Newspaper Page Text
(O] o time
about music
] Gretchen Lothrop
‘ / shows sculpture at
N USC-Aiken
3} v See Aftßeat, page 6
Who will
be mayor
pro-tem?
Could it really
be Freddie Lee?
By Rhonda Y. Maree
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
It’s not official until the first meeting after
Jan. 1, but talk about the second in command in
the new government shows Richmond County
Commissioner Freddie Handy to be the likely
chosen one. :
Already vice
if Mr. Handy's chairman on the
board of commis
colleaguesdo _ °~ St
give him their thatcamewith his
ossgg Supporting Larry
approval, it’ll Sconyers for the
land the top seat almost a
ks year ago — and a
COMMISSIONEer, |, .mber of the
whose career Consolidation
Task Force, Mr.
has been Handy is favored
marked by to get the $20,000-
% % 5 a-year job, accord
efthS VIOIO"IO“S Ing to soon-to-be
and accusations commission-coun
-3 c¢il persons who
‘ of incompe- will run the
tence, in a posi- ™merged govern-
S ment.
tion of power. Commissioner
, J.B. Powell said he
and other politicians have had numerous dis
cussions about the position, and several people
wanting the job have solicited his support.
Mr. Handy’s is the most popular name, he
said.
Asked if he’d support Mr. Handy, he said,
“There’s a very strong possibility that I would.”
Augusta City Councilman Lee Beard, the
only city official to have a seat on the new
See MAYOR PRO TEM, page 3
NBO &
R b T O
: Wm I % b >.g
- e - < %7 T
- , &
Disney’s A Christmas Carol
See Artßeat, page 6
B World/National News .........ccccccueen.. 2
B Eocal News ... .
B EBeopless .oo oiuaaiiininaad
WARTHAt a 6
B Bditerial ..o onah a 8
@ACloserEook v 009
B Black College 5p0rt5..............c........... 12
8 Local Sportess. v inEl 88
@ Business, ... il sl nk 4l
B ChurchNew5:.............. 5 .14
@ Chlendar il h i 1T
@ Classifieds ......cccccoceevereercneennennnn. 20-21
December 14-20, 1995 VOL. XV NO. 729
1 T
Asus isE‘ &DE
The assault
continues unabated.
The leadership at
The Augusta Chronicle
is not content with a
daily news monopoly.
They wish to exercise
absolute political,
economic and social
CONTROL over
Augustans.
When will it end?
Article of Analysis
and Interpretation
By Frederick Benjamin Sr.
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Recent events in Augusta
suggest that individual
thought and discourse are be
ing.subverted by an ongoing
attack by The Augusta Chron
icle and its publisher William
S. Morris 111. Many people,
especially in the white com
munity, are petrified of speak
ing out and standing up for
any position orissue contrary
to Mr. Morris’ stated or per
ceived point of view.
A casein pointisthe contro
versy concerning the Augus
ta-Richmond County Colise
um Authority. It was only af
ter hostile editorials and
slanted news articles ran in
The Chronicle that a grand
Ethiopian Jews struggle
to become true Israelis
B Despite sharing a
common faith, the
transition for tens of
thousands of Ethiopi
an Jews has not been
a smooth one. Race
and culture consider
ations pose a major
challenge.
By Dan Perry
ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer
BEEROTAYIM, Israel
Beneath a shed oftree branch
es, dark-skinned men slaugh
ter a cow with long knives. While
flies and cats attack the car
cass, they divide the meat
among residents of this squalid
trailer park.
“It’s cheaper than buying meat
from stores,” said Avraham
Hegos, 25, who was among thou
sands of Ethiopian Jews brought
to Israel in 1991’s “Operation
Solomon.”
That airlift was hailed as a
manifestation of Zionism’s hu
manitarian side, rescuing Jews
from a land torn by civil war
and poverty.
But despite extensive and un
precedented government aid,
T .
i :,“ Y .; 4
iy Mfig% g
b T ;
. : F
L
- The Augusta Chronicle Editorial Writer Phil Kent
. . PUBLIC
1. Enemy? 3. Menace? :
2. Nuisance? 4. All of the above
Jjury was convened. Subsequent
ly, on the strength of a review of
the news articles and the perus
al of a few records, the grand
Jjury recommends that the Col
iseum Authority be abolished.
It looks very much as if the
grand jury did what it was told
or expected to do. It did not,
however, find any evidence of
criminal wrong-doing.
Many, however, remain
cowed by just the prospect of a
Despite extensive
and unprecedented
government aid,
there are worries
the 56,000 black
Jews are becoming
an underclass
burdened by racial
discrimination that
drives them to live
apart.
there are worries the 56,000
black Jews are becoming an
underclass burdened by racial
discrimination that drivesthem
to live apart.
“Israelis say they like us, as
long as we don’t live next to
them, with the smell of our foods
and our African clothes,” said
Adisu Masala, an Ethiopian
activist.
Community leaders say the
Africans are becoming en
trenched as the poorest, most
segregated group in the Jewish
state, their youth increasingly
disaffected and elders unable to
cope with modern society.
Shula Mula, 23, a community
activist who studies education
at Hebrew University in Jerus
grand jury investigation.
Should future grand juries
act based on the facts in any
particular matter, or should
they allow themselves to be
unduly influenced by The Au
gueta Chronicle, whether it
be editorial page editor Phil
Kent or publisher Morris?
Biased news and self-serv
ing editorials are merely one
-See CHRONICLE, page 3
alem, said that “unless some
thing dramatic changes fast, the
Ethiopian Jews will become a
disaffected minority no differ
ent from the blacks in Ameri
ca?
The Ethiopians are eligible for
generous government grants for
home purchases. But the com
munity lags badly in education
and income.
Thousands still live in dismal
mobile home sites like
Beerotayim, which at 30 miles
north of Tel Aviv is far from job
centers and schools. :
Hegos, who arrived in the
1991 airlift of 14,000 Ethiopi
ans, works at an air-condition
er factory for the equivalent of
SBOO a month, just above mini
mum wage.
Because he is unmarried,
Hegos says he qualifies only for
a small housing grant and there
fore has few prospects for leav
ing the mobile home soon.
His neighbor Lior Maharat
said he was “dying of boredom.”
Expelled for misbehavior from
a religious boarding school, the
17-year-old is waiting for his
army draft notice while living
with his mother, father and sev
enbrothers and sistersinatrail
erthatlacks a functioning bath
room.
See BLACK JEWS, page 2
P s 'ULK RATE
MR. 808 HENNEBERGER 5. POSTAGE
PAID
GEORGIA NEWSPAPER NO. 302
GA [
UNIVERSITY OF b i \ GUSTA, GA
o Josey
Eagles!
B ®
ring the State
® o
Championship Home
REDISTRICTING
Feds turn
back clock
Panel of federal judges
eliminates two-thirds of
majority-black congressional
districts in Georgia.
B McKinney thrown into District 4;
will run against conservative Republican.
By Rhonda Y. Maree
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
U.S. Rep. Cynthia
McKinney’s 11th District
is unrecognizable, and
Georgia is left with only
one majority-black district.
This is the result of a
three-judge panel’s deci
sion Wednesday about 2
p.m. on the redistricting of
Georgia to eliminate dis
tricts such as the 11th that
were specially drawn to
ensure black representa
tion.
The plan, signed by U.S.
District Judges B. Avant
Edenfield and Dudley
Bowen, creates six districts
in which the minority vot
ing-age population is more
than 25 percent, including
two in which blacks com
prise more than 35 per
cent. U.S. Circuit Judge
J.L. Edmondson dissent
ed from the decision with
out explanation.
Georgia’s only majority
black district under the
new plan is the sth Dis
trict in Atlanta, now rep
resented by Rep. John
Lewis.
Rep. Sanford Bishop’s
2nd District, which the Su
preme Court declared un
constitutional, will see its
~ Food Costs To Drop
s
R , f' ~, '1 i
a i,
- . [mitiig GOVernor
. A 4! s Zell Miller
o / ; o ¢ was in
7 v e
T B e i Augusta on
e \ /(f ” i’év . , Wednes-
Gl » o % d
) A s 4 @ daypledg
’ Ll | ing legisla-
A%v B e .
o . B e tion that
2 : < @ g wvillslash
Vi &40 .
b ' §’ # the sales
L % /é
e ; ’:;./ tax on
) IS 3 food.
”i:”’j/‘; & Photo by Jimmy
I AAR % b Carter
Gov. Zell Miller an
nounced in Augusta
Wednesday afternoon
that, by 1999 the tax on
groceries will be nonexist
ent. The plan is to shave
off 2 cents next October, 1
cent in 1997, and 1 cent in
1998, he said, “so that the
full 4 cents will be removed
during this legislation.”
He proposed the tax cut
before, but was shot down.
The reason this time will
be different, he said, is two
fold. This time, he now has
the support of Speaker of
the state House of Repre
sentatives Thomas
Murphy and Lt. Gov.
Pierre Howard.
That could be because
he crunched the numbers
black population drop to 39
percent.
Mr. Bishop, a black Dem
ocrat from Columbus, end
ed up in the court-drawn
plan’s 3rd District, which
includes all of Columbus
and Muscogee County.
The 11th District, also
struck down by the high
court ruling, will plunge
from a black voting-age pop
ulation of 64 percent to one
of 32 percent.
Ms. McKinney, a black
Democrat, will fall into Dis
trict 4, coupling her with a
political opposite, Rep.
John Linder, a white Re
publican.
“This will be a titanic
match-up,” said Ms.
McKinney’s press secretary
Omar Jabara of the politi
cians’ stark contrast.
“Ms. McKinney is a pro
gressive thinker, and
Linder is one of Newt
Gingrich’s soldiers,” Mr.
Jabara added.
Ms. McKinney is expect
ed to seek election in her
new district.
“She’s said before that she
would run in whatever dis
trict they put her in, and I
think that still holds true,”
Mr. Jabara said.
The judges’ decision was
See FEDS, page 2
and presented them with a
budget as part of his plan.
“This doesn’t just help one
special interest,” he said.
“Everybody who eats,
wins.”
State Sen. Charles Walk
ersaid that he “wholeheart
edly endorses” the decision.
In the mid-80s, he spon
sored legislation that would
have removed the sales tax
from food and medicine.
“The move will be a boon to
low-income citizens and the
elderly,” he said. “I plan to
be a cosponsor to such leg
islation.”
Gov. Miller said this will
be the only time in Georgia
history that a tax has been
completely removed.