Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper 1 25 2014

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www.afro.comJanuary 25, 2014 - January 25, 2014,

Volume 122 No. 25

The Afro-American A1 $1.00

JANUARY 25, 2014 - JANUARY 31, 2014

‘Disrespected’ Obama Has Appointed Highest Percentage of Black Judges By Freddie Allen NNPA Washington Correspondent

Despite the unprecedented levels of obstruction from Republicans in the Senate, President Obama has managed to get a higher rate of Black judges confirmed than any other president in history, according to a court watchdog group. Research from the Alliance for Justice shows that so far during the Obama administration, Blacks have accounted for 18.7 percent of the federal judicial

“…President Obama has managed to get a higher rate of Black judges confirmed than any other president in history…”

confirmations, a sharp increase over the 7.3 percent confirmed under President Continued on A3

Maryland General Assembly Tackles Marijuana Legalization By Sean Yoes AFRO Contributing Writer This week President Obama added fuel to the volatile national debate over the legalization of marijuana use. “Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do,” the president said during a wide-ranging interview on various subjects with New Yorker editor David Remnick. President Obama’s comments will likely be invoked during the 2014 Maryland General Assembly, which is considering bills in the House and the Senate that would legalize recreational use of marijuana in Maryland. The Marijuana Control Act of 2014 would make the personal use, possession and limited home cultivation of marijuana legal for adults 21 and older. The legislation, which closely mirrors the law in Colorado that made recreational use legal on Jan. 1 there, would also set up a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed like alcohol. Colorado, the first state to implement the law, racked up about $5 million in retail sales in the week it was legal to buy pot for recreational use. Washington state is expected to open

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‘The Butler’ Snubbed

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Veteran Educator Brings Diversity to Baltimore Prep School

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service that the late civil rights leader advocated. King would have been 85 More than 100 guests gathered years old this year, and though his at Martin’s West in Baltimore physical presence was stolen in County on Jan. 20 to celebrate Dr. a hail of bullets, the leaders that Martin Luther King Jr. Day and have risen in his stead are doing honor the community groups and everything in their power to further leaders who have distinguished his dream. themselves with the same type of “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks about service and the importance of serving around you,” said Trina Kumodzi. “It doesn’t have to be on a large scale—it’s about commitment.” Kumodzi, 36, is a member of the Black Nurses Association of Baltimore, one of the organizations recognized for their efforts in improve health education throughout the BaltimoreWashington area. “It’s an honor to be recognized by the community that sees what nurses Photo by Alexis Taylor are doing,” said another honoree, Dr. Ronnie Ursin, Senator Lisa A. Gladden speaks about the current president of the the Father Edward Miller, leader of St. Bernadine’s Catholic Church, to whom nurses’ association. By Alexis Taylor AFRO Staff Writer

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After 30 Years, BaltimoreWashington Singer Maysa Is Going to the Show By Zachary Lester AFRO Staff Writer Maysa Leak knew when her mother took her to see a performance of the Broadway show Purlie as a little girl that she would be an entertainer one day. And for decades she has worked as a singer. She left Morgan State University for Los Angeles to back up Stevie Wonder. She traveled across the Atlantic to front the British jazz funk band Continued on A8

the breakfast was dedicated.

Continued on A8

Why We Fight

Senate Committee Searches for Answers about Maryland’s Predicament in HBI Court Case By David Burton Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education.

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Continued on A3

Local Community Organizations Honored for Continuing King’s Legacy

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marijuana dispensaries later this year. “When someone wants to purchase and use marijuana in Colorado, they get in their car, drive to one of the about 40 licensed retail marijuana stores that are open right now, show their ID to prove they’re over 21 and they walk up to a counter where there’s different strains of marijuana in little glass jars,” said Rachelle Yeung, a legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project. “What we want to do in Maryland, similarly to what we’ve done in Colorado, is take that existing underground market and place it behind business counters, place it in the hands of licensed regulated business people,” Yeung added. The House bill is sponsored by Baltimore City Del. Curt Anderson (D-Baltimore City) and Del. Sheila Hixson (D-Montgomery County) and in the Senate by Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery County). “We need to understand that arresting people for marijuana use can have devastating consequences for people’s ability to get jobs, housing, and education,” Anderson said recently. “Those unnecessary and misguided consequences are being concentrated in communities of color, because even though

The Maryland Senate Committee on Education, Health and Environmental Affairs held a hearing just before the Christmas holidays to discuss the major findings and related implications of the Federal District Court ruling against the State of Maryland for the State’s failure to desegregate its system of higher education. The court ruled that Maryland continues to maintain a dual system of higher education, one Black and one White, by unnecessarily duplicating programs at its Historically Black Institutions (HBIs) and Traditionally White Institutions (TWIs) located near one another. Committee staff summarized the

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decision issued by Judge Catherine C. Blake, followed by position statements from the opposing attorneys and other representative of both the Coalition bringing the lawsuit and the state of Maryland. The briefings appeared to create great concern among committee members, with one member proposing a study to determine how the State managed to get in the position of having its system of higher education declared unconstitutional. He wanted to know specifically how the State was able to build the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) from the ground up; develop the previously private University of Baltimore (UB) as a public campus; and expand Towson University (TU) to be several times its prior size, without appropriately developing the Continued on A8


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