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On July 10, 1875, educator
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The C
RALEIGH, N.C.
VOL. 49, NO. 65
TUESDAY
JULY 10,1990
iV.G. s Semi-Weekly
DEDICATED TO THE SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST
SINGLE COPY ft C
IN RALEIGH SLO0
ELSEWHERE 300
Taxes From
Businesses
Evaluated
No* Paying Fair
Education Share
Business executives in North
Carolina need to redirect their
lobbyists and trade associations
to re-evaluate their position on
taxes.
80 says tax analyst and in
dependent lobbyist Janis Ram
quist who argues that North
Carolina businesses are not pay
ing their fair share of the state's
education budget.
With a state budget shortfall of
more than $5M million projected
for the coming fiscal year, in
cluding *185 million additional
money to adequately fund public
education during the year,
businesses must pay more in
taxes, says Ramquist.
Otherwise, she says, vitally
needed Improvements in the
state's education system may not
be funded.
Ramquist, who represents the
League of Women Voters in
North Carolina and other
organisations, has prepared a
detailed analysis of taxation in
North Carolina.
She points out that North
Since 1986 busi
nesses have en
joyed tax cuts
that cost the state
$112 million an
nually. This would
finance over half
of the state’s need
for education in
the coming fiscal
year...
Carolina rank* dead last ia
Scholastic Aptitude Test scores
aad high la illiteracy rates. “We
speed less than the national
average on teacher salaries aad
edacatioa for exceptional
children,” she says, "and oar
classrooms remala
overcrowded.”
Since ISM businesses have en
joyed tax cots that coot the state
lilt million annually. This would
finance over half of the state's
needs for edueatloa ia the romtug
fiscal year, notes Ramfutat.
Undercutting the state’s educa
tion needs is bad lor businesses
| as well as for the state's children,
j she argues. Ramgulst notes that
the Corporation tar Enterprise
Development has given a low
ranking to North Carolina’s
business climate—In part
because of the peer condition of
the state’s education system.
(See TAXES, P. 2)
DR. JOYCE T. BERRY
Plan9 For Redistricting
GOP Woos Blacks For Alliances
BY CHERYL MILLER
Aa Aulyrif
The Republican Party, which is in
the minority in every chamber of
every Southern legislature, is looking
for black and Hispanic allies for com
ing redistricting fights. It is unlikely
that Republicans, who currently
make up only 25 percent of the state
legislators in the South, will win
enough new seats in the 1990 elections
to control the redistricting process in
any state below the Mason-Dixon
Line. Understanding this, the GOP is
seeking to build coalitions with
minority politicians as a way of in
creasing the party’s leverage in 1991
when new legislative districts are
drawn.
The Republicans theorize that since
approximately 90 percent of blacks
continue to identify with the
Democratic Party, concentrating
them in one district dilutes the
Democratic strength in other
districts. Thus, the “whiter” non
majority black districts are, the
theory goes, the greater the oppor
tunities they offer for Republican
electoral success.
“Too often, congressional and
legislative lines are drawn by
Democratic-controlled state
legislatures that maintain the power
status quo and lock out
others—primarily Republicans,
minorities, and especially African
Americans,” says Thelma Duggin,
director of national outreach at the
Republican National Committee. The
GOP speculates that the 24 black
members of Congress could double
their number as a result of the
redistricting process.
POLICE BUST COCAINE DEALERS
Former
St. Aug’s
Students
A Wake prosecutor stated that a
Wake grand Jury has indicted six
former St. Augustine’s College
students and a seventh man, charg
ing them with operating a cocaine
dealing ring.
Jacqueline Lambert, a Wake assis
tant district attorney, said the ring
had operated between 1987 aadtfM
while the men attended school. At its
height it allegedly had sold more than
a pound of cocaine a week.
Charged in leading the group is a
New Jersey man, Mark Pitt. Mr. Pitt
was convicted in Wake Superior
Court in April of conspiracy to traffic
in cocaine, and was sentenced to 35
years in prison.
Ms. Lambert said that the indict
ments had been returned by a special
investigative grand Jury, which had
pursued information that had come to
light during Pitt’s trial.
A New York courier testified at the
trial that she had been arrested in
August for not paying a M5 cab fare.
After her arrest, police searched her
and found that she had been carrying
more than (70,000 worth of cocaine
for Pitt.
Under the new indictments, issued
last week, Pitt faces charges of
operating a continuing criminal
enterprise and conspiracy to traffic
in cocaine. Under the criminal enter
prise charge, Pitt could face a max
imum penalty of life in prison.
Chaiged with aiding and abetting
the criminal enterprise and con
spiracy to traffic in cocaine was Ter
race Jefferies. During Pitt’s trial,
Jeffries was mentioned as one who
had arranged the purchase of cocaine
from New York distributors.
Five other men were charged with
possession of cocaine and conspiracy
to sell and deliver cocaine. They were
Cedric Ingram, Eric Ramsey, Leon
Collins, Eddie Barthell and Andre
Waller.
AHNVERSARY OWNER - Joining «nntr ehamnan Washhigton. D.C. an Harvey C.Russall (Ml), nBndvtea
Honry H. Brown (right), vlca prasUont, marinHng president of PepsiCo., Inc. and Maorico WMams (canter),
Savatopmant and attain, Anhaasor-Busch, Inc. at dhactor of hotal and natal managamant program* at
Howard's 20th Anntvorury Dlnnar, hold recently in Howard Unlvorsity’s School of Business.
Groups Urging Representatives
To Oppose Art Funding Restrictions
a nost oi major organizations
rallied to the aid of the embattled Na
tional Endowment for the Arts, call
ing on senators and members of Con
gress to “oppose the campaign to
muzzle artistic expression.”
“Free societies do not censor art,”
a joint letter released by the North
Carolina Office of People for the
American Way Action Fund, stated
with signatures ranging from the
American Dance Festival in Durham
to the City Gallery of Contemporary
Art in Raleigh.
Twenty-five diverse cultural and
civic groupsc co-signed the letter urg
ing North Carolina’s congressional
delegation to “vote” to reauthorize
the NEA without content restrictions
at full funding.
“For the past 25 years, the National
Endowment for the Arts has sup
ported more than 80,000 cultural pro
jects across the nation. But now the
endowment is threatened by a small,
but highly vocal, minority that wants
to punish the NEA for a handful of
grants for projects they find offen
sive,” the letter said.
“In an atmosphere of liberty, ar
tists and patrons are free to think the
unthinkable and create the
audacious... where there’s liberty,
art succeeds. In societies that are not
free, art dies,” the letter stated, ask
ing congressional members to oppose
the “far right’s campaign to muzzle
artistic expression.”
NEA critics propose strict,
government-imposed controls on the
agracy’s grantmaking or the total
elimination of federal arts funding.
The agency’s fate will be decided in
Congress soon. Supporters of free ex
pression in the arts have recently
stepped up efforts to save the NEA.
“The rising tide of censorship
threatens to engulf our free expres
sion rights,” commented Cathy
Stuart, director of the North Carolina
office of People for the American
Way Action Fund, which organized
the group effort. “We are taking a
stand not just in defense of a federal
agency, but in defense of the principle
(See ART FUNDING, P. 2)
Dr. Berry, Caucus On Aging Focus
On Plight Of Forgotten BMkority
A strong advocate of seniors' rights
who heads the Administration on Ag
ing says man effort is needed to
make certain an elderly Americans
get the services they need.
Dr. Joyce T. Berry, of the U.S.
Commission on Aging, an agency
within the federal Department of
Health and Human Services who was
profiled recently by the National Bar
Association, said, “We must work to
ensure that the legal profession helps
to ensure that the rights of older
people an respected and that they
receive the support and assistance
that they have earned through years
of productive service to this
country.”
The AOA is charged with develop
ing a range of community-based ser
vices and opportunities ter all older
persoos throughout the nation. Dr.
Berry Joined the ADA in UM hut has
been active In the field of aging since
1071. Since 1980, iha has been respon
sible for the development and Im
plementation of« wide variety of pro
grams and has held positions at the
iWmanHing challenges. It u vitally
Important that wo as a society focus
on the neod to build our capacity to
respond to dramatic increases in our
"We must harness the resources of educa
tional institutions, churches, neighbors,
families, shopkeepers, professionals, and
businesses—everyone and everything—to en
sure that adequate services for older
Americans are available...” Joyce Berry
highest level of administration within
the agency. She has served as
associate commissioner of education
and training, deputy associate cont
end associate wiHiiiiiwInw'ftyrtitf
“The matwEcoTour population of
fers both great opportunities and
older population during the next cen
tury,” she said.
The elderly, and especially elderly
African-Americans, are among the
most deprived groups in this society
and are in may respects an invisible
or a forgotten minority.
(See OR. JOYCE BERRY, P. 2)
Republican officials claim that the
experience after the 1980 Census
demonstrates that in redistricting,
blacks and Republicans can pursue
common interests. One cited example
is the successful challenge of
Georgia’s 1981 congressional
redistricting plan. As an outcome of
(See REDISTRICTING, P. 2)
Foster Care
Rates High
For Funding
$4 MttUon For
ChiM Service*
Human Resources’ Secretary
David T. Flaherty has announced
that the Division of Social Services
has successfully passed at the highest
level a federal review of the state’s
foster care program. Passing too
review means that the state will con
tinue to receive approximately $4
million in federal Child Welfare Ser
vices funds above the amount that
would have been available to the
state had they failed the review.
The review was conducted in
Raleigh during the week of June 11 by
a panel of federal child welfare
specialists from Washington and
Atlanta and division staff. Two hun
dred case records of children who had
been in foster care for at least six
months were selected from across the
state in a random sample for review.
In order for a state to pass the
review at least 90 percent of the cases
reviewed must verify that the
children and their families have
received services that are designed to
prevent children from remaining in
long term unplanned foster care
placements, often known as “foster
care drift.” During the period which
was subject to review, October 1,1988
through September 30, 1989, there
were 4,076 children in North Carolina
who were in foster care for six or
more months.
Flaherty commended social
workers in county departments of
anoint services for the excellent case
plans which they had prepared and
that were contained in the records.
“The federal agency has asked our
permission to use the plan as a model
(SOT FOSTER PARENTS, P. 2)
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