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Rodney King’s daughter trying to keep memory alive See Page B1
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VOLUME 27 NO. 18
MAY 3 – MAY 9, 2019
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STILL THE ‘GUNSHINE STATE’ The day after a gun went off accidently in a Florida classroom, lawmakers approved a school safety bill that allows teachers to be armed. BY SKYLER SWISHER SUN SENTINEL / TNS
TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Legislature is sending a controversial bill to the governor that allows teachers to carry guns on campus, despite protests from educators and students urging them not to put more firearms in schools. The Florida House voted 65-47 Wednesday in favor of the school safety measure, which prompted hours of heated and emotional debate. The Legislature passed the bill in response to last year’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that left 17 students and staff dead. TAIMY ALVAREZ/SUN SENTINEL/TNS
In April 2018, more than 70 students from Pembroke Pines Charter High School marched from their school to Pembroke Pines City Hall – some six miles away – holding signs and chanting against gun violence and for gun control in memory of the Columbine school shooting.
Crump, activists to protest Broward brutality
For ‘good guys’ Rep. Chuck Brannan, R-Macclenny, said allowing the arming of school staff will serve as a powerful deterrent for anyone thinking of harming students. “This bill is the ultimate school-hard-
JOHN DANIEL SINGLETON / 1968-2019
Black film pioneer dies
ening law,” said Brannan, a retired law enforcement officer from rural North Florida. “It allows the good guy to stop the bad. … The bad guy will never know when the good guy is going to be there to shoot back.” As state lawmakers clashed in the heated debate in Tallahassee, a school resource officer accidentally fired a gun at a Pasco County middle school. Democrats in the Florida House used the breaking news alert during an emotional debate Tuesday as part of their efforts to highlight why they think teachers shouldn’t be allowed to carry guns on campus.
‘Mistakes’ will happen “This program is going to go in, and there are going to be mistakes,” said Rep. Evan Jenne, D-Dania Beach. “A gun went off today in Pasco County in a middle See GUNS, Page A2
Are you addicted? Lottery materials may get warnings BY DARA KAM NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – Booze and beer don’t carry similar cautions, but some Republican lawmakers want people playing the state lottery to be warned that the games may be addictive. With the 2019 legislative session in its final days, the Senate is considering a proposal that would require all lottery tickets to include a warning, which also would be part of any advertisements for the state-sponsored games. The bill would require the tickets and promotions to include the words: “Warning: Lottery games may be addictive,” or “Play responsibly,” under an amendment approved Wednesday by the Senate.
BY STACY M. BROWN NNPA NEWSWIRE
FORT LAUDERDALE – The Broward County Chapter of the NAACP will lead a march and rally to demand the termination and criminal prosecution of two Florida sheriff deputies who were caught on video punching a 15-year-old AfricanAmerican student and repeatedly slamming the child’s head against concrete pavement. The weekend rally will include the teen’s attorney, famed civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. and Broward County NAACP leaders, among others. “We cannot become desensitized to the brutality visited upon our young Black men and women,” said Chavis. “In addition to reporting news, the NNPA, a trade association representing the 215 AfricanAmerican newspapers and media companies around the country, is also a voice for civil rights,” Chavis said.
‘Labels on everything’ Hours earlier, Florida Lottery Secretary Jim Poppell asked Senate Democrats to vote against the measure, which he said, “doesn’t tell people what they need.” The proposal not only requires a warning label on tickets “but a warning label that would have to be on just about everything that could be construed as promoting the lottery,” Poppell said. “That would be vending machines, play stations where you get your paper to bubble in the numbers, on every sign, on every advertisement – radio, television, social media, what have you,” Poppell said.
‘Very low’ chance The House last month overwhelmSee LOTTERY, Page A2
SNAPSHOTS
On video A cell phone video captured Broward County Sheriff’s deputies pepper-spraying, tackling and punching a group of teens last week outside a McDonald’s, a frequent after-school hangout spot near J.P. Taravella High School At one point, Deputy Christopher Krickovich and Sgt. Greg LaCerra went to arrest a student who had been warned not to trespass at the shopping center, according to a sheriff’s report. That student was not See PROTEST, Page A2
ALSO INSIDE
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Common to speak at FAMU graduation NATION | A6
JAY L. CLENDENIN/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS
In this file photo, John Singleton arrived at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles in 2016. Singleton, who died April 29 of a stroke, directed ‘Boyz in the Hood’ in 1991, becoming the first Black Oscar nominee for Best Director and the youngest person ever nominated for the award.
FBI: Army vet planned ‘mass casualties’
Abrams won’t seek Senate seat
COMMENTARY: ANTHONY HALL: HOW CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES CAN HELP FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE | A4 COMMENTARY: GLEN FORD: DEMOCRATS WILL STOP BERNIE SANDERS BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY | A5
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Political service and political trust Many American registered voters are super-excited about the long list of Democratic and Republican candidates that are seeking to become the 46th president of the United States. At least two or three Republicans and over 20 Democrats will be asking you for your love, support, campaign contributions and your votes constantly until the primary and general election days are upon us.
They’ll sweet-talk you The candidates for president and candidates for every other elected office will be telling you in person and via political advertising about how your government and your life will be so much better with them as your
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do the right thing. So, even if legislation is passed that gives each side of an issue a tiny bit of what they want, the lobbyists can go back to the unions, the bankers, the insurers, the builders, the educators, the doctors, the hospitals, liberals, conservatives, Blacks, Latinos, Whites and other interest groups and say, “Just pay me a little more money. I’ll fight harder next legislative session and I’ll definitely get you what you want!”
LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT
public servants. Well, on major issues like health care, education, taxes, tort reform, infrastructure, judicial reform, equal rights, immigration, foreign affairs and so forth, opposing political sides never win and they never lose! Why? Because lobbyists and others that influence politics and elections know they will be without high-paying contracts and lobbying jobs if major issues are resolved by a true and good relationship of all elected officials to
We need truth Instead of running to candidates that promise you a pot of political gold at the end of the legislative rainbow, what the people need are political candidates and political representatives that will tell American residents and voters the truth! I have friends that will be running for office in upcoming elections and I will help them. As a political professional, I am reluctant to endorse candidates on
any level unless I really, really, really know who they are and how they may perform and produce if or when they are elected. More importantly, history is the best teacher. If a person lies before he or she runs for office, they will continue to lie after an election. If a candidate doesn’t have a diverse campaign staff before Election Day, they won’t have a diverse political staff after Election Day. And, if a candidate thinks you are incompetent, inferior, unqualified, undesirable and unworthy before votes are cast, he or she will feel the same way after votes are tabulated! If you read the news at all, you probably know that political performance is tricky; in many ways, questionable; and in extreme cases, corrupt.
Go ahead and run If you want to run for office, please do. Politicians are supposed to be public servants that are paid by the tax dollars collect-
ed from the people and businesses they represent. There are good people that will choose to run for elected office. It will behoove all voters to know who they are voting for and to, as the Bible says, separate the wheat from the tare! Almost every candidate will suggest that they are your supporter, your benefactor, your protector, your provider and your political friend. If you don’t know which candidates you can trust, trust the nonpoliticians that you do know that are brave enough to tell the people the truth about elections and governing!
Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere. “Like” The Gantt Report page on Facebook. Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants. net.
PROTEST from A1 Delucca “Lucca” Rolle, who attends Taravella High. The video shows deputies taking Rolle down, with one deputy banging Rolle’s forehead into the pavement and punching him in the head, while another deputy helped restrain and handcuff him. Rolle, one of two teens who were arrested, reportedly suffered a broken nose in the encounter. Rolle was accused of aggravated assault against an officer, but the charge made “no sense,” prosecutors said.
Suspended, not fired
TAIMY ALVAREZ/SUN SENTINEL/MCT
A group of workers at Keller Williams Partners Realty in Plantation cheered with joy after they matched five Powerball numbers and won $1 million.
LOTTERY from A1 ingly approved a version of the bill with a longer, moredire message: “Warning: Playing a Lottery game constitutes gambling and may lead to addiction and/or compulsive behavior. The chances of winning a big prize are very low.” House Speaker José Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, strongly supports the proposal, and told reporters Wednesday evening he also backs the modified Senate version. “I think it’s important that somewhere on the face of that ticket someone at least have a moment of reflection to understand what they’re engaging in and hopefully play responsibly,” he said. The Senate never passed its own version of the bill, but the Senate Rules Committee last week took up and approved the House’s measure. During a Senate floor session Wednesday, Appropriations Chairman Rob Bradley said he proposed shortening the warning message to assuage concerns from other senators “who think that the language is too
GUNS from A1 school in the cafeteria. Happened today – today while we were doing this bill.” Jenne wanted to see more training requirements for school employees who carry guns as part of the state’s armed school guardian program. The school resource officer was leaning against a wall when his holstered gun fired, sending a bullet into the wall behind him, according to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office. No one was injured, officials said. Rep. Jennifer Sullivan, RMount Dora, clarified that the gun was fired by a sworn law enforcement officer – not a member of the school guardian program being discussed by lawmakers. “The gun that went off today was not by a guardian holding it,” said Sullivan, the bill’s sponsor. “It was by an SRO.”
much.” But, he insisted, the warning is necessary. “For some folks, their brain works in a way that they can become addicted to gaming just like you can become addicted to alcohol and drugs,” Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said. More is known about addiction than when the lottery was created more than three decades ago, Bradley said.
‘Balanced message’ “This is a government-run gaming operation. That’s what it is,” he said, adding the warning gives the state an opportunity to create a “balanced message where we want people to know, we want you to play but this is not gaming light.” The Florida Lottery’s annual sales have grown to more than $6 billion since tickets first went on sale in 1988. The money is used to help fund the state’s education system, including Bright Futures scholarships. Democrats shared Poppell’s concerns about the warnings’ negative impact on sales and on education funding. According to state economists, the warnings in the House bill would cause a $64 million drop in revenues steered to schools
in 2021, when the bill would go into effect. That amount is projected to increase in subsequent years. “We brag about the … billions of dollars that’s gone into education. Some would say we’re addicted to that money,” Sen. Bill Montford, a Tallahassee Democrat and a former Leon County superintendent of schools, said during a Wednesday’s floor discussion. But Bradley said the shorter warnings proposed by the Senate should mitigate some of the financial shortfall.
People have choices The reduction in education funding would be made up with other revenue sources, said Bradley, who acknowledged the warnings could have an impact, “because when you tell people what they’re doing, they may make a decision not to do it, which I don’t think is a bad thing.” Former Gov. Rick Scott vetoed a similar measure in 2017, saying it would impose “burdensome regulations” on the games and retailers. Poppell’s open opposition to the proposal could also reflect opposition from his boss, Gov. Ron DeSantis. In his remarks to the Senate
‘It was a gun’ Supporters said the bill would require at least 144 hours of training for teachers who want to carry a gun on campus, which would be sufficient to ensure student safety. That didn’t satisfy Rep. Wengay Newton, D-St. Petersburg, who expressed shock at what he was hearing. “I don’t care who had the gun go off,” he said. “We had kids there. … It was a gun. It was a bullet that you can’t bring back. Listen to what we are saying. This is insane.”
Urban areas say no Although the bill appears likely to be signed into law, local school boards must authorize the arming of teachers. Teachers would have to complete at least 144 hours of training and pass a psychological evaluation. School boards representing some of the state’s largest counties – including Broward, Palm Beach and Orange – are opposed
Democrats, Poppell said the Florida Lottery “has worked very hard” to receive certification by the National Council on Problem Gambling. “They looked at everything,” he said, “and certified that we are acting in a responsible manner.” Lottery tickets already are printed with a hotline number for addicted gamblers to get help, Poppell said. “This is what we learned is the most important thing we can do.”
Negative message? Lottery retailers are worried about “the volume of negativity,” the secretary added. “It isn’t just a warning label on the ticket. It is this message on everything. And it has to be prominently displayed. So our retailers are expressing concern,” he said. The Senate could vote on the measure as early as Thursday – after the Florida Courier’s late Wednesday night press time. If it is approved, the proposal would have to be sent back to the House. Ultimately, the two chambers would have to agree on the warning details before a bill could go to DeSantis.
to the idea. It appears unlikely school districts in Central and South Florida would authorize arming teachers. Democrats said even giving school boards the option of arming educators is a step too far.
‘A loving environment’ “Teachers need to teach,” said Rep. Mike Gottlieb, D-Davie. “We need to create a more nurturing, loving environment in a school so people don’t grow up to become monsters. … We are creating a police state. It is wrong.” Supporters said a last line of defense is needed in schools, and the bill provides more flexibility for districts to meet a state mandate that an armed guard be stationed at every school. The Parkland school shooting where 17 died and 17 others were injured was over in about four minutes. “Our law enforcement officers failed us on Feb 14, 2018,” said Rep. Dane Eagle, R-Cape Coral. “When they can’t get there to
Krickovich and LaCerra were both suspended by the Broward Sheriff’s Office after the video was released. Originally, they were placed on restricted assignment. The Broward State Attorney’s Office said it has begun investigating the deputies’ actions. Rolle’s family hired Crump, who said he wants the deputies involved to face criminal charges. Crump noted that the two arrested teens are Black, while all three deputies seen in the cellphone video are White. Crump said, “Starting now, we will seek justice through every avenue possible for Lucca and his family. The actions on the video by the officers against Delucca are unconscionable.” The hashtag #JusticeForLucca has been trending on Twitter.
Saturday demonstration Rolle’s supporters plan a peaceful rally Saturday afternoon at Hampton Pines Park in North Lauderdale, with attendees encouraged to wear red. Rolle was wearing a red shirt on the day of his arrest. “We need to make sure we convey the message that the only crime committed on that day was not from the young man, the Black children that were there, but from the two deputies and the way they manhandled those kids,” said local NAACP President Marsha Ellison. “We want the sheriff to hold them accountable and for them to be terminated, meaning they don’t have the opportunity to do this to anyone else while in a [sheriff’s] uniform,” Ellison said. “We are wary of the State Attorney’s Office…It could be one year sometimes two and they’ll try and wait until this dies down and close the case. “That’s not good enough. These children are traumatized, emotionally damaged. The 2020 election is coming where we get to choose a new sheriff and new state attorney…Enough is enough.”
save others, I would hope that someone else in that room has the ability to do so.”
Students protest Students, including some from Stoneman Douglas, protested in the Capitol and urged lawmakers not to authorize the arming of teachers. They voiced concerns that arming teachers would have unintended consequences, putting them at risk of accidental shootings. Democrats expressed concerns that the bill doesn’t provide enough guidance on the safe storage and handling of guns at schools. They wanted more training requirements and annual psychological evaluations. The Giffords Law Center blasted the Republican-controlled Legislature’s action, saying it will make schools more dangerous. The group, which supports gun control measures, compiled a list of more than 60 instances over a four-year span where guns had been mishandled on school
property by teachers, security officers and others. The bill features other items aimed at school safety, including greater reporting of school safety incidents, a standardized risk assessment process for dangerous students, and new guidelines on school-based mental health.
Divisive provision Democratic Rep. Kristin Jacobs, who represents the Parkland area, called the provision that allows teachers to be armed a “poison pill” that created a partisan divide in an otherwise good bill. “The bill today I would put forth was not an effort that includes ‘we’,” she said, “It is an effort of ‘us and them.’” Five Republicans crossed the aisle to vote against the bill, including the only Broward-based GOP representative, Chip LaMarca. Gov. Ron DeSantis has been supportive of the school safety package.
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Technology Committee on Feb. 5.
Ban exemptions As with the tobacco ban, the new law allows vaping at private residences that are not used for commercial purposes and places such as stand-alone bars, designated rooms in hotels, retail vape shops, and facilities owned or rented by membership association, smoking cessation programs, or for medical or scientific research. The bill, sponsored by Trilby Republican Wilton Simpson and Lithia Republican Rep. Mike Beltran, was among 10 DeSantis signed into law on April 26.
Law on animals
Dominic Crupi of Clearwater smokes an e-cigarette at Vape Joe in Largo.
Governor signs vaping ban, police dog protection bills BY JIM TURNER NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – Floridians will have to keep their e-cigarettes on the shelf while in most enclosed workplaces starting this summer, under one of 10 new laws signed by Gov. Ron
DeSantis. The workplace ban on vaporgenerating electronic devices (SB 7012), better known as “vaping,” implements part of a constitutional amendment that also asked voters to ban oil and gas drilling off Florida’s shorelines. The amendment drew sup-
port from more than 68.9 percent of voters in November.
July 1 effect The law, which goes into effect with the start of the next fiscal year on July 1, mirrors a similar ban in Florida on smoking tobacco in enclosed indoor workplaces.
Individuals that violate the ban face a maximum civil penalty of $25, 50 hours of community service or the need to successfully complete a school-approved anti-tobacco “alternative to suspension” program. Vaping proponents argue that the product helps people get off cigarettes. “I personally have witnessed hundreds of people, in hundreds of stores in the state, transition from smoking to vaping and then to not vaping,” Joshua Unger, owner of Von Vape in Sarasota, told members of the Senate Innovation, Industry and
Senate passes ‘T21’ smoking age bill
Starting Oct. 1, it becomes a second-degree felony, up from a third-degree felony, for people who kill or cause great bodily harm to police, fire or searchand-rescue dogs or police horses. The law (SB 96) boosts the amount of potential prison time from five years to 15 years. Backers of the bill pushed for the change in part as a reaction to the death of Fang, a 3-yearold member of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office canine unit shot last September by a teenager fleeing after carjacking two women at a gas station, and the Christmas Eve on-duty death of a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office police dog named Cigo. Sen. Aaron Bean, a Fernandina Beach Republican who sponsored the bill, told members of the Judiciary Committee on March 12 that Fang was “executed.” “We need to respect the bond of an animal and its handler and respect the jobs that these animals do,” he said.
State gambling deal with tribe off the table
NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
With almost no debate, the Florida Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a measure that would raise the minimum age to buy tobacco and vaping products from 18 to 21. The Senate proposal (SB 1618) also includes a provision that would ban local governments from passing ordinances dealing with the minimum age. Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, asked bill sponsor David Simmons if the bill would “grandfather” in people between the ages of 18 to 21 who are already using the products. “When this bill goes into effect, they’ll be subject to the rules,” Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, said before the Senate voted 33-6 in favor of the measure.
JUUL Labs support A House version of the bill (HB 7119) also would raise the age from 18 to 21 for smokable medical marijuana. But lobbyists working against the measure have said it is doomed. Florida is one of several states considering legislation supporting an issue known as “Tobacco 21,” or T21, that is supported by e-cigarette giant, JUUL Labs. JUUL’s exponential growth – its market share tripled in just one year – is linked closely to the skyrocketing increase in youngsters’ e-cigarette use. JUUL, owned by Altria, the parent company
Crump, Leblanc to deliver B-CU commencement addresses Bethune-Cookman University (BCU)’s spring commencement ceremonies will be held on Saturday, May 11, at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., at the Mary McLeod Bethune Performing Arts Center located at 698 International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach. Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump will provide the 9 a.m. commencement address. Foreign policy and national security legal professional Johanna Leblanc will deliver the 3 p.m. commencement keynote. Crump has represented clients in some of the highest profile cases in the United States, recovering millions of dollars in damages for them.
About the speakers His work has involved the cases of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Robbie Tolan; and 10 of the 13 Black women who were victims in the Holtzc law Oklahoma City Police rape case in 2015. He also has used his successes on the national stage to help ensure quality legal representation and access to the courts for poor people in
NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
RICHARD B. LEVINE/SIPA USA/TNS
The “Tobacco 21” or T21 bill is supported by the makers of the popular Juul brand, JUUL Labs. of cigarette maker Philip Morris USA, is pushing Tobacco 21, in part in an attempt to keep federal regulators at bay.
AHA responds The American Heart Association (AHA) issued a news release Tuesday accusing tobacco companies of having “ruined” the House and Senate proposals. “It’s a sad state of affairs – a bill with such good intentions has been maimed, with toxic amendments,” Mark Landreth, the association’s state government affairs director, said in the release. “The public deserves to know what’s really happening behind the scenes. When it comes to our youth and public health, passing ‘something’ short of comprehensive, science-based Tobacco 21 policy can have good intentions but with farreaching, negative consequences.”
his home community, serving as board chairman of Legal Services of North Florida and, with his law partner Daryl Parks, donating $1 million to the organization’s capital campaign. Benjamin Leblanc is senior Crump advisor to both Haiti’s ambassador to the U.S. and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her portfolio includes promoting the interests of Haiti and its citizens in Congress and advising on national security and immigration-related matters. Johanna In addition, LebLeblanc lanc serves as a National Security and Foreign Affairs legal analyst, where she provides commentary through national and international press on domestic and foreign politics. B-CU will provide live video streaming of the commencement ceremonies on its website at Live @ B-CU so that family and friends of the graduates. Eight reserved seat tickets will be issued to each graduate who has fulfilled the academic and financial clearance process by the university. A limited number of tickets will be available to the general public. For the full commencement schedule, visit cookman.edu.
With just days left in the annual legislative session, House Speaker Jose Oliva on Monday put to rest the possibility of passing a gambling deal. Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, also said he would prefer not to hold a special legislative session to try to pass a gambling bill, likely pushing the issue back to next year. “I think we simply ran out of time this year,” Oliva said. The 2019 session was scheduled to end Friday. Powerful Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, and representatives of the Seminole Tribe of Florida have negotiated for weeks on a deal that included the possibility of sports betting at the Seminoles’ casinos as well as at Florida racetracks and jai alai frontons, with the tribe acting as a “hub.”
Highly complicated Allowing in-play sports betting, known as “proposition” or “prop” bets, at professional sports arenas also was part of the talks. Gov. Ron DeSantis received an outline of a deal and met with numerous gambling-industry officials on April 26. But revamping gambling laws is highly complicated as it involves numerous interests, including the Seminole Tribe and pari-mutuel operators. As an example, pari-mutuel operators have looked to protect highly lucrative “designated player card games.” But the tribe contends that the games violate an earlier gambling deal, known as a compact, in which the Seminoles received exclusive rights to “banked” card games, such as blackjack.
Common, Gillum to speak at FAMU graduations
Hip-hop recording artist, actor and activist Common, Florida A&M University (FAMU) alum and former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum and veteran music industry attorney Nicole Wyskoarko will be the speakers for the FAMU Spring Commencement ceremonies. More than 1,200 students are expected to be awarded degrees during the three ceremonies. Common, who studied business administration at FAMU, is scheduled to address College of Science and Technology, College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities and School of the Environment graduates on Saturday, May 4, at the 9 a.m., commencement ceremony in the Alfred Lawson, Jr. Multipurpose Center and Teaching Gymnasium. The Emmy and Grammy winning artist is known for his “conscious rap” and his roles in such films as “Selma,” “Barbershop,” “John Wick 2,” the animated Warner Bros’ “Smallfoot,” and “The Hate U Give.”
Gillum in evening Gillum is scheduled to speak to graduates at the 6 p.m., ceremony on Friday, May 3. Wyskoarko will address graduates at the 2 p.m., ceremony on Saturday, May 4. Gillum, the 2018 Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate, will address graduates from the College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, College of Education, School of Al-
Common
Andrew Gillum
lied Health Sciences, School of Business and Industry, and the School of Journalism & Graphic Communication. In 2003, the former Student Government Association president was still a political science student at FAMU when he was elected to the Tallahassee City Commission at age 23, making him the youngest commissioner in the city’s history. He served as a city commissioner until 2014, when he was elected mayor. A CNN political commentator, Gillum launched the “Bring It Home Florida” voter registration initiative in March.
About Wyskoarko
Wyskoarko is executive vice president of urban operations for Interscope Records in Santa Monica, Calif. Prior to joining Interscope, the Brooklyn Law School graduate was a partner with Carroll, Guido & Groffman, LLP. The Los Angeles native has also served as senior vice president at Universal Music Group and worked with East Coast labels (Island, Def Jam, and Republic) and artists, such as Kanye West, Alessia Cara and Justin Bieber. Wyskoarko will address graduates from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, College of Law, College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the School Architecture and Engineering Technology and the School of Nursing.
EDITORIAL
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How Caribbean countries can help fight climate change Stop the dumping of waste in the Caribbean Sea. I advocate a pragmatic and parochial strategy for combating climate change. The adage “clean up your own backyard…” pretty much sums it up. Pursuant to this strategy, I have always championed conservation and anti-pollution measures. In doing so, I have eschewed the handwringing that characterizes concerns about global warming and climate change. The cyclical nature of all weather phenomena informs my strategy, as I have elaborated in commentaries since 2005.
Other priorities But the following quote from “March to Save the Planet? Get Real!” posted September 23, 2014, synthesizes my take on and strategy for combating climate change: “We acknowledge climate change as a fact but hardly an existential threat. We simply maintain that there are many ‘Global Priorities Bigger than Climate Change’ – as the critically acclaimed Danish environmentalist, Professor Bjorn Lomborg, proffered in his now seminal TED talk in 2005.” That said, my pet peeve is the myriad ways humans are polluting every body of water on our planet. No doubt this stems from growing up in the Caribbean, where I spent so many days swimming in the sparkling turquoise waters of The Bahamas. But it should not take hailing from the Caribbean for one to decry pollution like The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a collection of plastic, floating trash halfway between Hawaii and California that has grown to more than 600,000 square miles…twice the size of Texas, according to USA Today.
Global threat And, more existentially, pollution like this, according to The New Republic: “Scientists across the globe are increasingly finding wildlife that has been killed after
ANTHONY L. HALL, ESQ. FLORIDA COURIER COLUMNIST
ingesting or becoming entangled in plastic. The estimated 19 billion pounds of plastic that ends up in the ocean every year is expected to double by 2025. These plastics will not only kill more animals; they’ll decimate coral reefs, and damage human health as microplastics enter the food chain.” All the same, my pragmatic and parochial strategy moved me to criticize Caribbean countries for signing on to climate-change accords (from Kyoto to Paris). After all, they did so with high-polluting countries (like the United States, China, and India) that invariably dominated negotiations. This created the predatory dynamic of minnows swimming among sharks, making those high-polluting countries a greater existential threat than climate change. More to the point, even I knew from Kyoto days that, despite accords, these worst polluters would continue to increase their “planet-warming gases.” This is why I exhorted Caribbean countries to pool their political clout. That would enable them to draft and enforce strict environmental regulations to protect and preserve our eco-region and its most precious natural resource: the Caribbean Sea.
Punish the locals I envisioned them levying behavior-modification fines on local polluters across the region for dumping everything from sewage to garden-variety trash. But I also envisioned Caribbean countries levying far greater fines on foreign polluters for dumping all manner of waste from their private yachts, cruise ships, cargo ships, and oil tankers. Unfortunately, Caribbean countries ignored my criticisms. To see
Stand in solidarity with Venezuela and its government The United States war against Venezuela is fought on many fronts. On April 30, 2019 the U.S. upped the propaganda ante with a photo-op pretend coup attempt made for the cameras. Their hand-picked opposition leader Juan Guaido posed with about 70 men in uniform and called on the army to oust president Nicolas Maduro. They didn’t engage the Venezuelan military, attack Maduro physically or do anything else that is traditionally done in such an effort. The goal is to give Guaido credibility in the international media and with politicians in Washington.
Long-term effort The staged event is still dangerous though. It is the latest salvo in a years-long effort to undo the will of the Venezuelan people. The troika of tyranny – Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton – may have been stymied in their effort to bring down the elected Nicolas Maduro government, but they have not given up. All of their machinations are conducted with the goal of creat-
MARGARET KIMBERLEY BLACK AGENDA REPORT
The United States wants to control as much of the world as it possibly can and prevent any group of people from acting independently ing as much stress on the Venezuelan state, its economy and on the Venezuelan people as they can muster. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza spoke at a public forum in New York City on April 25, 2019 and explained how
how willfully so, just google “cruise ships fined for dumping waste.” Results will show the United States levying all kinds of fines for dumping off its shores. From Walker & O’Neill Maritime Lawyers: In December of 2016, Judge Seitz placed Carnival Corporation on probation and fined it a record $40,000,000 for widespread pollution and obstruction of justice. Carnival has a long history of getting caught committing environmental crimes dating back to 2002 when it pled guilty to numerous felonies for discharging oily waste into the sea. … On March 8, 2019, the Office of Probation filed a motion to revoke probation on the grounds that the cruise corporation implemented a ‘brazen and secret’ scheme to send ‘SWAT teams’ to the cruise ships to ‘scrub’ them before the third-party auditors performed their compliance inspections.
No Caribbean action But you’d be hard-pressed to find a single result showing any Caribbean country levying similar fines. (If you know of any that has dared to do so, I would welcome being so informed.) The point is that, if Carnival’s cruise ships are dumping waste in US waters as Judge Seitz found, just imagine what they are doing in ours … with impunity. This is dismaying enough. But it becomes even more so in light of the fact that Caribbean countries are parties to The Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter 1972. This protocol requires vessels to dump and treat waste on land. Therefore, you’d think Caribbean countries would recognize the categorical imperative (i.e., the joint and several benefits) of enforcing anti-dumping regulations. After all, the region is relatively small, and all economies depend heavily on tourists who visit primarily to revel in our “beautiful-by-nature” habitats. Yet they have failed to enforce those regulations in any meaningful way. And the reason is all too familiar to anyone who knows
his country is suffering due to the United States war waged by means other than military attack. Arreaza tells a story that one will never see in the corporate media or hear about from the Democratic Party, the supposed opposition. Despite what we’re told about a dictatorial government, Maduro was willing to compromise the Bolivarian revolution in order to keep Washington at bay. When the elected government and opposition met under the auspices of the Dominican Republic, the Trump administration made sure that no agreement would come to pass.
Wanted to negotiate The Maduro government acceded to demands such as changes to election dates. When they agreed to jointly request that sanctions be lifted, then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made his move. He ordered the opposition to withdraw from the talks and they did so. The United States has also used diplomatic warfare and threats against other nations to force them to join in the coup effort. Those countries live in fear of International Monetary Fund loans or diplomatic credentials being denied. They fear the United States, and they fear talking publicly about how they are threatened. As Arreaza said, “They are brave in the corridors of the United Nations. But they cannot be brave on camera.”
VISUAL VIEWPOINT: AMERICA VS. VENEZUELA
SCHOT, DE VOLKSKRANT, NETHERLANDS
anything about the race-to-thebottom, beggar-thy-neighbor politics of the Caribbean.
Dog eating dog Simply put, Caribbean countries compete against each other to lure cruise ships and other commercial vessels to their ports of call. This invariably has them granting vessels de facto permits to dump all manner of waste off their shores, respectively. Incidentally, I have always wondered why cruise liners do not think this dumping is jeopardizing their own bottom line. I know they’re trying to make their ships so all-inclusive, each might eventually feature a “Caribbean beach” on board. But surely even uncultured Americans would think twice about cruising the Caribbean Sea if news about it being contaminated with human waste goes viral. Meanwhile, the looming spectre of waste washing ashore anywhere is obviously a threat to tourism everywhere in the Caribbean. Yet, evidently, regional countries couldn’t care less about this law of the sea. No doubt this is why I vented utter exasperation in a previous column when regional environmentalists seemed too busy combating Japanese whaling in international waters to notice cruise ships dumping waste off our shores: I believe in cleaning up my own mess before complaining about
Different methods The United States effort is both global and personal. The CIA has approached military officers and used enticements and threats to secure their defections. Despite these efforts, only 200 out of 200,000 personnel have betrayed their country. Arreaza described the human toll of the sanctions which have deprived Venezuela of the use of billions of dollars of its own money. Venezuelans were sent to Italy for bone marrow transplants paid for by the government, but the service is now endangered because these financial transactions are prohibited under sanctions. Sanctions have already killed 40,000 Venezuelans who were deprived of medicines, proper medical treatment and food. The military option is still very much on the table. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a U.S. government-backed think tank, hosted a meeting in Washington with Venezuelan opposition, and Brazilian and Colombian military figures to discuss military intervention, using the cover of other nations. This is how it is done in the post-Iraq world. Proxies would again be the foot soldiers for the U.S. hegemon.
Venezuela is not alone The U.S. coup plotters have targeted Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina. Nations are bribed with money, or the right wing gets support at a crucial moment. The
Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher
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that of others. Therefore, what I decry most in this context is that The Bahamas, the country of my birth, often seeks more ways to opt out of CARICOM agreements than ways to codify common cause among member states. Again, I fully appreciate that climate change is causing hurricanes, fires, and rising sea levels to wreak unprecedented devastation. But the United States can’t even combat gun violence, which kills tens of thousands of Americans each year. Therefore, it’s foolhardy to think it will ever combat climate change, effectively – no matter the increasing toll of related deaths. And, it’s probably even more so to think the Chinese, Indians, and other major polluters ever will. Of course, it hardly helps the cause when no less a person than the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, is a denier. He’s among an alarming number of Americans who still think climate change is a hoax. Caribbean countries do not have the power to stop any of the weather-related effects of climate change. But we do have the power to stop some of the human-related effects. And it’s in our enlightened regional interest to do so.
Anthony L. Hall is a native of The Bahamas with an international law practice in Washington, D.C. Read his columns and daily weblog at www. theipinionsjournal.com.
CSIS and the U.S. government look to Nicaragua and Cuba as their next targets. That is why solidarity is so important. A group calling itself the Embassy Protection Collective has spent the last two weeks housed in the Venezuelan embassy in Washington. Their goal is to prevent Guaido and the opposition from taking it over in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. But the United States and its puppets care nothing for international law, the sovereignty of other nations, or human rights. They evoke the discredited Monroe Doctrine and run roughshod over anyone who speaks against them. The day after his speech in New York, Jorge Arreaza was himself sanctioned by the United States government. His finances and ability to travel and thus do his job as a foreign minister are now at risk. The April 29 “coup attempt” was made for the cameras, but the goal is quite serious. The United States wants to control as much of the world as it possibly can and prevent any group of people from acting independently. That is why people of conscience must support the people of Venezuela and the government they have elected.
Margaret Kimberley is a cofounder of BlackAgendaReport.com, and writes a weekly column there. Contact her at Margaret.Kimberley@BlackAgendaReport.com.
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MAY 3 – MAY 9, 2019
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Dems will stop Bernie by any means necessary In a compact and effective video that appeared in leftish publications last week, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivers an uplifting “Message from the Future” projecting a decade of sweeping social democratic legislation following a Democratic capture of the White House and both chambers of Congress in 2020. A succession of progressivedominated Congresses passes Medicare for All; a federal jobs bill “guaranteeing dignified living wages” for all workers; a Universal Child Care Initiative “that started paying real money to teachers, domestic workers and home health aides”; and the Green New Deal, which AOC’s voice from the future explained, “didn’t just change the infrastructure” of the nation, but also showed that America could be “not only modern and wealthy but dignified and humane, too.”
Something left out It’s a well-done, inspiring piece that actually touched my heart strings. While she was at it, AOC could have also painted a picture of a world that wasn’t being bombed and regime-changed day and night by her homeland’s military, but maybe that’s a subject for her and Naomi Klein’s next animated vignette. Meanwhile, in the real world, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week told “60 Minutes” that “only five” members of Congress share Ocasio-Cortez’s “socialist” vision. As soon as the votes were counted in last November’s congressional elections, Pelosi dispatched her minions to assure the health insurance industry they need not worry about Medicare for All passing the House under her watch. The bill that AOC-of-the-future calls “the most popular social program in American history” is to Pelosi an “unhelpful distraction.” And the speaker is downright contemptuous of the Green New Deal. “It will be one of several or maybe many suggestions that we receive,” she told Politico in February. “The green dream, or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they’re for it, right?”
How will they win? Ocasio-Cortez’s “Message from the Future” is flawed from
Man’s Party remains the largest organized ideological bloc in the country), the Democratic Party has become the ruling class’s GLEN most important political instruFORD ment. If the core corporate imperiBLACK AGENDA REPORT al policies of austerity and endless war are to be preserved, the the start, because it fails to tell Democratic base must be kept us how the “progressives” defeat in check – supermajorities be the corporate wing of her own damned! party personified by Nancy Pelosi, who is about right in her esti- The rich will fight mation that there are only one or Maybe Ocasio-Cortez and two handfuls of Ocasio-Cortez- Naomi Klein don’t want to scare type leftists in Congress. the children, but they have paintThe party’s corporate lead- ed a scenario in which the rich ership is determined to make roll over and accept the wishes AOC and her left-Democrat colof the majority without shedding leagues an endangered species oceans of blood. on Capitol Hill. That’s why the The U.S. empire is now enDemocratic Congressional Camgaged in a desperate bid to repaign Committee imposed a new strain and contain the rising rule blacklisting political conforces of global majorities desultants that back challengers to termined to throw off the shackDemocratic incumbents. les of half a millennium of rac“Let’s be clear,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, a leftish Democrat from ist, Euro-American dictatorship. California. “If this policy remains Since its rise to superpower after in place, it will mean that we will World War II, the U.S. has caused not allow new Ayanna Pressleys the deaths of tens of millions and or AOCs to emerge. It’s simply held the planet hostage to nuclear annihilation. wrong.” The U.S. and European ruling classes have tried to exterminate Corporate defender every government and moveNo, it’s simply the job of cor- ment in the formerly colonized porate Democrats to defend cor- world that attempted to adporate interests, especially when dress the needs and aspirations Medicare for All is supported of popular majorities. The same by 85 percent of Democrats (and people that organized this careven 52 percent of Republicans), nage also bankroll and buttress and an amazing 92 percent of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck SchumDemocrats (and 64 percent of er and their Republican counterRepublicans) support a Green parts. New Deal. Ocasio-Cortez’s favored canThe Democratic Party is the didate for president is unacceptfirst line of defense of Corpo- able to the ruling class, and thererate America, the place where fore to the leaders of the Demoprogressive legislation can be cratic Party. Never in U.S. history smothered in its crib and su- has a candidate of a duopoly parpermajorities are corralled and ty run on a promise to wipe out neutered. Nancy Pelosi is the a major sector of the ruling class. Democratic leader precisely be- But that is what Bernie Sanders is cause corporate moneybags trust pledging to do with Medicare for her to neutralize the party’s base All, which would smash the trilat every stage of the “money- lion-dollar health insurance insoaked” (as Paul Street likes to dustry. say) process. The Democratic Party is half Resistance already of the governing duopoly of the United States, and indispens- underway AOC’s animation envisions able to the ongoing rule of the rich. Indeed, after three years of one of her young Bronx protégés Russiagate, with Trump delegiti- journeying to Louisiana to help mized in the eyes of majorities of restore wetlands, working alongAmericans and his Republican side “former oil workers” tranbase shrunk to an overtly racist sitioned out of that (apparently rump (although the GOP White doomed) industry, but earning
Don’t skip the work My father always told me I needed to “pay my dues” in life and I never truly understood what that meant and why I needed to. My life was planned: you go to school, you go to college, you graduate, and you get a good job. I learned the hard way that life isn’t a step-by-step puzzle and the pieces will not fit perfectly or easy together. It doesn’t matter if you went to a prestigious school or come from a great family – no one is going to just hand me success. I have to earn it.
Not just millennials The media has inundated us with various articles and studies stating that millennials feel entitled and privileged. I can agree to a certain point, but I think it applies to more than just millennials. I feel many of us feel so eager for success or accolades that we forget to do the steps. To appreci-
MORGAN A. OWENS NNPA COLUMNIST
ate the journey of highs and lows, to learn from our mistakes and from our achievements. I talk in my book “Finding My Sparkle” about how I hated the way I looked, but had to take a deeper dive into what I was doing about it. I was complaining, I was living in my feelings of sadness – but what was I doing to change it? I had to put in the work. In that case, it was making a plan to change my eating habits, working out more and overall making a lifestyle change. This applies to everything in life, including climbing the corporate ladder or building a successful business.
Black federal procurement hasn’t bounced back As the George W. Bush administration ended, Black federal procurement was coming in at eight percent. During the Obama administration, levels fell consistently. As President Trump entered the White House, levels were at 1.8 percent and falling. Today, the levels have yet to turn around. For first half of fiscal year 2019 (October 1 to March 31, 2019) the average is 1.3 percent. Hopefully, we have now hit bottom and the subsequent re-
HARRY & KAY ALFORD GUEST COLUMNISTS
ports will show an upward trending consistent with an improved economy. Federal agencies are encouraged to utilize the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) procure-
Master current level
EDITORIAL
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VISUAL VIEWPOINT: RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE
NATE BEELER, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH, OH
the same salary and benefits in their new, eco-friendly jobs. Big Oil’s resistance to the verdict of Green New Deal supporters is already being expressed, through the leadership of Ocasio-Cortez’s own party. The looming battle to-the-death in that turf does not appear in AOC’s video fairy tale. Does she think it can be avoided? Bernie Sanders, in whose 2016 campaign AOC became an activist, is an austerity-buster, and therefore beyond the pale for the imperial ruling class. Austerity is the universal global policy of late-stage capitalism. It is designed to cap any expectations the lower classes might have of a better standard of life in the future, and to squelch notions that society should be organized for the betterment of the masses of people. Under austerity, there is never any money to even think about that. Medicare for All would not only bust austerity wide open (even while lowering overall health costs), but would be a death sentence for a trillion-dollar section of finance capital – the holy sanctum of the ruling class. Therefore, as the Wall Street Journal should know, the Lords of Capital have decreed: Stop Bernie – the corporate Democrats’ assignment from on-high.
trust Bernie to protect the empire. They didn’t trust Trump, and he’s an oligarch like them. The corporate Democrats will thwart Sanders’ presidential bid by any means necessary. The national security state folks may kill him. It is inconceivable that finance capital – which is to the Democratic Party what Big Oil is to the Republicans – will tolerate a financial industry-slayer in the White House, or accept Sanders opening up the Pandora’s Box of social spending on education and all the other “rights” he talks about. This is anathema to the ruling class in the 21st Century, and they will not allow such agitation to triumph in either of their houses: Democratic or Republican. The Lords of Capital have paid the cost to be the boss of these institutions, and will not be defied. This season may be the final showdown between supermajorities of Democrats and the corporate party apparatus whose job is to betray them. I don’t know what tricks and travesties the corporate Democrats will employ against Sanders and his supermajority issues, but it will be the ugliest political fight since the crackers bum-rushed Reconstruction in Dixie. At the end of the carnage, we’ll see if AlBernie a target exandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Although Sanders remains an millions that think like her still imperialist pig who is incapable want to be Democrats. of solidarity with other socialGlen Ford is executive editor ists in the world unless they are Scandinavian, I don’t think U.S. of BlackAgendaReport.com. Erulers and their military and na- mail him at Glen.Ford@Blacktional security state henchmen AgendaReport.com.
Too often, I see clients and others give up because life is not going their way, but then when asked, “Did you do XYZ?” they only did X. You can’t skip to the next level without mastering the level you are on currently. Often, we get wrapped up in someone else’s journey and want to compare theirs to ours. Truth is, you never know what work they did behind the scenes to get to where they are today. People only show you what they want to show you. The struggle and work are often left out. The work can be unsexy. I totally get it and understand. We often find ourselves unmotivated to just even start. Our checklist is next to us but then we seem to use every excuse and distraction to delay us from diving into what needs to be done. This is where determination kicks in. If you truly want to succeed you have to start. There is no magic pill, secret sauce or easy button – the magic is in the action. Here are a couple ways to
help you navigate the work: • Do it with purpose. Don’t confuse purpose with passion. Many of us lead with passion because we are ready for an end result such as a paycheck or an award. At the end of the day, purpose will prevail due to it being your calling. Many people working in corporate or as an entrepreneur lead with purpose because it’s what we truly love doing. We wouldn’t endure the sacrifices, long nights, stress if we weren’t truly doing it for purpose. I’m not saying you can’t have passion about your purpose, but make sure purpose is your number one focus. • Don’t skip the steps. Make a plan. Want to move up the corporate ladder? Map out a 5-year plan on how you’re going to get to your desired position(s). Along the way you may need to complete additional educational or professional development courses. Do them. You can’t jump from an assistant to the vice president overnight. • Do it over time. There is no
such thing as an overnight success. Social media can be very misleading where people seem to pop out of nowhere with the perception that are doing great things. Most certainly, they have been working hard at their career or business for a while, but their work is just now starting to “bloom” from the seeds they have planted. Stay consistent and you will see growth soon. • Do the work. There isn’t much explanation needed for this one. You have to devote the time, sweat and tears into making your goals realities. Seek out mentors that will help you stay accountable, steer towards what you need to do, and give constructive criticism (and not just a pat on the back). Wake up, get dressed and do the work, every day.
ment program which emphasizes utilization of designated minority firms. The SBA is a proven example of the value of this program. This agency’s Black procurement levels are at 34 percent which leads all other agencies by far. During the second Bush administration, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson committed his procurement to 8(a) utilization. His agency approached the 30 percent Black procurement level during his tenure. The Congressional Black Caucus formally recognized his achievement. Secretary Jackson is no longer at HUD and those numbers have shrunk. Today, HUD is at 5.9 percent. The NBCC encourages all decision makers and associations of influence to encourage our federal agencies to improve their
status of Black business procurement. Positive activity will result in an improved overall economy and increased employment levels. The federal government is the No. 1 business customer. Improved performance will strengthen the weakest link of our economic chain. Here is our strategy to increase the numbers: • Contact each agency head and inform him/her of their procurement level status. Suggest increased utilization of the SBA 8(a) program on a recurring basis. • Encourage our members to apply for 8(a) status. • Make quarterly updates on Black procurement status for each agency and follow up with correspondence to agency heads. • Worldwide marketing and publicity.
• Garner Trump administration support. Here is a few federal agencies and their current procurement rates: Labor, 9.3 percent; Transportation, 3.2 percent; Treasury, 2.8 percent; Agriculture, 2.6 percent; Homeland Security, 2.3 percent; Justice, 2.1 percent. The 1.3 percent total Black procurement is intolerable! We must all come together and improve this performance. Business growth, employment and economic empowerment are at stake.
Need more motivation? Stay connected with me at www. morganaowens.com and IG miss_morgan86.
Harry C. Alford is the cofounder and president/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC). Kay DeBow is the NBCC co-founder. Contact them via www.nationalbcc.org.
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FBI: Army veteran planned ‘mass casualties’ BY RICHARD WINTON AND JAMES QUEALLY LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS
LOS ANGELES – A San Fernando Valley man planned to detonate improvised explosive devices at several Southern California locations to cause “mass casualties” in a terror plot thwarted by law enforcement officials, authorities said Monday. Mark Steven Domingo, 26, an Army veteran from Reseda, was arrested the night of April 26 after he took delivery of what he thought was a live bomb from an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a bomb maker, officials said. He was charged with attempting to provide materiel support to terrorists. According to a federal affidavit, “after considering various attacks — including targeting Jews, churches and police officers — Domingo decided to detonate an IED at a rally scheduled to take place in Long Beach this past weekend.
Hundreds of nails As part of the plot, Domingo asked his confederate — who actually was cooperating with the FBI as part of the investigation — to find a bomb maker, and Domingo last week purchased several hundred nails to be used as shrapnel inside the IED.” “Domingo said he specifically bought 3-inch nails because they would be long enough to penetrate the human body and puncture internal organs,” the affidavit states. John C. Demers, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department national security division, said Domingo wanted to use improvised explosive devices that “would make the bombs even more deadly to the victims he targeted.”
Extremist comments Prosecutors said Domingo sought retribution for the attacks on New Zealand mosques and said he was willing to become a martyr. “There must be retribution,” he said in an online post, according to the federal criminal complaint. He also allegedly expressed allegiance to Islamic State. “America needs another vegas event … (to) give them a taste of the terror they gladly spread all over the world,” Domingo al-
DANIA MAXWELL/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS
A board is displayed during a press conference to discuss the arrest of Mark Steven Domingo, who allegedly plotted terror attacks targeting southland sites, at the Federal Building on Monday, April 29, in Los Angeles. legedly wrote in reference to the massacre at the Route 91 concert in October 2017. FBI Special Agent Tasha Coolidge described Domingo’s plans in a 30-page affidavit. After federal authorities saw his extremist comments online, an informant made contact with him. During a drive March 18, Domingo pointed out possible targets, including “police cars, churches and a National Guard Armory” to the person he believed to be his co-conspirator, Coolidge said.
‘Murder me’ The veteran said he didn’t plan on getting away: “Martyrdom, bro.” Domingo talked about using guns to conduct an attack, but the confidential informant suggested he knew someone who could make IEDS. “That is even better,” Domingo said, according
to court records. In a subsequent meeting, Domingo used the Arabic word for “nonbelievers” and said they were to blame for starting it, but “I am gonna finish it.” “Murder me. Kill me. I’ll die Shadid,” he declared, according to the affidavit. The Arabic word means “strong or powerful, and brave.”
Attack on ‘freeway’ Court records went on to detail an April 3 meeting in which Domingo proposed killing police officers and military service personnel in Los Angeles. He said he wanted a large-scale attack, something like “an IED here, on the freeway.” “Make ’em bleed, like in Ramadi,” he said, referencing the bloody battleground city in the Iraq war. Domingo said the attack would be revenge for “our brothers in Christchurch and our
sisters who were slaughtered,” the documents read. On April 19, the Army veteran’s talk escalated, and he arrived at a meeting wearing camouflage pants and holding a backpack with an AK-47-style rifle, according to the affidavit. He said he was prepared to commit “jihad.” After talk about a drive-by shooting using the assault rifle, officials said he ended up planning to target rallies in Long Beach and Huntington Beach. Worried those events might be canceled, he also considered blowing up the Santa Monica Pier as it would be “crowded,” documents show.
Finally arrested When the informant told Domingo the Long Beach rally would happen, he proceeded with a plan to plant IEDs there, according to the affidavit. At that point, an undercover investiga-
tor joined the supposed plot as a bomb maker. On April 26, the informant and undercover investigator gave Domingo what he thought were active bombs, and they drove to Bluff Park to scope out the location for the attack. Domingo said if he survived the bombing, he also planned to attack the Port of Long Beach to disrupt the U.S. economy, records show. On Friday night, after the trio left the park and Domingo carried the IEDs to his car, FBI agents arrested him. The terror plot was uncovered less than 48 hours after a gunman opened fire inside a San Diego County synagogue, killing one woman and wounding several others in what law enforcement officials are investigating as an anti-Semitic hate crime.
Abrams will not run for Senate in Georgia BY SIMONE PATHE CQ-ROLL CALL/TNS
WASHINGTON – Stacey Abrams will not challenge Georgia Sen. David Perdue in 2020. “The fights to be waged require a deep commitment to the job, and I do not see the U.S. Senate as the best role for me in this battle for our nation’s future,” Abrams said in a video posted on Twitter on Tuesday morning. The former state House minority leader, who narrowly lost a bid to become America’s first Black female governor last fall, said she will do “everything in her power” to help Georgia elect a Democrat to the Senate in 2020. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the 2020 Georgia Senate race Leans Republican.
Vague about future Abrams did not give too many hints as to what she’s planning to do instead. “While I still don’t know exactly what’s next for me, here’s what I do know: Democracy in America is under attack. Voter suppression is rampant and it is real,” she said. Abrams formally introduced herself on the national stage earlier this year by giving the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/TNS
Then-presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks as sons Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and daughter Ivanka Trump look on during the grand opening of the Trump International Hotel on Oct. 26, 2016 in Washington, D.C.
Trump sues to stop bank from giving records to Congress BY PETER BLUMBERG AND ROBERT BURNSON BLOOMBERG NEWS/TNS ALYSSA POINTER/ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION/TNS
Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams speaks to her supporters during her election night watch party at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta on Nov. 7, 2018.
President Donald Trump sued to block Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp. from complying with congressional subpoenas targeting his bank records, escalating the president’s showdown with Democratic lawmakers investigating his finances. The legal maneuver follows reports from last week that the German bank had started the process of giv-
ing documents related to loans made to Trump and his businesses to the New York state attorney general, who is conducting her own probe. “The subpoenas were issued to harass President Donald J. Trump, to rummage through every aspect of his personal finances, his businesses, and the private information of the President and his family, and to ferret about for any material that might be used to cause him political damage,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the introduction to the 13-page complaint filed Monday in Manhattan federal court.
Kids join lawsuit Joining Trump as plaintiffs were his eldest children, Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka Trump, as well as the Trump Organization, the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust and other entities affiliated with the president’s family. The complaint is very similar to one Trump filed last week in Washington to block Elijah Cummings, the Maryland Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, from getting records held by Trump’s longtime accounting firm Mazars USA LLP.
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Lora King holds a photograph of her late father while standing at the front entrance of her home in San Pedro, Calif. on April 26.
TRYING TO KEEP RODNEY KING’S MEMORY ALIVE BY ANGELA JENNINGS LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS
LOS ANGELES – His name once was synonymous with police brutality. Angry mobs shouted it as they torched buildings. And in some circles, the riots that erupted in the streets of Los Angeles in April 1992 bore his name. The social upheaval and chaotic violence inspired by Rodney G. King — a Black motorist whom Los Angeles Police Department officers bashed with batons and boots 56 times, a trauma that was captured on video and replayed across the world — became a defining moment in the history of Los Angeles, policing and race relations. But for all the ways that King, who died in 2012, lives on in history and in pop culture, there’s no lasting testament in L.A.’s
vast landscape that marks his memory. “Some people saw Rodney King as a flawed martyr,” Kerman Maddox, a public affairs consultant who launched a recall effort against then-LAPD Chief Daryl Gates after the beating, wrote in an email. “Whether fair or not, his brushes with law enforcement before and after that brutal beating tainted his image and reputation with some folks.”
Financial support Now Lora King, his daughter, is working to change that. On Monday, the 27th anniversary of the start of the L.A. riots, she launched the “I am a King” scholarship to celebrate Black fathers. Its mission is to provide financial support for Black dads like her own so that they can play a more active role in their
JAY L. CLENDENIN/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS
Rodney Glen King is photographed in the Los Angeles Times studio on March 14, 2012. On June 17, 2012, he died of accidental drowning at his home at age 47. children’s lives. The scholarship, which would be issued periodically and range in value, would cover activity costs as small as dinner and a game of miniature golf, and as large as an all-expenses-paid trip to Disneyland. A prominent private tech entrepreneur has given $10,000 to establish the fund, and others have promised to contribute, said King, who also hopes to solicit donations from the public.
Spent on daughter
KIRK MCKOY/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS
Rioters are seen at the corner of Florence and Normandie avenues during the riots in Los Angeles on April 29, 1992.
King, 35, hopes to remove the financial barriers that sometimes get in the way of paying for bond-building outings. Those were the type of obstacles removed from Rodney King’s life when the city awarded him $3.8 million in damages. He used that money to expose his daughter to a life outside South L.A. They went skiing at Mount Baldy, surfing at Venice Beach and attended too many art exhibitions to count, she said. Rodney King poured resources into furthering her talents — paying for leadership camps and art programs. See KING, Page B2
ON THE 27TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE L.A. RIOTS, DAUGHTER LAUNCHES SCHOLARSHIP TO HONOR HER DAD AND BLACK FATHERS.
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FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR
ARIANNA GRANDE
The singer’s Sweetener World Tour stops at Amalie Arena on May 28.
Fort Lauderdale: The Broward County Chamber of Commerce will present its South Florida Business Conference & Expo 2019 on May 9 from 3 to 8 p.m. at the Renaissance Fort Lauderdale Cruise Port Hotel. www.SouthFloridaExpo.com Jacksonville: India.Arie performs April 30 at the Florida Theatre Jacksonville. West Palm Beach: Catch Chick Corea and Bela Fleck on May 17 at the Kravis center. Orlando: The Temptations will perform April 30 at the Dr. Phillips Center. Miami Gardens: The Sgt. LaDavid T. Johnson Memorial Day Breakfast is 9-11 a.m. May 27 at the Betty T. Ferguson Recreational Complex. Tickets: cmgmemorialday.eventbrite.com Jacksonville: Catch Kem on May 4 at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts.
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Fort Lauderdale: Macy Gray performs May 5 at the Parker Playhouse.
The Millennium Tour stops at Jacksonville’s Vystar Veterans Area on May 10, Amalie Arena in Tampa on May 11 and Miami’s AmericanAirlinesArena on May 12. Performers include B2K, Mario, Pretty Ricky, Lloyd, Bobby V, Ying Yang Twins & Chingy.
KING from B1 He also devoted much of the remainder of his 47 years to preaching racial reconciliation and helping others struggling to break free of substance addiction, which he’d suffered as a consequence of his beating.
No monument Yet there is no statue for Rodney King like the sculpture erected off Crenshaw Boulevard for civil rights activist Celes King III; no street intersection that carries his name like Crenshaw and Slauson Avenue will for slain rapper and entrepreneur Nipsey Hussle; no park or plaque like the downtown space dedicated to Biddy Mason, a former slave who became a wealthy landowner. By giving to other children what her father gave her, Lora King hopes to keep her dad’s memory alive. “Who knows if they will ever acknowledge him in the way that they should,” she said. “He really didn’t care for that. He just cared about making a difference in people’s lives and creating change.”
Started foundation Lora King said she’s now carrying the torch that her father struggled to bear. She stood alongside prominent civil rights leaders at her father’s funeral to remind people to continue the fight for equality. Three years ago, she created an organization in his honor, the Rodney King Foundation for Social Justice and Human Rights. But she labored to get it off the ground as she juggled work and parenthood. Still, she was able to use the foundation as a platform to meet with the Los Angeles Police Department, where she spoke with youngsters about deescalating situations involving police. She also has spoken at Black His tory Month events and was the special guest at the Network of Korean-American Leaders gala last year. Recently, she left her job as an administrative assistant at a law firm to head the foundation full time.
How to apply The scholarship is one of many initiatives to come that will cement her father’s legacy, she said. Some community activists agree. “It’s going to make the
kids look at their dads as hero,” said Edna De Leon, educational director of Red Eye Inc., which operates the Watts Empowerment Center, an organization Lora King asked to help her find the first award recipient. De Leon said active single Black dads are “not the narrative that we see most of the time.” King’s scholarship will counter that, she said. To apply, Black fathers will need to go to the foundation’s website [Rodneyking.org] and submit a picture and a short essay detailing their plans with the scholarship money. King hopes to distribute the first awards on Father’s Day — the day she lost her dad and the day she is expected to deliver her first son. “I want to help build up what was burnt down,” she said.
A polarizing figure The unemployed construction worker was out on parole and had been drinking on the night of March 3, 1991, when officers pulled him over on Foothill Boulevard. He was acting erratically when he stepped out of the car. LAPD officers surrounded him, shot him with Tasers and struck him over and over again in the head and body with a 2-footlong solid piece of aluminum. They stomped on him with the soles of their boots. The whir of helicopters roused George Holliday from his sleep. He grabbed his video camera and pressed record. The grainy footage exposed the mistreatment that Black people had long suffered at the hands of police — decades before the era of Black Lives Matter, when victims of police violence became hashtags and cellphones captured viral videos of police shootings of unarmed black men.
‘The Riot Within’ The video jarred L.A. and the nation. Rodney King was instantly heralded as a latter-day civil rights icon. Critics of King saw him as a complex man who attracted trouble and did not find him worthy of the exalted status of a Rosa Parks or Malcolm X. It was an unwanted celebrity that King grappled with, he would later say in interviews and in his book, “The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption.” “Rodney King was never comfortable with the role that history and the com-
munity wanted to assign him,” said community activist and King’s acquaintance Najee Ali, “that, just because he was beat by police, that he should’ve automatically been a criminal justice reform activist.”
Acquittal, riots Four policemen — Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and officers Timothy E. Wind, Laurence M. Powell and Theodore J. Briseno — faced trial for the beating. A jury with no Black people on it acquitted all of them April 29, 1992. Angry demonstrators clustered on corners, set fire to entire blocks, looted stores and assaulted bystanders. Civic leaders pleaded for calm. The third day of the riots, Rodney King made a passionate plea before television cameras: “Can we all get along?” Over the years, his famous words have been twisted by pop culture and contorted into a punchline that he never said: “Can’t we all just get along?”
54 deaths The six days of violence became known by different names depending on who you ask. To some, it was an uprising, a revolt, a rebellion or simply the “Rodney King riots.” By any name, they resulted in 54 deaths and nearly $1 billion in property damage. The next year, the four officers were tried in federal court on charges of violating King’s civil rights. Two were convicted and went to jail. Gates stepped down as LAPD chief. In the generation that followed, the LAPD began to implement reforms recommended by the Christopher Commission that reverberate today throughout the department.
Policing changes The force is more diverse, there’s greater transparency and a different approach to policing, according to Los Angeles Times coverage, but much work remains to rebuild trust. Years after King’s death, Police Chief Charlie Beck said, “His legacy should not be the struggles and troubles of his personal life, but the immensely positive change his existence wrought on this city and its Police Department.” Today, much of that legacy is fading from memory. The riots are not required teaching in Los Angeles Unified School District classrooms, although some teachers incorporate King into their lesson plans.
Miami Gardens: Music in the Park featuring the Soul Groove Band and Yamin Mustafa is 6:30 p.m. May 3 at Rolling Oaks Park. Info: 305-474-3011 Tampa: “Stand Up for Innocence,’’ hosted by the Innocence Project of Florida, is a 7:30 p.m. May 18 comedy show to raise money for wrongfully convicted individuals. Tickets and sponsorships: https://www.floridainnocence. org/stand-up-2019
“He’s not fitting the image as someone you think of as a superhero,” said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable. “You couldn’t point — other than he got beat and the video — you couldn’t really name one thing he contributed to.”
Nipsey Hussle comparison Hutchinson said King’s legacy contrasts with that of Nipsey Hussle, born Ermias Asghedom. The rapper’s violent death last month made him a martyr fighting for his neighborhood, in the eyes of many. In turn, the community rallied to get the inter-
section where Hussle grew up, and owned and operated a business, named after him, and they spray-painted his face on buildings all around the city. But Lora King said her father’s legacy now will live on — through her. “As long as I continue to follow my vision, he will always be represented.”
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Nearly everyone wishes for an extra hour or two in the day. When juggling evenings filled with homework, practices, games and last-minute art projects, even just 60 extra minutes could make the difference in finding time to whip up a dinner you can be proud of. While there’s no changing the fact that there are 24 hours each day, there are some time-saving options for creating family dinners that feel like they’ve come together “on-demand.”
Cube, spiralize or pound No matter what shape you choose, decreasing the thickness of your ingredients is key to helping them cook through quickly. Think chicken breast cut into hunks for kabobs, thinly sliced Korean-style beef or zucchini turned into “zoodles.” With increased surface area and high heat, you may be surprised at just how quick you can have food on your plate.
Homemade tasting, on-demand sides Rounding out your menu with easy-to-make sides can be a huge time-saver, and you sacrifice nothing if you rely on choices that deliver the same taste as if you had prepared them from scratch. For example, Idahoan Mashed Potatoes are real potatoes, real easy, delivering homemade taste on-demand. Made from 100 percent real Idaho potatoes, they can be served in just minutes and offer high-quality taste and texture, just like homemade. The variety of flavors are perfectly blended with real cheese and authentic seasonings, and options include Buttery Homestyle, Roasted Garlic, Cheddar & Sour Cream, Loaded Baked and more, so you can find a match for just about any meal.
Marinate meat before freezing A rich marinade can add delightful flavor to a wide range of proteins, but marinating a dish takes time. Speed up the clock by marinating meat ahead of time before freezing it. Then, on a busy weeknight, all you have to do is thaw and cook for a well-seasoned meal in minutes.
Pre-cut veggies, cut down prep Prepping vegetables is sometimes half the battle. From washing produce to peeling and chopping, precious time sometimes passes before ingredients even begin cooking.
Make dinner prep less time-consuming Washed and pre-chopped veggies are ready to go right in the pan so you can enjoy fresh flavors almost instantly.
Rethink leftovers The remains from a delicious dinner shouldn’t go to waste, and they don’t have to if you repurpose them into another meal. For example, you could reimagine grilled or roasted chicken into soft tacos or a proteinrich salad. Or you can add protein and seasonings to leftover pasta for a whole new meal. If you find the fridge full of odds and ends, make it a reheat-andeat, quick smorgasbord meal. After all, what often matters most is that everyone eats a nourishing meal together, whether the same exact foods are on their plate or not. It can be even better when this nourishing meal comes together in the blink of an eye. Find more tips and ideas for creating delectable family dinners at Idahoan.com.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES/TNS
A few changes can save families a lot of time on dinner preparation.
How to create a smoky CUBANO SANDWICH
FROM FAMILY FEATURES
For flavor fans, there is nearly no better combo than the complementary tastes in a Cubano sandwich. Complete with layers of roast pork, ham, soft swiss cheese, mustard and topped with tangy pickles, all the flavors and textures play in concert. For an upgrade on the classic sandwich, try this version from
Sammy Hagar, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, who’s known for his riff on the iconic recipe. He takes his favorite sandwich to the next level by adding a smoky kick. “The Cubano has everything I love in a sandwich: gooey melted cheese and a crispy, crunchy crust on the bread,” Hagar said. “It's great to be able to get all the flavors in each bite. It has pickles and
mustard that cut through the rich cheese and pork. When you splash a little Tabasco on it, you get the last perfect ingredients – flavor and heat.” Find his signature sandwich at Sammy’s Beach Bar & Grill locations throughout the country, or try creating Sammy’s Cubano Sandwich at home with this recipe. For more recipes, visit Tabasco.com/recipe.
SAMMY’S CUBANO SANDWICH Cook time: 3 hours and 30 minutes Servings: 6 Mojo Marinade: 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 cup cilantro, minced 3/4 cup orange juice 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice 3 tablespoons fresh garlic, minced 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced 2 teaspoons cumin, ground kosher salt, to taste coarse black pepper, to taste Sandwich: 3 1/2 pounds pork shoulder or boneless pork butt 2 teaspoons Tabasco Chipotle Sauce 3 tablespoons mayonnaise 6 pieces Cuban bread or baguette (6 inches each), cut lengthwise 8 ounces deli ham, thinly sliced 1/2 pound swiss cheese, thinly sliced 24 dill pickle chips 4 tablespoons yellow mustard 1 cup unsalted butter 4 tablespoons reserved Mojo Marinade To make Mojo Marinade: In bowl, whisk olive oil, cilantro, orange juice, lime juice, garlic, oregano, cumin, salt and pepper until incorporated. Adjust salt and pepper, to taste. Reserve 4 tablespoons marinade in separate bowl, cover and set aside in refrigerator. Place pork in large zip-top bag. Cover with Mojo Marinade and close bag. Place in roasting pan and refrigerate overnight. Heat oven to 450 F. Remove pork and marinade from bag and place in roasting pan. Cover with foil and cook in oven 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, reduce heat to 375 F, remove foil and cook 2 hours until internal temperature reaches 175 F and pork is fork tender at thickest part. Remove from oven and let rest 20 minutes before slicing. In small bowl, mix chipotle sauce and mayonnaise until fully incorporated. Spread mixture on bottom bread slice. On top bread slice, place two slices deli ham, 3-4 ounces roasted pork, two slices swiss cheese, 4-6 pickles and yellow mustard. Over medium-high heat, butter flat surface of griddle and add reserved Mojo Marinade while butter is melting. Place assembled sandwiches on griddle, pressing grill weight or heavy skillet on top of sandwiches. Cook until bottoms are golden brown and cheese is melted.