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THE CAROLINA TIMES - SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2016-3 Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘Hamilton f wins Pulitzer for drama By Mark Kennedy NEW YORK (AP) - “Ham ilton,” the hip-hop stage biog raphy of Alexander Hamilton, has won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for drama, honoring creator Lin- Manuel Miranda for a dazzling musical has captured popular consciousness like few Broad way shows. The Columbia University’s prize board on Monday cited “Hamilton” as “a landmark American musical about the gift ed and self-destructive found ing father whose story becomes both contemporary and irresist ible.” Other finalists were “Glo ria,” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and “The Humans,” by Stephen Karam. “I feel really humbled and really overwhelmed,” Miranda told The Associated Press. “Co lumbia is Hamilton’s alma mater so I think that gave me a home- court advantage. But it’s extraor dinary to be recognized in this way.” Viet Thanh Nguyen’s “The Sympathizer,” a debut novel set in the final days of the Vietnam War and narrated in flashback by a former Communist agent who infiltrated the South Vietnamese Army, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The 45-year-old author, cur rently in Cambridge, Massachu setts, to promote the paperback edition of his novel, told The Associated Press that he wrote “The Sympathizer” for himself but feels many can relate to it. “I think most people in their inner selves are conscious of being an impostor, being an ob server, not being the person ev eryone thinks they are,” he said. “For the novel I took that to the extreme in using a spy and add ing the dimensions of the thriller and historical fiction.” “Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS” by Joby Warrick won for general nonfiction. Warrick also won the Pulitzer in 1996. In his new book, Warrick, a Washington Post journalist, ex amines how the strain ofmilitant Islam behind ISIS “first arose in a remote Jordanian prison and spread with the unwitting aid of two American presidents,” ac cording to the publishers. The history prize was won by “Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America,” by T.J. Stiles, lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and two children. He told The Associated Press that he had long been interested in the story of George Armstrong Custer, the butt of jokes for the disastrous Battle ofthe Little Big Horn. “Custer is a difficult subject, because he’s very familiar and someone who has been reduced to caricature, if not an effigy in American memory,” he said. “Writing about him in an hon est way, without apologizing for him, is an incredibly difficult thing to do.” The book “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life,” by William Finnegan won in the biography or autobiography category, cited as a “memoir of a youthful ob session.” “Ozone Journal” by Peter Balakian won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and “In for a Penny, In for a Pound,” by Henry Threadgill was named the win ner in the music category. But it was the drama award that generated the most buzz. “Hamilton,” about the first U.S. Treasury Secretary, becomes the ninth musical to win the drama award, joining such shows as “South Pacific,” “Sunday in the Park with George” and “Rent.” The last musical to nab the award was “Next to Normal” in 2010. It tells the story of how an orphan immigrant from the Ca ribbean rose to the highest ranks of American society, as told by a young African-American and Latino cast. Miranda leaned on Ron Chernow’s biography of the Founding Father, but told the tale in common language and verse, transforming Hamilton into “the $10 Founding Father without a father.” Miranda, 36, who wrote the music and story, already has a Tony for creating the Broadway musical “In the Heights,” a show which was nominated for a Pulit zer in 2009 and this month won three Olivier Awards in London. He also has an Emmy for writing the opening number for the 2013 Tony Awards. In the past year, Miranda, whose family came from Puerto County Manager Announces New Organizational Structure With the aim of improving organizational effective ness for Durham County Government, County Manager Wendell Davis has announced a restructured hierarchi cal flow for the public sector body serving more than 300,000 residents. The realignment puts the organization in a position to be more results focused and to make certain that authority, responsibility and accountability reside at the highest level of the organization. According to Davis, the previous organizational struc ture was more focused on functionality. “The new align ment is a general management structure which gives us the ability to have greater focus on our strategic plan, and be more nimble in executing our strategy.” The county is reorganizing most specifically the leader ship structure while increasing the delivery of superior customer service and furthering the creation of an attrac tive community where residents live. grow, thrive. The changes, replacing assistant and deputy managers with general managers leading four areas with a specific eye toward managing Strategic Goal areas, are guided by the County’s Managing for Results (MFR) model, a highly analytical enhanced performance management approach. The newly formed areas of general manage ment enables the county to better recognize the desired outcomes expressed by the community and the Board of Commissioners. AG Cooper shares top ten consumer complaints for 2015 Telemarketing, lending continue to top the list of complaints Raleigh: Complaints about telemarketing fraud, unwanted sales calls and lending lead the list of consumer complaints to the Attor ney General’s Consumer Protection Division, Attorney General Roy Cooper announced today. . “Learning about common sources of consumer complaints can help you avoid pitfalls and save money, Cooper said. “My office is here to help North Carolina consumers when you need us, but we’d rather prevent these problems from happening in the first place.” Cooper and his consumer protection experts have helped consum ers get hundreds of millions of dollars of their money back. Last year, 19,088 consumers filed written complaints with the Consumer Pro tection Division of Cooper’s office, down from 21,305 complaints in 2015. The top ten list is based on written complaints filed with the At torney General’s Consumer Protection Division. Tens of thousands of North Carolina consumers also get help from consumer protection experts from the office over the phone and by email, from tips avail able online at ncdoj.gov, and at educational events across the state. Number 1: Telemarketing fraud Complaints about telemarketing fraud come in at number one, up from second place the previous year. In 2014, Cooper’s office re ceived 5,819 complaints about fraudulent phone calls seeking money or personal information. Criminals and con artists usually located in other countries make the calls and pose as IRS agents, law enforce ment, tech support and utility companies to try to rob victims. Other common telemarketing scams include sweepstakes, lotteries, sweet heart scams and grandparent scams. Rico to New York, has won a “genius grant” from the Ma cArthur Foundation, as well as the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by Ameri can History, which came with $100,000. The drama award was widely expected to go to Miranda this year. The album for “Hamilton” won a Grammy Award and be came the highest-debuting cast recording on the Billboard Top 200 in over 50 years. The show is a leading favorite in this sum mer’s Tony Awards. The libretto, published last week, immediate ly became a top seller on Ama zon.com “I’m just trying to stay as present and in the moment as possible because I’m fully aware that this speeds by in the high light reel. I’m living in the high light reel section of my life,” Mi randa said. “I want to slow the montage down.” “Hamilton” was a sold-out sensation this year when it de buted off-Broadway at New York’s Public Theater and amassed a $60 million advance on Broadway. It has been cheered by politicians as diverse as Dick Cheney and President Barack Obama, and celebrities like Brit ish actress Helen Mirren, musi cian Questlove and many others. The music is a mix of breezy pop, rap battles and slinky R&B. Lyrics are smart and playful, including Hamilton declaring: “In the face of ignorance and resistance/! wrote a financial system into existence.” The Pulitzer drama award, which includes a $10,000 prize, is “for a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life,” according to the guidelines. Previous playwrights honored include August Wilson, Edward Albee, Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. Recent winners include An nie Baker’s “The Flick,” Ayad Akhtar’s “Disgraced” and Ste phen Adly Guirgis’s “Between Riverside and Crazy.” Associated Press reporters Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tennessee and Hillel Italie and Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to this story. Online: http://www.pulitzer. org North Carolina legislative redistricting trial concludes (Continued From Front) Those election results were in the hands of Republican legislators at the time ofthe 2011 redistricting debate, Earls said during her clos ing argument, but they voted to raise the black population in these districts above 50 percent anyway, which she said violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act. “The districts were drawn without taking this information into ac count,” Earls said, resulting in districts that needlessly packed black voters in districts, creating a form of segregation. “These maps send a message about race and how we use race.” Critics of the GOP-drawn plans have said the challenged maps di lute the influence of black voters in adjoining districts, making them more white and Republican. The current House and Senate boundar ies have been used in the 2012 and 2014 elections, helping Republi cans expand their majorities. Tom Farr, a private attorney representing the state, said the plain tiffs’ experts ignored many legislative races where the black candi date lost in districts with black voting-age populations that were siz able but less than 40 percent. That shows racial polarization in voting still exists, he said. Farr told the judges a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court decision says leg islators can find safe harbor from Voting Rights Act liability when they draw majority-black districts in areas that can support them. “There was a fear of being sued under lots of grounds, your hon or,” he told U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder. Also hearing the case were District Judge Catherine Eagles and U.S. Circuit Judge Jim Wynn. The voters who sued also failed to provide alternate maps that would comply with both federal redistricting rules and state crite ria and give guidance to the judges, Farr said. “All they’ve done is thrown darts at the enacted plans,” he said. Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, and Rep. David Lewis, R-Har- nett, who led the General Assembly’s redistricting effort five years ago, testified during the week. On April 15, Thomas Hofeller, an out side mapmaker who helped draw the actual maps for Republicans, talked on the stand about how he arrived at creating the majority- black districts. He said a state redistricting requirement designed to minimize the district lines that cut through county boundaries makes North Carolina’s maps more complicated “than just about any state Prosecutor: White officer shot black man in self-defense (Continued On Page 3) Freeman’s report offers new details on the struggle after Twiddy caught up. Twiddy said Denkins refused an order to drop the revolver he pulled out, so the officer fired his first two shots. It was then that Denkins grabbed the barrel of Twiddy’s gun, and the officer fired more shots while backing away until Denkins hit the ground, the report said. Skin cell swabs uncovered DNA matching Denkins on both the barrel of Twiddy’s firearm and the re volver found near his body, Freeman said. The officer’s DNA wasn’t found on the latter firearm. There’s no indication that Denkins fired shots, while evidence shows Twiddy fired seven times. Neighborhood residents voiced anger at rallies and community meetings in the days after the shoot ing. One witness who saw the altercation develop - but not the fatal shots - told The Associated Press she believed Denkins was shot in the back, a contention repeated by others. Freeman didn’t address those claims directly, but referred to specific evidence that appears to rebut their belief. Freeman wrote that Denkins fell forward onto his stomach after he was shot. Preliminary autopsy results showed two bullets traveled from the front of his body toward the back after striking his right arm and near his armpit. No direction was given for a shot that went through his left arm. A fourth bullet hit him near the top of his right shoulder and “traveled from back to front” before lodging in his clavicle. The doctor who performed the autopsy and the state’s chief medical examiner both told investigators that the wounds were consistent with Twiddy’s account. A toxicology report indicated cocaine in Den kins’ system. Investigators interviewed around 30 civilian witnesses, with nearly all saying they saw the chase begin or heard the multiple gunshots. Only two said they saw Twiddy fire his weapon, but other witnesses and crime scene evidence contradicted them. Freeman didn’t elaborate on their account of the fatal shots. Lawyers assisting Denkins’ family had vowed to interview witnesses as part of their own review of the case. Freeman wrote that she met with the family’s attorneys this month and asked if they had ad ditional evidence. She said investigators know of no witnesses who have come forward but haven’t yet been interviewed. An attorney for the family, Priscilla McKoy, didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment April 13. More than 200 people crammed into a church in March to mourn Denkins, including the Raleigh mayor and the head of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP. People who knew Denkins have said he was a friendly young man who wanted to earn a high school equivalency degree and become a carpenter to support his two young children. THE CAROLINA TIMES L.E. AUSTIN Editor-Publisher 1927-1971 *********************************************** (USPS 091-380) *** (Mrs.) Vivian Austin Edmonds Editor-Publisher - 1971-2002 Kenneth W. Edmonds Editor-Publisher - 2002- Published every Thursday (dated Saturday) (except the week following Christmas) in Durham, N.C., by United Publishers, In corporated. Mailing address: P.O. Box 3825, Durham, N.C. 27702- 3825. Office located at 923 Old Fayetteville Street, Durham, N.C. 27701. Periodicals Postage paid at Durham, North Carolina 27705 Volume 95, Number 16 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE CAROLINA TIMES, P.O. Box 3825, Durham, N.C. 27702-3825. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: One year, Durham County, $25.00 (plus $1.88 sales tax; one year, outside Durham County, $30.00 e$1.95 sales tax; one year, out of state, $30.00. Single copy Postal regulations REQUIRE advance payment on sub scriptions. Address all communications and make all checks payable to: THE CAROLINA TIMES. NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE: THE CAROLI NA TIMES, P.O. Box 3825, Durham, N.C. 27702. Member: United Press International Photo Service, North Car olina Black Publishers Association, Associated Press. Opinions expressed by columnists in this newspaper do not necessarily represent the policy of this newspaper. We reserve the right to edit for brevity and clarity. This newspaper WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE for the return of pictures or manuscripts. ********* Credo of The Black Press The Black Press believes that America can best lead the world away from racial and national antagonisms when it accords to every person, regardless of race, color or creed, full human and legal rights. Hating no person, fearing no person, the Black Press strives to help every person in the firm belief that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back. ‘Moral Monday 9 leader removed from American Airlines flight (Continued From Front) would be allowed on another plane, Miller said “each situation is unique. It was a cordial situ ation beyond that one incident so there was no further concern from our perspective.” Barber said he had traveled to Washington, D.C., to speak at a national interfaith event that launched the 2016 Ecumenical Advocacy Days. “ ... I am not at all happy about what I believe were the real reasons I was the one asked to leave,” Barber said, adding that he has turned the matter over to attorneys. The flight arrived at RDU shortly before midnight, about 40 minutes late, Miller said. Register To Vote or Curwija ©Ilies PLEASE ENTER MY SUBSCRIPTION FOR ~T 1 year - Durham County - $26..88 1 year-North Carolina - $31.65 J 1 year-Out of State - $30.00 Mr. Mrs. Ms. Address ; City State ZipCode Check or Money Order Enclosed Bill me within thirty days MAIL TO: THE CAROLINA TIMES P. O. Box 3825 Durham, North Carolina 27702
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