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.
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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
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? 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
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1997-2004
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