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MAY 10 - MAY 16, 2013VOLUME 21 NO. 19 www.flcourier.com

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CoMMeNtary: asHLey D. tHoMas: a Letter to My soN | a4

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$50 billion left on the tableFlorida won’t use money for ‘Obamacare’

COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS

As the Florida Legisla-ture’s latest session came to a close, Democrats re-newed a call for a special session to expand health care coverage to cover more uninsured Floridians.

Legislators adjourned last week without passing legislation that had been filed that would have either used federal money to ex-tend coverage to more than a million people or used state money for a smaller subsidy.

Billions to FloridaUnder ‘Obamacare’ –

the 2010 Affordable Care Act – the federal govern-ment promised to pay all of the Medicaid expansion costs during the first three years and the vast bulk af-ter that. Obamacare would send more than $50 billion

See MONEY, Page A2

SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

Florida A&M University (FA-MU) has named Sylvester Young its new director of marching and pep bands.

Young, a FAMU graduate and former member of the March-ing “100,” spent nearly 25 years at Ohio University, most recently as band director. FAMU Interim Pres-ident Larry Robinson made the an-nouncement Tuesday after an ex-tensive nationwide search process.

“Dr. Young is a talented and ex-perienced administrator, musi-cian and scholar who I believe will provide strong discipline, leader-ship and vision for the Marching “100,” Robinson said. “Dr. Young has had a stellar career as director of bands at several universities and

I am looking forward to Young con-tinuing the great traditions of the Marching “100” when we deem it ready to return to the field.”

Decades of experienceYoung earned his undergraduate

degree in music education in 1969. He went on to earn his master’s ed-ucation degree from the Bowling Green State of Ohio in 1970 and a Ph.D. in music education from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

He served as director of bands at Lincoln University from 1979 to 1982 and at Hampton University from 1982 to 1990.

Young has served as an associ-ate professor of music since 1990 at Ohio University where he taught courses in marching band tech-

SNAPSHOTS

FINEST | B5

Meet Christina

2013 Legislature: State lawmakers approve budget, finish session

FLORIDA | A3

Ugandan widow wins compensation after fight

AFRICA | A6

SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

FAMU Band Director Dr. Sylvester Young meets the public with FAMU Trustees Belinda Shannon, Spurgeon McWilliams and Interim President Larry Robinson,See DIRECTOR, Page A2

COMPILED FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS

A pair of last-ditch measures tied to po-tential funding proposals involving the Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville’s EverBank Field, Orlando’s Major League Soccer push and the Daytona International Speedway died in the House as the 2013 Florida Leg-islature’s regular session came to a close on May 3.

“I think part of the complication was the fact that it wasn’t just the Dolphins,” House Speaker Will Weatherford said. “You had five or six different franchises that were looking for a tax rebate.

‘Never comfortable“And, you know, that’s serious public

policy. You’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. I think the House just never got comfortable there when the ses-sion ended.”

The death of the bill spells the end of a May 14 referendum in Miami-Dade Coun-ty – early voting had started April 29 – on a proposed increase to the hotel bed tax that was to help the Dolphins pay for $350 mil-lion in upgrades to Sun Life Stadium.

Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gar-dens, the sponsor of the Senate effort, said

Weatherford rejected the proposal.“He didn’t have a will to do it,” said

Braynon. “We voted for it. We sent it over three times. It didn’t get brought up. Whose fault is that?”

‘Super Bowls at risk’Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross

didn’t hold back in his disappointment, saying Weatherford had given his word the proposal would be heard on the floor.

“The Speaker single-handedly put the future of Super Bowls and other big events at risk for Miami Dade and for all of Flor-

ida,” Ross said in a release. “He put poli-tics before the people and the 4,000 jobs this project would have created for Miami-Dade and that is just wrong.”

Ross, who vowed to “play an important role in fixing the dysfunction in Tallahas-see,” also claimed the proposal would have had the votes to advance.

“It’s hard to understand why he would stop an election already in process and dis-enfranchise the 40,000 people who have al-ready voted,” Ross continued.

“I can only assume he felt it was in

See DONE, Page A2

‘WE’RE DONE’WELFARE QUEENS?THE CONCLUSION

With those words, the Florida House of Representatives closed up shop for the year, and

refused to vote on requests for millions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies to be paid to pro sports entities

located around the state. FLORIDA COURIER FILES

Without millions in taxpayer subsidies and rebates, Daytona International Speedway officials may be rethinking the facility’s expansion plans.

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Bionic eye is now a reality

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Rattlers name new Marching ‘100’ director

JAMES BROWN / 80TH BIRTHDAY

Happy belated birthday, Godfather!

FLORIDA COURIER FILES

James Brown is pictured in 1969 at Los Angeles International Airport with his Lincoln Continental and his private Learjet. Brown died in 2006. Had he lived, he would have turned 80 on May 3.

A2 MAY 10 – MAY 16, 2013FOCUS

It is not unusual for editori-al readers to disagree with The Gantt Report opinion columns.

People don’t like it when I write about historically Black colleges and universities. They don’t like it when I write about pimps and whores. And they really get upset when I write about President Ba-rack Obama!

Well, get ready to get mad again!

Does it seem to you like Pres-ident Obama’s programs, poli-cies and his staffing decisions are paving the way for a Republican return to the White House? Well, it seems that way to me.

Let me explainFor most people, the more you

put into a politician’s political campaign, the more you get back from the politician.

If you raise a lot of money and contribute a lot of money to the winning candidate for president, you might get an ambassadorship to an island in paradise or another favorable foreign country.

You might get unlimited access to speak with the president or in-vitations to presidential parties

and galas. You could possibly get pardons for your family members or friends that are incarcerated in federal prisons.

But if you’re Black, no matter what you do, it seems you can’t even get attention!

‘Give him time’I know, I know. The Obama

lovers will say, “Give the presi-dent some time. He’s going to do more for Black and poor people than any other president in histo-ry before he leaves office!”

But tomorrow is not promised. Many of the people that worked so hard to get the president elect-ed and reelected will be dead be-fore anything significant is done, especially for African-Ameri-cans!

More Black people voted for President Barack Obama than they voted for any president in

the history of the United States. Black people contributed more money to the Obama campaign than they contributed to any oth-er presidential campaign in histo-ry. And more Black people fought voter subjugation, voter suppres-sion, voter intimidation and vot-er oppression to elect President Barack Obama than they ever had before.

Yes, 90-95 percent of all Black voters put President Obama first. Where has the president put po-litical needs of African-American and Black voters? I don’t want to say where, because you already know.

Everyone but usLet’s see. The beast bankers

got what they wanted – a get out of jail for free card with no real penalties and bank regulations. They got bankers hired into pow-erful Cabinet positions.

And when they stole homes and properties from American citizens in their trillion-dollar mortgage fraud, forgery and per-jury schemes, the bankers got off with paying homeowners pen-nies on the dollar to prevent cit-

izens from suing banks for the millions, billions and trillions of dollars they lost because of bank crooks.

The Hispanic citizens got a lot, too. They got a Supreme Court Justice and soon they will get im-migration reform. Women got free birth control mandates for health insurers and several high-level political appointments.

I could go on and on. But let’s not waste time.

Will Blacks vote?If the president does not quick-

ly do something for his most loy-al supporters, I believe Black vot-ers will refuse to go to the polls in high numbers in the upcoming midterm elections and also in the next presidential elections.

Believe it or not, White people expect President Obama to do as much as he can for Black cit-izens just like Jewish politicians help Jews, or Cuban politicians help Cubans, or Tea Party red-neck politicians try and help red-necks!

If Black people continue to vote for Black candidates and Demo-cratic candidates and continue

to get their issues ignored, their votes exploited and their com-munities oppressed and they still run to the voting booth and cast votes for Black candidates and Democratic candidates, ac-cording to Malcolm X – not Lu-cius Gantt – they are not only po-litical punks; they are traitors to their race!

I hope the president is not try-ing to help conservative, Tea Party Republicans gain political power. But if he doesn’t do all he can to improve the lives of Black Americans and the conditions in Black communities, helping Re-publicans will be exactly what he is doing!

Excerpts from Gantt col-umns are now posted every week on The Gantt Report’s Fa-cebook page; become a fan. Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” on Ama-zon.com and from bookstores everywhere. Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net. “Like” The Gantt Report page on Facebook. Click on this sto-ry at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Is Obama the Republican’s little helper?

MONEYfrom A1

DIRECTORfrom A1

to Florida over the next de-cade.

“By blocking passage this session of a plan that would dramatically help 1.2 million of Florida’s low-income and working fami-lies, many Floridians are disappointed and will con-tinue, despite the session’s end, to expect the governor and Legislature to approve a bipartisan health cover-age expansion compro-mise that relies upon avail-able federal funds,” said House Democratic Leader Perry Thurston.

He called on Gov. Rick Scott to call lawmakers back to Tallahassee “at the ear-liest convenience to pass a bipartisan health coverage expansion plan for Florida’s working families.”

Scott now onboardIn February, Scott an-

nounced that he would support a Medicaid ex-pansion. It was a dramatic turnabout, after Scott had waged a three-year-long political and legal battle against the federal health care law.

Republicans, who were in the majority in both the state House and the Sen-ate this year, made it clear they would not approve the Medicaid expansion. Both came up with different pro-posals to meet the health care requirements.

The Senate wanted to use millions of dollars in federal money to create a new system for helping people get private cover-age. The House wanted to reject federal dollars, but create a subsidy using state money for people to buy in-surance.

The Senate architect of the health care effort,

Sen. Joe Negron, said that there’s no way any sort of compromise on the issue would emerge. “The chasm between the competing vi-sions is too wide to over-come,” he said.

Negron described his plan as an “entrepreneur-ial approach” that would help people get health in-surance. Though the plan would rely mostly on feder-al funding, Negron tried to reinforce that it is not an ex-pansion of Medicaid, which has long been maligned by Republicans in both cham-bers.

“Nothing in this bill ex-pands Medicaid,” Negron said. “We don’t want to ex-pand Medicaid.”

Negron’s plan, which was backed by Scott, would use the Florida Healthy Kids Corp. as the vehicle for of-fering health insurance to people whose incomes are up to 138 percent of the fed-eral poverty level. Florida Healthy Kids Corp. has long run the KidCare program,

which offers heavily sub-sidized private insurance to children from low- and moderate-income families.

Senate rejectedHouse members voted

74-45 to reject the Senate proposal, which was of-fered as an amendment to the House bill. Rep. Mike Fasano, a New Port Richey Republican who spear-headed the amendment, was the only GOP mem-ber to cross party lines and support it. All Democrats voted for the amendment.

The vote came after about four hours of debate, with Democrats saying the Senate plan would provide needed health coverage to the working poor and Re-publicans saying the state shouldn’t rely on the debt-laden federal government to pay for expanded care.

War on ‘Obamacare’Democrats repeated-

ly said the House bill was

ideologically motivated. The Senate proposal would offer coverage to roughly 1 million people, who were described by Rep. Jose Javi-er Rodriguez, D-Miami, as “casualties” of a broader battle.

“The war on Obamacare is really what this comes down to,” Rodriguez said.

Fasano implored his fel-low Republicans to vote for the amendment, ask-ing them to not “follow the script.”

“Follow your heart today – follow your heart, and support this amendment,” Fasano said.

Stuck with costs?But other Republicans

said the Senate plan would be akin to expanding Med-icaid, which the GOP has long criticized for spiraling costs. Also, they repeatedly pointed to the federal gov-ernment’s budget problems and raised questions about the long-term financing of

the Senate plan.“Make a stand for your

state, because this is not (about) ideology,’’ said House Health Care Appro-priations Chairman Matt Hudson, R-Naples. “This is practicality.”

More broadly, however, Republicans focused heav-ily on the Senate plan’s re-liance on federal fund-ing. Some lawmakers said Washington would have to use borrowed money to pay for a health expansion, while others raised con-cerns that Florida ultimate-ly could be forced to swal-low costs for the coverage.

“What happens when we are forced to pick up a tab that we cannot afford?” asked Rep. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford.

Political falloutDemocrats have seized

on the differences between Scott and the GOP-con-trolled Legislature to push back against the idea that

Scott had a successful ses-sion.

“The nation’s most un-popular governor attempt-ed to use the 2013 legisla-tive session as an Extreme Makeover: Political Edi-tion. ... Rick Scott knows he’s in trouble, and voters see through his election-eering about-face,” said Max Steele, a spokesman for the Florida Democrat-ic Party.

“Despite ample oppor-tunities to pass a biparti-san health care solution that enjoys the backing of Republican Governor Rick Scott and the Florida Sen-ate, House Republican leadership dropped the ball,’’ Thurston said.

But not everyone was unhappy that a Medicaid expansion and the Senate health proposal failed. The conservative James Madi-son Institute issued a state-ment night pointing to po-tential problems with the Affordable Care Act and praising the House for not getting pressured into a “rash decision.”

“In this case, taking no action instead of the wrong action was a wise deci-sion by Florida’s leader-ship,’’ Bob McClure, presi-dent and CEO of the insti-tute, said in the statement. “Expanding a badly flawed program such as Medic-aid – which already con-sumes an inordinate share of the state budget – would not even necessarily benefit those whom it’s intended to help.”

Scott could call lawmak-ers back for a special ses-sion on the issue. Negron said whether that will hap-pen or whether the effort will wait until next year was up to legislative leaders and the governor. He thinks it is “improbable” that lawmak-ers would return to Talla-hassee for a special session to address the issue.

niques, jazz ensemble methods, computer skills for musicians and instrumentation. He also served as di-rector of bands for six years.

The bands he has directed have been invited to perform at many prestigious events.

In 1993, Ohio University’s band was the only marching band to represent the state of Ohio in then-President Bill Clinton’s inaugural parade. In 1992 and 1995, the Ohio University Marching Band per-formed for the Detroit Lions and in 1991 and 1994 for the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns.

‘Back home’“I am honored to be back home at FAMU and ful-

ly embrace the challenge ahead,” Young said. “The Marching “100” had such a positive impact on me and I know firsthand what this band means to FAMU. We will enter a new era of excellence for the band and I am proud to be leading the charge.”

In his new role as FAMU director of marching and pep bands, Young will report to the chair of the De-partment of Music and will oversee all aspects of the marching and pep bands. He will also plan and di-rect the summer high school band camp and serve as the liaison between the Athletic Department, the Di-vision of Student Affairs and the Department of Mu-sic.

Young is scheduled to report to work on June 14 with an annual salary of $105,000.

DAVID ROgOwSkI/MCT

Protesters rally during a “Code Red” rally to oppose health care reform nicknamed ‘Obamacare’ in 2010 at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

his political interest to do so. Time will tell if that is the case, but I am certain this decision will follow Speaker Weatherford for many years to come.”

Dolphins’ management had said the improvements are needed to attract pre-mier football and soccer events to the Miami Gar-dens stadium, including their bids to land either the 2016 or 2017 Super Bowl.

Lost benefitsJorge Arrizurieta and H.T.

Smith, two paid consultants who co-chaired the Miami Dolphins’ campaign for a stadium renovation, lam-basted Tallahassee legisla-tors for closing down the session without approving the proposal.

“The House put at risk the future of Super Bowls and other major events in Miami, which are so critical to our

tourism economy,” they said in a statement. “It’s a sad day when Tallahassee gives San Francisco and Houston a victory at the expense of our community.”

Speedway project at risk?

Officials at Daytona In-ternational Speedway were more diplomatic in their re-sponse.

“We are clearly disap-pointed by the outcome last week in the Florida Legisla-ture,” Daytona Internation-al Speedway President Joie Chitwood III said in a state-ment.

“We made a very compel-ling case for what could have been a successful public/private partnership with the State of Florida to create jobs and generate real economic growth. We also had sub-stantial local, regional and statewide support.

“However, given this set-back to our project, we are forced to reassess the pro-posed redevelopment and closely examine a number of factors such as its timing,

size and scope, before we decide on next steps.”

Frantic activityWith lobbyists busy work-

ing the rotunda between the House and Senate cham-bers, a number of senators gathered with Weatherford on the House floor Friday morning and afternoon im-ploring him to bring up ei-ther of the last-minute pro-posals for the stadiums.

Sens. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, David Simmons, R-Maitland, and Braynon all made appearances Fri-day morning in the House to talk with Weatherford, as the Senate measure languished.

Gardiner’s proposal would have required the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity to prepare an annual list of teams, spring training sites and profes-sional sports franchises seek-ing assistance from the state. That list would be ranked based upon economic im-pacts and then sent to the Legislature for a final vote on funding from a pool of up to $13 million a year.

When that measure failed to reach the House floor, the Senate attached the propos-al on to a tourist develop-ment tax measure. Later, the proposal was tacked on to a sweeping transportation bill without language to support the Miami-Dade County ref-erendum, which was expect-ed to pump $280 million to-wards the Dolphins over 30 years.

Too many pieces?Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Mi-

ami, one of the sponsors of the Dolphins proposal, sup-ported Weatherford, saying the Senate’s final effort was too overloaded.

“That had a lot of prob-lems, not only because of the Dolphins, but procedur-ally,” Fresen said. “It was a lot of 11th hour stuff that the speaker wasn’t going to take.”

Jim Turner of the News Service of Florida contrib-uted to this report.

DONEfrom A1

LUCIUS GANTT

THE GANTT REPORT

A3FLORIDAMAY 10 – MAY 16, 2013

State lawmakers approve budget, finish session

COMPILED BY THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

On May 3, the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate overwhelmingly approved a $74.5 billion budget, bringing the curtain down on the 2013 legisla-tive session.

The spending plan for the year that begins July 1 – the one thing lawmakers are constitutionally re-quired to do – gives raises to teach-ers and state employees, the latter for the first time in six years; repays $300 million that lawmakers had drained from university reserves last year in an effort to close a bud-get gap; and sets aside money for projects large and small, including $70 million to help restore the Ev-erglades.

The plan was passed a few min-utes before 7 p.m. Friday, mark-ing a departure from the late and sometimes bitter denouements to the sessions of recent years.

“The era of acrimony between the House and the Senate is over,” said Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, moments after the session ended.

In the House, lawmakers voted 106-11 to approve the budget, with a handful of Democrats and Rep. John Tobia, R-Melbourne Beach, voting against the package. Most members of the Democratic Party joined Republicans in approving the deal. The vote was unanimous in the Senate.

On Scott’s deskThe measure still needs to be

signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott, who will have the opportunity to nix individual projects and pro-posals with his veto pen.

“I’ll be going line-by-line, mak-ing sure that we don’t waste any dollars,” Scott said after the ses-sion.

The era of good feelings was helped along by modest growth in state revenues as the budget final-ly began to emerge from the shad-ows of the Great Recession.

“There’s light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s not another train,” said Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallan-dale Beach.

The extra money allowed the Legislature to both allow spending to grow and say that they were be-ing careful guardians of taxpayer money.

“And this year in addition to tak-ing care of the people who you’re supposed to take care of, you’ve also responsibly balanced your budget by putting $2.6 billion in reserves, and responsibly funding one of our most important mis-sions coming up here, and that is education, by putting $1.8 bil-lion new into your entire educa-tion system,” said House Appro-priations Chairman Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland.

Sentiment not sharedDemocratic leaders in the

House hammered Republicans for not including as part of the budget any program to use federal funds to provide healthcare for low-in-come Floridians. While Scott and the Senate backed doing so, House Republican leaders balked and said that the federal government was an unreliable partner.

House Minority Leader Per-ry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale, acknowledged that lawmakers should not proverbially let the per-fect be the enemy of the good.

“But we do have an opportuni-ty to be great, and we’re settling for good,” Thurston said.

Here are a few other items of in-terest from this year’s session. Gov. Rick Scott must sign or veto them within seven days of the time he receives them, or they will become law without his signature.

Election law changesA bill aimed at preventing the

problems that plagued parts of Florida during the 2012 elections sailed through the Legislature on its final day after lawmakers dropped an effort to punish prob-lematic local voting officials.

The bill that passed would allow up to fourteen days for early voting, though local supervisors could re-main at the current eight days, and allows for more flexibility with ear-ly voting sites. It would limit the length of some ballot summaries for constitutional amendments.

And, in a move that the Tampa Bay Times-Miami Herald’s Talla-hassee bureau reported was aimed at helping U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential ambitions, it would dissolve a committee that sets the

date of the presidential primary and instead require that vote be held on the first Tuesday that com-plies with party rules.

Both Republican and Demo-cratic delegations to national con-ventions had lost members over the last several years as Florida vied for an earlier primary date.

Scott said he will sign the bill.

Another tax holidayThe back-to-school sales tax

holiday will likely be back this summer and will include person-al computers. Legislators passed a wide-ranging economic devel-opment bill that includes a three-day period, Aug. 2 through Aug. 4, during which a number of items won’t be subject to the 6 percent sales tax.

Clothes, shoes, wallets, bags, and backpacks costing $75 or less and school supplies costing $15 or less would be covered by the tax holiday. Personal computers and related accessories costing $750 or less, as long as they’re not used for commercial purposes, are al-so covered, as are digital readers, tablets, and items like keyboards or monitors – as long as they don’t include a TV tuner.

In addition to the tax holiday, the bill creates a schedule for re-

viewing state incentives and eco-nomic development programs in an effort to prevent spending on programs that don’t deliver prom-ised jobs, a major focus of lawmak-ers this session.

The bill directs that all applicants for an incentive be evaluated for “economic benefits” in a uniform fashion and requires the state De-partment of Economic Opportu-nity to publish information about economic development incentives provided to businesses.

Right on redIt would be tougher for local gov-

ernments to issue tickets to mo-torists caught on camera taking a right on red, under a wide-ranging transportation bill sent to Scott.

The measure prevents a notice of violation or traffic citation as long as the vehicle came to a stop, even after crossing the stop line, prior to completing an allowed right turn during a red light. The measure does not alter the ability of municipal and county govern-ments to use red light cameras for traffic traveling straight or making left turns.

The law currently states that a violation or citation may be issued unless the motorist made a right-hand turn in a “careful and pru-

dent” manner. The law does not define “careful and prudent.”

Local government compensation

Scott will also be weighing a bill that would keep local govern-ments from setting their own poli-cies on forms of compensation like earned sick leave. The legislation would extend the state’s existing ban on cities and counties passing their own minimum wage rules. It would also create a task force to study the issues of employment benefits and issue a report in Jan-uary 2014.

Bills that died• A Senate proposal that would

have given motorists a break on their vehicle-registration fees. The rub: It would have required elimi-nating a longstanding tax credit for insurance companies;

• A measure to overhaul the Flor-ida High School Athletic Associa-tion. The bill would have expand-ed the ability of students to trans-fer schools during the school year, given charter and home school students more opportunities to play for public school teams, al-tered the makeup of the associ-ation’s board of directors, given school districts more say over ath-letic regulations in each county, and set a 2017 date to eliminate the 93-year-old organization;

• A bill changing sentencing guidelines for juvenile offenders to deal with U.S. Supreme Court rul-ings preventing life sentences for certain juveniles;

• A measure prohibiting open parties where minors are in pos-session or are consuming alcohol;

• A bill that would have made it harder to seek punitive damages in lawsuits against nursing homes;

• Proposals to revamp the regu-lation of assisted-living facilities;

• The so-called “parent trigger” bill that would have given parents the ability to petition school dis-trict about a turnaround plan for failing schools;

• An attempt to pass what had become known as the “anti-Shar-ia law” bill. Though the provision was widely perceived to target Is-lamic law, the Anti-Defamation League said the measure would have prevented Florida from rec-ognizing divorces granted in Israel to Jewish couples.

Budget itemsScott has the right to exercise a

line-item veto, which means that he can reject specific parts of the appropriations bill without reject-ing the entire bill. The Florida Leg-islature can override a line-item veto with a two-thirds majority vote of both houses. Here are some items he is considering:

• $50 million for construction of “The Coast to Coast Connector,” a trail for bicyclists or others that will go from St. Petersburg to Ti-tusville;

• $1 million for the Bay of Pigs Museum in Miami;

• $500,000 from the the Hotel and Restaurant Trust Fund to be spent on a contract with the Flori-da Restaurant and Lodging Associ-ation to develop a marketing cam-paign to “promote Florida tourism by residents of the state,” some-times called “staycations”;

• $240,000 from the Citrus Ad-vertising Trust Fund for giving away orange juice at the state’s highway welcome centers along Interstates 10, 75 and 95 and on U.S. 231;

• $150,000 from the State Game Trust Fund for alligator marketing;

• $100,000 from the General In-spection Trust Fund for alligator marketing;

• $75,000 for roof replacement and repairs in the court system statewide;

• $1,000 raises for state’s sev-en Supreme Court Justices, tak-ing their annual pay from $161,200 to $162,200. District, circuit, and county court judges also will get $1,000 raises, along with state’s at-torneys and public defenders.

Joyner heads DemsSenate Democrats elected Sen.

Arthenia Joyner of Tampa minor-ity leader starting next year. Joyner, who becomes the first African-American woman elected Senate Democratic leader, was first elect-ed to the House in 2000 and then was elected to the Senate in 2006.

Joyner, a lawyer, was vice chair-woman of the Judiciary Commit-tee and the budget subcommittee that deals with criminal and civil justice.

Brandon Larrabee, David Royce and Jim Saunders of the News Service of Florida all con-tributed to this report.

2013 LEGISLATURE

PHOTOS FROM THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

The Florida Capitol building was virtually empty after the Florida Legislature completed its work after the 2013 session.

Orlando-area Medicaid plan begins in AugustBY JIM SAUNDERSTHE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

Florida’s shift to a statewide Medicaid managed-care sys-tem will start Aug. 1 for se-niors who need long-term care in the Orlando area.

The state Agency for Health Care Administration held a contract-signing ceremony Monday with seven health plans that eventually will pro-vide long-term care services to about 85,000 people across the state. That is the first part of a long-debated Medic-aid transformation that also will later include the broader Medicaid population.

Ceremony unusualSuch a contract-signing

ceremony is unusual in state government but was an indi-cation of the emphasis that Gov. Rick Scott’s administra-tion has placed on revamping Medicaid.

“This is a major milestone along the way to the statewide Medicaid managed-care pro-gram,’’ said Justin Senior, an AHCA deputy secretary who directs Medicaid.

Federal officials in Febru-ary approved the long-term care portion of the Medicaid changes, though AHCA had al-ready gone through a lengthy process in which health plans bid for contracts in 11 regions of the state.

The seven companies that received contracts in all or some of the regions were American Eldercare, Ameri-group Florida, Coventry Health Care of Florida, Hu-mana, Molina Healthcare of Florida, Sunshine Health and United HealthCare of Florida.

Also, another plan, Little Havana Activities and Nutri-tion Centers of Dade County, has filed a bid protest in the state Division of Administra-tive Hearings. If is successful, it could receive a contract in a region that includes Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

Cost containmentThe basic concept behind

the long-term care portion of the Medicaid changes is that managed-care plans will be able to better coordinate ser-vices, which could help se-niors and people with dis-abilities stay in their homes instead of having to move in-to nursing facilities. Ultimate-ly, that could help hold down state costs in the Medicaid program, as nursing-home care is typically more expen-sive than home- and commu-nity-based services.

AHCA will start the chang-es Aug. 1 in a Central Florida region that includes Orange, Brevard, Osceola and Semi-nole counties. The long-term care changes will gradually expand to other areas and are expected to be in place state-wide by March 2014.

Florida has long operat-ed what is known as a “nurs-ing home diversion” program, which is a smaller-scale ver-sion of the statewide long-term care system.

American Eldercare, for ex-ample, already provides ser-vices in the diversion program and has received contracts in all 11 regions of the new managed-care system. Rob-ert Schemel, president of the company, said the biggest dif-ference with the new system will be the volume of people served.

Still waitingLawmakers and Scott in

2011 approved a plan to trans-form Medicaid into a state-wide managed-care system, despite opposition from some groups that argued HMOs could shortchange the care people receive.

The state submitted appli-cations to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Ser-vices in August 2011. While it has received approval to move forward with the long-term care portion of the plan, it is still waiting for a final sign-off on the broader Medicaid pop-ulation – though federal offi-cials sent a letter earlier this year indicating that such ap-proval was near.

Sen. Oscar Braynon II, D-Miami, speaks with House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel.

Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, converses with Senate Demo-cratic Leader Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, on the ses-sion’s last day.

House Democratic Leader Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lau-derdale, rails against the bud-get on the House floor.

Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa congratulates Tuskegee Air-man Cornelius Davis after he was honored by the state Senate.

MAY 10 – MAY 16, 2013A4 EDITORIAL

The Senate’s Gang of Eight have put together an 844-page monstrosity known as the Border Secu-rity, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modern-ization Act, legislation that President Obama says he “basically approves” of.

The crafters of this es-sentially unreadable bill in-clude Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Michael Bennett (D-Col.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lind-say Graham (R-SC).

On its surface, the bill provides much-needed re-lief to many of the 11 mil-

lion undocumented people who live in our country. But it disadvantages some im-migrants, especially African and Caribbean immigrants, while helping others. Fur-ther, the senators crafting the bill put goodies into the bill that only serve to ad-vantage themselves or their states.

Goodies galoreGraham wants more visas

for the meat-packing indus-try. Schumer provided spe-cial provisions for Irish peo-ple with high school diplo-mas. Rubio asked for more visas for the cruise ship in-dustry. Bennett wants more visas for workers in ski re-sorts.

Meanwhile, the legisla-tion would eliminate the Diversity Visa Program, which allows a visa lottery for countries that have low levels (less than 50,000 peo-ple) of immigration to the United States. Many Afri-can immigrants come here through this program (Gha-na and Nigeria each had 6,000 immigrants through this program in 2011; Afri-

can immigrants are 36 per-cent of those receiving di-versity visas).

Thus, while Sen. Schum-er pushes for special provi-sions for Irish immigrants, there is no one on the Sen-ate side pushing for special provisions for African and Caribbean immigrants.

African immigrants cut

Instead of the Diversi-ty Visa Program, Senate Bill 744 creates between 120,000 and 200,000 visas on a “merit-based” system, which gives highest prior-ity to those who have fu-ture employment opportu-nities. Because employers do not seek out African and Caribbean immigrants for employees (as they seek out Indian and Chinese em-ployees), the merit-based point system is likely to pro-vide fewer opportunities for those from Africa and the Caribbean.

Sen. Schumer’s special provision for the Irish car-ries no stipulation that these people be employed,

essentially granting them a pass from the merit-based point system.

Canadian border ignored

The Immigration Mod-ernization bill will spend $4.5 billion in an attempt to secure the southern bor-der, which will ‘secure’ our country from Mexican im-migrants, but ignores the northern border, which makes our country more open to Canadian immigra-tion. Of course, Canadian immigrants are more likely to be White, and thus less feared, than Mexican immi-grants.

(The Congressional Black Caucus is one of many groups that suggest that this $4.5 billion could be more effectively spent, perhaps on STEM education.)

The immigration bill is by no means final. The House of Representatives still has to vote on it. Many of them will add amendments and exceptions to take care of their “pet” causes. Mean-while, President Obama

has been urging Democrats to accept the immigration bill as-is; too many amend-ments may jeopardize the bill.

President Obama didn’t get his way on gun con-trol, and he’s been kicked around by an obstructionist House of Representatives. He needs immigration re-form to fulfill promises he made to the Latino commu-nity during his campaign.

The bill is called the Bor-der Security, Economic Op-portunity and Immigration Modernization Act. Exact-ly who will have more eco-nomic opportunity? And is immigration really being modernized when it locks foreign-born Black people out of the process?

The African-American community must take a closer look at this legisla-tion. At the very minimum, Congress should restore the Diversity Visa program.

Julianne Malveaux is a D.C.-based economist and author. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Immigration reform bill hurts Africans

Opinions expressed on this editorial page are those of the writers, and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of the newspaper or the publisher.

THE CREDO OF THE BLACK PRESSThe Black Press believes that Americans can best lead the world away from racism and national

antagonism when it accords to every person, regardless of race, color or creed, full human and

legal rights. Hating no person, fearing no person. The Black Press strives to help every person in

the firm belief...that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.

A potpourri of thoughts

Sequester pain goes beyond air travelWhen the sequester fed-

eral spending cuts forced flight delays because of the furlough of air traffic con-trollers, the normally dead-locked Congress acted in less than a week to give the Federal Aviation Adminis-tration flexibility to avoid the furloughs. The aggra-vations of business travelers are heard in Washington. But Congress can’t seem to hear the tribulations of the less fortunate.

The cuts are not only blind; they are dangerous. They cost jobs and threaten to drive the economy back into recession. Growth is slowing. Europe is already back in recession. Exports are down. Wages aren’t keeping up with prices.

The wealthiest Americans benefit from the rising stock market; the vast majori-ty of Americans are looking down, not up.

Unequal treatmentA recent study in the

American Journal of Public Health on gun violence and trauma centers co-authored by Dr. Marie Crandall, a pro-fessor at Northwestern Med-ical School, reveals how un-equal treatment costs lives. Chicago suffers one of the highest rates of gun violence

in the country. There are seven trauma centers in and around the city providing emergency care to a popula-tion of 3 million people.

But neither the gun vio-lence nor the trauma cen-ters are equally distributed around the city. Southeast Chicago – one of the worst areas of gun violence – has no trauma center.

The study Crandall co-authored discovered that distance matters. There is a higher mortality rate among those with gunshot wounds who are more than five miles from a trauma center than among those who live clos-er. Unequal access kills.

Unequal access hurts Similarly, in a New York

Times opinion piece, Sean F. Reardon, an education and sociology professor at Stanford, notes that a recent study about student perfor-mance finds a growing gap between the children of rich parents and those of mid-dle-class and poor parents.

Affluent parents provide their children with far great-er educational experienc-es; they start school ready to learn. Poor and middle-class parents have fewer re-sources for child care, pre-kindergarten programs and summer programs. Their children start school in the hole. Unequal sacrifices

Blind, across-the-board sequester cuts are danger-ous. They block disabled se-niors’ access to meals, de-prive AIDS patients of life-preserving drugs and slash unemployment checks for families in their time of dis-tress. The cuts may cost busi-ness travelers a few hours of aggravation, but they will endanger the lives of the most vulnerable among us.

We need public services to serve those most in need. Trauma centers should be located where the most traumas occur. And cuts in services should be selective, seeking to cut the wasteful or the unneeded, while sav-ing the most vital.

Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. is president and CEO of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

For over 28 years, the Na-tional Congress of Black Women has led the effort to clean up “gangsta rap” be-cause of its deleterious im-pact upon young people in our community. We’ve al-ways felt that it’s impossible to separate what’s ingested – either physically or psy-chologically – from its im-pact upon the body.

We’ve testified before Congress, picketed record shops, met with BET and after being rebuffed, we’ve picketed BET. We have pur-chased stock in companies so that we could speak at stockholders' meetings and make our positions heard. We’ve contacted sponsors of the purveyors of filth in the media and music and we’ve asked them to with-draw their support. We have achieved our greatest success with this strategy. It’s difficult for them to jus-tify feeding the children of others filth they would not allow their own to partake.

We will continue to tran-scribe the lyrics of some of the grossest, most denigrat-ing songs and make them available to parents who may be enjoying the musi-cal beat of their children’s music without knowing the words. Children damaged

As you can expect, we’ve experienced tremendous pushback from those whose only interest is in making money. They’ve made it very clear to all who would

listen that their concern is in commercial success and not in the damage done to the psyches of our children. They spew their filth and violence-laden garbage in our community and expect us to be willing to pay for the privilege.

In their wake, they leave millions of our youth with distorted perceptions – some that will never be cor-rected – of the realities of life and relationships.

In light of the current dis-cussion on violence and other elements of social discourse, we must be vigi-lant in monitoring informa-tion our children consume. We must offer a counterbal-ance to the detrimental im-pact of this garbage.

We will not quit this effort and we pray that those who are just entering this fight will join our efforts to per-form this hard and, often, unrewarding work.

Support Woodson Home

The Dr. Carter G. Wood-son Home is competing with other historical sites for funds to be used for re-storative preservation. The

home is where Dr. Wood-son lived when he estab-lished the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, and pro-moted the first Negro His-tory Week. It is the nomi-nal "Birthplace of African American History."

I accessed the Partners in Perseveration website (https://www.preserved-mv.com) to determine the status of the Wood-son Home on the list of 24 sites vying for funds. I sad-ly report that the Woodson Home ranks 14th with only 55,230 votes.

The No.1 site has almost 10 times more votes. Con-sidering the number of Af-rican-Americans who have computer and Internet ac-cess, this is a travesty.

Until the voting deadline on May 10th, you may vote for your chosen site once each day and you are en-couraged to do so. I also en-courage you to forward this to those in your e-address book, Facebook friends and anyone you contact through social media.

Dr. E. Faye Williams is chair of the National Con-gress of Black Women, www.nationalcongress-bw.org. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION

BoB EnglEhArt, thE hArtford CourAnt

It was 8 p.m. on a Friday night, and my waterproof mascara hadn’t smudged one bit. Only five minutes before, it had just begun. Now it was over.

“Wow, that’s not how it happens on TV,” I thought. And well son, that’s when I first laid eyes on you, my sweet little “honey bunny.”

You had a headful of hair and the deep-est brown eyes I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m sure the eyelashes of those eyes will bat at me in the future and I’ll probably give in, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.

Apparently, they do not give out “how to raise a child in the 21st century” hand-books, or maybe they ran out that day. But between your grandparents, Google, your dad and I, we’ll do just fine.

This Mother's Day, I want to share a few words with you. Some are requests; oth-ers are promises; one or two are simply non-negotiable. Twelve things I want you to know:

• Remember to pray. God loves you.• I love you. I will always love you. Even

when you have done something that may disappoint me, I love you.

• I will always have your best interest in mind, even if you don’t understand why at the moment.

• I have your back and always will. See #2.

• I will always listen and you can always call, even if I’m busy or if it’s 3 a.m.

• It’s OK to cry; that doesn’t make you a sissy.

• Always be honest.• Always be kind.• Stand up for what you believe in.• Call your grandmothers.• Clean your room.• Read. A lot. Hard work and education

pays off.Did I mention I love you?

Ashley Thomas is a Daytona Times staff writer. Her 3-month-old son’s name is Camillus. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

STAFF COMMENTARY

AshLEy D. ThOmAs

A letter to my son

Charles W. Cherry, Sr. (1928-2004), Founder Julia T. Cherry, Senior Managing Member, Central Florida Communicators Group, LLC

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TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

DR. JULIANNE mALVEAUX

TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

REV. JEssE L. JAcksON, sR.

TRICE EDNEY WIRE

DR. E. FAyE WILLIAms, Esq.

A5EDITORIALMAY 10 – MAY 16, 2013

I believe our future is in good hands, despite what recent news headlines would have us otherwise believe. You are as familiar as I am with the barrage of negative stories of violence, drugs, teen pregnancy, bul-lying and other question-able behaviors of today’s youth.

No matter where you live, I’ll bet there are legions more of good kids in your city or town who are shining in every area of their lives, excelling in school, giving back in ways both small and large to their commu-nities, sports and other ex-tracurricular activities. I claim bragging rights as the mother of one of these out-standing young people, my 16-year-old son.

I always talk about how this nation is becoming more multicultural day by day. In eight years, there will be 170 million multicul-tural consumers in the Unit-

ed States. America is a huge melting pot already, but these forecasted numbers are promising for people of color – especially young people.

According to the most re-cent U.S. Census, African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians each make up 42 percent of the youngest de-mographic age groups: 12-17, 18-24 and 25-34. These same groups of young folks are going to be in our shoes as adults in a few decades and their numbers are on the rise. The 18 to 24 year-old demographic is, in fact, growing faster than any oth-er segment.

Youth targetedBusinesses and advertis-

ers are paying very close at-tention to the information I’m sharing with you today. All of us know by now how critical everything we pur-chase, watch, read and listen to is for manufacturers and marketers. The same is true for young people. What are their consumer behaviors? How much are they contrib-uting or will they contribute in the future to the consum-er bottom-line?

Nielsen research shows that teens have some real purchasing potential – al-though at this point, that po-tential has a lot to do with the earnings of their par-ents, grandparents or guard-ians, since most kids are not yet making the big bucks.

Last year, 29 percent of teens in the U.S. lived in households earning more than $100,000 And if you are the parent of teenager(s),

you know they are very good at spending our money. Can I get an “AMEN” on that?

Smartphone penetration

Ownership of smart-phones and tablets is grow-ing faster in households with teenagers. There was a 45 percent jump in smart-phone penetration among teens between 2011 and 2012, a 32 percent increase among young adults 18-24 and 22 percent among those 25-34.

The numbers for lap-top penetration are inter-esting. It seems laptops are cool with young people until they hit their late 20s – even though laptop ownership has increased in all three young adult age groups (12-17, 18-24, 25-34) over the last year.

Teens and young adults, like the rest of us, watch most of their shows and vid-

eos the old-school way – on television. However, ac-cording to Nielsen’s most recent Cross-Platform Re-port, young consumers un-der 34 watched more vid-eo on the Internet and their mobile devices in 2012 than they did in 2011.

Under 34 crowdThe “under 34” crowd

isn’t a monolithic group, though, when it comes to video consumption. Young teenagers lead in watch-ing content on their mobile phones; 18 percent more than those 18-24 and 46 per-cent more than the next age group, 25-35. On the other hand, teens don’t seem to favor watching online, even though laptop ownership is higher in that group.

The data shows that in the last quarter of 2012, those in the 18-24 age bracket spent nearly three times more con-suming video on the Internet than 12 to 17-year-olds. The

“oldest” of the young demos, the 25 to 34-year-olds, spent the most total time watching video across all platforms in 2012: 19 hours and 30 min-utes more per month than 18 to 24-year-olds and 40 hours and 54 minutes more a month than 12 to17-year-old consumers.

Sweet targetWhenever I speak to youth

groups, I always let them how much of the sweet tar-get they are to marketers. The youth of today should feel empowered, too. Not only are they the future, they are the present and market-ers are watching.

Cheryl Pearson-McNeil is senior vice president of Public Affairs and Govern-ment Relations for Nielsen. For more information and studies go to www.nielsen-wire.com. Click on this sto-ry at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

This Mothers’ Day, I will think of Mary Graham

I met Mary Graham last Satur-day at a meeting of Mothers Stand-ing in the Gap, a group of women in Jacksonville who come together to support one another through their sons’ incarceration. Like mothers everywhere, they do everything they can for their sons, with little concern for themselves.

Life without paroleIn 2006, Ms. Graham’s son, Ter-

rance, was sentenced to life in pris-on without the possibility of parole for his first offense, an armed bur-glary that he committed while he was 16 years old. At the time Ter-rence was sentenced, Florida was the only state that imposed life without parole on juveniles for commission of an armed burglary as a first offense. Then and now, the U.S. was the only country in the world that sentenced children to die in prison.

Like so many other aspects of our criminal justice system, this story can’t be told without under-standing its racial dynamics. In the U.S., African-American youth are sentenced to life without pa-role as children at a per capita rate that is 10 times that of White youth convicted of the same crimes.

Terrance challenged the con-stitutionality of his sentence. His case went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court and he won his appeal – one of the most sig-nificant victories for juvenile jus-tice in recent memory. The court held that sentencing juveniles with life without the possibili-ty of parole categorically violates the 8th Amendment protection against cruel and unusual treat-

ment or punishment.

Not ‘miniature adult’The Supreme Court recognized

that juveniles are not miniature adults. Teenagers have more tran-sitory personalities than adults and a greater ability for rehabili-tation. In an amicus brief submit-ted to the court, a distinguished lawyer, a U.S. senator, an author, a Broadway actor and a corporate executive each described their own journey from teenage crime committed to successfully making a contribution to their community as an adult.

In light of young people’s dif-ferences and unique potential for growth and change, as Justice Kennedy wrote for the majority of the court in Graham’s case, there ought to be “some meaningful op-portunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and re-habilitation.” While Terrence was not released, he had to be resen-tenced to a different prison term.

Terence’s legal victory is not enough to correct Florida’s pro-pensity to impose unnecessar-ily excessive prison terms. This year, and the end of the legisla-tive session last week, marks the third year since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that the Florida Legislature has failed to pass legis-lation implementing the Graham

case. The legislature must pass a law that complies with the let-ter and spirit of the Graham case and create a fair system that allows for youth in prison to demonstrate their rehabilitation and eventually be reunited with their families.

Not aloneUnfortunately, Ms. Graham and

the twelve mothers and grand-mothers gathered in the meet-ing at the Jacksonville library last Saturday are not alone. Florida charges and tries more young peo-ple under the age of 18 in the adult criminal justice system than any other state.

There are currently 167 prison-ers under 18 in Florida state pris-ons, and 443 more in Florida coun-ty jails. There are also 1,614 people in state prisons who have been in custody since they were children. The oldest is 69 years old.

Not all children charged as adults in Florida have been ac-cused of a violent crime – a U.S. Department of Justice study found that among juveniles charged as adults in Florida 31 percent were charged for property crimes, 11 percent for drug crimes, and on-ly 44 percent for crimes against persons. Compare that with states such California and Arizo-na where, respectively, 65 percent and 60 percent of children charged as adults are charged with crimes against persons.

Perhaps it is not our young peo-ple, but our state’s justice system, that is worse than most. In Florida, 11 percent of state prisoners are sentenced to die in prison: 7,819 are serving life without parole and

an additional 4,185 are serving a life sentence, which became life without parole when Florida end-ed parole. Many more are serving long sentences that go well beyond their life expectancy, which are de facto sentences to die in prison.

One transgression is never the sum total of someone’s worth or potential. Yet one mistake can forever haunt us, and damage the people who love us.

Constant sacrificesThis year marks the seventh year

that Terrance Graham has spent in prison. Ms. Graham and other mothers describe their sacrifice to cover the expense of remaining in contact with their sons by mail or by phone, and the prohibitive cost

of traveling for brief prison visits. A few told of the heartbreaking

experience of finally making the trip to a prison, only to be prohib-ited from visiting because their son was being held in solitary confine-ment. All have struggled to keep their families intact.

Crime has many victims. It damages individuals, families and communities. But unnecessarily long terms of incarceration create more victims, and these mothers have committed no crime.

Julie Ebenstein is a staff attor-ney for the American Civil Lib-erties Union of Florida. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: BUILDING COLLAPSES IN BANGLADESH

HAjo de ReijgeR, THe NeTHeRlANds

JULIE EBENSTEIN, ESQ.

guest commentary

Businesses interested in youthful consumers’ behavior

Expanding Medicaid crucial for economy, health

Last week, 400,000 poor and underserved Louisi-anans, many of them peo-ple of color, were shut out of potentially life-saving health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

A Louisiana House health committee voted down a measure that would have forced Gov. Bobby Jindal to opt into the Medicaid ex-pansion provision of ACA that is being subsidized by the federal government to cover vulnerable commu-nities.

Jindal won’t accept fed-eral funding to expand Medicaid. He appears to be more focused on position-ing for his own political fu-ture, at a huge cost to Loui-sianans.

Accepting federal dol-lars would mean that an estimated 398,000 more hardworking Louisianans would get basic health care when they need it, without facing devastating medical bills.

Medicaid expansion would also have the most positive impact on African-Americans in the state; nearly half of those in our community who don’t have health insurance would likely gain coverage.

Self-interests firstPoliticians in other parts

of the country continue to put their own self-interests before the hardworking families in their state. In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry has vowed to block Medicaid expansion. Texas is the on-ly state in the country that ranks higher than Louisi-ana in terms of uninsured people.

Folks like Jindal and Per-ry must act on behalf of the millions of hardworking families across the country that will benefit from this funding, rather than play politics with their health.

Lawmakers must lead on these issues, to accept fed-eral aid to expand Med-icaid and provide basic health care to millions. By doing so, they have the po-tential to transform their states, improve and save lives, and reduce taxpayer costs.

Marc Morial is presi-dent/CEO of the National Urban League. Click on this story at www.flcouri-er.com to write your own response.

A racist hatchet job on Black farmers’ lawsuitThough Andrew Breit-

bart has been dead a year, his rancid brand of hate-mongering slander is alive and well.

Its latest rotten pus-tule burst upon the face of the New York Times in a 5,000-word piece by Sha-ron LaFraniere, with an assist from self-described conservative blogger Dave Weigel at Slate.com, a web site owned by the Washing-ton Post. The inflammatory title of the NYT piece says it all – “US Opens Spigot After Farmers Claim Discrimina-tion.”

Waiting in lineLa Franiere depicts a

fantasy world in which Black hucksters are enroll-ing thousands of African-Americans – many of whom were never farmers or even the heirs of farmers – in an apparently successful dis-crimination suit against the federal government.

The Times reporter and her ‘researchers’ drone on without the bother of a sin-gle sentence describing the practices of the U.S. De-partment of Agriculture is being sued for. She and the Times apparently consid-er irrelevant the egregious and well-documented mis-conduct of USDA bureau-crats and staffers, county supervisors, local commit-

tees and others. According to USDA’s

own admission, they de-nied and actively blocked the flow of credit, informa-tion, loans and resources to Black farmers, leading to fi-nancial and business hard-ships and to a rate of dis-possession of Black land-owners that far exceeded the numbers of Whites who lost their farms.

One of many resources the NY Times might have availed itself of is Pete Dan-iels, author of “Disposses-sion: Discrimination Against African-American Farmers in the Age of Civil Rights.”

Between 1940 and 1974, the number of African-American farmers fell by 93 percent – far higher than the loss of White farmers. During the Black Freedom Movement of the 1960s, lo-cal USDA officials purpose-fully pursued the dispos-session of Black landown-ers who in any way aided or took part in the movement.

One con manThe Times reporter sin-

gles out one Anthony Bur-rell as enlisting hundreds or thousands of patently false claimants in a settle-ment whose very design “encouraged people to lie... because claimants were not required to present docu-mentary evidence that they had been unfairly treated or even tried to farm.”

The NY Times inclusion of Burrell in its story, Dr. Ridgely Muhammad told Black Agenda Report, “is all about smearing and be-smirching the Black farm-ers.”

Dr. Muhammad, who operates a large farm near Albany, Ga. on behalf of the Nation of Islam, has al-so written on the destruc-tive role played by Mr. Bur-rell over the years in under-mining the Black farmers’ efforts to seek justice.

The Federation of South-ern Cooperatives, the na-tion’s largest organization of Black farmers, deliv-ered a detailed list of the reporter’s unprofessional omissions, distortions and falsehoods. But as Mark Twain once noted, lies are flashed around the world in less time it takes for the truth to put its boots on. In this case, the lies have been transmitted by the New York Times and tentacles of the Washington Post.

No shameThe truly powerful are

immune to shame, and the Times seems to be no ex-ception.

A gaggle of distinguished historians and academics have been assured that the NY Times stands by its ‘re-porting,’ and at least for the moment has no intention of retracting or reexamin-ing any part of its ‘cover-age’ of the Black farmers’ lawsuit against the Depart-ment of Agriculture.

As for hope and change at USDA itself, although there are voluminous find-ings of official wrongdo-ing on every level going back decades, Pete Dan-iels reminds us that it took till 2010 for USDA to fire its very first employee for al-leged racist or discrimina-tory conduct.

That employee was Shir-ley Sherrod.

Bruce Dixon is man-aging editor of BlackAg-endaReport.com. Con-tact him at bruce.dix-on@blackagendareport.com. Click on this sto-ry at www.flcourier.com to write your own re-sponse. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

BRUCE A. DIXON

BLacK agenDa rePorttrIce eDney WIre

MARC H. MORIAL

CHERYL PEARSON- MCNEIL

nnPa coLumnIst

TOjA6 AFRICA MAY 10 – MAY 16, 2013

BY ROBYn DixOnLos AngeLes Times / mCT

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s ruling African National Congress defended a controversial decision last week to allow the broadcast on television of a vid-eo of an unsmiling Nelson Mandela, looking frail, pal-lid and uncomfortable, as people snapped flash pho-tos of him when President Jacob Zuma and other ANC luminaries visited him at his house.

Mandela, South Africa’s first Black president, was recently hospitalized with pneumonia and is recover-ing at home under medical supervision.

South Africans reacted with alarm on Twitter and other social networks after the video was broadcast Monday on government-controlled SABC-TV.

Denying realityThe SABC telecast appeared to contradict reality,

with Zuma describing Mandela, 94, as fine and “up and about.” Mandela was seated on a chair with a pil-low behind his head, and a blanket over him. His right cheek showed a slight impression or pressure mark that may have been left by an oxygen mask or other medical equipment.

Zuma’s ebullience that Mandela was so “well” seemed to underscore how ill Mandela must have been recently, if this was what Zuma considered Mandela looking fine.

“We saw him, he’s looking very good, he’s in good shape. We had some conversation with him, shook hands, he smiled, as you can see him, that he’s really up and about and stabilized. We’re really very hap-py. We think that he’s fine,” Zuma said in an interview with SABC outside Mandela’s front door.

Much of the outrage on South African social media concerned criticisms of the invasion of Mandela’s pri-vacy by the ANC. Some accused the ANC of using a frail old man for political purposes.

Others expressed concern about the use of flashes, since South African and international media are well-versed on the rule never to use flash photography with Mandela, whose eyes are said to be highly sen-sitive to bright light after years of working in a lime-stone quarry when imprisoned on Robben Island.

At one point when a flash went off, Mandela closed his eyes, looking discomforted. He remained stiff and unresponsive as officials urged him to smile.

Worldwide concernMandela is revered by South Africans for his role

in fighting apartheid and ushering in a peaceful de-mocracy in 1994. Whenever the former president falls ill, the nation holds its breath, and on several occa-sions rumors of his death have exploded on social

networks.“Mandela survived 27 years in prison, only to be-

come a prisoner of the ANC marketing machine,” said one South African on Twitter. “And the DA is no bet-ter,” he added in another tweet, referring to a recent advertising campaign by the opposition Democratic Alliance, showing a photograph of Mandela with his arm around Helen Suzman, an independent lawmak-er during the apartheid years who for many years was the only anti-apartheid voice in the parliament.

Others were simply shocked by how poorly Man-dela, known in South Africa affectionately by his clan name Madiba, appeared.

“They need to stop saying Mandela is doing well. Look at him,” one South African wrote on Twitter.

“Poor Nelson Mandela. Let him be. No elderly per-son deserves that,” said another.

Another said Mandela had been treated “like an animal in a zoo.”

Erratic updatesZuma’s government has struggled to find the right

tone in dealing with Mandela’s frailty and recent health crises. It has tended to report news late, allow-ing rumors to swirl, and has misled the public about which hospital he has been treated in and how seri-ously ill he has been.

Mandela contracted tuberculosis when he was in jail and has struggled with lung infections and oth-er complications in recent years. The ANC said Mon-day’s video was an effort to keep South Africa and the world informed on Mandela’s condition.

South African ruling party criticized over video of frail Nelson Mandela

CHUCK KEnnEDY/KRT

In this 2005 file photo, an elderly but healthier-looking Nelson Mandela met with President George W. Bush at the White House.

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remember, mother’s day is may 12

N3040090G.indd 1 4/30/13 1:37 PM

BY ROBYn DixOnLos AngeLes Times / mCT)

KASANA, UGANDA – When Joyce Birabwa’s husband was killed in a suicide bomb attack in Mogadishu, 1,000 miles away, her whole world fell apart. Then she discovered her in-laws had plans that would leave her and her two children penniless.

First, they grabbed the land and 12 cows her husband, Eri-ya Kabuye, kept in a rural vil-lage outside the central Ugan-dan town where the couple rented a house.

Her brother-in-law claimed a $50,000 payment – compen-sation for the 2010 death of Kabuye, 27, a Ugandan soldier who served in a peacekeeping force fighting al-Qaida-linked rebels in Somalia.

She learned about it on-ly when a relative heard him boasting about the money in a local bar. After a grueling two-year struggle, she eventually received $24,000.

Widows sufferUganda, like many Afri-

can nations, remains a large-ly male-dominated society. Widows are “left at the mer-cy of her husband’s line and his heir,” according to a 2010 study by academics Florence Asiimwe of Uganda’s Mak-erere University and Owen Crankshaw of the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

A 2011 U.S. State Depart-ment human rights report on Uganda says nearly half of the nation’s widows are dis-possessed of all or some of the family property after their husband’s death.

Churches, politicians don’t help

Conservative religious groups, including the Catho-

lic Church, Uganda’s largest, have helped suffocate efforts at reform. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has also quashed efforts to pass laws protecting women’s rights.

“I do not like women who pollute our women emancipa-tion movement by introduc-ing elements of mercenerism (sic) in marriages,” he said, re-ferring to the provisions that would allow women to claim a share of marital property after divorce. Cooking and clean-ing shouldn’t entitle them to marital property after divorce, he said.

The bill would also prohib-it the compulsory payment of goats and cows in exchange for a bride, prevent forced marriages, ban “widow inher-itance,” in which a woman can be forced to marry her broth-er-in-law, and outlaw marital rape. Museveni argued that Uganda was not ready for the proposed changes.

Ugandan widow wins compensation after fight

ROBYn DixOn/ LOs AngELEs TiMEs/MCT

After her husband was killed, Joyce Birabwa, shown with her two chil-dren, wound up in a battle with her in-laws over land and money paid for his death.

Food: Serving up smiles See page B6

LIFE | FAITH | HEALTH | MONEY | EVENTS | CLASSIFIEDS | ENTERTAINMENT | SPORTS | FOOD

www.flcourier.com

BSHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE | SECT ION

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Steve Harvey hits on a winning daytime formula See page B5

SuN coAST / TAmPA BAY

May 10 - May 16, 2013courier

DAY

HAPPYMother’sThe Florida Courier staff pays tribute

to their moms with personal photos and narratives

To a wonderful Mom and Grandma who deserves recognition everyday.

On this Mother’s Day we just want to say “thank you” for your unconditional love and support. Your love of the Lord and family shines brightly for us to follow!

We love you!,Valerie and Jamal

To our family’s phenomenal First Lady – Mrs. Josephine Griffin. Thanks, Mom, for your godly

words of wisdom and for always being there for the really special

moments in our lives.Jenise

She was my Mama, my friend, my confidante. Thanks for leaving so

many gems to live by.I love you,

Julia

Momma Margie Garcia: I love you, I love you, I love you! I will share you with

my big sisters and brothers sometimes. Thank you for being the special Lady that

you are.

To my mother Linda: I Love you, I thank you for

never, ever, ever, ever giving up on me, and supporting

me through all the good and the bad, you will always be

my Ma-me.

To my Mama Jewel: I love you and appreciate

every ounce of kindness that flows from you at all times...

Thank you, Mama Jewel. Your name says it all for you

are truly a Jewel to me.Love,

Lynnette

Happy Mother’s Day to Lillie Bell Beckton (left) and her sister, Ann Harper. I am

truly blessed to have my mom and aunt in

my life today. They have always been

there for me whenever I needed them. I

love both of you very much.James

This is my favorite photo of my mom, my grandma and

myself. We aren’t in our Sunday best but it is a candid photo of generational love. Grandma

stepped on that “morning train” one year ago on May

28 and even though she is no longer with us the love she had for her family carries on. Love

you granma, love you mom!Ashley

My mother is strong, dependable. Her insight

and love is the rock I stand on. One of eight, she helped

raise her siblings, being the first in our family to

graduate from Florida A&M University.

Starla

My best friend and confidante:

I wish you were still here to share my thoughts.

Looking forward to our reunion in heaven.

Love ya,Jerry

To our Wonderful Mom and Granny Mamie Gooden-Lee,

Thank you for many years of love. You are truly a blessing to all of us. Your unconditional love has

been shown continuously.May God continue to bless you

and give you favor for all of your good works. We love you!

Lisa, Chayla and Charles III

To the chairwoman of our board:Thanks for being our anchor in the

stormy seas of life.We love you!

Chuck, Glenn, Cassandra

Dear Grandma Julia,This Mother’s

Day, we want to appreciate you for

all you have done for us. You brighten the visits to Daytona in a snap. You’d never know how much we

love you through words!Love,

Chayla and Wig

Dear Grandma Julia,

Just wanted to take the time this Mother’s Day to

say I love you and hope you

know that I think about

you often.Happy Mother’s

Day!Jamal

Jacksonville: The Jacksonville Jazz Festival featuring Najee, Gary Staling, the John Ricci Quartet and more will be held May 23-26 at 117 West Duval St.

Orlando: The first Mothers’ Milk Bank of Florida 5k Run/Walk and 2 Mile Family Walk, which is help-ing raise funds to create a donor human milk bank for babies, will be held May 11 at Bull Frederick Park, 3401 S. Hiawassee Road. Start time: 7:15 a.m.

Jacksonville: Avant and Brian McKnight will be at the Florida Theater Jacksonville May 24 for a 7 p.m. show. Mt. Dora: The Mt. Dora Blues and Wine Festival will be held May 17 – May 19 on Main St. in Downtown Mt. Dora. More information: 352-728-5250.

Maitland: Central Florida letter carriers will take part in the 21st annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, which will take place across America. Central Florida residents are asked to leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable foods - canned soup, canned vegetables, pasta, rice or cereal, etc. - next to their mailbox prior to the time of regular mail delivery on Saturday, May 11. Local letter carriers will collect these food donations as they deliver the mail and take them to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. More information: www.helpstampouthunger.com or 407-322-3031.

Orlando: R&B songstress Jordin Sparks will be at the House of Blues Orlando for a benefit concert hosted by Masters champ Bubba Watson on May 17.

St. Augustine: Rap artist Kendrick Lamar will be at the St. Augustine Amphitheater June 19 for a 6:30 p.m. show.

Tampa: Delta Sigma Theta Soror-ity’s Centennial Torch Tour makes a stop in Tampa on May 18. The day, hosted by the Tampa Alumnae Chapter, will include an event for students at the Museum of Science and Industry from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. A Crimson Yacht Soiree on the yacht StarShip starts at 6:30 p.m. More information: 850-284-3386 or visit www.dstta.com.

Tampa: State Rep. Janet Cruz presents the 2013 West Tampa Job Fair July 30 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Higgins Hall, 5255 N. Himes Ave. Admission for job seekers is free and an eight-foot table is free to employ-ers. More information and to register as an employer: 813-673-4673.

Jacksonville: A youth and young adult revival will be held at Central Metropolitan CME Church May 17 at 7 p.m. 4611 N. Pearl St.

Orlando: An Art of Networking workshop teaching entrepreneurs

how to “work a room so it works for you” will be held May 15 from 8 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. at the Chamber of Commerce building, 75 South Ivan-hoe Blvd. RSVP is required. More information: 407-835-2486.

Jacksonville: The stage play and musical “Dreamgirls” will be at the Times-Union Center for the Per-forming Arts May 21 at 7:30 p.m.

St. Petersburg: LL Cool J, Ice Cube, De La Soul and Public Enemy will be at The Mahaffey in St. Peters-burg during their Kings of the Mic

Tour on June 6 and the St. Augus-tine Amphitheater June 7.

St. Petersburg: Youths ages 7 to 11 can enjoy a night of football, kickball, ping-pong, foosball, video games and dance parties during “Freestyle Fridays” at the Fossil Park & Willis S. Johns Center, 6635 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N. First visit free; $6 each following visit. More information: 727-893-7756.

St. Petersburg: First Fridays are held in downtown St. Petersburg at 250 Central Ave. between Sec-

ond and Third Avenues from 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. More information: 727-393-3597.

Fort Lauderdale: The Florida Minority Community Reinvestment along with a coalition of Florida minority non-profits and neigh-borhood associations are hosting the 2013 Let’s Do Business Florida & Summit June 28-June 29 at the Westin Beach Resort & Spa. No cost to women-minority-veteran businesses and nonprofits. More information: www.letsdobusiness-florida.com.

TOJCALENDAR MAY 10 – MAY 16, 2013B2

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR

RED GRANTRed Grant is among a slate of comedians performing at the 6th annual Memorial Day Weekend Comedy Fest May 26, 8 p.m. at the James L. Knight Center.

KELLY ROWLANDKelly Rowland and the Dream bring their Lights Out Tour to the House of Blues Orlando June 6 for a 7:30 p.m. show.MCT

Today, many people are at risk of foreclosure through no fault of their own.

Making Home Affordable is a free program from the U.S. government that

has already helped over a million struggling homeowners.

The sooner you act, the better the chance we can help you.

MakingHomeAffordable.gov | 1-888-995-HOPE (4673)

If you’re struggling to keepyour home, there is help.

These homeowners were helped by

the program. To hear their story, go to

MakingHomeAffordable.gov

BY THE FLORIDA COURIER STAFF

Dr. Arthur T. Jones, found-er and senior pastor of Bible-Based Fellowship Church in Tampa and co-founder and ex-ecutive director of the Florida Mass Choir, Inc., died May 4. He was 65.

According to an obituary in the Tampa Bay Times, the Tam-pa native graduated from that city’s Middleton High School and later worked as an IBM marketing executive for 24 years. He graduated from Unit-ed Theological Seminary, and also received religious training at Harvard and Oxford univer-sities.

An informal 1988 Bible study at the Jones family’s home grew

to become Bi-ble-Based Fel-lowship Church in 1992. Since then, BBFC has grown “into a church with more than 5,000 members, and five congrega-tions and two schools in Afri-ca,” according

to the Tampa Bay Times.Jones was also a writer, gospel

singer, songwriter, record and video producer who served in ministry and music capacities in Florida, Texas, South Caro-lina and Georgia. He recorded and produced 14 albums, CDs and videos with the world-fa-mous Florida Mass Choir as well as a solo 2002 CD enti-tled, “Speak For Me.” The Gos-pel Music Workshop of Ameri-ca honored him for his lifetime achievements in the gospel mu-sic industry in 2011.

Jones also published three books: “Four Words for Tough

Times,” “When You Don’t Know What to Do,” and “Just Let God Be God.”

Extensive travelsJones traveled to Israel, Egypt,

Switzerland, Greece, China and on five preaching and teaching missions to Africa. While there, he visited Senegal, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, the Cen-tral African Republic, Niger, Ke-nya, and Burkina Faso.

In Burkina Faso, Jones estab-lished five churches – all named after their mother church, Bi-ble-Based Fellowship – as well as Bethesda Academy, a mid-dle and senior high school with 35 full-time staff and 469 stu-dents. According to its website, Bible-Based Fellowship has al-so established 11 other church-es in remote villages around Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso.

Jones is survived by his wife, Doris; two daughters, Shonda and Natalie, and two sons, Ar-thur T. II, and Darren; and a son-in-law, Chuck Wilson. Home-going services were scheduled to be held Friday in Tampa.

Co-founder of Florida Mass Choir, Dr. Arthur T. Jones, dies

Dr. Arthur T. Jones

Jones and the Florida Mass Choir together recorded 14 albums, CDs and videos.

WALTER BEASLEYWalter Beasley will be at the Ritz Theatre in Jacksonville on June 1 for 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. shows.

B3TECHNOLOGYS MAY 10 – MAY 16, 2013

BY RonAld d. WhiteLos AngeLes Times /mCT

LOS ANGELES – Rob-ert Greenberg got tired of hearing from senior engi-neers that it wasn’t pos-sible to build his product idea: a bionic eye that gives sight to the blind.

“A lot of the folks straight out of school didn’t know any better, so I hired them instead,” quipped Green-berg, chief executive of Sec-ond Sight Medical Prod-ucts Inc., a Sylmar, Calif., biotech company. “They didn’t know how hard it was going to be, that it was impossible. And so they tried.”

Greenberg can laugh now that he once thought developing the device would take a year and $1 million. Some 20 years and $200 million later, the first bionic eye has helped more than 20 European patients regain some of their sight.

Now for saleCalled the Argus II Reti-

nal Prosthesis System, the device recently was ap-proved by the Food and Drug Administration. Sec-ond Sight, which has 100 employees, is allowed to sell the bionic eye system to patients in the U.S. with advanced retinitis pig-mentosa, a degenerative eye disease that can cause blindness.

“We are a far cry from restoring 20/20 vision,” said Brian V. Mech, Sec-ond Sight’s vice president of business development, who holds a doctorate in materials science and an MBA from the UCLA An-derson School of Manage-ment. “We are taking blind people back up to low vi-

sion, and that is pretty sig-nificant.”

Mech likes to show vid-eos of once-sightless pa-tients who, after receiv-ing the retinal prosthesis, are able to follow a person walking down the street and discern a street curb without using their canes.

‘No other option’“Until our product, these

patients had no other op-tion to obtain the abil-ity to see,” Mech said of the $100,000 device, part of which rests on a pair of Oakley Inc. sunglass frames. The cost to Euro-pean patients has been paid by insurance compa-nies in most cases.

Palo Alto attorney Dean Lloyd, who lost his vision 17 years ago, got the bion-ic eye system as part of the U.S. testing process. It al-lows him to see “boundar-ies and borders, not imag-es” but has had a profound effect on his life.

Lloyd cites an incident before he received the eye system that still rankles. In the middle of a courtroom trial, an opposing attorney said Lloyd didn’t stand a chance with his case be-cause he couldn’t even keep his socks straight: Lloyd had mixed up his black, courtroom socks with his white athletic ones.

“What did I do after the surgical procedure that I hadn’t been able to do?” Lloyd said. “I went home and sorted all of my socks.”

Working in CaliThe story of how the bi-

onic eye came to be made in Sylmar underscores California’s long record of

medical device advances and involves top univer-sity researchers who were brought to Southern Cali-fornia to work on the proj-ect.

Greenberg likened the degree of difficulty to “shrinking a television set to the size of a pea, then throwing it into the ocean

and expecting it to work.”For Greenberg, it began

in the early 1990s when he was a doctoral candi-date in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Some of the first work was being done there, test-ing patients who had lost

their vision because of re-tinitis pigmentosa, to see if electrically stimulating their retinas would pro-duce results. It did.

“Using one electrode, the patient saw one spot of light,” Greenberg said. “Second electrode, and the patient was seeing two spots of light. During that

experiment, I was hooked.”Greenberg said he

thought: “This is just en-gineering. Put more spots and you could make more pixels, like lights on a scoreboard or pixels on your computer monitor. You could see images.”

Met a financierThere was a break-

through of another sort a few years later, in Wash-ington. There, Greenberg was working as a medical officer and a lead reviewer for the FDA’s Office of De-vice Evaluation when he met entrepreneur Alfred E. Mann.

Mann had already estab-lished himself as a medical device developer through Mannkind Corp. and sev-eral other Southern Cali-fornia companies. During the 1980s, the self-made billionaire founded Paces-etter Systems, which made cardiac pacemakers. From there, he moved on to in-sulin pumps and related equipment.

Another Mann-funded company, Advanced Bion-ics Corp., took on cochlear implants, which could re-store hearing to the deaf. It was the electrode-based cochlear implant that formed the rough basis of Second Sight’s first bionic eye.

In 1998, Second Sight opened with the financial backing of Mann and Sam Williams, another success-ful entrepreneur whose company, Williams Inter-national, designed and built small, efficient turbo-fan jet engines.

“Sam Williams was blind from retinitis pigmento-sa, the disease that we are treating,” Mech said. “He had invested along with Al in Advanced Bionics, which restores hearing for deaf people, and they were already on the market in the ‘90s. Sam said to Al, ‘Why can’t we do the same for blind people?’”

Bionic eye is now a reality

increasingly, cameras follow you everywhereBY ABBott KoloffThe reCord/mCe

They are watching as you work out at the gym, wait for a train, drive a car or walk down the street.

Video surveillance cameras, both pri-vate and public, are just about everywhere – observing people as they go about their daily lives, typically recording hour after hour of mundane footage.

But when something unusual happens, video can be a potent tool for law enforce-ment. A multitude of pictures – from re-tailers’ security cameras, but also from thousands of personal phone cameras – gave police in just days compelling visual evidence to zero in on men they suspected to be responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings.

And with so many cameras positioned in key spots, it is becoming commonplace to have video of a crime scene or activities that provide authorities with invaluable information.

At a costSuch information comes at a cost, how-

ever, as civil rights advocates are quick to point out. Increased use of video surveil-lance, along with other tracking technol-ogies, such as E-ZPass transponders and GPS chips in phones, creates a danger, they say, by recording too much informa-tion about innocent citizens – data that can easily be accessed by the government no matter who does the recording.

“We are worried that cameras are be-coming so ubiquitous that people won’t be able to go anywhere without having their activities stored forever,” said Ben Wizner, the director of the American Civ-il Liberties Union’s speech, privacy and technology project.

And in a world that has become all-too-accustomed to acts of terror, there may be no will to reverse that trend. Some cit-ies have installed their own surveillance systems in an effort to reduce crime and catch criminals.

Some have received federal funds to pur-chase video cameras to monitor so-called soft targets for terrorists, such as highways and malls. An increasing number of police departments have received federal grants to purchase license-plate readers to help spot stolen cars, along with vehicles relat-ed to people on watch lists for suspected gang members or terrorists. The informa-

tion from those readers is downloaded to a national database.

How long?The ACLU has been asking officials in 40

states how long videos and license plate information are retained in the nation-al database, and has compiled public re-cords that provide some answers, Wizner said. The findings, he said, will be released in a report soon. The ACLU, he said, would like uniform regulations for how long sur-veillance information can be retained, in-stead of relying on towns or states to set their own rules.

“We’ve never been opposed to surveil-lance cameras in high-impact places or an event like the marathon,” Wizner said. “We’re talking about a balance, the pub-lic interest in safety against not turning into a surveillance society where the gov-ernment retains records on innocent citi-zens.”

Private storagePolice have increasingly relied on video

surveillance, mostly from private sourc-es, to solve crimes. The ACLU also is con-cerned about private databases, citing a Justice Department document that shows cellphone providers, including Verizon and AT&T, keep information about what cell towers customers connect to for a year or more. That information could be sub-poenaed by the government to obtain pat-terns of behavior of individual customers, Wizner said.

“You could learn their religious beliefs, sexual orientation, their political affilia-tion, whether they are having an affair,” Wizner said.

He also noted that video surveillance re-cordings have the potential to be abused. During the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, a law enforce-ment officer in a helicopter famously re-corded images of a couple having sex on a rooftop.

RicARdo deARAtAnhA/loS AngeleS tiMeS/Mct

A technician in the clean room, under yellow light, inspects electrodes used on the Arguss II Retinal Prosthesis.

Bionic eye

© 2013 MCT

Capturing the sceneCamera on the glasses captures a scene, and the video is processed through a small portable unit

Visual data are sent to glassesVideo is transformed into digital instructions, which are sent wirelessly to the eye implant

The eye implant receives dataElectronic array emits small pulses of electricity to stimulate the retina’s still-functional cells; they are transmitted along the optic nerve to the brain

Brain interprets object patternsPulses are perceived as patterns of light; users learn to interpret the visual patterns

Source: Second Sight Medical Products Inc. Graphic: Wil Ramirez, Lorena Iniguez Elebee, Los Angeles Times

The bionic eye does not help all blind people and does not restore full vision. But the shapes, shades and pixels of light that the prosthesis produces can make a big difference for patients to be able, for instance, to climb sidewalks or get through doors without the aid of a cane. The images are akin to lights on a scoreboard or pixels on a computer monitor and can change the life of a person whose retinas still have some level of functionality. How it works:

Receiver coil

Eye implant

Electronic array

Electronics case with simulator and receiver

Eye

A digitized image of the object is displayed in the electronic arrayPortable

unit

CameraGlasses

Glasses with camera

Optic nerve

Image translation in brain

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OF A SPECIAL

OPPORTUNITY.

R1670_5x10_4C.indd 1 5/1/2013 3:49:20 PM

VioRel floReScu/the RecoRd/Mct

Robert Scudieri watches monitors with video feeds from more than 100 cameras across North Bergen, N.J.

TOjB4 STOjHOME MAY 10 – MAY 16, 2013

The Challenge: Gone are the days when the kitchen was used mostly for cooking. Today it can serve as communi-cations hub, mail sorting station, home-work center and conference room. Is it any wonder you can’t find the pepper grinder?

Simple SoluTionS:1. Go paper-free. Debbie Lillard, au-

thor of “Absolutely Organized: A Mom’s Guide to a No-Stress Schedule and Clut-ter-Free Home,” says much of what over-loads kitchen surfaces is paper — the kind that seems too important to get rid of so it just piles up in drifts. For her three elementary school–age kids, Lil-lard transfers pertinent information from school announcements, birthday invi-tations and team schedules to a master wall calendar, then recycles the originals. She also recommends color-coding the calendar by child.

2. establish an art box for each child. Deposit daily artwork and school pa-pers in it, then at the end of the year, sort through the pile with your child to save, say, 25 treasures. The sorting becomes a time to reflect together on your child’s accomplishments and the truly impor-tant mementos don’t get lost under a landslide of old spelling tests.

3. Try a rolling storage cart. Paired with one of these carts, available at most home stores, your kitchen table can do double duty as a craft center or home-work station. “Store supplies in the lower drawers and leave the top drawer emp-ty to sweep unfinished work into for next time,” says Cynthia Townley Ewer, au-thor of “Houseworks: How to Live Clean, Green and Organized at Home” and ed-itor of organizedhome.com. When din-nertime rolls around, free up precious floor space by wheeling the cart to a less crowded spot.

The Challenge: Large flat surfaces such as the kitchen table, coffee table or guest bed are clutter magnets. I’m just guessing your own dining room table right now is home to junk mail, an aban-doned craft project and a broken tiara awaiting a (missing) glue gun. “Clutter attracts clutter,” says Ewer. “It multiplies like rabbits.”

Simple SoluTionS:1. make lost-and-found boxes and

charity bins. If items are left out too long in common areas, put them in a lost-and-found box, then kids will know where to look for them. If you don’t mind playing hardball, you can call it a “toy jail” and require your kids to pay bail — do an ex-tra chore — to get their stuff back. Out-grown clothes and toys can go in a box by the back door. When the box is full, take it to a local charity.

2. establish temporary catchalls. To collect the remains of the day, place bas-kets at high-traffic points, such as the bottom of the stairs. Make a rule that the stuff must be claimed and put away every night, or else you’ve just created a new dumping zone.

3. Don’t be afraid to improvise. In my own quest to glimpse the surface of our dumping room — I mean, dining room — table, I have experimented by telling my 9-year-old son to “pretend the table is on fire, and everything you leave there will be burned up forever!”

The Challenge: The glowing comput-er screen has replaced the fireside as the heart of the home. Kids do their home-work, play games, load music and check all-important e-mail at this high-traffic, high-demand spot. It easily can become a disaster area: a tangle of cords, disks out of cases and papers left on the chair for the next user to squash.

Simple SoluTionS:1. Create separate spaces. Erin

Rooney Doland, author of “Unclutter Your Life in One Week” and editor of un-clutterer.com, recommends setting up the computer desktop so that each user has her own password and account. Fam-ily members can be given a box or draw-er nearby to quickly stash their stuff. And keep handy a box with a stapler, pens and other necessities so that kids can finish their homework without having to hunt for a paper clip.

2. make a backup box. Store your com-puter’s hardware manuals and program disks in one dedicated box in a closet, ad-vises Doland. If there’s a problem, all the information will be right there.

3. Try a disk folder. To save space and avoid playing matchmaker with comput-er game disks and cases, Ewer loves disk folders, available at office supply stores. Manuals and disks are simply slid into the plastic sleeves, where they are easily accessible.

The Challenge: Most kids own many times their own body weight in toys, with new inventory arriving on each birthday and major (or minor) holiday. The result: kids get overwhelmed, have a hard time choosing what they want to play with, or can’t find their favorites.

Simple SoluTionS:1. let go of unused toys. Brooks Palm-

er suggests parents help their kids weed out unwanted and outgrown toys. “I’ll hand a child one toy at a time and ask, ‘How about this one? Do you still play with it … or not?’” Donating the unwant-ed toys to charity helps kids feel good about the process. Just make sure the bag goes right out the door, or else your kids might be tempted to pull the toys out again.

2. Select smart storage. Group toys by type in open bins on child-level book-shelves. Pasting a picture on each bin of what goes inside will help kids organize. Avoid scooping all playthings into one huge toy box or hard-to-open container.

3. Store toys where kids typically play with them. Why are the board games al-ways strewn around the living room, where inevitably the dice are kicked un-der the sofa? Because the game shelf is down in the basement, a flight away, says Erin Rooney Doland. Better to clear an area on a living room shelf to make put-ting away games easier.

The Challenge: Though this area of the

home is the first, and last, place you and your guests see, it’s often the most chaot-ic. Kids dump their backpacks, shoes and coats right inside the door, then make an Olympic dash for the refrigerator. Later, finding a homework assignment or miss-ing sneaker requires an archaeological dig.

Simple SoluTionS:1. Assign each child his own easy-to-

access space. Use chic lockers or plastic milk crates lined up in the hallway to give kids a self-serve place to stash their boots and bags. A row of sturdy wall hooks at child level for coats.

2. establish a family launchpad. Ewer suggests giving everyone their own ded-icated space for can’t-leave-home-with-out-it items. Have family members de-posit cell phones, keys, flash drives, per-mission slips, homework, lunch money and sunglasses here.

The Challenge: Often large or awk-wardly shaped, sports equipment tends to get tossed onto a messy Mount Everest in the garage or mudroom.

Simple SoluTionS:1. Thin the herd. Doland advises

weeding out items that aren’t being used. “Many people have a hard time getting rid of unused sports equipment because it came with a high price tag,” she says. Selling gear on eBay or to a sports resale shop, or donating it, can ease the pain.

2. Sort by sport. During baseball sea-son, Lillard’s son keeps a sports bag packed with his glove, bat and other es-sentials hanging at the ready on the ga-rage wall. Use tall freestanding cloth laundry bins to keep equipment sorted by sport and off the floor.

3. maximize your space. To store un-wieldy equipment, use wall hooks, bas-kets, hanging bags or sturdy shelving.

By Jennifer King LindLey • disney famiLyfun magazine

I used to dismiss the highly organized as just a bit ... up-tight. Then, one morning, I gazed out of the kitchen window to see my two kids fidgeting in our idling van, five minutes past when they should have left for school. In the garage, my husband hunted among bags of old grass seed and toppled bikes for the tennis racket he needed for a minutes-away match. “It’s around here somewhere!” he said.

That was an Aha! moment for me. I realized that, far from being a waste of time, getting our home organized would actually save our family time and stress.

Luckily, there are experts out there who specialize in tam-ing just our kind of chaos. Here’s some advice from four pro-fessional organizers on managing a home’s most common disaster zones — clutter hot spots — from crowded kitchen counters to messy play areas.

Follow these basic rules to make your home run more smoothly:

Reduce the amount you need to organize in the first place. Keep only those items you truly love or use, says Brooks Palmer, author of “Clutter Busting: Letting Go of What Is Holding You Back” and editor of clutter-busting.com. Don’t hang onto an unwanted item just because it cost a lot or Aunt Sue gave it to you.

Give everything a home. “A place for everything and everything in its place” may seem an old-fash-ioned idea, but it really works, experts stress.

Don’t shoot for perfection. Cynthia Townley Ewer recommends starting small by identifying the prob-lems that are causing the most angst (the missing car keys), then trying the easiest solution (a bowl on top of the fridge!).

Get the kids involved. “More important than hav-ing fancy organizing equipment is teaching your kids good routines,” Debbie Lillard says.

Spend a little time every day maintaining your system. Erin Rooney Doland suggests creating a half-hour MP3 mix (let kids pick their favorite high-energy selections) and make that your family’s cue to start a daily evening cleanup.

iLLustrations By Betsy everitt/courtesy of disney famiLyfun magazine

christina

Perrish Googins, 23, is a 2012 graduate of the University of South Carolina where he studied Information Management and Systems. While at USC, he participated in track and field, and was a cheerleader. He’s a personal trainer and coaches track, cheer, and song and dance. The actor/model enjoys playing the violin. Contact Perrish at www.facebook.com/pharohgogg.T I PhoTograPhy by PhIl.

Christina Eliane is a Tampa

resident who is outgoing,

fun, and adventurous.

The 5’10 senior participated in collegiate basketball,

and aspires to compete

in the WNBA and become a

supermodel.

B5FINEST & ENTERTAINMENTSToJ May 10 – May 16, 2013

Think you’re one of Florida’s Finest? E-mail your high-resolution (200 dpi) digital photo in casual wear or bathing suit taken in front of a plain background with few distractions, to news@flcourier.com with a short biography of yourself and your contact information. (No nude/glamour/ fashion photography, please!) In order to be considered, you must be at least 18 years of age. Acceptance of the photographs submitted is in the sole and absolute discretion of Florida Courier editors. We reserve the right to retain your photograph even if it is not published. If you are selected, you will be contacted by e-mail and further instructions will be given.

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Meet some of

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by STeve JohnSonChiCago Tribune/MCT

CHICAGO – “Steve Harvey” is not everyone’s cup of afternoon tea.

Devotees of, say, “The Colbert Report” will find “Harvey’s” right-down-the-middle humor unin-spiring. Funny newspaper head-lines and jokes about how men behave versus how women be-have – where have we seen that before?

“Dr. Phil” fans might consider the veteran stand-up comic’s ver-sion of common sense to be deliv-ered with too soft a touch. Come on, Steve, don’t just dole out love and life advice in the hours be-tween lunch and dinner. Shame people! Make them cry!

And some women in the target audience could be turned off by Harvey’s residual horny man ten-dencies, as when he recently told three single women over 40 to let themselves be pursued by a man because “you are everything he’s got to have. All these legs, these dresses, this hair. Breasts. Men got to have all of this.”

But whatever the individual pieces of “Steve Harvey” are do-ing, the package as a whole is adding up to remarkable success for the first-year syndicated talk show taped in Jerry Springer’s old studio in Chicago’s NBC Tower.

Now mainstreamIts ratings power is validating

the decision to portray Harvey as a recognizable and fully main-stream figure: stern-but-loving father, traditionally masculine husband, a man who will tell the women watching what really goes on in the male brain, even when the thinking gets explicitly ana-tomical.

The show, cannily, is just loose enough to let Harvey’s mind – trained in raucous comedy the-aters – threaten to undermine its traditional elements, but tight enough that it never fails to be

fully of its genre, the daytime syn-dicated talk show.

And however often you can see Harvey delivering a less-than-compelling question or fighting back the stand-up’s urge to utter some crude innuendo, the show has a rare quality for daytime or, indeed, any TV: a grounding in emotion.

Helping othersRecently, Harvey showcased

his charity effort with Disney and Essence magazine to help kids achieve their dreams. He devoted a long, touching segment to a San Francisco group that gives trou-bled teens a second chance to prove themselves, in a cafe work-place setting.

“What I always wanted this show to do,” Harvey said on the air, “was just point out how peo-ple change people’s lives.”

Again, just to make the contrast crystal clear, this is the show that is in Jerry Springer’s old studio.

Doing wellThe blend of good deeds and

old ideas is working. The show is battling it out for top new syndi-cated talker of the year with for-mer “Today” anchor Katie Cou-ric’s “Katie,” while new shows fronted by talk veteran Ricki Lake and “Survivor” host Jeff Probst have faltered.

“Harvey” outperforms its lead-in (the show airing before it), it builds audience throughout the hour, it’s been building audience during the year, and, because it doesn’t rely on celebrities to spike ratings, the audience has tended to be consistent, David Goldberg, CEO of Endemol North America, the reality TV producer for which “Harvey” is the first foray into day-time talk, said in an interview.

It’s proven a good match, too, said Goldberg, with Ellen De-Generes’ talk show, which fol-lows it in many markets. Harvey is a stand-up who dances on his show and talks to real people. De-

Generes is a stand-up who danc-es and talks to celebrities.

For the calendar year, “Har-vey” is averaging about 2.1 mil-lion viewers, an improvement from its average of 1.9 million for the entire TV season. And in the key demographics, the show will tell you, it is the top new day-time show with women 18-49, a distinction it also claims among women 25-54 in 2013.

The hairsplitting tells you, of course, that you can also find cat-egories in which “Katie” leads (total viewers, women 25 to 54 for the entire season), but the big-ger story is these are the two most successful new talk shows since “Dr. Oz’s” 2009 debut. And while “Katie” had publicity and expec-tations in its favor, “Harvey” has been able to almost sneak up on people.

The Hollywood Reporter, in a March piece on the show’s sur-prising success, asked, “Could he be the next Oprah?”

“Harvey” is basking in the suc-cess as it enters its first May sweep ratings period. One upcoming show featured Dr. Phil, the ratings leader in daytime talk, as a guest. Another guest is no less a person-age than Oprah Winfrey.

“This feels like the ultimate role reversal,” Winfrey tells Harvey, in an advance clip. “Now you’re here in Chicago, on your own stage, with your own show,” she adds,

and the two do a sort of chair-bound, raise-the-roof dance.

“Having both Oprah and Phil come on the show is really an in-dication the show has arrived,” Goldberg said.

Saved ‘Family Feud’Endemol pursued Harvey over

several years, the executive said. The company knew he was one of “The Original Kings of Comedy,” celebrated in that 2000 stand-up concert film, but more recently he proved his mainstream viability by, as host, saving “Family Feud” and writing amusing but sincere best-selling advice books.

NBC’s station group backed Harvey’s show early, as well. Early last year, Larry Wert, now of Tri-bune Co. (parent of the Chicago Tribune) but then executive vice president of station initiatives for the NBC stations, helped to con-vince Harvey that Chicago, with its talk show traditions, trained workers and available studio space, was a better location than his home base of Atlanta.

Indeed, Winfrey looks around and says, “I see so many of my crew here,” and Harvey responds, “You know, that’s what I was go-ing to tell you. Steve ain’t stupid.”

Not perfectPleasing enough of daytime

America to be considered a rat-

ings success doesn’t mean the show is perfect. It is not as tight-ly produced as Winfrey’s was, for instance. Where Winfrey’s guests almost always felt like the best available examples of their is-sue, vetted like presumptive FBI agents, Harvey’s guests have been hit-and-miss.

And Harvey still needs work as an interviewer. He has personal charm but too often seems con-tent to cruise on that.

In a segment about older sin-gle women, he brought on three men as potential matches and told the women he would take charge of questioning them. But he proceeded to ask generic, bad-job-interview questions. Where do you see yourself in five years? What are your goals? Ho and hum.

The afternoon, though, is not a time of day that demands much. By those relaxed standards, Har-vey can just ham it up as he rolls his hips in a Zumba segment, turn on the high-wattage smile and then, in the guise of counseling a man and woman having difficulty blending their two families, touch hearts by sharing a story about his kids and wife Marjorie’s kids voting 4 to 3 against them getting married.

The former comedy king is looking like, at minimum, a day-time TV prince, and he’s making it look easy.

Steve harvey hits on a winning daytime formula

anTonIo Perez/ChICago TrIbune/MCT

Steve Harvey talks to the audience during a taping of Chicago-based show.

perrish

TOjB6 TOjFOOD MAY 10 – MAY 16, 2013

FROM FaMily FeatuRes

Gathering the entire family around the table for meals or snack time is a great way to stay connected and enjoy time together. You can keep that family time fun by mixing up the menu and preparing quick and tasty meals together.

Here are some easy ways to bring smiles to the ta-ble every day:

• Make breakfast together. Whether it’s PB & J French Toast on a weekend morning or topping ev-eryone’s favorite cereal with fruit before school, there are plenty of delicious ways for the entire family to rise and smile. And work ing together to put some breakfast magic on the table makes it even more spe-cial. Kids can spread peanut butter and jelly, wash fruit, set the table or help pour milk and juice.

• Serve something unexpected. Use familiar ingre-dients in unexpected ways. These recipes, for exam-ple, take Honey Bunches of Oats Greek Honey Crunch cereal out of the bowl and into some tasty treats like Creamy Orange-Vanilla Squares or Rainforest Chewy Bars. Made with whole grains, and two unique gra-nolas with real Greek yogurt, it adds a crispy, tangy element the entire family will love. Cereal can also be used in meatloaf and casseroles, and as breading on baked chicken fingers or mozzarella sticks.

• Get creative with snack time. Change up the usual snacks for something different. Chocolate-dipped fro-zen bananas, yogurt parfaits, or these Caramel Balls are all kid-friendly snacks that little hands can help make.

You can find more smile-worthy recipes at www.honeybunchesofoats.com.

Creamy Orange-Vanilla SquareS Total Time: 3 hours, 45 minutesMakes: 16 servings

2 cups Honey Bunches of Oats Greek �Honey Crunch cereal, divided1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine, melted�

1 8-ounce package Neufchatel cheese, �softened1 cup sugar�

2 eggs�

2 tablespoons flour�

1/4 teaspoon baking powder�

1 tablespoon grated orange peel�

1/4 cup fresh orange juice�

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 8-inch square baking pan with

cooking spray; set aside. Place 1 3/4 cups cereal in food processor; process until finely crushed. Mix with margarine; press onto bottom of prepared pan. Set aside.

Beat Neufchatel cheese and sugar with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in flour, baking powder, orange peel and juice; pour over crust.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until center is set. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cereal; press gently into top of dessert to secure. Cool completely. Cover and refrigerate several hours or until chilled. Cut into squares to serve. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

Special Extra: Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons powdered sugar just before serving.

Caramel BallSTotal Time: 15 minutesMakes: 7 servings

20 caramels�

1 tablespoon water�

2 cups Honey Bunches of Oats �Greek Honey Crunch cereal, dividedMicrowave caramels and water in

medium microwavable bowl on high 1 1/2 to 2 min utes or until caramels are completely melted.

Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the cereal. With hands slightly moistened with cold water, shape cereal mixture into 21 small balls, each about 1 inch in diameter.

Crush remaining 1/2 cup cereal; place in shallow dish. Roll cereal balls in cereal until evenly coated.

Tip: If kids help out in the kitchen, teach them about food safety. In addition to washing hands thoroughly before starting, make sure long hair is pulled back. When shaping food by hand, caution children not to lick their fingers or put their hands in their mouths during preparation.

rainfOreSt Chewy BarS Total Time: 10 minutesMakes: 24 servings

1/4 cup honey�

2 tablespoons butter�

1 10-ounce package marshmallows �(about 36 marshmallows)6 cups Honey Bunches of Oats �Greek Honey Crunch cereal1 cup dried apricots, raisins or �dried cranberries chopped1 cup almonds, chopped�

1/2 cup sunflower kernels�

Microwave honey and butter in large micro waveable bowl on high 1 minute; stir until well blended. Add marshmallows; toss to coat. Microwave 1 1/2 minutes or until marshmallows are puffed; stir until well blended.

Add remaining ingredients; mix well.

Press cereal mixture firmly into greased 13x9-inch pan. Cool. Cut into 24 bars.

PB & J frenCh tOaSt Total Time: 25 minutesMakes: 4 servings

8 slices whole wheat, white or �cinnamon raisin bread1/4 cup peanut butter�

3 tablespoons strawberry jam�

2 eggs�

2 tablespoons milk�

2 1/2 cups Honey Bunches of �Oats cereal, crushed2 cups sliced fresh fruit, such as �strawberries and/or bananas1 tablespoon sifted powdered �sugar1/2 cup maple syrup�

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spread each of 4 bread slices

with 1 tablespoon peanut butter and about 2 teaspoons of jam. Cover with remaining bread slices to make 4 sandwiches.

Break eggs into shallow dish. Add milk and beat with wire whisk for 30 seconds. Place crushed cereal in pie plate. Dip each sandwich into egg mixture, then into cereal, turning to evenly coat both sides. Press cereal gently into bread to secure. Place on lightly greased baking sheet.

Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cut each sandwich diagonally in half; top with fruit. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve with syrup.

Serving up

SMILES