THE CASH STUFF FOR 2-07-13

NNPA STORIES -
http://www.nnpa.org/news/lead/warren-ballentine-fights-for-his-good-name-by-george-e-curry/

http://www.nnpa.org/news/lead/obama-slammed-for-lack-of-cabinet-diversity-by-freddie-allen/

WAKE SCHOOL BOARD CHAIR

SUTTON FACES CHALLENGES

By Cash Michaels

Editor

            He’s been chair of the Wake County Board of Education since December, but District 4 representative Keith Sutton has been handed a full plate of challenges already, and then some.

            Tuesday evening, Sutton led the board in approving seeking a General Assembly lobbyist to counter legislative efforts by the Republican-led Wake County Board of Commissioners not only to take control of all school system buildings and properties, but also change school board elections from nine districts, to five district and five at-large.

            Sutton, who was first appointed in 2009, and then elected in a landslide in a Southeast Raleigh landside in 2011, said the school board was now forced to “defend” itself, given that the commissioners were seeking to take over responsibilities that the voters elected the school board to oversee.

            Observers see the GOP commission board move as purely political, given that the Wake School Board will be dominated by Democrats for at least the next three years.

            Currently there are six Democrats, led by Sutton and Vice Chair Christine Kushner, on the school board, and two Republicans. Former Wake principal Thomas Benton, a Democrat, was voted on Tuesday to take the unexpired term of Republican Chris Malone, who left to serve in the North Carolina General Assembly.

            Former Wake School Board Vice Chair Debra Goldman, abruptly resigned her seat last week after announcing that she is moving to Wilkes County to head up a nonprofit group there. Goldman’s tenure, since she came on the board in Dec. 2009, has been marked by infighting with her board colleagues, accusing Malone of robbing her home, and a failed run for state auditor.

            Chairman Sutton says the board will work to fill Goldman’s unexpired term, which ends this November, as did Malone’s, by next month.

            Other issues filling the new chairman’s plate include overhauling the system’s antiquated school bus transportation system, implementing a new diversity address-based student assignment plan, getting a schools security assessment from a special task force headed up by Wake County Sheriff Donny Harrison, and hiring a new schools superintendent to replace the fired Anthony Tata, who was terminated last September amid turmoil.

            Tata, who was only on the job for eighteen months, has since been appointed secretary of the NC Dept. of Transportation by Gov. Pat McCrory.

            Sutton must also deal with a thus-far unfounded complaint to AdvancED, a school accreditation agency, from a local conservative group that is rooted in retaliation for the firing of Supt. Tata last year.

            All of this amid the backdrop of now even further strained relations with the Wake County Commissioners regarding developing a new school construction bond referendum for at least 23 new schools that are needed to meet a projected student population growth.

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HK ON J 7 TO TARGET

‘CRUEL AND UNUSUAL’ GOP

by Cash Michaels

editor

            If ever the state needed the Historic Thousands on Jones Street People’s Assembly, it needs it now, says HK on J 7 convener, Rev. Dr. William Barber.

            The NCNAACP president is beckoning ever citizen concerned about the aggressive “cruel and unusual” direction of the Republican-led state Legislature to join thousands of others from across the state this Saturday for the Seventh Annual HK on J march and rally through downtown Raleigh to the Legislative Building, beginning at 9:30 a.m. in front of Shaw University.

            The theme for this year’s assembly – “Mobilizing to End Poverty and Economic injustice.”

            And given what Republican lawmakers have already set forth as their agenda since starting the session last week, in addition to what was done to stop the expansion of Medicaid and cut unemployment benefits this week, Rev. Barber says the people can’t wait any longer to have their voices heard.

            “It is more necessary than ever because of the cruel and unusual quadruple attack on labor rights, unemployment benefits, Medicaid and voting rights that will have devastating impacts on the poor and working people,” Rev. Barber says. “And beyond attacks on unemployment, Medicaid and voting rights, they are considering tax "reform" which would cut corporate income tax and force North Carolinians in these difficult economic times to pay higher sales tax, carrying the burden of the state budget on their backs.”

            At an effort at long overdue tax reform, GOP lawmakers have proposed eliminating the personal and corporate income tax, compensating for it by raising the state sales tax on services, and especially on food, from 2 percent to eight percent.

            Critics say this would be a regressive tax that would especially hit the poor the hardest. Even Gov. McCrory’s Deputy Budget Director Art Pope, a conservative businessman and Tea Party supporter, says the GOP sales tax plan would be problematic and unfair to lower-income families.

            The state House moved quickly to adopt cutting weekly unemployment benefits from $535.00 per week, done sharply to $350.00 a week, in an effort to pay back a $2.4 billion loan from the federal government. It is now in the hands of the state Senate.

            The Senate, meanwhile, moved quickly to distance itself from the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare” as it is more commonly known, by voting to stop any expansion of Medicaid, thus denying at least 500,000 low-income North Carolinians access to those services. Gov. McCrory asked the Senate to slow down before making its quick decision, but it seems that the House will have to decide whether to give McCrory the time he asked for.

            He is scheduled to address both houses of the General Assembly later this month.

            And all eyes are on Senate Bill 10, introduced this week by Republican Sen. Bill Rabon of Brunswick County, which, if enacted, would sweep members of state appointed boards and commissions, including the NC Utilities Commission, the NC Turnpike Authority, and even eliminate special judicial appointments, so that both the governor and the legislature could appoint people “who are more like-minded and willing to carry out the philosophy of the new administration.”

            Critics are calling this a “power-grab” the likes of which North Carolina has rarely seen before.

            All of this, plus a voter photo ID law that is definitely expected to be introduced in the coming weeks.

“Seeming insensitive to the lives of everyday people, we hear a strange tongue being spoken by legislators who are supposed to be working for the good of the whole. They have suggested in debate, for example, that the poor don't need health care, every county should take care of their own, the federal government giving back billions of tax payer dollars to help the poor is a violation of state's rights, and unemployed people will get jobs if we take their unemployment insurance and give it back to corporations, etc.,” Rev Barber says.

“The governor somehow supports the unemployment cut but even he had to say to the legislators - wait a minute, slow down and look at what you are doing - when he began to consider the impact of Medicaid cuts."

“In just one week we have seen a revival and renewed commitment to implement policy rooted in the regressive policies of states rights, classism, racial discrimination, and economic injustice,” Rev. Barber continued. “These things are old south mentality. They may have the votes but we have the voice and we must dramatize these shameful actions for all North Carolinians and even the nation to see in hopes that they will change. And if not mobilize in hope that the people and voters will challenge them in their home districts and become educated for when they have to judge these elected leaders later at the ballot box.”

“The trajectory of this public policy direction is mean-spirited and extreme,” Barber maintains. “It is not only morally unconscionable and constitutionally inconsistent, but economically insane. We can do better than this!”

 Rev. Barber concluded, “This is why our multi-ethnic, economically-diverse, anti-racism and anti-poverty, HKonJ People's Assembly and Poor People's March and Mobilization this Saturday against the action of the General Assembly is more necessary now than ever before.”

The night before, Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis, leader of the recently pardoned Wilmington Ten, will help lead a pre-HK on J7 Worship Service at Rush Metropolitan AME Zion Church in Raleigh, 554 East Cabarrus Street, staring at 7 p.m. The public is invited.

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STATE NEWS BRIEFS 2-7-13

PITTSBORO MAYOR ELECTED NEW STATE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIRMAN

            Randy Voller, the mayor of Pittsboro, was elected the new chairman of the embattled NC Democratic party last weekend by the State Executive Committee, edging out former Congressman Bob Etheridge. Voller was the grassroots choice,  and succeeds David Parker. Voller promises to fight hard against the Republican legislative majority.

FORMER STATE SEN. R.C. SOLES TO GET HIGHEST NC HONOR

            [WILMINGTON] Former State Sen. R. C. Soles, who left the NC General Assembly years ago amid controversy and a criminal investigation, is scheduled to receive The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, one of North Carolina’s highest civilian honors. Published reports say Soles will receive the honor Feb. 11^th during a special luncheon at the NC Museum of Forestry.

GET READY TO PAY YOUR CAR REGISTRATION AND PROPERTY TAX TOGETHER

            [CHARLOTTE] Because people are more likely to pay their property taxes before their car registration, as of May, North Carolina law will require that drivers pay both at once. It’s called “tag and tax, and the state Division of Motor Vehicles will begin sending out notices to motorists of the new rule.  Motorists will pay the DMV the total bill covering their tags and property  taxes. It took eight years for all 100 counties in the state to gear up for the change.

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TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS 2-7-13

DURHAM MAYOR LAUDS CRIME DECREASE

            The overall Durham crime rate went down in 2012, says Mayor Bill Bell, but more must be done to make the Bull City safer.  In his annual State of the city address, Mayor Bell lauded the fact that crime dropped 7.5 percent, with homicides decreasing a whopping 19 percent. Bell says, “the community can do better.” The mayor also indicated that Durham needs to do more to grow its tax base by attracting more industries, and getting current business owners to improve their properties.

FEDERAL JUDGE STILL NOT PLEASED WITH WAKEMED SETTLEMENT

            Apparently US District Court Judge Terrence Boyle has lost faith with federal prosecutors in their handling of the WakeMed Medicare fraud settlement, and has decided to craft his own. Wake Med Hospital was charged with fraudulently billing overnight stays to Medicare for patients who had actually been discharged same-day. WakeMed agreed to pay $8 million, and the feds agreed to defer prosecution for two years, and drop charges thereafter if the hospital corrects its actions. Judge Boyle balked, however, saying the hospital was getting off easy. He says he may write his own settlement.

CASSANDRA DECK-BROWN CHOSEN NEW RALEIGH POLICE CHIEF

            Cassandra Deck-Brown, who has served as interim Raleigh Police Chief, has been officially chosen by Raleigh City Manager J. Russell Allen to permanently serve in that capacity, effective February 1. Chief Deck-Brown, who has been with the Raleigh Police Dept since 1987, is the first black woman ever to lead the department. Chief Deck-Brown says she is a strong believer in community policing. Look for her interview in next week's Carolinian Newspaper.

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HONORING ROSA PARKS -  In honor of what would have been her 100th birthday this week, the US Postal Service has issued a commemorative Forever Stamp for civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who gallantly challenged segregation laws in the South in Dec. 1955 by refusing to sit at the back of a Montgomery, Ala. city bus. Pres. Obama has hailed her courage. Mrs. Parks died in 2005.
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BLESSED BEGINNING - Raleigh Chief of Police Cassandra Deck-Brown, standing with Rector R. Jermonde Taylor of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church after receiving blessings from the congregation. Chief Deck-Brown, the first black woman to serve as Raleigh Police Chief, began her tenure February 1st. [Photo courtesy of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church]

CASH IN THE APPLE

By Cash Michaels

HK ON J 7 – Before we say or do anything else, once again mark your calendars now for this Saturday, Feb. 9^th, for the Seventh Annual Historic Thousands on Jones Street – the People’s Assembly March and Rally. This year’s theme is “Mobilizing to End Poverty and Economic Injustice.” Gather in front of Shaw University on South Street in Raleigh at 9:30 a.m., then march down to the NC Legislative Building on Jones Street at 10:30 a.m. to rally for justice.

And the night before, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, leader of the Wilmington Ten, will be the keynote speaker during a pre-HK on J 7 worship service at Rush Metropolitan AME Zion Church, 554 East Cabarrus Street in Raleigh Friday, Feb. 8^th at 6 p.m.

For more information, go to http://www.hkonj.com/, or call (919) 682-4700.

SUPER BOWL – What a great game between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers last Sunday. It had everything, including the unexpected, namely the 34-minute blackout at the New Orleans stadium. It was a strange episode indeed, but CBS is to be commended for handling it properly, turning its sideline crew in to straight newsmen reporting what was going on, and how it was affecting the players and the fans.

            Oh, and by the way, the Beyonce’ halftime show was a television spectacular.

            The 49ers made a game of it after the lights came back on, and after being blown out in the first half, you honestly didn’t know how it all was going to end until the final seconds, which is the way a great game is supposed to be.

            Good thing the Super Bowl wasn’t on Fox. They would have called the lights-out incident a terrorist attack, or found some way to blame Pres. Obama.

            Oh well.

            BAD CRITIQUE – One of the most touching moments of Sunday’s Super Bowl was the singing of “America the Beautiful” by the students of Sandy Hook Elementary School from Newtown, Conn., where 26 people, 20 of whom were first-graders, were all shot to death by an unhinged madman.

            The singers were great, and they were soon joined by superstar singer Jennifer Hudson, who added her own special touch.

            Some critics, apparently feeling that the kids didn’t need much help, blasted Hudson for her style of soulful singing, which was in contrast to how the children sang America’s song.

            First of all, there was nothing wrong with the way Jennifer Hudson sang her song. Some folks just don’t like good soul singing. That’s their problem.

            But those dummies also forget, Jennifer Hudson also lost family to gun violence just a few years ago. So she and the Sandy Hook students were one family in singing from the heart about their hope that America can, and will do better when it comes to gun control.

ALI – Last week there was published report in the London Sun titled, “Stricken Ali could be dead in days,” which went on to state, allegedly based on an interview with the former heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali’s younger brother Rahman, that Ali, at 71, was in such bad shape from Parkinson’s disease, that he had only months, if not days to live.

            Well here’s the problem – Ali’s family told the Associated Press that the champ was not “close to death,” and in fact, was at home in Arizona watching the Super Bowl with his Baltimore Ravens regalia on. And they also provided a picture of what seems like an alert 71 year-old swinging his fists as if in the old glory days of his boxing career.

            One of Ali’s daughter later confirmed this.

            So what’s the story here? Why did Rahman allegedly tell a British newspaper that his famous brother was near death, and also that Ali’s wife of 26 years, Lonnie, was tearing the family apart? Why talk to a British paper at all, when there are plenty of US newspapers, and TV networks, that would have taken the story, if true?

            One thing’s for sure, don’t ever trust a British newspaper for even the funnies. They lie so much, I wouldn’t wrap fish in them for fear of infecting the poor lifeless things. Those papers are that rotten.

            “BETTY AND CORETTA”: I, too, want to join with others who give Lifetime Television credit for having the guts to air a daring television movie last weekend titled, “Betty and Coretta,” starring Angela Bassett and Mary J. Blige . The production about the unique relationship between Dr. Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X, and Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was halfway decent (the actor who portrayed Malcolm X was way too soft, almost cute with those dimples), and I thought it was a brilliant idea to have legendary actress Ruby Dee narrate the story.

            But there were problems, naturally.

            One of the first was Mary J. Blige’s performance. She is a great performer, her nine Grammy are testament to that. But that’s in singing. Her acting, especially for such a powerful role as Dr. Betty Shabazz, badly needed work, though homegirl tried. Blige, who was the film’s executive producer (meaning she was a boss on the movie) could barely keep up with Academy Award nominee Angela Bassett, who can enthrall us effortlessly with her interpretation of Rosa Parks, Betty Shabazz, and yes, Coretta Scott King.

            Actor Malik Yorba brought something to the table in his brief portrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and his scenes with Bassett’s Coretta King have chemistry.

            That was all of the good stuff.

            The rest of the time I watched this film I kept asking myself, “Did the King and Shabazz families sign off on this?” The answer is no. The producers of the film admit to not consulting with the families, meaning that a good deal of what we watched was fictional.

            One of the reasons why the producers didn’t is because they knew the families wouldn’t like what they were doing, some of the dramatic licenses they were taking with the memories and portrayals of their loved ones. Thus, we saw Coretta King talking extensively about her husband’s alleged infidelities, which really wasn’t needed. We saw the film out and out accuse Nation of Islam leader Min. Louis Farrakhan of the murder of Malcolm X.

            Yes, history tells us that Betty and her children believed that, but there’s still so much we don’t know that the leap over facts felt very uncomfortable to watch.

            So while I enjoyed the film, it made me itch. Dr. Betty Shabazz and Mrs. Coretta Scott King were two dynamic women whose legacies deserve nothing but the truth. The film was inspired by the truth, but didn’t always tell it. And that’s sad, that’s very sad.

            To be fair, most films about famous people stretch the truth a bit for dramatic effect. But some stories, if told properly, have all of the requisite drama needed without making up stuff. “Betty and Coretta” deserved that kind of treatment.

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.myWAUG.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). I promise it will be interesting.

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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THE CASH STUFF FOR JAN. 31, 2013

NNPA STORIES -

WILMINGTON TEN PARDONS PROJECT PANEL - As North Carolina Central University School  of Law Professor Irving Joyner (2nd from the right) speaks, (from left to right) Carolinian editor Cash Michaels, Wilmington Ten leader Dr. Benjamin Chavis and lead defense attorney James Ferguson listen during a panel discussion about the successful pardons project during the NNPA Mid-Winter conference Jan. 23rd in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. [ Photo by Fran Farrar of The County News]

PARDONS TEAM AT NNPA - NNPA Chairman Cloves Campbell (right) poses with members of the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project (from left to right), co-chair and Wilmington Journal publisher Mary Alice Thatch; project coordinator and Carolinian/Wilmington Journal writer Cash Michaels; co-chair and NCCU Law Professor Irv Joyner; Wilmington Ten leader Dr. Ben Chavis; and Wilmington Ten lead defense attorney James Ferguson [Photo by David I. Muir] 

WILMINGTON TEN PARDONS PROJECT TEAM - Members of the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project Team pose before a Jan. 23rd panel discussion at the NNPA Mid-Winter Conference in Florida. From left to right, Wilmington Journal publisher Mary Alice Thatch; Carolinian/Wilmington Journal writer Cash Michaels; Dr. Benjamin Chavis; NCCU law Professor Irv Joyner, and Wilmington Ten lead defense attorney James Ferguson [Photo by David I. Muir]

http://www.nnpa.org/news/lead/wilmington-ten-team-thanks-black-press-for-pardons-by-george-e-curry/
http://www.nnpa.org/news/lead/obama-opens-second-term-with-a-return-to-his-base-by-george-e-curry/
http://www.nnpa.org/news/lead/cbc-member-says-obama-disrespects-blacks-by-george-e-curry/
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EXPECT GOP LEGISLATIVE

REGRESSION, SAY CRITICS

By Cash Michaels

Editor

            The long era of Republican legislative dominance has now officially begun.

            With the first GOP governor in over twenty years starting his term, and a Republican-led NC General Assembly kicking off its much-anticipated legislative session yesterday – the first of many, thanks to redistricting – Democrats are lamenting what they see as a period when progress achieved under their leadership in the areas of education, business growth and the state’s social fabric, will erode.

            Translation -  especially for North Carolina’s communities of color – the clock is about to be turned back, especially when Republicans are expected to aggressively implement voter photo ID; cut unemployment maximum benefits from $535 a week to $350 a week; and dramatically raise the state sales tax on food and services in lieu of eliminating the state corporate and individual income taxes.

            “If you look at who it impacts, it impacts low-and-moderate-income individuals, says state Sen. Floyd McKissick (D-Durham). “Sales taxes are inherently regressive, and 60 percent of our population, particularly 60 percent of the low and moderate income, are going to be paying more rather than less.”

            The result, analysts say, would be to raise taxes on middle-class and poor citizens in the state, while the wealthiest 20 percent of citizens making at least $1 million would actually get a $41,000 break

            According to Alexandra Sirota, director of the nonprofit NC Budget and Tax Center in Raleigh, Republican lawmakers in the state Senate are floating the idea of raising the sales tax on food from two percent, where it is now, to a whopping eight percent. In bad economic times, when citizens cut back on shopping and spending, a state tax system dependent solely on sales tax revenues would fail to raise the requisite revenues needed to improve schools, build roads, and meet the ever increasing needs of the state.

            Pointing to Kansas, Sirota says, “Tax cuts have not generated improved economic performance in states where they have been implemented.

            Beyond their questionable tax reform agenda, there is little doubt that Republican leadership insistence on a mandated voter photo identification law is also raising concerns. The NC NAACP – which is holding it’s seventh Historic Thousands on Jones Street march and People’s Assembly on Saturday, Feb. 9^th - is calling it nothing short of the voter suppression of communities of color, the elderly and young people.

            “North Carolina elections are working,” said NC NAACP Pres. Rev. Dr. William Barber during a press conference last week. “North Carolina had the largest increase in voter turnout between 2004 and 2008. North Carolina was one of only six states where more people voted this year than in 2008 (200,000 more). Black registered voters turned out at a 70.2% rate, exceeding the rates of 68.6% for whites and 54.3% for Latinos in 2012.”

            Rev. Barber continued, “Instead of trying to restrict voting in the 150 year anniversary of the emancipation proclamation and 50 year anniversary of the march on Washington, we should as a people - Democrat and Republican- should be trying to protect and expand access to voting rights and NOT attempting to restrict and suppress them. This is why we must fight these efforts locally in our state and nationally with every tool available.”

            The NCNAACP leader apparently hit a Republican nerve.

            “This is as insulting a diatribe as I have seen in years,” wrote Rep. Michael Speciale (R-Beaufort) in a Jan. 23^rd response to Barber’s press conference remarks.  “The NAACP has a proud history of working on behalf of black Americans to address the problems of society directed at them.  You tarnish that with your racist diatribes and your race-baiting attitude.”

              “The photo requirement to vote is to prove that one is who they say they are,” Rep. Speciale continued. “Nowhere in anyone’s minds but yours and your fellow race-opportunists is race, ethnic background, or color of one’s skin mentioned, insinuated or inferred regarding the proposed voter ID laws.”

            “You do minorities and the elderly a disservice when you assume that they are incapable or incompetent to the point that they cannot provide a photo ID to vote,” maintained the Republican lawmaker.  “Photo ID’s are required in nearly every aspect of American life, and most Americans over the age of 16 have some form of photo ID.  Your talking points make no sense, as you ramble on with Constitutional phrases to give an impression that you know what you are talking about, and it is apparent that you are grasping at straws.  Your attempts to make minorities and the elderly believe that they are victims in this effort is contrary to common sense but apparently necessary to your economic survival.”

Rep. Speciale concluded his email rebuke of Rev. Barber by saying, “Your comments, both today and in the past are racist and inappropriate, therefore, I request that you remove me from your email list.”

The Carolinian called Rep. Speciale’s legislative office Jan. 31^st and left word to confirm that he, indeed, sent the email to Rev. Barber, and to confirm its content. At press time, he had not returned our call.

Democratic State Sen. Floyd McKissick, who says voter ID “has the potential of preventing 600,000 people in the state [from voting], adds that he and other Democrats in the Legislature – like new Democratic Minority Leader Rep. Larry Hall of Durham – will have to fight every issue as they come, especially those that negatively the poor and communities of color.

“Absolutely. We’ll be fighting vigorously and courageously, whatever the issue may happen to be, making certain that the public is enlightened as to the way the Republican majority wants to take this state,” McKissick said.

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TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS

INTERIM RALEIGH POLICE CHIEF GETS GROUPS ENDORSEMENT

            After last week’s police chief candidates’ forum where the three finalists for Raleigh Police Chief answered questions and met the public, The Raleigh Police Protective Association, a group of 600 officers on the force, has endorsed interim Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown to get the job. "Interim Chief (Cassandra) Deck-Brown exhibits the characteristics that are essential in the next police chief: experience, knowledge, expertise and integrity," the group said in a statement this week. Like Chief Deck-Brown, the other two finalists – Chief Bryan Norwood of Richmond, Va. and Deputy Chief Malik Aziz of Dallas, Texas, are all African-American. During last week’s forum, they all spoke of the need for community policing, gang control, and greater technology for fight crime.

DURHAM CHURCH IS SUED FOR SINGING PRAISES TOO LOUD

            Nine families living close to the New Hope Church in Durham have had enough, and have filed a lawsuit complaining that church leaders have refused to turn down the decibel level of their praise and inspiration. Those families, residents of The Hills of Southpoint on Fayetteville Road claim that noise from New Hope is “akin to rock concerts,” and interferes with their peace. The church counters that it has complied with the neighbors’ requests to turn the music down, and even has changed worship times.

WCPSS’ SOCIOECONOMIC DIVERSITY POLICY HAILED IN DUKE UNIVERSITY STUDY

            Despite criticism from the Tea Party conservatives who took over the Wake County School Board in 2009 and ended the policy, a new Duke University study this week shows that Wake’s old socioeconomic diversity policy maintained the best racial balance of any major public school system in the state. "Wake County, with its longstanding policy of busing for economic balance, maintains relatively integrated schools." The study added that school systems dependent on school choice “in lieu of busing, such as Charlotte-Mecklenburg, have higher rates of racial imbalance.”

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STATE NEWS BRIEFS

STATE TEEN PREGNANCIES AT HISTORIC LOW, SAYS STUDY

            [GREENSBORO] Improved methods of contraceptives, in addition to decisions to forestall sex, may explain a dramatic drop in teenage pregnancies in North Carolina between 2003 and 2011, say members of the NC Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention. Teen pregnancies during that period dropped a stunning 28 percent, even though the rate of sexual activity among NC teenagers remained basically the same. Per the most recent figures available, less than five percent of North Carolina girls, ages 15 to 19, became pregnant. However, almost 14,000 teens did become pregnant in 2011 – more than the national average – some officials say still needs to be addressed.

CHARLOTTE NETTED $163.6 MILLION FROM 2012 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

            [CHARLOTTE] The final figures are in on what the economic impact of last summer’s historic Democratic National Convention was on the Queen City of Charlotte. With approximately 35,000 visitors attending, $163.6 million was generated, with $91 million in direct spending. City officials had been projecting at least $200 million before a private firm crunched the numbers for them.

LT. COL. BELL APPOINTED ACTING COMMANDER OF NC HIGHWAY PATROL

            [FAYETTEVILLE] With Col. Michael Gilchrist retiring at the end of this week, Lt. Col. Gary Bell has been appointed to take his place temporarily as acting commander of the NC Highway Patrol. New Dept. of Public Safety Secretary Kieran Shanahan says that Bell, “has a breadth of experience and demonstrated leadership skills that make him well-suited for this assignment. He has garnered the respect of his peers as he has risen through the ranks of the patrol over the past 27 years.” Lt. Col. Bell has overseen patrol statewide operations, managed the Professional Standards Division, and commanded Troop B. Col Gilchrist steps down after over two years in command.

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CASH IN THE APPLE -01-31-13

By Cash Michaels

HK ON J 7 – Before we say or do anything else, mark your calendars now for Saturday, Feb. 9^th, for the Seventh Annual Historic Thousands on Jones Street – the People’s Assembly March and Rally. This year’s theme is “Mobilizing to End Poverty and Economic Injustice.” Gather in front of Shaw University on South Street in Raleigh at 9:30 a.m., then march down to the NC Legislative Building on Jones Street at 10:30 a.m. to rally for justice. For more information, go to http://www.hkonj.com/, or call (919) 682-4700.

NNPA CONFERENCE – If ever it was to be proven to me how much securing pardons of innocence for the Wilmington Ten a month ago today meant to people, it was definitely proven last week during the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the African-American newspaper group that sponsored the effort.

Last week in beautiful Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the NNPA held its annual mid-winter conference, and welcomed Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project members Dr. Ben Chavis, Prof. Irv Joyner and attorney Jim Ferguson and myself to talk about our victory, and we did so, shortly after screening a short video of the Jan. 5^th pardons ceremony worship service conducted by the NCNAACP at Gregory Congregational Church in Wilmington (go to YouTube - http://youtu.be/0CQjBiUOPb4).

Nary an eye was dry after the video, because NNPA black publishers were able to see members of the Wilmington Ten, and the family members of the deceased Wilmington Ten members, happily receive their official certificates of pardon, signed by Gov. Beverly Perdue.

Afterwards, the panel talked about the challenges of obtaining the pardons, and what it means to the African-American community, and the still ongoing civil rights movement.

To make a long story short, the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project story is one of total community effort, of bringing together the Black Press, the Black Church, civil and social rights activists, academia and social networking. The Black Press led the way, but we were smart enough to realize that weekly stories alone weren’t going to get the job done, weren’t going to apply the requisite pressure needed to get the job done.

Thus, an extraordinary coalition was built based on close partnerships. No question that our partnership with the NCNAACP was our most significant, and to this day, we’re proud to have had it.

Our panel discussion inspired NNPA publishers to replicate the same kind of effort in their respective communities. If that is indeed the case, then I’m even prouder of our effort here in North Carolina for being the source for more movements of justice.

Now onward to the documentary.

WARREN BALLENTINE – I’m sure the “Truthfighters” out there know who Warren Ballentine is. Ballentine, who lives in Durham, NC, helms the nationally syndicated “The Warren Ballentine Show” (heard in the Raleigh-Durham weekdays at 10 a.m. on Power 750 WAUG-AM). An attorney by trade, Ballentine has addressed many of the top issues in the African-American community, particularly economic empowerment.

But now Ballentine is in a bit of trouble himself. Recently, the radio host esquire was hit with a six-count indictment by a federal grand jury for an alleged $9.7 million mortgage fraud that dates back to 2004. Specifically the charges are bank fraud, making false statements to lenders, wire fraud and mail fraud.

He is expected to make his first federal court appearance Feb. 5^th, though it’s not clear at press time where.

I don’t know Ballentine personally, though I have met him twice, the last time being at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte last summer. Our laws say everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

So all anyone can say is pray for the brother, and hope that he is able to mount a strong defense against these charges. It never fails that those who step forward from amongst us, get targeted for one reason or another.

Stay strong, Bro. Ballentine.

CISSY SPEAKS ON WHITNEY – In her new book, “Remembering Whitney,” Cissy Houston, the mother of Whitney Houston, who died February 11, 2012, says that she misses her super talented daughter, but admits that she was no angel. Mother Houston had no respect for Whitney’s husband, singer Bobby Brown, and lamented the fact that her daughter had a drug problem that eventually caught up her, causing her untimely death.

I haven’t read the book, but I have no doubt that Cissy Houston speaks her mind. She’s entitled to. She lost her dearest baby, and the world lost an extraordinary talent.

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY – Ok, so who do you have, the San Francisco 49ers, or the Baltimore Ravens in this Sunday’s Super Bowl? I love the heart of the Ravens’ Ray Lewis, and given that this is his final NFL pro game as a player, I have to go with him. The Ravens have shocked everyone this year, proving that they are the team with heart and skill.

So the Ravens all the way, baby!

(Lord I hope I just didn’t jinx the team.]

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.myWAUG.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). I promise it will be interesting.

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-

THE CASH STUFF FOR JAN. 24TH, 2013

NNPA STORIES -

http://www.nnpa.org/news/lead/black-state-lawmakers-fight-for-relevancy-by-freddie-allen/

STATE NEWS BRIEFS

LT. GOV BLASTS COOPER FOR APPROVING IMMIGRANT DRIVER’S LICENSES

            [RALEIGH] North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest is criticizing NC Attorney Gen. Roy Cooper for ruling that young illegal immigrants in the state should be issued driver’s licenses if they’re enrolled in the federal deferred deportation program, meaning that they cannot be deported during the two years they are enrolled in the program. “We are a sovereign state and need to stand up and push back when the Feds encroach on our ability to protect our citizens and enforce our laws,” Forest said in a statement. “The Attorney General's ruling leaves open the possibility that the DMV can issue licenses to those individuals who came to our country and state illegally. I disagree with this action." The NC DMV has yet to decide to reissue the licenses, after recently revoking them.

HIGH LEVELS OF PESTICIDES FOUND IN WAKE NEIGHBORHOOD WATER

            [RALEIGH] Over half the drinking wells in a Raleigh neighborhood tested positive for high levels of pesticides, state and federal officials have determined. Of the 30 homes tested near Bond Street and Trawick Road, sixteen were found to have wells that were contaminated with dieldrin and chlordane, two chemicals used years ago to fight termites. The source of the contamination has not been identified by the Environmental Protection Agency, but the investigation continues. Those with infected wells are being supplied with bottled water.

STATE JOBLESS RATE RISES IN DECEMBER

            [GREENSBORO] Unemployment was on the rise in December, according to state figures, rising  .1 percent to 9.2, from 9.1 in November. In addition, at lest 17,395 North Carolinians joined the labor force in the last month of 2012. Overall, the state’s unemployment rate for 2012 fell one point, from10.2 in January, to 9.2 in December.

                                                            -30-

TRIANGLE NEWS – 01-24-13

RECEPTION FOR WAKE SCHOOL BOARD CHAIR SUTTON

            The Flood Group and the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association are sponsoring a “celebratory reception” for newly elected Wake School Board Chairman Keith Sutton on Friday, February 1^st, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Martin Street Baptist Church, 1001 East Martin Street, Raleigh. The event is free and open to the public.

WAKE DEPUTY DISCIPLINED FOR NRA EMAIL AT WORK           

            A Wake County deputy was disciplined after he reportedly sent out an invitation to join the National Rifle Association via his county email account. A spokesperson for the Wake Sheriff’s Dept. says Deputy Brad Manville received a “personnel action” because using the department’s email system for personal purposes was “inappropriate.” The issue is now considered closed, the spokesperson said.

THREE DURHAM POLICE OFFICERS ARRESTED

            Three Durham police officers were arrested last Friday and each charged with one count of false imprisonment and one count of assault in connection with an earlier larceny that night.  Lt. Ryan A. Freeman, Officer Stacy Armstrong and Officer Erin Espinola were off-duty at the time. They were all additionally charged with breaking and entering. Three civilians were also charged with the officers. Police Chief Jose Lopez says the incident is being thoroughly investigated.

                                                            -30-

PRES. OBAMA WAVES DURING SECOND INAUGURATION

INAUGURAL ADDRESS

BY PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

United States Capitol

            On January 21^st, 2013 at 11:55 A.M., President Barack Obama took the oath of office to begin his second term as president of the United States, becoming the only African-American in history to do so.

These are his words.

                THE PRESIDENT:  Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice,

members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens: 

Each time we gather to inaugurate a President we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution.  We affirm the promise of our democracy.  We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names.  What makes us exceptional -- what makes us American -- is our allegiance to an idea articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” 

Today we continue a never-ending journey to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time.  For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they’ve never been self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth.  (Applause.)  The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob.  They gave to us a republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed. 

And for more than two hundred years, we have. 

Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free.  We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together. 

Together, we determined that a modern economy requires railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce, schools and colleges to train our workers.

Together, we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play. 

Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people from life’s worst hazards and misfortune.

Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society’s ills can be cured through government alone.  Our celebration of initiative and enterprise, our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, these are constants in our character.

But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.  For the American people can no more meet the demands of today’s world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias.  No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores.  Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation and one people.  (Applause.)

This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience.  A decade of war is now ending.  (Applause.)  An economic recovery has begun.  (Applause.)  America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands:  youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention.  My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it -- so long as we seize it together.  (Applause.) 

For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.  (Applause.)  We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class.  We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship.  We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American; she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.  (Applause.)  

We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time.  So we must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, reach higher.  But while the means will change, our purpose endures:  a nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single American.  That is what this moment requires.  That is what will give real meaning to our creed.  

We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity.  We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit.  But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.  (Applause.)  For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn.

We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few.  We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any time may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm.  The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us.  (Applause.)  They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.  (Applause.) 

We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity.  We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.  (Applause.)  Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms. 

The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult.  But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it.  We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries, we must claim its promise.  That’s how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure -- our forests and waterways, our crop lands and snow-capped peaks.  That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God.  That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.

We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.  (Applause.)  Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage.  (Applause.)  Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty.  The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm. But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war; who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends -- and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.

We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law.  We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully –- not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear.  (Applause.)

America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe.  And we will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad, for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation.  We will support democracy from Asia to Africa, from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom.  And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice –- not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes:  tolerance and opportunity, human dignity and justice. 

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths –- that all of us are created equal –- is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.  (Applause.)

It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began.  For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.  (Applause.)  Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law  –- (applause) -- for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.  (Applause.)  Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.  (Applause.)  Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity -- (applause) -- until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.  (Applause.)   Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm. 

That is our generation’s task -- to make these words, these rights, these values of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness real for every American.  Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life. It does not mean we all define liberty in exactly the same way or follow the same precise path to happiness.  Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time.  (Applause.) 

For now decisions are upon us and we cannot afford delay.  We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.  (Applause.)  We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect.  We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years and 40 years and 400 years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.

My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn before you today, like the one recited by others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to God and country, not party or faction.  And we must faithfully execute that pledge during the duration of our service.  But the words I spoke today are not so different from the oath that is taken each time a soldier signs up for duty or an immigrant realizes her dream.  My oath is not so different from the pledge we all make to the flag that waves above and that fills our hearts with pride. 

They are the words of citizens and they represent our greatest hope.  You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course.  You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time -- not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.  (Applause.) 

Let us, each of us, now embrace with solemn duty and awesome joy what is our lasting birthright.  With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom. 

Thank you.  God bless you, and may He forever bless these United States of America.  (Applause.) 

                                                 -30-

CASH IN THE APPLE

By Cash Michaels

            IN FLORIDA THIS WEEK – Fort Lauderdale, to be exact, for the Mid-Winter Conference of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). We were invited down, along with attorneys Irv Joyner and James Ferguson, and civil rights activist Dr. Benjamin Chavis, to address black newspaper publishers from across the nation about our successful efforts to secure pardons of innocence for the Wilmington Ten.

            As you know, it was the NNPA in March 2013 that first voted to pursue pardons, and justice, in the 40-year-old case, at the urging of Wilmington Journal publisher Mary Alice Thatch. Our efforts caught fire in January 2012 when we created the Wilmington Ten Pardons of Innocence Project, and GOD blessed us with a successful conclusion Dec. 31^st when Gov. Beverly Perdue indeed granted the pardons.

            So Irv, Ferguson, Ben and myself have a lot to talk about, and we’re proud to do so. NNPA deserves to celebrate perhaps its greatest accomplishment ever.

            Now onward to the documentary (a CashWorks HD Production, of course).

            INSANITY – The debate over gun rights in the nation has become as asinine as a debate can become. And so there is no question where I stand, I stand with the president of the United States on this – as Americans, we have the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms” for the lawful purposes of protection, sport and collection.

            But that doesn’t mean you should have the capacity to mow down people indiscriminately. And yet, the National Rifle Association would have you believe that if a bad guy has a 30-bullet magazine and semi-automatic weapon with which to fire with, then every citizen should have one too.

            Common sense tells you that if the bad guys weren’t able to legally purchase one, or steal one from a careless gun owner, that he wouldn’t have one. Gun owners say if the police did their jobs in cutting down on crime, there would be less guns on the street. Well, one of the ways to best keep illegal semi-automatic weapons off the street is to limit their sale and distribution in the first place.

            But the gun nuts have taken all of this a step further. They say that they are entitled too own weapons per their civil rights…and their natural rights, those unalienable rights given to them by GOD.

            So GOD wants us all to have a Bushmaster AR 10, eh?

            Press these fools further, and you find out that that they are absolutely convinced that President Obama is an anti-American liberal stooge who is coming, along with US Attorney General Eric Holder, to take their guns away.

            They are convinced of this nonsense, and they’re ready to fight, and fight hard, as if this were 1776. Indeed, gun rights folks believe that they are supposed to have the same weapons that the government does in order to fight the “tyranny” of the government when it comes to “taking” their weapons.

            There are some gun rights advocates who are literally twisting themselves in knots with their illogic.

            For example, one local conservative commentator who has made no secret that he is for the passage of a photo voter ID law (because we must safeguard the integrity of our electoral system, he says), is heartily against passage of gun control.

            Mind you, the degree of voter fraud in our state and nation is scarce and rare indeed. There is no proven need for photo voter ID. And yet this conservative says it is wise to install it to prevent any from occurring.

            But switch the subject to gun control, and said conservative says school massacres like the kind we saw in Newtown, Conn. last month are “rare,” and the number of gun shootings have been going down for the past several years (these are his thoughts, not mine) therefore we shouldn’t waste our time with any of the president’s gun control recommendations at all.

            Gee, seems to me that either you stay consistent, regardless of the issue, or you hang up your credibility cloth. Given that life and limb are at risk with gun control, I’d like it if we erred on the side to make sure that another Newtown school massacre never happens again.

            Meanwhile, the latest outrage from gun lovers land is this attempt by the folks who sponsored last weekend’s disastrous “Gun Appreciation Day last Saturday now makes a play for the black community’s support.

            Not only do I find this weird and ignorant, but insulting.

            Larry Ward, the so-called “chairman” of this Gun Appreciation Day (GAD) nonsense, maintains that if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were still alive today, he would be advocating for the civil and “natural” rights of gun owners.

            You and I, and anybody with an ounce of sense know differently.

            Dr. King was a man of peace, in addition to a man of GOD. He was a disciple of Mahatma Ghandi, so he believed fervently in nonviolence. To suggest that a man who deplored violence of any sort, would stand on the side of crazy gun lovers, is moronic at best, delirious at the least.

            But the GAD folks don’t stop there.

            They also want to lure the black community over to their side using popular figures like “Django” and Bill Cosby, and saying things like if the slaves were allowed to have guns, there would have been an end to slavery.

            First of all, “Django” is a fictional movie character to a film I have no intention of seeing until it’s available for a $1.00 rental at my local supermarket kiosk. Not interested in seeing Quentin Tarantino’s made-up version of slavery. That’s all.

            Secondly, to use something that comedian Bill Cosby said many, many years ago before the fatal shooting death of his son is barbaric.

            African-Americans don’t want more guns in their community, they want less. We die at the hands of some fool with a firearm in our communities more than any other Americans, and before the Newtown massacre, we were crying the loudest, and the most often for President Obama to do something about the proliferation of weapons on our streets.

            We wanted him to act much sooner than he has, but we’re glad that the president is finally acting now.

            So this weak conservative attempt to draw the black community away from the president when he is actually doing what we want, is foolish, and racist.

            This is going to be a hard fought battle in the Congress and the nation over gun control. It’s time to stop the drivebys and the school massacres.

            And it’s definitely time to tune out the wackos who only want to hold onto their last vestige of “manhood” as defined by the ability to take another life.

            Funny, I always thought that real manhood was the ability to help build productive lives.

            Oh well.

            CONGRATULATIONS MR. PRESIDENT – It was a proud moment last Sunday, and again on Monday, the King holiday, to see President Barack Obama make history again taking the oath of office for his second term as our nation’s leader.

            The president has been through a lot, but he has been toughened to the point where the nation has learned to trust his leadership. He is beloved, and seen as a good family man. Those who have tried desperately to vilify him, have failed miserably.

            There is no question that President Barack Obama’s enormous place in history is secure.

            Praise be to GOD that he be kept safe, and secure.

            CONDI AND CBS – In an effort to boost its sagging morning and evening news ratings, CBS has hired former Bush Administration Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice to be an analyst and commentator.

            This should be interesting, because most of the international messes we find ourselves in started on her watch as National Security Advisor for President George W. Bush. So now she’ll have a national platform to rhetorically clean up her mess, while at the same time, criticizing the president s he tries to fix stuff.

            Good going, CBS News. I see the brains over there are firing on all fours. Don’t think it’s going to do much for your numbers though. You folks have a horrible time knowing a good story when you see one.

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.myWAUG.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). I promise it will be interesting.

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-

GUN LOBBY WANTS BLACK SUPPORT

By Cash Michaels

Editor

            The predominately-white gun rights group that promoted the national “Gun Appreciation Day” (GAD) Jan. 19^th is now trying to woo African-American support in their efforts to oppose Pres. Obama’s gun control agenda, which they called, “some of the most outrageous attacks on civil liberties in our nation’s history.”

            GAD Chairman Larry Ward, who is white, told The Carolinian last week that if civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were still alive today, he would support both the civil and “natural” rights of gun owners who believe the Second Amendment is absolute.

            “I believe that Gun Appreciation Day honors the legacy of Dr. King…and I stand by that,” Ward said last week.  He went to say that during the civil rights movement,”…most of the fights that took place were surrounded by the inequity…the inequality of African-Americans’ access to guns to defend themselves.”

            Ward did concede that Dr. King died by an assassin’s bullet.

            Ward continued that because local laws restricted gun ownership to blacks at that time, they were unable to defend themselves against the Ku Klux Klan. He says the same situation exists in crime-ridden cities like New York and Chicago today, where African-Americans, Ward says, “…do not have the same access to defend yourself, … as someone who lives in West Texas does.”

            This week, Ward’s GAD group buttressed its argument for black community support by publishing an op-ed titled, “What Would Django Do? Arms and ‘The Man’” by Dr. Jonathan David Farley, a African-American mathematician at Harvard University and National Rifle Association supporter.

            In the piece, Dr. Farley writes, “Historically, guns have been the African-American’s greatest friend.” Farley then goes on to cite Ida B. Wells, comedian Bill Cosby, abolitionists John Brown and Frederick Douglas, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and India’s civil rights leader Mahatma Gandhi as supporters of firearmed self-defense.

            History records that both Dr. King and Gandhi abhorred violence of any sort, and Cosby lost his son Ennis to gun violence.

            “Racism in America is now gone like an exorcised ghost,” Dr. Farley writes, “but African-Americans would do well to remember our history when it comes to gun control.”

            “Instead of turning schools into zero-tolerance zones for guns, we should let the NRA teach special classes in gun use, sort of like Driver’s Ed, and there should be ROTC in all schools.”

            Farley concludes, “If African-Americans had had the right to keep and bear arms from the founding of the republic, America today might be the promised land for African-Americans.”

            There are many in the black community across the nation who would disagree with Dr. Farley, the NRA and GAD. With black-on-black gun violence the leading cause of death nationally of young black males, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bringing more guns into the community, many say, is not the answer.

            Indeed, white conservatives, like Ann Coulter, have tried to deflect from the recent and all to often profile of mass shooters as being young white males, telling Fox News recently, “ Perhaps it’s not a gun problem, it is a demographic problem.”

            Coulter has also, in the past, written that the NRA is a “friend” to the African-American community.

            For those who intend to bitterly fight Pres. Obama’s efforts at gun control, the issue really isn’t about defending themselves against crooks and criminals who may threaten their families or property.

            They believe their Second Amendment right to bear arms is sacred for the purpose of having the ability to fight the government in the event the government came to take their guns.

            “The principal reason the colonists won the American Revolution is that they possessed weapons equivalent in power and precision to those of the British government,” wrote Andrew Napolitano, a former judge, and now a Fox News analyst, in a Washington Times column recently.

            Irving Joyner, professor of law at North Carolina Central University’s School of Law,

dismisses the gun lobby’s claims of having inalienable “natural” rights to own semi-automatic weapons of mass destruction.

            “This notion of a “natural right” to own and use guns has no support in the law,” Joyner says, adding that the constitutional right to own duly licensed firearms for the purpose of protection is not absolute because it is subject to “some regulation by the government.”

            Joyner calls groups like the NRA and GAD “anarchists who hold the view that they have the right to overthrow the government, and that anything that the government does is wrong.”

            The law professor adds that while most Americans support the Second Amendment, that doesn’t mean people have the right to own bazookas or “every realm of weapon that is available to government.”

            “That is not a position supported by the [US] Supreme Court,” Joyner says.

            Regarding whether Dr. King would support the “civil and natural” rights of gun lobbyists, Joyner was blunt.

            “This is just another example of extremists pimping Martin Luther King, and what Dr. King stood for,” attorney Joyner said. “Dr. King talked about nonviolence, and clearly the overthrow of the government has nothing to do with nonviolence.”

            Joyner did warn the African-American community to keep a close eye on how these “anarchists” are stockpiling weapons for some eventuality that may not be in the black community’s interest. Guns and ammunition sold out across the nation right after President Obama’s first and second elections, and after the Newtown, Conn. school massacre.

            “We need to be concerned about who is buying all of these guns, and what they are going to be using these guns for. And respect to African-Americans and Hispanics, we need to give some consideration to the notion of our being defenseless to guard against any effort by these gun enthusiasts to direct those guns against [us].

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WILMINGTON TEN SEEK COMPENSATION

By Cash Michaels

Special to the NNPA from the Wilmington Journal

             [WILMINGTON, NC] Now that the Wilmington Ten, after over forty years, have been legally granted pardons of actual innocence from the state of North Carolina, their attorneys are now hard at work on the next phase – compensation.

“We are in the process now of preparing an effort to seek compensation for the living members of the Wilmington Ten, and the decedents of the four deceased [Wilmington Ten members] who had died,” attorney Irving Joyner, professor of law at North Carolina Central University’s School of Law, told The Wilmington Journal. “There are significant legal questions remaining that we have to deal with, but we’re working through that now, and trying to develop the strategy that we need to go forward.”

            It was January 5^th, during a jammed-packed church service led by NC NAACP Pres. Rev. Dr. William Barber at Gregory Congregational United Church of Christ, that five of the six remaining members of the Wilmington Ten – Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Wayne Moore, Willie Earl Vereen, James McKoy, and Marvin Patrick (Reginald Epps was unable to attend) – and the families of deceased members Anne Shepard, William Joe Wright, Jerry Jacobs and Connie Tindall, officially received their certificates, signed by then Gov. Beverly Perdue on Dec. 31^st, 2012, declaring each innocent of the 1972 conspiracy charges they were convicted of stemming from the burning of a white-owned grocery store during racial strife there a year earlier.

            They were collectively sentenced to 282 years in prison, some of which they all served before their sentences were commuted in 1978 by then Gov. James B. Hunt.

            The case against the Ten began unraveling two years earlier when the state’s three witnesses admitted in court that they perjured themselves during the trial; the human rights group Amnesty International declared the Ten “political prisoners of conscience”; and in March 1977, the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” uncovered evidence proving the Wilmington Ten were innocent.

            Finally, in December 1980, the US Fourth Circuit of Appeals overturned all of the Wilmington Ten convictions, and ordered North Carolina to either retry the defendants, or dismiss all charges. The state did neither, forcing the Ten into legal limbo for the next 32 years, and leaving them vulnerable to be retried at any point.

            Under North Carolina law, a person legally declared innocent is entitled to $50,000 a year in compensation for every year that they were falsely imprisoned, not exceeding $750,000.

            All of the Wilmington Ten were indeed in prison for varying periods ranging from three to seven years, though they were originally sentenced from 15 to 34 years in prison – Ben Chavis receiving the longest sentence.

            But with the state refusing to either retry or dismiss charges for over three decades, leaving all of the Ten legally exposed, does that constitute a degree of false imprisonment that they should now be compensated for?

            In the original clemency papers filed with the Governor’s Office last year, both attorney Joyner, and James Ferguson, the original lead defense attorney for the Wilmington Ten over forty years ago, argued how each member, and their families, have suffered mightily as a result of the negative impact the false convictions have had on their lives.

            Willie Earl Vereen never became the doctor he had hoped to become. Connie Tindall, a high school football champion, never made it to the NFL as he’d planned. Other Wilmington Ten members were shunned by their churches when they left prison, and fired from jobs because of their association.

            And two Wilmington Ten members – Jerry Jacobs and William Joe Wright – died because of diseases they directly contracted while in prison.

            Attorney Joyner says his team is looking at every avenue, every argument.

            “That is one of the things we’re trying to look at in terms of trying to identify the appropriate theories to go forth,” he told the Journal. “The stronger one is the statutory one where there is a finding of a pardon of innocence, the granting of the pardon of innocence, that they’re entitled to a certain established compensation for each year that they spent in prison. But we’re looking at all angles on this, and we have a team that we’re conferring with now to figure out exactly what is the most appropriate and best strategy to use in going forward.”

            Attorney Joyner reiterates that while the focus has now shifted to compensation, one hundred percent of the previous effort was about proving the Wilmington Ten innocent. With the National Newspaper Publishers Association sponsoring the effort, and the Wilmington Journal taking the lead over the past year, to Joyner’s delight, that monumental task was accomplished

“Obviously I was overjoyed that the governor agreed with our position, and after conducting an extensive examination of the facts, agreed that the persecution of the Wilmington Ten resulted from racism, and a misuse of the criminal justice process by the prosecutor down in New Hanover County,” attorney Joyner said. Having reached that conclusion, she was compelled to do what she did.”

But opposition to the pardons of innocence was formidable, Joyner notes.

“[Forty years ago] the Wilmington Ten case drew support from the NC Attorney General’s Office, and they came to the defense of [prosecutor] Jay Stroud and his actions, and the actions of the judge [Robert Martin]…and defended that all the way up through the US Supreme Court, and finally to the [US] Fourth Circuit of Appeals. The individuals who were actively involved in seeking to cover-up those actions, and to justify them legally, were also attorneys in Governor Perdue’s office.”

            Attorney Joyner continued, “We were not aware of that at the time that we filed our petition [last May]. But soon after we filed it, we became aware of their presence, and they fought mightily to revive the arguments that they had been making [against us], to no avail.”

            Joyner agrees that the subsequent discovery of the Stroud files – the handwritten notes by prosecutor Stroud documenting how he tried to manipulate a predominately-white “KKK and Uncle Tom-type” jury to guarantee a conviction – helped the case immensely.

            “The Stroud files were critical, and became the smoking gun about the intentional conduct of the prosecutor,” Joyner said. “It made it hard to argue that we had not presented a compelling case.”

“That’s why it’s more significant that over the advice and direction of the people who were closest to her, [Gov. Perdue] was able to see through the glint and the glam. So there was significant opposition in her office, and also from people in Wilmington – [retired] police officers, firemen…people who were not even there [in 1971] and bought into this public relations campaign that if the Wilmington Ten members did not actually burn Mike’s Grocery, then they knew who did, which was an absurd assertion.

The battle for just compensation may take months. But the satisfaction of being there for the Wilmington Ten for the past forty years, and seeing their justice through to the end, is meaningful to attorney Joyner.

“To give to each of those individuals their pardons was a great joy,” the law professor says, looking back to the certificate ceremony a few weeks ago. “Just to look at the expressions on their faces was just overwhelming.”

            ‘In your life as a lawyer, you always look for those moments when you can say that my living has not been in vain, and my work has had some significant meaning in the life of someone,” Joyner adds.
            “We had a mighty victory, and the Lord has blessed us.”

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