Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 21 March 2002 — Page 7

The Muncie Times, March 21, 2002, page 7

NEWS BRIEFS

NEWS BRIEFS FROM PAGE 6 with intent to commit vehicular homicide and “evidentiary prejudice,” which enhances the original charge by classifying it as a hate crime, officials said. He was held without bail at the Palm Beach County Jail. Link Crump was driving through a gated suburban Boynton Beach neighborhood with another Black man when Schlosberg pulled up beside them, according a report released by the state attorney’s office. Schlosberg asked if the two Black men were trespassing, then reached into their sports utility vehicle and touched Crump’s forearm, the report said. Crump pushed the man’s hand away, then he and his friend got out of their vehicle, according to the report. Schlosberg hit Crump with his car. unsuccessfully tried to hit Crump's friend, drove into Crump’s vehicle, and sped away, according to the report. “He saw Crump in the roadway and ran him over with the intent to commit vehicular homicide,” Palm Beach Sheriffs Cpl. Joseph F. Korb wrote in his report. “After he was arrested, he said he hates Blacks, and they should all die.” Another Bush judicial nominee questioned WASHINGTON, DC - Another of President Bush’s judicial choices faces a bruising battle in the Senate, with liberal groups raising ethical accusations against U.S. Appeals Court nominee D. Brooks Smith of Pennsylvania. In a personal plea to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Smith defended his handling of two court cases for which he is being criticized, stating “I have always treated my ethical obligations as a United ■rStates .jii.dgp^jyith the

utmost seriousness.” His rulings “were neither illegal nor unethical,” he wrote. Smith was nominated by Bush for a seat on the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on Sept. 10, and has been approved by the American Bar Association; But his opponents say senators should look into some of his actions before they confirm him for the court that covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the Virgin Islands. Doug Kendall of the Washington, D.C.-based Community Rights Counsel, says Smith made court rulings regarding a case with a company in which he had a “very substantial financial interest.” “It clearly violates federal refusal law and raises serious questions about Judge Smith’s fitness for a seat on the appellate bench,” Kendall said. The attacks “are simply an attempt to misuse the confirmation process by unfairly impugning the reputation of a 14-year veteran of the federal bench,” said Viet Dinh, assistant attorney general. Cincinnati police adopting government recommendations CINCINNATI - City police, accused of using excessive force and harassing Black people, have agreed to adopt many of the U.S. Justice Department recommendations for the police division. The police department’s 26-page response to the Justice Department promises changes in policies governing how officers use force and chemical irritants and how they handle citizen complaints. The police response has been made public, and Mayor Charlie Luken has said the council could vote to accept it as soon as March 5. In October, the Justice Department recommended

more than 90 changes in how police operate. Luken asked for the federal review after riots that followed a White police officer’s April 7 fatal shooting of an unarmed Black man who was wanted on misdemeanor charges when he fled police. A lawsuit filed by Black activists in March accuses police of 30 years of harassing Black people. The federal report specifically recommended changes in the department’s policy on the use of choke holds. Two White officers were acquitted last fall in the November 2000 death of a Black man, Roger Owensby Jr., who died after officers used a choke hold on him as they arrested him. Harry IVuman’s cook served many roles INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - At the Independence home of Harry and Bess Truman, Vietta Garr prepared dinner and served it. Over decades of such service at the Truman home and the White House, however, she would do much more. She would help raise Margaret, the Trumans’ daughter. She also would be a companion to Madge Gates Wallace, the president’s mother-in-law. That was important because Wallace in the 1940s agreed to move to the White House if Garr went, too. That meant Bess Truman, instead of having to remain in Independence and tend to her mother, also could stay in the White House. No longer distracted by domestic matters, Harry Truman could run the country. “Vietta had a way with Mother Wallace that nobody else had,” said Bill Curtis, a historian of the AfricanAmerican community in Independence. A new exhibit at the Harry S. Truman National Historic ..... .SitP in

Independence observes Black History Month with a display devoted to Garr. A flour sifter and a potato masher, borrowed from the Truman home’s kitchen, invoke her official role as cook. But other artifacts, such as a photograph of Garr at Margaret Truman’s 1956 wedding, indicate how much she became part of the Truman family. The exhibit also documents Garr’s prominent standing in the Independence AfricanAmerican community. “For most people, her prominence is because of relation to the Truman family as their cook,” said Kristen Stalling, the site’s museum technician, who assembled the exhibit. “But she was well-liked and respected in the Independence Black community, and I wanted to show her importance there.” For example, Garr was affiliated with the Knights and Daughters of Tabor (International Order of Twelve), a now-defunct fraternal organization. The group offered its members not only a social community, but also medical and burial insurance unavailable through White-owned companies. Body Count Continues lb Climb Noble, Ga - Eventually, authorities will get around to unearthing some answers instead of bodies in this bizarre case of the Tri-State Crematory in northwest Georgia. Eventually, they will find all of the bodies that were buried or dumped that were supposed to be cremated. Eventually, we will hear why owner Ray Brent Marsh, 28, didn’t just get the crematory fixed. Eventually, we will hear whether or not he or his parents were the masterminds behind the dumping of the bodies. But for right now, Marsh sits in the Walker County jail and the body count

keeps rising. A new deeper pit was discovered on Tuesday and that the body count went up to 319. ‘Tt made us change our thinking on how deep some of the pits we had already extricated might be,” said David Ashburn, Walker County’s emergency management director. Marsh in the meantime has been trying to post bond to get out of jail, but with the discovery of the new bodies, prosecutor Buzz Franklin filed an additional 102 charges against him. He now faces 118 counts of theft by deception. That number is sure to rise. Ken Poston, Marsh’s attorney filed for another bond hearing. No word on when that will happen. Although Marsh is seeking freedom, he may find himself under self-imposed house arrest because there are a lot of angry family members that want to get their hands on him. Marsh’s cousin Winston Marsh told reporters that the law enforcement authorities have received 260 threats against not just Marsh but the entire family. He added that he didn’t know why his cousin didn’t call on him for help when the crematorium broke down. The state Senate is expected to pass at least a version of a bill by state Rep. Mike Snow that makes abandonment of a dead body a felony punishable by up to three years in prison. His bill passed the House 173-0. The bill also mandates that crematories be licensed and inspected, plus funeral directors must provide written statements assuming families that cremated remains are indeed those of the deceased. The Making of a Negroocracy: Is The Willie Lynch Theory Real? A Lesson From History Prior to the ending of

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