WEB OF DECEIT Going to tha Internet’' means navigating growing number of schemes, BcamafTC PAY LESS TO PLAY NCAA proposal would spill Division II football playoffs by scholarship equivalency /1C Volume 31 No. 35 $1.00 The Voice of the Black Community Also serving C ,, Determination by the gallon Rising fuel prices no deterrent for long-time fans of Memorial week bike rally GARiNGER HIGH SCHOOL PHOTO/CURTIS WILSON Bernard Stewart of Rock Hill will skip Atlantic Beach’s bike rally so his daughter, who's graduating high school, can go. New wave of AIDS is near By Lisa Soderlindh INTERKAVOSAL PRESS SERVICE UNITED NATIONS - A quarter-century into the HIV/AIDS pandemic, researchers fear that a lack of preparedness for large-scale social charts, driven by fac tors like armed conflict, and climate change, could lead to explosive new outbreaks affecting millions of people. Since cases of a severe pneumonia affecting gay men were described for the first time in a U.S. public health report in Jime 1981, more than 65 million people have become infected with HIV and 25 million have died, according to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, which estimates the cun'ent number of people livir^ with HIV at 37 million to 45 million. “We should not accept hving with this epidemic at the level it has reached,” Paul DeLay director of monitoring and evaluation at UNAIDS, said. “Tbday we have a much clearer understandir^ of tiie epidemic itself and what we need to do.” Pointing to the most impor tant advances of the last 25 years, he said the real break- throu^ fiom the standpoint of science has been cheaper, simpler treatment and diag nosis, and drugs that prevent mother-to-child transmis- sion. But according to researcher Samuel Friedman, “We are not really looking ahead to what may be coming down the road at us.” Please see NEXT/7A By Chens F. Hodges clierisJiodges@lhecharloneposi£om Not ev^ high gas prices can keep bikem away firom Memorial Biker’s Week. ‘1 don’t have any indica tion that gas will keep peo ple away,” said interim Atlantic Beach, S.C., town administrator Marcia Connor. The event, according to Connor, draws at least 200,000 peofie to the Grand Strand area. They’re not just on bikes, which don’t cost that much to fill up. They’re in sports cars and sport utility vehicles, which are sure-fire gas-guzzlers. Bernard Stewart, a Rock Hill cyclist and member of the Extreme Riders club, said he’s going to skip the beach this year, but it has nothir^ to do with gas. ‘1 have a daughter that’s graduating and she’s going down there to spend the week,” he said. “I decided to let her go this year.” The average cost of gas in Atlantic Beach this week is $2.71, according to AAA of the Carohnas. It costs about $10 more to fill a 15-gallon tank this year than it did last year. Charlotte biker Germaine Grissett isn’t worried about increased costs. He figures a week at the beach is going to set him back about $2,000 with $150 earmarked for gas in two bikes-a racing machine and a leisure bike- and his car, which he plans to tow the bikes with. “I ride my bike Thursday Friday and Saturday and go See GAS/3A PHOTOA2URTIS WILSON Garinger High School juniors Lorenzo Broome (left) and Christopher Donte Houston bag car packages for seniors as part of the Elves for the Elderly program. Both are on Garinger’s job-training program. Volunteer Work with elderly helps students ^ I Cl. uncover value of skills and time By Erica Singleton | FOR THE charlotte POM A group of students at munity and paid work Garinger Ihgh School are learning the value in help ing others. The students — 10th, 11th, and 12th graders - each on the Occupational Course Diploma track, have been helping out with the Senior Citizens Nutrition Program of Mecklenburg County The Occupational Study Course requires school-based, corn- hours. Occupational Prep is work done for the sdiool, while Occupational Lab includes off-campus work. Gervonnie EHerbe, a job coach at Garinger, said the occupational track is a job training program geared toward teaching students work ethic and the value of work, and career options “You have a college prep track, and a technical prep track, they’re on an occupa tional course of study track,” she said. Students who in the past would have been placed in special education classes and may not have had clear career direction now have an idea of what it is they want to do. “These are kids that are Please see GARINGER/2A ‘ It’s given me a sense of hope that I can do something. Garinger High Sdiool senior Timmy Green on participating in the occupational course program. Forum to address CIAA tournament business By Herbert L. White lierb.vltiie&lhecliarlonepostjfotn Black business owners are invited to find opportunities to participating in the CIAA basketball tournament. An advocacy group, Charlotte United, is sponsor ing a reception and forum Saturday at Charleston House restaurant, 3128 The Plaza fiom at 4 p.m. The organization’s goal is to build a plan for economic indusion and present it to political offi cials and the hospitality industry The toumameoit drew more than 125,000 visitors to Charlotte in February and March while generating over $15 million for the local econ omy The CIAA is the oldest black-college tournament and second largest in the U.S. behind the ACC. For information on the forum, call Bill McCullough at (704) 491- 5787 or e-maii mchassoc@bell- south.net. leading die way on Darfur activism White Americans rally to end genocide while blacks stay on sideline By Robtel Neajai Pailey THE WASHIKGTOS INFORMER WASHINGTON — As momentum increases with U.S.. rallies to end the slaughter of civilians in Darfur, Sudan, blacks are usually few and far between in a sea of white protesters. “Save Darfur” campaign rhetoric daims that the appeal of the move ment is its assorted religious groups, its protesters finm diverse sodo-eco- nomic backgrounds and pohtical affil iations — but did the average black person get the memo? Black leadem are vocal, yet their fol lowers are hardly visible. An estimated 15,000 marchers^ attended the Washington rally and til protests were held in at least 30 other U.S. and Canadian dties. “It’s time for the membei's of the Coi^ressional Black Caucus and the world community to raise the ante on Sudan,” said U.S. Rep. Melvin L. Watt (D-N.C.), and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Tuesday at a demonstration in fiont of the Sudanese Embassy The protest resulted in the arrest of seven mem bers of the CBC for disorderly conduct for obstructii^ the entrance to the Sudanese Embassy Watt was joined by U.S. Representatives Barbara Lee (D- Califomia), John Lewis^fD-Georgia), Please see ACTIVISM/SA the box NEWS, NOTES & TEENDS Publisher to change slur definition Webster’s Dictionary is report edly changing its definition of the N-word. Starting with its next edition, Webster’s will define “nigger” as a radal slur that is not • synonymous with African Americans. Previoios editions of Webster’s define the word as a noun that is “a contemptuous term for a black or dark-skinned person.” ' NAACP CEO Kweisi Mfume, who has led the fight to have “nig- geF’ removed finm dictionaries, announced the change during a speech at Virginia Polytechnic Institute earher this month. Mfume In Real Estate: Deck trends for makeovers/4D INSIDE Life IB Religion 5B Sports 1C A&E1D Happenings 6C _ To subscribe, call (704) 376-0496 or FAX (704) 342-2160.© 2006 The Charlotte Post Publishing Co. Recycle o