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VOLUME 20 NUMBER 985 VTR ERE NPT ot veweserce | TN
Media ™
Mover
Raphael James
Newscaster is lone | - i , 4
African-American male |
in Augusta TV ~18 ,
Serving Metropolitan Augusta, South Carolina and the Central Savannah River Area
Cops could face
cuts in budget fix
BGrant set to expire
iarly next year could
nean less public
safety.
y Timothy Cox
UGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
The safety of Richmond County
esidentscould be jeopardized if
ity officials can’t resolve pos
ible budgetary problems prior to
he start of the new year. In addi
ion, budget cuts could lead to
ayoffs within police ranks, ac
ording to some city authorities.
“If the money’s not there, then
es, layoffs could occur,” says
fajor Ken Autry of the Rich
-lond County Sheriff’s Depart
ient. If city leaders fail to ap
Requiem for a poet laureate
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Gwendolyn Brooks, lllinois’ poet laureate since 1968, reads
poetry to a lunchtime crowd at Union Station in Chicago, Feb.
14, 2000. Brooks, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her poetry that
delved into poverty, racism and drugs among black people,
died Sunday, Dec. 3, 2000. She was 83. AP Photo/Chicago Tribune, Phil
Velasquez
INSIDE
BWorld/National2A-3A
mCity/Region 3A
EPeople 4A
BBusiness 6A
BOpinion BA-9A
BLiving 10A-11A
B Spirit 12A-13A
BARTbeat 1B
BEmployment 5B
prove funding which currently
pays for an additional 68 depu
ties, the result could mean
downsizing, reducing police cov
erage beats from 36 to 24 while
adversely affecting public safety,
Autry said.
Though in his final days of a
16-year tenure, Richmond
County Sheriff Charlie Webster
agrees with Autry; commission
ersshould make sure his depart
ment remains intact after he
leaves. “The commissioners say
thebudget is short, but I want to
keep as many people as we can,”
the sheriff said. “We need this
manpower. The people feel more
secure and we haven’t been get
ting the (complaint) calls from
the high-crime areas.” Autry
mirrored Webster’s sentiment,
See COPS, page 3A
Military post exchanges
are selling sweatshop goods
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-
Ga.), a member of the Armed Services
Committee and ranking member of the
International Operations and Human
Rights Subcommittee criticized the Army
and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES)
policy of purchasing goods from overseas
sweatshops.
“Workers at the Chentex factory in
Nicaragua are paid 18 cents per pair of
jeans that are sold to AAFES. Workers
there were fired for seeking an eight-cent
wage increase. As a major purchaser of
clothing from this factory, and as a gov
ernmental agency, the AAFES must put
pressure on the Chentex factory to honor
this modest increase in pay. Evidence
showing that the AAFES is a major pur
chaser of sweatshop-made goodsis deeply
troubling,” stated McKinney.
Working through your retirement?
Some tips to help you gain the upper hand ~ 6A
Black coachs see numbers dwindle
NCARA Division | sees sharp decline ~ Story below
If city leaders fail to
approve funding
which currently
pays for an addi
tional 68 deputies,
the result could
mean downsizing,
reducing police
coverage beats
from 36 to 24 while
adversely affecting
publicsafety. .
— Police official
Recount court
hattle moving
forward
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press Writer
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
Al Gore hnng his presiden
tial hopes on lega! proceed
ingsmovingat head-spinning
speed a day ahead of argu
ments before the Florida Su
preme Court, counting on a
court shocker toupset George
W. Bush’s certified Florida
victory.
Lawyers sprinted between
courtrooms Wednesday to
battle over absentee ballots
while Bush and Gore submit
ted papers to persuade the
state Supreme Court to rule
their way in a fight over re
counts.
See ELECTION, page 2B
“The U.S. government is supposed to
be a force for good in the world, not an
enabler of oppression. The American
people need to know that taxpayer money
is being used to sponsor the degradation
of labor rights and human rights abroad.
Surely our Department of Defense, which
pays SSOO for a hammer, could afford
eight cents more for a pair of jeans to
ensure that the workers who made it can
feed their families. The United States
government is the last place that should
be supporting and coddling sweatshop
labor and the violation of human rights,”
said McKinney.
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is
the author and sponsor of the Corporate
Code of Conduct Act (HR 4596). This
legislation give strict guidelines for U.S.
See McKINNEY, page 2A
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A bust of Rosa Parks, sits in the lobby of the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Ala.,
Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2000. Parks, now 87, will be in Montgomery for the museum’s dedica
tion on Friday. AP Photo/Kevin Glackmeyer
Three orders of nuns
apologize for slave legacy
BARDSTOWN, Ky.
(AP) Threeordersof nuns gatheredat a church
to formally apologize for the use of slave labor by
their predecessors in the early 1800 s.
Black worshipers who listened to their pleas
Sunday at the St. Joseph Church responded with
forgiveness. Slaves helped build St. Joseph in
1819.
“Thisis aglorious day,” said Martha Hickman
of Bardstown, whose husband’s forebears were
slaves in Nelson County. “I cannot tell you what
this service has done for me. It has strengthened
my heart. My deceased ancestors are crying tears
of joy in heaven today, and I'm sure yours are,
too.”
Nearly 400 people attended the afternoon ser
vice of gospel singing and prayers of repentance
recited by members of three orders, all of which
have Kentucky roots: the Sisters of Charity of
Nazareth, the Sisters of Loretto and the Domini
cans of St. Catharine.
Also filling the pews were African Americans
from the region, including groups from two pre
Minority coaches lose ground
in NCAA Division 1 basketball
By Steve Wieberg
USA TODAY
Twomoremajor collegefootball coaches
have been hired this week — at Arizona
and Bowling Green — bringing the late
season total to 11. The names and per
sonalities vary and so do the résumés,
but one distinguishing feature is com
mon. At Arizona,John Mackovicis white.
| At Bowling Green, Urban Meyer is white.
‘ At Alabama and Arizona State and Mis
souri, Dennis Franchione and Dirk
Koetter and Gary Pinkel are white. Asis
every other hiree todate. Only four black
head coaches out of 115schoolsremainin
NCAA’s Division I-A football program. A
sport in which more than halfthe players
are black continues to balk at putting
black coaches in charge.
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See 1B
dominantly black parishes, St. Monica in
Bardstown and St. Martin de Porres Church in
western Louisville.
See APOLOGY, page 2A
Atlanta Presbyterians pass
resolution condemning
Confederate flag
ATLANTA
The Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, the local
representative body of the Presbyterian Church
USA, hasapproved aresolution saying the Confed
erate symbol on Georgia’s state flag “has served to
pull the community apart.”
Lawmakers changed the flag in 1956 to include
the Confederate symbol in response to court-or
dered integration in the South, the resolution said.
See PRESBYTERIANS, page 2A
“I'm not sure people get it, and the
question is: What will it take for people to
get it?” said San Jose State’s Charles
Whitcomb, who heads the NCAA’s Mi
nority Opportunitiesand Interests Com
mittee.
An additional question: Who, exactly,
would sound the call for something dras
tic?
Adecadeago, theanswer was the Black
Coaches Association. Basketball icons
such as Georgetown’s John Thompson
and Temple’s John Chaney headlined a
3,000-strong membership and could and
did strike fear in the college athletic
establishment. -
In 1989, Thompson led a brief but
highly publicized walkout in.protest of
See BLACK COACHES, page 2A
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