, NC 27411 Newsroom: NCB 328A (336) 334-7700 www.ncatregister.com

narian. She has been accepted into N.C. State and Purdue University, but she will not know if she has gotten into her dream school, Tuskegee University, until after her interview this week.

White plans to leap into industry engineering positions after graduation. However, his dream is to help advance science and engineering initiatives internationally.

Two other students from the triad were also selected as HBCU All-Stars: Georges Guillame of Winston-Salem State University and Jasmine Everett of Bennett College.

—Email Ziris at zasavage@ aggies.ncat.edu and follow The Register on Twitter @TheATRegister

MUSIC From page 1 and rhythm of the AfricanAmerican experience. “That’s very difficult because the Black experience embodies a very broad spectrum. We come in different shades. We come in different aesthetics,” said Moffett.

Moffett says the core values of Black music have always been looking up. There was a secular style to it, but there was also spirituality. Music has evolved greatly in the Black community from jazz, disco, soul, R&B, spoken word, hiphop, pop, to rap to name a few genres. Now that Black music has so many forms, some question its future.

Avant said he is not sure

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Karmen Robinson MANAGING EDITOR/COPY DESK CHIEF: Kashian Scrivens OPINIONS EDITOR: Meagan Jordan SCENE EDITOR: Kourtney Pope ONLINE EDITOR: Courtney Matthews GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Taylor Wilson

where Black music is going, but he does like a few music artists of today. “I like Rihanna because she wiggles around.

I like Katy Perry. I like Justin Timberlake. I like, you know, I just like music, you know, I like good songs,” said Avant.

Moffett hopes the music becomes more meaningful.

“There’s no longer a fight for freedom or there’s no longer an inspiration or a lifting, but it’s a tragic orientation without any uplift,” he said. Moffett hopes Black music can get back to uplifting this generation as well as future generations so people outside of Black music do not consequently define what black music is. “The artist should always be the one to define music,” said Moffett.

When evaluating the future

of black music, Moffett thinks jazz music truly defines what black music is. He sees that black music is becoming more globalized but would like for it to become more accessible and more involved in the educational process.

Moffett further explained that black music is tradition, but not traditional and the history of it needs to be taught to the upcoming generation.

He also feels that individuals should be able to attend an HBCU and be able to receive a degree in jazz music.

Black music is a powerful platform and will continue to evolve beyond tradition.

—Email Uniqua at uyquilli@ aggies.ncat.edu and follow The Register on Twitter @TheATRegister

COPY EDITOR: Brianna Harrison REPORTERS: Jeremy Days, Dominque Moody, Laci Ollison, Uniqua Quillins, Ziris Savage, Taylor Young CONTENT DIRECTOR: Anjan Basu FACULTY ADVISER: Emily Harris

the middle-income earners would only pay 7 percent and the low-income earner would only pay 6 percent.

Now all residents, no matter how much a household earns will pay only 5.8 percent. A few other taxes were decreased but not as drastically as the threetier system.

Hummel explained how the changes in the tax law were a part of the North Carolina’s legislative attempt to simplify the tax code, and to make the state more competitive for business.

Corporate tax rates were lowered, and individual tax rates were simplified, but to make up for the lost revenue from these changes, other taxes were raised such as the admissions tax or exemptions from tax were repealed.

—Email Taylor at tlyoung1@ aggies.ncat.edu and follow The Register on Twitter @TheATRegister

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The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Suicide rate rises among college students Susan Snyder MCT Campus

PHILADELPHIA — Christopher Aiello broke into tears again when he got a call last month about Madison Holleran, a promising scholar-athlete at the University of Pennsylvania who jumped to her death from a Philadelphia parking garage, stunning her family, friends and campus community.

The call came from a friend, who in an eerie coincidence, knew Holleran’s father. Aiello lost his own daughter, Paige, the same way nine months earlier.

Tennis team captain and an A student at the College of New Jersey, she was weeks shy of graduation and had been accepted to nine law schools when her body was recovered from the Hudson River.

“I just don’t understand what’s happening to these highachieving kids,” said Aiello, a New Jersey lawyer. “How did we get to this spot? The whole thing, for me, will never make any sense.”

Two recent suicides at Penn and a smattering of others at college campuses over the last year including a student who

jumped off a parking garage at Pennsylvania State University in December has brought renewed attention from administrators and talk on how to ramp up prevention and awareness.

“This whole issue is a tragedy on our campus and on many campuses,” said Drexel University president John A. Fry, who formed a suicide-prevention task force last year after the suicides of two students. “I wanted to make sure we were doing everything that we could.”

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for college students.

And when popular, highachieving students, who seemingly have everything to live for, take their lives, it sends nothing short of a shock wave through their campuses and leaves families and friends grappling even years later for answers.

When a student commits suicide, it’s often the result of multiple factors, said Victor Schwartz, a psychiatrist and medical director for the Jed Foundation, a New York-based suicide-prevention group aimed at college students.

“It’s more often personaland family-relationship disrup-

theBLOTTER February 18 5:24pm Aggie Village PVA Vandalism Further Investigation February 19 10:57 am Webb Hall PVA Found Property Closed 9:58 pm Bluford St Dog Attack Closed February 20 2:51 pm Charles Drew Dr. Damage to Property (Non-Criminal) Closed 5:50 pm Lutheran St. PVA Vehicle Accident (Hit and Run) Further Investigation

7:06 pm Morrison Hall Disturbing the Peace Prosecution Declined

tion,” he said. “In many cases, alcohol or other substances are involved.”

College age, he said, is also the time when many mental illnesses, including depression and schizophrenia, surface. Up to 90 percent of suicide victims have a diagnosable psychiatric condition, he said.

“For most people who die by suicide, there is some underlying vulnerability, then some triggering, stressful situation,” said Mary E. Kelly, lead psychologist and suicide-prevention specialist at Rutgers University, which was rocked by the 2010 suicide of freshman Tyler Clementi.

“It might be the first time where they are part of an academic community where they themselves are not easily at the top,” he said.

Colleges aren’t required to report suicides, so the problem is hard to track.

Penn officials said they don’t know how many students died of suicide over the last five years.

“The university doesn’t keep records like that,” said spokesman Ron Ozio.

There have been at least four suicides of Penn students in the

last year.

About 7 percent of students nationally report having experienced suicidal thoughts in the last 12 months, statistics show.

About 1 percent attempt suicide.

For Penn, a school of 24,000 undergraduates and graduates, that would translate to 240 students.

The center, which employs 15 psychologists, six social workers, and four psychiatrists, sees about 13 percent of the students each year.

Students who commit suicide often aren’t on the radar of the campus counseling center, school officials say. At Penn, Alexander can recall only two who were being seen there at the time they died.

Madison Holleran wasn’t one of them.

She was state champion in the 800-meter at Northern Highlands High School and played on the school’s state-champion soccer team, while keeping a “4.0 plus” GPA, her father said.

Through a coach, she was introduced to Steve Dolan, Penn’s track coach.

“They hit it off,” Jimmy Holleran said.

Her schedule proved challenging. She practiced twice a

day for cross country and track.

By Thanksgiving, her family noticed a “more stressful Madison,” her father said.

“Penn has a lot of academic pressures,” he said, though she had a 3.5 GPA, “and she wasn’t quite honestly thrilled about doing track twice a day.”

By Christmas, her mood had worsened.

Holleran had gone to Penn’s counseling center for help and didn’t like it, her father said. So her parents found her a therapist near home. She had gone several times, most recently on Jan. 10, the day before her father took her back to Penn.

“Her therapist said if you get a suicide plan in your head, you will call your dad, you will call your mom or you will call me,” Jimmy Holleran said. “Madison said, ‘I will.’”

The therapist recommended that Holleran take medication, and she made an appointment to see a doctor in Philadelphia, her father said.

As far as he could tell, she was coping. She was looking into transferring to a new dorm, where she thought she’d be happier. She and her coach decided she’d cut back practice to once

3

a day. The day before she died, she slept over at a friend’s and watched “The Parent Trap.”

Jimmy Holleran texted his daughter the morning of Jan. 17: “How are you doing?”

“I’m OK,” he said she replied.

He called her at noon. She told him she was buying books at the Penn bookstore. Later, she said, she had track practice, then planned to have dinner with friends.

Jimmy Holleran said he reminded his daughter of the doctor’s appointment. “’Yeah, Daddy, I’ll do it,’” he said she told him.

About 6 p.m., she posted a twilight scene of a Rittenhouse Square bedecked in holiday lights on her Instagram account.

Less than an hour later, she was dead.

“You can’t really understand why a girl who seemingly has everything going for her would want to end it,” her father said.

National statistics show that 6.5 college students per 100,000 commit suicide annually, a rate that has declined slightly since 1990. The rate for college students is only about half that of non-college students that age.

Dunn With Ignorance

February 23 3:57 am Aggie Suites E Disorderly Conduct 9:52 pm Aggie Suites F Lost Property Closed February 24 1:08 am Corbett Gym Found Property Closed 3:26 am Haley Hall Vandalism Further Investigation Compiled by Tiera Richardson

Photo by SYMONE’ AUSTIN • THE A&T REGISTER

A&T Students participate in the “Dunn With Ignorance” protest in front of the Dudley Building on Thursday, February 20. A group of students rallied together to show their frustration by the recent deaths of young African-American men who they believe were wrongfully killed. The most recent case was the death of Jordan Davis, a Black teen killed by Michael Dunn after a verbal altercation about loud music.

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Fraternity expels three for noosing Black statue Paresh dave

MCT Campus

The Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity said it has indefinitely suspended its chapter at Ole Miss and has expelled three 19year-old freshmen it said were responsible for the “desecration” last weekend of a campus statue honoring the school’s first black student.

“It is embarrassing that these men had previously identified with our fraternity,” Brian Warren Jr., the organization’s chief executive, said in a statement late Friday.

“SigEp has championed racial equality and issues on diversity since 1959, when it became the first national fraternity to invite members of all races, creeds and religions to join its membership,” Warren said. “For this to occur in 2014 is an insult to the legacy of James Meredith, the University of Mississippi community and the SigEp alumni who fought for racial equality in the late 1950s.”

University of Mississippi police said earlier Friday that they were pushing for criminal charges to be filed against the three freshmen suspected of placing a noose and a flag with a Confederate battle emblem

on a life-size bronze statue of Meredith.

But authorities appeared to be struggling to find a crime that matched the act.

Lafayette County District Attorney Ben Creekmore told WMC-TV that he could not prosecute the case because possible misdemeanor charges required damage to the statue.

Still, FBI Special Agent in Charge Daniel McMullen said Friday that authorities would “expand” their investigation “for potential violations of federal law.” Earlier this week, he said hate crime charges could be filed if authorities determine that the act of placing the noose on the statue was meant to intimidate African-Americans.

The suspected students declined through their attorneys to be questioned by university police about the Sunday morning incident, which the school has described as vandalism.

The fraternity’s statement said the identities of three students were turned over to the university and investigators after learning of their alleged involvement.

Campus Police Chief Calvin Sellers said in a statement Friday that he and the university’s lawyer believed that “sufficient evidence exists to bring

criminal charges against the suspects,” and pledged to help state and federal authorities in the investigation.

The university said the three Ole Miss students being sought are white.

Federal educational privacy law does not permit the university to release the students’ names unless they are arrested.

SigEp leaders at Ole Miss did not respond to requests for comment, and the national office did not immediately explain why it had not released the students’ names publicly.

With tips pouring in after a $25,000 reward was offered, enough evidence had been gathered by late Wednesday to prosecute two of the students through the university’s internal judicial process, Sellers said. But the students did not show up to a scheduled meeting with officials Thursday.

The university later learned that the three students had retained attorneys, Sellers said.

Fifteen fraternity presidents at Ole Miss, including SigEp’s William Burns, had declared in a letter Thursday that they would immediately expel any member who was found to be involved in the incident.

The officials did say that during the suspension, the Missis-

sippi Alpha Chapter would be investigated and reviewed “to ensure members’ values align with those espoused by the fraternity.” SigEp said it has about 15,000 members across more than 200 universities.

A witness saw two young men leaving the area near the statue, which depicts Meredith striding forward. A coiled rope and a former Georgia state flag with a Confederate battle emblem were wrapped around the statue’s neck.

Meredith, 80, told the Los Angeles Times this week from his Mississippi home that the incident showed that youths weren’t being taught right from wrong. He said all the nation’s ills would be cured if every child learned the Golden Rule, the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer before reaching kindergarten.

In 1962, Meredith became the first black student at Ole Miss after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling cleared the way.

Campus riots followed; two people were killed and dozens were injured. Mississippi officials initially tried to keep Meredith from enrolling, but President John F. Kennedy ordered hundreds of federal authorities to escort him onto campus.

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The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Mexican drug lord caught TIM JOHNSON

MCT Campus

CULIACAN, Mexico — Almost as soon as Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, reputedly the head of one of the world’s largest crime syndicates, was captured after a 13-year manhunt, young drug dealers began campaigns to take his place _ a sign that the group, responsible for 25 percent of all illegal drugs smuggled into the United States, might not be headless for long.

But even as the internal jockeying intensified, experts predicted that the arrest of the legendary crime boss over the weekend would prove to be a watershed event likely to usher in the breakup of Mexico’s huge crime syndicates.

“The fragmentation we’ve seen here in Colombia will be replicated in Mexico,” said Jeremy McDermott, a former British army officer based in Medellin, Colombia, who’s a co-director of InSightCrime, a research group. “The capture of Chapo will accelerate that process in Mexico of criminal fragmentation. The days of big cartels are gone.”

Considered the world’s No. 1 crime lord, Guzman was snared in a messy bedroom in an oceanfront condo in Mazatlan early Saturday. Mexican and U.S. counter-drug agents had tracked him over several weeks, tracing him to safe houses in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, and then staying on his trail to Mazatlan when he disappeared through a series of tunnels and drainage pipes.

Guzman, whose Spanish nickname means “Shorty,” built the Sinaloa Cartel into one of the world’s biggest narcoticstrafficking groups, with a reach deep into Latin America, across the Atlantic to Africa and Europe, and into major U.S. cities.

He operated the cartel with the help of at least two other reputed crime chieftains, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Juan Jose “El Azul” Esparragoza, both in their 60s and allegedly with decades of experience in smuggling narcotics to the United States.

Guzman has worked with Zambada since an earlier drug gang, the Guadalajara Cartel, was divided up in the late 1980s,

and shared management with Esparragoza of the Sinaloa Cartel, which sometimes is called a federation because of its loose organization.

Potential rivals are watching closely to see whether they might make a move on Sinaloa Cartel turf or on its leadership, said Sylvia Longmire, a security consultant who’s the author of the 2011 book “Cartel: The Coming Invasion of Mexico’s Drug War.” “There will be a lot of waitand-see going on by a lot of groups: rivals like Los Zetas, smaller trafficking groups that are members of the federation who are weighing their options, and cocaine suppliers who want to make sure the federation is a stable client,” Longmire said.

“El Mayo and El Azul need to work fast to exude confidence and power to friends and foes alike,” she added.

If the two aging leaders don’t move fast, the criminal underworld that the Sinaloa Cartel controlled may begin to crumble.

“When there’s no control, what was organized crime becomes disorganized crime,” McDermott said.

The cartel’s biggest rival in Mexico, Los Zetas, fractured after the killing in October 2012 of its undisputed leader, Heriberto Lazcano, and the arrest last July of his successor, Miguel Trevino Morales.

In significant ways, Mexico might be following the course of Colombia, which was the epicenter of the global cocaine trade in the 1980s and 1990s under the Medellin and Cali cartels but began to take a lesser place as a crime headquarters after the leaders of those cartels were slain or imprisoned.

A plethora of weaker successor groups with names such as the Urabenos, the Rastrojos and La Oficina became wholesale suppliers to the more powerful Mexican groups, Los Zetas and the Sinaloa Cartel.

How the Sinaloa cartel will cope with Guzman’s capture may depend on whether he can maintain any semblance of control from within prison walls.

During a previous stint in prison, from 1993 until he escaped in 2001, Guzman didn’t appear to be weakened as a drug lord.

Yet in a sign that some see that as unlikely, within hours

of Guzman’s capture, supporters of a 20-something Sinaloa Cartel gangster who’s said to always dress in Versace, Gucci and Armani cast him as the new leader.

The wannabe head, Damaso Lopez, is the son of a crime boss whom the U.S. Treasury Department describes as Guzman’s “right-hand man” and “top lieutenant.”

Whether the younger Lopez can walk the mobster walk is yet to be seen. But a weekend posting on a website that lionizes traffickers, historiasdelnarco.com, described him as “prepared to take the place of the richest narco in the world.”

Lopez, who leads a faction called the Anthrax Group, is rarely seen without his goldplated AK-47 assault rifle, drives “exclusive European cars built for magnates” and always has beautiful women on his arm, the website said.

His nickname is “El Mini Lic,” which is a derivative of his father’s nickname, “El Licenciado,” a reference to his formal degree as a lawyer.

The 48-year-old father, Damaso Lopez Nunez, was once the security chief at the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco state, and he played a key role in helping Guzman escape the prison in 2001, hidden in a laundry cart.

Last month, the Tijuana weekly newspaper Zeta described the younger Lopez as the top Sinaloa boss in Baja California Sur, the resort state across the Sea of Cortez from Mazatlan.

On his Facebook page, Lopez posted paeans to Guzman over the weekend. Over the mustachioed Guzman’s photo, the inscription says, “Even if I’m locked up, I am the owner of Mexico.”

In Lopez’s own photo album are images of huge piles of bundled $20 bills, guns, grenades and stockpiles of ammunition.

The profile of the younger Lopez said the Sinaloa syndicate had “turned into an old cartel since it has maintained the same leadership for more than 24 years. It described Lopez as the godson of Guzman and, noting his key role in the Anthrax Group called him, “one of the leaders of this army of hit men and a chief financial operator for the cartel.”

Child killed in Thai protest rally SOMCHAI KWANKIJSWET MCT Campus

BANGKOK — A 5-year-old girl was killed and 37 people wounded in an attack on an anti-government protest rally in the eastern Thailand province of Trat, police said Sunday.

The assailants arrived in two pickup trucks at the rally in Khao Saming district, about 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) east of Bangkok, firing guns and grenades at the crowd on Saturday night, Trat Police Lieutenant Kanapum Naewawit said by phone.

Ekkanat Promphan, spokes-

man for the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, demanded the government of caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra accept responsibility for the attack.

“This attack was done by people who disagree with the PDRC in what was clearly a well-organized strike using M16s and grenades,” Ekkanat said.

“The reason there continue to be attacks on our rally sites is because the government does nothing to prevent them and has failed to find anyone culpable for past incidents of violence,” he said. “It’s time for the gov-

ernment to take responsibility for these attacks.”

The PDRC has been leading anti-government protests, mainly in Bangkok, since early November, demanding the premier’s resignation to pave the way for an appointed government and political reform.

At least 16 people have died in protest-related violence and about 700 have sustained injuries, according to government and media sources.

In a police crackdown on the protesters Tuesday, one officer and four demonstrators were killed.

Ukraine’s leader seeking consensus SERGEI L. LOIKO

Los Angeles Times

KIEV, Ukraine — Hoping to reach a consensus that would heal some of Ukraine’s wounds, the country’s acting president on Tuesday delayed the seating of an interim government for at least two days, even as opposition colleagues appealed to the Hague criminal tribunal to put fugitive ex-President Viktor Yanukovich on trial for crimes against humanity.

Reports of mounting discord among ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine and gunshot wounds suffered by a top aide to Yanukovich further heightened a sense that threats to Ukraine’s stability abound as politicians jockey ahead of a May 25 presidential election.

A multiparty transitional

leadership had been expected to be announced Tuesday. But acting President Olexander Turchynov told lawmakers that it would take until at least Thursday to get consensus on a Cabinet that would have the trust of the entire nation.

Visiting diplomats of the European Union urged those steering Ukraine through its current power vacuum to include deputies of Yanukovich’s Party of Regions, which has been decimated by defections to the opposition and lawmakers retreating to home territory for fear of retribution at the hands of their Western-leaning adversaries.

“It needs to be inclusive,” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said of the elusive Cabinet in comments to reporters after two days of talks in Kiev.

In Moscow, Russian Presi-

dent Vladimir Putin assembled his national security team for a Kremlin caucus on the turmoil in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic that Moscow has dominated for centuries.

Russia-24 television showed the top advisers gathering but gave no details about their deliberations. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later said during a Moscow news conference that Russia would refrain from interfering in Ukraine’s domestic crisis and expected other countries to do likewise.

Ukraine’s industries and economy are dependent on components and trade with Russian companies, and Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet is based in the port of Sevastopol, now part of Ukraine. Most of the eastern half of Ukraine had voted for Yanukovich

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SMELL BAD?

Texas lawmakers back industry, not environment David HASEmyer MCT Campus

KARNES CITY, Texas — In January 2011, with air quality worsening in Texas’ booming oil and gas fields, state environmental regulators adopted rules to reduce emissions.

The industry rebelled. So did the state legislature.

A few months later, lawmakers passed SB1134, effectively preventing the new regulations from being applied in the Eagle Ford Shale region of South Texas, one of the nation’s biggest oil and gas booms. Since then, more than 2,400 air emissions permits have been issued in the Eagle Ford without additional safeguards to reduce the amounts of benzene, hydrogen sulfide and other dangerous chemicals that drift into the air.

The legislature’s rush to protect the oil and gas industry reflects a culture in which politics and business have become almost inseparable.

State Rep. Tom Craddick, a Republican who championed the House version of SB1134, owns stock in nine oil companies, five of which are active in the Eagle Ford. In 2013, the stock was worth as much as $1.5 million. Craddick, his corporations and partnerships also received royalties of as much as $885,000 for mineral rights.

Corporations and unions are banned from giving to Texas candidates, but since 2000, industry employees and related political action committees have given Craddick’s campaigns more than $800,000.

The industry also invested

$600,000 to help Craddick’s daughter, Christi, win a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, which issues drilling permits.

Other Texas lawmakers also benefit from the oil and gas industry’s largesse.

Forty-two of the body’s 181 members or their spouses own stock or receive royalties from companies active in the Eagle Ford, according to a Center for Public Integrity review of financial disclosure records.

Those holdings could be worth as much as $9.6 million, according to a conservative estimate based on 2012 data.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who signed SB1134, has collected more than $11.5 million in campaign contributions from those in the industry since the 2000 election cycle. Attorney General Greg Abbott, favored to win the Republican nomination for governor, has raked in more than $4 million. Abbott has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 18 times for interfering in Texas affairs.

Supporters say oil and gas has been good to Texas, and they are right.

The industry employed 315,000 people and paid $8.5 billion in taxes in 2010. It has been especially important to counties in the Eagle Ford. The tax base for the industrial sector in Karnes County, in the center of the drilling, exploded from $217 million in 2008 to $6.2 billion last year.

The downside is industrial air pollution in a rural area where people of limited means rarely share in the bounty.

Most of the Eagle Ford’s roughly 1.1 million residents live in small towns or on farms.

About 23 percent live below the federal poverty line, compared to 17 percent statewide and 15 percent nationally.

“Let’s be blunt. That is not really a body of voters that the power structure in Austin has any real concern about,” said Larry Soward, a former commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality who is now president of the board of Air Alliance Houston, an organization dedicated to reducing air pollution.

Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt, a Republican who represents Karnes County in the state legislature, is no stranger to the oil industry. He has leased land to oil companies while the law firm where he practices specializes in negotiating oil and gas agreements. “I’ve practiced in an oil field my whole life,” he said.

Kleinschmidt says the industry is proactively addressing climate and infrastructure concerns.

“I can’t say too much in support of our oil and gas industry in Texas,” he said. “Our oil and gas industry is very environmentally concerned.”

Sister Elizabeth Riebschlaeger sees it differently. The 77-year-old nun-turned-activist speeds through the Eagle Ford region in her white Honda Civic, intent on exposing the ills she believes have been forced on residents. “They do not like to complain,” she said. “They don’t want to make trouble.”

While Texas may be ex-

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treme, it’s not unusual for politicians to be seduced by industry, said Michael Nelson, professor of environmental ethics and philosophy at Oregon State University.

“What’s going on is the masking of a moral decision in a utilitarian kind of debate that puts more weight on what can be seen, in this case the financial benefit, (than on) what can’t be as readily measured: the risks,” Nelson said. “Those risks to health and environment aren’t as perceptible as the financial benefit, so the cost benefit equation is tipped out of balance.”

As a consequence, residents suffer, said Sharon Wilson, a leader in the Texas office of the environmental group Earthworks.

“It doesn’t matter what the people say. It ... does ... not ... matter,” Wilson said.

Rep. Lon Burnam, a Fort Worth Democrat who has served 16 years in the Texas House, is the most outspoken of a handful of legislators trying to curb oil company influence.

He describes the legislature as “a wholly-owned subsidiary of the oil and gas industry.”

In the last legislative session, Burnam introduced 12 bills that would have regulated or taxed the industry in some way.

Most died in the House Energy Resources Committee, where six of the 11 members, including Craddick, own stock or receive royalties from the industry, according to their personal financial disclosures.

5

Justices deny two NRA appeals David savage

MCT Campus

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has turned down a pair of Second Amendment appeals lodged by the National Rifle Association, keeping in place laws that restrict those under 21 years old from buying or carrying a handgun.

Without comment, the justices dismissed claims by NRA attorneys who argued limits on those who are 18 to 20 infringe the “fundamental right” to have firearms for self-defense.

In one case, the court refused to hear a challenge to a 1968 federal law that bars federally licensed gun dealers from selling handguns to those who are under 21. Sales of shotguns or rifles are permitted to those who are 18 or older, however.

This law was upheld by a federal judge in Texas and by the 5th Circuit Court in New Orleans. Those judges said the age limits on handgun sales were justified because of the concern over violent crime.

In the second case, the justices refused to hear a challenge to a Texas law that forbids those who are 18 to 20 from carrying a concealed handgun in public. Since 1871, Texas law has prohibited individuals from carrying guns in public, the 5th Circuit said. However, the state legislature in 1995 said those who are 21 or older may obtain a license to carry a concealed weapon. But lawmakers said those who are under 21 may not

obtain a license.

In defense of the law, the Texas attorney general said most states have similar age limits on the public carrying of guns by those younger than 21.

The court’s action is consistent with a series of decisions in recent years refusing to revisit the question of whether firearms can be strictly regulated.

In 2008, the justices ruled, 5-4, that the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding citizens to have a handgun at home for self-defense. Since then, they have turned away several appeals urging them to decide whether gun owners have a right to carry a weapon outside their home.

Former U.S. Solicitor Gen. Paul D. Clement filed one of the appeals on behalf of the NRA. He argued that gun owners are facing “massive resistance” in the courts when they assert their rights under the Second Amendment.

“It is unthinkable that a court would allow Congress to declare law-abiding individuals in the first years of their legal majority too ‘irresponsible’ to be entrusted with First Amendment rights,” he said. He urged the court not to allow “this fundamental right [to] be relegated to second-class status.”

But after considering the appeals for several weeks, the court said Monday they would not be heard. The cases were NRA vs. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and NRA vs. McCraw.

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theWORD 6

The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Stand your ground, no justice for all

Brianna mcfadgen Contributor

Florida may be at the forefront of recent stand your ground cases, but 25 states have adopted the law including North Carolina.

The stand your ground law gives every bigot or person with a grudge and a gun legal rights to commit murder. This “right” needs to be restructured so that it relies less on perceived danger and more on the facts of an incident. Currently, the stand your ground law as is incredibly biased and structured against minorities especially African Americans.

On Nov. 23, 2012 17-year-old Jordan Davis was shot and killed by 47-year old Michael Dunn at a gas station in Jacksonville Florida.

That night, Davis and three of his friends stopped at the gas station. Dunn, who was sitting in his car while his girlfriend was at the store, heard loud rap music coming from Davis’ car and went to ask the boys to turn the music down. Dunn fired ten gunshots at the teen’s SUV after he did not get the response he desired. The police apprehended Dunn the next morning Dunn was convicted of three counts of second-degree murder on Feb. 15, 2014.

Health advisory We’re all going to be much sicker incubator for transmission because the mosquitoes that spread dengue are now able to survive in places that LOS ANGELES _ With much of the coun- were once too cold. Since the 1960s, try still suffering through a record cold two types of mosquitoes that can transmit dengue _ Ae. aegypti and snap, it’s hard to think about global Aedes albopictus _ have expanded warming. But this horrific winter is their range to at least 28 states, even the “weather on steroids” that climate as far north as New York and New scientists have been predicting for decades in which hotter days get hotter Hampshire, making the 173 million Americans who live in these areas and cold spells are even more intense. vulnerable, according to a July 2009 Beyond images of emaciated polar report by the Natural Resources bears and drought-cracked lakes, however, there remains a major part of Defense Council. When the weather climate change’s impact that the media is warmer, the breeding cycles of the mosquitoes shorten, which means have neglected yet it is the one that may have the most immediate and pro- the bugs can reproduce multiple times instead of once or twice. Heat found consequence for our lives: how also speeds up the incubation of the rising temperatures, higher carbondengue virus inside the bugs, so it dioxide levels and the corresponding becomes infective much faster, which changes in ecosystems will have a means it has a longer window in serious effect on our health. A recent which to sicken someone during its report in the British medical journal The Lancet noted that “climate change three-to-four-week life span. Plus, is the biggest global health threat of the female mosquitoes bite more frequently when it’s hotter, boosting the 21st century.” capacity to transmit the virus.

In the coming decades, we’ll be And this is just the beginning. living with higher levels of ozone pollution in the air we breathe, killer heat If we don’t curb greenhouse gas waves, more uncontrolled outbreaks of emissions, we are on the cusp of an increasingly unhealthy future. Last deadly bug-borne infectious diseases as vectors migrate to newly warm habi- year, we hit 400 ppm (parts per million) of carbon-dioxide for the first tats, and fallout from drought-driven agricultural collapse and from increas- time in about 3 million years, based ingly frequent extreme weather events on readings from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. If we do nothing _ floods, hurricanes, fires. Because to curb emissions, the U.S. is on track hot air holds more water, we’ll have for temperature increase of four to 11 more torrential rains, more ferocious hurricanes and more dry spells because degrees Fahrenheit by century’s end and carbon-dioxide ppm counts up of heat-induced changes in rainfall to 1,000, choking cities in a cloud of patterns. All these changes translate into increasing rates of ills like asthma, smoke that would far surpass Beijing allergies, severe respiratory infections, on its worst air days.

Already, the heat-trapping carbon heart and lung disease, cancer, infecdioxide that’s emitted from tailpipes tious diseases and even dementia and and factories collects over cities, depression. creating carbon-dioxide “domes” There is also the collateral damage that shroud the urban cores in toxic from the harsher climate, such as the clouds of pollutants. In cities like debilitating injuries and deaths, the dislocation and loss of social cohesion, New York, Phoenix and Baltimore, ambient carbon-dioxide parts per miland the lack of continuity in health care in the aftermath of weather-related lion (ppm) levels can spike into the 400s, 500s, and 600s, which is what calamities. What happened after Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy _ will become the norm in the next few when parts of the public health system decades, according to climate models. A 2010 Stanford University study collapsed and thousands of people found that these domes exacerbate went without needed medical care, sometimes for months, leading to much pollution’s harmful health effects, higher rates of disability and mortality and may cause 1,000 deaths a year.

It’s only going to get worse as the _ provides a chilling glimpse into a planet continues to warm. Two of the future when storms of this magnitude chief culprits behind asthma, allergies become commonplace.

The rise of dengue fever provides a and respiratory illnesses _ air pollution and smog _ intensify as temperawindow into how a hotter planet will tures rise. Children may be the ones promote the spread of infectious disease, and how warmer weather triggers who suffer the most from the effects of increasingly bad air, according chain-reaction changes in delicately to results of a long-term University calibrated ecosystems. Over the past of Southern California study on the half-century, its incidence has spiked 30-fold, according to the World Health link between chronic exposure to air Organization, and it now causes an es- pollution from freeway traffic and timated 100 million infections annually respiratory illnesses.

Within the next 30 years, exin more than 100 countries, especially ceptionally long heat waves could in densely populated and developing become the norm, particularly in megacities in the tropical belt.

Dengue has also traveled northward the American West, according to and taken up residence here in the U.S. one 2010 Stanford University study.

Overall, the frequency of so-called and is now endemic in Puerto Rico extreme weather events _ when and Florida, which had an outbreak temperatures climb past 100 degrees last summer. In the past decade, more _ could triple over the remainder of than 10,000 cases have been reported here, according to the CDC, which also this century, research by University of Miami scientists showed, resulting as found that hospitalizations for dengue many as 150,000 deaths between now fever tripled during that same period. and 2100.

Rising temperatures create an Linda marsa

MCT Campus

Dunn received sixty years in prison, but that is not enough.

Not enough for the public and most importantly not enough for Davis’s family who have still not seen justice for the loss of their son.

Dunn leaned heavily on the stand your ground law during his trial. It states that a person does not have to first try and get away before using deadly force. If a person feels threatened, they have the right to stay where they are and use force to prevent harm to themselves even if that threat is only perceived. Dunn claimed that the boys had what looked like the barrel of a gun or a large stick

that could be used against him that night.

At face value the law is understandable. However, it opens the door to racially sparked murders. In analysis done by Metro Trends, out of 4,650 FBI records of homicide in which a person killed a stranger with a handgun, they found that most of the cases involving a white person shooting a black person was ruled justifiable under the stand your ground law.

Every judge is different, every case is different but the outcome always seems the same. Marissa Alexander was sentenced to do a mandatory 20 years in prison for firing

warning shots at her abusive husband, however, the stand your ground law was not used in her defense. There was no room under the stand your ground law for her because she is African American.

The law is detrimental to African Americans. Although we have made major strides since the Civil Rights movement, there are still a lot of people in the world who are afraid of African Americans especially young African American men.

Because of the stand your ground law, it gives those that are still afraid of us permission to shoot first and ask questions later.

How many are going to fall victim to the stand your ground law? Killers now know they can walk because of their own perceptions of danger. Michael Dunn was not “afraid for his life” because he figured with the gun in his glove box he had the upper hand. Michael Dunn is guilty and is hiding behind a technicality of perceived fear.

At the end of the day, innocent lives are being taken on a daily basis and this law is doing nothing to protect those who truly need it.

—Email Brianna at theregister@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @theatregister

SEX AND ‘THE T’

Seeking positivity in a break-up exactly what to say The feeling is all about the feelings too familiar, from you experience the tightening in once the gym is your chest, the nauclosed, your friends seating stomach pain are booed up and and the headache the only thing on you receive from TV is repeats of the over-thinking.

Golden Girls.

It seems to hapOf course all pen the same way break-ups are bumevery time. Sadly, it mers, but they are happens or has hapMEAGAN apart of growing pened to the best of pains. I am neither us. Everyone experiJORDAN an expert nor a guru, ences “The Break but I have experienced a simiUp.” lar situation that has changed Traditionally, you meet a my viewpoints. This change guy or girl, one pursues the other, one may like one more has ultimately helped me to cope with the struggles of life. than the other, and if there is I became more positive in an attraction you “hit it off.” all aspects. Instead of asking Eventually, the honeymoon “why me?” Or “how did this stage fades and reality hits. happen?” I granted myself the Further down the road, the proper space I needed to think relationship goes through about the problem and reach a trial and error, which tests solution. the relationship. At times My issue was that I longed the relationship is not strong for a boyfriend more than I enough to withstand the isdid a peace of mind. I dessues. Therefore, the relationtined my entire happiness on ship ultimately ends in one one relationship or better yet if not both parties being hurt a “situationship,” and when and left to cope with their that ended I felt like a part of feelings. me ended too. I was tired of After the break up, we feeling physically sick because rely heavily on friends and I did not know how to control family for their advice, my emotions. I did not want to whether it is positive or negative. Their inputs usually be a “man-eater” as one of best vary depending on how much friends suggested, but I needed to find out who Meagan was they liked or disliked your and apply what I learned from significant other. Then you my prior relationships to my have the dating advice from relationship with myself. I cliché movies and maganeeded self-happiness. Once I zines, where it gives you a realized that I was not happy sequence of steps to follow with myself, I realized why my that usually include going to relationships never worked. the gym, trying a hobby and Although relationships are blocking them from everymeant to reach happiness, they thing electronically and if should not define your happipossible keeping them out ness but contribute to it. I had of your vision. There is one no contributions because I was word that describes it all— Typical. Although the advice looking for someone to “foot the entire bill.” catches your excitement In my research to see if I momentarily, no one knows

was the only one who got an upset stomach after a split I ran across a video of a guy trying to sell his idea on how to get over a break up. Although the idea of spending over $50 for something that can be summed up in a few sentences is remotely insane in my opinion, he made an interesting point. In the Buddhist tradition it is taught that desire and attachment is the root to all-evil. He further explained how many people think they are detaching themselves from a situation, but the only motive of their detachment is in hopes of their ex noticing. What I took from this was that I was detaching myself from my emotions and insecurities and giving them to someone else to fix my issues, and then when they left I was feeling empty again. I also realized that when I could not bury my frustrations in my ex-lover I heavily depended upon my friends to make me feel great, but I was still lost.

The great thing about friends is that they will defend you until “dooms day” whether you are wrong or right. After a while they get tired of hearing your repetitive soap opera and they are ready for you to move on. After my recent circumstances I realized that I had to be proactive and deal with my issues like a “big girl.” My friends were beyond helpful but I could not run to them every time I was feeling bad because I was going to feel this way for a while. I decided to redirect my focus. Instead of focusing on being bitter I focused on being better. The test was not avoiding him or the situation but it was facing the situation head on without being vulnerable.

Although blocking his number would prevent contact, the true

test is allowing him to text me and not dropping everything to be available to him. That was great improvement. Finding hobbies that I really did not care about was not going to keep the thought of him out of my head. At one time we spent a lot of time together, so it was normal to think about him and miss him. What helped was doing positive things that I put on hold when we were together. I started paying more attention to my future goals to better myself for me and not for a man. I was doing something I actually wanted to do instead of something I thought I needed to do. I believe some people feel entitled to jump into things, like cut their hair or take an art class to make them feel better for the moment.

When you break up with your boo, you are not entitled to anything but yourself. Treat yourself and the activities you do like a relationship. It is okay to spend time with your thoughts as long as they are positive ones. Find out where you went wrong in your relationship, try to improve the negative things about yourself, and implement them in your relationship with yourself.

Detach yourself from others for a while. Remember that this is a great time to figure out who you are. It is still a learning progress that I struggle with everyday, but since I have recognized my flaws I am beginning to enjoy life.

You will realize that one bad relationship does not spoil the whole bunch. All relationships are not terrible. You just have to find the one for you.

—Email Meagan at theregister@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter @itsme_agannn

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The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, February 26, 2014

7

Veterans say Sam’s personal life need not disrupt team unity rich campbell & dan Wiederer MCT Campus

INDIANAPOLIS — Peripheral elements elevate the NFL scouting combine to a full-blown convention. Meetings between team executives and agents in hotel bars, fraternization among coaches, and the famous shrimp cocktail at St. Elmo’s Steak House provide the spice.

At its core, though, this has been about football. The league’s annual pilgrimage centers on evaluating which college players possess the skill and talent to thrive in a cutthroat league.

So the football flow halted Saturday when former Missouri defensive end Michael Sam conducted his first news conference since announcing on Feb. 9 that he is gay.

The spectacle itself, which lasted 12{ minutes, was as remarkable as what Sam said. He spoke in front of a standingroom-only crowd of reporters, similar to the one that attended former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o’s media session last year and those of quarterbacks Cam Newton and Tim Tebow in previous winters.

Though Sam’s personal revelation has nothing to do with his ability to play football, during the predraft process he will be under the particular scrutiny of football men here to evaluate whether he can help their respective teams win.

Many general managers will ask whether Sam’s presence would cause a distraction to their teams.

Distraction is a catch-all term, in this instance perhaps synonymous with media circus.

No player wants that attached to his evaluation. Such a warning of negativity, dysfunction and failure might as well come with ominous music and a thunderstorm.

Although “distraction” is a bit of a nebulous concept, NFL players maintain it’s a real threat to winning. They link distractions to intense media attention.

And in a league characterized by parity, any negative stimulus to a team’s collective focus or energy level could be a significant detriment.

“This kid is going to garner a lot of attention,” veteran Bears guard Matt Slauson said. “Whatever team ends up getting him, I think it would be in their best interest to not feed into that at all because then it will become a distraction. It can really breed a kind of cancerous atmosphere around a team.”

Potential distractions exist in every NFL organization, and

some clubs manage them better than others. Doing so is as necessary to a team’s success as inflating footballs properly for practice.

In 2009 and 2010, after the Vikings signed Brett Favre to be their quarterback, it seemed as though a circus organ was providing the team’s soundtrack on a loop.

Linebacker Chad Greenway knew something extraordinary had happened the day Favre arrived.

Greenway was in the cafeteria at team headquarters eating lunch with starting quarterback Sage Rosenfels. On the TV above, a local news broadcast was documenting Favre’s arrival with a helicopter following the SUV he was riding in from the airport to the very building in which Greenway sat.

“You’re glued to the TV watching this bizarre, surreal deal,” Greenway told the Chicago Tribune this week. “Then suddenly it’s right outside your back door. You turn around, and here they were pulling in right to where you were sitting. You realize right from that moment that, ‘Holy cow, this is going to be a big deal.’ “ Suddenly, the Vikings faced a tsunami of new interest and the challenge of riding that wave without drowning in it.

“It’s all the attention all the time,” Greenway said. “You can’t turn any sports program on without seeing some sort of update on your team. When you’re in it, it sort of becomes your norm. But when you’re done with that circus and you have the opportunity to pull away from it, you begin to realize how much more of a strain it created than you acknowledged as you were experiencing it.”

A distracted team still shows up to play on Sundays, but the impairments are clear to the affected players. In a league that demands physical and mental excellence, depleted energy and focus can be the difference between winning and losing.

In Favre’s first season, the quarterback’s Pro Bowl production mitigated any fatigue that the increased media crush created. The Vikings came within a whisker of reaching the Super Bowl, energized by his presence and the buzz that surrounded the team.

The next year, however, they skidded to 10 losses with the swollen media horde chronicling every ounce of the odd drama and dysfunction that suffocated the season.

Greenway wouldn’t characterize the nonstop coverage as

Photo by MCT campus

MICHAEL SAM, Missouri Tigers defensive lineman, center, on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2014, became the most prominent, and apparently the first, active male athlete on the major U.S. sports scene to publicly disclose that he’s gay. Sam is seen during a college football game against Vanderbilt in this October 5, 2013.

a distraction necessarily. It was more of an annoyance and an energy drain.

“It becomes nauseating at times because you’re trying to focus on your job and helping the team win,” he said. “And it can create a diversion if you don’t keep a focus on what’s really important. There is a drain to that.”

Redskins tight end Logan Paulsen found it cumbersome to withstand the barrage of questioning from family, friends and strangers during two of the particularly dysfunctional episodes of his four seasons with the team.

“It’s like this psychological weight,” Paulsen told the Tribune this week. “You might not even acknowledge it, but it’s there. It just kind of looms over you. (Team decision-makers) don’t want that. They just want you to be able to kind of freely exist in this football universe, if that makes sense.”

During Paulsen’s first training camp in 2010, defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth feuded with coach Mike Shanahan. The intense media coverage included TV reporters’ farcical attempts at the conditioning test Haynesworth repeatedly failed.

Then last season, the Redskins came unhinged and finished 3-13 as Shanahan’s relationship with quarterback Robert Griffin III devolved.

Redskins players during the un-

raveling received text messages from team officials cautioning them about media interactions.

Players still went about their routines, but the tension and atmosphere created a negative work environment.

“It just has this toxicity that then consumes the team, the individual,” Paulsen said.

Keys to mitigating impact That’s not to say the team that drafts Sam should expect a negative outcome from the media attention he’s sure to attract.

“Let’s say we brought him here to Chicago,” Slauson said.

“I think we could eliminate that distraction based on how the organization handles it.”

From personal experience, he believes the keys are clear organizational vision, strong coaching and veteran leadership.

As a member of the Jets in 2012, his team wilted under the weight of attention the media paid Tebow, who was a reserve quarterback. Slauson criticized how the Jets handled Tebow’s status amid starter Mark Sanchez’s struggles and injury, saying the club “would kind of feed the flames.”

“They could have said, ‘He’s our Wildcat guy,’ and ‘He’s an athlete,’ and just put it to bed,” Slauson told the Tribune. “But ... they never came out and said that. They always kept thinking, ‘OK, the media is kind of going with this quarterback thing, so we’ll let them kind of continue

The A&T Register is NOW accepting applications for Reporters Photographers Copy editors until Feb. 28 @ 5 p.m. stop by GCB A328 to apply.

to do that,’ when Mark (Sanchez) was struggling and Mark got banged up. Everyone was speculating, ‘Well, is Tebow going to start now?’ And that shouldn’t have even been speculated about.”

Tebow threw eight passes that season and spent last year out of the league, an example of teams’ aversion to any possible distraction.

In contrast to that breakdown with the Jets, Slauson applauded how the Bears endured the media debate last season about whether backup quarterback Josh McCown or starter Jay Cutler should have played when Cutler returned from an ankle injury that sidelined him for four games.

As McCown played at a high level into December, the possibility of a divided locker room surfaced.

“I know a lot of players were kind of concerned about that situation because that was a very delicate, fragile time when it could drive a wedge,” Slauson said. “But because Josh is such an incredible man, he knew where he stood. He knew his role, and he made sure to continue to voice that after every game and every practice. That really helped eliminate that distraction there.”

Slauson also credited coach Marc Trestman for his awareness of the potentially divisive issue and asserting early on that

Cutler would remain the starter.

Nevertheless, Trestman still contended with questions about McCown’s status despite his steadfast stance.

Bears general manager Phil Emery said he worries less about how a potential media crush a player like Te’o or Sam draws might distract an entire team than he does about how the player himself is equipped to cope with something so new and extraordinary.

“I see it as an adjustment for them to the amount of coverage they’re suddenly getting,” Emery said. “For any rookie, regardless of where they come into the league from, if you come into Chicago or into New York, it’s a major adjustment.

“So can they re-learn to adjust to the level, the quality and the depth of the attention to be able to focus on what their job is? From my seat, you want to know what their maturity level is. And that widely varies from prospect to prospect.”

“Certainly, you’d expect the gay and lesbian community to take a special interest in how he’s doing, which will keep that story alive. But it will hopefully have a positive light and it may be able to promote a lot of good things for the NFL and make us look a lot less barbaric if this all can be handled professionally, which in my estimation is what’s going to happen.”

8

The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, February 26, 2014

New A&E series makes a killing

Scene heard

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Sevigny’s commercial approach luaine lee

MCT Campus

PASADENA, Calif. — Actress Chloe Sevigny insists that her reputation as a sassy rebel is way off the mark. Though she favors art-house movies, openly criticizes projects she’s doing, admits to toying with drugs and refuses to swim in the Hollywood stream, that’s not who she is, she says.

“I think because in real life I’m actually quite conservative, and I’m not radical in my day-to-day life and how I act _ I think I use my art to do that,” she says.

“I’m a nice Catholic girl.

For some reason that’s what makes it interesting and fun — kind of pushing the form and trying new things and shocking people in some moments.”

Sevigny did enjoy a lowermiddle class upbringing in an upscale area of Connecticut.

“My dad worked in insurance and worked very hard to bring us up in that town,” she says, seated in a sunny guest room of a hotel here.

“He wanted us to grow up in a really safe environment. And I never thanked him for doing that. But going back now, I just had my 20th high school reunion, and I knew all the kids from kindergarten on. And it is a really nice way to grow up I think. I think there’s so much hardship for so long, I think to keep kids innocent for as long as possible is not a bad choice

Photo Courtesy of MCT Campus

Hall Today!

Tamron Hall is joining the “TODAY Show” family and making history at the same time. Hall has been named an official co-host for the “TODAY Show” and is the first Black female co-host for the cast. She will be co-hosting with Al Rocker, Natalie Morales, and Willie Geist.

Hall also has a position on MSNBC, anchoring on “NewsNation.”

Inspite of these two time consuming schedules Tamron still finds the energy to host Investigation Discovery’s “Deadline: Crime with Tamron Hall.” When asked by Essence.com who she called first after receiving the great news, Hall stated that she called her mother. - K.P.

Movie pREVIEW

Black horror films take an interesting turn

starred in anything _ to make as a parent.” in a movie or televiShe lost her dad sion show before,” she to cancer when she says. “And I thought was only 20, a crucial this being kind of a bit event in her life, she more commercial fare confesses. “Just feelwould be more of a ing sad all the time. surprise to people than Still.” if I’d done another After his death, she weirdo, more arty picsays, she had to settle Chloe ture.” down a bit. “I think I Sevigny Determined to take had to work more because I had more financial re- command of her future, not sponsibility, so I had to think just her career, she says she’s more about work as a career learning more about managing than just as an art. You have to finances, hopes to marry and make different choices, but I have a baby within a year and still think I got to stick to my vows to be less self-critical.

“One of my New Year’s resguns. And he always celebrated my brother’s and my individu- olutions is not to beat myself up ality, and told us, ‘You never so much,” says Sevigny, who’s become sheep’ and all that kind wearing a blue print blouse, a of stuff. So I think I’ve carried short, flared black skirt, a navy that on for him.” headband with a bow and pink, Sevigny has specialized in platform heels. unorthodox independent films, “I’d like to be able to be starting with “Trees Lounge” more confident and more comwhen she was 21, then slipping fortable in my own skin, and into the mainstream with “Zo- think I’d like to have that. You diac,” “Shattered Glass” and have to find peace with your“Boys Don’t Cry,” for which self; especially with the way she earned an Oscar nomina- I look. I’m trying not to be so tion. Television series like “Big critical. I guess just being in the Love,” “American Horror Sto- industry and feeling like people ry” and her latest, “Those Who are looking at you under a miKill,” premiering March 3 on croscope _ than maybe if you A&E, have exposed her in a had a different profession _ makes you more critical.” new light.

Left heartbroken when her In “Those Who Kill” she plays a newly minted homi- eight-year romance with rock cide detective obsessed with musician Matt McAuley endunearthing serial killers and ed, she says she’s found new tortured by her own, shattered joy with commercial director Rene Navarrette. past.

While she doesn’t avoid ac“I just turned 39 and I never

tors, she says, “I’ve gone on dates with actors _ some more or less famous _ but I never met one that I wanted to pursue more than a couple of dates here and there. I’ve fallen for some of my costars, but more as their character. And when you’re with them as themselves _ ‘I don’t really have that much to talk to you about. You’re just like a dorky, actor guy. You’re much more interesting as your character,’” she laughs.

Sevigny recently bought a new apartment in New York and says she loves playing the hausfrau. “I’m very good at domestic artistry, home-life, cleaning, laundry, setting the house up. Cooking, I’m OK, getting better. But keeping a nice home and taking care of the plants, domestic artistry I’m quite good at that, and I really like it. I really find it very therapeutic keeping a tidy household. It makes me feel really calm and safe.”

“The Americans,” the FX series about Soviet spies who assume the identify of a typical American couple, will return for a new season on Wednesday.

Welsh actor Matthew Rhys, who plays the husband, recalls when the Cold War was in full sway.

“Personally, being from the UK and within striking distance, it was very present to us,” he says.

‘12 Years a Slave’ adds to Oscar momentum susan king

Los Angeles Times

mariya moseley

Register Reporter

Black horror movies like ‘Candyman’ featuring Anthony Todd in 1992, ‘Bones’ starring Snoop Dogg in 2001, and ‘Dead Heist’ with E-Bone, Bone Crusher, and Big Daddy Kane in 2007, were all great horror movies that kept many on the edge of their seats.

More recently, a black horror film titled ‘Repentance,’ is scheduled to release in theaters on Feb. 28, 2014. The film is expected to be one of the most captivating black horror films in the last few years.

For black films, ‘Repentance’ is a highly anticipated film because of the interesting and riveting storyline in this psychological thriller. The cast for this Liongates Entertainment film includes, Anthony Mackie (Thomas Carter “Tommy”), Forest Whitaker (Angel Sanchez), Sanaa Lathan (Maggie), Mike Epps (Ben), and Nicole Ari Parker as Sophie.

The story involves a spiritual life coach/author, Thomas Carter, who ultimately gets his messages used against him by his disturbed client, Angel Sanchez. Sanchez has not received closure regarding his mother’s death.

Throughout the trailer, Sanchez says, “I’m not crazy” multiple times, as he kidnaps Thomas and terrorizes his family for their sins.

Although Thomas knows how strong his abilities

are as a spiritual therapist, he has no idea just how psychotic his client is.

Throughout the film, Thomas learns how to not only control this client, but also save himself as well as his family from the dangers Angel Sanchez may bring.

Many are hoping that “Repentance” does not fall into the stereotypes of many horror films. However, with such a seasoned cast the likely hood of that is doubtful.

Perhaps this film will spark a phenomenon and encourage other directors to write more characters of substance for black actors in horror films.

‘Repentance’ looks to be a promising film. This film stars some of Black Hollywood’s most talented actors and actresses. Be sure to support ‘Repentance’ Friday, Feb. 28.

— Email Mariya at theatregister@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @TheATRegister

LOS ANGELES _ “12 Years a Slave,” director Steve McQueen’s harrowing depiction of slavery in America, won top motion picture honors at the 45th NAACP Image Awards on Saturday evening at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

Lupita Nyong’o won in the supporting actress category for her role in “12 Years,” and in a separate ceremony Friday evening, McQueen won the Image Award for director and John Ridley for the film’s screenplay.

By beating “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” and “Fruitvale Station,” among others, in the motion picture category, “12 Years a Slave” heads into the Academy Awards on March 2 with yet more honors.

It also has won the Golden Globe for motion picture drama, the top BAFTA prize and tied with “Gravity” for the Producers Guild of America Award. It is nominated for nine Oscars.

One Image Awards category that “12 Years” didn’t win was for actor in a motion picture. Forest Whitaker took home the prize for his work in “Lee Daniels’ the Butler,” and he also received the NAACP’s Chairman’s Award for his humanitarian work.

Whitaker’s “Butler” costar David Oyelowo picked up the prize for supporting actor, and Angela Bassett won the actress prize for “Black

Lupita

Nyong’o

OR

NAH?

Feb. 26 to Mar. 5 The A&T Register’s guide to what’s going on this week in arts and entertainment.

on screen pompeii One gladiator is in a race against time to save his one true love. This period film revolving around the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Coming from slavery, Milo falls in love with Cassia, the daughter of a merchant.

However, Cassia is already arranged to marry a ruthless Senator. Now with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius pending the lovers must find a way to escape before the entire city is swept away by hot lava.

“Pompeii” is full of action.

on screen mr. peabody and sherman Reprising their roles from “Rocky and Bullwinkle Show,” Mr. Peabody and Sherman find themselves traveling through time in this family friendly film. While time traveling, Peabody and Sherman must find that they have to correct history before forever changing time.

Chiwetel

Ejiofor

Photo Courtesy of MCT Campus

Nativity.”

Comedian Kevin Hart was named entertainer of the year Saturday evening; the night before, the Image Awards named Hart outstanding actor in a comedy series for “Real Husbands of Hollywood,” a BET series that also won for comedy series.

“Scandal” won the top prize for drama series, and its star, Kerry Washington, won lead actress. In the TV movie, miniseries or dramatic categories, “Being Mary Jane” won top honors, and its star, Gabrielle Union, won for lead actress. Idris Elba won lead actor for “Luther.”

Among the other winners named in 41 categories that also covered music and literature: Beyonce for female recording artist, John Legend for male recording artist, and K. Michelle for new artist.

In the duo, group or collaboration category, the winner was “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke featuring T.I. & Pharrell.

In fiction, Pamela Samuels Young was honored for “Anybody’s Daughter.” In

nonfiction, Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer were honored for “Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery.”

Debut author honors went to Sheri Booker for “Nine Years Under.”

The 45th Image Awards were voted by members of the NAACP, the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the U.S. Anthony Anderson hosted the awards show, and Oprah Winfrey paid tribute to the late South African President Nelson Mandela

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Come see us on Wednesdays GCB room 328 A See you at 5 p.m.

SPRING BREAK EDITION

POPPIN’

hotlist

thescene

1. The Career Fair? 2. Chicken and waffles in the cafe? 3. Miami for Spring Break? 4. Everybody hitting the gym the week before break? 5. Nobody in the gym the week after? 6. Seeing the same swimsuits at the beach?

7. Seeing your entire class? 8. Teachers giving projects the week before break? 9. Balling with refund checks and tax refunds? 10. Poetic Justice braids? 11. Quick weaves and bundles? 12. People not showing up for group meetings, but you run into each other in Miami? 13. Test dates getting pushed back to after break? 14. Library packed after Spring Break? 15. Midterm grades? 16. Basketball Wives LA? 17.Real Housewives of Atlanta? 18.

Counting down the days until “Scandal?” 19. The season finale of “Being Mary Jane?” 20. Inclement weather?

on screen 300: rise of an empire The gritty sequel to the box office hit “300” is sure to be full of special effects, action, and amazing graphics. The story picks up with Greek general Themistokles and his troops fighting to avoid the invasion of the Persian army being led by Xerxes and navy commander Artemisia. This film is the ultimate combination of drama, grit, action, and artistic cinematography.

“300 : Rise of an Empire,” is a great film for a boys night or even a sweet treat for you man for date night.

Come be a part of theScene Contributors Meetings every Wednesday at 5 p.m. in GCB 328A