Florida Courier, March 8, 2019

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PRESORTED STANDARD MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID DAYTONA BEACH, FL PERMIT #189

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MARCH 8 – MARCH 14, 2019

VOLUME 27 NO. 10

‘I’M NOT LUCIFER’ Maybe not, but R. Kelly is a deadbeat dad, according to a Chicago judge. The embattled singer is now back in jail for the second time in two weeks. COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS

CHICAGO ‒ It’s been a bad month or so for Chicago-based musician R. Kelly. Some two weeks, Kelly put up $100,000 to be released from custody on criminal sexual abuse charges. On Tuesday, Kelly angrily denied accusations that he has had sex with underage girls and holds women against their will in his first TV interview since being charged with sexual abuse last month. His emotional response immediately went viral online. On Wednesday, he was taken into custody after failing to comply with a judge’s order that he pay more than $161,000 in back child support.

Denies allegations Kelly, 52, was indicted last month on

10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Cook County prosecutors allege he abused four victims, three of them underage girls, over a span of 12 years. Kelly and his attorney have vehemently denied the accusations. Each of the felony counts carries a maximum of seven years in prison upon conviction, but also could result in probation. Bond was set at $1 million on the criminal charges, but Kelly was unable to post the necessary $100,000 until after he spent a weekend in custody. Court records indicate a 47-year-old Illinois woman posted his bail, identifying herself on the bond slip as Kelly’s “friend.”

Suspected for decades Accusations of predatory sexual behavior have dogged the singer for years. Cook County prosecutors charged him in 2002 with child pornography, saying he made a sex tape with his teenage goddaughter, but a jury acquitted him in a sensational trial in 2008. In the latest charges, prosecutors allege Kelly tried to force oral sex on his 24-yearold hairdresser in 2003 ‒ while he was free on bond on the then-pending child pornography charges.

CBS/LAZARUS JEAN-BAPTISTE/TNS

“CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King sat down with R&B singer R. Kelly Tuesday in Chicago for his first television interview since he was arrested on 10 sexual abuse charges. The interview aired this week. Prosecutors also alleged that Kelly solicited an underage girl outside his 2008 criminal trial and later sexually abused her; that he carried on a yearlong sexual relationship with a girl he had met in 1998 when

STEPHON CLARK, 1995-2018

No justice, no peace

she was celebrating her 16th birthday; and that he videotaped himself having sex with a young girl at his home in the late 1990s. See KELLY, Page A2

Medical marijuana updates coming House, Senate close to a deal BY DARA KAM NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE ‒ With plenty of breathing room before a March 15 deadline set by Gov. Ron DeSantis, House and Senate leaders have neared completion of a measure that would do away with a state ban on smoking medical marijuana. Sen. Jeff Brandes and Rep. Ray Rodrigues confirmed Wednesday they’ve reached an accord on a proposal that would allow patients to purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana for smoking every 35 days, ban smoking of medical marijuana in public places and allow terminally ill children to smoke the treatment, but only if they have a second opinion from a pediatrician.

Gubernatorial deadline

JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Activists disrupted the Sacramento (Calif.) City Council meeting on Tuesday after California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced that his office would not criminally charge two Sacramento police officers who shot and killed Stephon Clark, an unarmed Black man. The day before, more than 80 protesters were arrested during a march through Sacramento city streets.

After taking office in January, DeSantis gave the Legislature until March 15 to eliminate the smoking ban. If lawmakers don’t act, DeSantis has threatened to drop the state’s appeal of a court decision that found the prohibition ran afoul of a voter-approved constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana. Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, filed an amendment late Tuesday that’s a blueprint for the repeal of the smoking prohibition. He predicted the full Senate could amend its smoking-ban legisSee WEED, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

Lawmakers seek list of reform school victims

Trump tries to restrict food stamp rules BY ALFRED LUBRANO THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER / TNS

NATION | A6

Sacramento denies wrongdoing in Clark’s death

ALSO INSIDE

WASHINGTON ‒ The Trump administration is proposing a change in how food stamps are distributed to some recipients ‒ a modification that had been rejected by Congress when it voted on the benefits program at the end of 2018. “This is contrary to congressio-

nal intent,” Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., write in a letter being prepared for Sonny Perdue, the secretary of agriculture, whose department oversees food stamps. The letter is circulating among other members of Congress for review. Perdue said in a statement last week that the rule change would focus on work requirements for non-disabled adults between 18 and 49 with no dependents who receive food stamps, now known as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). The idea, Perdue said, is to preclude low-income people on SNAP from a “lifelong dependency” on benefits.

Like ‘the wall’ Anti-hunger advocates have denigrated the move as an overreach by the executive branch, with familiar undertones. “I liken this to the wall,” said Kathy Fisher, policy director of the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, referencing President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring an emergency that would allow him to shift funds to build a wall at the border with Mexico, circumventing Congress. “The administration wants to change things by fiat rather than follow what Congress has set out.” The proposal could eliminate See RULES, Page A2

COMMENTARY: ANTHONY L. HALL: TRUMP THINKS KIM IS EQUALLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO IDLE FLATTERY | A4 COMMENTARY: MARGARET KIMBERLEY: EXPLORING RUSSIAGATE HOAX AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY | A5


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