TheCashStuff

Thursday, July 17, 2014

THE CASH STUFF FOR 7-24-14

****[NO TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS FOR THIS WEEK]****

NNPA STORIES -

http://nnpa.org/black-man-killed-in-a-chokehold-by-nypd-officer-by-herb-boyd/

http://nnpa.org/dorothy-buckhanan-wilson-takes-helm-of-alpha-kappa-alpha-sorority/

http://nnpa.org/water-city-officials-quiet-on-shut-offs-dwsd-dysfunction-victimizes-many/

http://nnpa.org/justice-sought-for-black-woman-savagely-beaten-by-chp-officer/

CASH IN THE APPLE 7-24-14

“UNSUNG” RETURNS JULY 30^TH – The popular TV One black music documentary series “Unsung” returns with brand new biographies starting Wednesday, July 30^th at 8 p.m.. The acts the show will showcase include Montell Jordan (who we understand is a minister now), Hi Five, The Emotions, Martha Wash, Troop, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Wilson Pickett, The Chi-Lites, Peaches and Herb, and Rick James.

Watching some of these personal biography shows are fun, entertaining and interesting, and this summer season’s “Unsung” promises to be no less, so check it out.

CAPTAIN AFRICAN-AMERICA – The Marvel Comics Group had already stunned me with the announcement that in t6heoir comic books, they were going to turn Thor, the god of thunder, into a woman. I still don’t get why, though I understand the need to push female superheroes. But just make one up, why replace a male superhero?

But then last week came the announcement that Steve Rogers would no longer be Captain America in the comics, and that Sam Wilson, alias the Falcon, would take over the red, white and blue shield. Apparently, in the comics, Rogers had that super serum which gave him his super strength, sucked out of him, and he immediately became older and weaker. So Sam, who is Cap’s African-American colleague, takes over.

As best as I can tell, none of these changes in the comics are scheduled to hit the ever popular Marvel movies yet. The upcoming film “The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron” in 2015 will still have Thor as a man, and Steve Rogers as Captain America.

Just not sure how traditional comic book fans will take to all of these changes of their favorite comic book characters. Just recently, Archie of Archie Comics was shot dead by an assassin who was targeting his gay friend.

I confess that I do miss the days when comic books were pure fantasy. That was a relief. But in those days, all of the major superheroes were white.

Guess reality had to see through sooner or later.

TWO DESERVING OF NOTE – Earlier this month, two very important people of note passed on into history. Two giants who should forever be remembered for their historic contributions to us all.

Olympic champion Alice Coachman was the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal, by capturing the high jump in the 1948 London games. She died at the age of 90 two weeks ago in Albany, Ga..

Coachman’s victory was interesting because even though she was congratulated by President Harry Truman, given a party by Count Basie, and was celebrated in a motorcade back home in Georgia, she was still treated as a second-class citizen when she got back to Albany, where blacks and white were separated, and the white mayor refused to shake her hand.

Coachman was also forced to leave the auditorium through a side door.

Alice Coachman paved the way for future black female sports champions like Wilma Rudolph, Florence Griffith Joyner and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

And then there was Bishop Harold Ivory Williams, the senior prelate of Mt. Calvary Holy Church of America, and the husband of 31 years to award-winning gospel singer Shirley Caesar, who pastors the 1500-member Mt. Calvary Word of Faith Church in Raleigh.

Bishop Williams was a kind, decent and godly man, soft-spoken, but strong in the Lord. The very first, and I mean THE very first video project I ever did, was a wedding video at Mt. Calvary where Bishop Williams presided.

Thank you for your service in the Lord, Bishop Williams. You are missed.

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).

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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STANDING UNDER HISTORY - First Lady Michelle Obama stands under a vintage "colored" sign, listening to a tour guide, during a recent visit to the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka, Ks. This year various historic civil rights events celebrated their 50th anniversary [White House photo]

KLAN RESURGENCE ESCALATES

IN NC, ACROSS THE NATION

By Cash Michaels

Editor

Two weeks ago there were reports from Broadway, NC of recruitment literature from the North Carolina-based Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan showing up in the front yards of concerned residents. “Save our land, join the Klan” the pamphlets, sealed in plastic sandwich bags, said on the cover.

Inside, the white supremacist sales pitch displayed an American flag, and urged, “America Wake Up.”

Underneath, amid messages to “join the white revolution” and “restore America to a white Christian nation,” the KKK pamphlet asked if the reader “Had enough… busing, integration, race-mixing, black welfare, black crime, black job quotas and minority tyranny?” “Have you really had it?” the pamphlet finally asks, before telling the reader how to come to a rally in the town of Welcome in Davidson County on August 9th.

Reportedly residents in Sanford and Spring Lake received the same Klan notices, which also promised a crossburning at their rally next month.

If the KKK recruitment drive was limited to just a few small towns in North Carolina, it would get nary a notice. But according to the Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Project, it’s part of a nationwide effort to capitalize on a severely divided nation with a weak economy, wayward Congress, black president of the United States, and heightened concerns about illegal immigration.

Over the past several months, Klan fliers have also shown up in Georgia, southern Illinois, California, Louisiana and even the Northeast.

In Oconee County, South Carolina, the same Loyal White Knights fliers wer recently being distributed in clear sandwich bags with peppermint candy in them, and a phone number which rings to a recording that says, “ If it ain’t white, it ain’t right. White power!”

Even though many of the white people who have gotten the KKK fliers have openly rejected the Klan and its white separatist message of hate in the media, observers say they’re seeing a full court press to attract disgruntled whites to the fold.

Even though the pamphlet message was decidedly anti-black, Klan leaders. Who boast a membership of at least 8500 nationwide, say their prime objectives now are really anti-immigration. And the KKK don’t see themselves as a hate group against people of color.

Instead, they say they are a civil rights organization for whites, led by the Bible.

“There is a race war against whites,” wrote National Director of the Knights Pastor Thomas Robb on national Ku Klux Klan website. “But our people – my white brothers and sisters – will stay committed to a non-violent resolution. That resolution must consist of solidarity in white communities around the world.”

‘The hatred for our children and their future is growing and is being fueled every single day,” Robb continued. “Stay firm ion your convictions. Keep loving your heritage and keep witnessing to others that there is a better way than a war torn, violent , wicked, socialist, new world order.”

“That is the Christian way – law and order – love of family – love of nation. These are the principles of western Christian civilization.”

Since the 2008 election of the nation’s first black president, observers like the Southern Poverty Law Center have tracked a dramatic rise in Klan and right-wing militia activity, not to mention hate crimes, and even white supremacist assassinations, like the murders of two people at the Jewish Community Center in Kansas by well-known North Carolina White Patriots Party leader F. Glenn Miller last April.

“The radical right grew explosively in 2011, the third such dramatic expansion in as many years,” wrote Mark Potok, Senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center in a Spring 2012 report. “The growth was fueled by superheated fears generated by economic dislocation, a proliferation of demonizing conspiracy theories, the changing racial makeup of America, and the prospect of four more years under a black president who many on the far right view as an enemy to their country.”

With racial and anti-immigration feelings compounding daily, and white supremacist groups more and more stepping out of the shadows over the past six years to gain both numbers, and momentum, what does this mean for a nation that is increasingly becoming nonwhite?

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STATE NEWS BRIEFS 7-24-14

STATE SUPREME COURT BLOCKS BOND FOR MAN AWAITING RETRIAL

[RALEIGH] Darryl Anthony Howard will have to wait to be released on bond pending a retrial in his 22 year-old murder case, thanks to an order by the NC Supreme Court last week. The High Court blocked a Durham judge from granting bond to Howard in order to review the state Attorney General’s Office’s petition to keep him in prison until retrial. Howard, now 52, was convicted of the 1991 double-murder of a woman and her 13-year-old daughter in their Durham home. However, the recent discovery of exculpatory evidence withheld by former Durham D.A. Mike Nifong and an investigator prompted a petition for a new trial.

GOV. MCCRORY SIGNS ANTI-COMMON CORE LAW

[RALEIGH] As promised, Gov. Pat McCrory has signed a bill that rewrites North Carolina’s Common Core grade school curriculum standards, tailoring them to what Republican state lawmakers believe they should be. Last week the NC House approved a compromise bill from the state Senate that will retain some elements of Common Core for K-12 public schools. The law directs the state Board of Education to develop new educational standards.

DUKE ENERGY CLEANS DAN RIVER OF COAL ASH

[Duke Energy says it has completed cleanup of its massive Feb. 2^nd coal ash spill from the Dan River. The utility company says it removed the 2,500 tons of waste that spilled from its Dan river power plant that became the source of major controversy, and ongoing investigations earlier this year. The US Environmental Protection Agency monitored the cleanup.

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Monday, July 14, 2014

THE CASH STUFF FOR JULY 17, 2014

NNPA STORIES -

http://nnpa.org/2-groups-announce-plan-to-boost-spending-among-blacks-by-jazelle-hunt/

http://nnpa.org/labor-group-withdraws-uncf-support-over-koch-gift-by-freddie-allen/

http://nnpa.org/war-on-summer-violence-begins/

CASH IN THE APPLE 7-17-14

By Cash Michaels

LEBRON – What can you say about a superstar athlete who decides to give up the bling in favor of moving back to the community where he grew up, so that he can give back for the rest of his career?

I say great!

What NBA champion LeBron James did last week in leaving the Miami Heat to go back to his beloved Cleveland Cavaliers was nothing short of heartwarming. Indisputably the best professional basketball player on the planet, LeBron proved during his four extraordinary championship years with the Heat (four years Eastern Conference champs, two years NBA champs) that he could grow and mature as a man, and as a competitor.

He took seriously his role as a leader and role model on the Heat. He married his high school sweetheart, and they have their third child on the way. LeBron worked on his game until he was able to develop an unstoppable repertoire of offensive weaponry that made him THE one in the game.

So it would have been easy for LeBron James to go for the money, beat his chest, and proclaim that the Miami Heat would be back in the championship circle after the drubbing they got from the San Antonio Spurs. But he didn’t do that. LeBron took the opportunity to opt out of his contract, discuss things with his family, agent and advisors, and really think about his place in history really should be, where he could really make a difference.

The champion who grew up on the streets of Akron, Ohio, the son of a single mother, decided that he would spend the remainder of his career in the NBA giving back to his community, winning championships, working with kids, and improving the quality of life for all. There is no question he can. The economic impact LeBron James has had on the economy of Miami is said to have been in the tens of millions.

That same impact is expected for the city of Cleveland, where James will be holding court from now on.

While we’re at it, let’s take our hats off to Miami. No question everybody in the Heat organization was stunned Friday when LeBron delivered the news through Sports Illustrated, but the reaction thereafter was nothing but class. From Heat owner Mickey Arison to General Manager Pat Riley, and even now former teammate Dwyane Wade, there was only praise, and thanks to James for giving Miami four great championship years.

There are few figures in professional sports today like LeBron James. There is no question that he has paid his dues, and continues to do so. One day he will again stand proud in the championship circle.

And LeBron will have done it his way…like a man.

OBAMA’S TOUGH TIMES – I keep asking myself…what was Barack Obama thinking when he ran for a second term as president? If he had any idea as to the type of hell he’d be catching during his second, I seriously think he would have changed his mind.

By now you know the latest…the Republicans want to both sue the president AND impeach him because…because…well, they accuse him of acting like a king, and not carrying out the duties of his office, let alone obeying the law.

Indeed, the GOP alleges that the president is making up his own laws.

For his part, Pres. Obama has called their bluff and said point blank, “C’mon and sue me then.”

“And while you’re at it, how about start doing your jobs, like passing some laws that will make life better for all Americans.”

What we are seeing from the Republicans in Congress is nothing short of disgraceful. They would rather this entire country go down the toilet than to work with the president to find compromise to help improve the economy faster, and keep our children safe from gun violence.

Can you imagine what this country could have achieved over the past six years if the Republicans had put all of the energy they’ve used to demonize the president, into working with him, still disagreeing when necessary?

From the day Obama was first inaugurated, these people have worked overtime to literally destroy him, not caring what they had to do to do it. They have made it clear that in their eyes, Obama had no business serving as president, let alone being elected. And in order to ensure that no one like him (read that as no other African-Americans) are ever elected again to the White House, the GOP has sabotaged the electoral system to make it harder for people of color to rightfully cast a ballot.

This is the type of racism most of us had hoped we would never see again. But in their quest for raw power, the Republican Party could care less what we see, or how many times we see it.

Oh how I wish we could have a truly honorable two-party system, with, yes, blacks in both parties competing for our votes with the best ideas. But given the state of politics today – a Democratic Party too weak in the knees to stand up and fight when need be, and a Republican Party so full of hatred for blacks, Hispanics, women and young people – it is exactly what the late legendary singer/songwriter Curtis Mayfield once said, “if there’s a hell below, we’re all going to go!”

HAVE LOST OUR SOULS - In the New York harbor sits the Statue of Lady Liberty. According to its description, it is supposed to be “…an icon of freedom and of the United States…a welcoming signal to immigrants arriving from abroad.”

At the base of Lady Liberty is a plaque which reads, in part, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

Well, given the events of recent weeks concerning refugee children from Central America being prevented from settling in this nation, someone needs to remove that plaque now, and shut the Statue of Liberty down, because we, as Americans, are not living out the true meaning our of creed.

Those children, ranging in age from barely able to walk to teenagers, are escaping violent Central American countries like Honduras that are experiencing bloody drug wars. The parents there are sending their children to the United States for safety, because they know they will be murdered if they try to grow up in their native lands.

Our laws, rightly or wrongly, allow these children to not only stay, but have legal hearings to determine their status case by case. With tens of thousands of children arriving at our borders, we have a serious crisis for sure.

But the more serious crisis is the national Republican-led move to turn our backs on these children, and send them back to die in their country. We’ve had refugees from war-torn countries flee to our country before, and we’ve welcomed them because that was the surest assurance to the world that we meant what we said about cherishing freedom for all.

These refugees are different, however, because apparently, they will not grow up to become traditional Republican voters. That’s the whole reason why the GOP wants nothing done about immigration reform. Why make it easier for Hispanic voters to join up with the Democratic Party?

Like I wrote earlier, our entire country is being turned upside down because of the foolishness of our political system.

And now innocent children, fleeing for their lives, are paying the price.

This is despicable!

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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105^th NAACP CONVENTION TACKLES

VOTER SUPPRESSION ISSUE

By Cash Michaels

One of the highlights of next week’s 105^th NAACP Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada will be a panel titled, “Black Turnout for the 2014 Midterm Elections and the Fight Against Voter Suppression.”

Moderated by TV One personality Roland Martin, the panel will feature a number of key national activists in the area of voting rights, except one - NCNAACP President Rev. Dr. William Barber – who arguably is leading the most high profile, aggressive, coalition effort against the rollback of voting rights anywhere in the nation with the year-old North Carolina-based Moral Monday movement.

Why Rev. Barber wasn’t selected for the panel isn’t clear, particularly given the tremendous national attention his movement has garnered across the country, especially last week as lawsuits against North Carolina’s voter restriction law were heard in US District Court in Winston-Salem.

What’s most important to the NC NCNAACP president, however, is that the issues of voter suppression be discussed, and that a plan of action be developed to overcome voting restrictions targeting African-Americans, Hispanics, young people and the elderly.

“We’ll be at the national NAACP Convention to indeed push the issue of addressing voter suppression, and doing all we can across this nation to protect the precious right to vote,” Rev. Barber told The Carolinian this week before leaving for Las Vegas.

This year’s annual NAACP convention starts Saturday, July 19th through Wednesday, July 23^rd in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. The theme is, “All in For Justice and Equality.”

On Sunday, July 20^th, NAACP Chairperson Roslyn Brock will deliver a keynote address about the civil rights organization’s current priorities, and the importance of voting and political representation, to the hundreds of delegates in attendance from across the country. Joining Chairperson Brock in opening the convention will be US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada.

Rev. Barber said there will be over one hundred delegates there from North Carolina, and all of them look forward to welcoming the NAACP’s new president/CEO, attorney Cornell William Brooks, who was chosen earlier this year by the national NAACP Board of Directors to succeed Benjamin Jealous, who announced last year that he was stepping down.

Pres. Brooks, a longtime attorney and human rights activist who formerly served as president/CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, is scheduled to make his first official address to the convention on Monday, July 21^st during the First Plenary Session.

Other features of the five-day NAACP Convention include sessions on the current state of affairs across the nation in the areas of health care, criminal justice, the economy and more; women’s empowerment; the faith community fighting HIV/AIDS in the black community; and a career fair for job-seekers.

Legendary music composer Quincy Jones will be honored with the prestigious Spingarn Medal by the NAACP during the convention. Past recipients include Justice Thurgood Marshall , baseball legend Jackie Robinson, comedian Bill Cosby, and singer Lena Horne.

NCNAACP Pres. Rev. Barber said he will be running to retain his seat on the national board, on which he currently serves as chairman of the Political Action Committee.

Meanwhile Rev. Barber announced the Moral Monday movement will have a live online “Moral March to the Polls” broadcast on Monday, July 21^st at 7 p.m. at http://bit.do/july21mm, and a demonstration in Durham on Monday, July 28^th, 5:30 p.m. at a location to be determined. Go to www.naacpnc.org for the latest information.

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TRIANGLE NEWS BRIEFS 7-17-14

DURHAM JUDGE ORDERS DUKE LACROSSE RAPE CASE MATERIAL DESTROYED

DNA samples from 21 members of the 2006 Duke lacrosse team, along with police photographs of those players connected with the infamous alleged rape case, have been ordered destroyed by a Durham judge. Acting on a motion from defense attorney Bill Thomas, Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson ordered the destruction after it was clear that all civil litigation had been exhausted associated with the case. Three lacrosse team members were indicted in 2006 for the alleged rape of Crystal Mangum, but it was later revealed that then District Attorney Mike Nifong had little evidence that a crime had been committed. The state Attorney General’s Office dropped the case in 2007.

NEW DURHAM SCHOOLS SUPT. SEEKS TO BREAK “SCHOOL-TO-PRISON” PIPELINE

No sooner did Bert L’Homme take the oath of office as Durham Public Schools superintendent Monday, than he immediately let it be known that one of his priorities will be lowering suspensions, slashing the dropout rate, and improve student achievement to the highest level possible. Saying that breaking the school-to-prison pipeline was the goal “closest to his heart,” Supt. L’Homme said DPS has to engage its 33,400 students “…to have hope of doing something better than they are doing today.” L’Homme $225,000 contract runs until 2018.

DURHAM POLICE CHIEF PROBES OFFICERS ALLEGEDLY MAKING UP 911 CALLS

Once again the Durham Police Dept. is at the center of controversy amid allegations that several officers are telling people that they are responding to nonexistent 911 calls just to obtain illegal entry into their homes. At least one officer has admitted in court to lying about a 911 call coming from an address that he wanted to enter without a warrant to conduct a search, a search that resulted in the arrest of a woman for marijuana charges. Chief Jose Lopez says this is the first he’s hearing of such a tactic at DPD, and that there is no department policy allowing for such an intrusion. Lopez says he’s ordered an Internal Affairs probe to determine if other officers routinely use the same illegal tactic.

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STATE NEWS BRIEFS 7-17-14

REP. ELLMERS DEFENDS “WOMEN’S LEVEL” REMARK

[WASH. D.C.] Congresswoman Renee Ellmers is in hot water again for something she said, but with it being an election year, she’s fighting back to stem the damage. The Washington Examiner newspaper quoted the Republican Second District congresswoman telling a recent women’s conservative caucus meeting, “We need our male colleagues to understand that if you bring it down to a woman’s level and what everything that she is balancing in her life – that’s the way to go.” The “down to a woman’s level’ remark caused an instant firestorm, forcing Ellmers to say that there was nothing wrong with it, and that the reporter was a “liberal woman reporter” looking to cause trouble. The Examiner reporter, Ashe Schow, immediately released a transcript and audio recording of Ellmers’ remarks. The Republican congresswoman insists that her words were taken out of context.

BELLHAVEN MAYOR WALKS TO WASH. D.C TO SAVE HOSPITAL

[BELLHAVEN] The mayor of Bellhaven, NC, Adam O’Neal, has taken to the road, literally, to protest the July 1^st closing of Pungo District Hospital, the only emergency medical facility in the Beaufort – Hyde counties area that serves 23,000 people. Mayor O’Neal has begun walking the 273 miles from Bellhaven to Washington, D.C. to petition lawmakers to save the hospital. Pungo was closed by its owner, Vidant Health, because of a “lack of paying customers.” The closest medical facility is 84 miles away. The NCNAACP says it stands with Mayor O’Neal in his efforts.

STATE, WAKE ELECTION BOARDS PROHIBIT “MASKED” PHOTO SHOOT BY RIGHT-WING GROUP

[RALEIGH] A conservative group was given an emphatic no by both the state Board of Elections, and the Wake County Board of Elections after it requested permission to stage a photo shoot of masked people voting at Millbrook Exchange Park. The group known as the Voter Integrity Project wanted to dramatize that without the state’s new voter photo ID law, there’s no way to know who is showing up at the polls to vote. VIP alleges that there is “double and triple voting” at some precincts, there is no evidence of such at any precinct in North Carolina. Both the state and Wake election boards firmly rejected VIP’s photo shoot request, stating that it is against state law for anyone to wear masks at a polling place.

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