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Volume 123 No. 9
$1.00 Nation’s #1 African American Newspaper 2014 Nielsen-Essence Consumer Report
OCTOBER 4, 2014 - OCTOBER 10, 2014
Rep. Donna Christensen Prepares for V.I. Governorship By LaTrina Antoine Washington D.C. Editor Del. Donna Christensen’s (D-V.I.) is currently a member of Congress, but her focus may shift to a position that
more directly serves the residents of the Virgin Islands. Christensen is running for governor. The general elections on Nov. 4 is where her career direction will be decided, but, until then, she
Register by Oct. 6 to vote in the Nov. 4 General Election “I’m going to try to get through it without crying. I don’t know where I would be without the Congressional Black Caucus.”
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– Donna Christensen
said she is campaigning “very hard” for the seat that stands a slight chance of becoming non-Democratic. “People are saying we have had Democrats for the last two years and look at where we are, so it’s not necessarily guaranteed that a Democrat will take the seat,” Christensen told the AFRO Sept. 24. “We will have to work on it.” Christensen’s opponents in the governor’s race, all running as Independents, are Kenneth Mapp, Mona Barnes and Judge Soraya Diase Coffelt. As governor, Christensen said, her strategy will include bringing money to the territory, whose major private employer, Hovensa LLC, an oil refinery, pulled its operation from the islands in 2012. According to a press release, the pullout was due to financial losses. “We have to find ways to bring new revenue into the territory and to keep that revenue there,” Christensen said about a research and technology park; public, private partnerships; foreign investment through an immigrant investor; or a Continued on A3
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Forensic evidence has linked Jesse L. Matthew Jr. to the case of missing UVA student Hannah Graham.
By AFRO Staff The AFRO-American Newspapers is considered the No. 1 African-American newspaper among Black consumers nationwide, according to the results of a survey released this week. Nielsen, a leading provider of ratings and other measurements, recently teamed up with ESSENCE magazine to conduct a customized assessment of African-American consumers. Among the categories they polled was media consumption, and the most popular publications in the Black Press were part of that evaluation. The AFRO rose to the top of the heap among Black consumers, followed by the Chicago Defender and the Amsterdam News in New York. And, rounding out the top five were the St. Louis American and The Call and Post in Cleveland, Ohio. AFRO Publisher and CEO Jake Oliver said he believes the ranking reflects the newspaper’s pioneering efforts with regards to digital media. “I am elated about the recognition,” he said. “I believe it confirms our belief that the digital evolution inside the African-American community justifies our continued use of various ambitious, non-traditional digital strategies to provide timely and often ‘real time’ coverage of news the Black community is interested in receiving. “Through our Facebook, Twitter and growing Instagram strategies, we are quickly becoming a ‘staple’ news outlet for growing numbers in the Black community,” he added. The AFRO is part of The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a 73-yearold federation of nearly 200 Black community newspapers from across the United States with a long history of influencing and engaging the AfricanAmerican community.
Police Hold Evidence in UVa Missing Student Case The Associated Press CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — They both were walking alone, separated from their friends late at night, on or near the University of Virginia campus. One was found dead nearly five years ago. The other is still missing. Now police say there’s a link between the 2009 slaying of Morgan Harrington and the Sept. 13 disappearance of Hannah Graham: Forensic evidence found as a result of the arrest of Jesse L. Matthew Jr., who fled the state after being questioned by police in the Graham case. Matthew, 32, was arrested on a beach near Galveston, Texas, last week and brought back to Virginia on a charge of abduction with intent to defile — or sexually molest — Continued on A3
Making the Case for Kids The U.S. Supreme Court new term opens Oct. 6.
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Voting Rights and Police Top a Crowded U.S. Supreme Court By Gloria J. Browne-Marshall Special to the AFRO
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Muslim inmates suing to grow beards in Arkansas. Facebook threats and police practices, pension plans and death row executioners, voting rights and a White supremacist’s conviction. These are but a few of the estimated 200 cases out of thousands that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on when the new term opens Oct. 6. A hand-written request by inmate Gregory Holt (aka Abdul Maalik Muhammad) asked the Court to decide if the Arkansas Department of Corrections’ grooming policy violated his religious freedom. Holt wants to grow a half-inch beard in accordance with his Muslim beliefs. But, Warden Ray Hobbs prohibits beards as a security risk. Even if the Department of Corrections (DOC) cannot prove beards are a security risk, and many other prisons allow them, Hobbs believes the Supreme Court should defer to DOC’s authority and deny Holt’s request. In Philadelphia, Anthony Elonis was sentenced to 44 months in federal prison for threatening his wife on Facebook. Elonis asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his conviction because he says it violates his First Amendment right to creative expression. These lyrics, “There’s one way to love you but a thousand ways to kill you” posted on his Facebook page were supposedly music, and not an actual threat against his wife, who had left him, taken the children, and, upon reading his lyrics, sought an Order of Protection. His case will be heard in December. In Georgia, a death row inmate Warren Lee Hill Jr., asked the Supreme Court to reveal the names of his executioners. Death row executioners have had their identity concealed for centuries. However, nothing in the Constitution says Continued on A4
By Christina Sturdivant Special to the AFRO A campaign aimed at addressing educational needs for D.C. youth launched, Sept. 23, at the D.C. office of global law firm, Mayer Brown. “Making the Case for Kids,” is the firm’s initiative to highlight existing partnerships and further expand community engagement and pro bono services to several local non-profit organizations. “There’s really nothing that I can think of that’s more important than addressing the educational needs of the children in our community,” Dan Masur, managing partner at Mayer Brown, told the AFRO, Sept 25. “It’s not only dear to me but to many of my partners.” For years, the firm has worked with organizations like Higher Achievement, which provides afterschool and summer programs that offer demanding academic work, mentoring, skillbuilding, individual student achievement plans, and personal encouragement for 5th through 8th graders. “Middle School is really where we lose children and they drop out, and we can’t let that happen,” said Masur. “One of the important things
Photos courtesy of Critical Exposure
Work by Critical Exposure students are on display at the Mayer Brown D.C. office. about Higher Achievement is while it’s serving six hundred children in the District of Columbia in some of the poorest wards in D.C., it’s set up in such a way that not only
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does it impact the children that they serve, but it impacts the other children in the same schools – so it’s a ripple effect that goes beyond even the Continued on A5