Nearly half of all American senior citizens die broke: study Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/american-senior-citizens-die-broke-study-article-1.1130662#ixzz23M1s1rQO

Researchers from Harvard, MIT and Dartmouth also found a ‘strong correspondence’ between lifespan and how much money seniors have.

ANDREW BRET WALLIS/GETTY IMAGES

http://www.nydailynews.com

Nearly half of all Americans reach the end of their lives “with virtually no financial assets” after spending years dependent on Social Security, a new study found.

About 46 percent of U.S. senior citizens die with less than $10,000 in total financial assets, according to James Poterba of MIT, Steven Venti of Dartmouth College and David A. Wise of Harvard University, the co-authors of the study.

They factored in assets such as stocks and bonds as well as cash savings.

“There are substantial groups that have basically no financial cushion as they are reaching their latest years,” said Poterba, an economics professor at MIT.

That lack of a cushion makes sudden financial burdens like medical treatments not covered by Medicare or Medicaid even more difficult for seniors to bear.

The study also found a “strong correspondence” between wealth and lifespan, with seniors who had more assets – including home equity and savings – tending to live longer than those who had less.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/american-senior-citizens-die-broke-study-article-1.1130662#ixzz23M1k03A8

Out of Beer? Man Calls 911

ABC News

 

Alyssa Newcomb

Some may think of running out of beer on a Saturday night as a minor emergency.

For Allen Troy Brooks, it was a reason to call 911.
"Hey, you want to take me to the store?" Brooks, a 67-year-old man from Columbia, Tenn., asked the 911 dispatcher. "I want to go to the store to get me a beer. I'll pay you."
"OK. Sir. I can't take you to the store to get a beer," the dispatcher said.
Undeterred, Brooks told the dispatcher she could "come now."
"No sir," she said. "You've got 911."
Brooks was arrested for making 911 calls in a non-emergency. He contends he incorrectly dialed and was trying to reach his friend.
Brooks had called 911 11 times in the past month. Many of the calls were hang-ups, police told ABC News' Nashville affiliate WKRN.
Brooks was taken to jail and released on a $1,500 bond.

Stop pretending racism is over

Last Sunday night, I was running down a street near Harvard Yard, trying to get to Harvard Square Station in time to catch a bus. I was wearing, backwards, my Houston Texans hat, a “Cosby Show” T-shirt, and khaki shorts. I had my Mizzou “Summer Welcome 2010” bag over my shoulder. I wasn’t sprinting, but I was moving pretty quickly (for me, anyway). I passed a group of four strangers who looked somewhere between 17 and 21.

As I ran by, one of the guys, a white guy, yelled out, “Bro, you running from the cops or something?” One woman added, “What’d you steal this time?”

Surely, I’d heard wrong. I stopped and turned around. “Are you kidding me?” I asked. The group seemed tipsy and unapologetic. “We’re just messing around,” one said. “We saw a black guy running at night, so why wouldn’t we say that?” asked another, indifferently.

The exchange quickly grew heated, with me trying to explain to them why their comments were inappropriate. They weren’t having any of it. They refused to understand why their words were offensive. They told me I needed to lighten up, and “learn to take a joke.” Rather than fight, I walked on to the station.

The whole encounter took 60 seconds.

To me, the analysis of what happened is simple. Four people, none of whom were black, saw a young black guy running down the street late at night. For whatever reason, they decided to say some dumb things.

But discussing anything about race in the 21st century is rarely straightforward. The people didn’t call me the N-word, or any other slur. They probably all have at least a handful of black friends. They didn’t try to beat me up. There are other possible explanations: Maybe it was my age, or that my hat was on backwards. Maybe it was how fast I was running. Maybe the same thing would happen to one of my white peers.

Maybe.

But probably not.

It wasn’t easy to write about the incident. For one, should I really complain? Most other black and brown folks have it worse than I do. I am a 24-year-old black male at Harvard Divinity School, an elite institution. My parents earned law degrees at Texas. I got most of what I wanted growing up. I have as much food as I want. This is — for some — the best time in US history to have dark skin.

For some.

To the group who yelled those things at me, it didn’t matter that I’m the incoming student body president at Harvard Divinity School. It didn’t matter that I’m the ministerial intern at First Parish Cambridge (Unitarian Universalist). All that mattered was my skin color, that it was night, and that I was running. Too often for black and brown men and women who are targeted throughout our country, that’s all that matters. It could have been worse.

My faith teaches me that every person has inherent worth and dignity. Every person matters. I don’t hate those strangers who loudly suggested that I must be a criminal, “joking” or not. I don’t suddenly hate white people because of the actions of a few.

What I want is for us to stop pretending. I want us to stop pretending that racism is over. If it were, tipsy strangers wouldn’t have heckled me. I want us to stop pretending that it’s not harder to be female than male, that it’s not harder to be gay than straight. I want us to stop pretending that we live in an equal society. We don’t. It isn’t one person or one group’s fault. Instead of blaming or evading, we can encourage and confront, together. Instead of pretending that all these “isms” are over, we can say “Things are better than they’ve ever been, and there’s so much more to be done.”

A few days removed from our nation’s birthday, strangers tried to send a message that this nation is more theirs than mine. I know better. If we’re the land of the free, we should all be free to chase down a bus in Harvard Square without being called a criminal. We have more work to do.

Kenny Wiley is a seminarian at Harvard Divinity School.

Top recruit collapses in court after receiving three-year prison sentence

By Jeff Eisenberg | The Dagger 

Instead of sifting through scholarship offers, selecting a school and launching his college basketball career as he originally planned, an Ohio high school standout will have to put his dreams on hold.

Tony Farmer, an 18-year-old senior at Garfield Heights High School, received a three-year prison sentence on Tuesday as a result of pleading guilty to kidnapping, felonious assault and other crimes.

The 6-foot-7 forward had been hoping to receive probation after teachers, coaches and family members testified on his behalf. When he learned he'd be going to prison as the judge read his sentence, he crumpled into the arms of a sheriff's deputy and collapsed to the ground in anguish.

In an odd twist, among those in the gallery sobbing in reaction to the judge's decision was the victim herself, Farmer's ex-girlfriend Andrea Lane. Even though the two remain separated since Farmer attacked Lane last April after she didn't want to reconcile their relationship, Lane had previously asked Judge Pamela Barker not to put Farmer in prison.

"I know he was a good person," she said, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "I hope he still is."

The entire courtroom scene is depressing and hard to watch because Farmer had such a bright future prior to this incident. Before video cameras caught his altercation with Lane on tape last April in the lobby and parking lot of her apartment complex, Farmer was a consensus top 100 prospect who had drawn interest from the likes of Ohio State, Xavier, Dayton and Michigan State.

What Farmer did was unequivocally wrong and the punishment he received from Barker is appropriate. But unless Barker reduces Farmer's sentence when she reviews it in 180 days, his hopes of playing major college basketball are likely now over.

When Did Being ‘Black And Proud’ Become Racist?

In the frenzied days since Dominique Dawes, the first African-American gymnast to win a gold medal in Olympics history, cried a river of deep emotion over the record-shattering wins of 16-year-old Gabrielle Douglas at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the conversation in America — specifically in Black America — has entered interesting territory.

For many, it’s “living in the past” to recognizeBlack achievement.

RELATED:

Gabrielle Douglas Becomes 1st Black Woman To Win Gold In All-Around Event

Gabrielle Douglas Helps Gymnastics Team Win Gold Medal

Yes, apparently in the mind of the Neo-Negro, it is segregationism to acknowledge the race of a sister or a brother because mainstream media doesn’t do the same. If they are American, the Neo-Negro claims, then that is all that matters.

Dawes, thankfully, disagrees.

“Us gymnasts are usually so composed,” she said, contagiously sobbing through an interview withFOX Sports. “I am so thrilled for Gabby … I’m so thrilled to change my website and take down the fact that I was the only African American with a gold medal.”

Well, according to the word on Assimilation Street, Dawes shouldn’t be excited at all. The people that live there argue that what Gabby has accomplished transcends her Blackness to the point of making it a mere footnote, and to place special emphasis on her race is to diminish her global achievement.

There have been racist White websites that wasted no time questioning her win. According to them, Russia’s Viktoria Komova was the more skilled performer. There have been chuckles that Gabby was handed an “affirmation action” win that she really didn’t deserve; yet, some of us, like puppets on a string, are willing to deny the rockiness of her road to success — yes, based on race — because we still want to fit into the dominant culture instead of standing out and inviting scrutiny of our Blackness.

As reported by Yahoo Sports:

In January, a fact sheet released by the National Women’s Law Center reported that less than two-thirds of African-American and Hispanic girls play sports, while more than three-quarters of Caucasian girls do. And a 2007 diversity study commissioned by USA Gymnastics, the national governing body for the sport in the U.S., said that just 6.61 percent of the participants in American gymnastics programs were black (10.67 percent are Asian and 74.46 percent are Caucasian). Members of USA Gymnastics—coaches, judges or athletes who participate in its sanctioned events—responded to (and within) the survey in a variety of ways, many of them unsympathetic: “This is just another example of political correctness gone CRAZY!” Said another: “As a middle class, white Christian male, is the NBA doing any “reach out” programs to me and my family?” And another advised: “Start programs in low income areas. Once people understand you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to teach and coach gymnastics, it will flourish. We are too elitist to appeal to the masses.”

It is a study in ignorance for Black people to ignore those facts, especially when in favor of mainstream America’s need to own Gabrielle’s victory as its own with no strings of Blackness attached.

Sadly, our sisters aren’t celebrated enough, even by other Black people. People of color, with societal forces often playing a role and by sheer virtue of numbers, often have a more narrow road to global success. Many of us are proud to acknowledge the disciplined will and level of excellence this kind of achievement takes.  These history making performances motivate others — regardless of race, ethnicity or class — to do the same and that is something for which we all can be proud.

It’s a funny thing about Neo-Negroes.  They bemoan the state of the hood and “Black-on-Black” crime. They are first in line to cast judgement on the Black teenage mother, the Black high school drop-out and the Black deadbeat father. But when it comes to simply acknowledging the journey to excellence, and the special circumstances that many Black people go through to achieve it, all of sudden it’s not “Black” achievement — it’s everyone’s achievement.

I don’t know about you, but something isn’t adding up — and that something says quite a bit about how some of  us internalize negative stereotypes and prejudiced definitions of “Blackness.”

This Olympic Games I have been beyond proud of Usain Bolt of Jamaica, Gabrielle Douglas, Venus Williams, Serena Williams of the United States, Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia, and Sally Kipyego and Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya. My pride for them extends beyond the Red, White and Blue and deep down into that space that recognizes, understands and applauds the racial roadblocks in their personal journey that they have overcome. They are Black members of humanity, and acknowledging one shouldn’t cancel out the other.

To the Neo-Negro, I would simply say see the video below — just in case you need a refresher course.

White Children More Likely to Receive Head CTs - Diagnostic Imaging

http://medicalxpress.com

White children more likely to receive CT scans than Hispanic or African-American children August 6, 2012 in Health White children are more likely to receive cranial (head) CT scans in an emergency department following minor head trauma, compared with African-American or Hispanic children, a study published by researchers at UC Davis has found. Ads by Google Informatics - Health Care - Health Informatics Program, Online! Masters Degree from UIC. No GRE. - HealthInformatics.UIC.edu Blue Cross Blue Shield GA - (Official Site) Get A Free Quote! Low Cost Health Insurance Coverage - BCBSGA.com The study findings do not indicate that CT (computed tomography) scans are underused in African-American and Hispanic children. Rather, the researchers suggested that white children may receive too many CT scans and thus may be exposed to unnecessary radiation. The results are online and appear in the August issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine in an article titled, "Cranial computed tomography use among children with minor blunt head trauma: Association with race/ethnicity." "We found that although the use of CT scans was appropriate across all racial groups for those children at higher risk of a brain injury following apparently minor head trauma, for children with only minimal risk, CT was overused in white children," said JoAnne E. Natale, associate professor of pediatric critical care medicine at UC Davis School of Medicine and the study's lead author, who presented her preliminary findings at the American College of Emergency Physicians Scientific Assembly last October. "In many instances, doctors appear to be responding to parental anxiety rather than medical evidence," Natale said. Cranial CT scans are commonly used in emergency departments for children and adults after head trauma to determine whether bleeding or swelling is occurring in the brain, conditions that could be life threatening. 

These scans use radiation to image the cranium, brain, eye sockets and sinuses. Studies have found that there are potential long-term consequences of CT radiation, particularly for children who are more vulnerable to the cancer-causing effects of radiation. Natale and her colleagues analyzed data collected from the cases of about 40,000 children who were identified as Hispanic, non-Hispanic African American, or non-Hispanic white. Although all of the children had minor head trauma, some could be categorized as being at greater risk of a clinically significant injury and thus requiring a CT scan based on clinical prediction rules. In each case, physicians documented reasons that were most important in influencing the decision, including medical indications as well as non-medical criteria such as parental anxiety or request. Ads by Google X-Ray Tech Programs - Train for a Career as an X-Ray Tech at These Schools Near You. - www.X-RaySchools.net Depression Symptoms - Do You Have Depression? Alot of Doctors With Symptoms Near You - Local.Alot.com The researchers found that the children's race and/or ethnicity did not have an effect on the likelihood of receiving a CT scan in children who were at the greatest risk of a clinically important brain injury; all groups received appropriate diagnostic imaging. However, among lower-risk pediatric patients, white children were more likely to receive a CT scan than were African-American and Hispanic children. In 12 percent of the cases involving white children (with the lowest risk of clinically important brain injury), emergency room physicians cited parental anxiety or parental requests as among the most important criteria in prompting them to order a CT. For the corresponding group of black and Hispanic children, physicians cited parental anxiety/requests in only about 5 percent of pediatric cases involving CT scans for the lowest risk of brain injury. "Our findings highlight that medically irrelevant factors can affect physician decision-making in a way that could harm the patient," said Natale, who also is the medical director of the UC Davis Children's Hospital Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. "This underscores the need for ensuring optimal care for all patients by supporting sound clinical decision-making based on strong empirical evidence." 

The risk of malignancy from CT radiation, particularly in children, has been reported in several studies. A recent article published in The Lancet addressed potential long-term consequences of the radiation from CT scans. It found that children who get two or three CT scans before age 15 triple their risk of developing brain cancer and triple their risk of developing leukemia if they get five to 10 scans. The study noted, however, that the absolute risk of developing cancer remains very small and is outweighed by the benefits of CT if it is indicated. Although a CT scan is clearly indicated in children following moderate or severe head trauma, the indications are less clear for children with minor trauma and depend on whether certain clinical factors are present. In 2009, UC Davis researchers writing in The Lancet developed a set of rules for identifying low-risk patients who would not need a CT. The "prediction rules" for children under 2 and for those 2 and older depended on the presence or absence of various symptoms and circumstances, including the way an injury was sustained, a patient's history of loss of consciousness, neurological status at the time of evaluation and clinical evidence of a skull fracture, among other findings. Both The Lancet study and the current investigation utilized data compiled through a collaborative research effort led by Nathan Kuppermann, senior author of the race/ethnicity article and chair of the UC Davis Department of Emergency Medicine. Under the auspices of the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN), the original study enrolled more than 42,000 children with minor head trauma who were seen at 25 U.S. emergency departments around the nation between 2004 and 2006. "Because of the large numbers of children studied in PECARN emergency departments, this extensive network has made possible numerous studies that would not otherwise be feasible, that answer pressing questions that previously were difficult to study," said Kuppermann, who is a professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine. "The results of these studies are changing the way we care for children." Kuppermann's research, published in the 2009 Lancet article, found that CT scans are not necessary for children at very low risk of clinically significant traumatic brain injury.

Based on that study, two algorithms were devised (one for children younger than 2 years, the other for those 2 years and older) with specific criteria to guide physicians in deciding whether a CT is necessary for minor head trauma, such as the presence of factors such as altered mental status, history of loss of consciousness, severe headache, signs of skull fracture and vomiting. "Minor head trauma is extremely common in the pediatric population," said Kuppermann. "It is important to use evidence to avoid the inappropriate use of CT and potentially induce harm later in life." In addition to the increased risks posed by radiation exposure, overuse of CT scans in white children also has impacts on overall health-care costs. Natale added that the overuse of such scans is part of a well-documented pattern of providing more care than is necessary to some patients, which in turn places additional burdens on health-care costs. More information: Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2012;166[8]:732-737. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2012;166[8]:770-772. Journal reference: The Lancet Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine Provided by UC Davis 

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-white-children-ct-scans-hispanic.html#jCp

Separated families the worst part of slavery

By D.G. Martin, special to the News of Orange | 

http://m.aconews.com

“Babies was snatched from their mothers’ breasts and sold to speculators. Children was separated from sisters and brothers and never saw each other again. Course they cry; you think they not cry when they was sold like cattle? I could tell you about it all day, but even then you couldn’t guess the awfulness of it.”

These words from a former slave that remind us of one of the great horrors of slavery, the breakup of families, are found in Heather Andrea Williams’s new book, “Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery.”

Williams’s descriptions of scenes of mothers and children being separated and sold to different owners are heartrending persuasion that the worst part of the horrible American system of slavery was not the backbreaking work; it was the destruction of personhood that accompanied the ever-present possibility of break up for every enslaved family group.

Using memories of former slaves, the UNC-Chapel Hill history teacher describes the wrenching partings.

For instance, Thomas Jones recalled being taken away after being sold to a new owner in distant Wilmington: “I was very much afraid and began to cry, holding on to my mother’s clothes, and begging her to protect me, and not let the man take me away… Mother wept bitterly and in the midst of her loud sobbings, cried out in broken words, ‘I can’t save you, Tommy; master has sold you, you must go.’ She held me, sobbing and mourning till [the man] came in, snatched me away, hurried me out of the house where I was born, and tore me away from the dear mother who loved me as no other could.”

How did white participants in the slave system deal with these horrors? Williams introduces us to Obadiah Fields from Rockingham County, who “spent much of his time on the road purchasing people…for sale in South Carolina.”

Fields’s letters to his wife expressed his love for her and their four children. In the same letters he reported the results of his sales, “Rachel $400, Steven $525, Henry $525….”

Williams writes, “Fields was evidently a loving husband and father, and he was a man who broke up other people’s families. … He longed to see his wife and children, … yet he probably did not give a thought to the fact that the people he was selling on the road would likely never find their way back home again.”

Slaves who were separated by sale almost always lost track of their family members forever. Williams says, “Psychologists call this sort of separation ambiguous loss….” It is similar to the disappearance of a loved one when the body is never recovered. No one knows whether the loved one is dead or still alive. Such situations can be even worse than when death is certain. It is, says Williams, the type of loss that thousands of African Americans experienced during slavery.

Williams chronicles efforts of slaves and former slaves, before and after the Civil War, to contact family members. After the war, newspapers were filled with ads like the following published in the “Colored Tennessean” on March 24, 1866:

“Information wanted of our five children, whom we have not seen for four years. Their names are as follows, viz: Josephine, aged 20 years, Celia, aged. … They were in Charlotte, N.C., or at Rock Hill when we last heard from them. Any information concerning these children will be thankfully received by their mother.”

Most of these reconnection efforts were unsuccessful, and not all the successful reunification efforts worked out happily.

Williams’s powerful descriptions of the pain of separation and the determined efforts to reunite require us to reflect with humility on this unfortunate chapter in our history.

Chase Austin could become 3rd African-American driver at Indy 500 after getting Foyt ride

by Associated Press

LEXINGTON, Ohio — Chase Austin has a chance to make history. A.J. Foyt and his racing team would like nothing better.

Austin will try to become only the third African-American driver to compete in the Indianapolis 500 after being selected by Foyt to drive his entry in the 2013 racing classic.

“When I get to Indy, that might be a different thing, I might be, like, ‘Oh, no!’” Austin said with a laugh. “But I believe I’m ready.”

The 22-year-old Austin has been racing since he was 8 years old. He became the youngest driver to sign a driver-development contract in NASCAR when he was 14. He has driven in several series, most recently Indy Lights.

Although he has yet to drive at the highest levels of the sport for very long, Austin was seen as a promising newcomer by Foyt, a four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500. Austin has raced in six NASCAR Nationwide Series races, three in the Truck Series and four in Indy Lights.

“He’s run some stock cars, he’s run some sprint cars, he’s run the dirt — he’s run a lot of races in different types of cars and go-karts,” Foyt said. “He’s won in a lot of different race cars.”

Austin’s big shot at Indy came as a result of talks between Chris Miles of Starting Grid, an advocacy group for minorities in motor sports, and Foyt Racing’s Larry Foyt, son of the former driver and day-to-day head of his racing team.

“I have some friends from the Kansas area who were watching (Austin) coming up and winning everything at the local tracks,” Larry Foyt said. “Then back in February, I told Dad, ‘Hey, you need to watch this kid.’”

Miles is encouraged by the future of minorities in racing and believes Austin will be a success in one of America’s iconic car races.

“We’ve had that privilege of having Chase represent us extremely well,” he said. “I just knew that Chase was the guy.”

The arrangement between Foyt Racing and Austin, announced by A.J. Foyt during qualifying for this weekend’s IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio, is most likely limited to the Indianapolis 500. All sides deflected questions about other races and tests.

If he qualifies for the Indianapolis 500 next May, Austin would follow in the footsteps of Willy T. Ribbs, the first African-American driver at Indy in 1991, and George Mack (2002).

Austin said he did not feel the weight of others’ expectations.

“No, because I really thought to myself, ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ If I don’t make the race, that’s something that happens to a lot of people. But I have the opportunity to race for A.J. Foyt at Indianapolis. That’s what I’m really going to concentrate on.”

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Chronic grief overtaking black communities

Teens gather outside a boarded up house in the 600 block of North Avers on the West Side on Thusday afternoon, soon after the bodies of two slain 16-year-olds — Cornell Ferguson and Johnqualas Turner — were removed from the scene. A third boy boy injured

http://www.suntimes.com

BY MARY MITCHELL marym@suntimes.com

A photograph of the site in the Humboldt Park neighborhood where young people gathered after two teen boys were gunned down Thursday says a lot about the toll violence is taking.

About a dozen or so teens kept a vigil on the steps of a boarded up house in the 600 block of North Avers. As soon as the boys’ bodies were taken away and word spread about the shootings, a monument of balloons and posters sprang up.

Coming after Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy’s contention that the city’s murder total for July was the third-lowest since 1987, the midday shooting was especially alarming.

People expect bad things to happen late at night when teens are on the streets after curfew. But this attack happened before 1 p.m.

McCarthy’s strategy to reduce homicides in the city may have taken hold elsewhere, but not where 16-year-olds Cornell Ferguson and Johnqualas Turner were killed.

The teens collapsed and died in nearby yards. Another teen was treated for a gunshot wound and released from the hospital.

It used to be when a teen was killed under any circumstances, mothers would snatch up their children and keep them inside as if they were trying to hide them from the Angel of Death.

Mourners would stop by the grieving family’s house carrying trays of food and just sit quietly. But the prolonged killings of young black people have resulted in a macabre cultural shift when it comes to the grieving process.

Mourners leave empty liquor bottles and cigarette packages on the spot where the victim died. They order T-shirts with an image of the fallen and distribute them to the dead youth’s family and friends. They string up balloons like they are getting ready for the family reunion picnic.

The Rev. Oscar Crear, pastor of New Tiberia Missionary Baptist Church at 2156 W. Wellington, is one of the pastors called upon to perform funeral services for young people who have no church home.

“People struggle for a long time after a violent death,” Crear told me during a recent interview. “A lot of young people are suffering from chronic grief. They are not handling this very well.”

Some ask, “ ‘How can I bury my son this week and bury your son the following week?’ ” Crear said. “When people go to funeral after funeral it impacts them.”

But there’s a new trend when it comes to expressing grief, Crear pointed out.

For instance, last year Crear was called on to conduct the services for a 21-year-old woman shot in the head during a dice game.

“Her family put up a Facebook page and she got 5,000 likes in three days. At the funeral, nearly 2,000 people showed up. On the way to the cemetery, cars were zig-zagging out of line and people were passing blunts and Hennessy,” Crear said. “That’s the way a lot of young people handle this stuff.”

He argues that the daily violence in black communities has led to chronic grief. It is grief that is driving the violence.

On Sept. 28, Crear’s church, along with Devell Johnson Funeral Service, will present a daylong seminar targeting professionals who come in contact with families when young people are killed.

The conference will include a memorial service for the victims of the gun violence.

“I don’t want to go to another march to stop the violence,” Crear said. “I am weary. I want to bring a group of professionals together for a conference and take a realistic look at this new trend of grief.”

Johnson has buried more young people than old in recent years.

“The big question is, what do we do after the march? After Minister [Louis] Farrakhan goes back home and Jesse [Jackson Sr.] and Al [Sharpton] stop marching. We’ve got to figure it out. It can’t go on like this is normal, with people selling T-shirts and having a big parade,” Johnson said.

“It is getting to the point that they are numb to funerals. This has become an event with people wondering who is going to be next,” he said. “People can’t grieve. They’ve got to go to the next funeral. They don’t feel anything. They shut down.”

McCarthy argues that gang members have a “much higher risk of being involved in violent episodes than anyone else.”

That is certainly the case.

But that doesn’t make the violence any easier to bear. Many of the people outside of gangs — the caregivers, social workers, teachers, relatives and innocents — suffer from the deaths being blamed on those gangs.

In order for the shooting to stop, the healing has to start.

The “House of Pain Educational Conference” is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Sept. 28 at the New Tiberia Baptist Church. For more information, call (773) 880-0920.

Family disputes police report in case of father shot by off-duty cop

by Carrie Healey | 

Christopher Middleton and his daughter Taniyah.

Conflicting reports of what happened after a tragic motorcycle crash involving a 4-year-old girl, Taniyah Middleton, are coming to light. An off-duty officer was riding his motorcycle down First Avenue in Maywood Saturday night around 10 pm. When the officer saw a girl in the street, he jumped off his bike in an effort to avoid her, but his motorcycle hit Taniyah and the cousin she was walking with.

Authorities said Christopher Middleton, the little girl’s 26-year-old father, approached the scene in a rage. According to the Chicago Tribune, Pat Camden, Fraternal Order of Police spokesman, said the officer immediately identified himself, and told Middleton to calm down.  To which Middleton allegedly responded with “I don’t give a f**k,” and punched the officer in the face.

theGrio: Father killed by off-duty cop who ran over his daughter

Maywood village spokesman Larry Shapiro claims that the girl’s 18-year-old cousin, John Passley, of Bellwood, also joined in the attack of the officer by kicking him.  The officer felt he was near losing consciousness when he removed his weapon and fired once, said Shapiro.

Camden stated, “Had the father simply stood there instead of attacking a police officer he might be alive today.”

However, Middleton’s family and friends say the officer never identified himself as a cop before firing. Tanya Jones, Middleton’s fiancee and Taniyah’s mother, told to the Tribune that she approached the scene after the fight had already broke out.  She saw both men trying to get off the ground, when Middleton was shot.  “Chris asked him, ‘Why did you shoot me, why did you shoot me,’ ” Jones said.

“I saw him take his last breath. He was a father trying to protect his daughter. He was never a violent person,” Jones added.  Jones and Middleton also have a 6-year-old son together, and Jones is pregnant with their third child, a girl.

Middleton, the officer, and Taniyah were all taken to Loyola Hospital. A spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office said Middleton was pronounced dead just before 10:30pm.  Both the officer and the child were treated overnight at the hospital for abrasions and contusions.

Follow Carrie Healey on Twitter @CarrieHeals.

NPR Announces Plans To Form Race, Ethnicity Coverage Team At UNITY 2012

LAS VEGAS -- National Public Radio, criticized in recent years for a lack of diversity of its staff and coverage, is using a $1.5 million grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to put together a six-person team to report stories on race, ethnicity and culture.

The national radio program producer and digital news provider was accepting the two-year grant Thursday at UNITY 2012 Convention in Las Vegas, where hundreds of minority and gay and lesbian journalists gathered for the quadrennial convention assembled by UNITY Journalists Inc.

NPR said in a news release that it is using the money to "launch a major storytelling initiative focused on the racial, ethnic, ideological and generational issues that define an increasingly diverse America." The team will include two digital journalists, a correspondent, two reporters and an editor. The team will have a web site and blog within NPR.org.

Gary Knell, NPR CEO and president, said this team approach on race, ethnicity and culture would help "turbocharge" coverage with deeper stories that can make a difference. The grant allows NPR to invest in people who will come to work with race and ethnicity coverage as their first order of business every day, he said.

"There's still too many people who are not really aware of public radio in this country and my hunch is many of them might be minorities who haven't discovered public radio and who we think would be more amenable to tuning in and becoming supporters if they knew the content was more accessible and really aimed to a demographic, that speaks the issues that are of critical importance to Hispanic, African American, Asian American and Native American audiences," Knell said.

Scrutiny of NPR's record on diversity has heightened since the October 2010 firing of commentator Juan Williams, who said on a Fox News Channel that he gets nervous on a plane when he sees Muslims. A recent investigation by NPR's ombudsman found that 87 percent of NPR's audience is white and 23 percent of its newsroom staff – reporters, editors, producers and managers – are racial or ethnic minorities.

Knell, CEO of Sesame Workshop before joining NPR last year, said since he was hired he has been trying to promote diversity in NPR and its audiences in four areas: geographically by doing more stories outside of Washington; demographically by making stories more relevant to different age groups; around thought by bringing in more diverse political voices and around race and ethnicity.

Gregory Lee, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, has met with Knell on diversity. He said he recognizes it takes time to change a culture. The grant will be a chance for NPR to hire journalists capable of working on the stories that will reach more diverse audiences. Although Lee was attending the convention, NABJ ended its partnership with Unity Journalists following a revenue sharing dispute with UNITY Journalists Inc.

"I hope this project serves as an example that these issues should be discussed and covered," Lee said. He added that he hopes to see the journalists and content integrated within the organization's overall coverage, not pushed to a corner.

NPR assured that the race, ethnicity and culture team's work will influence its daily coverage across beats and media platforms. The majority of NPR's finances are from program fees, dues paid by member stations and corporate sponsorships, according to a report on its web site.

NPR does not receive direct federal funding but it competes for grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and from federal agencies, which annually total about $2 million to $3 million.

A Corporation for Public Broadcasting spokeswoman could not be reached by phone or email for comment. Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, said in a prepared news release that increasing service to diverse audiences "is a consideration in virtually every investment we make."

CAMPAIGN TO ELECT BLACK JUDGES HEATS UP

Special to South Florida Times

MIAMI — Angered by what they see as a decades-long pattern of black judges being singled out and defeated during re-election, some African-American lawyers and community activists decided to take a stand, rallying to support a long-serving incumbent in danger of being ousted from the bench.

Miami-Dade voters will have an opportunity on Aug. 14 to keep County Judge Teretha Lundy Thomas, who has served unopposed for almost 20 years. She is being challenged by trial lawyer John M. Rodriguez.

Thomas, who serves as an administrative judge, is the only black woman among 120 judges in the county and one of only nine African Americans on the bench in Miami-Dade.

“When I ran back in 1992, there was only one other African-American female judge at the time and now I am the only one,” Thomas said. “I ran because there was a need for diversity on the bench — and there still is.”

The Miami native and graduate of Miami Jackson High School in the Allapattah community of Miami, attended the University of Chicago  and Brown University and studied law at the University of Miami.

Rodriguez previously applied to fill a judicial vacancy but he was rejected by the judicial nominating committee. He too graduated from UM’s law school but he has no experience as a judge.

Rodriguez is a former Hialeah police officer and assistant Miami-Dade County state attorney. For the past 18 years, he has worked in private practice in criminal defense, litigation and real estate.

Rodriguez did not return several phone calls seeking comment on his candidacy.

Attorney Reginald Clyne of Clyne and Associates is among lawyers who support Thomas’ re-election.

“Traditionally, incumbent judges do not draw opposition unless their performance has merited an attack. In the case of Judge Thomas, it is her race and gender that have subjected her to challenge,” Clyne said. “I feel she was targeted because it would be easy to phase her out since most African-American people don’t know about the election. And, with more Hispanic voters (in the county), it results in more Hispanic judges.”

African-American voters need to become educated about the campaign, Clyne said, adding he will continue fighting for diversity on the bench. “Residents of South Florida should celebrate our diversity and fight against people who try to tear apart the fabric of this community by dividing us along ethnic and cultural lines,” Clyne said.

Nydia Menendez, a former president of the Puerto Rican Bar Association and an attorney with the Menendez and Cuetos law firm, is also backing Thomas. “I wish minorities did not run against other minorities — and for a long time it was an unwritten rule. Just look at the numbers. Neither the bench nor the halls of power are representative of the population intended to be served,” she said.

H.T. Smith, who served as Miami-Dade’s first black assistant county attorney and has been practicing law for nearly 40 years, also opposes the move to unseat Thomas.

“The biggest problem now is that a few Cuban-American power brokers in the legal community work on the philosophy that ‘51 percent of the people deserve 100 percent of the spoils 100 percent of the time.’ This is just rank greed,” said Smith, a former chairman of the 11th Judicial Circuit’s nominating committee.

“Hispanic lawyers are challenging black and non-Hispanic white judges. There are so few black state court judges because most black lawyers do not have the financial ability to raise between $100,000 and $200,000 to run an effective judicial campaign,” Smith said.

 “The judicial nominating process is skewed against blacks,” he said. “We have also had 13 years of Republican governors who desire to support other Republicans who helped them get elected.”

Other prominent African-American attorneys who support Thomas include Kertch Conze, Marlon Hill and Lynn Washington.

Several community leaders also support her, including former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Betty Ferguson, North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre, Miami City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones and Congressional candidate Rudy Moise. They agreed to participate in fundraising events in support of Thomas, Clyne told South Florida Times.

More than 300 judges serve in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties combined. Miami-Dade has the most, including 43 county judges, of whom Thomas is one of five blacks; two others serve in the civil division and another two in the criminal division: Wendell Graham, Eric Hendon, Fred Seraphin and Rodney Smith.

Of 86 Miami-Dade circuit judges, five are black: Jerald Bagley, Daryl Trawick, Darrin Gayles, William Thomas and Orlando Prescott.

Mary Rudd Robinson, one of only two blacks among 31 county judges in Broward — the other is Ian Richards — also had to face an opponent. Broward has 36 circuit judges, of whom four are black: Ilona Holmes, Michael Robinson, Elijah Williams and Michael Usan.

Of Palm Beach County’s five black judges – Moses Baker and  Catherine Brunson in Circuit Court; Reginald Corlew, Sheree Cunningham  and Debra Moses Stephens in County Court – Baker is up for retention and running unopposed for re-election Nov. 6.

According to an informal survey by South Florida Times, members of black bar associations support Thomas and Clyne’s call to defend black judges and work toward getting more of them elected. However, as a rule, those groups do not endorse candidates in political races because of their non-profit status.

They include the Wilkie D. Ferguson Bar Association, the Miami-Dade group named for the late distinguished federal judge. Christina McKinnon, a member of that association.

McKinnon said “Black candidates need majority (Hispanic) voters combined with their voting base in Miami-Dade County and they need majority (white/Jewish) voters, in addition to the black voters, in Broward County. Low voter turnout for the August elections can prove to be detrimental to black candidates, as many in our base simply don't vote at that time.”