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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 2012
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VOLUME 91 - NUMBER 13
Audit finds trouble at Alpha
Kappa Alpha sorority
By Jessica Gresko
WASHINGTON (AP) - A financial audit of the nation’s oldest
black sorority found significant accounting problems including a
secret set of books used by top officials to divert money, findings
that bolster some claims in a lawsuit.
The audit of the Chicago-based Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority,
which was completed in December and provided to The Associ
ated Press, also found two former top officials continued to use
sorority credit cards after their service ended, failing to appropri
ately document tens of thousands of dollars in charges. A pend
ing 2009 lawsuit against the organization and officials including
its former president, Illinois resident Barbara McKinzie, contains
similar allegations.
The audit by the Illinois-based ac
counting firm Ragland & Associates cov
ers the year 2010 and is an annual audit
paid for by the society. It finds that in that
year McKinzie and two other top officials
secretly created a second set of financial
books to get around the sorority’s account
ing policies.
“The intent was to divert and misappro
priate AKA funds,” according to the audit,
which found nearly $1.7 million in pay
ments made without authorization.
Approximately $282,000 in credit card charges on the second
set of books appear to be fraudulent, including personal charges
the sorority wasn’t reimbursed for, the audit found.
A sorority document written in response to the audit says the
sorority discontinued the use of the second set of books in Decem
ber 2010 and is currently developing written travel and entertain
ment policies that govern credit card use.
Alpha Kappa Alpha said in a statement March 22 that it is
pleased to have the audit’s findings and that the sorority has made
“great progress in enhancing the organization’s operational poli
cies and procedures,” including taking steps suggested in the au
dit.
“We remain committed to preserving the assets of the orga
nization and to continually reviewing and strengthening our op
erations. The audit’s findings are essential to that process,” the
statement said.
McKinzie’s lawyer, Dale Cooter, said he had not seen the audit
but said his client “did not create a fraudulent set of books.”
The pending lawsuit against the sorority, filed in the District
of Columbia by sorority members, alleges McKinzie improperly
used a sorority credit card for personal items including jewelry,
designer clothing and lingerie. In court papers filed in March,
McKinzie denies that she used the credit card inappropriately.
The lawsuit was initially dismissed in early 2010, but it was re
instated last August by an appeals court, which said the dismissal
was premature. It seeks to recover allegedly misused money as
well as punitive damages.
The lawsuit also includes an allegation about two wax stat
utes the sorority paid for during McKinzie’s tenure as president,
from 2006 to 2010. One of the two statues commissioned for the
National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore was of McK
inzie. The lawsuit alleges thousands of dollars over and above the
cost of the statues went unaccounted for.
AKA was founded in 1908 at Howard University in Washing
ton and has a worldwide membership of over 200,000.
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TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 30
Trayvon Martin, my son
and the Black Male Code
By Jesse Washington
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - I
thought my son would be much
older before I had to tell him
about the Black Male Code.
He’s only 12, still sleeping with
stuffed animals, still afraid of the
dark. But after the Trayvon Mar
tin tragedy, I needed to explain
to my child that soon people
might be afraid ofhim.
BARBARA
MCKINZIE
to
Trayvon Martin
We were in the car on the way
school when a story about
Martin came on the radio. “The
guy who killed him should get
arrested. The dead guy was un
armed!” my son said after hear
ing that neighborhood watch
captain George Zimmerman
had claimed self-defense in the
shooting in Sanford, Florida.
We listened to the rest of the
story, describing how Zimmer
man had spotted Martin, who
was 17, walking home from the
store on a rainy night, the hood
of his sweatshirt pulled over
his head. When it was over, I
turned off the radio and told my
son about the rules he needs to
follow to avoid becoming an
other Trayvon Martin - a black
male who Zimmerman assumed
was “suspicious” and “up to no
good.”
As I explained it, the Code
goes like this:
Always pay close attention
to your surroundings, son, es
pecially if you are in an affluent
neighborhood where black folks
are few. Understand that even
though you are not a criminal,
some people might assume you
are, especially ifyou are wearing
certain clothes.
Never argue with police, but
protect your dignity and take
pride in humility. When con
fronted by someone with a badge
or a gun, do not flee, fight, or put
your hands anywhere other than
up.
Please don’t assume, son, that
all white people view you as a
threat. America is better than
that. Suspicion and bitterness
can imprison you. But as a black
male, you must go above and
beyond to show strangers what
type of person you really are.
I was far from alone in laying
out these instructions. Across the
country this week, parents were
talking to their children, espe
cially their black sons, about the
Code. It’s a talk the black
community in the U.S. has
passed down for generations,
an evolving oral tradition from
the days when an errant remark
could easily cost black people
their job, their freedom, or some
times their life.
10 lleating and talking,
when a squadron of police cars
swooped in and a helicopter
rumbled overhead.
“We got a report that a riot
was going on,” police told them
(Continued On Page 15)
Family and friends came out to celebrate Mrs. Ar-
telia Marsh Perry and the Lawrence & Artelia Perry
Scholarship Fund. See photos on page 3.
What makes NC different
in gay marriage debate?
Aide: Obama reacted as parent to
Florida shooting
Multi-hour, arguments heard
at Supreme Court
By Jesse J. Holland
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court will hear six hours of
argument over President Barack Obama’s health care law, its longest
argument in almost 45 years. Since 1970, most cases have been allot
ted only one hour, down from two before that. The best-known recent
multi-hour arguments are far from the longest in modern history:
Recent
- McConnell v. Federal Election Commission: Four hours, five
minutes on Sept. 8, 2003. The court upheld the ban on “soft money”
campaign contributions in the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Cam
paign Finance Reform Act of 2002.
■ Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission: Two hours, 33
minutes, March 24, 2009 and Sept. 9, 2009. Citing the First Amend
ment, the court struck down a decades-old government ban on spend-
mg by corporations and unions to support or attack political candi
dates. After an hour of arguments the first day, the justices recalled
the lawyers for a second day six months later.
-United States v. Nixon: Three hours on July 8, 1974. The court
decided that President Richard Nixon’s claim of executive privilege
to resist a the Watergate special prosecutor’s subpoena for White
House tape recordings and documents was not completely immune
from judicial review and therefore he must comply. Nixon turned
over the tapes and resigned soon after.
Earlier
■Arizona v. California: 16 hours, three minutes on Jan. 8-11,1962.
^is original jurisdiction case and others like it are different because
to other lower court heard the issue before the Supreme Court. This
"as a fight between states over how much water could be legally
^en out of the Colorado River for a state’s use.
■United States v. Louisiana: 13 hours and 32 minutes on Oct. 12-
'5,1956. Another original jurisdiction case over whether the state
M the federal government has rights to “lands, minerals and other
natural resources” off Louisiana’s coast.
■ Brown v. Board of Education II: 13 hours, 25 minutes on April
1955. This case was a follow-up to the famous Brown v.
Board of Education ruling that struck down racial segregation in pub-
IC schools. Brown II was the court’s attempt to specify how public
chools were to desegregate and is remembered for the court’s direc-
ve that desegregation proceed with “all deliberate speed.”
(Continued On Page 15)
WASHINGTON (AP) _ A top presidential adviser says President
Barack Obama’s decision to comment on the shooting death of an
African-American teenager in Florida was motivated by parental in
stinct more than the incident’s emergence as a racial issue.
Senior White House adviser David Plouffe says Obama reacted
instinctively as a parent last week in saying that Americans needed
“some soul searching” in the wake of the slaying of 17-year-old Tray
von Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer. The gunman was
not charged, prompting probes by the Justice Department and local
authorities.
Obama said he supported the investigations, noting: “If I had son,
he’d look like Trayvon.”
Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Plouffe said Obama “was
speaking powerfully about this as a parent.” Plouffe added that “no
matter gender or race, this is a tragedy.”
NC group apologizes for blog post’s
Obama image
By Torn Breen
RALEIGH (AP) - A prominent conservative think tank in North
Carolina apologized Thursday for a freelance blogger’s decision to
post a photo illustration depicting President Barack Obama clad in
sexually suggestive clothing and eating from a bucket of fried chick
en.
John Hood, president of the Raleigh-based John Locke Founda
tion, said he had the image was removed from the group’s Meek
Deck blog on Wednesday after a reader brought it to his attention.
Tara Servatius, the writer who posted the illustration, ended her as
sociation with the blog Thursday morning before Hood had a chance
to ask her to leave, he said.
“I’m embarrassed and angry today,” Hood said in a statement. '
“The illustration associated with this blog entry was offensive and ’
utterly inappropriate for our blog or for anyone else’s.”
On his Facebook page, Hood wrote, “She is no longer a contribu- ’
tor to our site,” referring to Servatius. “I would have made that deci
sion for her, but she beat me to the punch by ending her role.”
The image, which was no longer available on the Meek Deck site (
but could still be seen on a blog post by WRAL-TV reporter Laura '
Leslie, is a small and low-resolution depiction of the president’s head ।
crudely pasted onto a body clad in high-heeled boots and other gar- ]
ments suggestive of fetish wear. Between his spread legs is a bucket
of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The image accompanied a post by Servatius titled “Obama Goes :
Pro Gay Marriage to Get NC on Election Day,” in which she argued .
that the president had electoral strategy in mind when he criticized
the proposed amendment to North Carolina’s constitution that would .
ban same-sex marriage. ‘
“I am genuinely sorry my inclusion of the photo has caused con- .
troversy for the John Locke Foundation,” Servatius wrote Thursday
(Continued On Page 15)
By Tom Breen
RALEIGH (AP) - From Texas to Virginia, the South has spoken
with almost one voice on same-sex marriage, amending state consti
tutions to ban the practice in hopes of blocking court decisions that
would allow gays and lesbians to marry.
It’s “almost” one voice because there’s a discordant note in the
Southern choir.
North Carolina, which likes to distinguish itself as a “vale of hu
mility” surrounded by more bombastic neighbors, is the last state in
the region without such an amendment. That fact is repeated con
stantly in the debate over a May 8 referendum when voters will have
a chance to change the situation. But while it’s bandied about by both
sides, it’s less clear what the distinction means.
Is it simply because the North Carolina Democrats who controlled
the Legislature until 2010 had no interest in putting the amendment
up for a vote? Or does it reflect the history and outlook of a state
where leaders shepherded desegregation into law during the 1960s
with little of the violence that broke out elsewhere?
Both explanations have merit in a state where Republicans waited
nearly 140 years to take full control of the General Assembly and in
which the political careers of moderate Democrat Jim Hunt and con
servative Republican stalwart Jesse Helms could flourish at the same
time, thanks to some of the same voters.
“North Carolina is an ambivalent state,” said Harry Watson, direc
tor of the Center for the Study of the American South at the Univer
sity of North Carolina Chapel Hill. “It’s got very strong conserva
tive instincts, and it’s got very strong liberal instincts. It’s one of the
things that’s peculiar about Tar Heel politics that voters can go either
way depending on the issue or the politician.”
Raleigh resident Molly Beavers, 25, whose front lawn is adorned
with a sign urging voters to reject the amendment, summed up that
paradox in contemporary politics.
“In some ways I feel like we’ve made a lot of progress and I know
we voted as a state for (Barack) Obama in 2008, which was a big
deal,” she said. “But now our state Legislature’s kind of gone the
other way.”
The state will be front and center in September, when Charlotte
hosts the Democratic National Convention at which President Obama
is nominated for a second term.
Missouri became the first U.S. state to pass a constitutional
amendment against same-sex marriage in August 2004, less than a
year after the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that that state’s
constitution guaranteed same-sex couples the right to marry. The first
Southern state to impose a constitutional ban was Louisiana, voting a
month after Missouri. They were followed in November by Georgia,
Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas and others outside the region.
By the end of 2008, every state in the South had an amendment
except North Carolina. West Virginia also lacks a constitutional ban
on same-sex marriage, but that state - which was created when it
broke away from the rest of Virginia to fight alongside the Union
in the Civil War - culturally shares as much or more with Rust Belt
neighbors like Ohio and Pennsylvania as with Dixie.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley recently signed legislation legal
izing gay marriage, but opponents are seeking to overturn the law
through a ballot vote.
In North Carolina, there’s little doubt the immediate reason for the
absence of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage is that Demo
crats controlled the General Assembly until 2010. A bill that would
amend the constitution was first introduced in May 2004 and in every
(Continued On Page 15)