One Week After - Shaw Continues Clean Up and Rebuilding
Sherri Fillingham
Special to the Carolinian
(Raleigh, NC) - Less than one week after a tornado ripped through its campus, forcing the cancellation of classes for the remainder of the Spring Semester, Shaw welcomed over 400 people who volunteered their time to clean up the campus and help Shaw take another step on the road to recovery.
It was just another sign in how quickly Shaw has worked to bounce back from the devastation wrought by the storms of April 16.
The 400 people who attended the clean up included groups from all nine of the local institutions of higher education, including Meredith, Peace, Saint Augustine's, North Carolina Central, North Carolina A&T, North Carolina State, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke and Wake Tech. Several high schools and church groups also donated their time and effort. And individuals showed up in droves.
Wal-Mart #4484, Jimmy John's, Chick-fil-a, and Domino’s Pizza were among those to donate supplies and food for the workers.
A week after the fierce storms, Shaw has prematurely settled into a between semesters calm - although this time the quiet is shattered by chain saws and construction equipment. Behind the scenes support services range from help by local businesses such as BJAC, a 30 person woman owned architectural/construction management firm that specializes in designs for higher education facilities and complex situations, and from as far away as the University of Minnesota, the President’s former employer, which has sent Mike Denny, their Director of Development Services to lend a hand in the areas of project development, project finance, construction management, and real estate law.
Only a few dozen Shaw students remain on campus - mostly international students - and all are residing in the Talbert O. Shaw Living and Learning Complex - mainly undamaged by the storm.
All students who requested assistance with travel received it and have made their way home. The Federal Health International Organization and Shaw alumni donated resources to help students overcome any financial obstacles associated with getting home early. In addition, Shaw provided bus transportation to Charlotte, and bought bus tickets for students travelling north.
Students received three meals a day through Thompson Hospitality, with meals being served in the gym. On Tuesday afternoon, the entire campus came together for a cookout held in front of the gym. Meals will continue through the Easter break. Beginning Tuesday, remaining students will be shuttled three times a day to Peace College, which has generously offered access to its food services.
The Shaw University Disaster Relief Fund was established by Mechanics and Farmers Bank, and the General Baptist State Convention has donated $50,000 to Shaw to aid in the recovery efforts. The Missionary Baptist Ministers' Conference of Washington, DC and vicinity donated another $5,000. Numerous organizations have held or will be holding fundraisers to benefit Shaw's Disaster Relief Fund.
Local officials continue to visit the campus to survey the damage and offer their support. U.S. Senators Kay Hagan and Richard Burr have both toured the campus in Southeastern Raleigh. Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, U.S. Representatives G.K. Butterfield and Rene Ellmers, North Carolina Senator Dan Blue, and numerous county commissioners and city council members have visited Shaw and expressed their support of the rebuilding efforts.
Media coverage stretched across the country, and local media outlets provided in-depth and ongoing coverage. All Raleigh-area stations spent a great deal of time in the aftermath of the tornado portraying the damage and bringing some of the students' stories to the public. CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, CNN, BET News, and numerous national publications brought Shaw's plight to readers and viewers nationwide.
Shaw has begun the difficult task of not simply rebuilding, but re-envisioning what the Shaw campus can be and bringing it to life. Even with classes suspended, Shaw still thrives - graduation will be held May 7 and a decision on a Summer Semester will be made in the coming days.
For continuing updates on Shaw's rebirth, or to make contributions, visit www.shawu.edu.
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WHAT DOES TATA THINK OF OBAMA NOW?
By Cash Michaels
Editor
“[President] Bush, who cast the fight against bin Laden in millennial terms of good and evil, never got his man. Obama, mocked by conservatives for his commitment to soft power and rolling back Bush-era interrogation practices, green-lighted a risky mission that resulted in the elimination of the man who was responsible for the murders of more than 3,000 [people].”
Josh Gerstein and Glenn Thrush
Politico.com
All across the world, and certainly here in North Carolina, the praise for America’s military and its Commander-in-chief, President Barack Obama, in the aftermath of the capture and assassination of Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, has been virtually unanimous.
Per press accounts, it was Obama’s intense attention to mission detail, trust in the training and capabilities of the US military, and willingness to put his presidency on the line if the bin Laden mission failed, that most observers credit with the historic victory over terrorism.
“[President Obama] obviously did the right thing,” NC Congressman Brad Miller, Democrat from the 13th District, told The Carolinian Tuesday. “The same was true [in April 2009] with the Somali pirates [when Obama ordered US Navy SEAL snipers to kill the Somali kidnappers].”
“He gave the order that any American president would have given.”
Even some conservatives and Republicans, like NC Tea Party Republican Congresswoman Renee Ellmers [R-2-NC], no fan of Pres. Obama for sure, begrudgingly expressed brief praise for his efforts.
“I commend President Obama for bringing Bin Laden to justice…,” Ellmers said in a statement, before, like most conservatives, also thanking former Pres. George W. Bush, a fellow Republican, for his “long standing commitment and resolve.”
But there’s one well-known conservative Tea Party follower and longtime staunch critic of President Obama in North Carolina who, interestingly, has not been heard from yet this week.
Former US Army Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata, better known as Wake Schools Supt. Tony Tata.
Before the 28-year US Army veteran took over the reins of the nation’s eighteenth largest public school system last January, retired Gen. Tata served 19 months as the chief operating officer of the Washington, D.C. public school district. However during that time, Tata, who also wrote war novels, was also in hot demand as a conservative blogger for Andrew Breitbart - the man who falsely accused Shirley Sherrod of racism - and as a television military analyst, primarily on the conservative Fox News Channel.
In both arenas, Tata’s intense distain for President Obama, was palpable. In many of his early blogs, Tata blasted Obama for not immediately adhering to the recommendation of then-Gen. Stanley McChrystal for considerably more troops deployed to Afghanistan, where McChrystal was in command.
Later, after McChrystal was removed by the president after a damning Rolling Stones article, Tata, who had retired in March 2009, went on Fox News openly criticizing Obama for firing his friend.
A few months earlier in December 2009, Tata blogged his admiration for Tea Party favorite former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, writing that she was “ready to lead” the nation as president.
“…[T]his woman is far more qualified to be president of the United States than the current occupant of the White House,” Tata wrote then after reading Palin’s first book, “Going Rogue.”
On Sept. 1, 2010, the day after Pres. Obama formally announced the pullout of US military forces out of Iraq, Tata appeared on Fox News Channel. While most of the nation welcomed the president’s announcement with open arms, Gen. Tata was not so generous.
In fact, he got personal.
“I give the president a B on content and a C on delivery,” Tata said, accusing Obama of doing so ,”…with this dispassion as if he was reading Ben Stein teaching Ferris Bueller economics. It was almost as if he was reading it, and truly didn’t believe it.”
Later during that appearance, Tata accused Obama of not being as excited about the troop pullout as he was about being elected; of being “palpably uncomfortable” around military personnel “who have done your bidding for you”; of blaming the “bad economy on supporting the troops”; and using the Iraq troop pullout “as a political event, which, as a former soldier, I take a little bit of offense to.”
But those criticisms from Tata were only the opening pitch for his most devastating barrage against his former Commander-in-chief.
“I really don’t think he’s vested in this thing. [Obama’s] vested in being president. He’s vested in all of the perks and luxuriating in the perks of his office. But to really get down and to understand what being Commander-in-chief is, I don’t think he’s fully vested in that.”
Tata continued, “He’s sort of disinterested, in my opinion, in that he’s got these two wars that he was handed, that he has to manage, but comments such as [Obama’s Iraq troop pullout speech] really kind of unhinge in my mind, his passion, which I don’t believe is there from the reality that ,I just don’t think he’s fully vested in the military, and fully vested in the security of this nation.”
Unknown to Gen. Tata in September 2010 when he made those remarks, just a few weeks earlier in August, the president he just accused of not being, “…fully vested in the military, and not being fully vested in the security of this nation,” had been informed by his national security personnel that a strong lead to Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts in Pakistan had been determined.
Obama ordered that US intelligence services continue to followup, and the wheels began to turn in earnest to finally get the terrorist that Tata, himself, would have loved to have had a crack at during his time in Afghanistan, where many believed bin Laden could be.
From that point on, the president was deeply immersed in all aspects of strategic and military planning to get bin Laden.
The rest is history.
When Tata was introduced to the Raleigh media last January, he defended his criticisms of the president by saying he was standing up for the people in uniform if he felt they weren’t being respected. He also accused the media for trying to deny him his freedom of speech in questioning whether he would also be giving political commentary during his tenor as Wake superintendent as he did while working for DC public schools.
Tata, though his contract with Wake Public Schools allows him to engage in outside activities on his own time, would only say that he will work hard "24/7" at making the system the best.
Thus far, three months into his short tenure, there is no indication that Supt. Tata has gone back on that promise. Indeed, by all accounts, he has been singular in purpose in leading Wake Public Schools.
On Wednesday morning, The Carolinian sent a request for comment to Mike Evans, Wake Schools Communications Director, asking for a statement from Supt. Tata regarding his reaction to the bin Laden mission as a retired US Army officer, and whether he had now changed his negative thoughts about President Obama and his relationship with the military.
There was no comment from either by press time.
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Obama got Osama – But Gets Little Credit for Doing It
By George E. Curry
TheDefendersOnline.com
If Pakistan cannot or will not take out these high-level terrorists targets and we have actionable intelligence about where they are, then I would take action to protect the American people. I firmly believe that if we know the whereabouts of Bin Laden and his deputies and we have exhausted all other options, we must take them out.
Senator Barack Obama
Op-Ed in the Globe Gazette
Mason City, Iowa
Aug. 12, 2007
On Sunday night, President Obama made good on that promise, announcing that a team of elite Navy SEALs had taken out Osama bin Laden for good with two bullets, one to the chest and one to the head. The surprise attack on Public Enemy No. 1 took place shortly before 2 a.m. in Pakistan, ending one of the longest and most frustrating worldwide manhunts in history.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, a subdued President Obama said, “Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.”
Jubilant, flag-waving Americans gathered in front of the White House and at Ground Zero in New York to celebrate. The New York Daily News carried a photo of Bin Laden the next day with the headline, “Rot in Hell.”
For some families, the death of Osama bin Laden, nearly 10 years after the murder of their loved ones, may put them on the road to closure. For others, however, it merely re-opened old wounds, wounds that may never fully heal.
It was George W. Bush who boldly declared shortly after a plane crashed in Pennsylvania and the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon went up in flames, “I want justice. And there’s an old poster out West. I recall, that said, ‘Wanted Dead or Alive.’”
In 2003, Bush stood on the flight deck of the USS Lincoln and declared, “…Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” Mounted on the ship was a huge banner that proclaimed, “Mission Accomplished.”
Of course, the mission in Iraq was not accomplished – and still isn’t – and Bin Laden was never found dead or alive on Bush’s watch.
It was a patient, skilled and underrated Barack Obama who proved to be the real “decider” in the White House. By all accounts, he was directly engaged in all aspects of the carefully planned operation that ended Bin Laden’s life without suffering any U.S. casualties.
Obama was apprised that Bin Laden’s hideaway inside of Pakistan had been pinpointed by CIA operatives last September. Over the next few months, additional intelligence information was developed and on March 13, President Obama held the first of five National Security Council meetings.
When presented with the option of bombing the compound, Obama rejected it and instead favored a riskier plan to airlift Navy SEALS by helicopter, having them storm the compound and conduct a room-by-room search for the terrorist mastermind. Before leaving to inspect tornado damage in Tuscaloosa, Ala., the president gave the green light to launch the attack. On Sunday, the operation was carried out in secrecy as Obama and his close circle of security advisers watched on a secure hookup. Amazingly, there were no leaks to the media in the nation’s gossip-crazed capital.
Instead of being boastful, Obama struck a somber tone, praising those who had carried out the mission, both Democrats and Republicans and declaring, “Justice has been done.” In order to minimize the inevitable pushback from some Muslims in Arab countries, the administration noted that they had observed the Muslim practice of washing Bin Laden’s body and wrapping it in a white garb before dumping it in the Arabian Sea within 24 hours of his death.
On Monday, at a previously scheduled White House dinner of political leaders and their mates, President Obama tried to rekindle the national unity that was on display immediately following the September 11 attack.
“I know that the unity that we felt on 9/11 has frayed a little bit over the years, and I have no illusions about the difficulties of the debates that we’ll have to be engaged in, in the weeks ahead and months to come,” he said. “But I also know there have been several moments like this during the course of this year that have brought us together as an American family, whether it was the tragedy in Tucson or, most recently, our unified response to the terrible storms that have taken place in the South. Last night was one of those moments. And so tonight, it is my fervent hope that we can harness some of that unity and some of that pride to confront the many challenges that we still face.”
If Obama had entertained any illusions about duplicating the short-lived post 9/11 unity, they would have quickly dissolved.
Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times carried the headline, “Bin Laden’s sea burial fuels conspiracy theories.”
The story observed, “Conspiracy theorists on both the left and the right were quick to insist that Bin Laden was either still alive or had been dead for years, pouncing on the government’s decision to slide the body of the world’s most wanted man off a board into the Arabian Sea.”
The new conspiracy theories about Bin Laden emerged before the old ones about where Obama was born were put to rest.
On Monday, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, Calif. granted a client of birther litigator Orly Taitza an opportunity to challenge the summary dismissal of a case heard two years ago questioning whether President Obama was born in Hawaii. Despite the White House release of Obama’s long-form birth certificate and mountains of additional evidence, some conspiracy buffs refuse to drop the issue. The only thing missing from what Obama described as a carnival is Donald Trump demanding to see Bin Laden’s death certificate.
Although former President Bush applauded the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, other conservatives are belittling Obama’s accomplishment.
Brett Decker, editorial page editor of the conservative Washington Times, wrote in a column that Obama made too many references to himself when he made the announcement about Bin Laden’s death. “Not only is this consistent with his view that everything is about him, it also reflected the reality that this president is weak and perceived by the world to be a lackluster leader who has undermined American power,” Decker wrote. “He needs to grab any opportunity he can to make himself believable as a commander in chief. Crowds flocked to the White House gates to celebrate Bin Laden’s demise, giving this unpopular president a rare glimpse of public support that won’t last long.”
Judging by his critics, Obama won’t have support even when he accomplished something George W. Bush couldn’t. They have already resumed their attacks on Obama’s handling of the economy.
Laura Ingraham, spoofing Obama’s comment that Americans can do whatever we set our mind to, tweeted, “Like spending according to my budget and raise the debt ceiling!”
George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine and the NNPA News Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. He can be reached through his Web site, www.georgecurry.com You can also follow him at www.twitter.com/currygeorge.
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BLACK CAUCUS, NCNAACP DECRY GOP BUDGET CUTS
By Cash Michaels
Editor
Blasting the “critical and devastating cuts” to education and state-funded programs, state Sen. Floyd McKissick, chair of the NC Legislative Black Caucus, warned that if the Republican-led NC General Assembly goes through with its proposed $19.3 billion budget, communities of color in the state will bare the brunt of the pain.
“We’re looking at over 18,500 jobs being cut and slashed,” Sen. McKissick told reporters last Friday during a press conference at the NC Black Summit in Raleigh. Democratic leaders in the Legislature have said the figure is closer to 30,000 state jobs, though Republicans dispute that.
Sen. McKissick also lamented proposed cuts to key early childhood programs. “We’re looking at Smart Start, right now, taking a cut by $38 million. More at Four - $30 million.”
“These are the types of programs that level the playing field and allow our children, low wealth children, disproportionately African-American children, all of those who need that opportunity to excel, need that opportunity to grow, need that opportunity to have access to all of those avenues.”
“All of the programs are being cut; they’re being slashed,” McKissick lamented.
The Black Caucus chair is not alone in his consternation. On Tuesday, hundreds of teachers from across the state wearing symbolic red t-shirts rallied across from the Legislative Building on Jones Street, blasting a proposed $1 billion in cuts to education statewide.
Joined by Gov. Beverly Perdue, the rally was critical of the GOP refusing to maintain a one-cent sales tax increase that is scheduled to end. The Republicans also plan to cut K through 12 public education by 8.8 percent, the UNC System by 15.5 percent, and the state community college system by 10 percent.
At least 12,000 public school teachers’ assistants will lose their jobs beyond the first-grade, and local school boards are expected to cut $42 million, in addition to larger classroom sizes of up to 30-35 students as a result, critics say.
Republican leaders counter that the drastic cuts are necessary to help close a $2.9 billion budget gap for the next fiscal year. They stress that they’ve fashioned the budget to protect classroom teachers.
The NC House, after hours of debates and amendments, tentatively passed their budget proposal Tuesday, and came back on Wednesday for a final second vote. The GOP-led state Senate will take up the House proposal afterwards, already signaling that it would give more to the UNC System.
That’s key because at last week’s NC Black Summit, Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, a Democrat, told a luncheon audience that if some Republicans get their way, it could mean the closing of two historically black UNC System universities - Elizabeth City State University and NC A&T University, in addition to UNC - Pembroke.
“That rumble should rumble louder, and louder and louder,” Dalton said as the luncheon audience audibly reacted to his allegation.
State Sen. Dan Blue [D-Wake] later clarified that he's seen no specific language mandating the closing of those schools. However, the impact of the proposed cuts to UNC HBCU's could cripple them immensely, he said.
“That rumble should rumble louder, and louder and louder,” Dalton said as the luncheon audience audibly reacted to his allegation.
State Sen. Dan Blue [D-Wake] later clarified that he's seen no specific language mandating the closing of those schools. However, the impact of the proposed cuts to UNC HBCU's could cripple them immensely, he said.
According to Sen. McKissick, chair of the NC Legislative Black Caucus, that 15.5 cut by the House, if maintained, “ ...has devastating impact on our African-American universities…because they were underfunded from the outset. They’ve not been allowed to thrive sand prosper like the other [majority-white UNC] institutions have.”
McKissick said the GOP budget cuts would cost NC A&T University 13,496 classroom seats would be eliminated, and 187 faculty members.
At North Carolina Central University, over 10 percent of the classroom seats would be eliminated, McKissick warns, because the school won’t have the programs or class offerings. And because black schools don’t have the large endowment or private sources of revenues to tap into to make up for the loss.
The GOP budget slashes also impact community development corporations, health programs, and credit unions that lend to small businesses.
McKissick charged that the GOP have done precious little towards job creation thus far. Republicans counter that cutting government down in size allows business to thrive and jobs to grow.
NCNAACP Pres. Rev. William Barber said beyond the budget cuts, GOP bills to establish voter ID, repeal the Racial Justice Act and severely limit One Stop Early Voting/Same Day Voter Registration, are clear attempts to turn back the clock on civil and voting rights in the state that must be stopped.
Rep. Larry Hall [D-Durham] told reporters that the $100 million in court fee increases that House Republicans have adopted will severely impact poor people. He also blasted the tax cuts that Republicans want to pass.
“Their mentality is to put it on the backs of the poor, on the backs of the disenfranchised, and not give them a chance in North Carolina any longer,” Hall said.
At press time Wednesday, the state House hadn’t had its second vote on the budget yet. On Tuesday, the budget passed the House 72-47, with five conservative Democrats voting with the Republican majority.
If those five Democrats stick with the GOP, it would make the budget that’s ultimately passed by the General Assembly veto-proof, meaning that Gov. Perdue could not stop it.
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CASH IN THE APPLE
By Cash Michaels
WELL, WELL, WELL - What a difference a week makes.
Last week, folks were having a rollicking good time laughing with Donald Trump about the fact that the most powerful man in the world, President Barack Obama, was forced to prove he is an American citizen by producing his long form birth certificate.
“I’m honored. I take the credit. I’m the first one to make this happen,” The Donald bellowed to the world as if he saved someone’s life.
The spectacle angered many of us. We understood why President Obama did what he did, and we didn’t fault him.
But we still didn’t like it.
Fast forward to late Sunday night as the nation prepared to go to bed to begin another tough work week.
Man, did we get the shock of our lives. The president told us that US Special Forces, under his command, captured and killed master terrorist Osama bin Laden, the murderer behind 9/11.
As a wise man once said, “How you like me NOW?”
All of a sudden, the president who Sarah Palin once accused of “paling around with terrorists” was now the Commander-in-chief who did something two other presidents failed to do, namely get Osama.
And the more we learned about the daring commando raid by the elite US Navy SEALS, and how bin Laden was eliminated, the more impressed we were.
And the prouder we were of President Obama’s leadership. He once again proved himself to be an extremely capable Commander-in-chief. I say once again because it was as early as April 2009 when the president gave the order to the SEALS to make the kill shot on the Somali pirates when they kidnapped the captain.
You’ll also recall when, under the president’s command, US intelligence determined that a plane was carrying an explosive from the country of Yemen that was hidden in a printer. The plane was escorted to land and the bomb removed in time.
Yes, many of us have had problems with some of the president’s domestic policies, but we’ve NEVER doubted his resolve to protect this nation.
In Raleigh the morning after the stunning Osama announcement, Rick Martinez, the news director of conservative WPTF-AM and co-host of the “Rick and Donna” morning program, had the gall to say that he “didn’t think that Obama had the guts” really go after bin Laden, demeaning, backhanded compliment. I wonder if Rick Martinez would “have the guts” to repeat that slur to President Obama’s face.
I think not.
You’ll recall that back in January, Martinez, his low-watt brilliance on grand display, insisted to a black caller on-air that “Hispanics and blacks don’t care as much about education as Asian-Americans and whites.”
Indeed, conservatives like, or even worse than “Einstein” Martinez, have found it extremely difficult to accept the fact that the first black president of the United States did something their own President George W. Bush effusely promised, but couldn’t do - get bin Laden.
A Washington Post/Pew Research poll conducted Monday shows that while 61 percent of Republicans think that President Obama deserves “some” credit in the successful demise of Osama bin Laden, an astounding 81 percent of GOPers say Bush deserves some credit as well.
Folks also forget that Bush actually said in 2002 that he didn’t think about capturing bin Laden anymore, and years later, Bush actually shutdown the CIA unit dedicated to finding the master terrorist.
Over three quarters of all Americans said Pres. Obama deserves the credit for the Osama bin Laden kill.
Mind you, that finding is NOT in contrast to the credit the US Special Forces certainly deserve.
And yet, I will tell you now that it is an inexplicable act of cowardice on the part of major conservative an d Republican leaders who deliberately ignore President Obama’s decisive role in shaping the attack strategy, demanding a plan B (which, it turns out, was desperately needed when one of the choppers carrying the SEALS malfunctioned), and ultimately, gave the order for the hardest, toughest option on the table to do away with bin Laden.
Obama put his presidency on the line, yet Monday night, during a speech in Lakewood, Colorado, possible 2012 GOP presidential hopeful Sarah Palin told the crowd, “We thank President (George W.) Bush for having made the right calls to set up this victory."
She didn’t have the courage to acknowledge the current Commander-in-chief by name. Plain proves that while the rest of America literally dropped their partisanship and danced in the streets, she could not bring herself to do so it.
Hatemeister Rush Limbaugh, after faking tribute to the president, falsely blasted Obama for trying to “take all of the credit.”
And other media right-wingers questioned whether bin Laden was actually killed at all, or if Obama was just making this up, or as Fox Business News Channel’s Judge Anthony Napolitano alleged, “Pulling a fast one to save Obama’s lousy presidency.”
Pres. Obama accomplished something that two other presidents - Clinton (the war against bin Laden started with Bill Clinton in the late 1990’s) and Bush - could not do. So great and so spectacular was this victory, that Bush loyalists did their best to throw water on it, conveniently forgetting that Sept. 11, 2001 was the direct result of the Bushies literally ignoring the bin Laden intel from the Clinton Administration.
But more importantly, that whole macho leader thing certain folks like to trumpet for a certain make and model of male around here has now been spectacularly busted.
A black man made the tough calls, putting his political future on the line. He put his faith in a group of highly trained professionals of all colors, for all we know, to take out the global bad guy of all time, and return home safely. And he made sure that every contingency was taken so that they could all return home safely…as heroes.
THAT’S leadership, and there is NOTHING the cowards of the right can say that will EVER change the truth in the hearts of all right-thinking Americans.
President Obama hit it high out the park. We’re proud of him.
That’s the truth.
SHOULD WE SEE THE PHOTOS - No, we don’t need to see pictures of Osama bin Laden with a bullet in his head. They’ve done the DNA, had his widow ID the body, and did their face recognition tests to confirm that he is dead.
But more importantly, I like what one blogger wrote somewhere - “if the Navy SEALS say bin Laden is dead, he’s dead.”
That is good enough for me.
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.Power750.com. And read more about my thoughts and opinions exclusively at my new blog, ‘The Cash Roc” (http://thecashroc.blogspot.com/2011/01/cash-roc-begins.html). I promise it will be interesting.”
Cash in the Apple - honored as the Best Column Writing of 2006 by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, by Cash Michaels, honored this year as well by NNPA for Best Feature Story Journalist of 2009.
Until next week, keep a smile on your face, GOD in your heart, and The Carolinian your life. Bye, bye.
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STATE NEWS BRIEFS
MANGUM MISSES COURT DATE DUE TO BACK ACHES, ATTORNEY SAYS
[DURHAM] The woman at the center of the alleged Duke lacrosse rape case missed her court date for her murder trial Tuesday, her attorney said, because of a backache. An attorney for Crystal Mangum told Durham Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson that she was suffering from “severe backaches” and needed medical attention. The judge advised that the attorney check with the sheriff’s dept. first. Mangum, 32, is on trial for the fatal stabbing of her boyfriend, Reginald Daye, during an April 3rd altercation at his home. He later died of his injuries.
STATE HOUSE PASSES CONCUSSION BILL FOR HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
[RALEIGH] By a unanimous vote this week, the NC House passed the Gfeller-Walter Concussion Awareness Act, a bill aimed at preventing more head injuries in high school sports. The measure is named after two high school football players who died after sustaining head concussions in 2008. The bill, which now goes to the state Senate, would create a program for high sports designed to provide safety information for parents, coaches and students on an annual basis, require medical personnel to develop rules for return-to-play, and schools to develop an emergency action plan in case of a sports concussion. If it becomes law, it would take affect this coming school year.
GOLDSBORO SCHOOL MISSES HAVING PRES. OBAMA TO VISIT
[GOLDSBORO] “Better luck next time,” is what they’re saying at Wayne Early Middle College High School, which had hoped to have President Barack Obama deliver the commencement address this year. The school was one of six national finalists in the White House competition, but was eliminated when the number was reduced to just three. An Obama Administration Cabinet member is expected now to speak at Wayne Early High.
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TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS
WAKE COMMISSIONER NORWALK STEPS DOWN
Due to health reasons, Wake County Commissioner Stan Norwalk announced Monday that he was stepping down from office, effective immediately. Norwalk, who plans to move to Kansas with his wife to live closer to his children, has served in office since December 2008. His term expires 2012. The Wake County Democratic Party Executive Committee now has to choose someone to finish out Norwalk’s term.
POLICE INVESTIGATE FINANCES OF CLOSED WAKE EMS SERVICE
Raleigh police are probing the financial records of a private ambulance service that has shut down, and turned emergency calls over to Wake County. Six Forks EMS operated four ambulance stations in the city before it shuttered its doors this week. County officials say the company has not produced a required 2010 audit that was due last November. A 2009 audit was found to be fraudulent. The company treasurer has resigned, and the bookkeeper is on leave. No charges thus far.
ST. AUG’S RECOVERY AND RESTORATION FUND ESTABLISHED
Even the destructive tornadoes that ravaged the campus of St. Augustine’s College April 16 couldn’t stop the historically black college from holding its 2011 graduation ceremonies last weekend. The damage to the campus was considerable, which is why the school has established a “Recovery and Restoration Fund” for the community to donate to. Donations may be sent to North State Bank, 4270 The Circle at North Hills, Raleigh, NC 27609, or to the St. Augustine’s College of Institutional Advancement and Development, 1315 Oakwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27610.
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