7 30 2014

VOL. 63, No. 29

NAACP, Dunkin’ Brands to pursue more franchises for African Americans (PRNewswire) – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) announced Wednesday its partnership with Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc., the parent company Cornell of Dunkin’ William Donuts and Brooks Baskin-Robbins, to create a Diversity Franchising Initiative to increase the number of African-American owned franchise businesses in the United States.

Through the partnership, Dunkin’ Brands and the NAACP will collaborate to offer people of color in-depth franchising education and training as well as assistance in overcoming the financial challenges related to becoming a franchise owner. The partnership was announced at the NAACP’s 105th Annual Convention in Las Vegas.

“Franchising can be a powerful economic tool that further enables the African-American community and others to realize the American dream of business ownership,” said Cornell William Brooks, president and CEO of the NAACP. “We are excited to announce this unique partnership with Dunkin’ Brands and to improve opportunities for people of color in the franchising sector because of the substantial impact these agreements have on empowering and employing people of color.”

Dedrick Muhammad, senior director of the NAACP Economic Department, said the Dunkin’ Brands Diversity in Franchising Initiative will provide education, networking opportunities and information on critical topics including access to capital.

“Ultimately, we hope this program helps to increase the number of African-American franchise business owners in the U.S in both the short and long term,” said Muhammad.

The initiative is a part of Dunkin’ Brands’ ongoing efforts to provide resources to help qualified franchisee candidates overcome barriers associated with financing, including providing guidance on business plan development, facilitating access to capital, and forging relationships with local community lenders.

“We are proud to launch this partnership with the NAACP. Working together, our goal is to increase African-American participation in the franchise industry, not just with Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins, but across a wide spectrum of franchising concepts available in the marketplace,” said Grant Benson, CFE, vice president of global franchising and business development, Dunkin' Brands.

Additionally, we believe this partnership will enable Dunkin’ Brands to build a larger, more diverse pool of franchise candidates, accelerate our expansion in new and existing markets, and continue to build customer loyalty for our two brands across the country”

MEMPHIS WEEKEND FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

H-90o - L-70o H-95o - L-77o H-94o - L-72o Sunny Mostly Sunny ScatteredStorms REGIONAL TEMPS LITTLE ROCK NASHVILLE JACKSON, MS

Friday H-92 L-71 H-89 L-67 H-91 L-72

www.tsdmemphis.com

July 24 - 30, 2014

Saturday H-98 L-76 H-95 L-74 H-93 L-73

Sunday H-97 L-73 H-92 L-69 H-94 L-74

75 Cents

Dems embrace early-voting math Uphill battle paying off, says party chair

by Tony Jones Special to The New Tri-State Defender

Early voting patterns reported by the Shelby County Election Commission were showing a slim lead for Democratic voters, with the commission reporting a total of 14,879 votes cast at the 21 early voting sites by TSD press time Wednesday evening.

The three leading satellite locations were White Station Church of Christ – 1045; New Bethel Church – 1036; and the Agri Center – 924.

Early voting began last Friday (July 18th) at the Shelby County Of-

fice Building ahead of the Monday start for the satellite locations. The count at the Downtown site showed 1,233 voters had cast ballots there.

Early voting ends Aug. 2nd.

Democrats hope the early-voting pattern holds as the final push to the Aug. 7th election draws near.

Longtime party loyalist Del Gill, who is also a candidate for Tennessee Democratic Executive Committeeman, District 33, male (there is a female position as well), said, “We have to double down on our base,” if the party’s leading candidates have a chance to win.

“Historic voting patterns have proven that Shelby County is 70 per-

cent Democrat. That includes blacks, whites and others. And of those, 92 percent of African-American voters are Democrat. Of those, 42 percent will never vote for a Republican candidate in their lifetime. I think we can win,” said Gill.

Local party chairman Bryan Carson said despite being outgunned monetarily, the party has been out fanning the grassroots to drive voter SEE VOTING ON PAGE 3

Koch panel advocates for vouchers, elimination of Common Core

by Grace Tatter Chalkbeat Tennessee

A group of conservative scholars and a charter school principal pushed for vouchers and urged Tennesseans to be wary of the Common Core standards during a forum Tuesday.

The program, whose attendees included legislators, representatives from conservative think tanks, and parents opposed to the rapid expansion of charters in the city, was held by a non-profit funded by Charles Koch, the controversial and influential conservative billionaire. It gave insight into the type of initiatives in Tennessee and across the country he might back this upcoming legislative session.

“Nashville is an ideal place to have this important conversation,” said Brennan Brown, a representative from the Koch Foundation who moderated the discussion.

“Tennesseans realize the important link between education and opportunity.”

Panelists included representatives from right-leaning think tanks such as the Friedman Foundation Jonathan Butcher (left) of the Goldwater Institute and principal Steve Perry were two panelists on a forum on school choice. (Photo: Grace Tatter)

SEE KOCH ON PAGE 3

Unwavering, Richmond still pushing for change

by Wiley Henry Special to The New Tri-State Defender

The testimonials on Dr. Isaac Richmond’s campaign website painting him as the “most qualified” candidate to represent the 9th Congressional District are indicative of his influence on those who share his commitment to fighting injustice and inequality. But can that influence be translated to a wider audience that can send him to Washington?

“Dr. Richmond, beyond Fourth Con- question, is the best, the most gressional capable, and the most qualified man to represent the people as race U.S. Congressman for the 9th district,” said Joe Green, director, West Tennessee District of the Commission on Race and Religion (CORR) and Richmond’s campaign manager.

The nearly 40-year-old civil rights organization has been a bully pulpit from which Richmond’s campaign for Congress was launched.

He is challenging the incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and attorney Ricky E. Wilkins for the opportunity to represent the 9th Congressional District on the Aug. 7th Democratic primary ballot. The winner will face Charlotte Bergmann, the Republican nominee, in the general election on Nov. 4th.

“I feel strongly that there must be a change in the political direction in the African-American community in the 9th Congressional District,” said Richmond, 75, national director of CORR. “And that would mean, as I say from my heart, electing a man who has a proven record…and will stand for the people in the U.S. Congress.”

A demonstrator and in-your-face activist, Richmond is making his fourth run for Congress. His latest attempt, however, might be considered by those who keep tabs on candidates during election cycles as just another futile

BEST IN BLACK AWARDS Voting runs July 21-Aug. 5 www.bestinblackawards.com

“The truth will enlighten our people,” says Dr. Isaac Richmond, “and if they are enlightened, they’re going to vote our way.” (Photo: Wiley Henry) attempt. Here’s why: Richmond was unsuccessful as an independent in two prior congressional races against former congressman Harold Ford Sr. when Ford was dominating Memphis politics. And he was unsuccessful a third time in the 2008 Democratic primary when he vowed to “take Cohen out in the primary.”

Richmond’s vision of what the district should look like from an African-American perspective has not changed since he first sought public office. He is unwavering when it comes to cam-

Naturals in the City Hair & Wellness Expo – Year lll

paign logistics and employs a grassroots approach and unorthodox methods when stumping for votes.

On any given day Richmond and his supporters may be seen in the community expressing their views on what they adjudge as slow progress for African Americans. They also speak candidly about race, and the race, and pass out handbills.

It would not be unusual to see Richmond with SEE RICHMOND ON PAGE 2

Building a legacy of Lawsons

TaKeisha Berry-Brooks is empowering people

Win-win situation puts wife and mother, Dedra Lawson, in spotlight

See Entertainent, page 8

See Sports, page 12

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July 24 - 30, 2014

Tri-State Defender

NEWS RICHMOND CONTINUED FROM FRONT a bullhorn to get people’s attention. So far he’s communicating via handbill on the campaign stump.

“We plan to put 40,000 flyers on the street. We got a message and I’m challenging the candidates to bring forth their platform,” said Richmond, choosing to forego the attention-grab“We got a bing yard tradimessage sign tionally and I’m used by challeng- candidates increase ing the to their notoricandidates ety because to bring fundraising been a forth their has challenge. platform.” Whether R i c h mond’s challenge to his opponents is accepted or not, he said he’ll focus on changing the political and social landscape in the 9th district; and if he’s elected, he’ll initiate those changes and see them implemented.

Some of those initiatives include the following: • Demand that 50 percent of all federal funds and tax dollars coming to Memphis be earmarked for building construction, business development, and jobs creation; • Introduce legislation to eradicate crime and poverty in the innercity; • Reverse foreign aid into domestic aid to improve the social welfare of the district’s citizens through educational advancement, economic development, including strengthening the overall infrastructure of the district; • Call for federal funds to improve MATA bus services throughout the district; • Reform the U.S. immigration policy; and, • Fight to restore workers’ rights to organize and unionize.

Richmond is also pushing to enact a federal bill – H.R. 40 – which has languished in Congress since U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) first introduced it in January of 1989.

The bill acknowledges and establishes a commission to study slavery. If the bill were signed into law, “the commission would make recommendations to Congress on the appropriate remedies to redress the harm inflicted on living African Americans.”

The issue is a concern of Maxine Thomas, a Richmond supporter who tried to broach the subject in a question to Richmond during a candidate forum last Sunday (July 20) at St. Augustine Catholic Church in South Memphis. Due to time restraints, Richmond was not allowed to respond.

“I could’ve turned the place out,” Thomas told a reporter after taking her seat.

The alleged slight was no surprise to Richmond, surmising on more than one campaign outing that “they’re (media) trying to frame the 9th Congressional District as a contest between the man in office (Cohen) and, I suppose, (Ricky) Wilkins.”

Cohen and Wilkins have received the lion’s share of media attention and more campaign contributions. According to opensecrets.org, Cohen had $525,786 on hand as of July 22; Wilkins, $241,090. No contributions for Richmond have been reported.

“You got to have a certain amount of votes to win an election, and I’m working on getting the black vote,” Richmond said. “If money buys it (the election), then money is going to rule.”

Richmond noted that winning the congressional seat would be an extension of his service to the community from Capitol Hill. He remains steadfast in his convictions even if people get a little timid after hearing him speak “the truth.”

“The truth will enlighten our people,” he said, “and if they are enlightened, they’re going to vote our way.”

Early voting began July 18 and ends Aug. 2. Richmond is asking voters to “choose a man for the people who is unbought and un-bossed, who stands up for the people, who speaks up for the people, and who fights for the economic rights of the people.”

Dr. Isaac Richmond, Maxine Thomas and their Inner-City Housing/Community Development, Inc., are currently rehabbing a two-story, sixunit apartment building in South Memphis. (Photo: Wiley Henry)

About Dr. Isaac Richmond…

Dr. Isaac Richmond, founder of CORR, has fought for over 30 years to right what he believes is wrong with society.

According to his website, he has “dedicated his life to fighting for the people” locally, nationally and internationally.

Richmond graduated from Douglas High School in 1957.

He received a B.A. Degree in History and Secondary Education in 1961 from Lane College in Jackson, Tenn.; a Master’s in Religious Education (M.R.E.) in 1963 and a Master’s of Divinity (M. Div.) Degree in 1974, both from the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Ga.; and a Doctorate of Ministry (D. Min.) Degree in 1976 from the Atlanta Theological Association.

Richmond has held a number of positions throughout his career. He and the Inner-City Housing/Community Development, Inc., which he oversees, are currently rehabbing a twostory, six-unit apartment building in South Memphis.

Tri-State Defender

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July 24 - 30, 2014

NEWS VOTING

KOCH

CONTINUED FROM FRONT

CONTINUED FROM FRONT

participation.

“It has been an uphill battle but over the past five or six weeks we have come up with strategic plans and also raised $86,000 and we are putting all that money and resources to support our candidates,” said Carson. “We will be pushing hard on GOTV (Get Out The Vote) with mailouts, having our people out at the precints to urge voters to support the Democratic candidates. If we wake up on August 8th and find out that we lost but I feel we put our best foot forward, I can live with that.

“But what I can’t live with is waking up Aug. 8th and with a ‘woulda-shoulda-coulda’ feeling knowing that we did not put our best foot forward.

We’re going all out.”

Carson said the “largest slate of candidates and ballot in some time” has presented some complications.

“You have so many qualified candidates, and when you are involved in the political arena in Shelby County the well runs dry when you have to run to the same individuals, same companies, asking for money.

So we have resorted back to our grassroots efforts in grocery stores, in restaurants, going face to face talking about our candidates’ experience and their platforms and contrasting their ideas to the current leadership in Shelby County,” he said, adding that there will be a (printed) guide at the polls to “highlight our candidates. Our job is to excite the people to get there.”

Election Commission Administrator Richard Holden said the commission has been extra diligent to assure that the voting machines can bear the load of the election’s long ballot.

“The number of positions on the ballot makes it more complex because it makes it necessary to have many different ballots available for different areas of the county,” said Holden. “For example, the ballot you (the voter) may have for South Memphis is different from Cordova voters because of the different positions that you are going to be voting on.

We went to the sites early on to

and the Beacon Center of Tennessee, and the principal of a charter school in Connecticut.

Charles Koch and his brother David Koch are coowners and founders of Koch Industries, the second largest, privately held company in the United States, and are known to be among the most influential Americans. The billionaire brothers spend millions each year on statewide and national political campaigns that often directly promote libertarian principles, and are credited with bringing their libertarian values into the mainstream.

Recently, the brothers have gained notoriety for their venture into education philanthropy (including a $25 million grant to the United Negro College Fund). Koch-funded organizations bankroll civics courses that “reinvigorate the teaching of America’s founding principles and history” at universities ranging from Harvard University to the College of Charleston, and economics courses in public high schools.

Panelist Steve Perry, the principal of Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Connecticut, said that reformers in Tennessee not willing to support vouchers were merely offering “reform-lite.”

“What they want to do, is they want to say what’s most politically palatable,” he said.

Earlier in the discussion, Perry said he was astounded Tennesseans had not managed to pass a voucher program, since the state has a Republican governor and a super-majority of Republicans in the legislature. Although most aspects of the expansion of school choice in Tennessee are bipartisan, vouchers’ most visible proponents in the state and nationwide have been Republican. Perry said people in the room should be doing more to make vouchers a reality.

“You say you’re for it, you say you want choice, yet you don’t pull the lever to make the choice happen,” he said.

He and other panelists thought vouchers were among the best tactics to provide lowincome students with the same high-quality options as chil-

Early voting, which kicked off last Friday (July 18th) at the Shelby County Election Commission at 157 Poplar Ave., extended to all 21 satellite locations on Monday and continues through Aug. 2nd. Hours for voting: Weekdays: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Photo: George Tillman Jr.)

Early Voting Results Through Tuesday, July 22 Source: Shelby County Election Commission Total:

Election Commission Administrator Richard Holden make sure the equipment was working properly and that all precincts were properly equipped, then went back to reverify that we could connect properly to the machines and computers so we could access the voters information.

“I just hope there is a heavy turnout. We have 730,000 registered voters in Shelby County and we want to encourage them all to come out and do so.”

14,879

Democrats Republicans Independent

7,841 6,794 244

52.0% 45.7% 1.6%

Black White Other

5,053 5,868 3,958

34.0% 39.4% 26.6%

Male Female

6,576 8,303

44.2% 55.8%

18-34 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-Plus

260 542 1,020 2,304 3,944 6,809

1.7% 3.6% 6.9% 15.5% 26.5% 45.8%

dren from wealthier families.

Throughout the panel Stephanie Linn, the lobbyist for the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, repeated that no research has shown vouchers negatively impact student achievement.

“There is no study that’s ever shown kids were harmed (by school vouchers),” she said. In fact, research on vouchers has offered conflicting verdicts about their efficacy. Regardless, as Chalkbeat reported earlier this month, many predict school vouchers will pass in 2015.

Sen. Brian Kelsey, a Republican from Germantown who sponsored the most expansive version of a voucher bill in 2013, attended the forum, as well as Rep. Steve McDaniels, a Republican from Parkers Crossroads.

Another topic panelists addressed that is expected to be revisited next legislative session is the removal of Common Core State Standards.

Some Republican representatives have led a push in the Tennessee legislature to eliminate Common Core, a series of standards that determine what students learn in each grade.

They feel the standards represent an overreach of the federal government, although the federal government did not create or enforce the standards.

Panelist Jonathan Butcher, the education director of the Goldwater Institute, said the standards represent a larger threat to the federal government’s interference in parental choice.

“We have to be realistic about what is being forced from inside the beltway,” he said. Right now, the Common Core State Standards are in effect statewide for math and reading, but opponents delayed their expansion to social studies and science, as well as the use of a statewide test to measure how well students learn those standards. The standards will most likely be a hot topic again during the next legislative session in the spring.

The panel was originally supposed to be moderated by Shaka Mitchell, who works for Rocketship Schools, a California-based charter management operator that is slated to open schools in Nashville, but according to a July 15 Tweet from the organization, he was unable to attend.

Page 4

Tri-State Defender

July 24 - 30, 2014

OPINION John H. Sengstacke Publisher (1951 - 1997)

The Mid-South’s Best Alternative Newspaper

Charity at home

• Bernal E. Smith II President / Publisher • Dr. Karanja A. Ajanaku Executive Editor

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SPECIAL REPORT

3 Tennessee judges and a ‘power grab’ with national implications

by Hazel Trice Edney TriceEdneyWire.com

An attempt to unseat three judges in an upcoming Nashville election is nothing less than a “raw power grab” by right wing special interests using big money to buy control of the courts, says the head of a non-partisan organization of lawyers this week.

“It is a raw power grab is what it is. Their campaign against these justices are based on a series of lies, half-truths, misstatements and material omissions,” says Charles Grant, president of the bi-partisan Nashville Bar Association (NBA), which has endorsed the retention of the judges.

“It has huge implications nationally because if they can do it here, they can do it anywhere.”

The situation involves three Tennessee Supreme Court Justices Cornelia A. Clark, Sharon Gail Lee and Gary R. Wade, all up for retention on the court by the vote on Aug. 7. They were originally appointed by Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen.

Opposing the judges are namely Republican Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and other Republicans backed by wealthy political operatives, some from outside the state, including the billionaire Koch brothers of Wichita, Kans., according to widespread media reports. Among Ramsey’s tools is a 30-page Power Point that attempts to scare voters by claiming - in part that the three judges are soft on the death penalty and "anti-business".

Grant says the claims in the Power Point are blatantly false and undermines the integrity of the process.

“It is chock full of misstatements, it’s misleading, it has substantial omissions, sometimes it attributes to these judges opinions that were written by the Court of Appeals for example. And when confronted with all of this misleading information that he is putting out to the public about the quality of these justices’ work, he will come right out and say, ‘It’s not my job to tell their side of the story,’” says Grant, the NBA’s first Black president. “What is it that they hope to accomplish? They hope to control the court. That’s what they hope to accomplish. They don’t want independence. They want control.”

In Tennessee media reports, Ramsey has defended his conduct by saying, “I’m telling my side of the story and they’ll get to tell their side of the story. Every campaign tells half of the story...They tell their side of the story and the people decide.”

Adding to the difficulty of clarifying their records is the fact that judges can't speak out to defend themselves in the same manner as someone running for a political office. Because of codes of conduct, they must appear impartial at all times and avoid public confrontations that could warrant a conflict of interest later. They can't speak publicly on specific cases. Neither can they ask for financial contributions.

Voters would need to research deeply to unearth the real facts pertaining to the three judges, Grant says. For example, though Ramsey contends they are soft on the death penalty, they have actually affirmed 90 percent of the death penalty cases before them, Grant says. As for the “anti-business” charge, “It is not the justices’ jobs to be leaning one way or the other. That is not what we want them to do. We want them to decide the cases based on the facts and the law without favor, without prejudice to one side or the other.”

The historic principles that have allowed for major progress in America are also at stake, Grant says.

“If Supreme Court judges had been subject to special interests, we would never have had Brown verses Board of Education. We would never have had the landmark decision that dismantled segregation and state-enforced discrimination through laws

Tri-State Defender Platform 1. Racial prejudice worldwide must be destroyed.

2. Racially unrestricted membership in all jobs, public and private.

3. Equal employment opportunities on all jobs, public and private.

4. True representation in all U.S. police forces.

5. Complete cessation of all school segregation.

6. Federal intervention to protect civil rights in all instances where civil rights compliance at the state level breaks down

like Jim Crow and racially res t r i c t i v e covenants and red-lining by banks and all of those things that enforce racism and racial oppression. So we need to have Charles Grant, some kind of check on this president, Nashville Bar power to make Association sure the basic constitutional rights and the bill of rights are protected.”

In a nutshell, the 40-year-old “merit selection” process by which judges are chosen in Tennessee is quite common in states across the U. S. Candidates are intensely vetted through a bi-partisan nine-member judicial evaluation commission, which then recommends three judges to the governor for any vacancy on the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court.

When the eight-year term is up, the judges are re-evaluated by a commission, which then makes a public recommendation on whether the judge should be retained. If the commission decides against the retainer, the judge is subject to a popular election. If the commission decides for the retainer; then the judges go on the ballot for the public to review their record and to review the recommendations and to determine whether or not they should be replaced.

After this rigorous process, Clark, Lee and Wade were all recommended for retainer by the commission of non-partisan lawyers and citizens.

Yet, the judges are now under a partisan attack.

With the rigorous campaign to unseat and replace them, Grant fears the judges’ retention bids could realistically fail because of the potency of the smear campaign and the money that is backing it.

“It is about buying influence.

They are going after these justices because these justices do not cow tow to special interests. They do their jobs. They call the balls and strikes as they see them,” Grant says. “When a special interest or group wants to target a judge, it’s kind of easy to identify, to take one of their one hundred opinions or whatever, to misstate the facts or misstate the law or completely mislead.”

Grant and the NBA are not alone in their advocacy for fairness in the process. On July 15, a bi-partisan group of district attorneys came forward to support the three judges saying they have outstanding records and deserve to be retained. Also, Republican Mickey Barker, a former chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court, has been quoted as calling the anti-retention campaign “frightening” because it would turn the Tennessee Supreme Court into a "partisan branch of government."

Trial lawyer Lew Conner, also a Republican, recently held a fund-raiser of his own to assist the judges in their retention bid. “This is about a system being wrongfully attacked, and Ramsey is the attacker,” Conner was quoted in the Tennessee Watchdog.

Grant says the bi-partisan outrage is simply due to the knowledge that a politicized judiciary could lead to a rogue court, which could make decisions based on political whims and allegiances instead of the facts of the cases before them.

He concludes, “Lawyers don’t want judges beholding to special interests. None of us do. Lawyers don’t want to walk into court thinking that the scales of justice are already tilted toward one party before we've had an opportunity to present our case,” Grant concludes.

“The only way to win is to educate the population. If you want an independent judiciary; you have to understand when it’s under attack by partisan special interests.”

DISTRIBUTION: Tri-State Defender is available at newsstands, street sales, store vendors, mail subscription and honor boxes throughout the Greater Memphis area. No person may, without prior written permission of the Tri-State Defender, reprint any part of or duplicate by electronic device any portion without written permission. Copyright 2013 by Tri-State Defender Publishing, Inc. Permission to Publisher, Tri-State Defender, 203 Beale Street, Suite 200, Memphis, TN. 38103. Back copies can be obtained by calling the Tri-State Defender at (901) 523-1818, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

Two boys at the Detroit Water Rally held July 18. (Photo: Courtesy/National Nurses United)

Trying to understand what makes sense Last month, a United Nations panel held that cutting off water to Detroit residents suffering from high unemployment rates and low incomes, leaving them unable to afford their water bills, was a violation of basic human rights.

This past weekend, actor Mark Ruffalo and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) joined close to a thousand protesters in a march organized by National Nurses United from Detroit’s Cobo Center to Hart Plaza. The chants of the crowd included “We got sold out, banks got bailed out.”

And there were renewed calls for a financial transaction tax, commonly referred to as a “Robin Hood tax.”

It was announced this week that the water shutoffs would be temporarily suspended for 15 days.

During the Great Depression there was a stock market bubble that burst on Black Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1929. But there also was massive land speculation that collapsed the local economies of Texas, Florida and California, leading to more than 2,000 municipalities and municipal corporations being in default. The uncertainty of resolving the issue led Congress in 1934 to create a special chapter of the federal bankruptcy law to handle municipal bankruptcies.

Chapter 9 bankruptcies have spiked in each of the last three recessions.

They have not reached the heights of the Great Depression. This has allowed room to treat each bankruptcy as a unique case-but the trend clearly suggests these are not independent events.

In the case of water and sewage bonds and the city of Detroit, the hike in water rates involves the perverse logic Chapter 9 was intended to avoid.

A rash of foreclosures from the housing crisis helped escalate a depopulation of Detroit, while the largest drop in automobile demand in U.S. history that was part of the Great Recession meant a loss of employment in Detroit.

The result of depopulation and less economic activity of course meant less revenue for the water authority-but the bonds still needed to be paid. So that means a hike in water bills for an unemployed and poor population.

The full costs of the Great Recession still are being tallied. Regrettably, distant from the free fall of 2008, the stories have been pointing blame at Detroit, Flint, Puerto Rico, Sacramento and the hundreds of other local government authorities that still need to meet basic government functions-like the provision of clean water-but with big drops in revenue.

In fact, while the number of payroll

positions have reached their 2008 peak, public employment still is down, and state and local governments continue to shrink their budgets. But we still have children to educate, roads that must be repaired William and in cities like Spriggs Chicago, public order and safety to maintain.

So, how does it make sense that President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen could bum rush Congress into a huge, multibillion-dollar deal to create the Troubled Asset Relief Program, but there is no national outcry when a city the size of Detroit can’t provide affordable water to its citizens? If banks are too big to fail, don’t we have cities too big to fail? Where Hurricane Katrina caused too much water that drowned New Orleans, isn’t it also a catastrophe when thousands of households surrounded by potable water can’t afford a drink?

Doesn’t the plight of Detroit at least warrant a White House convening?

The current level of cynicism created by our political leadership feigning impotence to deliver solutions to simple problems like affordable water is dangerous. In the case of Detroit, it is the same indifference to the poor we saw in New Orleans after Katrina. It is a mixture of two odd beliefs: That the poor created this problem-too lazy to pay rising water bills or too lazy to flee the rising waters from a broken leveeand, if it will cost money, then it isn’t something that government should fix.

The government can solve the problems of rich Wall Street banking firms that can't pay their bills-even if it means creating a whole new government apparatus like the TARP. But the government cannot refinance the water system of Detroit, repair our roads or come up with the funds to keep our schools from closing in Chicago or Philadelphia?

This set of inconsistencies fuels the right-wing fanaticism of the Tea Party and the nihilism of the violence we see in cities like Chicago. Both are too dangerous to ignore.

We need a financial transactions tax to ensure we never have to ask how we can afford the government we deserve.

(Follow Spriggs Twitter: @WSpriggs.)

on

FACEBOOK FAN OF THE WEEK Name: Robin Walker-Diltz Robin Walker-Diltz is this week’s TSD Facebook Fan of the Week!

A Memphian and proud alumni of Shelby State Community College (now Southwest Tennessee Community College), Walker-Diltz enjoys listening to good music and is really into fashion. She also enjoys sports, especially the Memphis Grizzlies and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Thanks Robin Walker-Diltz for excelling in Memphis and for being a part of the TSD Facebook family!

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Americans have lost their minds. Forgive me for not expending any of my emotional energy or shedding any tears for those illegals coming into America. No, I can’t get all Raynard wrapped up in Jackson the plight of all the illegal children whose derelict parents are sending them thousands of miles on a dangerous journey alone.

I can’t help but to invest my emotion into citizens who have lost family members because someone in the country illegally was involved in a drunken driving incident; or whose daughter was raped by an illegal; or whose home was broken into by an illegal. I can’t feel sorry for kids in Central America or worry about their plight when you have American kids who are homeless and no one seems to care about them.

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the number of children in the United States is 74.2 million, this at an alltime high. However, the share of the national population who are children (24 percent) is at an all-time low.

Based on this data, 54 percent of these children are white, 23 percent are Hispanic, 14 percent are black, and 4 percent are Asian. Furthermore, though black children are only 14 percent of the population, they are 27 percent of all children in the foster care system, according to the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care. Disturbingly, they stay in the system longer than any other demographic.

There is a record 1.16 million students in the United States who were homeless last year, according to U.S. Department of Education. That’s just 100,000 shy of matching the population of Dallas. Were the homeless a city, they would be larger than San Francisco, San Jose, Indianapolis or Charlotte. They would be larger than St. Louis, New Orleans and Pittsburgh combined.

The states with the largest increases of homeless students were: California, New York, Texas, and Florida. That should come as no surprise because these are the same states with the largest population of people in the U.S. illegally.

The Obama administration has encouraged a flood of illegal children to trek across Central America through Mexico into the U.S. because they have made it perfectly clear that they will not enforce our immigration laws. This public declaration has put our own kids at dire risk. According to Reuters, “An estimated 60,000 such children will pour into the United States this year, according to the (Obama) administration, up from about 6,000 in 2011.

Now, Obama is trying to figure out how to pay for their food, housing, schooling and transportation.

So, with this backdrop, can someone tell me again why I am supposed to feel sorry for these illegals?

I am sick and tired of hearing all the sad sob stories. It’s not America’s fault that other countries have high levels of crime. We have our own problems. Have you been to Chicago lately? It’s not America’s fault that other countries have few jobs. Have you seen the black unemployment rate? It’s not America’s fault that families have made the decision to enter into the U.S. illegally and be separated from their family. Have you seen our foster care system lately?

You want to hear about sad stories?

Let’s try this one. In June of 2013, Arizona policeman, Daryl Raetz, was killed in a DUI crash by an illegal who was drunk and on cocaine. He left the scene, but the police later caught him and found he had been deported earlier but reentered the country.

Here’s another one: In August 2012, an illegal drunk driver killed Sister Denise Mosier on a Virginia highway.

The illegal driver was a repeat offender who was awaiting deportation and whom federal immigration authorities had released pending further proceedings. He had been arrested two other times on drunken-driving charges and on at least one of those occasions county police reported him to federal authorities. At the time, he was in the deportation process and released on his own recognizance.

One final story: Last year, an illegal raped a preteen girl and forced her to have an abortion. He was sentenced to less than seven years in jail and permanently barred from the U.S. after completing his sentence.

And the Pope is the last person I want addressing a moral or humanitarian crises after the silence of his church while little boys were being raped.

We are a compassionate country.

However, our compassion is being misdirected in this case. Charity begins at home, not on the order side of the border.

(NNPA columist Raynard Jackson can be reached via www.raynardjackson.com. Follow him on Twitter at raynard1223.)

Tri-State Defender

Page 5

July 24 - 30, 2014

NATIONAL COMMENTARY

Dogs eat better than 1 million children

Esaw Garner, the wife of NYPD fatal choking victim, collapses in the arms of the Rev. Al Sharpton (right) and Rev. Herbert Daughtry (left) at NAN headquarters in New York. (Photo: Herb Boyd)

Chokehold death continues to reverberate

by Herb Boyd Special to NNPA

NEW YORK – The Rev. Al Sharpton was in the middle of his speech recounting how Eric Garner, 43, had been killed in a chokehold by NYPD officer when Garner’s wife collapsed by his side on the stage of the National Action Network in Harlem on Saturday morning.

“They will try to scandalize the decease,” Sharpton said of the NYPD and what he anticipated they would say. “The issue is not about an unarmed man selling cigarettes. …It’s about a man who was subjected to a chokehold and is no longer with us.”

At that point, Esaw Garner collapsed and had to be held up by Sharpton and Rev. Herbert Daughtry, another prominent activist.

After she was led from the stage and to a backroom, Sharpton continued his speech. “You can never predict how someone will react to grief,” he said.

All of Garner’s relatives were in pain and weeping as they left the stage, including his mother, Gwen Carr, his sister Ellisha Flagg, and his daughter, Emerald Garner.

Sharpton promised the family that the National Action Network would pay for the funeral next week of a man the family knew as “Big E” or more affectionately the “Bear” by his wife.

None of these appellations were effective in stopping the officers who sought to detain him in front of a hardware store in Staten Island last Thursday. It didn’t matter to the officers who surrounded him that he was the father of six children and was known as the “Gentle Giant.” Or,

the fact that he repeatedly told them: “I can’t breathe.”

Once Garner, who was asthmatic, was no longer moving the cops took a step back and one of them stooped over Garner as if to see if he was still alive. He wasn’t.

The entire video can be seen on YouTube courtesy of liveleak.

At a press conference Friday afternoon, Mayor Bill de Blasio, who postponed his vacation departure to Italy, expressed his condolences. After asking that people not jump to conclusions, he said, “We have a responsibility to keep every New Yorker safe, and that includes when individuals are in custody of the NYPD. That is a responsibility that Police Commissioner [William] Bratton and I take very seriously. We are harnessing all resources available to the city to ensure a full and thorough investigation of the circumstances of this tragic incident. The NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau is working closely with the Office of the Richmond County District Attorney, which is leading this investigation,” the mayor added.

Bratton began his remarks by citing the arrest record of Garner and explaining that the police were there to apprehend Garner for the sale of illegal cigarettes.

He said that the corner where the incident occurred had been the source of numerous complaints from storeowners. “Mr. Garner went into cardiac arrest while in the ambulance on the way to the hospital,” Bratton said, “and he died upon arrival.”

During the question and answer session Bratton said that two of the officers involved in the incident have been placed on

“desk duty” while the investigation continues, and that the “final determination” of the circumstances will come from the District Attorney’s office.

Watching Garner, who weighed more than 300 pounds struggle to free himself from the chokehold was reminiscent of the death of Anthony Baez in 1994. After a football hit a police car, Baez, who also suffered from asthma, was confronted and placed in a chokehold that took his life. Two years before the incident with Baez, chokeholds had been outlawed by the NYPD. His mother was among those in attendance at the NAN rally on Saturday.

“The video raises serious questions and it is important that we review whether departmental procedures were followed,” said Public Advocate Letitia James.

“There must be a swift investigation of this horrific incident.”

New York City’s Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch said in a statement, “Not wanting to be arrested does not grant an individual the right to resist arrest nor does it free the officers of the obligation to make the arrest,” he said. “In these cases, justice for all involved demands a complete and thorough investigation of all the facts before any conclusions are drawn.”

Later Saturday afternoon, Sharpton led a rally in Staten Island where he was joined by members of the Garner family as they marched to the spot where the encounter occurred. A number of candles and flowers were placed at the spot.

Garner’s funeral was held Wednesday at Bethel Baptist Church, on Bergen Street, in Brooklyn.

Meet the online tracking device that is virtually impossible to block

by Julia Angwin NNPA News Service

A new, extremely persistent type of online tracking is shadowing visitors to thousands of top websites, from WhiteHouse.gov to YouPorn.com.

First documented in a forthcoming paper by researchers at Princeton University and KU Leuven University in Belgium, this type of tracking, called canvas fingerprinting, works by instructing the visitor’s Web browser to draw a hidden image.

Because each computer draws the image slightly differently, the images can be used to assign each user’s device a number that uniquely identifies it.

Like other tracking tools, canvas fingerprints are used to build profiles of users based on the websites they visit — profiles that shape which ads, news articles, or other types of content are displayed to them.

But fingerprints are unusually hard to block: They can’t be prevented by using standard web browser privacy settings or using anti-tracking tools such as AdBlock Plus.

The researchers found canvas fingerprinting computer code, primarily written by a company called AddThis, on 5 percent of the top 100,000 websites. Most of the code was on websites that use AddThis’ social media sharing tools. Other fingerprinters include the German digital marketer Ligatus and the Canadian dating site Plentyoffish. (A list of all the websites on which researchers found the code is here).

Rich Harris, chief executive of AddThis, said that the company began testing canvas fingerprinting earlier this year as a possible way to replace “cookies,” the traditional way that users are tracked, via text files installed on their computers.

“We’re looking for a cookie alternative,” Harris said in an interview.

Harris said the company con-

sidered the privacy implications of canvas fingerprinting before launching the test, but decided “this is well within the rules and regulations and laws and policies that we have.”

He added that the company has only used the data collected from canvas fingerprints for internal research and development. The company won’t use the data for ad targeting or personalization if users install the AddThis opt-out cookie on their computers, he said.

Arvind Narayanan, the computer science professor who led the Princeton research team, countered that forcing users to take AddThis at its word about how their data will be used, is “not the best privacy assurance.”

Device fingerprints rely on the fact that every computer is slightly different: Each contains different fonts, different software, different clock settings and other distinctive features. Computers automatically broadcast some of their attributes when they connect to another computer over the Internet.

Tracking companies have long sought to use those differences to uniquely identify devices for online advertising purposes, particularly as Web users are increasingly using ad-blocking software and deleting cookies.

In May 2012, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, noticed that a Web programming feature called “canvas” could allow for a new type of fingerprint — by pulling in different attributes than a typical device fingerprint.

In June, the Tor Project added a feature to its privacy-protecting Web browser to notify users when a website attempts to use the canvas feature and sends a blank canvas image. But other Web browsers did not add notifications for canvas fingerprinting.

A year later, Russian programmer Valentin Vasilyev noticed the study and added a canvas feature to freely available fingerprint code that he had posted on the Internet. The code was immediately popular.

But Vasilyev said that the company he was working for at the time decided against using the fingerprint technology. “We collected several million fingerprints but we decided against using them because accuracy was 90 percent,” he said, “and many of our customers were on mobile and the fingerprinting doesn’t work well on mobile.”

Vasilyev added that he wasn’t worried about the privacy concerns of fingerprinting. “The fingerprint itself is a number which in no way is related to a personality,” he said.

AddThis improved upon Vasilyev’s code by adding new tests and using the canvas to draw a pangram “Cwm fjordbank glyphs vext quiz” — a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet at least once. This allows the company to capture slight variations in how each letter is displayed.

AddThis said it rolled out the feature to a small portion of the 13 million websites on which its technology appears, but is considering ending its test soon. “It’s not uniquely identifying enough,” Harris said.

AddThis did not notify the websites on which the code was placed because “we conduct R&D projects in live environments to get the best results from testing,” according to a spokeswoman.

She added that the company does not use any of the data it collects — whether from canvas fingerprints or traditional cookie-based tracking — from government websites including WhiteHouse.gov for ad targeting or personalization.

The company offered no such assurances about data it routinely collects from visitors to other sites, such as YouPorn.com. YouPorn.com did not respond to inquiries from ProPublica about whether it was aware of AddThis’ test of canvas fingerprinting on its website.

(Special to NNPA from ProPublica. This story was co-published with Mashable.)

The South African charity Feed a Child (http://www.feedachild.co.za/) chose to highlight child poverty in South Africa by portraying a little black boy being fed like a dog by a seemingly affluent white woman.

In the ad, the boy has his head on the woman’s lap, at her feet, on his knees, and licking off her fingers. The point, they say?

According to the ad’s tagline “The average dog eats better than millions of children.”

The ad ran for about five days in South Africa and its airing generated such a maelstrom. Feed a Child withdrew the ad and “unreservedly” issued an apology. Ogilvy and Mather, the international agency that produced the ad, also apologized “unreservedly.

In her apology, Alza Rautenbach says, “Like a child, I don’t see race or politics – the only thing that is important to me is to make a difference in a child’s life and to make sure that that child is fed on a daily basis.”

I wonder exactly how long this woman has been living in South Africa, considering she “doesn’t see race.” While the institution of apartheid no longer exists, the structural basis for apartheid is alive and well, given the level of poverty, the lack of jobs, and limited opportunities for education. Either Ms. Rautenbach and her Ogilvy and Mather colleagues have their heads in the sand, or they are being disingenuous.

Not only is this ad racist, but it reinforces the tendency of some white people to associate people of African descent with animals, or as some sub-species, not human beings.

In the United States, this harks back to slavery when African Americans were seen as good enough to work to exhaustion, good enough to have sex with, but not good enough, by law, to be taught to read and write. Not good enough to be treated equally. In colonized parts of the African continent and Latin America, the same parallels were often made. Europeans justified their exploitation by referring to African people (or Latin American Indian, or the people that Christopher Columbus “discovered” as “uncivilized” and less human than the colonizer. Sub-human beings.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle have been portrayed as subhuman by racist bloggers. The New York Post published a cartoon, in 2009, of a dead ape, with the caption “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill. “ After a week of protests, Rupert Murdoch issues a tepid apology. At least the Feed A Child team chose apologize “unreservedly.”

The Feed a Child people are, at best, insensitive louts. They aren’t the only ones at

fault though. The ad agency’s willingness to produce this ad is repugnant, and anyone who is thinking of using this agency might want to think again. There were people on the set when this ad was produced, or behind the scene in edit.

Did even one of them have made some noise, Julianne or are they so accusMalveaux tomed to African people being treated as animals that they had no quarrel with this offensive ad? It suggests that there were few, if any, Africans involved in the development and production of this reprehensible ad. Perhaps that is why Alza Rautenbach does not see color.

The goals of the Feed A Child, founded in 2010, are stated on their website. They say they feed children “of no particular color or “ethical (sic)” group. They also say one of their goals is to “restore dignity.” Do these Feed A Child people really think it is dignified to portray an African child as a dog?

The Feed A Child organization may well have good intentions but “good intentions are not good enough.” If they can’t respect the people they are trying to help, then they really don’t need to help. Their ad depicts the noblesse oblige than many colonized people find offensive. Instead of having an African child crawl around like a dog, why not show a full dog dish and a half-full child’s dish to make a point. Treating a child as a dog reinforces the notion of white superiority that Caucasians like Alza Raugenbach embrace.

As for Ogilvy and Mather, they really ought to know better. What is the purpose of having an international company if there is no international sensitivity to these matters? Ogilvy and Mather was founded in 1948 in New York City. They’ve seen their share of social transformation. Someone at the agency should have had the integrity to put a foot down and said “no way.” Instead, they chose profits over people.

In the name of helping hungry children, Ms. Rautenbach has dehumanized them and Ogilvy and Mather here the instrument of their dehumanization. These folks really ought to be ashamed, but clearly they know no shame. Just dehumanization.

(Julianne Malveaux is a Washington, D.C.-based economist and writer. She is President Emerita of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C.)

Page 6

Tri-State Defender

July 24 - 30, 2014

BUSINESS ON OUR WAY TO WEALTHY

Made In Rural America “Only the Serious Need Attend” could have been the slogan for the Made In Rural America forum held at Southwest Tennessee Community College – Macon Cove Campus last week (July 17th).

In a small amount of time a tremendous amount of information was shared with those serious enough to consider doing business outside of their perceived comfort zone. The context was this: While most businesses focus on a local market and a few become national, there are some that have their business so together that they can pursue business on an international level.

In an effort commissioned by the Obama Administration and led by the White House Rural Council, the event was designed to pass on vital information regarding targeted exports, investment initiatives and federal support for small businesses in the Delta. It brought to Memphis the U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Federal Co-Chairman of the Delta Regional Authority Chris Masingill.

The event was hosted by the Commerce Department, the Delta Regional Authority and the White House Rural Council, which is charged with bringing together federal resources to help rural businesses take advantage of new investment opportunities and access new customers and markets abroad.

In addition to providing the Made In Rural America forums, there is a commitment

by the Administration to provide enhanced export counseling for rural businesses to connect with foreign buyCarlee ers. That McCullough connection will be through Department of Commerce U.S. Export Assistance Center trade specialists in over 100 domestic locations and in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s field staff. Also, there will be coordination across the Administration to promote rural-produced goods and services at trade events, including trade missions, buyer programs, trade shows and other promotion programs.

Secretary Pritzker delivered the keynote speech and later allotted time to a question-and-answer period. Deliberate in her message that rural manufacturing and increased exports are the keys to drive investment and job creation, she shared information on where companies can obtain the information on how to export and how to access the federal resources needed to thrive in a global marketplace.

Why is the Delta Region appealing for exporting?

According to Chairman Masingill, “The Delta region, with its entrepreneurial history, affordable energy, available land,

U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Federal Co-Chairman of the Delta Regional Authority Chris Masingill at the Made In Rural America forum held at Southwest Tennessee Community College – Macon Cove Campus last week (July 17th). (Courtesy photo: Delta Regional Authority) and accessible waterways and transportation network, is primed to reap the benefits of a national focus on rural America.”

In 2013, the eight states in the Delta Region exported approximately $238.9 billion in manufactured goods from about 53,000 businesses in those states. The majority of the exporting companies were small- and medium-sized firms.

The forum’s agenda featured various panel discussions, including: Positioning Rural America for Success in the 21st Century, The Delta Region’s Export Landscape and Opportunities, Best Practices for Export Success, Export Financing Solutions, Exports and Economic Development: An Opportunity for Growth, and Strengthening Links between Businesses and Their Export Service Providers.

Information was the main course of the day and it was distributed generously.

Most businesses are in search of capital and the export businesses are no different. According to the National Export Initiative (NEXT), there are federal export-financing programs that can help expand production, offer buyers competitive terms, and protect businesses from risk. Start the search at

www.trade.gov/neinext.

Another stop on the financing path is Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) located in Atlanta. With a history of supporting nearly 1.2 million jobs in the United States since 2009, Ex-Im Bank, which is a federal agency, provides express insurance and global credit express up to $500,000 of working capital to fulfill export orders. Visit them at www.Exim.gov.

Many small businesses lack working capital for day-to-day operations much less export opportunities. Through its participating lenders, the Small Business Administration (SBA) offers an Export Express guaranty of up to $500,000 and an international trade loan up to a total of $5,000,000 that can make a difference. Review the opportunities at www.SBA.gov/international.

For those businesses that export U.S. made food and agriculture products, the Southern United States Trade Association (SUSTA) is a non-profit offering its help. SUSTA assists in the promotion of the brand internationally at half the cost and potential reimbursement of up to $300,000 on eligible expenses. Learn about qualifications of participating at www.susta.org.

Do not limit yourself. Consider the export business.

(Contact Carlee McCullough, Esq., at 5308 Cottonwood Road, Suite 1A, Memphis, TN 38118, or email her at jstce4all@aol.com.)

First-time ‘farmers’ courted at TSU Small Farms Expo NASHVILLE – (TSU News Service) – From beekeeping in Franklin County to crop growing in Williamson County, and 4-H and adult agriculture in Bledsoe County, the 2014 Tennessee State University Small Farms Expo highlighted the diversity in the state’s vast agricultural industry.

Participation in the Expo (July 17th) also showcased the University’s outreach initiatives through its Cooperative Extension Program, now covering more than 50 counties across Tennessee.

“This yearly Expo and TSU’s extension effort really give farmers an opportunity to educate the public about what we are doing out there,” said John Ingle, a Franklin County cattle breeder, who was this year’s Small Farmer of the Year Award winner. “Consumers only see the beef but it takes a lot more effort to get it to their dining room tables.”

As seasoned farmers, producers and University researchers, faculty and staff engaged the nearly 400 visitors with various displays and exhibitions, school children – from elementary to high school – considered potential future farmers of America, also got the opportunity to learn about agriculture.

Accompanied by chaperons and TSU staff, the children, who came in several busloads from the surrounding counties, took part in tours and ed-

ucational workshops and hands-on activities including teamwork and leadership exercises, and demonstrations in alternative fuel production and technology.

“Coming here today was really eye-opening for me,” said future medical doctor Cierra Williams, a 10th grader from Murfreesboro, who wants to major in biology when she enters college.

Although Williams volunteers with the 4-H program in Rutherford County, through intermediate cooking and camp activities, she has never been on a farm before, and did not know TSU had a farm and a vast agricultural program.

“I am really excited to see this part of the university and to learn about these farm animals and plants,” she said.

“Even though we might not think about it now, the teambuilding and leadership exercises today could be very helpful in the future in job interviews and other career efforts.”

The Expo, held at the Agricultural Research and Education Center on the main campus, also featured research and discussions on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in corn croplands, enhancing sustainable production of bioenergy crops, pigeon pea production for limited resources farmers of Tennessee, and enhancing plant protection against fungal diseases and environ-

Cierra Williams, a 10th grade student from Blackman High School in Murfreesboro, Tenn. and a 4-H volunteer in Rutherford County, participates with other students in teambuilding and leadership exercises at the 2014 Small Farms Expo at Tennessee State University on July 17th. (Courtesy photo) mental stresses.

Workshops included organic vegetable production techniques, pesticide handling and safety, food preservation, new equipment technologies for small producers, and soil and plant tissue sampling, among others.

The highlight of the Expo was recognition of the state’s top four farmers for various

awards. An overall winner was selected for the Small Farmer of the Year Award.

That honor went to Ingle, of Cowan, Tenn., who promotes a 100-percent green technology in cattle breeding and beef production. He was first recognized for “Best Management Practices.”

The other three award win-

ners were Chris Hampton, a beef cattle farmer in Celina, Tenn., “Innovative Marketing,” for better recordkeeping that helps to meet customers’ need; Leigh Funderburk, of Franklin, Tenn., “Innovative Marketing; and Billy McCraw, of Clarksville, Tenn., who received the award for “Alternative Enterprise.”

In presenting the awards, Dr. Chandra Reddy, Dean of the College of Agriculture, assisted

by University officials, and Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Julius Johnson, congratulated the honorees, and the institution and agency representatives for the support and cooperation in making the Expo a success.

“This could not have been possible without your partnership and cooperation,” Reddy told the packed luncheon on the TSU farm. He spoke about the “remarkable” growth in the college, especially its Extension program making special reference to head Expo organizer, Dr. Latif Lighari, Associate Dean for Extension, for “yet another” successful Expo.

Latif, who has headed the Expo since its inception 10 years ago, recognized his fellow organizers, the various farm managers and research leaders, small farmers, schools and students for their participation.

“Your input and participation made this event very successful,” Lighari said. “We thank you and especially the small farmers who are the lifeline of what we do.”

Other speakers included TSU Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Alisa Mosley; State Sen. Thelma Harper, State Rep. Harold Love Jr., Agriculture Commissioner Johnson; and Dr. Tim Cross, Dean of Extension at the University of Tennessee.

Tri-State Defender

Page 7

July 24 - 30, 2014

RELIGION RELIGION BRIEFS

Cross burning at church In Clarksville, Tenn.

Commemorating the life and legacy of Bishop G.E. Patterson President Louise Patterson and the Board of Directors of Bountiful Blessings will commemorate the life and legacy of the late COGIC Presiding Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson (1939-2007) on Sept. 22nd.

The observances kick off at 11 a.m. with a graveside memorial service at Memorial Park Cemetery at 5668 Poplar Ave. At 6 p.m., there will be a tour of Bishop Patterson’s artifacts in the Hall of Fame Room at the Memphis Hilton Hotel at 939 Ridge Lake Blvd.

A black-tie dinner is set for the hotel at 7 p.m. Bishop Joseph Walker III of Nashville will be the keynote speaker.

General seating: $150; dais, $200; Tables: $1,500. Call (800)-544-3571 to secure a reservation or mail request to Bountiful Blessings, Inc., P.O. Box 1, 38101.

For more information, visit www.bbless.org.

Someone burned a cross in the front yard of the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tenn., but the congregation isn’t dwelling on what happened.

“I couldn’t believe it, because all the years we’ve been here, we’ve never had this happen. It was just devastating for me,” said Pastor Vernon Hooks.

When Hooks takes the pulpit Rev. Vernon on Sunday, he’ll deliver a mesHooks sage of forgiveness.

“There’s one person who’s kept me here that long, and that’s the Lord,” he said.

Since the 1870s, Hooks says his New Hope Missionary Baptist Church has belonged to a closeknit, friendly community. On Tuesday morning, they say they found a burning cross standing up on the gate in front of the church.

(Story via theGrio from WSMV.)

Agape’s Heartlight to feature Dr. Canada Agape’s 16th Annual HeartLight event will be held on August 15th at 7 p.m. at Hope Church (8500 Walnut Grove Road). This year’s featured speaker will be renowned education reformer Dr. Geoffrey Canada, president/CEO and founder of Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ).

Canada recently was named one of “The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders”

by Fortune Magazine in connection with the success of HCZ’s educational reform program in Harlem, New York’s schools and community. He was also honored by the National Civil Rights Museum with the National Freedom Award.

Agape will also bring ten-time Grammy Award winner CeCe Winans to Memphis for a concert during HeartLight 2014!

Tickets are on sale at AgapeMeansLove.org/heartlight-2014.

Prices range from $15 to $40. The annual event is the faith-based organization’s single largest fundraiser of the year.

“The goal of this event is to engage our community and raise awareness of and support for homelessness, adoption and foster care and underresourced communities in Memphis,” notes David Jordan, Executive Director for Agape.

“While we need to raise dollars to continue to provide services to children and families in crisis, we also need to raise awareness of and support for those we serve so that our citizens get personally involved in the restoration of our city and those who live in it,” said Jordan.

The presenting sponsor is IMC Companies.

BRIEFLY: The musical “Godspell” – produced by Stage Door Productions – has shows set for July 25th-27th at the Salvation Army Kroc Center at 800 East Parkway.

Friday and Saturday shows at 7 p.m.; Sunday show at 2 p.m. Tickets: $20 adults, $15 students/seniors. Seating is general admission. For group rates, call 901-729-8029.

The charred remains of a cross burned in the front yard of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tenn. (Screenshot)

Greater Middle Baptist to install new pastor Celebration to include revival services, banquet Greater Middle Baptist Church, pastored by the late Rev. Benjamin L. Hooks for 52 years, will install the Rev. William McKinley Jackson as pastor on Aug. 17th.

Rev. Jackson, 40, is the former pastor of the 500-member Samaria Baptist Church of Ft. Worth, Texas.

He accepted his calling to the ministry in June 1981, was licensed in 1983 and ordained in 1989 under the guidance of his father, the late Rev. McKinley Jackson Sr., pastor of Samaria Baptist Church for 35 years.

“I know that my earthly father would be pleased and proud to know that my heavenly father has called me to leave home to spread His gospel and bring more souls to Christ in Memphis, Tenn. where the honorable civil rights legend Rev. Hooks was such an iconic leader for so many years,” Jackson said.

“I intend to use all of my God-given gifts and talents to lead, inspire and edify His church and to help transform the Parkway Village community and the City in which it resides. I am humbled that God and the members of this great church have faith that I am up to the challenge.”

The members of Greater Middle Baptist will begin celebrating Jackson’s installation with revival services August 14th-15th and a banquet August 16th at the Holiday Inn, University of Memphis.

“Rev. Jackson is the right man at the right time to lead our congregation and take us to the next level in our spiritual evolution and community involvement and outreach,” said Otis Sanford, chairman of the Deacon Board.

“We searched long and hard and I am confident God sent us the right man for the job. He is a dynamic preacher, a strong leader, great singer and excellent musician. We look forward to growing with him, and through his powerful ministry.”

Jackson received a Master of Theology degree in 2005 from the Houston (Texas) Graduate School of Theology. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biblical Studies from Dallas Baptist College in 1998. Also, he attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Weatherford College where he studied music.

Jackson’s wife, Dr. Penelope Jackson, plans to establish a medical practice in Memphis. They have three children.

Dates, times and locations for installation events: Revival: 7 p.m., Aug. 14, Greater Middle Baptist Church –

4982 Knight Arnold Road; Guest preacher, the Rev. Bartholomew Orr, pastor of Brown Baptist Church; Master of Ceremony, the Rev. John Brown, pastor of Oakville Baptist Church.

Revival: 7 p.m., Aug. 15; Guest Preacher: the Rev. George Parks, Jr., pastor, Riverside Missionary Church; Master of Ceremony, the Rev. Lester Baskin, pastor of Middle Baptist.

Banquet: 5 p.m. Aug. 16 at Holiday Inn, University of Memphis Grand Ballroom, 3700 Central Ave. Speaker: the Rev. J. L. Payne, pastor of Greater Mt. Moriah – Wellington; Ticket price: $40 Installation service: 3 p.m., Aug. 17th.

Location: Greater Middle Baptist Church, 4982 Knight Arnold Rd. Speaker: Rev. Frank E. Ray, Pastor, New Salem Missionary Baptist Church Theme: Custom Tailored to Serve - Colossians 1:25 Moderator: Rev. Melvin Charles Smith, Pastor of Mt. Moriah East

“I intend to use all of my God-given gifts and talents to lead, inspire and edify His church and to help transform the Parkway Village community and the City in which it resides.”

The Rev. William McKinley Jackson

PRAISE CONNECT -A WEEKLY DIRECTORY OF MINISTERS & CHURCHESMETROPOLITAN BAPTIST CHURCH Dr. Reginald L. Porter Sr., Pastor 767 Walker Avenue Memphis, TN 38126

901-946-4095 fax 948-8311

ASSOCIATE MINISTERS Rev. Davena Young Porter Rev. Linda A Paige Rev. Luecretia Matthews

SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES SUNDAY Sunday School .....................8:30 am Morning Worship Service ....10:00am WEDNESDAY Bible Study .........................10:30 am Mid-Day Prayer Meeting .....12 noon Evening Prayer Meeting........7:00pm FRIDAY Cable Channel 17 ............... 8:00pm

Dr. & Rev. Mrs. Reginald Porter

“Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.”

– Psalm 55:22

Attend the Church of your choice

I can do all things through Christ which strength ? eneth me.

Phillipi ? ans 4:13

ENTERTAINMENT Tri-State Defender, Thursday, July 24 - 30, 2014, Page 8

Hair stylist Cherez Janiya (standing, fourth from left) and these models established their presence at the Naturals in the City Hair & Wellness Expo.

Naturals in the City Hair & Wellness Expo – Year III The New Tri-State Defender

There is an empowering ring to the thought that natural beauty has an inside presence just waiting for the embrace of women, men and children. In that sense, TaKeisha Berry-Brooks is an empowering person.

The founder of the Naturals in the City Hair & Wellness Expo, Berry-Brooks was an organizer in motion this past weekend as the third annual event unfolded, drawing a lively crowd to Minglewood Hall on Saturday.

“Naturals in the City Hair and Wellness Expo is an event that educates, inspires and empowers women, men and children to become natural and life a holistic lifestyle, Berry-Brooks told The New Tri-State Defender.

For the third year in a row, leading haircare and beauty professionals, and natural hair and wellness enthusiasts convened to support the event’s mission.

“With more attention being paid to health and wellness for body, mind and spirit, we wanted to offer a platform for event guests to learn about ways to get started in their journey,” said BerryBrooks, owner of A Natural Affair, Inc., the event’s host.

The Expo stretched from 10 a.m. to 7 p .m. on Saturday, with a Women’s Empowerment Brunch the next morning at 44 Huling. Chime Edwards – vlogger, model and writer for Essence Magazine – was among those on hand.

“I was invited to meet and greet,” said Edwards.

“I have about 180,000 followers who come out to events to meet me in person. We chat about haircare and many tell me I was there inspiration to go natural. I always enjoy chatting with my followers.”

Others contributing to the success of the weekend were: celebrity chef and natural food activist Chef Ahki; Food Network Star finalist, Memphian and owner of Sweet Potato Baby catering company, Chef Aryen Moore Alston; Dr. Nina Ellis Hervey (Beautiful Brown Baby); DJ Chris Styles; the host Phat Mack; vendors from across the country and, of course, attendees from various parts of the Tri-state area.

(This story reflects a report by George Tillman Jr.)

TaKeisha Berry-Brooks (left), founder of the Naturals in the City Hair & Wellness Expo, with Chime Edwards – vlogger, model and writer for Essence Magazine (Photos: George Tillman Jr.)

Artist/designer Jo’V, owner of JoVenTosh (apparel and fashion), helps with the finishing touches before this model hits the runway.

With more attention being paid to health and wellness for body, mind and spirit, the Naturals in the City Hair & Wellness Expo was about offering a platform for event guests to learn about ways to get started in their journey.

Jasmine Caradine (left) and Denise Swansea were models with JoVenTosh.

ALL OVER TOWN

Lauryn Hill & The Misunderstanding of Memphis Fans

by Ashley Grandberry Special to The New Tri-State Defender

Hundreds of Memphis-area residents were incredibly eager and excited about attending the sold-out concert of living legend Lauryn Hill last Saturday (July 18th) at Minglewood Hall in Midtown. Although she has but one solo album under her belt, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” is such a magnificent body of work that 16 years later it still is more significant than most of the contributions by today’s artists.

True artists withstand the test of time. Embracing that thought, I was one of the many fans who were beyond thrilled to learn that Lauryn was making a comeback and – more importantly – putting Memphis on her tour. Perhaps it was our eagerness and excitement that contributed to the disappointment, but none of us could have anticipated that the night would be such a letdown.

Fans arrived early because all tickets were the same price and it was understood that there would be general admission. So the earlier you arrived, the closer you’d possibly be to Lauryn Hill. Many who purchased tickets in advance were under the impression that the concert was to begin at 8 p.m.

Those who picked up their tickets at will call received tickets that said 9 p.m. was the starting time.

Early birds such as myself arrived a little before 7 p.m. and earned a pretty good position in line. The staff at Minglewood opened the doors around 8:15.

As concertgoers were let into the entertainment space we all learned that we’d

Lauryn Hill’s performance at Minglewood Hall left some fans filling let down.

be standing during the duration of the event. There were no chairs for the weary and little did we know that soon enough we would become quite weary.

No one was on stage when we entered the entertainment space and no music played until about 8:30. Eventually a hype man took the stage and introduced the opening act, The ReMINDers. Many of us hadn’t heard of this dynamic hip-hop duo, but after this night we probably won’t forget them.

They were the best part of the night, with eclectic beats, incredible energy and awesome stage presence.

The ReMINDers actually are the rea-

The ReMINDers put on a show that featured eclectic beats, incredible energy and awesome stage presence. (Photo: Ashley Grandberry)

son why a swell of patrons weren’t demanding a refund at the box office. The multi-faceted married combo took the stage around 8:45 and kept us entertained for over an hour with music that educated and reinvigorated weary women standing in uncomfortable shoes and impatient men who had grown tired of waiting for Lauryn to arrive.

After The ReMINDers left the stage around 9:40, we all were expecting the night’s star to finally grace us with her presence. From the span of about 9:45 until 11, fans mingled, danced to the tunes of various DJ’s, chanted “we want Lauryn” and even received cam-

paign literature from none other than television’s Judge Joe Brown.

With fans disillusioned and disgruntled, Hill made a grand entrance onto the stage after her musicians and backup dancers about 11:10 p.m. We all hoped she’d knock our socks off and make us forget that we hadn’t really been entertained in almost two hours – and that we’d been standing up for almost five hours.

Unfortunately, the performance was not what we’d expected. Hill’s vocals were less than perfect and she sang unfamiliar renditions of her hits.

Throughout her performance she constantly motioned to her band to play louder or bring up the music – things that should’ve been perfected before she even went on tour. The crowd be-

came more lethargic and started to diminish with each song.

As I left, I heard the displeasure of many concertgoers who had strong feelings about the venue accommodations and about how unprofessional Hill seemed to be.

The thing about fans is that when we are treated fairly we are quite loyal, and when we are upset we are extremely angry. I certainly hope Ms. Hill doesn’t treat fans in other cities the way that we were treated because I’m quite sure we Memphians won’t be as excited if she comes to town again.

(For questions, or if you would like Ashley Grandberry at your next big event, email inthemail@tri-statedefender.com.)

Tri-State Defender

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July 24 - 30, 2014

ENTERTAINMENT OPENING THIS WEEK

Kam’s Kapsules: Weekly Previews That Make Choosing a Film Fun

Kanye West (GQ)

Kanye lands GQ cover – talks Drake & Kim lessons

Both man and myth, Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) leads a band of mercenaries to help end a bloody civil war in the land of Thrace and return the rightful king to his throne. A tormented soul from birth, Hercules has the strength of a God but feels the suffering of a human.

(Courtesy photo)

by Kam Williams For movies opening July 25, 2014

BIG BUDGET FILMS “And So It Goes” (PG-13 for sexual references and drug use) Romantic comedy revolving around a narcissistic realtor (Michael Douglas) who enlists the help of his carefree next-door neighbor (Diane Keaton) when the 9 year-old granddaughter (Sterling Jerins) he never knew existed is suddenly dropped at his doorstep. With Frankie Valli, Yaya DaCosta, Annie Parisse and Austin Lysy.

“Hercules” (PG-13 for sensuality, pervasive violence, partial nudity and brief profanity) Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson follows in the footsteps of Ferrigno, Schwarzenegger and Reeves as the latest incarnation of the Greek legend. This episode, set in 1400 B.C., finds the muscle-bound demigod and five faithful companions hired by the King of Thrace (John Hurt) and his daughter (Irina Shayk) to subdue a tyrannical warlord. With Rebecca Ferguson, Ian McShane and Joseph Fiennes.

“Lucy” (R for sexuality, disturbing images and graphic violence) Scarlett Johansson stars in the title role of this sci-fi adventure, set in Taipei, as an unwilling drug mule who morphs into a merciless, revenge-minded warrior after inadvertently developing superhuman powers.

Cast includes Morgan Freeman, Analeigh Tipton and Min-sik Choi.

“Magic in the Moonlight” (PG-13 for smoking and a suggestive comment) Woody

by Kyle Harvey theGrio

Allen wrote and directed this comedy, set on the French Riviera in the Roaring Twenties, revolving around a British illusionist (Colin Firth) hired to expose a conniving clairvoyant (Emma Stone) staying at the estate of a wealthy family. Ensemble cast includes Hamish Linklater, Marcia Gay Harden, Jacki Weaver and Eileen Atkins.

INDEPENDENT & FOREIGN FILMS “Cannibal” (Unrated) Romantic thriller about a serial killer (Antonio de la Torre) who feels no remorse about devouring his victims until he falls in love with the sister (Olimpia Melinte) of his last meal. With Maria Alfonsa Rosso, Florin Fildan and Manolo Solo. (In Romanian and Spanish with subtitles) “The Fluffy Movie” (PG-13 for suggestive material and sexual references) Concert flick, shot onstage in San Jose earlier this year, featuring the standup act of Chicano comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias.

“Happy Christmas” (R for profanity, drug use and sexuality) Mumblecore maven Joe Swanberg wrote, directed and co-stars in this Windy City dramedy about a slacker (Anna Kendrick) who moves in with her filmmaker big brother (Swanberg), his novelist wife (Melanie Lynskey) and their 2 year-old son.

With Lena Dunham and Mark Webber.

“The Kill Team” (Unrated) Whistleblower documentary examining the fallout visited upon U.S. Army Private Adam Winfield after he snitched on fellow soldiers who were slaying innocent Afghan civilians and saving some of

their body parts as trophies.

“A Master Builder” (Unrated) Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme (for Silence of the Lambs) directed this screen version of the Henrik Ibsen play about an architect (Wallace Shawn) with a very jealous wife (Julie Hagerty) who finds himself seduced by a flirtatious houseguest (Lisa Joyce) he’d propositioned a decade earlier when she was only 14. Supporting cast includes Larry Pine, Andre Gregory and Jeff Biehl.

“A Most Wanted Man” (R for profanity) Screen adaptation of the John le Carre’ espionage thriller of the same name, set in Hamburg, Germany, about a Chechen Muslim (Grigoriy Dobrygin) seeking political asylum who might actually be a radical Islamist in sheep’s clothing. Featuring Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, Nina Hoss and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

“My Man Is a Loser” (R for sexuality, graphic nudity and pervasive profanity) Makeover comedy about two married guys (Michael Rapaport and Bryan Callen) who come to regret asking a bachelor buddy (John Stamos) for advice about how to spice up their love lives. With Sean Young, Tika Sumpter and Diane Guerrero.

“Very Good Girls” (R for profanity and sexuality) Bawdy bildungsroman, set in NYC, about BFFs (Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen) who enter a pact to lose their virginity before heading off to college, only to fall for the same, hunky street artist (Boyd Holbrook).

Cast includes Demi Moore, Richard Dreyfuss, Ellen Barkin and Peter Sarsgaard.

One year ago, Kanye West was in a different space personally and musically.

He was coming off the heels off his 6th album, “Yeezus,” which was a huge departure from his soulful sound, fighting the paps, and planning the wedding of the year with then-fiance Kim Kardashian.

Now, Kanye seems a lot calmer and more reflective. The fashion industry that he felt didn’t respect him is more welcoming to his status, his collaboration with Adidas is coming later this year and baby North just celebrated her 1st birthday 1st birthday.

In a recent interview with GQ’s Zach Baron, the Chicago emcee touched on his tumultuous 12 months, Drake running the rap game and lessons learned from his marriage to Kardashian.

Living with fame: “That wasn’t my goal.

My goal is just to be respected as a man when I walk down the street with my family. I don’t care what your job is: you’re not gonna talk down to me, you’re not gonna try to get a rise out of me. I’m a man first. And in establishing that, some interesting things have happened. (laughs) On Drake being the most popular rapperin the game since last year: “Currently that spot is taken. Let’s be honest – he got last summer. Yeah. He got last summer. And I’d never given it up till last summer.

Now he’s thinking about taking it back. It’s a real question for me. Do I want to?”

On how Kim made him a better communicator: “One of the reasons I think that me and Kim are very powerful together isn’t just the concept of celebrity or this mega-rap star and this mega-beautiful pop star. It’s something I explain to my girl: She is who she is. I am who I am. We have advisers and friends and everything, but those people are who they are, and we are who we are. And what I had to learn from Kim is how to take more of her advice and less of other people’s advice. There’s a lot of Kim K skills that were added. In order to win at life, you need some Kim K skills, period.”

Page 10

Tri-State Defender

July 24 - 30, 2014

COMMUNITY BRIEFS & THINGS UTHSC professor gets boost in quest to help newborns A $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases will allow Dr. Adebowale Adebiyi to further Dr. Adebowale i n v e s t i g a t e Adebiyi (Cour- newborn kidtesy photo) ney function.

Adebiyi is an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC). With the grant he will focus on the functions of cell membrane proteins known as “ion channels” that are located in blood vessels and glomeruli (delicate units where blood is cleaned and filtered) within the kidneys.

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases is a subsidiary of the National Institutes of Health. The award, which will be distributed over a five-year period, will be used to support a project titled, “Regulation of Neonatal Renal Hemodynamics.”

Disruption of blood flow to the kidneys is associated with life-threatening ailments, including hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, acute kidney injury, and chronic kidney disease. The long-term goal of Dr. Adebiyi’s research is to understand mechanisms that control blood flow dynamics in the kidneys, and the roles they play in cardiovascular and kidney diseases. His laboratory investigates the functions of cell membrane proteins known as “ion channels” that are located in blood vessels and glomeruli (delicate units where blood is cleaned and filtered) within the kidneys. “(This) award … will enable my laboratory to explore how ion channels control blood vessel reactivity and blood circulation in the kidneys of newborns in health and disease,” said Dr. Adebiyi.

“We anticipate that our work will not only provide new insights into the mechanisms that regulate kidney functions, it may lead to new therapeutic targets for the prevention and treatment of newborn kidney and cardiovascular disorders.”

BRIEFLY: The Brookmeade Elementary School faculty and staff will host a “Parent & Community Rally” to kick-off the 2014-15 school year on Saturday (July 26th) from noon to 3 p.m. at the school at 3777 Edenburg Dr. For more information, contact Brookmeade Elementary School at 901-416-3920.

BRIEFLY: The Good Government Alliance Debate Commission will host a debate designed to feature Ninth District Congressional candidates at the Memphis Reign Ultra Lounge at 2164 Frayser Blvd. on July 30th beginning at 6 p.m. All candidates have been invited for the 60-minute session. Questions for the candidates should be sent to the Good Government Alliance Debate Commission, P.O. Box 3698, Memphis, Tn., 38173 or email sonyamull@aol.com.

For more information: El Espada T. Matthews, 901-218-4545; Sonya Mull, 901-270-3141.

BRIEFLY: MLGW will host its Neighborhood Leaders Conference on August 1st from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the training center at 4949 Raleigh-LaGrange at Covington Pike. The annual event, which is designed to provide training and networking opportunities for grassroots community leaders, will feature a session by City of Memphis CAO George Little entitled Memphis Government 101. Registration is $10 and includes a continental breakfast, buffet lunch and choice of workshops.

Register on-line at www.mlgw.com/neighborhoodleader. For more information: 901-528-4820.

BRIEFLY: On August 1st, middle and high school students will have the opportunity to reunite with their Bridge Builders friends to kick off the school year by participating in the 2nd Annual YOUnified youth festival. Students will attend indoor and outdoor workshops, climb the rock wall, hear live performers, enjoy great food and end the night with a glow dance party. For more information and to register, visit www.bridgesusa.org or call 901452-5600.

R.S. Lewis and Sons Funeral Home

History and community come together at R.S. Lewis and Sons Funeral Home R.S. Lewis and Sons Funeral Home will celebrate two major milestones on Friday (July 25th).

This year marks the funeral home’s 100th anniversary and its late owner and director R.S. Lewis Jr.’s 95th birthday. As part of the festivities, the R.S. Lewis and Sons Scholarship Fund is hosting a community celebration and backpack and school supply giveaway at the Porter Boys and Girls Club at 620 South Lauderdale beginning at 11 a.m.

In addition to the backpack giveaway, the community celebration will also include a dedication

ceremony for the portion of Vance Avenue that will be symbolically re-named in honor of Robert Stevenson Lewis Sr. and R.S. Lewis Jr..

As R.S. Lewis and Sons Funeral Home celebrates its 100th anniversary, the Tennessee Historical Marker Society recognizes the funeral home and its owners’ contributions to the community. On Sunday (July 27th), the funeral home at 374 Vance Ave. formally will be added to the list of historic locations in Tennessee, with a historic marker placed at the site. The dedication ceremony will be at 4 p.m.

R.S. Lewis Sr. and his son were pioneers in the local civil rights movement. They played key roles in the city’s hiring of its first black firefighters, the building of the city’s

first Negro League baseball stadium (Lewis Park) and the establishment of T.O. Fuller Park.

The funeral home and the Lewis family is most known for taking charge of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s body following his assassination at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968.

R.S. Lewis and Sons Funeral Home was founded in 1914 by R.S. Lewis Sr. Today, the funeral home is owned by Tyrone Burroughs, CEO of First Choice Sales and Marketing and is operated by Lewis’ protégées Eddie Hayes, Andre Jones and Richard Flowers.

Tracy Bruno, a middle school principal in Nashville, leads a group discussion on school discipline as part of a new initiative to address racism in Metro Nashville Schools.

(Photo: Grace Tatter)

Metro Nashville Schools kicks off school discipline reform

by Grace Tatter

Hopes to be model for state, nation

Chalkbeat Tennessee

District officials, educators, and community members came together Wednesday in Nashville to kick off an initiative aimed at reducing racial disparities in school discipline.

Their ambitions were not merely local.

District leaders and the national organizations backing the initiative, called PASSAGE, hope Nashville can help Tennessee and the nation change a status quo that President Barack Obama has called unacceptable. Across the country, students of color are suspended and expelled at a far higher rate than white students.

The same is true in Nashville.

Nearly 70 percent of students expelled in the district in 2011-2012 were black, even though black students made up only 45 percent of the

student population.

PASSAGE, which stands for Positive and Safe Schools Advancing Greater Equity, aims to harness educators’ and community members’ insights to understand and reduce those disparities. The Atlantic Philanthropies and Annenberg Center for School Reform at Brown University are organizing the initiative, which includes Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City in addition to Nashville.

At the kickoff meeting, Nashville Superintendent Jesse Register said the district was chosen because of its capacity for improvement. Last year, Nashville began using data about absences, academic performance, and misbehavior to refer middle schoolers who would be likely candidates for suspensions to social workers in-

stead. The district had 300 fewer middle school expulsions, while the number of expulsions in other schools rose.

“For areas to which we’re paying attention, that we’re leveraging effort and resources, we’re seeing positive outcomes,” said Tony Majors, the district’s director of support services.

Majors said changing the way students are disciplined is an obvious strategy in the district’s push for academic improvement. He noted that not a single elementary school student who had received in-school suspension in Nashville last year achieved proficiency on the TCAP, the state’s standardized tests.

Over the next two years, the steering committee will come up with a model for addressing school disci-

pline that tries to both prevent behavioral infractions from occurring by pairing students with more support services, as well as making sure disciplinary responses are fair when infractions do occur. The district will be sharing their findings with the other cities in PASSAGE. If successful, the Annenberg Institute, which districts from across the country consult about education reform, will promote the models the cities come up with over the coming months.

Despite the reforms Nashville has already undertaken, there’s more to be done, said keynote speaker Allison Brown said. Brown is a former civil rights attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice and a leader of the school discipline reform movement.

“I don’t usually get to address folks who have done it right,” Brown said. But, she continued, “I want you to push yourselves.”

Political forum for students, youth from ages of 15 to 25 Memphis Youth Manifesto will host its first MYM Political Forum on Aug. 5th at Arrow Academy of Excellence, 645 Semmes St. The forum is designed to allow youth to meet candidates running for office in the Aug. 7th election.

“We are excited to hear the candidates present their platforms and tell us how they hope to make Memphis better for youth here,” said Antonio Sims II, the MYM spokesperson who will be moderating the forum.

“We want to create a place where young Memphians can become ac-

tive and engaged in local, state, and national politics and advocacy.”

After hearing from the candidates, youth (and only youth) will have the opportunity to ask questions pertaining to issues such as education, recreation or other matters that are significant to their age group. MYM encourages youth to be as candid and honest as possible.

Candidates from each political party are invited to speak with constituents, parents, and students.

MYM is a non-partisan organization, turning the focus away from political

affiliation, and toward the best candidates for Memphis and youth.

The forum is free to the public and will begin at 6 p.m. Parking is limited; early arrival is highly suggested.

“We want to create a space for Memphis youth to grow and love Memphis while advocating for or against the issues in the city,” said Kirstin Cheers, an MYM member.

“We have to engage youth now, even though they are not of voting age so when they are eligible to vote, they will already be engaged and informed.”

Memphis Youth Manifesto is a non-partisan organization composed of youth “in pursuit of generating change in Memphis through protests, social media, artistic expression and hosting community events and forums.”

(MYM’s founding principles can be read at www.memphisyouthmanifesto.com. For more information or inquiries, contact the Rev. Kirstin Cheers at 901-827-1040 or email at memphisyouthmanifesto@gmail.co m.)

Tri-State Defender

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July 24 - 30, 2014

CLASSIFIEDS Legal Notice

TRI-STATE DEFENDER CLASSIFIEDS

NOTICE TO CONSULTANT ENGINEERS REGARDING A REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS AND LETTERS OF INTEREST FOR THE DESIGN OF THE CHELSEA AVENUE GREENLINE PROJECT

203 Beale Street, Suite 200 Memphis, TN 38103 PH (901) 523-1818 FAX (901) 578-5037

JULY 2014

HOURS: Mon-Fri 9am - 5pm

The City of Memphis, Division of Engineering, an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, seeks to retain the services of a professional consultant engineering firm to provide various engineering services related to the design and construction of a 2.5 mile shared-use path for bicycles and pedestrians. This project, STP Chelsea Avenue Greenline, is being funded by the Surface Transportation Program as a Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) Locally Managed Program. This project shall adhere to all applicable Federal and State procedures and regulations. The professional consulting engineering firms and all sub-consultants must be on TDOT’s pre-approved list and must have unlimited status. The scope of work includes: 1) Design and acquire right-of-way for a shared-use path in the unused Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way adjacent to Chelsea Ave from Evergreen Street to Washington Park and 2) Modernization of traffic crossing at Chelsea Avenue west of Watkins Street to accommodate increased connectivity for cyclists and pedestrians traveling the pathway.

This shared-use path will provide connection from the existing and planned onstreet bicycle facilities along McLean Boulevard, Chelsea Avenue, Watkins Street, and North Second Street to the residential and employment centers along its reach. It will create a safe, protected corridor for cyclists and pedestrians to access regional employment, residential, and recreational centers. Responsibilities of the professional consultant engineering firm include, but are not limited to: • Provide field survey services of the project area

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Classified ads Monday 5 p.m.

RATES: Standard rates: $9.50 per line for 1 column ad.

Rates are non-commissionable and are quoted at the net rate. No refund for early cancellation.

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• Provide engineering design services to prepare bid/construction documents for the construction of the project • Prepare itemized estimate of probable cost using TDOT item numbers • Prepare project specifications and bid documents • Prepare bid advertisement • Permit submittal for review and approval to TDOT • Utility submittal for review and approval to TDOT • Assist City in evaluation of bids and recommendation for contract award • Construction engineering Inspection (CEI) • Any other services needed to complete the design, right-of-way, and bidding for construction of the project.

Firms (or teams) may request consideration by submitting a letter of interest, along with an abbreviated “Statement of Qualifications” (SOQ) for the firm (or team) to mr. Jack Stevenson, P.E., Administrator Land Development/Budget,

statedefender.com BEER PERmITS Flat Rate $30 GENERAL INFORmATION: Some categories require prepayment. All ads subject to credit approval. Tri-State Defender reserves the right to correctly classify and edit all copy, or to reject or cancel any ad at any time. Only standard abbreviations accepted. Copy change during ordered schedule constitutes new ad & new charges. Deadlines for cancellation are identical to placement deadlines. Rates subject to change.

ADJUSTmENTS: PLEASE check your ad the first day it appears. Call 901-523-1818 if an error occurs. We can only offer in-house credit and NO REFUNDS are issued.

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Division of Engineering, 125 N. main St. Room 644 memphis TN 38103. All letters of interest and qualifications shall indicate the scope of services to be completed by any sub-consultants and must be received at above address on or before 3:00p.m. Central Time August 15, 2014.

Prequalification procedures, example letter if interest, list of prequalified firms and certified DBEs, TDOT’s standard procurement policy, and additional information , and additional information can be found at this internet address www.tdot.state.tn.is/consultantinfi.htm.

The City will evaluate the current prequalification statements on file for those submitting letters of interest and qualifications and chose several firms who would make viable candidates from which to invite proposals and/or presentations. The factors that will be considered in evaluation of proposals are; Consultant Evaluation Criteria: The evaluation criteria for proposals shall, at a minimum, include the following:

1. Ability and relevant expertise of the firm’s personnel to be used in performing the service.

2. Past experience in the required disciplines with TDOT and/or other clients.

3. Qualification and availability of staff.

4. Demonstrated ability to meet schedules without compromising sound engineering practices, 5. Evaluations on prior federallyfunded projects, if available.

6. Size of project and limited or unlimited prequalification status.

7. Amount of work under contract with the Agency.

8. Whether the consultant can perform the work efficiently without compromising sound engineering practice.

9. Other factors, including interviews and demonstrations, as approved Evaluation proceedings will be conducted within the established guidelines regarding equal employment opportunity and nondiscriminatory action based upon the grounds of race, color, sex, creed or national origin. Interested certified Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) firms as well as other minority-owned and women-owned firms are encouraged to respond to all advertisements by the City of Memphis. For information on DBE certification, please contact Mr. Ross Webb at (615)741-3681 or Ross.H.Webb@tn.gov. Details and instructions for DBE certification can be found at the following website: http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/civilrights/smallbusiness/ .

PUBLIC NOTICE THE mEmPHIS URBAN AREA mETROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION In compliance with federal regulations 23 CFR 450, the Memphis Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is updating its Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. This plan, which serves a component of the 2040 Regional Transportation Plan, will contain policies, goals, and objectives for the coordinated development of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure in the Memphis MPO study area.

The public is hereby given notice that the Memphis MPO will hold public meetings to provide information on the plan update and regional survey, as well as to solicit input from the public on goals, objectives, and expected outcomes for the updated Regional Bicycle & Pedestrian Plan. During these meetings public input will be solicited regarding the update to the Memphis MPO’s Public Participation Plan. For the weeks of July 28, 2014 and August 4, 2014, meetings will be held as follows: July 28, 2014 – 6:00PM – Baker Community Center, 7942 Church Street, Millington, TN 38053 July 30, 2014 – 6:00PM – Bartlett City Hall, 6400 Stage Road, Bartlett, TN 38134 August 4, 2014 – 6:00PM – Econ. & Community Dev. Building, 1920 S. Germantown Rd., Germantown, TN 38138 August 5, 2014 – 5:30PM – Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, 3030 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, TN 38111 August 6, 2014 – 6:00PM – Hickory Hill Community Center, 3910 Ridgeway Road, Memphis, TN 38115 August 7, 2014 – 6:00PM – Cordova Branch Library, 8457 Trinity Road, Memphis, TN 38018 It is the policy of the Memphis Urban Area MPO not to discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, national origin or disability in its hiring or employment practices, or in its admissions to or operations of its program, services, or activities. All inquiries for Title VI and/or the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), or for persons with disabilities that require aids or services to participate either in the review of these documents or at the hearing may contact Mitchell Lloyd at 901-576-7146, fax (901) 576-7272; or email Mitchell.Lloyd@memphistn.gov to make accessibility arrangements no less than five days prior to the meeting.

This notice is funded (in part) under an agreement with the State of TN and MS, Departments of Transportation.

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SPORTS Tri-State Defender, Thursday, July 24 - 30, 2014, Page 12

Building a legacy of Lawsons Win-win situation puts wife and mother, Dedra Lawson, in spotlight

by Kelley Evans Special to The New Tri-State Defender

For LeBron James, who is shown here during a visit to Memphis as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, it’s back to the future – meaning Cleveland – for the 2014-15 NBA season. (Photo: Warren Roseborough)

LeBron ‘Freak of Nature’ James

by Howard Robertson and Larry Robinson Special to The New Tri-State Defender

Some weeks ago immediately following the NBA Finals we said, “If you believe LeBron James is a physical freak of nature in terms of size, speed, agility and ability, then break on down, give him props and acknowledge that he’s also an intellectual freak of nature with maturity, savvy, leadership and communication skills that greatly transcend his age, background and educational attainment.”

Did we hit the nail on the head or not?

We were not at all wrong. Now, LeBron decides to go home to Cleveland. He heads back Howard to the place where they burned his jerseys. He’s Robertson heading back to the place where they burned him (in effigy). Back to the place where they booed him every chance they got, every time he came back. Back to the team whose owner so publically used his name in vain.

So, now the question is: Does LeBron James’ very rational return to Cleveland make him some kind of social deviant (freak) of his environment (nature)? We think maybe not so much…but then again, maybe so.

Just as there’s a law of nature, there’s also a law of survival in the streets. LeBron James is from the streets of Akron, Ohio. The law of the Larry streets says: If somebody makes a threat, you Robinson better do them before they do you. The law of the streets says: If somebody hurts you, you hurt them back…worse. The law of the streets says: There’s a very high, very serious price to be paid for disrespecting a man period, but especially in public.

But sizing up your adversary is also a law of the streets and LeBron already knew that (Cleveland Cavaliers owner) Dan Gilbert was a wuss. This fact was totally confirmed with Dan’s open letter to the fans of Cleveland. What a punk move, especially by a guy from Detroit.

Gilbert said, “And until he does right by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.” That‘s straight out of “The Color Purple,” but Celie made a much more accurate prophesy of Mister’s misfortunes and ultimate doom. Dan’s predictions were more pathetic than prophetic. Apparently he didn’t have that same look in the eyes or do the hand thing that Whoopi (or Celie) did in the movie.

In 2010, during his first visit back to Cleveland as a player for the Miami Heat, amidst the loud choruses of boos and the dense fog of animus hanging over the entire city, LeBron casually torched the Cavs for 38 points. As a matter of fact, between 2010 and 2014 in (lucky?) 13 games against the Heat, Cleveland was 112.

Then there were Miami’s back-to-back NBA Championships in 2012 and 2013. “The self described former King” was cursed with an Olympic Gold Medal in 2012, the NBA Finals MVP titles in 2012 and 2013 and also crowned NBA MVP in 2012 & 2013.

Meanwhile back in Cleveland, it’s like Dan Gilbert stabbed himself with his own poison pen because it’s essentially been four years of hell for the Cavs. They’ve had four sub .500 seasons of 19, 21, 24 and 33 wins, with Kyrie Irving being their bright star and hope for the future…until now.

That Ohio-grown physical and intellectual freak of nature has come home, not like the prodigal son but as an absolute victor.

True to the laws of the streets, he’s handled his business over the last four years and nobody knows that better than Dan Gilbert.

He’s absolutely right, why should he hold a grudge…he won.

Their beef was with each other and LeBron was not without fault.

Dumping your significant other during an advertiser-sponsored, global press announcement is just not right. But, all is forgiven.

They’ve (kissed?) made up, both got what they wanted and everybody’s ecstatic in Cleveland.

LeBron James can do whatever he wants to do in the game of basketball and in the game of life. This time he did it with a sense of purpose, loyalty and commitment to his hometown. What a freak! (“A Little R&R on Sports” is a nationally syndicated radio show available on hundreds of radio stations and digital platforms.

Stream R&R live Saturdays at 11 a.m. EDT/10 AM CDT on sportsbyline.com or log onto ranronsports.com anytime. In Memphis, tune in Saturday mornings, 9 a.m. on AM 790 ESPN Radio.

No stranger to many sports-minded Memphians, Keelon Lawson’s headline count has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

The former boys’ basketball head coach at Hamilton High School is now an assistant coach for the University of Memphis men’s basketball program, Tigers head coach Josh Pastner announced last Wednesday (July 16).

Lawson’s sons – four deep – are newsmakers also. Two of them alKelley ready have committed to play for the Evans Tigers. In a win-win deal, Lawson gets to take his coaching to the next level as his sons keep their talent in their hometown and under his watchful eye.

Meanwhile, in the Lawson household there is one woman holding down the fort.

Meet Dedra Lawson – the glue that holds the Lawson boys together. The wife and mother is no stranger to basketball, having played for coach Herb Wright at Shelby State Community College (now Southwest Tennessee Community College) and having coached the LeMoyneOwen College women’s basketball team.

No need for guesswork. Dedra Lawson could not be prouder of the decision her sons made committing to the University of Memphis and she is excited about her husband “coaching on the next level” after successful runs on other levels, including AAU basketball.

“It’s just a blessing that he was able to finish his degree and put things into place. It doesn’t matter what level of coaching he has been on, he’s always been a winner. He felt that it was time for him to try something different,” said Lawson.

The children are referred to on Twitter as the “Lawson Boys” and they even have their own unique logo. K.J. Lawson (Keelon Lawson II), Dedric Lawson, Chandler Lawson and Jonathan Lawson are athletic phenoms. K.J., a 6-7 wing player is in the Class of 2015. Dedric, a 6-9 forward, is in the Class of 2016. Chandler, a 6-6 wing, is ranked No. 1 nationally in the Class of 2019 by some sources. While the youngest, Jonathan, has earned national attention.

“They could have gone to any other school, Dedra said of K.J. and Dedric. “It was their decision. For them to be mature enough to even want to keep the family affair together, just shows how close knit of a family we really are.

We try to instill in them that being together and regardless of what’s going on, you’ve got your brothers’ back and you’ve got your daddy’s back. I’m really happy that they did make that decision to go to Memphis.

“At the end of the day you may not have basketball, but you will have your family,” she said. “Basketball and the people who praise you one minute and may criticize you the next may not be there, but you’re going to have your family.”

Basketball – the common denominator A 1990 Kirby High School graduate, Dedra attended Northwest for one year before transferring to Shelby State, where she earned her associate’s degree. She earned her bachelor’s degree from LeMoyne-Owen.

The Lawson’s met in college. By the time K.J. was 11, the husband-wife partnership had given birth to its organization, the Memphis Wildcats.

Dedra Lawson: “Basketball and the people who praise you one minute and may criticize you the next may not be there, but you’re going to have your family.” (Courtesy photo) An experienced coach on the collegiate level, Dedra Lawson can offer sage advice, if – and when – she chooses.

“The advice I would try to give him is to watch and observe, which he does that anyway,” she said. “My biggest learning experience through this has been to keep my mouth shut. You hear so much criticism and it’s like, ‘Are you for real?’ I just hear all the negativity that people have said and I’ve learned to trust God and keep God first.

That’s what has helped me the most.”

Growing up in Memphis, Lawson said she really didn’t have a difficult life, noting that her husband “may have lived in difficult situations. I went to Kirby at a time when it was a mixed culture. I’ve always been raised around diverse people. Memphis has shown me that it doesn’t matter what the color of your skin is. One thing that we do have in common in this city of Memphis is basketball.”

‘We won’t let you down’ Dedra Lawson’s favorite Memphis restaurants are A&R Bar-b-que and Blues City Café. As a family, you may see the Lawsons having dinner at O’Charley’s, Chili’s or Red Lobster.

“They love seafood,” she said, laughing.

“Dedric, Chandler and my husband eat more than the rest. It’s really not that hard (to keep them fed) because they don’t overindulge when it comes to food. We try to eat healthy. We eat a lot of fish, vegetables and fruit.”

If she could tell the people of Memphis anything, she would keep it simple and direct.

“We appreciate your support. We appreciate your opened arms and we won’t let you down,” she said, taking advantage of the opportunity.

“My boys are so excited,” she added. “They’re ready to go to college. They are so excited about this transition. “

Keelon Lawson, a former college basketball player and winning high school coach, is the new assistant coach under head basketball coach Josh Pastner.

Here he stands proudly with one of his three sons, K.J. Lawson.

(Courtesy photo)

‘Great fit’ Lawson joins ‘Tigers basketball family’

by Kelley Evans Special to The New Tri-State Defender

The University of Memphis issued a press release last week about the hiring of Keelon Lawson as an assistant coach on the staff head basketball coach Josh Pastner.

“We’re excited about Keelon joining our staff,” said Pastner. “Keelon is a great fit for our program. We welcome Keelon to the Tigers basketball family.”

From 2003 through this past season, Lawson served as the Hamilton High School boys’ basketball head coach.

During that time, he guided the Wildcats to three Tennessee state playoff appearances (2006, 2008, 2014), two district titles (2006, 2007), two regional crowns (2006, 2014) and one state championship (2006).

The 2006 Hamilton squad posted a perfect 39-0 record

on its way to winning the Tennessee state title. That squad is the last from the city of Memphis to post an undefeated record en route to claiming a state championship. The 2006 Wildcats finished the season ranked No. 7 in the final USA Today Super 25 High School Boys Basketball poll.

Following the 2005-06 season, Lawson was honored as the Tennessee Sports Writers Association (TSWA) Coach of the Year and the Memphis Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Coach of the Year.

Lawson, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Union University, also served as the Hamilton High School athletics director from 2003-08.

“I’m thrilled and grateful for this opportunity,” said Lawson. “I’m looking forward to working with Coach Pastner and his staff to help carry on the great tradition of Tigers basketball.”