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C^\ hfrlhMfrfrnlhfrimlll ILL'I 7 12/01/11 ** CH ILL UNC-CH SERIALS DEPARTMENT SLE LIT RARY TBI 3933 203 RALEI3H STREET CHAPEL HILL MC E7514 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 2012 VOLUME 91 - NUMBER 11 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 30 Urban League: voting laws threaten equality gains By Suzanne Gamboa WASHINGTON (AP) The National Urban ;ague is calling on Afri- n-Americans to get out and vote come election as a means of coun- * state laws the group says threaten education and economic gains made by blacks. Borrowing from the Oc cupy Wall Street move ment, the 101-year-old civil rights group made “Occu py the Vote” the theme for its annual State of Black America report to be re leased at Howard Universi ty. The report evaluates Af rican-Americans progress toward equality, and this year’s version “Occupy the Vote to Employ, Educate & Empower” also measures white and Latino equality. The campaign will in clude, among other things, a website dedicated to monitoring voter laws and providing information on voting requirements. The league also hopes to con duct get-out-the-vote bus tours, said CEO Marc Mo- rial. A concern, Morial said, is that some state laws could widen the equal ity gap between white and black Americans by dis couraging political partici pation of African-Ameri cans. He says their votes are needed to ensure con tinued support of programs that have helped close the equality gap. “I refuse to operate from a standpoint of, 'Woe is me,’” said Morial, a former mayor of New Orleans. “We have to tell people we are not going to let these laws stop us.” According to the report, improvements in health and education among blacks have made up for losses in civic engagement, economics and social jus tice. “The bottom line is that the recession has caused slippage of progress in the status economically of Af rican-Americans and when we talk about these issues, we are trying to ensure that any recovery that’s being articulated and designed is a recovery that includes ev eryone, that it is not just a recovery for some,” Morial said. But concerns abound among civil rights and mi- nt) rity leaders that new state Photo ID and other laws will widen the gap between blacks and whites. Several states have implemented laws that narrow the list of acceptable forms of iden tification needed to vote. Some states have restricted Who can register new vot- | ers > or they have eliminated fatly voting days such as Sundays before elections, which are popular among black churches. Supporters of the laws have said they will curb voter fraud, but the NAACP has said they are a concert ed effort to suppress the vote of minorities, students and the elderly. Some states are offering to provide free IDs, in cases where cost of getting an ID is an is sue; but civil rights groups say the laws still will deter legitimate voters, such as Bettye Jones, 76, of Wis consin. Jones has been regis tered to vote in Ohio since 1956. But she moved to Wisconsin, which requires voters to show Wisconsin Department of Transporta tion-issued driver’s licens es or state IDs. To get one of those she has to show a birth certificate, as required by federal law. However, Jones was born at home and doesn’t have a birth certificate. “They know there was an era where black people, colored people, Negro peo ple, their records were not cared about,” said Debra Crawford, Jones’ daughter. Jones is a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the Ad vancement Project and others challenging Wiscon sin’s law as discriminatory. Morial’s call for an “Oc cupy the Vote” movement comes as civil rights lead ers commemorated the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” violence that erupted around voting rights pro tests in Selma, Ala. Protest ers were beaten and gassed, and some died. Civil rights activists have been us ing this year’s anniversary events to condemn the new state voting laws. Black Americans have built a strong record at the voting booth - the 2008 turnout of 65.2 percent of black eligible voters nearly turnout of white eligible voters. Although turn out and registration slipped in 2010, 1.1 million more black Americans showed up to vote two years ago than in 2006, according to Pew Hispanic Center’s re search. Rather than the new ID requirements, other steps can be taken to address fraud, errors and other problems in the voting sys tem, the National Urban (Continued On Page 2) The John Avery Boys & Girls Club of Durham was presented a $60,000 grant yesterday from DPR Construction, one of the nation’s top general contractors with strong ties to the Triangle. The grant will support the Club’s Gang Prevention Program, which will positively impact 150 area youth in 2012. (See story and related picture on page 2) A strengthening job market reflected in numbers By Christopher S. Rugaber WASHINGTON (AP) - The job market turned in another impres sive performance in February - the third straight month in which em ployers added at least 200,000 jobs. The gains were spread across industries. And the government said December and January, already two of the best months for jobs since the recession, were even stronger than first estimated. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.3 percent. The main reason was that a half-million people started looking for work. (Only people without jobs who are looking for one are counted as unem ployed.) In the past two months, as the job market has strengthened, nearly 1 million people have started looking for work. Here are some other numbers that illustrate the job market’s gains: EMPLOYMENT RISING 142.1 million: The number of people who said they had a job in February. It was the highest total since January 2009. 137.9 million: The number of people who said they had a job in December 2009. That was the fewest since September 2003. 146.6 million: The number of people who said they had a job in November 2007, the pre-recession peak. JOB GROWTH PICKS UP 1.45 million: The increase over the past three months in the num ber of people who said they had a job. It marks the sharpest three month gain since 2000. 2.6 million: The increase over the past seven months in the num ber of people who said they had a job. It’s the best seven-month stretch in a dozen years. MORE JOBS STILL NEEDED 8.7 million: The number ofjobs lost in 2008-2009. 3.5 million: The number ofjobs that have been regained since February 2010, when job growth began. UNEMPLOYMENT DECLINES 8.3 percent: Unemployment rate in February, unchanged from the previous month. 9 percent: Unemployment rate one year earlier. 14.9 percent: A broader rate for February that includes not only the unemployed but also part-timers who want full-time work and “discouraged” people who’ve stopped looking. 15.9 percent: The same rate a year ago. (Continued On Page 2) NC’s tab on outside lawyers for new maps is $695K By Gary D. Robertson RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina has paid several times as much on outside attorneys hired by Republican lawmakers for advice on new district boundaries and defending them compared to similar counsel in the previous redistricting round, according to records and invoices. Responding to public records requests by multiple media outlets, the General Assembly released documents showing the state has paid $695,049 since March 2011 to two firms - one based in South Carolina and another in Washington. In the redistricting cycle that began in 2001, the state paid $131,475 in similar outside legal ex penses, according to information accumulated at the request of an attorney working for the Senate. More legal expenses are expected this year as a three-judge panel hears a pair of lawsuits challenging the districts. The legal expenses, which ranged from $245 to $825 per hour depending on the lawyer, are giv ing Democrats more ammunition to criticize the GOP-penned maps that are still being challenged in state court. Democratic elected officials and their allies have sued on grounds the boundaries for the General Assembly and the congressional delegation constitutes racial gerrymandering and creates confusion for voters. Redistricting leaders at the Legislature defended the costs in a news release. They said money was well spent because the boundaries have held up so far in court and will be used for this year’s elections, avoiding even more costly litigation.and potentially requiring new elections that could cost millions. The state attorney general’s office remains the lead litigator defending the maps on the state’s behalf in the pending lawsuits. “Due to the diligent work of our standing legal defense team, we have not lost a case, have not had to redraw districts and have not had expensive disruptions to the election process,” said a state ment from Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, and state Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, chairmen ofthe Legislature’s redistricting committees. They said the lawyers were paid “competitive rates” and that their use has provided “certainty that was lacking in the last redistricting process.” But the outside work costs, one legislative Democrat said, shows the extent of the legal efforts Republicans made to push the envelope on redistricting in 2011. For a lower price, Republicans could “have drawn maps that would have given them a reasonable advantage of some sort and didn’t victimize African-Americans by ghettoizing them into districts and also by inconveniencing voters by splitting precincts,” said Rep. Grier Martin, D-Wake, the House Democrats’ chief spokesman on redistricting. Instead, Martin added, the price tag for unlawful maps, “is without a doubt an abuse of taxpayer dollars.” State Democratic Party Chairman David Parker said in a statement Republicans “will stop at no expense to ensure that their extreme partisan majority is locked in for years to come.” Republicans got to control the once-a-decade redrawing of the boundaries based on 2010 U.S. Census population figures because they won a majority in both the House and Senate in the No vember 2010 elections. They drew lines that are designed to help them preserve the majority in the Legislature and give GOP lawmakers the chance to win as many four U.S. House seats that have been held by Democrats. Rucho and Lewis, along with House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate leader Phil Berger, signed last March 21 an agreement with the Raleigh office of South Carolina-based Ogletree Deakins to provide legal advice on redistricting and “expected or anticipated litigation,” according to the agree ment letter. (Continued On Page 2)
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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March 17, 2012, edition 1
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