SPENDING SPREE
Poll: U S. teens
know way too little
about money and
how it works/1 B
TAKE A NUMBER
Business considerations
force romance to back
burner for young
adults/7C
LONG ROAD BACK
Iraq experience
fuels Charlotte 49ers
track standout /1C
Brandon Wyatt was
wounded in an
ambush..
Volume 31 No. 30
$1.00
mte ci)arla% Boit
The Voice of the Black Community
iSSlBB
28216 510 PI
B. Duke Library
ig Beatties Ford fid
l^'kr^./hiHotte NC 28216-530:
if;
Memo to CMS: Don’t ignore inner city
By Herbert L. White
herb.\vhite&thecharlonepost com
Before Peter Gorman takes
over as superintendent of
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools, inner city advocates
have a message;
Don’t forget us.
Gorman, who was picked
Tuesday to lead the state’s
biggest school .district, is super
intendent in Tustin, Calif,
which has an enrollment of
20,000 - one-sixth of CMS.
“I ready don’t know” much
about Gorman, said Richard
.McElrath, a longtime sup
porter of inner-city schools.
‘Tm going to hope and pray
(for his success) because he’s
got it. It was encouraging
they did vote 8-0, but no mat
ter how they did it, they unit
ed behind him.”
That’s the first of many hur
dles Gorman, 42, faces in
Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
Saggii^ confidence in public
school administration, ner
vousness about overcrowding
and leadership on a fi’actious
Please See INNER/6A
Lawmaker
urged to
chill on the
rhetoric
Capitol incident
latest controversy
for McKinney
By Hazel Trice Edney
NATIONAL SE\\'SPAPER
PUBUSHERS ASSOCIAVON
WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep.
Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) is
being advised to tone down her
language by someone who knows
her best - her
fatiier.
“After ad of this, I
would probably give
her the same advice
that I gave her in
the beginning,”
say^ Bdly
McKinney the
Congresswoman’s
father, a former
police officer. “lb get aloi^ in
America, in this society it might
be better to go along and get
along,” he said, repeating advice
he’d given her when she first won
election to the CJeorgia General
Assembly in 1988. “I’m talking
about not puttir^ yourself out
because you won’t find that a
whole lot of black people wid back
you when you get out there,”
McKinney says in an intei’view
with the NNPA News Service. “I
don’t think she’d ever be under
stood by a segment of this coun
try”
And perhaps nor wid he. When
she was defeated, he aeated a stir
when he blamed Jews for her
downfad.
Controversy seems to be a dfe-
stjde for McKinney
In 2002, then five-term
McKinney lost her seat after a
string of controversies that
included her accusation that the
See MCKINNEY/3A
McKinney
LEGISLATIVE BLACK CAUCUS
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOA3ERRY BROOME
N.C. Rep. Pete Cunningham (left) of Charlotte and House of Representatives Speaker Jim Black of
Matthews answerquestions after approving astate budget last year. House members in the Legislative
Black Caucus are supporting Black, who has been accused of breaking state campaign laws.
Standing up for
House speaker
African American lawmakers solidly behind embattled ally
By Herbert L. White
herb.whi!e&ihechariottepostcom
N.C- House Speaker Jim
Black stdl has fiiends
among Afiican American
lawmakers.
Black, who is under inves
tigation for adeged violation
of state campaign laws and
is imder increasing pressure
to resign, has the support of
the N.C. Legislative Black
Caucus. The caucus has 26
members - ad Democrats —
including 19 in the House.
“I don’t have any insight
on Ihe future of things in the
court, but in the caucus, we
are solidly behind him,” said
Rep. Beverly Earle of
Charlotte, the caucus’ chair.
Black, a Matthews
optometrist, has drawn
increasing criticism for dol
ing out money for political
adies, and fund raising tac
tics. Four Democrats have
publicly asked for his r^ig-
nation., but none fi-om
Mecklenburg.
“Prom what I’m hearing,
the (Democratic) caucus,
with the exception of the
ones who’ve been in the
press, are behind him,”
Earle said.
Black’s relationship with
Afiican American lawmak
ers has been fiuitful during
his tenure. Several hold
high-ranking leadership
See CAUCUS/2A
Earle
N.C. Rep
Beverly
Earle.backs
House
speaker.
N.C.’s top principal leaves no child behind on her campus
ml
South meck
HIGH SCI
PHOTOAOURTIS WILSON
South Mecklenburg High School principal Marian Yates is 2006 Wachovia princi
pal of the year. Yates has been an educator for 37 years.
By Eric Bozeman
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
South Mecklenburg High
School principal Marian Yates
is a nurturer.
Growir^ up during an era of
racial segregation, adults in
Yates’ neighborhood looked
after young people and encour
aged them to excel. Yates, who
was named Wachovia N.C.
principal of tiie year last week,
takes the same approach at
South Mecklenburg, where
she’s been principal for six
years.
“In the neighborhood I came
up in everybody looked out for
everybody it was truly a vidage,
NFL Europe puts HBCU
standouts’ pro football
dreams on track/IC
Jobs
goneP
Native-born blacks
struggle to work as
immigrants move in
By M.L; Ingram
THEPHILADIUJ^HIA TRIBUNE
PHILADELPHIA - For blacks and
Latinos, destinies in securing a place
in America have been, in many ways,
intertwined. But that view may
unravel, as ciUTent trends show a
wave of idegal immigration has
helped push blacks down the hole,
instead of out of it.
In spite of pubHshed reports indicat
ing increases in jobs and decreases in
unemployment levds, blacks are stid
struggling. With the nationwide
unemployment rate dropping fium
February’s rating of 4.8 percent, the
number for black unemployment,
skided or unskdled, remained at a
cumulative 9.3 percent.
Bernard Anderson, professor of eco
nomics at the University of
Pennsylvania, said numbers such as
these should sound an alarm.
“In the midst of a very conservative
trend, jobs are up, but opportunities
for blacks are diminishing,” said
Please see BLACKS/3A
and I think that’s one thing
we’ve, truly lost as African
Americans,” she said. “Our
teachers always pushed us to
be successful, they would ted us
you’re goii^ to have to learn to
work in two worlds, the one you
were bom in and the one you’re
going to have to work in.”
“I felt it was my duty to give
back, be the best and give back
to help kids. I never want to for
get fixDm whence I came and I
share that with the students,
because they think you became
a teacher, you became a princi
pal, you drive the car, tirey don’t
think you had a life before
See NC. PRINCIPAL^A
the box
NEWS, NOTES & TRENDS
Tardy on
taxes? Don’t
sweat it
By Eric Bozeman
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
Time wdl come and go for some
at midnight on April 17, the dead
line to file federal and state
income taxes.
Then what?
Those who are late to file
income taxes need not panic, just
understand it’s something the
government can work with them
on.
(jeorge Norwood of Web Tax in
Charlotte stresses that late filers
should be aware that creating a
good paper trail is key
“Wed of course accurate records
wid always help because the state
and the federal government can
reach way back. The state is going
back five year^ or more,” Norwood
said. ‘Tf filers are gettii^ a refund,
no problem, because you in effect
have loaned the government
money and they wdl in fact pay
you some interest but it’s best to
get everything done during the fil
ing time so you don’t get caught
short.”
Along with arranging personal
records, Norwood recommei^ to
Please see LATE /8A
0®OEE
INSIOi
Life 1B
Religion 5B
Sports 1C
Business 7C
A&E ID
Happenings 6C
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