Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper April19 2014

Page 1

April 19, 2014 - April 19, 2014, The Afro-American A1 $1.00

www.afro.com

Volume 122 No. 37

APRIL 19, 2014 - APRIL 25, 2014

Voter Suppression:

By Zenitha Prince Senior AFRO Correspondent It was a sunny March morning when Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner (D) and her small band boarded the No. 4 bus, beginning their trek from the

Register to Vote! Deadline June 3

INSIDE A3

Low-Wage Workers to Demand Greater Pay

B4

Former NFL Player Chris Banks Found Dead at 41

INSERTS • Walmart

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Charm City Spring

Courtesy Facebook

Ohio’s Incredible Tactics

Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner staged a bus ride to the nearest polling place. Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati to a proposed new county Board of Elections in Mount Airy. The trip, she said, was meant to show how a decision to move early voting

Peaking on April 10, the cherry blossom trees of West Baltimore are the definition of a Charm City Spring. Photo by Alexis Taylor

Continued on A4

Vet Wages War on VA

By Zenitha Prince Special to the AFRO

For more than two decades, Chauncey Robinson has been waging war on behalf of himself and other veterans. The New York-based prisons’ ministry coordinator said that for too many veterans returning home means facing another battle – just on a more familiar front – as they struggle to obtain the rights due them in exchange for their service to their country. “Veterans are disenfranchised, disowned, neglected and abused; they’re treated like peasants by their own government,” the 53-year-old Desert Storm veteran said. “We love our country but does our country love us?” The answer seems to be a resounding, “No,” he said. “Veterans are basically not taken care of when they return home.” That is why Robinson has pursued a letter-writing campaign to congressional representatives and others, and engaged in other advocacy. Moreover, it is why he joined a

group of veterans who filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government claiming that the Department of Veterans Affairs denied veterans their constitutional and contractual rights. Gary Kendall, of Boise, Idaho, filed the first iteration of the complaint in the District Court in Idaho, in 2006. The latest 61-page version filed June 28, 2012, alleges, among other things, that employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs “delay, deny, and withhold proper medical care so as to ... accelerate the deaths of Veterans ...” “The nation has increasingly been depriving veterans of their rights in the interest of saving money,” Kendall, 61, said. “I got tired of watching my fellow veterans and friends die,” he told the AFRO. “Even though veterans are promised the best available medical care, the VA is often years behind in the quality and currentness of quality care. And there are Photo by Travis Riddick increasing numbers of veterans who spend their lives in pain Chauncey Robinson has and misery or die waiting for medical care, and that has to be been waging war on behalf stopped.” of all veterans. Continued on A3

Morgan Students Participate in Design Challenge for 2014 Gubernatorial Primary Election Hot Contest in the 45th District Liberian University By Sean Yoes Special to the AFRO

The preliminary action of the state’s 2014 June primary for the 45th District of Baltimore City actually took place in February 2013. That’s when Nina Harper, director of the Oliver Community Association was chosen by the Baltimore City Democratic Central Committee (out of a field of 10 candidates) to replace Del. Hattie Harrison, the veteran East Baltimore politician who died the month before. Harper assumed the seat despite what some argue was a dubious selection process by Central Committee members and the committee chairman Scherod Barnes. Nevertheless, Harper is the newest incumbent along with Talmadge

Branch and Cheryl Glenn, who will be running against six democratic challengers: Marques Dent, Cory McCray, Kevin Parsons, Harry Spikes, Robert Stokes Sr. and Aaron Keith Wilkes. But, perhaps the most compelling contest in the 45th is between the venerable Sen. Nathaniel McFadden, Senate President Pro Tempore, who is being opposed by veteran political operative Julius Henson. Henson spent a month in jail and was sentenced to four years probation for election law violations connected to his role in the 2010 governor’s race on behalf of Robert Ehrlich’s campaign for use of a robocall that was aimed, some argue at suppressing the Black vote. Henson was actually tried and acquitted of the voter

By Roberto Alejandro AFRO Staff Writer War ravaged infrastructure, inconsistent power, and a shortage of hot water were a few of the obstacles Morgan State University School of

Architecture and Planning students had to overcome in designing a library and student center, called an E-brary, for William V.S. Tubman University in Harper, Liberia. Thuy Do, Zoia Jenkins, and Zahra

Continued on A4 Stan Britt, Thuy Do and Zoia Jenkins

Copyright © 2014 by the Afro-American Company

Continued on A4


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