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Swann to run for Pennsylvania governor PITTSBURGH (AP) - Former Steelers star Lynn Swann, who declared his candidacy for Pennsylvania governor, says he is confi dent he will w in the state OOP committee's endorsement However! if the committee endorses one of his three competitors next month, Swann said last week he may contest the party's candi date in the May 16 primary S i vann "If I need a primary to win, then I would have to take a serious look at heing in the pri mary," he said Swann, 53, declared his candidacy in the city where he made his name in professional foothall His announcement was no surprise: Swann 's political committee has been raising money for his campaign for nearly a year. He told The Associated Press in an inter view I hat he made up his mind to run in the fall after spending months weighing support at events around the state. Swann, a Hall of Fame receiver and long time TV football commentator, faces three other candidates in seek ing the Republican nomination for governor - his first rn^forpoliti cal office. The winner of the May 16 primary likely wJ^ttd face Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, who is expected to seek a second four year term. If successful in his first bid for political office, Swann would become Pennsylvania's first black governor. The Steelers won four Super Bowls during Swann 's nine-) ear pro career with the team. He has worked for ABC Sports since his retire ment from football in 1983 Swann said he hopes to convince blacks that he is a better candi date than Rendell, a former Philadelphia mayor. The Democratic Party has "taken the African- American vote for granted," Swann said Police: MLK nephew set fire to own apartment in apparent suicide attempt INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Authorities say a nephew of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. set fire to his own apart ment in an apparent suicide attempt. Derek King, 46, sought mental health counseling after Tuesday's blaze, said Bob Bowser, deputy chief of the Lawrence Police Department. Bowser said Derek King endangered the lives of himself and others when he allegedly set the fire in his apartment, and then refused to leave when rescuers arrived. "It could have been a tragedy," Bowser said. Arson investigators determined that the fire was intentionally set, and Bowser said King could face charges King, associate pastor at Ebenezer Missionary Baptist (Church, declined comment to The Indianapolis Star when reached Friday There is no published telephone listing for him in the Indianapolis area. The Rev. Thomas L. Brown, pastor at Jibene/cr Missionary, said he believed the fire was an accident and the alleged suicide attempt a misunderstanding ? "I say it's totally accidental," Brown said. South Africa kicks off campaign CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - The AltttSVf National Congress launched its campaign Sunday for local government elec tions, promising to do more for South Africans soil disadvantaged from decades of apartheid and angry over widespreaacomiption. In a speech to an estimated 25,000 people pacl^d irttrTa stadium in Cape Town - w here the ruling ANC faces a tougnfct?{llenge from the opposition Democratic Alliance - President ThabalMbeki vowed to improve education ancj_ health care and ensure all houses have access to clean water and sanitation by 2010 and electricity by 2012. Mbeki also declared that the ANC branches would be "front-line fighters against corruption, to ensure that nobody uses his or her position in government to steal from the people to line their pock ets." At the last municipal elections in 2000, the ANC won 59 percent of the vote and the Democratic Alliance won 22 percent, with the rest split between smaller parties. At national elections in 2004, the ANC swept to an overwhelming 70 percent majority. Although it is expected to win iq the March 1 vote given its sup port among the majority black community, it risks a backlash from people fed up with inefficient, corrupt local government. Even though the government has built about 18 million new homes since 1994, the number of households living in shacks rose from 1.45 million to 1.84 million - a 26 percent increase Belafonte calls Bush 'terrorist' CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - American singer and activist Harry Belafonte called President Bash "the greatest terrorist in the world" on Sunday and said millions of Americans support th4 socialist revolution of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. including the ^actor Danny Glover and Princeton University scholar Cornel West, that met the Venezuelan president for more ~ than six hours late Saturday "No matter what The greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W Bustisays, we're here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people ... support your revolu Belafontp led a delegation of A Helafonte lion," Belafonte told Chavez during the broadcast Chavez said he believes deeply in the struggle for justice by blacks, both in the United States and Venezuela. "Although we may not believe it, therejjontinues to be great dis crimination here against blacK people," Chavez said, urging his gov . .emmcnt to redouble its efforts to prevent discrimination Belafonte accused U.S. news media of falsely painting ( liavez as a "dictator," when in fact, he said, there is democracy and citizens are "optimistic about their future." The Chronicle (USPS 067-910) w as established by Ernest H. Pitt and Ndubisi Egemonye in 1974 and is published every Thursday by Winston-Salem Chronicle Publishing Co. Inc , 6)7 N. Liberty Street, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27101. Periodicals postage paid at Winston-Salem, N.C. Annual subscription price is $30.72. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Chronicle, P.O. Box l<W> Winston-Salem, NC 27102-1636 Super Bowl Blackout? Black businesses in Detroit getting few contracts for big game BY BANKOLE THOMPSON rut; MKmoAN citizen DETROIT (NNPA) ? - Detroit will host the 2006 Super Bowl in February, drawing thou sands of visitors and celebrities to town A profit making event, the Super Bowl, organised by the National Football League (NFL), awards millions of dollars in con tracts to render sen ices during the week of the football event But many black business own ers in Detroit say the Super Bowl host committee, which is the offi cial liaison betw een the NFL and metro Detroit, has yet to give African-American businesses sig nificant contracts The committee launched the Emerging Business program as part of its overall contract with the NFL to teach new entrepreneurs how to get contracts. On its Web site, the Super Bowl host committee described the business program as "a busi ness procurement process benefit ing local emerging businesses including minority and women owned businesses in the State of Michigan." Some local black businesses claim it is a charade 'They talk a good game. I don't see how any of us are mak ing money," said Valeria ( ade, owner of Big Fellows restaurant. Cade said she bid on four dif ferent catering contracts for the Super Bowl but did not win one. 'The only one that I received for a possible confirmation was I "halo Diog/lcoa SMI Superbowl XL merchandise provided by All Pro Championships is displayed last month during a press conference to preview Super Bowl XL in DetrOtt.' for about $4,000," Cade said. "When I though! about it, that is no money when I have to pay my staff I called them hack and told them I was not interested." She said it was an "insult" for her to be given a Super Bowl con tract with such low margins. According to Cade, she would make a $1 ,000 profit Cade said she is a competent contractor. In the past, she provid ed similar food service for events such as the Tastefest, jazz festival and other Detroit summer activi I'm capable of doing larg? contracts," Cade said 'I-?an feed thousands of people." Visibly upset, ( 'ade said, "I don't need any part of the Super Bowl." She said she invested a lot of time and energy preparing RFPs (Request for Proposal) to bid for contracts that she did not get "You spend hours making these proposals and don't see the money," Cade said. Like Cade, Carolyn Hopkins owner of a therapeutic massage center, Be' Spa Elite, also said she submitted her credentials for con tracts but to no avail. Hopkins was later informed that NI L players would be flying in with their own massage thera pists instead of using local busi nesses to perform spa service. "It's a shame what they are doing to us in this city," Hopkins said 'The hotels I called told me that the NFL would not allow any one to bring in businesses that they have not approved." Hopkins said the workshops that were held under the Emerging Business program "(were) not even worth the time." "We thought if we go there, we'll meet the decision makers, but that was not the case," Hopkins said. "I've.been in busi ness for 20 years and everybody in the city knows our business " Loretta Walson, who runs Sparkle Janitorial, had similar complaints 'The hype was that they were going to leave so much money in the city, but that is not true," Watson said. "Our concern is the amount of the contract, the amount of business they are leav ing. I have bid on a number of the contracts. I did not get the contract with the Motown Winter Blast or the NFL Tailgate party " _ According to Watson, the business that the Super Bow l was supposed to bring to the city is Ijype. When contacted, the Super Bowl host committee's vice presi dent for external alTairs, Stacie Clayton, an African-American, denied the allegations "To date we have spent about $1.3 million in total on contracts Thirty percent have been with African- American businesses and about 90 percent of those come' ' from Detroit," Clayton said. "We have woiked with 67 emerging businesses that have received con tracts. Of that 67, 25 are Detroit based businesses " Out of the 25 Detroit-based businesses that have received con tracts, Clayton said 23 are African- Americans. However Clayton would not disclose . the dollar amount for each contract that has been let out to black businesses. "We do not give out the dollar amount because some of the busi nesses have asked for confidential purposes - not disclose those amounts," Clayton said. 'It is not true that black business are not getting anything." She said her committee is See NFL on A5 Wal-Mart explains MLK / 'Apes' link BY MARCUS KABF.L AP BUSINESS WRITER , An offensive link between a "Planet of the Apes" movie and a film about Martin Luther King Jr. on Wal-Mart's consumer Web site was a mistake caused by a well intentioned effort to promote a DVD about the black leader ahead of his annual holi day, the company said Friday. Wal-Mart removed the link on its www.walmart.com retail site last Thursday after learning about the juxtaposi tion from reporters. Wal-Mart apologized and shut down indefinitely its entire online system for referring shoppers from one movie to others. Carter Cast, president of Wal-Mart's online shopping division, told The Associated Press on Friday there was no racist motivation for a link that sent shoppers seeking "similar items" from the boxed DVD set "Planet of the Apes: The Complete TV SeriesTo four black-themed movies, including "Martin Luther King: I Have a Drearti." "There was nobody here who' mali ciously put together that combination," Cast said by telephone from Walmart. corn's headquarters in Brisbane, Calif Instead, Cast said, a business manager who wanted to promote the Martin Luther King Jr. DVD ahead of last year's holiday grouped it with three other movies - then assigned them to an overly broad category of DVD boxed sets. He said the links may have existed for the past year. "I know the person was well-intended in trying to get the 'I Have a Dream' speech out as a cross-sell. But by not con taining it in one particular item display group - for example, African-American culture - the person put it in multijfle dis play groups," Cast said. WAL-MART ALWAYS LOW PRICES. f^SSSF Wal-Mart said there would be no reper cussions for the employee, whom the Wal Martdeclijied to name, since the outcome was not intentional. Walmart.com uses a different system than many other big online vendors to cre ate cross-selling links. Amaron com, for example, bases recommendations on what a shopper has bought before and what other consumers who buy a certain item also purchased. Walmart.com manually assigns movies to specific groups, called "item display groups," such as science fiction or African-American culture. Then the com pany's internally developed software gen erates links guiding shoppers to other movies in that group. The group of four movies about King, actress Dqrothy Dandridget boxer Jack Johnson and singer Tina Turner were defined too generally as DVD boxed sets, Cast said. That linked them to more than 260 boxed sets with all kinds of themes, from "Best of Hitchcock, i 1 (Collector's Zhivago: Special Edition" and "The Avengers - The '67 Collection: Set 1." "In my eyes, the fafct that we didn't catch this was a failure. We should have caught it, ".Cast said. "The problem is thete are millions and millions of combinations of items to "Doctor cross-sold agairist each oilier. We offer 25,000 DyDs. And then if you start going through . the different combinations of cross-sells, you're in the millions," he said. Cast said walmart.com would only start cross-referencing movies again once it has a new system in place to avoid a repeat: That could be a technology more like what Ama/.on coiA uses or another approach, he said. "We are looking at a bunch of different solutions right now," Cast said. New Name. New Location. Same People. Mike Carico 336.231.8917 Lisa Clayton 336.831.1050 Ruth Hudspeth 336.831.1055 Dario Romo 336.231.8918 * Granite Mortgage, Inc. Granite Mortgage litt.Tsour new na You may remember us as GLL & Associates, Initially founded in 1985. This year we celebrate 20 years as a local mortgage lender. Offering ^ireat rates, quick closings, numerous loan programs and more. Unique mortgage solutions at a local level. . For the past 15 years Granite Mortgage has been til in NC for First Time Homebuyer Ijoans. Financing The American Dream Ann Tucker Bob Church 336.712.1444 Natalie Dillard 336.831.1057 Denise Maroldy 336.499.1121 Lisa Wright 336.231.8915 t=u CMU Formerly GLL & Associates, Inc.
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