“I’m here not because I need your help, but because the country needs your help,” President Barack Obama said in Chicago Jan. 11. “The change we believed in, we knew it wouldn’t come easy and we knew it wouldn’t come quickly.” (Photo by Rhonda Gillespie)

President Barack Obama’s speech before a crowd of supporters Jan.11 at a University of Illinois-Chicago Forum fundraiser included some familiar material.

Before he walked on the stage to go over his own check list of accomplishments since taking office, at least three other people before him did the same.

Actor and author Hill Harper led an audience participation exercise that touted the Obama administration’s establishment of health care for millions of uninsured and underinsured American’s. His battle with cancer made that particular piece of legislation personal for him.

The night’s entertainer, singer Janelle Monae, praised her favorite Obama legislation as did members of the Obama campaign.

Then when he took to the stage, the president almost immediately picked up where Hill and Monae left off.

“I’m here not because I need your help, but because the country needs your help,” Obama said. “The change we believed in, we knew it wouldn’t come easy and we knew it wouldn’t come quickly.”

In his speech, the first campaign one in Chicago in the new year, Obama claimed to have pushed through at least some Republican roadblocks to give the country change he promised in 2008.

The bank and auto industry bailouts, passing health care legislation, repeal of “don’t ask don’t tell,” ending wars, taking down terrorists, making education reforms…and his check list went on.

“These changes weren’t easy. Some were risky. Almost all of them came in the face of fierce opposition,” he said. “Not all of the steps we took were politically popular at the time. But you know what kept me going is you.”

African Americans flocked to the polls in 2008 in record numbers. In communities like Chatham, over 80 percent of registered voters cast a ballot in the election and more than 90 percent of the time the vote was for Obama.

But as many Blacks doled out hundreds –even thousands—of dollars to support Obama Wednesday, some back on the block say enthusiasm for the nation’s first Black president has cooled.

Dan-yea Johnson, 33, a technical education major at Chicago State University could hardly wait to go to the polls in 2008.

“I felt like he could make a change in the United States. I felt that it would be nice to see an African American in office,” the unemployed mother of three told the Chicago Citizen. She thought then, “If we give an African American a chance maybe he could make a difference and help African Americans because we’ve been suppressed for so long.”

But four years later, Johnson gives a noticeable pause when she considers re-electing Obama. She plans to do it, but…

“It’s not the excitement like four years ago,” she said. He deserves re-election “but I don’t think that he will get as many votes.”

Obama has repeatedly asked his supporters to be patient and believe in his ideals for change. Johnson, who commutes to the South Side university from suburban Markham, supports that.

“I believe he’s really working hard for African Americans to go to school,” she said, explaining that the president’s work with keeping Pell grant levels in tact was personally important for her.  “He’s helping out a lot and trying to make sure that everyone is accommodated and no one is really left behind.”

Rev. Booker Vance knows that the foreclosure crisis took a toll on a lot of his congregants. The community activist and faith leader said the Obama administration should have pushed more for banks to work with homeowners, as part of the bailout.

“That’s been one of the great atrocities,” said the pastor of St. Stephens Lutheran Evangelical Church.

Still, he believes African Americans should continue to support Obama for president.
“Not because he’s necessarily been so successful, I just think that people underestimated how complicated” the presidency is,” he said. “For us to believe that in four years, or three-and-a-half years that this (nation’s economy) would turn completely around was just pipe dreams and naïve.”

By Rhonda Gillespie

United States District Judge Robert L. Carter

By DEEPTI HAJELA

NEW YORK – Robert Carter, a lawyer who was an integral member of the team led by Thurgood Marshall that turned to the courts to battle segregation, has died. He was 94.

Carter, who later spent decades on the federal judiciary, died at a Manhattan hospital after suffering a stroke, said his son, John Carter, who is a judge on the New York state bench.

Robert Carter joined Marshall at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Legal Defense and Education Fund after leaving military service in 1944.

He worked on a number of anti-segregation cases, the most high-profile of which was Brown v. the Board of Education. In that case, the plaintiffs represented by the NAACP team argued that the system of legal segregation was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed in a 1954 decision.

Carter “was always a fighter,” his son said. “I saw through him the kind of progress that one could make in fighting evil through law.”

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous said in a statement that the legal philosophy Carter helped create has “defined the NAACP for decades.

“He believed in equality not only in the public school system, but in every institution across this country,” he said. “His long-term vision and tremendous success in the courtroom made him a legendary figure in the Association and in the nation as a whole.”

Carter was born in Florida in 1917 and grew up in Newark, N.J. He entered college at 16 years old, attending Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He went to Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. and then to Columbia University in New York for an advanced legal degree, which he received in 1941.

He then entered the U.S. Army and became a second lieutenant. His experiences with racial hostility in the military only hardened his determination to fight for equality, his son said.

President Richard Nixon nominated Carter to the federal bench in the Southern District of New York in 1972.

His tenure on the bench also had some high-profile episodes. He oversaw the merger between the National Basketball Association and the American Basketball Association, and in 1979, found in favor of black and Hispanic officers challenging the hiring practices of the New York Police Department.

Carter also is survived by another son, David; a sister, and a grandson. AP

Michigan Chronicle Publisher Sam Logan Jr. died Dec. 28. He was 78. (AP Photo/The Detroit News, Ricardo Thomas)

Sam Logan Jr., a prominent Detroit newspaper publisher passed away Dec.28. He was 78 years old.

Logan published the Michigan Chronicle and founded the Michigan Front Page newspapers. He is credited with making significant contributions to the Black Press and the journalism industry respectively.

Logan’s family released a statement following his death.

“It is with deep regret that we announce the death of our father and grandfather Samuel Logan, longtime and legendary publisher of the Michigan Chronicle. At 78 our father lived a fulfilled life of service to Detroit and this nation. We thank everyone for their prayers and support at this time of grief.”

William Garth Sr., CEO, Chicago Citizen Newspaper Group, a longtime colleague of Logan, reflected on his life.

“I’ve known him a long time. I wasn’t even a publisher at the time and he treated me fairly. We got along pretty good and he was very knowledgeable of publishing. He was a community activist and had a lot of community involvement. He is going to be missed in Detroit,” he said.

Logan, a Louisiana native, started his career at the Chronicle as a writer and delivering newspapers.

He eventually became publisher, a role he held for over 40 years.

Logan was outspoken on critical issues pertinent to the Black community including public education and race relations. According to reports, his cause of the death had not yet been determined.

“Sam Logan was more than a Detroit icon, he was a respected pioneer in Black journalism who championed the need for coverage of a community not totally served by the mainstream media,” Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said in a written statement. “More importantly, Sam was a loyal friend who will be deeply missed by all Detroiters.

Visitation for Logan will be held Wednesday and Thursday at Swanson Funeral Home in Detroit. The funeral will be held Friday at Greater Grace Temple also in Detroit at 10 a.m.

The Chronicle announced that Hiram Jackson, CEO of its parent company, Real Times Media Inc., will serve as the paper’s interim publisher.

“I am humbled to be asked by the board to carry on his mission on an interim basis.  I do this knowing that Sam’s first order to all of us at this time of great sorrow and loss for all of us would be to focus on continuing to get his newspaper out on time.  We are going to do that,” said Jackson.

By Thelma Sardin

Champion died after the annual Florida Classic football game between FAMU and Bethune Cookman on Nov. 19. Authorities have said the drum major died after an apparent hazing ritual on a parked band bus.

Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion’s death was ruled a homicide.

An autopsy conducted by the Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner’s Office “revealed extensive contusions of his chest, arms, shoulder, and back with extensive hemorrhage.”

The results of the autopsy showed that Champion, 26, died because of blunt-force trauma suffered during a hazing incident.

Even though there were no broken bones to 26-year-old Champion’s internal organs, there was “a significant rapid blood loss” due to the injuries he suffered, the report further stated.

The medical examiner added that Champion died as “the result of hemorrhagic shock due to soft tissue hemorrhage, incurred by blunt force trauma sustained during a hazing incident.”

The Orlando Sentinel reported that sheriff’s investigators said they will meet with the State Attorney’s Office soon to determine what, if any, criminal charges will be filed.

Champion’s mother, Pamela, reached at her Georgia home, said she’s “still trying to come to terms and absorb” the information contained in the report, according to The Orlando Sentinel.

A joint statement issued by Dr. Solomon L. Badger III, chairman of the FAMU board, and Ammons, called the autopsy information “extremely upsetting for all of us, even though it confirmed what we suspected.

“We again convey our deepest condolences to the Champion family. We will continue to cooperate with all agencies looking into the matter and are committed to creating a safe environment for the entire FAMU community and ensuring that this never happens again at FAMU.”

Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner officials said the autopsy found no evidence of a natural cause for Champion’s death, including disease, sickle-cell trait, drugs or alcohol.

“Immediately after the hazing incident, he complained of thirst and fatigue; minutes later, he noted loss of vision” and soon suffered cardiac arrest, the medical examiner said.

Gainesville lawyer Christopher Chestnut, who is representing Champion’s family, said, “It confirms our suspicions.”

The family is distraught, he said, and wants to put an end to hazing. The Champions have already filed notice of intent to sue the school, although they do not know who was involved, what was done or where.

Special to the NNPA from the Florida Courier

Information from The Associated Press and The Orlando Sentinel were used in compiling this report.

Sonny Rollins (Courtesy of the St. Louis American)

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were on hand to salute the 2011 class of Kennedy Center Honorees recently at the Kennedy Center in Washington. CBS will broadcast the show on Dec. 27.

Actress Meryl Streep, pop singer Neil Diamond, Broadway singer Barbara Cook, famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins were all celebrated for receiving the nation’s top award for those who have influenced American culture through the arts.

Rollins, 81, is a jazz saxophonist who has shared the stage with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, among others. “America is the home of jazz. It’s what we started,” he said. “By the way, hip hop music is a part of jazz, believe it or not.”

Friend Bill Cosby marveled about how he has heard Rollins’ distinctive sax around the world in Greece, Hong Kong, Italy – and found so many people who knew the musician’s work. “All over the world, Sonny Rollins,” Cosby said.

Benny Golson and Herbie Hancock joined in playing some of Rollins’ tunes. Fellow sax player and former President Bill Clinton said earlier that he has been a fan since the age of 15 or 16 when he bought his first Rollins LP and played it until it was worn out. “His music can bend your mind, it can break your heart, and it can make you laugh out loud,” Clinton said. “He has done things with improvisation that really no one has ever done.”

Information from Eurweb.com and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Special to the NNPA from the St. Louis American

“It’s time to mobilize around the lack of funding and resources targeting women living with HIV in the United States.” Graphic Iswandy Ahmad

Special to the NNPA from the Black AIDS Institute

This year the U. S. Conference on AIDS (USCA), the largest HIV/AIDS gathering in the nation, targeted its offerings toward men who have sex with men. But during the meeting sponsored by the National Minority AIDS Council, many Black women–from prevention and policy experts to those living with HIV/AIDS–aggressively pursued programming and issues that focused on their demographic.

“It’s time to mobilize around the lack of funding and resources targeting women living with HIV in the United States,” said Amanda Lugg, director of advocacy and mobilization of the New York City-based African Services Committee.

The USCA did “a very good job with multiple targets. There was a segment targeting women and I am ecstatic that next year’s conference will focus on women,” said Texas Woman’s University assistant professor Kimberly A. Parker, Ph.D., M.P.H., C.H.E.S. “But we need to do more.”

Infection rates among Black women are nearly 15 times higher than those among White women. But while in 2009 Black women accounted for about “30 percent of the estimated new HIV infections among all Blacks,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “we don’t receive 30 percent of the funding,” said Lugg. “There is a huge divide between the face of the epidemic and funding for HIV prevention and research. It’s very important to monitor how CDC utilizes resources and how the National HIV/AIDS Strategy will affect women.”

HIV Rates Rising Among Black Women in Rural States

“There are huge disparities in rural states such as Iowa,” said Taz Clayburn, community-outreach coordinator at the AIDS Project of Central Iowa. “African Americans are only 2.8 percent of the population but 56 percent of our state’s HIV and AIDS cases.”
“We’re seeing a huge increase in infections among African-American women in Des Moines,” Clayburn added. “It’s important to link African-American women to care and persuade them to motivate themselves as a priority. As Black women, we don’t take care of ourselves–we take care of everybody else first.”

Blacks account for 50 percent of HIV infections in rural counties, according the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention, whose research suggests that the rural epidemic may be shifting toward African-American women.

To complicate matters: “Since Iowa is considered a ‘low incidence’ state, we’ve lost 55 percent of our prevention funding starting January 1,” Clayburn added.

It’s a similar story in the southwest, where Blacks are few in number but disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS. Blacks are only four percent of Arizona’s population but are three times as likely to become infected, reported the East Valley Tribune which  adds: “The HIV rate for Black women in Arizona is nearly nine times higher than that for white women.”

“The Black community is very small here, but we’re targeting resources to Black women and Black men who have sex with men,” said Kathy Donner, HIV prevention manager at the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Rod McCullom has written and produced for ABC News and NBC, and his reporting has appeared in Ebony, The Advocate, Colorlines and other media. Rod blogs on politics, pop culture and Black gay news at rod20.com.

By Rod McCullom

At his rally in Atlanta, Cain admitted, “I have made many mistakes in life, everybody has.” Photo: Gage Skidmore

With his wife Gloria by his side, Herman Cain, the Black Republican presidential candidate who was accused of having a 13-year extramarital affair, announced that he will drop out of the race while fiercely denying the allegations against him.

“With a lot of prayer and soul searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign, because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt on me and my family, not because we’re not fighters,” Cain said.

“I am at peace with my God,” Cain said. “I am at peace with my wife and she is at peace with me.”

Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, has been dogged for weeks by allegations of sexual harassment and a sexual affair.

Cain ultimately decided to suspend his campaign for president after Atlanta businesswoman Ginger White appeared on television to detail her 13-year affair with Cain. She said the relationship began after they met at a business meeting. Cain acknowledged a friendship with White and said he had been helping her financially, but insisted it was not sexual.

“These false and unproved allegations continue to be spinned in the media and in the court of public opinion so as to create a cloud of doubt over me and this campaign and my family,” Cain insisted.

Cain has acknowledged that White’s allegations have led to a drop in campaign contributions, and a Des Moines Register poll shows his support among likely Republican Iowa voters has fallen to 8 percent, down from 23 percent in October. Cain told reporters that he repeatedly gave White money to help her with “month-to-month bills and expenses.”

“I send checks to a lot of people; I help a lot of people,” Cain told Fox News. “That in itself is not proof. So the other allegation in terms of it being a 13-year physical relationship, that is her words against my word.”

In her interview with MSNBC, White said of her relationship with Cain, “It wasn’t a love affair, it was a sexual affair.”

“I am not a cold-hearted person,” White said. “I am a mother of two kids and, of course, my heart bleeds for this woman [Cain’s wife] because I am a woman and being in a situation like this cannot be fun. And I am deeply, deeply sorry if I have caused any hurt to her and to his kids, to his family. That was not my intention. I never wanted to hurt anyone, and I am deeply sorry.”

Two other women—Sharon Bialek and Karen Kraushaar—previously accused Cain of sexually harassing them in the 1990s while he was head of the National Restaurant Association. Two more women also have said Cain sexually harassed them while they worked at the association, but have declined to be identified.

At his rally in Atlanta, Cain admitted, “I have made many mistakes in life, everybody has.”

But he also told supporters that he believed he was the right man for the White House.

Special to the NNPA from the Afro-American Newspaper

Hazing has a long history in marching bands, particularly at historically black colleges, where a spot in the band is coveted for its tradition and prominence. Photo: Jasen Leathers

TALLAHASSEE, FL — The fired director of Florida A&M’s famed “Marching 100” band said he repeatedly warned university leaders over two decades about the dangers of hazing and that he’s been made the scapegoat for a band member’s death in which the practice is suspected.

Julian White, 71, said he suspended 26 band members for hazing two weeks before drum major Robert Champion’s death on Nov. 19. He reported his actions to university administrators, he said.

Hazing has been “rampant on university campuses,” and the suspensions would serve notice it wouldn’t be tolerated at A&M, he said.

But instead of being supported, White said, he was second-guessed, particularly from some parents of band members, and said the punishments were akin to suspending star football players. “And so the band members were apprehensive. `Doc, you think we can go without 19 trombone players?’” said White, who replaced “Marching 100” founder William P. Foster as director in 1998. “And other folks. `Doc, do you think you can do it without them?’ My comment was, it doesn’t matter, I am not going to sacrifice the performance for the principle.”

After A&M’s football team lost its annual game against rival Bethune-Cookman, Champion collapsed on a bus parked outside an Orlando hotel. The 26-year-old junior had been vomiting and complained he couldn’t breathe shortly before he became unconscious. When authorities arrived about 9:45 p.m., Champion was unresponsive. He died at a nearby hospital.

Authorities have not released any more details, except to say hazing allegedly played a role.

Less than a week later, White, a tenured professor, was fired by FAMU President James Ammons.

“I walked into his office and he said, `Doc, I don’t know any other way to put it, this is it for you,’” White recounted. “He said `you can resign or you can be terminated.’”

Ammons, meanwhile, met Monday with former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth, who was named last week to head a task force investigating what led to Champion’s death. “If some strong actions had been taken, then Robert Champion may be alive now,” said White, who was asked by the student’s family to speak at Wednesday’s funeral service.

White, who was the lead drum major as a student, said he fears the tragedy could doom the showy high-energy, high-stepping band that has performed at Super Bowls, the Grammys and presidential inaugurations and in Paris on France’s 200th anniversary.

Since Champion’s death, the school has shuttered the marching band and the rest of the music department’s performances.

Shutting it down was a meaningful decision, White said. The band would have been the first of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities to perform at Carnegie Hall. “That hurts,” White said.

Hazing has a long history in marching bands, particularly at historically black colleges, where a spot in the band is coveted for its tradition and prominence.

Special to the NNPA from the Florida Sentinel-Bulletin

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden shake hands in the Oval Office following a phone call with House Speaker John Boehner securing a bipartisan deal to reduce the nation's deficit and avoid default, Sunday, July 31, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Dysfunction turned out to be Kryptonite for the supercommittee.

The Budget Control Act of 2011 gave six Democrats and six Republicans the power to come up with a plan to cut the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion before the Congressional Thanksgiving recess. However, lawmakers bickered while the market fell.

“It would be a sad commentary on our state of affairs if a decade-old political pledge to a corporate lobbyist were allowed to prevent bipartisan progress on our nation’s most pressing issues,” James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., one of the “Super 12” and Assistant Democratic Leader of the House, said in a statement. “Yet with massive across-the-board budget cuts hanging over us like the sword of Damocles, that seems a possible outcome.”

Amid global skittishness fueled partly by the debt crisis in Europe, the supercommittee’s impasse was linked to a 2.5 percent drop in the Dow Jones industrial average, which fell roughly 300 points to 11,500 around noon Monday. It also meant no extensions, at the moment, for unemployment benefits or payroll tax cuts.

With no super heroes to save the day, Democrats are blaming Republicans, and Republicans are blaming Democrats. They clashed primarily over tax breaks for the wealthy and spending cuts for domestic programs from Social Security to health care.

“The claim that Medicare, Medicaid and other health-care costs are major drivers of our debt crisis is an overstatement,” said Alfred Chiplin Jr., managing attorney at the Center for Medicare Advocacy in Washington, D.C. “We must be sure that philosophical differences about the nature, role and size of government are not taken out on the backs of the poor, the elderly, those with disabilities or on children.”

The National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) also opposes cuts in domestic programs and had been encouraging citizens to “tell the supercommittee NO cuts to HIV/AIDS programs” as lawmakers made 11th hour efforts to reach some sort of face-saving measure.

“NMAC opposes any cuts to discretionary budget line items, which fund domestic or global HIV/AIDS programs,” said Kali Lindsey, the council’s director of legislative and public affairs.

“Research advancements demonstrate that thoughtful and strategic investments along with assured access to necessary care, treatment and support services can bring an end to the HIV epidemic in the United States and around the globe.”

Sentiment among the general public seemed to mirror that of their elected officials, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. Fifty-seven percent of Democrats opposed spending cuts in the poll released on Monday, while 59 percent of Republicans were against tax increases. Republicans favor extending the Bush tax cuts, which expire at the end of 2012, from 39.6 percent to 28 percent for the wealthiest Americans.

By Yanick Rice Lamb
Special to the NNPA from the Afro-American Newspaper

African Americans and Hispanics are disproportionately incarcerated for drug offenses. These two groups have consistently higher proportions of inmates in state prison who are drug offenders compared to Whites - about 50 percent higher.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy hosted a media briefing on Nov. 20, to highlight the Obama Administration’s unprecedented approaches to addressing drug addiction.

Ben Tucker, deputy director for State, Local, and Tribal Affairs set the tone by giving stats about how costly criminalizing drug use has been.

“The Department of Justice released new data showing that drug use cost our society about $193 billion a year. Fifty six billion of those dollars can be traced directly back to costs associated solely with the criminal justice system,” said Tucker.

The deputy pointed out that contributing to this immense cost are the more than seven million people in the United States who are under the supervision of the criminal justice system with more than two million behind bars.

For states and localities across the country, the costs of managing these populations have grown significantly. Between 1988 and 2009, state corrections spending increased from $12 billion to more than $50 billion per year.

“African Americans and Hispanics are disproportionately incarcerated for drug offenses. These two groups have consistently higher proportions of inmates in state prison who are drug offenders compared to Whites – about 50 percent higher among these minorities compared to Whites,” said Tucker.

“As our nation works to recover from the greatest recession we’ve had, we must do everything we can to lessen the harm that drug offenses and drug use have on the health, safety, and economic potential of our nation and our fellow citizens.”

Gil Kerlikowske, director of National Drug Control Policy outlined unprecedented actions being undertaken by the Obama Administration to address this challenge by breaking the cycle of drug use, crime, incarceration and re-arrest.

The Obama Administration’s approach to criminal justice drug policy is guided by three facts; that addiction is a disease that can be treated; people can recover and new interventions are needed to appropriately address substance abuse and drug-related crime.

“We cannot arrest our way out of our nation’s drug problem and while new strategies are being implemented there is more to do,” said Kerlikowske.

This last fiscal year, the Obama Administration spent $10.4 billion on drug prevention and treatment programs compared to $9.2 billion on domestic drug enforcement.

August, 2010, President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act into law.  This important and long-overdue criminal justice reform dramatically reduced a 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between powder and crack cocaine, which disproportionately affected minorities.

The administration is implementing the Second Chance Act, which provides funding for programs that improve coordination of reentry services and policies at the state, tribal, and local levels, including demonstration grants, reentry courts, family-centered programs, substance abuse treatment, employment, mentoring and other services.

Expansion of drug courts, which place non-violent drug offenders into treatment instead of prison.

Last year, the Department of Justice awarded $100 million to support 178 state and local reentry grants to provide a wide range of services and in late September awarded another $83 million to 118 new grantees.

Encouragement to housing authorities nationally to lease to offenders returning to the community and to ensure that they understand that they have the discretion to lease to all but two specific classes of felon.

The Attorney General issued a letter to state attorneys general to urge them to review the legal collateral consequences of their state laws being placed upon ex-offenders that may burden their successful reentry into society.

“I also encourage states to take our lead in support the funding of effective alternatives to incarceration. By implementing a range of innovative, yet proven public health and public safety interventions, we can save taxpayer dollars and improve outcomes and break the cycle of drug use, crime, and incarceration,” said Kerlikowske.

Redonna Chandler, chief of services research branch of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, closed by stating that harsh punishments including lengthy incarcerations, boot camps, and intense supervision alone do not alleviate addiction. “Effective treatment helps the offender change attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with regard to both drug use and criminality,” Chandler said.

She suggested numerous approaches including cognitive behavioral therapy where participants learn positive social and coping skills; contingency management approaches help break down long-term treatment goals into smaller steps and motivational enhancement interventions and medications.

By Valencia Mohammed
Special to the NNPA from the Afro-American Newspaper