Monday, March 7, 2016

THE CASH STUFF FOR 03-10-16

[WILMINGTON JOURNAL]
                                                          OUR ENDORSEMENTS

            Early voting is underway from now through Saturday, March 12 at 1 p.m. for the Tuesday, March 15th primaries. Hours of early voting are Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Saturday, March 12 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Government Center – 230 Government Center Drive, Suite 34.  Please check www.elections.nhcgoc.com for additional locations and their hours, or call 910-798-7330.
            Of course, on Tuesday, March 15th, polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 P.M. for regular primary day voting.
            If you are not registered to vote during this early voting period, you may do so the same day that you cast your ballot. Please bring an official document like your utility bill for proof of address for identification. You can only do same-day registration until March 12. You will not be allowed to register to vote on March 15th, Primary Day.
            You must also show a photo identification in order to vote, but if you don’t have one, you will b e required to fill out a form explaining why, and then be allowed to cast a provisional ballot.
            There will be a second primary for just congressional candidates on Tuesday, June 7th because the prior 13-district congressional map was ruled unconstitutional, and the NC General Assembly redrew the map and pushed back the date pending approval of a federal court.

                                                STATE TREASURER – DANIEL BLUE III
            They say the pedigree doesn’t fall far from the tree, and that certainly is the case with Dan Blue III, The son of the first African – American Speaker of the NC House, Dan III has followed closely in his father’s footsteps as an outstanding attorney in Wake County, once chairman of the Wake County Democratic Party, and a devoted husband and father. Dan III, like his dad, is known for good judgment and rock solid common sense. He knows how to look at the issues, and find solutions beyond the normal partisan nonsense. And most importantly, Dan III is trusted. He’s his own man and when he gives his word, it’s all anyone needs to go to the bank with.
            That’s why this newspaper joins with so many others across the state in saying that Dan Blue III possesses the wisdom and good judgment to manage the office of state treasurer with integrity and intelligence.
            That’s why we endorse Daniel Blue, III  for state treasurer.

    NHC SCHOOL BOARD – JAMES JAMISON, KEVIN SPEARS AND EMMA SANDERS
            With the state of our public school the way it is, and the many, many challenges that our African-American children face there everyday, we need school board members who realize that these precious, young black lives matter without question, or else we have no future.
            That’s why The Journal endorses James Jamison, Kevin Spears, and Emma Sanders for NH County Board of Education.  The Black Press of North Carolina has adopted an agenda in education that we feel should be a part of the Black Lives Matter movement.  This agenda includes  (1)   The elimination of the  infamous “Pipeline To Prison” that exists in our schools, (2) the elimination of the achievement gap, (3) the inclusion of Black teachers, administrators, and counselors in our school systems and community colleges, (4) revival of Schools of Education in our HBCUs, (5) Stability of our HBCUs (6)  careers paths for our children (especially Black Males)  in high schools, community colleges and  (7) full participation  of Black children (especially Black males) in the Early College Programs across the state.  We expect that these three candidates will help to implement this agenda. NO EXCEPTIONS.

                                    CONNECT NC BOND REFERENDUM – NO
            No doubt you’ve heard a lot about the massive $2 billion Connect NC bond referendum, and how it is supposed to help fund construction needs throughout the 17 campus UNC System, while it’s also supposed to help dealing with pressing needs at our community colleges, public safety and water and sewer projects.
            Here’s the problem – for all of that money state taxpayers are being asked to borrow, our historically black university campuses will see precious little of it, if any at all.
            You know the old story – when it come to making sure that our HBCU’s are equitably funded and fairly treated by the NC General Assembly, they might a well be foreign countries. In fact, someone quickly check how much we give in foreign aid. Undoubtedly a tiny island nation in the South Pacific gets more from the US government that the state of North Carolina ever has, or ever will, give to one of  our excellent black universities, who have historically had to learn to live with much, much less than the NC States and UNC – Chapel Hill’s of the world, yet expected to produce the same quality of student.
            It really is quite simple – the people who think they’re god on the all-Republican UNC Board of Governors, and consequently the GOP-led NC General Assembly, simply don’t believe in HBCUs, and would like to see as many of them closed as possible. They feel that the science and research programs at the so-called “flagship” UNC System schools are inherently much better, and are more deserving of state support.
            Thus, a careful look between the lines of the Connect NC bond referendum tells you what schools and their programs will receive considerable support if the $2 billion bonds pass, and which ones won’t. Want to starve a school out of existence? Just cutoff or reduce the funding that could help it reach the next level of excellence.
            Simple.
            The bond is not an inclusive package.  There are inequities that exist in this package as related to HBCU funding.  The bond and two other NC General Assembly bills allow for cutting HBCU funding, reducing degree programs and making it harder for students to attend HBCUs.  Analysts say the plan even makes HBCUs less identifiable with their HBCU tradition.  The Journal’s readership is well aware of the importance our HBCUs play in our community and our state, and the opportunities that afford students across North Carolina.  Many of us would not have degrees had we not had an HBCU to attend.  Students deserve this same opportunity.  VOTE NO TO THE BOND ISSUE.
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CASH IN THE APPLE FOR 03-10-16
By Cash Michaels

            WHAT AN ELECTION SEASON! – Did you ever think you would ever live to see the spectacle that’s going on on the Republican side of the presidential horse race? Certainly I’m not going to speculate which of the GOP candidates is going to ultimately be nominated, especially with the March 15th North Carolina primary happening next week.
            But there can be no question that as Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio dicker back and forth with all as sundry of personal insults (I deliberately leave Ohio Gov. John Kasich off this list, even though he’s still in the race, because unlike his colleagues, Kasich has conducted himself with some dignity), this corrupted process is going to find a “winner,” however you ultimately define that at the end of the nominating process.
            What I find fascinating on the Republican end of all of this is voters there seem so desperate they are willing to nominate anyone who comes through as a doer and achiever. Normally, that is a bad thing, but usually those attributes would be couched in something that lends itself to governance, like the military for example.
            But we have no military veterans for president this year, so the next, best thing, in the minds of many, is a flamboyant, loudmouth billionaire who apparently will stoop to any level to throw mud on his competitors, all the while assuring that “America will be great again.”
            I mentioned how desperate voters who support this candidate are. When I see evangelicals and born-again Christians supporting this person, knowing full well that he has lived anything but a godly life, I’m just floored. They are willing to trade in their biblical principles just to elect someone who ordinarily has no respect for their way of life.
            And why is this? Simple, it all started when we elected a black president.
            See if this makes sense now. In 2008, the majority of Americans elected a black Democratic president  on the premise of hope and change. They saw a more hopeful, equal and tolerate in the future, and electing the first black president was a step in the right direction, or so they thought.
            But after other Americans decided that they didn’t like the kind of change he was bringing about, they elected people to Congress to stop him, and stop him they did. Not only did they freeze his agenda, but tried mightily to undo much of what he already did.
            The end result was that nothing got done.
            In 2012, supporters of the president decided that he had earned a second-term, and re-elected him to office. However, the Congress fell even deeper into opposition hands. The president decided that he would try to accomplish as much as possible on his own without the cooperation of Congress. Congress didn’t like it, and began shutting down the government and taking him to court to force the president to do things their way. But at the end of the day, Congress could only flex but so much muscle, and this frustrated their supporters.
            That brings us to the 2016 presidential election, and angry voters now intent on getting their way no matter what, meaning even if it means electing someone who clearly has no business in the office.
            And get this, these same folks who were all for shutting down the government in order to make sure nothing got done, are now complaining that they want a president who will get things done for them.
            So we now come face –to-face with the fact that elections matter – ALL elections. Normally folks saw that divided government is good because it forces
All sides to compromise, but the last few years have proven anything but. Divided government has instead created stalemate, where one side takes pride in stopping the agenda of the other, no matter what kind of harm it causes the rest of us.
            That is the kind of “government” (if you want to call it that) that we have now, and it can be argued that the nation can’t progress accordingly. That means that all of us have some critical decisions to make this election – are we a nation  that wants to progress together so that all of our children can benefit, or are we going to insist the world revolve around solely our individual values, and neber mind the citizenship and rights of others?
            When we go to vote in the primaries next week, and again in the general election in November, those are the kind of questions we must answer with our votes. GOD help us.
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.
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HOLDER SAYS CLINTON
IS RIGHT CHOICE FOR PRESIDENT
By Cash Michaels
editor

            For four years, as US attorney general, he sat next to her in her role as US secretary of State in the Situation Room, watching as the president peppered her with tough questions about crucial foreign operations.
            Indeed, Eric Holder says he’s known Hillary Rodham Clinton for 25 years from his days as US attorney for the Washington, D.C.  district, and throughout that time, and especially during the years they served together during the Obama presidency, Holder says he’s known Clinton to possess all of the skills and talents of a “great” president.
            “Hillary has shown that she has the vision, she has the passion, she has the experience to not be a good president, but I think a great president,” Holder told The Carolinian Tuesday exclusively during a call from Washington, D.C.
            “I think she is the person who is best at defending the progress we’ve made in the Obama Administration, and protecting the Obama legacy. She’s ready to tackle a whole range of issues, whether it’s criminal justice reform, protecting the right to vote, a sane and safe foreign policy. There are a whole host of reasons why, based on the experience that’s she’s had, and the vision that she has shown, that she will be, I think, a great president, especially when you contrast her to the potential persons that she will be running against – Donald Trump and people on the Republican side.”
            “I think the choice is obvious.”
            Holder, the first African-American to serve as US attorney general in history, is unabashed in his support of former Sec. of State Clinton as the North Carolina presidential primaries approach next Tuesday, March 15th.
            Former Pres. Bill Clinton has been in the state since Monday, and Mrs. Clinton  herself is scheduled to make a number of campaign stops statewide today. Polls show Mrs. Clinton leading her Democratic primary opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, in the state, as she hopes to continue winning states with large black Democratic voting populations. Currently Clinton holds a decisive lead over Sanders in the total delegate count thus far. 
            There was no word at press time Tuesday as to when Sen. Sanders would be scheduling campaign stops in North Carolina prior to the March 15th primaries.
            The importance of North Carolina in the race to the White House isn’t lost
on Republican candidates, as Donald Trump held a rally in Concord on Monday, and strong second-place challenger Sen. Ted Cruz [R-TX] campaigned in the state Tuesday.
            Holder says that Clinton  uses good judgment when it comes to foreign policy, not interested in involving the nation in wars unless it is clear that the national security of the country is at stake. Holder adds that there is no question that Clinton is tough.
            “She’s a good person, funny to be around, but when necessary, she goes there,” Holder makes clear, adding that she’s as “tough as necessary.”
            Holder believes that the surest way to stop Republican from rolling back any gains from the Obama Administration is to election Hillary Clinton, especially in the areas of civil rights, voting rights, and deciding the future of the US Supreme Court.
            Holder says Hillary Clinto has a ‘long history” with the African-American community, starting with the Children’s Defense Fund, working for issues of fairness in education, and helping to develop good paying jobs.
            Holder says much as been made of then First Lady Hillary Clinton  in 1996 making a speech where she called on “bringing superpredators to heel” and her support of her husband’s 1994 crime bill which led to a mass incarceration of African-Americans.
            Holder reminds all that Hillary Clinton was one of many voices back in the mid 1990s who were calling on local, state and the federal governments to do more to protect citizens, especially in the inner city, during the ultra-violent crack wars, where street gangs, seeking to protect their territories, engaged in a level of violence, mayhem and bloodshed that literally saw local police departments make to the move to militarization in order to take back the streets.
            The stories were replete of elderly women being both raped and robbed in their homes by cracked-up young perpetrators, and local police departments doing every they could get a handle of the outbreak. Even civil rights leader Jesse Jackson publicly expressed fear of walking down the street and seeing two young males following him.
            Pres. Clinton has since apologized for the 1994 crime bill and how it negatively impacted the black community, and Mrs. Clinton has acknowledged that if she could take back  her fierce language of the time she would. Holder, who was US attorney in Washington, D.C. at the time and recalls it being called “the murder capital,” agrees that the crime bill went too far in retrospect, but assures that Mrs. Clinton is devoted to developing fairer measures of criminal justice reform.
            Sen. Bernie Sanders has campaigned quite well on his pledge of campaign finance reform, reeling in the wealth and influence of Wall Street, and promising free college and expanded universal health care if elected. Prominent African-Americans like former NAACP Pres. Benjamin Jealous, civil rights activist Dr. Cornel West, filmmaker Spike Lee, rapper Killer Mike, and former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, among others, are backing Sanders because of his call to address income inequality.
            That issue, among others, have made Sen. Sanders very popular with young African-Americans and young women.
            Holder says at the end of the day, former Sec. of State Clinton’s wealth of experience as First Lady, US senator and being trusted by Pres. Obama to manage his foreign policy agenda, is why he’s supporting her for president.
            “She has the ability to bring people together,” Mr. Holder said.

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BUTTERFIELD SAYS REDISTRICTING
DECISION SHOULD COME SOON
By Cash Michaels
Editor

            Unless the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decides otherwise, June 7 is the new primary date for congressional races in North Carolina. That would mean the federal court approved the new redistricting maps drawn by the Republican-led NC General Assembly several weeks ago, and that would not make First District Democratic Congressional G. K. Butterfield happy at all.
            As far as Rep. Butterfield is concerned, whereas the previous 2011 voting districts for the First and Twelfth districts – which were struck down as unconstitutional -  depended too much on “stacking and packing” a lion share of black voters, making it easier for Republican candidates to beat white Democratic  hopefuls in swing districts, the new maps don’t take race into account at all. Instead, they’re drawn to ensure Republican partisan advantage, effectively protecting the 10-3 GOP congressional advantage. Republicans have now made clear that race has been completely eliminated from the criteria.
            “That is not the law, that is not what the Voting Rights Act says, that is not what the court decisions have required,” Rep. Butterfield says, noting that with the Legislature not employing race as a factor at all in the newly drawn maps, it has made it least likely an African-American will be elected to represent a congressional district if the federal court approves the new district.
            The black voting population in the First District has now been reduced from 52 percent, to 44 percent. In the Twelfth District, currently represented by Rep. Alma Adams, everything has been redrawn to submerge Greensboro and Winston-Salem now into majority Republican district.
            Rep. Butterfield says if the federal courts allow the new lines to remain, if the Republicans in the state Legislature remain in the majority in 2021, “they will have a field day” maintaining their political advantage when it comes time to draw new maps for the next decade.
            “They will drawn these districts to maximize their advantage,” Rep. Butterfield said. Legal briefs have been flying back and forth between the plaintiffs who originally filed suit against the 2011 districts, and attorneys for the state defending the new lines. Rep. Butterfield says plaintiffs aren’t just challenging the maps, but the new criteria that eliminates race entirely.
            “All of this was intentional. Republicans knew what they were doing. It’s about maintaining power, and that’s why we’ve got to find a way to reclaim control of the NC Legislature,” Rep. Butterfield says.
            Arguments are scheduled to be heard in federal court on Friday, Butterfield says, “and we should have a decision next week.” If the court upholds the new map, the congressional primaries will be held on June 7. Rep. Butterfield says turnout is likely to be very low.
            “That’s not good,” Rep. Butterfield says.

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TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS 03-10-16

POLICE REPORT SAYS DENKINS PULLED GUN
            According to a report by Raleigh Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown released last week, Akiel Denkins, 24, pulled a gun as Senior Officer D,C. Twiddy approached him during a confrontation on Bragg and East streets Feb. 29th.  Twiddy, upon seeing Denkins on the corner in front of P.J.’s Grill & Groceries, began a foot pursuit after attempting to serve a felony drug arrest warrant.
            Chief Deck-Brown’s reports says Officer Twiddy caught up with Denkins behind P.J.’s, and a struggle ensued. Twiddy says he saw Denkins reaching for a handgun from his waistband. As Denkins began moving the gun towards Officer Twiddy, Twiddy pulled his service weapon, the report says, and fired several shots. Upon realizing that Denkins was also making contact with his service weapon, Officer Twiddy says he stepped back and fired several more shots, hitting Denkins. Twiddy indicates that Denkins still had a gun in his hand.
            A preliminary autopsy shows that Denkins was struck four times, including once in the chest.
            The police chief’s report differs sharply from eyewitness accounts that Denkins was chased, and then shot unarmed several times in the back by Officer Twiddy.
            Akiel Denkins was laid to rest Friday during funeral services. The NCNAACP has asked that any other witnesses who saw what happened please come forward.

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STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 03-10-16

ATTY GEN LYNCH SAYS NO TO HIGH COURT NOMINATION
            [WASHINGTON, DC] Despite rampant speculation that Pres. Obama could nominate her to the US Supreme Court vacancy, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch now says take her name off of the list. A Justice Dept. spokesperson said Lynch was honored to be serving in her current capacity, and committed to doing so for the remainder of her term. The spokesperson added that Lynch felt being nominated would hinder her effectiveness as attorney general. Many supporters felt that she would be a good choice to fill the vacancy left upon the death of US Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.

HILLARY CLINTON TO VISIT TWO TRIANGLE HIGH SCHOOLS
            [RALEIGH] Former US Sec. of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to hold campaign rallies at Hillside High School in Durham and Broughton High School in Raleigh later this afternoon after part of her swing through the state in preparation for next Tuesday’s North Carolina primaries. Clinton will rally at Hillside at 3;50 p.m., and then at Broughton High at 5:45. The doors will open two hours in advance for both events. Pres. Bill Clinton toured the state earlier this week speaking on behalf of his wife. At press time there was no word on any appearances by Mrs. Clinton’s Democratic rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

STUDENT DEMONSTRATORS PRESSURE AG COOPER TO HELP FREE KALVIN SMITH
            [RALEIGH] On Monday, student organizers from Winston-Salem State University, Wake Forest University and Salem College gathered in front of the NC Dept. of Justice building with a banner signed by over 200 students, seeking to speak to state Attorney General Roy Cooper about the Kalvin Smith case. Smith, 44, is a black man supporters say was wrongfully convicted of a 1995 brutal beating at the Silk Plant Forest shop. Evidence shows that Smith was nowhere shop at the time of the assault, but in 1997 he was convicted and sentenced to 29 years in prison, 19 of which he has already served. Protestors was Cooper to join with Smith’s defense in asking the court to vacate the conviction and grant a new trial. The AG’s office has thus far refused to do so.

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