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September 6, 2012

  • Tutu Says Bush and Blair Should Be Tried for Roles in Iraq War

    Tutu Says Bush and Blair Should Be Tried for Roles in Iraq War South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote in a British newspaper that former President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair should be tried by the International Criminal Court of Justice in the Hague, the Netherlands, for their roles in the Iraq War.

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  • Plan to Graduate More Black Men

     Plan to Graduate More Black Men The percentage of black men enrolled in college is equal to their percentage in the population by Frederick H.

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  • Ryan's College Girlfriend Spent Time In Prison

    Ryan's College Girlfriend Spent Time In Prison Deneeta Pope, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s black college girlfriend, served five months in a federal prison after pleading guilty to stealing funds from Ernst & Young, one of the nation’s big four accounting firms. Paul Ryan TMZ, the celebrity news website, reported that a grand jury in November 1999 indicted Pope for allegedly swindling Ernst & Young out of $77,000.

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  • IRS Funks Up George Clinton’s Day with a Tax Lien

    IRS Funks Up George Clinton’s Day with a Tax Lien Funkmaster George Clinton may be in a funk after the IRS hit the legendary musician with another tax lien. Clinton failed to pay $7,457.89  worth of taxes in 2009 and $13,301.

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  • Oprah’s Rihanna Interview Puts OWN Ratings in Top 25 for First Time

    Oprah’s Rihanna Interview Puts OWN Ratings in Top 25 for First Time Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Target Market News (TriceEdneyWire.com) The second season premiere of Oprah's Next Chapter, featuring singer Rihanna, gave OWN its highest ratings for a Sunday premiere since the network's launch in January 2011.

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  • Court Shoots Down Texas Voter-ID Law

    Court Shoots Down Texas Voter-ID Law by Frederick H. Lowe The United States District Court for the District of Columbia struck down Texas’ photo-ID law, which the three-judge panel called the most-stringent in the country, after ruling the law would place a significant financial burden on racial minorities to obtain required identification to vote in November’s election.

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  • Judge Orders Ohio to Restore Early Voting Days

    Judge Orders Ohio to Restore Early Voting Days by Frederick H. Lowe A U.S. District Court Judge has ordered Ohio officials to restore three days of early voting prior to the November 6 presidential election for all Ohio residents, not just state residents who are in the military and vote by absentee ballot. The ruling by Judge Peter C.

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  • Judge Signals Intent to Lift Burden on Voter Drives

    Judge Signals Intent to Lift Burden on Voter Drives A U.S. District Court  judge in Florida has indicated that he will remove severe restrictions on community-based voter-registration drives, handing civic groups a major victory in the voting-rights struggle in Florida, a battleground state in November’s presidential election. Judge Robert Hinkle ruled in League of Women Voters of Florida vs Kenneth W.

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  • Four Years Ago, Blacks Voted in Higher Numbers than Whites

    Four Years Ago, Blacks Voted in Higher Numbers than Whites by Frederick H. Lowe In the 2008 presidential election, the first ever in which a major political party nominated an African American for president, black-voter turnout exceeded white-voter turnout for the first time in U.S.

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  • 47 Black Delegates Attended the Republican Convention

    47 Black Delegates Attended the Republican Convention by Frederick H. Lowe The number of African-American delegates who attended last week’s Republican National Convention was higher than in 2008 but lower than in 2004, according to “Blacks and the 2012 Republican National Convention.” The study reported that 47 African-Americans, or 2.1 percent of the 2,286 delegates attended the 40th Annual Republican National convention in Tampa, Fla., wrote Dr.

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  • NAACP Urges Blacks To Support the Justice Department

    NAACP Urges Blacks To Support the Justice Department The NAACP is urging African Americans to sign an online petition supporting the U.S.

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  • Convention Is a "Pep Rally and a Launching Pad’’ for Obama’s Re-election

    Convention Is a by Hazel Trice Edney CHARLOTTE, N.C. (TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Barack Obama is set to accept the nomination this week to lead America for four more years.

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  • Romney’s Campaign Wedge: Taxpayers vs. Welfare Queens

    Romney’s Campaign Wedge: Taxpayers vs. Welfare Queens Colorlines The issue of taxes is the Republican Party’s dog whistle on race.  Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan—engaged in a nail-biting political fight—have resorted to blowing it loudly and unashamedly.

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  • Romney’s Hoped-For Post-Convention Bounce Falls Flat

    Romney’s Hoped-For Post-Convention Bounce Falls Flat Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for president, did not receive much of a bounce after his party’s national convention last week in Tampa, Fla., according to the Gallup organization.

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  • Peace Prize Winners Protest NBC War Show

    Peace Prize Winners Protest NBC War Show (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Seven Nobel Peace Prize winners, including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa, are protesting the new NBC  show Stars Earn Stripes, which, they say, glorifies war and armed violence. In a letter to NBC entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt, the Nobel laureates said, “It is our belief that this program ...

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  • West African Aluminum Refinery Remains Closed Over Wage Dispute

    West African Aluminum Refinery Remains Closed Over Wage Dispute Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from GIN (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Africa’s first aluminum refinery, in the town of Fria, north of Guinea’s capital Conakry, remains locked down five months after workers struck the plant in a fierce battle over wages.

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  • Michael Clarke Duncan, 54

    Michael Clarke Duncan, 54 Academy Award nominated actor Michael Clarke Duncan died Monday morning  at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a Los Angeles hospital, following a July 13th heart attack.

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  • Chris Lighty, 44

    Chris Lighty, 44 Chris Lighty, a hip-hop mogul whose roster of clients included 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Diddy and Mariah Carey, was found shot to death behind his home on August 30 in Riverdale, N.Y.

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  • Hal David, Writer of Hits for Dionne Warwick, Dies

    Hal David, Writer of Hits for Dionne Warwick, Dies Hal David, who wrote some of singer Dionne Warwick’s greatest hits, including the classic, “Walk on By,” has died. David, who was 91, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Sept.

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  • Lost Decades: Longevity Gap Widening for Blacks, Latinos, Less Educated

    by Paul Kleyman New America Media CHICAGO—The longevity gap between “two Americas” has widened since 1990, says a new study.

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  • The NorthStar’s Week in Black History

    The NorthStar’s Week in Black History September 6 through September 12 September 6 1905 ----- Alonzo F. Herndon, a wealthy African-American barber and real estate investor, founded the Atlanta Life Insurance Company on this date.

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  • Third New Judge for George Zimmerman

     Third New Judge for George Zimmerman Seminole County Circuit Judge Debra Nelson has been assigned as the new judge to hear the case involving George Zimmerman. Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

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  • Acceptance Speech Moved Inside

     Acceptance Speech Moved Inside President Barack Obama will give his acceptance speech on Thursday night inside the Time Warner Cable Arena instead of outdoors at the Bank of America Stadium because of the threat of rain.

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California Ethnic Voters Solidly Support Health Reform

California Ethnic Voters Solidly Support Health Reform

by Viji Sundaram
New America Media

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Health care reform -- enshrined in the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- enjoys widespread support in California among African-American voters (88 percent) and about two-thirds of Korean and Latino voters support the law, according to a Field Poll of voters released this week.

The poll indicates that overall, “Californian voters have been consistently supportive,” observed Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, who released the findings at the Capitol. Statewide, he said, 54 percent of voters support the law, while 37 percent are opposed.

“The only difference is that this year, 13 percent of them strongly support it; last year it was 31 percent,” he said, showing that many, while supporting ACA,  have confusion or concerns about the changes.

Many Face “Dire Situation”

Carmela Castellano-Garcia, president and chief executive officer of the California Primary Care Association (CPCA), which represents over 800 community-based clinics, said she was not surprised to see so much support from Latino voters, given that one in three of them is uninsured. “Their support is mired in the dire situation they face,” she said. More than half of the patients in CPCA clinics are Latino.

Almost half (45 percent) of Chinese Americans support the law, versus 31 percent who don’t. The margin of support is narrower for Filipino Americans surveyed (39 percent to 33 percent), with large proportions undecided.

“Groups that are going to benefit in 18 months – in January 2014, when the ACA goes into full effect – are strongly supportive,” noted Gerald Kominski, professor of health policy and management and director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. “I find that encouraging.”

This is the third multilingual survey conducted by the Field Poll in as many years. Field plans two more on a wider range of issues in September and October.

The new poll, funded by the California Wellness Foundation, was conducted by telephone in English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin,Tagalog, Korean and Vietnamese. It surveyed a total of 1,579 voters, 407 of them from ethnic communities.

The poll shows there is low awareness among voters (17 percent) about the state’s new Health Care Exchange, the online health-insurance marketplace mandated by ACA where individuals and small businesses can purchase coverage that meets their needs. California is far ahead of the rest of the nation in developing it. States can chose whether to create their own exchange or have the federal government operate one for them.

Exchanges—Online Malls to Buy Insurance

Promising to be a virtual health-insurance shopping mall for consumers, the exchange is gearing up to be fully active when it begins on Jan. 1, 2014. The state is developing the tools consumers will need for comparison shopping – including standards insurers must meet to participate – and aims to cover as many Californians as possible when the program goes live.

That current public awareness is low “is somewhat to be expected,” said DiCamillo, “given that they haven't done any outreach or marketing yet.” He added, "What will really be interesting is how much we see that change over time, whether there is greater awareness among certain subgroups later, as the exchange gets closer to actual operation."

DiCamillo noted that about one-quarter of those surveyed were potential users of the exchange – Medi-Cal beneficiaries, uninsured people or those with insurance in the individual market outside of group health plans.

When asked if they would be interested in shopping for insurance coverage through the exchange in 2014, DiCamillo said, three of four said yes. Exchanges promise to give consumers a tool for comparison shopping among health plans on benefits and price.

"That's a sizable segment," DiCamillo said. "And we're excluding pretty much the Medicare population.” He noted that this large proportion does not factor in additional numbers of people who learn that ACA will give them subsidies to purchase health insurance through an exchange. This includes many lower and middle-income people, who earn too much to qualify for Medi-Cal but still find buying insurance unaffordable.

Peter Lee, executive director of California’s exchange, said he believes “misinformation and misrepresentation” about the exchange by those who oppose it has diminished public awareness of the service.

Even so, he said he was heartened that nearly 74 percent of those who Field polled were interested in buying health insurance from it, when it is up and running, Jan. 1, 2014. The Exchange’s target audience includes individuals currently uninsured, on Medi-Cal or covered through the high-cost individual market.

Although people will be able to go online and do their health-insurance shopping, California will also “have human beings who’ll speak many languages” to assist them, Lee said.

Between 42 and 44 percent of Latino, African American and Asian American voters say they will shop online when it becomes available. In contrast, only 29 percent of white non-Hispanic voters said they would shop on the exchange.

Generally, DiCamillo said, opinions about the exchange and reform are “highly related to political party affiliation.” Favorable opinions about health care reform tend to run higher in California, where the majority of voters are Democrats.

Previous Debate Less Partisan

Before ACA was enacted, when the state debated health care reform, “it wasn’t this partisan,” asserted Diana S. Dooley, secretary of California’s Department of Health and Human Services. “Now what we think about the ACA is what we think about politics.”

Most Californians – 51 percent – felt Congress should halt any efforts to repeal the law, the poll found. By a nearly two-to-one margin, voters disapproved of attempting to cut off funding of the law as a way to stop its implementation.

Journalist and author Emil Guillermo, currently with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said the one shortcoming about the poll was that it lacked the views of South Asians, an increasingly politically active segment on the U.S. scene, as well as those of such Asian sub-groups as the Hmong.

“Everything has been diversified in the state, except the polls,” Guillermo pointed out. “With the kind of diversity we have in the state, how can we not drill down and say with certainty how these [other] groups think” before Sacramento develops policy.

DiCamillio conceded that a number of groups, including Native Americans, were not surveyed because “it was a matter of resources. We had a smaller budget and a smaller time frame. There’s always going to be a group that’s not going to be included.”

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