National News
The Cain Train Has Been Derailed
Posted on 14. Dec, 2011 by citizen in National News
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
FAMU Band Director: “I Warned Them About Hazing”
Posted on 14. Dec, 2011 by citizen in National News
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
Community Impact of Supercommittee Failure
Posted on 12. Dec, 2011 by citizen in National News
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
Obama: Drug Addiction Is A Disease, Not A Crime
Posted on 10. Dec, 2011 by citizen in National News
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
Man Charged With Trying To Assassinate Obama
Posted on 09. Dec, 2011 by citizen in National News
Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States by Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr. in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2009. Photo: Master Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo
PITTSBURGH — A man accused of firing two shots at the White House last week has been charged with attempting to assassinate President Barack Obama or his staff.
Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez made his first court appearance before a federal magistrate in Pittsburgh on Thursday, one day after he was arrested at a western Pennsylvania hotel. He will be taken back from a federal court in Pittsburgh to face the charges in Washington, D.C.
Ortega will remain in federal custody at least until a magistrate in Washington can determine if he should remain jailed until his trial on the charge, which carries up to life in prison.
Ortega sat quietly as the hearing began, his hands free but his feet shackled. The 21-year-old said only, “Yes, ma’am” when he was asked if he understood that he would be going back to Washington to face the charge.
Authorities said a man clad in black who was obsessed with Pres. Obama pulled his car within view of the White House on Friday night and fired shots from an assault rifle, cracking a window of the first family’s living quarters while the president was away.
Soon after, U. S. Park Police found an abandoned vehicle, with an assault rifle inside it, near a bridge leading out of the nation’s capital to Virginia. The car led investigators to Ortega.
The FBI took custody of Ortega’s car Thursday afternoon to continue the process of reviewing evidence, said Lindsay Godwin, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Washington field office.
Ortega was arrested after a hotel desk clerk recognized his picture. He had been reported missing Oct. 31 by his family.
Special to the NNPA from the Florida Sentinel-Bulletin
“Fried Another N**ger”
Posted on 01. Nov, 2011 by citizen in National News
The words allegedly spoken by a New York City police officer accused of illegally arresting a black New York City resident – “fried another nigger,” – are shocking.
But not if you’re familiar with the long, infuriating history of police racial profiling. Not if you’re among the millions – yes, millions – of citizens who’ve been unfairly stopped by the police over the past decade. Not if you’re familiar with the details of the two separate, current federal lawsuits which charge that two different New York City Police Department practices are racially discriminatory and unconstitutional.
One, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, claims that the city in implementing its street-level stop-and-frisk tactic has engaged in widespread and unjustified stops and racial profiling.
The second, brought against the New York City government and the New York City Housing Authority by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., the Legal Aid Society of New York City, and the private law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP. contends that the city’s policing practices in its public housing developments – most notably, its “vertical sweeps” of buildings — “routinely” subject residents and those who visit them to illegal stops and false arrests that serve no lawful purpose. The lawsuit charges that the number of these vertical patrols, which are conducted by both Housing Authority police officers and the New York City police officers, has approached 200,000 a year in recent years and has resulted in thousands of residents of these buildings and visitors to them being stopped and/or arrested on trespass charges.
The incident involving Officer Michael Daragjati, who is white, occurred in Staten Island in April. Daragjati was in plain clothes and driving an unmarked police car when he stopped and searched the citizen, a black man, without cause. He found no contraband; but when the man complained that he should never have been stopped and asked for Daragjati’s badge number, the officer arrested him for resisting arrest. At the precinct house, Daragjati lied about the incident on the required documents, claiming the man had become physically belligerent. As a result, the man spent a day and a half in the police station lockup.
But the officer’s lie began to unravel that very night, according to the criminal complaint against him, when the government intercepted telephone calls and text messages he made bragging about the incident. The telephone call to his friend in which he used the racial slur occurred the next day. Investigators were shadowing Daragjati’s communications because he was suspected of extortion and insurance fraud. He is now under indictment for those charges as well.
Of course it is to the credit of the federal prosecutor’s office and the police department that they have pursued this case against an officer intent on harassing people of color. Officer Daragjati acted alone.
Nonetheless, the sworn testimony of individuals involved in the federal lawsuits as well as the accounts of individuals interviewed for news stories recently and over the years make it clear that the wrong he perpetrated isn’t an isolated incident.
On the contrary, their words underscore the human cost of the astonishing statistics showing that each year the hundreds of thousands of police stops of ordinary citizens in New York City lead to only a small number of arrests and a miniscule number of convictions – and those are usually for minor offenses.
It’s long past time for the New York Police Department’s street-level stop-and-frisk policy and its housing development illegal stops policy to just stop.
Lee A. Daniels is Director of Communications for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Editor In Chief of TheDefendersOnline.com
By Lee A. Daniels
DNC Names Hinton Diversity Chief
Posted on 01. Nov, 2011 by citizen in National News
Special to the NNPA from The Charlotte Post
The Democratic National Committee has a new diversity chief.
Greg Hinton will become chief diversity officer of the organizations starting Oct. 24, making him the first ever for the national party. Hinton, chief diversity officer of US Cellular and a Chicago native, will advise the Democratic National Convention Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on diversity staffing and minority procurement for the 2012 convention in Charlotte.
“Diversity in hiring, contracting and procurement has always been of utmost importance to the Democratic Party and I’m proud to serve in this role to help maintain that commitment,” Hinton said in a statement. “Our party is stronger because of our diversity, and in this new role I will be working to make sure we are harnessing our diverse experiences and points of view in the most effective way possible. I am honored to be doing this work on behalf of the President (Barack Obama) and the Democratic Party and believe this new position is a reflection of the party’s strong commitment to diversity and inclusion.”
Hinton’s appointment was made at the recommendation of the DNC’s Budget and Finance Committee. The DNCC and DCCC also took roles to fill the position after controversy over the role of minority vendors at the convention. Hinton’s job will be developing diversity goals and implementation.
“We’re thrilled to have Greg Hinton join the DNC as the chief diversity officer,” DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said. “The Democratic Party has long been dedicated to including talented people who reflect the diversity of our great country, and Greg will bring his talents to bear as we make sure we are living up to that commitment. I’m proud we’re taking this critical step forward and look forward to working closely with Greg as we strive to take our values of inclusion and strength through diversity to the next level.”
In addition to US Cellular, Hinton has worked at Abbott Labs and Pepsi General Bottlers as well as the health care and nonprofit fields, developing and implementing inclusion programs for supplier diversity and human resources.
“Our whole team at the DCCC is excited to have Greg Hinton join us and continue our strong commitment to diversity,” DCCC Chairman Steve Israel said. This new position is a reflection of the Democratic Party’s continuing and unyielding belief that diversity is a strength and we look forward to Greg’s work to help us honor that tradition.”
By Herbert L. White
Texas Rangers Manager Helping Lure African Americans Back To The “National Pastime”
Posted on 31. Oct, 2011 by citizen in National News
Ron Washington, American League Champion Texas Rangers.
While it may be a little farfetched to say that Rangers manager Ron Washington is singlehandedly luring a new large mass of African Americans to following baseball, it may not be that far off.
Washington’s passionate and extremely effective leadership has caught the attention of many from the Black community who may not have followed baseball in the past, or sports overall, for that matter.
“For me, I always liked baseball but I never paid much attention to the Rangers until Ron Washington became coach,” said Jocelyn Medlock-Price.
“I have had much respect on how the Rangers have given Mr. Washington the great opportunity within the Rangers organization. His back story, along with some of the other players living testimonies, reminds me that your life off the field is just as important as your life on the field,” said Tamara Johnson.
Such statistics are not necessarily conducted, but the naked eye may indicate that more African American families can be seen at Rangers home game, complete with the wearing of franchise paraphernalia. That draws some similarities to when the legendary Jackie Robinson decimated segregation in 1947, causing Blacks to flood the baseball parks.
Tafuta Bakai, network analyst for J.C. Penney’s, was seen proudly in Texas Rangers garb while helping organize an Urban League Young Professional business conference at his headquarters. He credits Washington.
“I’ve been hearing more brothers calling all the sports radio show about the state of baseball. This organization (Rangers) has ascended to this level because of what Ron Washington has brought to this city,” Bakai said. “It has been tremendous.”
Bakai spoke about a close friend who’s sending his six-year old son to a camp with D-Bat, a nationwide baseball and softball training facility.
“Ron Washington is the reason why he’s going to send his son to the camp,” Bakai said. “He’s made an impact not only in the African American community but now it’s crossed racial lines.”
Major League Baseball officials surely hope this can represent a turnaround in Blacks interest in the game. According to Richard Lapchick’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, at the University of Central Florida, the percentage of Black American baseball players in the major leagues dipped to 8.5 percent this year, down from 9.1 percent in 2010 and less than half than the 19 percent in 1995.
The percentage of Latino players also dropped slightly, but held at a relatively healthy 27 percent.
“This has been a concern of Major League Baseball and leaders in the African-American community,” Lapchick said. “However, the 38.3 percent of players who are people of color also make the playing fields look more like America with its large Latino population.”
Akiim DeShay said on this reporter’s Facebook page: “In the 1980s 30 percent of MLB was Black. Now it’s about eight percent. My seven-year old plays baseball in Irving and is one of only a few in the entire league. But the majority of boys youth football teams are all Black. Baseball is a hard sport to fall in love with as an adult.
DeShay then said: “However I do believe a few may tune in to the Rangers that wouldn’t have because of Washington.”
Washington is personally beating odds of his own, especially when looking at the chances of a Black manager winning a world title these days. Much like the number of Black American players in the majors, the number of Black mangers has dwindled to just two in 2011. Washington joins Cincinnati Reds mentor Dusty Baker.
However Washington and Baker make up two of the only three Black managers to take their teams to the Big Baseball Classic. Baker did so as skipper of the San Francisco Giants in 2002, losing in seven games to the Anaheim Angels. Cito Gaston of the Toronto Blue Jays remains the only Black manger to have won the world title, winning in back-to-back fashion in 1992 and 1993.
Jackie Robinson’s smashing of the color barrier in 1947 attracted a dramatic increase of major league baseball attendance, that increase consisting of mostly Black baseball fans. A downside is that it also led to the demise of the coveted Negro Baseball League, meaning that white-owned teams reaped the economic benefit of Black players in the league while the Black community lost a strong economic core.
Time will tell if the same thing happens in this the second decade of the 21st Century.
By Gordon Jackson, Special to the NNPA from The Dallas Weekly
Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Death Sentence is Ruled Unconstitutional
Posted on 31. Oct, 2011 by citizen in National News
Mumia Abu-Jamal
(New York, NY) – Today the United States Supreme Court rejected a request from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office to overturn the most recent federal appeals court decision declaring Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death sentence unconstitutional. The Court’s decision brings to an end nearly 30 years of litigation over the fairness of the sentencing hearing that resulted in Abu-Jamal’s being condemned to death. Abu-Jamal will be automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole unless the District Attorney elects to seek another death sentence from a new jury.
The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and Professor Judith Ritter, of Widener Law School, represent Abu-Jamal in the appeal of his conviction and death sentence for the 1981 murder of a police officer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Supreme Court’s decision marks the fourth time that the federal courts have found that Abu-Jamal’s sentencing jury was misled about the constitutionally mandated process for considering evidence supporting a life sentence.
“At long last, the profoundly troubling prospect of Mr. Abu-Jamal facing an execution that was produced by an unfair and unreliable penalty phase has been eliminated,” said John Payton, President and Director-Counsel of LDF. “Like all Americans, Mr. Abu-Jamal was entitled to a proper proceeding that takes into account the many substantial reasons why death was an inappropriate sentence.” Professor Ritter stated. “Our system should never condone an execution that stems from a trial in which the jury was improperly instructed on the law.”
Abu-Jamal’s case will now return to the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas for final sentencing.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, Special to the NNPA from thedefendersonline.com
