CW Cardia Chies VOLUME 94 - NUMBER 12 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 2015 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 30 CENTS FBI asks for patience in black man’s hanging in Mississippi By Johnny Clark and Jeff Amy PORT GIBSON, Miss. (AP) - An FBI agent appealed for patience arch 20 after a black man was found hanging from a tree in Mis- sippi, saying 30 federal, state and local agents were working in- isively to determine whether he was killed or committed suicide. “Everybody wants answers and wants them quickly. We under- rid that,” FBI Special Agent Don Alway told a crowd outside the laibome County Courthouse. “We are going to hold off on coming Laity conclusions until the facts take us to a definitive answer.” The county coroner confirmed that the man found hanging from a rite sheet Thursday was Otis Byrd, an ex-convict reported missing his family more than two weeks ago. Byrd lived just 200 yards an the spot where his body was found, in a wooded area off a dirt id that ran behind his house. Alway said investigators are interviewing Byrd’s family and ends and searching his rental home and a storage unit for clues, d will not reveal any evidence along the way. “We are trying to paint a picture of Byrd’s life. We are trying to d out what was going on with him personally and professionally,” I said. Claiborne County Sheriff Marvin Lucas Sr. told The Associated :ss earlier Friday that Byrd did not appear to have stepped off of /thing in the area where he was found hanging from a tree limb out 12 feet high. His feet were dangling about two feet off the >und, and his hands were not bound, Lucas said. “Life matters,” Lucas told the crowd. “I commit to you, as the iriff of Claiborne County, that I will not allow the shadows of the st to cast a shadow on the future.” The results of an autopsy by the Mississippi Crime Lab could take ys, said Lucas. Byrd worked on offshore oil rigs and enjoyed gambling in casinos n his off time after getting out of prison, where he served 26 years or fatally shooting a woman while robbing $101 from her conve- lience store in 1980. He wasn’t the type to commit suicide, friends and family said. “He tried to turn his life around. He was going to church every nday,” said his stepsister, Tracy Wilson. “Anybody could have ne this. I just don’t see him doing it to himself.” Lora McDaniel, a high school classmate who went to church with rd and his family, said “he always had a smile on his face. I just 1’t see him committing suicide.” “He was a quiet man. He didn’t bother nobody,” added Anita rith, another high school classmate. “He had been out nine years dall of the sudden this happens to him? Impossible.” Smith said she is planning to participate in a march Monday in rt Gibson to protest Byrd’s death. Mississippi NAACP President Derrick Johnson suggested that it’s ) early for that. (Continued On Page 2) HILLSIDE HIGH SCHOOL PONY EXPRESS members Alphonzo Rigel and Greg Monroe shared some of their memories of 1965 and the three teams, Hillside, Merrick-Moore and Little River who were champions in basketball. See photos an story on page 7 )bama allies recruit top Democrats to promote trade pacts Burr, Tillis stay opposed to nomination after NAACP meeting RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina’s two U.S. sena tors say they remain op posed to confirming Greensboro native Loretta Lynch as attorney general after a meeting with state NAACP leaders and other advocates from their home state. Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis said in a re lease they met March 17 with the North Carolina residents visiting Washing ton and seeking to change their minds. They called the meeting “a thoughtful, thorough conversation” and say they’re grateful the group came to the nation’s capital. The two senators said late last month they wouldn’t support Lynch, the U.S. attorney for east ern New York. They both cited in part pending elec- tions-law litigation by the Justice Department against the state that they believe will continue under Lynch if she’s confirmed. Police: Man shot to death while driving down Durham street (AP) - Authorities are inves tigating the death of a man shot while driving down the street in Durham over the weekend. Police tell local media out lets that 22-year-old Jonathan McClain was driving down the street at around 2:45 a.m. Sun day when several shots were fired in his direction from an other vehicle. By Charles Babington ; WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama’s al- ies are recruiting high-profile Democrats to help combat iberal resistance to his bid for new trade agreements in sia and elsewhere. The effort will sharpen differences between the Demo- Icratic Party’s liberal and pro-business wings, especially the northeastern New England region. And it could ac celerate the effort to woo black lawmakers, a key target |in the House. The politics of trade in the U.S. are unusual. Republi- ins generally support free trade, as do most presidents, hatever their party. But liberals, labor unions and some environmental roups have grown increasingly hostile to trade deals in scent years. Meanwhile, numerous congressional Re- lublicans dislike the idea of giving Obama victories on try front. That’s why the White House is scrambling to gain as any Democratic votes as possible. ’ Heading a pro-trade advisory board being announced larch 24 are former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, ormer Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire and former US. Trade Representative and Dallas mayor Ron Kirk. Kirk’s and Gregoire’s roles are not surprising. But Pat- Ick’s might add some sizzle to the trade debate heating ■P in Congress. Among the Obama trade agenda’s stron- pst critics is another Massachusetts Democrat, Sen. Eliz- beth Warren. Patrick and Kirk are two of the nation’s most promi- cnt African-American politicians. Obama has openly 'ooed the Congressional Black Caucus in hopes of se aring some of the House Democratic votes he will need t pass his trade plans. The effort squeezes black lawmakers between a presi dent they generally support and liberal constituents who bay strongly oppose new tract pacts. I (Continued On Page 2) Democrat: Republicans putting Lynch at ‘back of the bus ’ By Erica Werner WASHINGTON (AP) - The second-ranking Senate Democrat on March 18 accused Republicans of putting the president’s attorney general nominee “in the back of the bus” by delaying her confirma tion. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois made the comment on the Senate floor as he criticized the GOP over its handling of Loretta Lynch’s nomi nation. She would become the nation’s first black female attorney general, replacing Eric Holder, the first African-American in the job. Lynch was nominated last fall and Democrats are growing in creasingly agitated over the holdup in confirming her, although they were in control of the Senate for some of that time. “Loretta Lynch, the first African-American woman nominated to be attorney general, is asked to sit in the back of the bus when it comes to the Senate calendar,” Durbin said. "That is unfair. It’s unjust. It is beneath the decorum and dignity of the United States Senate.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell planned a vote on Lynch’s nomination this week but delayed it when the Senate was unable to finish work on a bill to combat human trafficking. That legislation is stalled because of a partisan spat over abortion funding, with Democrats objecting to a provision blocking money in a new victims’ fund from paying for abortions in most cases. “The Lynch nomination is next on the schedule. The only thing holding up that vote is the Democrats’ filibuster of a bill that would help prevent kids from being sold into sex slavery,” McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said in response to Durbin. “The sooner they allow the Senate to pass that bipartisan bill, the sooner the Senate can move to the Lynch nomination.” Democrats claim Republicans snuck the abortion provision into the trafficking bill without telling them. Republicans note that the language has been there since the bill was introduced early this year, and no one raised objections as it unanimously passed the Judiciary Committee. Democrats insist they weren’t aware of it. It’s not clear how the issue will be resolved. Both sides say they want to get the bill passed, but Democrats are milking the politics of the dispute. Around the same time Durbin made his racially charged accusation on the Senate floor, female senators held a press confer ence with women’s groups to accuse Republicans of a “war on wom en.” A procedural vote to move ahead on the trafficking measure failed March 17 when Democrats blocked it. ATTY. LORETTA LYNCH (NY TimesPhoto)

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