HONORING M.L. KING Art and words offer hope for the future 1E Art by Annedra Young of West Charlotte High School SOCIAL BUTTERFLY Now that holidays are over, intrepid Hy is back on the ::ase/2A Volume 31 No. 17 Che Charlotte $1.00 The Voice of the Black Community Also serving Ci WEEK OF JANUARY 12-18, 2006 28216 511 PI Jaies 8. Piike Library 100 Beatties Ford Rd Charlotte NC 28216-5302 CIAA already profitable for city, league Basketball tournament and hotels nearly sold out, while record purse in scholarships guaranteed By Chens F. Hodges cherisJiodges^ ihecharloltepostrom Charlotte’s turn at hosting the CIAA bas ketball tournament has already eclipsed Raleigh before the first game tips off. So far, 85 percent of the tickets for the tour nament have been sold, which is ahead of last year’s tournament, said CIAA Commissioner Leon Kerry “We’re ahead of pace,” he said. And Kerry expects the tickets to sell out. The only seats left in the Charlotte Bobcats Arena are upp^ level seats. “But it’s not a lot of those left either,” Kerry said proudly “I had a couple of sponsors buy 2,000 of those yesterday” Of the 25,000 hotel rooms in Charlotte and Mecklenbuig County, 20,000 of them have been sold, said Tim Newman of Charlotte Regional "V^itors Authority “This inaugural CIAA tournament in Charlotte is proving to be one of the largest, most lucrative and most dynamic of any event ever hosted by our dty” said Lenny Springs, chairman of the 2006 local oiganiz- ing committee. The evait, which tips off on February 27, is Please see CIAA/7A PHOTO/WADE NASH CIAA Commissioner Leon Kerry said the tourna ment will generate more than $2 million in schol arships for its 12 member schools, a first Obama: Listen to Iraq’s minorities Senator: US. mission depends on inclusion By Jason Straziuso THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, Iraq — Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday said the United States will not be successful in Iraq unless the political land scape better repres«its the c»imtry’s minorities. Obama, the nation’s only black senator, met with U.S. Ambassador Z a 1 m a y Khalilzad and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Saturday He said before his two-day trip to Iraq Obama that he wanted to ask U.S. commanders for a realistic time firame on bringing troops home. ‘What Fm fully convinced of is if we don’t see signs of political progress ... over a relatively short time fi*ame - let’s say six months or so - we can pour money and troops in here till the cows come home, but we won’t be suc cessful,” said Obama, D-IU., who said he opposed the war before it began. Talabani predicted Saturday that a new govern ment could be formed within weeks and said the country’s See SENATOR/2A SUPPORT FOR NAME, NO CONSENSUS ON SITE A proposal to rename Stonewall Street Martin Luther King Avenue didn’t have enough support at Monday’s Charlotte City Council meeting. The council voted to instruct city staff to further study options for the honor, including unnamed sections of Interstate 485, which requires state approval. Speed bump on MLK street Support is there, but council votes to weigh more options By Herbert L. White herh.whiie^ thecharlottepost rom There’s no Martin Luther King Avenue in Charlotte, but time — and support — are on its side. City Council voted 7-4 Monday to ord^* dty staff to study potential sites for a street to name in honor of the slain dvil r^ts activist. Coundl member James Mitdiell backed the re-naming of Stonewall Street or a stretch of Indepjendence Mitchell Concerns Boulevard to Martin Luther King Avenue. ‘Tm not doing so well ri^t now,” said Mitchell, a Democrat who rep resents District 2 in northwest Charlotte, about changing linked to Civil War general Stonewall Jackson — was enou^ to put the brakes on a quick resolution ‘Tt’s appropriate for Charlotte to have a road named for Dr. King,” said Lassiter Stonewall’s name - believed to be council member John Lassiter fR- Please see BACK2A EDITORIALS: City Council should think bigger for King honor/4A lepid support for vote rights Bush favors renewal of Section 5, but there are concerns By K. Chandler THE WESTSIDE GAZETTE FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - While President Bush professes to back reauthorization of Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, political appointees and Justice Department officials are being accused of deliberately attempting to scuttle key aspects of the act over the objections of career lawyers within the Civil Rights Division. The landmark law, signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, came into edstence as a remedy “to break the grip of state dis- enfi'anchisement” of black voters in the South, and “to overcome Southern legislators’ resistance” to enforcement of the 15th Amendment.” The 15th Amendment to, the Constitution granted Afiican- Bush Please see SUPPORT/3A Thousands seek ehange in Uganda GLOBAL ISFOR\ lATlOS NETWORK Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye is drawing thousands to polit ical rallies as he campaigns for the seat now held by President Yoweri Museveni. Besigye, just released fium deten tion on terrorism charges, criticized President Yoweri , Museveni over democracy and rigjits and said it was time for change in Uganda. Museveni has been in office 20 years and orches trated a constitutional change to per mit him a third term Besigye was once Museveni’s per sonal physician. Besigye is campaigning among sup porters to Ihe north-east of the capital, Kampala, while President Museveni is campaigning in western Uganda ahead of February’s presidential elec tion. Please see COMPETITION/GA The rapid decline in youth smoking rates may now be coming to an end, according to a University of Michigan report [] Drop in U.S. teen smoking may be waning J By Hazel Trice Edney NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION PHOTOCURT© Vrt.SON WASHINGTON - Twenty- year-cid John Adams takes a long drag fix)m a half- smoked filtered cigarette; th^ uses the side of a brick building as an ashtray to snuff it out. The lanky youth tucks the stump behind his ear, hoists his backpack; then breaks into a trot toward a bus stop on Georgia Avenue in North West Washington, D.C. Perhaps a typical day for Adams, but aoxjrding to sta tistics, he is in grave danger. The tiny stick of tobacco bdiind his ear is a live time bomb that kills 1,200 Americans a day and 450,000 a year, usually by cancer or other lung dis eases, according to the C«iter for Disease Control. But like many young smokers, cancer is the fur thest problem fix)m Adams’ mind. “I smoke to rdieve stress, really,” he shrugs at a reporter’s question. “Looking for a job, my prob lems, you know, relation- shipis. I want to go back to school in the fall.” Adams is not alcne in his apparent indifference about smoking. New data announced last month by “Mcmitaring the Future,” a University of ^fichigan project that docu ments trends of tobacco use among youth, shows that the once-celebrated rapid decline in youth smoking rates may now be coming to a halt. “Tfeen smoking had been in steady decline fi*om the recent peak levels of use reached in the mid-1990s throu^ 2004,” states the MTF study “But, the rate of decline in their use of ciga- See YOUTH/3A Panthers focus on erasing memory of November dud against Chicago. 1C Life IB Religion 86 Sports 1C Business 8C A&E1D Happenings 6C INStDE To subscribe, call (704) 3760496 or FAX (704) 342-2160,® 2005 The Charlotte Post Publishing Co. Please Recycle ■19887‘'0CG01 •OI Mill