“Trayvon Martin’s Girlfriend Recalls Final Call, Justice Dept Steps In”

Taken from: http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/03/trayvon_martins_girlfriend_was_on_phone_with_him_she_recalls_his_final_moments.html

March 20, 2012

On Monday morning ABC News published an interview with a 16-year old girl who is believed to have been on the phone with Trayvon Martin moments before neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot him dead.

“He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man,” Martin’s friend said told ABC News, in an interview with lawyers asking the questions because the girl is underage. “I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run but he said he was not going to run.”

ABC News verified phone records and the girl’s statements are believed to be accurate.

“Trayvon said, ‘What, are you following me for,’ and the man said, ‘What are you doing here.’ Next thing I hear is somebody pushing, and somebody pushed Trayvon because the head set just fell. I called him again and he didn’t answer the phone,” the girl went on to say.

But at the moment Martin’s call ended, several 911 call recordings pickup right as someone is heard screaming for help in the background. And this is where some say local police have shielded Zimmerman.

The Miami Herald provides more details:

Several witnesses said they heard cries that sounded like a boy wailing — howling silenced by the crack of gunfire — and were shocked to hear police later portray the cries as Zimmerman’s. One witness said police ignored her repeated phone calls.

The police chief was accused of telling lies big and small in ways that shielded Zimmerman. The family hired attorneys who helped devise a national campaign to demand a federal investigation.

According to a statement by the Justice Department, “The department will conduct a thorough and independent review of all of the evidence and take appropriate action and the conclusion of the investigation. … The government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person acted intentionally and with the specific intent to do something which the law forbids. Negligence, recklessness, mistakes and accidents are not prosecutable under the federal criminal civil rights laws.”

Close to 550,000 people have signed an online petition on Change.org urging law enforcement officials to step in and arrest Zimmerman. ColorOfChange.org has also launched a petition that calls for the local police department be made accountable for mishandling Martin’s case.

A grand jury will also look into the shooting death of Martin, Brevard County State Attorney Norm Wolfinger announced on Tuesday.

“Parents say to sue after Florida band drum major dies”

Taken from: http://news.yahoo.com/parents-sue-florida-band-drum-major-dies-210518357.html

November 28, 2011

TALLAHASSEE, Fla (Reuters) – The parents of the Florida A&M University drum major who died after suspected hazing said on Monday they will file a lawsuit against the school to stop what they say is a violent initiation rite. ”This is not going to go away like other incidents,” said the family’s attorney, Christopher Chestnut. “The culture of hazing within theFAMU band has got to be eradicated.”

Robert Champion, 26, died November 19 after being rushed to a hospital following a performance by the internationally renowned FAMU Marching “100″ band at the annual Florida Classic football game against Bethune-Cookman University in Orlando. Champion, a music major from Atlanta who served as one of six drum majors for the 375-member Marching “100″ band, vomited and complained that he could not breathe in a band bus in the parking lot of a hotel after the game.

The medical examiner’s office said a cause of death will not be known for about 10 weeks, but local law enforcement officials suspect that Champion died following a hazing incident aboard the bus. ”What’s tragic is that this could happen to another kid,” said Champion’s father, Robert Champion Sr.”You go to school to become a productive citizen and pursue something you love to do. You don’t expect this.”

Pam Champion said her son was a laid-back, gentle young man who was involved in his church, and did community outreach. He tried to help new members adjust to life among the world-famous Marching “100,” known for its high-stepping, high-energy dance routines. “He loved the band,” she said. Their attorney said the family hopes the lawsuit, which has not yet been filed, will shed light on a practice that they contend has been tolerated not just within the marching band or at FAMU, but at bands, fraternities and colleges across the country.

PAST PROBLEMS

Champion’s death is the most recent hazing-related incident involving the Marching “100″ and the university.

A band member won a $1.8 million verdict in a civil battery suit against five band members for a 2001 hazing incident in which he was beaten so badly his kidneys shut down. The student settled the suit out of court with FAMU for an undisclosed sum.

In 2006, a pair of FAMU fraternity students went to jail for a hazing incident that left the victim so bruised from paddling he required surgery.

A 2005 Florida law, passed after the death of a University of Miami student, bolstered penalties for hazing rituals that lead to great bodily harm or death.

After Champion’s death, FAMU President James Ammons suspended the band’s activities and fired director Julian White, who has led the band since 1998. Ammons created a task force to look into hazing at the historically black college. White wants his job back and has hired Tallahassee lawyer Chuck Hobbs, who said the tenured FAMU professor has been made a scapegoat despite White’s repeated efforts over the past 13 years to address hazing. Those efforts included a decision in November to suspend approximately 30 band members for hazing activities earlier this fall, Hobbs said. ”This is a knee-jerk reaction by the administration.” Hobbs told Reuters on Monday. “It could be at least three months before the medical examiner’s report is released…It is extremely premature to make this decision.”

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death. Last week, Governor Rick Scott also ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct an investigation “to assure that the circumstances leading to Mr. Champion’s death become fully known, and that if there are individuals directly or indirectly responsible for this death, they are appropriately brought to justice and held accountable.”

“Florida runners donate medals, trophy to disqualified foes”

Taken from: http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Florida-runners-donate-medals-trophy-to-disqual?urn=highschool-wp9079

November 23, 2011

In one of the more generous incidents in recent prep sports memory, a Florida girls cross country team voluntarily gave up their runners-up medals and trophy to a school which they felt deserved them more, and they did so entirely of their own volition, without any influence of a coach or other adult.

On Monday, Prep Rally wrote about the Plantation (Fla.) American Heritage School girls cross country team, which was knocked out of what was eventually determined to be a second place finish at the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 2A state cross country meet because of a bizarre mix up with the timing chips on the shoes of two team members. Those mismatched timing chips — which are used to ensure that a runner follows the correct course and crosses the finish line and all check points – dropped American Heritage down to a fifth place finish, even though the team felt it should have finished much higher. As it turns out, the American Heritage runners weren’t alone in that sentiment, with the school that did finish in second place going to extreme lengths to let their opponents know that how they felt about American Heritage’s performance.

As reported by Jacksonville’s FirstCoastNews.com, the Jacksonville (Fla.) Bolles School girls cross country team, which was bumped up from third place to second in the Class 2A meet by the American Heritage disqualifications, voluntarily decided to give their runners-up medals and trophy to the team they felt should rightfully have finished there.

According to Bolles senior runner Micayla Costa, there was no debate among the Bolles team about what to do because they all knew that the American Heritage runners deserved the honor more than they did. In fact, the team had already gathered and decided to hand over their medals and trophy before Bolles cross country coach Tony Ryan could speak to them about it. ”We huddled up in a group to talk about it,” Costa told FirstCoastNews. “The team decided not to keep the trophy, the medals and the runner-up title.” That meant a quick turnaround from the medal stand, where the Bolles girls had stood on the runners-up platform next to newly crowned 2A champion Miami (Fla.) Carrollton School, to a nearby huddle where the American Heritage squad was still in a state of shock over its sudden fall.

Without letting them know what they planned to do, the Bolles team members walked over to American Heritage runners and presented them with the second place medals. As one might expect, the reaction was emotional. ”I took off my medal and I gave it to [an American Heritage runner],” Bolles sophomore Lily Arnold told FirstCoastNews. “And once I put it around her neck, she started to cry.”

While American Heritage’s runners were the most obvious beneficiaries of the Bolles squad’s immense generosity, runners from the Jacksonville school insist that they took as much away from the experience as they would have from a state title. That’s saying something for a school which has a multitude of cross country and track titles to its name. ”This was worth so much more than a state championship,” Arnold told FirstCoastNews.

“Central Florida school districts warn teachers to look for ‘drunk gummies’”

Taken from: http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Central-Florida-school-districts-warn-teachers-to-look-for-drunk-gummies/-/1637132/4692208/-/nvy3yhz/-/index.html?hpt=us_bn5

November 7, 2011

Where there’s a will, there’s a way, especially when it comes to teens trying to outsmart their parents. Now, it seems they’ve found a way to disguise alcohol in candy. The trend is so serious that two local school districts have issued alerts to teachers and principals to be on the lookout for gummy candies soaked in vodka.

 

The colorless, virtually odorless alcohol has become the choice for teens hoping to sneak booze. The word is spreading like wildfire on social networks and on YouTube, where Local 6 found several “how to” videos with tens of thousands of hits. And now teachers across Central Florida have been put on alert. A Seminole County high school teacher tells Local 6 she’s been told to watch for students with gummies on campus.

Lake County school officials are so concerned they’ve sent out a warning to all principals. “They see this stuff and they want to experiment, and there’s been similar cases in the past, so you just have to make principals aware of it and be on the lookout for it,” said Chris Patton with the Lake County School District.

So how are the kids doing it? They dump the gummies in a pan, pour the vodka over the bears, and let it sit. After some time, the bears absorb the alcohol, turning them into an alcohol-soaked candy your child could be chewing on, even while sitting right next to you.

Parents said they were shocked. “They smell like gummy bears, (but there’s a) huge difference, you can taste the alcohol — wow,” said one mother. “If I found my kids were doing that, I would explain why it was not good for them,” said another mother.

With an entire bottle of vodka poured into a pan of gummies, there’s no way for a child to know just how much alcohol they’ve ingested. “Anytime you have a situation involving alcohol or drugs, you want to be able to address it very quickly and deal with it,” said Patton. “It’s certainly easy to transport and take anywhere — movies, football games, anywhere — so yeah, it’s highly concerning,” said a mother who was surprised when she tasted one of the alcohol-soaked gummy bears.

And that’s why Lake County school officials are so concerned. While they haven’t had any cases, they want to be proactive. Soaking candy in alcohol could result in an arrest, officials say.

“Soldier Surprises Daughter at Spelling Bee”

Such a beautiful and heart-aching moment.

“Rick Scott to Liberal Arts Majors: Drop Dead”

Taken from: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/512axW/motherjones.com/mojo/2011/10/rick-scott-liberal-arts-majors-drop-dead-anthropology

October 11, 2011

Florida’s unpopular tea party governor, Rick Scott, wants more of the state’s youths to pick up college degrees… but only if the degrees are useful to corporations and don’t teach students to question social norms. “You know what? They need to get education in areas where they can get jobs,” Scott told a right-wing radio host Monday morning. He continued:

“You know, we don’t need a lot more anthropologists in the state. It’s a great degree if people want to get it, but we don’t need them here. I want to spend our dollars giving people science, technology, engineering, math degrees. That’s what our kids need to focus all their time and attention on. Those type of degrees. So when they get out of school, they can get a job.”

It’s no idle sound bite. The governor, an ex-corporate CEO with a checkered business past, is pushing a plan that would all but kill liberal arts and social sciences at the Sunshine State’s public universities—and he’s got support from the Legislature’s psychology-hatin’ GOP majority. He explained the strategy Monday in a separate interview with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

Scott said Monday that he hopes to shift more funding to science, technology, engineering and math departments, the so-called “STEM” disciplines. The big losers: Programs like psychology and anthropology and potentially schools like New College in Sarasota that emphasize a liberal arts curriculum.

“If I’m going to take money from a citizen to put into education then I’m going to take that money to create jobs,” Scott said. “So I want that money to go to degrees where people can get jobs in this state.”

“Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists? I don’t think so.”

Aside from his picking on Margaret Mead, Scott’s reasoning could attract a lot of Floridians; after all, both political parties have reduced their platforms to “Where are the jobs?” shoutfests, assuming that life will be hunky dory once Motorola starts interviewing conveyor-belt widget assemblers again. But if Scott thinks that state colleges should only offer free-market-friendly majors, he’s been sleeping in class. First, he ignores a host of recent research that shows college majors don’t matter as much in graduates’ long-term earning power as is often assumed. Second, “soft” subjects like anthropology (and philosophy, and history, and psychology, and English) serve their students pretty darn well: Take a look at the surprising list of notable Americans who majored in them… including Dubya, Carly Fiorina, Clarence Thomas, Billy Graham, and Ronald Reagan. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better marketer or brand specialist than an anthro major.

None of that should matter, anyway. Is a degree’s intrinsic value really reducible to its marketability? Just a few blocks from the governor’s mansion, the Florida State University anthropology department—already ravaged by cuts and unable to admit new students—is fighting for its life by reminding visitors that anthropology is not only cost-effective and desirable on the job market, it’s morally satisfying, too. “The Anthropology Department educates students about the lack of biological support for the race concept and challenges the racist ideas that have led to inequality and exploitation,” the department’s website states. Hard to put a pricetag on a lesson like that.

That, in the end, is perhaps why Scott’s really out to kill anthropology and the liberal arts: As opposed to conservative-friendly disciplines like economics and business management, liberal arts produce more culturally aware and progressive citizens, inclined to challenge ossified social conventions and injustices. Eliminate cultural and social sciences from public colleges, and you’ll ultimately produce fewer community organizers, poets, and critics; you’ll probably churn out more Rotarians, Junior Leaguers, and Republican donors.

At the end of his radio spiel Monday, Scott said he was open to other folks’ ideas. “If anybody has any ideas where they see waste, they see fraud, they see any problems in where the state spends its money, let me know,” he told listeners.

Well, Governor, you could start by paying as much for health insurance as your lowliest employees do. Or you could stop paying for unnecessary drug tests on the poorest and neediest Floridians. Or, if you really want to cut out waste from the state universities’ budgets, you could eliminate some football programs instead of anthropology departments. As I’ve laid out for you below, it’d save a hell of a lot more money: