THE CASH STUFF 6-18-15

NNPA STORIES -

http://nnpa.org/nnpa_newswire/pressure-builds-for-feds-to-ban-the-box-by-freddie-allen/?_sft_category=lead

http://nnpa.org/nnpa_newswire/closing-achievement-gaps-requires-more-than-education-reform-by-freddie-allen/?_sft_category=lead

http://nnpa.org/nnpa_newswire/fathers-day-june-21-2015-facts-from-the-census-bureau/?_sft_category=national

Butterfield, McCaul, Cummings, and Jones Introduce Bill to Help Combat Prostate Cancer

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressmen G. K. Butterfield (D-NC), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Walter Jones (R-NC) have introduced the National Prostate Cancer Plan Act that would establish a council of federal agencies, patients, and medical experts charged with drafting and implementing a national strategy to combat prostate cancer.

“Prostate cancer is an epidemic and has a disproportionate impact African Americans,” said Butterfield.  “Black men have the highest prostate cancer rates of any racial or ethnic group and are more than twice as likely to die from the disease.  The National Prostate Cancer Plan Act marks an important step forward in finding treatments and cures to a disease that kills nearly 30,000 Americans every year.” 

“I’m pleased to join Representatives Butterfield, Jones and Cummings in support of legislation to address a serious health risk that affects one in seven American men,” said McCaul.  “Prostate cancer, sometimes called the ‘silent killer’, affects close to 18,000 men each year in Texas.  In addition to supporting critical biomedical research at places like the National Cancer Institute, we must focus our efforts to develop a strategy to beat back this terrible disease which is exactly what the National Prostate Cancer Plan Act will do.”

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men.  One in seven men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime with nearly 221,000 new cases diagnosed each year.  But current screening techniques can be improved in order to avoid inaccurate results that either leave many men believing they are cancer-free or lead to painful, costly, and unnecessary procedures.

“Men are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer as they age, so the development of more accurate screening techniques and new treatment options is critical to increasing quality of life and survival rates, particularly among older men,” said Butterfield.  

“So many of us have either been personally affected by prostate cancer or have lost a loved one who suffered from the disease,” Cummings said.  “One in seven men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes.  The National Prostate Cancer Plan Act will improve detection and diagnosis of this disease so that we can provide these men with the best chance for a long, healthy life. This bill represents a giant step forward in our battle to combat this curable disease and literally save lives.”

The National Prostate Cancer Plan Act would direct the National Prostate Cancer Council to develop and implement a national strategic plan to accelerate the innovation of diagnostic tools to improve prostate cancer screening and early detection, while also helping to reduce unnecessary treatment.  The Council would also be responsible for evaluating federal prostate cancer programs and coordinating prostate cancer research and services across all federal agencies.

Jones said, “Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, and the National Prostate Cancer Plan Act would establish a national plan to improve prostate cancer screening and early detection. It is my hope that a national prostate cancer plan will bring down the high rate of prostate cancer and allow men to live healthier lives.”

The legislation has been endorsed by the Prostate Cancer Foundation, American Urological Association, Prostate Cancer Research Institute, and ZERO – The End of Prostate Cancer.  The bill is modeled after the National Alzheimer’s Project Act which passed Congress with broad bipartisan support in 2010.

Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) have sponsored a companion bill in the U.S. Senate.
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CASH IN THE APPLE 6-18-15

By Cash Michaels

            HAPPY FATHER'S DAY - To the men in our community who raise children, and raise them to learn, grow and love, and be good, productive citizens of the world - happy Father's Day this weekend. we need more of you to raise our young men...AND girls, to show them the right way. we need more to provide, love and protect.
            We need more to lead. And now it's time for for your community and family to say "Thank you."
             So thank you, dads. We love you, and need ALL of you.
              JURASSIC HIT! – Took my youngest to see “Jurassic World” last weekend. By now you know this fourth entry into the “Jurassic Park” legacy, which started 22 years ago, earned over $511 million worldwide in one weekend, a record that no film in history has ever achieved.

            As to the film itself, it obviously has great action, extraordinary special effects, and great chemistry between leads Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. KaLa and I loved it, and give it 9.8 on a scale of 10 Cash Apples.

            Check it out!

THE PROBLEM WITH RACHEL DOLEZAL – So the former president of the Spokane, Washington NAACP is a white woman masquerading as black eh?
As we went to early press Monday, it was reported that Ms. Dolezal had decided, after a firestorm of criticism, to step down from her post as president of the Spokane, Washington NAACP.
Thank God.

True the NAACP is NOT a black organization, which means people of all stripes are not only in membership, but even in leadership at the various chapters. That's a good thing. Thus, this woman did NOT need to pretend that she is black to be involved, or even lead the local chapter.

But here's my problem - integrity. It has been documented that Rachel Dolezal is an alleged compulsive liar, even to the point of denying her true family, calling her adopted black half-brother her son, and filling out official forms and checking them off as being black. She has also misrepresented a black gentleman as her "father," and it is clear that there is palpable tension between her and her real parents.

I heard someone recently label her as "pathological," and I believe the evidence is there for that in both her past behavior, and when you look at her while being interviewed on camera. She has tricked herself into believing that she IS black through and through from birth. To put it bluntly, the woman IS NOT WELL. She has, and continues to run from something psychologically, and when she finally crashes, and she will, she may take others down with her because of her fraudulent behavior.

Now if one of my daughters were out there with bleached skin, passing herself off as someone she was NOT RAISED TO BE, and denying her parents (or replacing us with someone else), I think, as a parent, I would have problems too.

Thus far, I don't see anything to suggest that the parents are bad people. They're just naturally concerned that their daughter is NOT who she really is. This, in my estimation, is very different from Bruce Jenner’s sex change episode. In his case, he lived the majority of his life as someone he says he always knew inside he wasn't, and he told people, and even broke up three marriages because of it, until he finally felt the freedom to expose who he felt he really was.

Yes, he hurt many in his family, but he DOESN'T deny ANY of his family. This woman IS denying her family. Furthermore, being black isn't like putting on and taking off a pair of socks. For those of us who were genuinely BORN black, GOD determined who we are, and our experience in America speaks not only to our identity, but shared history. Both those elements speak to a common struggle and pride, and an insistence that our children reap the rewards of our hard work and sacrifice.

We're NOT going through what we we're dealing with in this country just so that anybody who feels like it can one day wake up, kink up their hair, darken their skin, add some swagger, and voila' - instant black! Loving the fact that you ARE black does NOT mean you hate or dismiss other people, just like loving your mother doesn't mean you hate someone else's. When most of us wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, we're struck with one very important reality - we can't rub it off. This IS who WE ARE! And it took a long time for our people to come as far as we have out of the dungeons of self-hatred (no, we're not totally out obviously, but we're better than we were before the civil rights movement).

I, for one, don't take being black for granted. I CAN'T think that anyone can just one day adopt "the look" and be a different version of me, for then that cheapens all I am, all I've done, and all that I'm supposed to be. I remember years ago when I was still in the music business...I recall attending a black music conference when rap was just really hitting the airwaves, and rap artists telling us that white people would never be able to cover (duplicate) beat-box (the bass-percussion sounds rappers did with their mouths). A year later, not only were there successful white rappers, but they were doing EXACTLY that! And today we have white entertainers calling folks "nigga," and not apologizing for doing so.

            I don't know whether Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner is suffering from a mental illness or not, and while I've made it clear that what Jenner did is clearly not my way, I have not judged him because what he has done is a personal decision. He feels that GOD really made him a woman, and I'm not in a position to judge since I don't know him, and also because I am not a female. But this Rachel woman is much, much different.

I believe there is strong, powerful evidence that she has experienced an emotional crisis years ago that not only had her closely identify with black people - which is NOT a bad thing in and of itself (I know many, many whites who have) - but then actually actively work to lose her self-identity mentally...AND PHYSICALLY (there is something to be said about permanently turning yourself into somebody else for the express purpose of denying your true family even exists, something Jenner has not done).

If I knew her, knowing what I know now, I would have a hard time trusting her judgment. Oh, she may have been perfectly cool before all of this blew up when there was little pressure and no one knew, but now what's going to happen? I teach my children to KNOW who they are, and work hard to BE the person you want to be, but NEVER forget where you came from, or WHO helped you along the way. To give a pass to this clearly confused woman whose life since 2007 has been a literal LIE, is to deny all that I've been teaching my children. Her parents are hurt because she's denying all that they taught her. They know something is wrong, and revealing this was their way of crying out. I can't blame them for anything, because they aren't the ones found lying here. She is, and the fact that she has been leading people per the local NAACP Spokane chapter is very concerning because all folks know is what they've seen. They've NEVER, until now, gotten anything close to the true picture of who this woman really is, and they deserve that.

And for you folks who backed this problem child, there is a FACT you really need to consider - we really DON'T know just how 'black" this woman has been in terms to total loyalty to the community there. We may never know, now that she's done the right thing, and stepped down. I pray that she now gets the help she needs.

Make sure you tune in every Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. for my talk radio show, ''Make It Happen'' on Power 750 WAUG-AM, or online at www.waug-network.com. And read more about my thoughts and opinions exclusively at my blog, ‘The Cash Roc” (http://thecashroc.blogspot.com/2011/01/cash-roc-begins.html).

           Cash in the Apple - honored as the Best Column Writing of 2006 by the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Columnist Cash Michaels was also honored by the NNPA for Best Feature Story Journalist of 2009, and was the recipient of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP’s President’s Award for Media Excellence in Sept. 2011.

          Until next week, keep a smile on your face, GOD in your heart, and The Carolinian in your life. Bye, bye.

                                                                              -30-

                                                           RACHEL DOLEZAL 

PATTERN OF DECEIT ALLEGED

IN DOLEZAL’S BLACK QUEST

By Cash Michaels

An analysis

            The controversial story of a woman born white, who has now claimed a “black” identity, has captivated the world, and raised important questions about “What is racial identity?” and  “Can anyone just claim to be black without birthright?”

            But a closer look at the story of Rachel Dolezal, the Spokane, Washington NAACP Chapter president who resigned her position earlier this week when her birth parents alleged that the 37-year-old white woman with two black sons had changed her physical appearance to resemble a black woman, and indeed, identified herself as “black,” reveals an even deeper question.

            Should Dolezal, who also misrepresented herself as “black” as a part-time Africana Studies professor at a local university, and told city officials that her father was a “black police officer in Oakland, California” when she applied for appointment to an important police review commission,  have come clean with the many students, citizens and fellow activists who trusted and believed in her?

            Beyond monitoring the national and Spokane, Washington media reports n the Rachel Dolezal controversy, The Carolinian also spoke with a local Spokane activist who has worked with Dolezal, and a local Spokane television news producer who became suspicious of Dolezal months ago after she alleged filed numerous unproven hate crimes reports with the police.

            In both cases, the fact that the “black” activist needlessly portrayed herself as someone she wasn’t in order to gain positions of leadership and authority, stand out as the rub that now divides  Spokane, a predominately-white city in the Pacific northwest where the small black, Native-American and Hispanic communities – once terrorized by white supremacist Aryan Nation followers – come together to advocate for social justice.

            “So, why does it matter,” wrote Melissa Luck, KXLY-TV News Executive Producer/reporter in a piece titled, “Rachel Dolezal: The story behind the story.” “Our community was misled. We trusted this voice to speak for those without a voice. We trusted her to teach our students. We stood by her when she said she and her family were targeted and afraid.”

            “We’re a trusting community an she broke that trust,’ Luck continued. “At best, our community will continue to support the causes for which Dolezal once advocated. At worst, people will be less likely to trust and support the minority community and believe in the very noble cause of advancing civil rights in the Inland Northwest.”

            Luck told The Carolinian by phone Tuesday how she had been covering Rachel Dolezal for years, and was impressed with her activism, public speaking, and ability to effectively address issues and attract needed support. But it wasn’t before she claimed to be the target of hate mail and nooses left on her property.

            Two things caught Luck’s attention about the incidents – Dolezal herself, not law enforcement (which KXLY-TV had a close relationship with) would always call the station to report what happened, and secondly, investigators began to quietly question the legitimacy of the claims when they didn’t fit the known pattern of hate crimes in the past.

            “Be careful what you believe,” is what luck says one law enforcement source told Luck then, without being more explicit.

            There were also rumblings that Dolezal  “was not being truthful about her race,” but there wasn’t any proof to followup on would back up the rumors, Luck said, so she just filed the notions away until something broke.

            When Spokane police suspended their investigation into an alleged hate mail package that Dolezal contended came in the mail, but authorities determined that there was no evidence that the US Postal service ever handled the package, Luck said the station decided to report that.

            KXLY News contacted Dolezal to setup an interview, and in the process, heard from yet another source that the Spokane NAACP president was, in fact white, with white parents who lived in Montana. That meant the Dolezal had been lying about who she was.

            The KXLY interview with Dolezal is now legend. When asked if she is African-American, a stunned Dolezal doesn’t know how to answer the question. She identifies the picture of a black elderly man as her “father,’ but then looks confused when shown a picture of  her actual white parents in Montana.

            The interview ends abruptly when a disoriented Dolezal walks off camera.

            When the video hit the national media, the response was overwhelming. The national NAACP, in an effort to save face in a situation that also threatened it’s credibility, issued a statement standing behind Dolezal’s work as Spokane chapter president, adding that race is not a qualifier for membership or leadership.

            Dolezal went underground as the Spokane community reeled from the shocking revelation. NAACP members had elected her president only seven months prior. She had led the way to securing new offices, reconstituting working committees, and reenergizing the branch towards greater activism.

            According  to Kitara McClure, a member of the Spokane NAACP who worked with Dolezal on several projects and committees, people wanted to hear directly from her. A statement over the weekend from Dolezal suggested that she would speak to the concerns at the regularly scheduled meeting Monday evening.

            “We just wanted to hear from her, and hear her apologize,” McClure told The Carolinian in a phone interview Tuesday. “We would have embraced her, and moved on.”

            But instead, Dolezal issued a resignation letter which did not address her deceptions, nor apologize for them, and this was only after she tried to cancel the Monday meeting, which the chapter’s Executive Committee refused to allow.

            Still,. McClure says, the chapter and community members had hoped that Dolezal would come to the meeting, explain herself, and still apologize.

            “We wanted to forgive her,” McClure says.

            Dolezal never came. However, McClure says, when they all woke up Tuesday morning and turned on their televisions, there was Dolezal, in New York City on NBC’s “Today Show,” beginning the first of several exclusive interviews about her story.

            In those interviews, Dolezal identified herself as “black,” maintained that she adopted being a “black” woman for “survival”, and denied that she ever employed deception or misrepresented herself.

            Both McClure and KXLY’s Melissa Luck were clear that if and when Dolezal returns to Spokane, she will have to work very hard to regain the community’s trust, if ever.

            At press time Wednesday, this much is known about the Rachel Dolezal story:

            The city of Spokane has mounted two investigations into whether Dolezal lied  about her race on applications for positions, and to serve on the police ombudsman commission, where she is chair.

            Dolezal’s contract to teach Africana studies was not renewed by Eastern Washington University, and she’s been fired as a columnist at a local publication.

            Her brother, Joshua, will stand trial in August for the alleged molestation of a black child.

            Two of her four adopted brothers say she asked them not to “blow her cover” three years ago when she decided to change her color and hair

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                                                                                                                                                                               STATE NEWS BRIEFS 6-18-15

BELLHAVEN MAYOR WALKS TO WASH., D.C. AGAIN

            [BELLHAVEN] Mayor Adam O’Neal has done it before, and this week, he’s done it again. Walk from his eastern North Carolina town 300 miles to Washington, D.C. in an effort to save rural hospitals. Several months ago when Mayor O’Neal took to the road, it was in a failed attempt to keep the hospital in Bellhaven from closing. The owner said it was losing money and could no longer sustain the costs. This week O’Neal marched the roads to the nation’s capital again to bring attention 283 other rural hospitals that are also in danger of closing their doors. O’Neal and other advocates, which included NC NAACP Pres. Rev. William Barber, asked Congress to step in and address the matter.

TWO TEENS IN GOOD CONDITION AFTER BEING SEVERELY BITTEN BY SHARKS

            [OAK ISLAND] Two teenagers are listed in good condition after losing their arms from severe shark bites this weekend. Officials say a 12-year-old girl lost part of her arm, and may lose her left leg as well after what witnesses say was a 16-foot shark attacked her around 4 p.m. Sunday.  Then 90 minutes later, a 16-year-old boy was also attacked by a shark further down the same beach, the predator taking part of his arm. These incidents happened just three days after a 13-year-old girl was bitten by a shark last Thursday off Ocean Isle. She suffered some cuts on her foot, but is expected to recover. Experts say bull or tiger sharks may be responsible in all three attacks.

GRADUATING STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT KICKED OUT OF CEREMONY BECAUSE OF FAKE TICKETS

            [UNION COUNTY] The graduating student body president at Monroe High School was pulled from the ceremony at the last minute last week when it was discovered that she has printed fake tickets to allow more of her relatives to attend the graduation exercise. Aimee Bell told WBTV that she was “distraught” when the principal confronted her. Each graduate was given four tickets for family, and had to pay for extras. Bell, however, printed two more, and got caught. “I just got to do better,” Bell said.

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TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS 6-18-15

REP. GLAZIER LEAVES TO LEAD NC JUSTICE CENTER

            One of the state Legislature’s most prolific leaders is leaving to head up one of the state’s premier progressive organizations. Rep. Rick Glazier (D- Cumberland) has announced that he is leaving the General Assembly to become the new executive director of the non-profit NC Justice Center, a progressive advocacy group. Glazier is serving in his seventh term. He currently chairs the House Ethics Committee.

FORGET THE DMV LINE. NOW REGISTER ONLINE

            Say goodbye to those long, long lines at the DMV. The state Division of motor Vehicles is now allowing motorists to renew their driver’s licenses online at the DMV website www. https://edmv.ncdot.gov/DriverLicenseRenewal/. You can only use the site if you have no restrictions on your renewal, like vision problems. If your license has been revoked, you cannot use the online service, and commercial licenses will still require a visit to the DMV. Your license will be mailed in seven to fourteen days.

US SUPREME COURT REJECTS REVIEW OF STATE ULTRASOUND LAW

            The NC General Assembly passed a law in 2011 requiring abortion providers to show an ultrasound image of a woman’s unborn child to her before the procedure. A federal judge subsequently struck down the  law, and an appellate court agreed. On Monday, the US Supreme Court refused to even take up the matter, so the law is now no more. The courts held that the law was  violation of a doctor’s free speech rights.

                                                            -30-