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Caught!!!
Dragnet snares Chronicle writers
and sitting county commissioner
By Rhonda Y. Maree
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
In its crackdown on habitual parking viola
tors, the Augusta Police Department has turned
up some unexpected culprits.
Among the scofflaws are Augusta Chronicle
reporters who have been heavily involved with
highlighting the city’s financial woes, and a
local elected official.
Accumulating $3,240 in parking tickets, five
writers for the Chronicle recently received
letters notifying them of seven days to pay or
face additional penalties.
Topping the list of violators is Allison
Kennedy with 95 tickets totaling $1,380 in
fines. Jennifer Brett owes SB6O for 27 unpaid
tickets.
Other Chronicle reporters with outstanding
parking fines are Kelly Daniel, $400; Jeff Gal
lop, $140; and former reporter Dan Adkins,
$460.
Richmond County Commissioner Lee Neel
owes the city SB4O for 70 unpaid tickets.
See PARKING TICKETS, page 3
School will
start without
top educator
B New superintendent’s first
full tour won’t start until
1996-1997 school year.
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CITY BUDGET CRUNCH
M Five Augusta Chronicle reporters owe city
some $3,240 in parking tickets. One staffer has
95 outstanding parking tickets.
M Richmond County Commissioner Lee Neel
owes city SB6O for 70 unpaid parking tickets.
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Photo by Jimmy Carter
By Rhonda Jones
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Tminus 19days... and count
ing.
The morning of August 21
will find Richmond County stu
dents rushing out the door with
new blue jeans, but without a
new superintendent of schools,
say members of the school
board.
According to trustee Adna
Support grows for
condemned journalist
By Frederick J. Benjamin Sr.
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Asthedaysdraw nearertoan
August 17 execution date, sup
port for journalist, author
Mumia Abu-Jamal continues to
grow. Protests are scheduled in
Philadelphia the week he is
scheduled to die.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom
Ridge has vowed not to inter
fere with the planned execu
tion, but supporters of Abu-
Jamal are pressing for a new
trial. Hearings are currently
being conducted and Abu-
Jamal’s lawyers are attempt
ing to buttress his claims that
he was framed and that key
evidence was suppressed.
Governor Ridge, a Republi
can who ran a campaign on
promises to sign death war
rants, signed Abu-Jamal’s
death warrant on June 1, four
days before a scheduled filing
Your local newspaper sponsored by your local grocer..
|
FOCUS
The police
department
tracked down
violators by
tracing their
license tag
numbers back
to 1988 and
compiling an
alphabetized
list.
Stein, attorney Leonard O.
Fletcher has contacted all but
one of the five candidates to
make sure they want to pro
ceed with interviews and have
their names made public. And
that’s just the beginning.
After candidacy has been
confirmed for all five, the pub
lic will get the chance to meet
them and ask questions. They
will then be given a week to
choose a favorite, and the board
will make its decision, based
B The DEATH ROW
COUNTDOWN
Bernice Powell
Jackson
Civil Rights Journal
Page 9
of an appeal for a new trial by
Abu-Jamal’'slawyers. Itis wide
ly believed that the governor’s
rush to sign the document was
to short-circuit Abu-Jamal’s
appeal. Pennsylvania is in the
midst of a campaign to carry
out death penalty sentences
after a 30-year lapse.
Abu-Jamalisscheduled todie
by lethal injection after being
convicted of killing police offic
er Daniel Faulkner on the
streets of Philadelphiain 1981.
To the prosecutors and gover
nor, he’s a cop killer. To his
supporters, he’sa political pris-
DeVaney
blasts
Nnews
staffers
By Rhonda Y. Maree
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Blasting them as hypocrites
with lax ethics, Mayor Charles
A. DeVaney criticized Augusta
Chronicle reporters who have
piled up more than $3,000 in
unpaid parking tickets.
Constantly under the scruti
ny of the daily newspaper be
cause of the city’s financial trou
bles, Mr. DeVaney questions
the writers’ credibility.
“For all the flack the city has
taken for its recent financial
situation, maybe if some of the
reporters who were doing all of
the writing had paid their fines,
it would have helped us out,” he
said.
“If we have people reporting
the news, and in some cases
insinuating or accusing us in
government of doing something
See DeVANEY, page 3
on what their constituents
have expressed.
As trustee Jeff Annis puts
it, “We’re proceeding at the
frustrating rate of as fast as
we can.” He doesn’t feel, how
ever, that switching from in
terim superintendent Charles
Larke to someone else in the
middle of the school year will
be a problem. “No confusion,”
he said. “It really doesn’t mat-
See SCHOOL, page 3
oner. Abu-Jamal has main
tained his innocence.
The planned protests and
scheduled execution will occur
against the backdrop ofthe larg
est gathering of Black journal
ists in the country. The Nation
al Association of Black Journal
ists will mark its 20th anniver
sary with a week-long confer
ence coinciding with Abu-
Jamal’s planned execution.
The NABJ has been the object
of vehement criticism from the
black community, the black
press in particular, for not offi
cially condemning the execution
of Abu-Jamal. The ex-journalist
and award-winning broadcast
eris a past president of the Phil
adelphia chapter of that organi
zation.
The organization did, howev
er, defuse some of the criticism
by filling an amicas briefin court
supporting Abu-Jamal’s alleged
See JOURNALIST, page 9
MR. 808 HENNEBERGER
GEORGIA NEWSPAPER
UNIVERSITY OF GA
ATHENS GA 30602 12/31/99
BLACK
EXPO
Local Black Businesses
to be Showcased Aug. 19
B Details on page 3
CONSOLIDATION
[] ] u
City fire chief
seeks upgrade
u n
of city firemen
B City fire chief and state
representative spar over wage
disparity between city and county
firefighters.
By Rhonda Y. Maree
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Sparks flew at Wednesday’s consolidation task force
meeting as Augusta Fire Chief W.L. Maddox and Rep.
Robin L. Williams clashed on approaches for running a
merged city/county fire de- s :
i I'm eqhe(_
Mr. Maddox angered Mr.
Williams by saying Rich
mond County firefighters’
union may not stand under
the new government,
“Ifthey’re not recognized,
they’re not gonna be com
ing in the fire station and
giving orders and that type
thing. I don’t play that
game. I'm either gonna be
the chief — and I want this
committee to understand
that this morning — or
you've got the wrong boy,” Mr. Maddox told the 12-member
task force Wednesday.
Mr. Williams rebutted in defense of the county firefighters.
“Let me tell you something — for a department head to
come in here and say you’re going to do it my way or there’s
not going to be a way — let me tell you something buddy —
you're living in the past,” Mr. Williams said.
Mr. Maddox said he refused to debate with an elected
official.
“You can do what you want to, but if I'm going to be the
chief, it’s my responsibility to furnish fire protection for the
citizens in this county, and that’s what I intend to do. Isl
can’t do that, get you another boy,” he said as he angrily
walked away from the podium.
See FIREFIGHTERS, page 9
Mumia Abu-Jamal’s
motion for a new trial
A hearing to de
termine whether
condemned jour
nalist Mumia Abu-
Jamal would get a
new trial was begun
onJuly27in Phila
delphia. Below are
some of the points of
interest.
# Four witnesses
initially reported
seeingaman flee the
scene of officer
Daniel Faulkner’s
shooting.(Abu-
Jamal lay severely
wounded at the
scene.) Thejury nev-
er heard three of the wit
nesses’ statements because
witnesses were pressured
to change their accounts.
#The key prosecution wit
ness, and the only one who
testified to seeing Abu-
Jamal holding a gun, was a
prostitute allowed to con
tinue working the streets
with plainclothes officers
guarding her.
§ Although a policeofficer
and a security guard testi
fied that a wounded Abu-
Jamal confessed in the hos
pital, another police officer
filed a report saying “the
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| AUGUSTA, GA ||
gonna be the
chief —and |
want this commit
tee to understand
that this morning
— or you've got
the wrong boy.”
—Augusta Fire Chief
W.L. Maddox
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Mumia Abu-Jamail:
The jury never heard
crucial evidence.
Negro male made no state
ments.” That officer was on
vacation during the trial.
I A new defense ballistics
expert says prosecutors ei
ther did not perform tests
that could have excluded
Abu-Jamal’s gun as the
murder weapon or covered
up the results if they did.
I The prosecution used 11
challenges to exclude black
jurors, leaving only three
blacks on the jury.