Detroit Jazz Festival to feature Aretha Franklin, Lou Rawls DETROIT (AP) - Aretha Franklin. Lou Rawls, and Ramsey Lewis lead the lineup for the 2004 Ford Detroit International Jazz restival. The festival's 25th anniversary edition will be held during the Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4-6, at Hart Plaza. Other top acts include Detroit-bom saxo phone player James Carter and a parade of prominent drummers, including the Detroit bom Louis Hayes, Chico Hamilton, Winard Harpard. Lenny White, Cindy Blackman and Carl Allen. This year's edition honors Elvin Ray Jones, the Pontiac-bom drummer and mem ber of John Coltrane's quartet who died in franklin may. Rick White, u senior producer at Festival Productions, was impressed with the festival's lineup. "I'm seeing a lot of pure jazz. ... It's a nice blend." he told The Detroit News for a story published last Thursday. The Queen of Soul said she plans to sing Duke Ellington, Cole Porter and Gershwin, the Detroit Free Press reported. Last year, the festival attracted more than 500,000 fans to down town Detroit. c* Three teens charged with painting racial slurs on home VAI.RICO, Fla. (AP) - Three white teenagers spray-painted a swastika and racial slurs on a black neighbor's garage and driveway, officials said. Damian Yeager, 15; Phillip Belcher, 14; and John Bailey, 16. all of Valrico. admitted painting a dark green swastika, profanities and references to ihe Ku Klux Klan on the home of Brenda Snow, said Hillsborough County sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter. They were chained with criminal mischief as a hate crime, which is a felony, and processed at the Juvenile Assessment Center. Snow said she found the paint and called authorities. Belcher and Bailey had stayed over at Yeager 's house, a few blocks away from Snow's home, on a recent night, officials said. All three teens had green paint on their hands and clothes. Carter said. Snow said she also found paint on her cars, one of which had been vandalized with a smear of paint two weeks earlier. It was unclear whether the incidents were related. Neighbors m this Tampa suburb offered to help pressure wash the paint off her driveway and paint over her garage. Snow said. Four parole agents moonlighting for Snoop Dogg are fired LOS ANGELES (AP) - Three state parole agents have been fired following a yearlong investigation after their arrest while they were part of rapper Snoop Dogg's armed entourage at an awards show, officials said. The California Department of Corrections began an internal probe alter the nipper s caravan was stopped alter the Black Entertainment Television Awards in Hollywood last June. Police arrested three heavily armed bodyguards and confiscated knives, ammunition and handguns. A total of 13 people were detained for questioning. Snoop Dogg. whose given name is Calvin Broadus. had been dropped off at the Kodak Theatre before the group was stopped and was not detained. Three parole agents were found to be part of the entourage. The investigation found a fourth officer, who also was fired, was work Snoop Dog ing for the rapper while on a disability leave from the state. CDC spokeswoman Terry Thornton said. Officials last week declined to release the names of the officers and the reason why they were fired, saying they expected the officers to appeal the decision within the next 30 days. The officers' involvement with the rapper, who was convicted in 1990 of felony possession of cocaine for sale, appeared to be in con flict with their duties. The state agency does not have a specific policy barring outside work for people with criminal records. However, employment is for bidden by state regulations if it's "incompatible or inconsistent" with their duties. CDC spokesman Russ Heimerich said. Oprah Winfrey gives $1 million to Underground Railroad museum CINCINNATI ( AP) - Oprah Winfrey has given $ I million to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and is narrator of an educational film for the museum, its administrators said. The $110 million museum, being built along the Ohio River, commemagites the secret Underground Rail road network that helped slaves escape from the South to the free North during the 1 8(X)s. Winfrey, whose donation was announced last Thursday, will narrate a short film intro ducing "Brothers of the Borderland." a film and interactive theater program. A recon structed slave holding pen also will be part of the museum Celebrity supporters of the museum, many of whom are expected to participate in the center's dedication ceremonies Aug. 23. include Vanessa Williams, Angela Bassett, Muhammad Ali, Quincy Jones. Bono and Danny Glover. Two of the center's three pavilions will be named after the fami lies of Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson and former Procter & Gamble Co. chief executive John Pepper, who each donated $3 million to the museum. Pepper and former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young serve as chairmen of a fund-raising campaign for the museum. The Chronicle (USPS 067-910) was established by Ernest H. Pitt and Ndubisi Egemonye in 1974 and is published every Thursday by Winston-Salem Chronicle Publishing Co. Inc., 617 N. Liberty Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101. Peri odicals postage paid at Winston-Salem, N.C. Annual sub scription price is $30.72. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Chronicle, P.O. Box 1636 Winston-Salem, NC 27102-1636 Photo by Prances Roberts William Bratton talks to the news media during his days as the police commissioner in New York City. Brutality case tests Bratton with blacks WAVE NEWSPAPERS LOS ANGFXES (NNPA) ? Acknowledging that he still has much to leam about the African American community here. Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton publicly apologized Sat urday for what some consider offensive remarks he made about blacks during a recent community meeting on the June 23 televised police beating of suspected car thief Stanley Miller. On the popular KJLH-FM radio show "L.A. Speaks Out." Bratton told listeners that he did not mean to offend anyone when he declared a war on gangs, call ing them "terrorists" and "tribal thugs." Nor did he mean to insin uate that crime in Los Angeles had a "black face." Those remarks came just days after Bratton was forced to apologize for calling community activist Najee Ali a "nitwit" on a national television news show. "I'd like to extend an apology, a sincere apology, if there is any body in the community ? or any other community for that matter ? that has been offended by any of the comments and remarks I've made in the course of this investi gation," Bratton said. "They were certainly not intended to be insen sitive or to offend. ... Life is a learning process, and some times we stumble." While Bratton said his apology was from the heart and his intent is to protect all Angelenos. many African- Americans are still perturbed, with the fringe ele ments calling for the chief s resignation because they believe Bratton is prejudiced or, even worse, racist. It remains to be seen whether Bratton will ultimately be seen as another Daryl Gates, who many African-Americans considered an enemy, but one thing is certain: The chief's attempt to build a bet ter relationship with the black community ? an effort he has committed himself to since arriv Gates ing in Los Angeles more than a year ago ? has suffered tremen dously. "In all honesty, it checked his progress," said Deputy Chief Earl Paysinger, who appeared on KJLH with Bratton and has become one of the Police Department's most recognized figures in the wake of the Miller arrest. "His apol ogy was sincere, but it is going to take awhile to regain and hold some of the ground that he had forged in our vari ous communities. It's like a marriage. When something flies south, you don t immediately gain ground. The test will come with how he reacts now in all communities." Even though his remarks were not the most egregious ever uttered by a public official ? local residents have often called gang members worse things than terrorists ? Minister Tony Mohammed, the western regional director of the Nation of Islam, i said the remarks were hurtful because they could spark an all out war on the black community. "When Bratton came to town we warned him about the use of such language because the culture here is different and what this lan guage does is it releases the vigi lante spirit in (the LAPD). Once again, it's open season in the black community. ... (Bratton) just doesn't get it." At a supermarket on the cor ner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Western Avenue, African-American shoppers uttered the same sentiments as the minister. "I was offended by (Brat ton's) comments," said 56-year old Joseph Crosby as he loaded groceries into his car. "It really showed a lack of respect on his part for us. Yeah, he might have built a good relationship with so called black leaders, but for the rest of us, there's no trust there." Toi Anderson, 25, said she had heard about the chief's com See Bratton on A10 Edwards, Cheney have starkly different civil rights records BY HAZEL TRICE EDNEY NNPA CORRESPONDENT WASHINGTON - There are many differences between U.S. Sen. John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential candidate who grew up in a poor family in Robbins. N.C., and Republi can Vice President Dick Cheney's middle class upbring ing in Casper, Wyo. But there is one dif ference Cheney that overshadows all other differ ences - their civil rights records. Edwards, picked by Democ ratic presidential challenger Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as his run ning mate last week, has received straight A's on the NAACP Civil Rights Report C aret since his ? term in Congress began five years ago. As for Cheney, during his entire 1 1 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, he received straight F's. The report card grades mem bers of Congress on their votes on issues of particular impor tance to African-Americans. "These are the issues thut our j INDEX OPINION. A6 SPORTS. s; RELIGION. 85 CLASSIFIEDS. B8 HEALTH. C3 ENTERTAINMENT.. ,.C7 CALENDAR. C9 members brought to us and said these are what African-Ameri cans really need to be addressed. These are the bread-and-butter civil rights issues of the NAACP," said Hilary Shelton. the organization's Washington bureau director. More than 1,000 delegates convene each year - this week in Philadelphia - representing the organization's 500,000 mem bers, 1 ,700 branches, 1 50 college chapters and prison and military base chapters - to discuss key issues facing blacks. After each convention. Shelton monitors congressional voting on issues deemed important by the dele gates, See Candidates on A10 .1 I I) <; K A L A N Thornburg C O I ' K T O f A P P K A L S tt n n , i I a it I |i it r h I.mi r n ? v u M On My 20, 2004, Judgt Alan Thornbirgnttdiyour support in tht North Carolina Primary North Carolina m*di to hup comptmm fmr-miniti mi txftritttcti ] udgti on the bench North Carolina nttdi to kttp Judgt Man Thornburg ? Davids cm College, B A 1989 ? Wake Fore*Univ?rsitySchool of Law, 1996 ? Legislative Aide to U .S S enator T erry Sanford, 1989-1 993 ? Law Cletk, H on. Sara Ervin, III, U S C outt of Appeal* 4th Circuit, 19 96-1997 ? Attorney, Patla, Straut, Robinson & Moore, PA, Alheville, 1997-2004 ? N.C. Board of Transportation 2001-2004 ? Chair, Board of Director* UNC-A?hmll e Foundation, Inc. ? Member, Board of Director* WNC Communities P ai d for by The Judge T hombi* g C om mitte e P.O. Box 2777 Raleift. NC 2760 2 "UNCLE FRANK SEZ: 'EVERYBODY RIDES! GUARANTEED!"' 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