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94 - NUMBER 8
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2015 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 30 CENTS
McCrory health expansion
delay smart to some,
poor excuse to others
MALCOLM X
to mark 50th year since
Malcolm X’s assassination
By Frank Eltman
NEW YORK (AP) - Activists, actors, and politicians remembered civil rights leader
Malcolm X with a ceremony at the New York site in Harlem where he was killed 50
ears ago.
About 300 people were expected to hear remarks Feb. 21 from one of Malcolm X’s
ix daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz, as well as U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel and other elected
The ceremony is being held at the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and
Educational Center in Harlem, formerly known as the Audubon Ballroom. Malcolm X
/as shot to death there Feb. 21, 1965, as he was preparing to address several hundred
fhis followers.
By the time he died, the Muslim leader had moderated his militant message of black
eparatism and pride but was still very much a passionate advocate of black unity,
elf-respect and self-reliance. Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted of
lurder in his death. He had repudiated the Nation of Islam less than a year earlier.
In an interview with The Associated Press on the eve of the anniversary observance,
lyasah Shabazz said she was pleased that the site is now a place for people to get a
ense of empowerment.
“One of the great things about Malcolm is that he redefined the civil rights move-
lent to include a human rights agenda,” she said. “So while we are focusing on inte-
jating schools, integrating housing and all these other things, Malcolm said that we
lemand our human rights ’by any means necessary.’ And that means ... that we have to
ddress these problems. That we have to identify them, and absolutely discuss them.”
At 3:10 p.m., a moment of silence will be held to commemorate the time of his
hooting. Actor Delroy Lindo will also read a eulogy to Malcolm X that was written
y the late actor and activist Ossie Davis.
Veteran social and political activist Ron Daniels will give the keynote address.
Malcolm X, whose full name was El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was 39 when he was
"rory waiting for Supreme Court
Before NC insurance choice
By Gary D. Robertson
CARY (AP) - Republican Gov. Pat McCrory said Feb. 18 he won’t make a recommendation whether
forth Carolina should expand insurance to more of the uninsured through the federal health care law
ntil after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Speaking to The Associated Press in a brief interview, McCrory said it makes sense to wait on litiga-
on challenging some federal tax credits in the health care law linked to coverage obtained through
-derally-run online health insurance markets.
The court’s oral arguments are next month and a ruling is expected in the summer, about when the
igislature traditionally seeks to adjourn. That could push any legislative action on a recommendation to
016.
“I will not make any recommendation as to whether or not we extend insurance for the uninsured
ntil the court case because there are so many ramifications of the court case,” McCrory said following
speech to a gathering of the North Carolina Hospital Association.
McCrory and his administration have been looking for months at expansion, whether through
Medicaid as offered in President Obama’s 2011 health care law or through alternatives other states
ave sought. The governor met with Obama last month and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary
ylvia Mathews Burwell on Feb. 6.
In recent weeks, the governor had-been ambiguous about when he’d make public his decision, and
ounded in no hurry to do so during his State of the State address to the General Assembly earlier this
Hundreds of thousands ofNorth Carolina residents could benefit from expansion. Liberal-leaning
roups and the state NAACP chapter have been pressing McCrory and legislators repeatedly to expand
Medicaid, citing how the federal government would foot most of the bill and arguing it would create an
conomic benefit for hospitals and rural areas.
Republican legislative leaders remain skeptical, saying the current Medicaid program needs stability
fter years of financial and administrative troubles. Even among GOP lawmakers open to expansion,
McCrory’s time frame aligns well with their arguments that any expansion discussion should wait until
fter the Supreme Court rules.
McCrory said Feb. 18 that other Medicaid changes would still remain among his top priorities for the
Republican-led legislature to pass this year.
The House and Senate couldn’t work out a compromise last year to move away from the traditional
-e-for-service model to one that rewards medical providers or managed care companies for cost sav-
tgs and healthy patients. There are currently 1.8 million Medicaid enrollees.
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - Gov.
Pat McCrory says his deci
sion to wait longer to an
nounce whether he’ll seek
to cover hundreds of thou
sands of uninsured North
Carolina residents through
the federal health care law
doesn’t mean he’s putting
the idea on the back burner.
The Republican gov
ernor said this week he
wouldn’t weigh in with the
legislature until after a U.S.
Supreme Court ruling on
a key element of the 2011
law - potentially delaying
the issue for another year
because the General As
sembly session will be near
its end by then. Oral argu
ments are scheduled in ear
ly March, with a ruling un
likely until early summer.
“The court case has ma
jor ramifications on the
entire health care system,”
McCrory told The Associ
ated Press in an interview
in which , he confirmed the
delay. In the meantime, the
governor added, he’ll keep
reviewing potential expan
sion plans.
But the legal fight in
Washington provides an
out for McCrory to keep
expansion from gumming
up the debate in Raleigh on
something more important
to his administration. He
wants changed this year the
current financial mecha
nism for treating patients
within North Carolina’s
$13 billion Medicaid sys
tem...
House and Senate lead
ers came close last summer
to agreeing to create a sys
tem in which medical orga
nizations ultimately would
get a flat per-month amount
to cover the treatment of
each of the 1.8 million
Medicaid enrollees they
see. McCrory believes the
change would help avoid
future Medicaid shortfalls
and make patients healthi
er.
“Eve always said I’ve
got to fix the current Med
icaid (system) to help the
women, children and dis
abled and elderly who are
currently served by Med
icaid before we expand it,”
McCrory said after speak
ing to the North Carolina
Hospital Association in
Cary.
The delay also means the
governor avoids a show-
down with fellow Republi
can leaders at the General
Assembly strongly opposed
to expansion, especially
if it increases Medicaid
rolls substantially. Budget-
writers have suggested re
visiting the idea after the
Supreme Court decision is
handed down.
“Expansion was never
part of the conversation
about (Medicaid) reform in the legislature,” said Sen.
Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, a budget subcommittee co-chair
man on health matters, adding the delay is “a good step
for the governor.”
Expansion proponents see the Supreme Court case as a weak ex
cuse for McCrory to kick the can down the road for people who make
too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to receive
tax credits for premiums. The state NAACP chapter and allies have
repeatedly demanded expansion and argue not doing so violates the
state Constitution.
“Either he’s committed to it or he’s not committed to it,” Sen.
Gladys Robinson, D-Guilford, a health budget subcommittee mem
ber, said Feb. 19. “I think he has an obligation to the citizens ofNorth
Carolina who are not the wealthy people, but the people who need
health care.”
PRESIDENT OBAMA
Obama Heads to Chicago
To designate Pullman
National Moument
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is turning a his
toric South Side neighborhood in Chicago into a national monument
Feb. 19.
Obama formally designated the neighborhood where African-
American railroad workers won a significant labor agreement in the.
1930s as the Pullman National Monument.
A Chicago Tribune columnist called the president’s announcement
- commemorating African-Americans who served as porters, waiters
and maids on the iconic Pullman sleeper cars - “a big fat presidential
bro-hug” to Emanuel, the president’s “little buddy.”
The White House says Obama is focused on the historical desig
nation, which honors the neighborhood built by industrialist George
Pullman in the 19th century for workers to manufacture luxurious
railroad sleeping cars.
The 203-acre Pullman site includes factories and buildings asso
ciated with the Pullman Palace Car Company, which was founded
in 1867 and employed thousands of workers to construct and pro
vide service on railroad cars. While the company employed a mostly
white workforce to manufacture railroad passenger cars, it also hired
former slaves to serve as porters, waiters arid maids on its iconic
sleeping cars.
The railroad industry - Pullman in particular - was one of the larg
est employers of African-Americans in the United States by the early
1900s. Pullman workers played a major role in the rise of the black
middle class and, through a labor agreement won by the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters, they helped launch the civil rights move
ment of the 20th century, the White House said.
Before leaving Washington, Obama signed a proclamation in the
Oval Office designating the Browns Canyon National Monument in
Colorado, a 21,000-acre site along the Arkansas River popular for
whitewater rafting. In Chicago, he was also expected to announce
designation of the Honouliuli National Monument in Hawaii, the site
of an internment camp where Japanese-American citizens and pris
oners of war were held during World War II.
In his appearance before students at a South Side magnet school,
Obama also launched the “Every Kid in a Park” initiative to provide
all fourth-grade students across the country and their families with
free admission to national parks and other federal lands and waters
for a year, the White House said. The program begins with the 2015-
2016 school year, marking the 100th anniversary of the National Park
Service next year.
The White House said the three new monuments “help tell the
story of significant events in American history and protect unique
natural resources for the benefit of all Americans.”
The new monuments will bring to 16 the number of national mon
uments Obama has created under the 1906 Antiquities Act, which
grants presidents broad authority to protect historic or ecologically
significant sites without congressional approval.
Some Republicans have complained that Obama has abused his
. authority, and they renewed their complaints over the new designa
tions, especially the Colorado site, the largest in size by far among
the three new monuments.