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LINC-CH SERIALS DEPARTMENT
DAVIS LIBRARY CB# 3938
208 RALEIGH STREET-
CHAPEL HILL NC 27514
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 2012
VOLUME 91 - NUMBER 10
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 30
First lady Michelle Obama
visits North Carolina
By Martha Waggoner
RALEIGH (AP) - First lady Michelle Obama met with several
military families in North Carolina on March 2, chatting about their
children’s grades and eating habits before heading off for other du
ties.
At Raleigh-Durham International Airport, Obama was greeted by
Bianca Strzalkowski of Camp Lejeune, who was the 2011 military
spouse of the year in Military Spouse magazine. The first lady then
walked along a rope and shook hands and chatted with other military
families.
“After a decade of war, we need people like her fighting for us,”
Strzalkowski said of the Joining Forces project that Obama and Jill
Biden started to help military families. “We have an entire new gen
eration of young war widows and wounded warriors and as we draw
down forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, we need to build up these pro
grams.”
FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA
Ayoung lady views some of the Black History Month displays on exhibit at West
Durham Baptist Church See story and photos on page 4. (Photo by Norvell Brown)
North Carolina legislator’s
remarks about poverty draw ire
, Strzalkowski, was accompanied by her three children and her hus
band, Gunnery Sgt. Ron Strzalkowski, started a military spouse edu
cation initiative to expand educational opportunities for her peers.
She said Obama invited her to meet with the first lady at the White
House to discuss her project in more detail.
“I think of her as a role model,” Strzalkowski said. “She’s balanc
ing being a mom, her husband’s very demanding job and traveling
around getting to know the stories of the entire, diverse military com
munity. She’s very relatable to me and all the military spouses in all
that she’s balancing.”
Susan Reynolds, whose husband is an airman stationed at Fort
fragg, was relieved that her 18-month-old son Ian didn’t cry while
Obama spoke with them and signed her autograph. Her pen didn’t
work, however, and Obama signaled to an aide to bring another one
so she could sign the copy of the U.S. Constitution that Reynolds
always carries with her.
“My pen got stage fright,” she said.
(Continued On Page 15)
Judge removes Durham
County prosecutor from office
By Michael Biesecker and Emery P. Dalesio
(AP) - Durham County’s top prosecutor was stripped of her job
March 2 for job performance that raised public doubts about a fair
justice system, making her the second district attorney in state history
to lose her job for that reason.
Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood ordered that Durham
District Attorney Tracey E. Cline, 48, be permanently removed
because her public statements criticizing Durham Senior Resident
Judge Orlando F. Hudson Jr. undermined public confidence in the
judicial system.
“By recklessly making blatantly false allegations against Judge
Hudson in the public records, totally lacking in factual support, at
tacking his morality, honesty and asserting that he is corrupt, Tracey
D Cline has crossed the line of protected free speech under the First
Intendment,” Hobgood, who is from nearby Franklin County, said
March 2 as he read his 14-page order into the record.
From the bench, Hobgood terminated Cline’s state salary, effec
tive immediately.
Cline briefly thanked the judge for his attention to the case and
ku the courtroom without speaking, shaking her head “no” when a
re porter asked if she wanted to comment. Her lawyer quickly filed
rotice of appeal.
Cline launched an acrimonious effort last year to remove Hudson
uom overseeing criminal cases involving her office after the judge
determined the Durham DA’s office had withheld or destroyed evi
dence that could have helped defendants accused of child rape and
uurder. Hudson ordered the charges dismissed.
(Continued OnPage 15)
By Martha Waggoner
RALEIGH (AP) - Jack Rob
erts, a 28-year-old who tries to
patch together a living with odd
jobs such as car detailing and
mowing grass, is baffled about
why a North Carolina legislator
thinks no one in the state lives in
extreme poverty, which the law
maker defined as earning just six
quarters a day.
“I’m kind of confused now,”
said Roberts, who daily knocks
on doors in Scotland Neck, hop
ing a friendly homeowner will
need his services. “Why would
he believe that? If there are no
jobs, how can people survive?
... It’s tough out here with no job
and no money.”
Roberts, a high school gradu
ate who lives with his wife of
10 years in a trailer in Oak City,
was reacting to comments made
March 1 by Rep. George Cleve
land, R-Onslow, at a legislative
meting about the state’s pre-kin-
dergarten program.
Cleveland said he was skep
tical about a House committee
report that read “there are an
increasing number of children
living in extreme poverty.” Gov
ernment keeps redefining pov
erty “to make sure that we have a
poverty class,” he said.
“We have no one in the state
of North Carolina living in ex
treme poverty. We might gov
ernmentally say they are, but
they’re not,” Cleveland said,
pointing to developing countries
where he said extreme poverty
really exists. “Extreme poverty
is that you’re out there living on
a dollar and a half day. I don’t
think we have anybody in North
Carolina doing that.”
Roberts estimates he makes
about $200 a week with his odd
jobs so he makes far more than
Cleveland’s stingy description
of “extreme poverty.” Still, he
decides each week which bills to
pay. He recently moved to Oak
City because he couldn’t find
safe housing in Scotland Neck
he could afford.
He hopes to finish his last
semester at community college,
where he’s going for a two-year
degree in auto body repair. He’s
missing this semester because
the application for financial aid
arrived too late for him to apply.
“With no job, you feel like
you don’t have a life,” said Rob
erts, who said his unemployment
has run out after he was laid off
last year from Perdue Farms in
Lewiston.
Cleveland’s comments came
the day before the state chapter
of the NAACP begins the sec
ond part of its tour of poverty-
stricken areas. The tour is going
to southeastern North Carolina
but doesn’t include anywhere in
Cleveland’s home county of On
slow, which is in that section of
the state.
Although the remarks are
“sad and absurd,” it’s important
not to dismiss them, said the
Rev. William Barber, head ofthe
state NAACP. “They point to the
very problem we have been talk
ing about - the attention violence
and social brutality that we con
tinue to commit against the poor
when we ignore the facts that
(Continued On Page 15)
The NAACP Disagrees with Rep. George
Cleveland on Poverty in North Carolina
The NC NAACP deeply disagrees with Rep. George Cleveland
who was quoted as saying, “We have no one in the state of North
Carolina living in extreme poverty.” “The facts on poverty and the
faces of poverty in North Carolina and the nation not only disprove
his erroneous contention but remind us why we must address the
issue of structural and systemic poverty in our state rather than
engage in attention-violence and disdain for the poor. Rep. Cleve
land, and anyone else who proclaims poverty is not a real and seri
ous issue, should join us in telling the truth and developing hopeful
and progressive policies that will uplift and transform the lives of
those who are yet burdened with the despair of poverty,” said Rev.
Dr. William J. Barber,'II, NC NAACP president.
NC school board OKs fall open
for 9 new charters
By Emery P. Dalesio
RALEIGH (AP) - Nine new charter schools are headed for Au
gust openings, the first since North Carolina lawmakers removed a
100-school statewide limit last year.
The State Board of Education approved the schools March 1 de
spite concerns that not enough was known about the impact the new
charters could have on racial diversity and the ability of school dis
tricts to repay money borrowed for construction.
“There’s just a lot of financial issues,” school board member and
state Treasurer Janet Cowell. She is responsible for protecting the
state’s good credit rating and heads a commission examining the abil
ity of other public bodies to repay borrowed money.
Charter schools are tuition-free public schools that get their fund
ing from taxpayers but operate with fewer of the regulations facing
traditional public schools.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Martin, Durham, and Chapel Hill-
Carrboro school districts complained that the schools planning to
open in their districts would draw away funding and alter the racial
balance of existing schools.
While the schools were almost unanimously approved, the discus
sion again framed the differences over charter schools. Advocates say
charters create education options for parents while critics say they set
back public education by siphoning off funding and students with the
most engaged parents.
“I’m not sure how long we can continue to fund two separate
public school systems,” said school board member Jean Woolard of
Plymouth. “It looks like we’re going down that slippery slope.”
Board Chairman Bill Harrison noted that the public school estab
lishment and charter school advocates have often seen themselves
as adversaries, but with the number of charters likely to multiply it’s
time for that to end.
“We’re in a new day, and charter schools are part of the public
school landscape. I don’t want us to forget charter schools are public
schools,” Harrison said. “The end result will be better opportunities
for all kids.”
One group advocating for charter schools said even if the future
brings hundreds of applications, the state school board will decide
which to approve under a process already in place.
“Yes, there will be considerably more potential public charter
school leaders applying in the future, and that is a good thing. How
ever, it is important to note that we have a system in place that is
designed to help ensure quality,” said Darrell Allison, president of
Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina.
The nine charter schools approved March 1 include three in rural
areas that haven’t had any in the past. They are Bear Grass Charter
(Continued On Page 15)
Justice Dept
wants trial on
Florida voting
changes
By Pete Yost
WASHINGTON (AP) -
The Justice Department is
opposing changes in Flor
ida voting procedures and
says it wants a trial in the
dispute, a move that could
impact the state’s August
primary elections.
In court papers filed late
March 2, Florida officials
say they strongly oppose
having a trial and noted that
the federal court hearing
the case in the District of
Columbia wants sufficient
time to issue a decision be
fore the August primaries.
The state is seeking court
approval for changes that
shorten the time for voter
registration groups turning
in registration forms to 48
hours and that narrow the
time frame for early voting
to 10 days before election
day.
Florida says the court in
Washington can decide the
case on the basis of infor
mation already submitted
in the lawsuit.
The state sued the feder
al government last August,
seeking a ruling that the
changes in state law com
ply with the Voting Rights
Act of 1965. Five Florida
counties are covered by the
Voting Rights Act.
Section 5 of the act re
quires all or parts of 16
states to be cleared by the
Justice Department’s civil
rights division or a federal
court before carrying out
changes in elections. The
states are mostly in the
South and all have a histo
ry of discriminating against
blacks, American Indians,
Asian-Americans, Alaskan
Natives or Hispanics.
The Florida counties
covered by Section 5 are
Collier, Hardee, Hendry,
Hillsborough and Monroe.
“As to the third-party
voter registration and ear
ly voting changes ... the
United States’ position is
that the state has not met its
burden ... that the two sets
ofproposed voting changes
are entitled to preclearance
under Section 5 of the Vot
ing Rights Act,” the Justice
Department said in its court
filing.
In the joint court fil
ing with the federal gov
ernment, the state said
it “strongly opposes the
United States’ attempt to
extend this action well into
the summer. The court was
quite clear that it wanted to
have this case fully submit
ted for its review by early
May, because this would
allow the court sufficient
time to issue a decision be
fore the August primaries.”
In a separate case in
federal court in Tallahas
see, Fla., civic groups say
Florida’s new Republican-
backed election law uncon
stitutionally restricts
(Continued On Page 15)