Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / March 29, 2007, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
NFL BEATS A PATH TO HAMPTON Page 1C Page 7C New home for Rockwell AME Zion Church I Page 4B Volume 32 No. 28 "^3 $1.00 The Voice of the Black Community N.C. lotteiy’s just the ticket for state’s poor uii.Mii 11 Also serving Cabarrus, „„,5-tii6n 28216 811 PI ]a«es B. Library 100 Beatties Ford Rd Charlotte KC 28216*5302 Per capHa North Carolina lottery sales by adult Is dominated by eastern counties, with 10 in the top 12. Where the consistent players are Top five counties' per capita spending Nash ($227) Wilson ($220) Vance ($203) Lenoir ($232) Edgecombe ($188) SOURCES: JOHN LOCKE FOUNDATION, .S. CENSUS; N.C. EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION; N.C. DEPT. OF REVENUE A year after launch, games’ appeal is highest in the East PHOTO/PAUL WILLIAMS 111 John '‘Butterfly" Miller of Charlotte shows off his tickets Wednesday. Mecklenburg County residents spent an average of $84 per adult on lottery tickets By Herbert L. White he/t). whife@fhechartoffeposf.com North Carolina's richest and poorest counties are driving sales for the Education Lottery a year after it ( I It’s a tax on poor, unemployed people in eastern North Carolina who already pay high taxes.} } Joseph Coletti, fiscal policy analyst at the John Locke Foundation launched. Mecklenburg, the richest, accounted for $55.4 million in sales through March 17, making it second only to Wake's $70.2 mil lion. But players in prosperous coun ties make up only part of the lottery demographic. There are the residents of less-wealthy coun ties who spend more per capita on tickets and bear a heavier tax burden. A report from the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank in Raleigh, found that counties with the highest poverty and unem ployment rates tend to have the highest rates of ticket sales. Anti-lottery advocates warned as much during years of debate. “Opponents of the lottery warned that it would be a fax on poor people, but it’s actual ly turned out worse - it’s a tax on poor, unem ployed people in eastern North Carolina who already pay high taxes,” said Joseph Coletti, a fiscal policy analyst at the foundation. National studies show that 20 percent of all players - who contribute 82 percent of lottery revenue - disproportionately are low-income, minority men who have less than a college education. "It really is government undercutting what Please see HOPE/2A Next NAACP president will face crucial issues By Hozel Trice Edney NAnONAL NEWSPAPER PU8USHERS ASSOC/AnON WASHINGTON - The weighty issues now facing black people in America indicate that the next NAACP president must be an aggressive, energetic leader focused on civil rights in the 21st century, says veteran civil rights advocates. v “I'd think they’d be looking for a relatively young person with vision and vigor who under stands the mission of the NAACP to work to achieve social change, to work for increased economic opportunities for African- Americans, to fight discrimina tion at every level, to seek empowerment, economic, politi cal, and social empowerment for black people: to find ways and means of hitting a level of glob al consciousness, to help orga nize our people in local commu nities around these issues, and to rise to a new level of dynamism and activism,” says the Rev. Joseph Lowery, 85, laiown as the dean of the civil rights movement. Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King in 1957, says by “>'Oung person,” he means someone who may have been bom inside or outside the civil rights move ment, but who is able to vigor ously deal with the high level issues of inequality now facing America. "I mean people who are ener getic intellectually as well as Gordon Rally to protest sale of Tar Heel bacon products By Herbert L. White heib.white@friechortofteposf.com Swine will be on the picket line Saturday. Protests across three states - including North Carolina - will call for Harris Teeter to switch suppliers for its house brand bacon. Clergy, consumer advo cates and civil rights leaders will picket also picket Harris Teeter stores in Tennessee and Virginia over the supermarket chain’s use of Smithfield Foods prod ucts. Harris Teeter dropped Smithfield brand products after protests late last year. Saturday’s Charlotte protest is scheduled for the Harris Teeter store at 1704 Central Ave. "We are encouraged by the progress we have seen Harris Teeter make in removing Smithfield Tar Heel pork, but we want them to finish the Job,” said the Rev. Nelson Johnson, co founder of the Southern Faith. Labor and Community Alliance. “On (Saturday), we will demon strate to Harris Teeter that we have mobilized broad consumer support behind the call for Harris Teeter to find a new sup plier for its bacon and to remove all remaining Smithfield Tar Heel pork." Critics and Smithfield workers allege the manufacturer mis treats and abuses its 5,500 work- FILE PHOTO/CURTIS WILSON Wynonna Mims of Charlotte hands out fliers in December to protest treatment of Smithfield Foods employees at the Tar Heel, N.C., plant. ers at its Tar Heel, N.C., plant - the majority of them African American and Latino. The Tar Heel plant is the world’s largest swine slaughter house. Human Rights Watch has criti cized Smithfield in two reports for dangerous working condi tions. summit neKHibors together Citywide symposium a chance to share ideas By Herbert L. White herb.wfi/te@fhechortofteposf.com Communication makes good neighbors. symposium is ■ Barros physically energetic," he says. The nation’s oldest civil rights organization, about to celebrate its 100th birthday in two years, is once again with out a president after the contro versial resigna tion of Verizon executive Bruce Gordon after only 19 months. Citing irrepara- Please see NAACP/3A too. Charlotte’s 12th annual Neighborhood Symposium Saturday at the Charlotte Convention Center will bring neighborhood advocates from across the city to talk about challenges and results. The symposium is from 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m. “It’s an opportunity for peo ple in neighborhoods to come together," said Cynthia Woods, the city of Charlotte’s neigh borhood services supervisor. “People on the eastside can talk to people from the south- side and west and find out what issues they have and what works for them.” Woods said the symposium is expected to attract a record rrumber of paitvcipants, in part due to more' community involvement and more aggressive promotion by the city. As Charlotte’s neighborhoods evolve, more residents are taking part in setting the agen da. “If the registration numbers hold true,” we should have 600 or 700 people,” Woods said. The keynote speaker is John Barros, execu tive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative of Boston, a resident- led planning organization that rebuilt an Please see NEIGHBORS/6A Global court makes first indictments for Darfur crimes By James Wright AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS A leading activist against the genocide tak ing place in the Darfur region of the Sudan and an organization committed to its end are hopeful that an international court will try to prosecute two Sudanese men who have played a key role in its facilitation. The International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, wants to try Ahman Muhammad Harun, the Sudanese minister of state for humanitarian affairs and Ali Kushayb, leader of the government-backed Janjaweed militia that is terrorizing Darfurians and committing such crimes as rape, torture and inhumane acts. Ahmed Muhammed Harun and Janjaweed militia leader, Ali Kushayb were indicted on 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. However, the Sudanese government has refused to give up the men to the ICC. The action of the Sudanese government does not surprise Joe Madison, the country’s leading activist on the matter of Darfur and a radio talk show host on WOL. '•'The men that the ICC wants and the Sudan government refuses to give up have been architects of the genocide,” Madison told the Afro. “Harun has gone as far as saying that ‘there is no genocide.’ He also said that he will not go to The Hague to face charges on anything because he said that the charges are bogus." Since 2003, Madison has traveled to the Darfur region 10 times to monitor the human rights abuses perpetrated by both sides of See COURT/2A f Safety should be the first rule in bathtub, regardless of age/7D INSIIE Life IB Religion 4R Sports 1C Business 7C A&E1D Classified 40 To subscribe: (704) 376-0496 FAX (704) 342-2160.© 2007 The Charlotte Post Publishing Co. Please Recycle 0 0*0
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
March 29, 2007, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75