CarolinaJournal.com/John Hood

♦ Yes, Protect the Taxpayers: A Taxpayer Protection Act

http://www.carolinajournal.com/daily_journal/index.html

Public Announcement

♦ Community Employment Workshop and Job Fair in Salisbury, N.C. on Thursday August 20th:

RFP Staff

♦ Salisbury City Council meets Tuesday at 4 p.m. at City Hall on 217 S. Main Street.  Tuesday’s big item: Salisbury, N.C.’s City Council will hold a public hearing on city code changes effecting abandoned, neglected, and vacant residential houses.  An estimated 800 abandoned and vacant houses are said to exist throughout Salisbury.

In order to enforce city codes with so many abandoned and vacant houses it was suggested by the Housing Advocacy Commission that the city hire 2 additional code enforcement officers with a price tag of approximately $195,000.  These 2 new code enforcement hires’s price tags would include benefits, salaries, 2 new cars, equipment, training costs, and travel.

Likely several city council candidates will appear at the public hearing along with their supporters.

If you can’t make it down to city hall because of meeting’s start time at 4 p.m. you can watch it on the city’s live webcast at:

http://www.salisburync.gov/webcast

RFP Staff

♦ Romus Desmond Ellis, 35, of North Martin Luther King Avenue in Salisbury was arrested Saturday for the alleged brutal stabbing of Wilbert Antonio Price, 54, at 507 East Cemetery Street in Salisbury.  Ellis thrust his knife twice into Price’s back and gashed his right arm. The wounds were said to be non life threatening and the victim was able to walk home.

The alleged stabbing resulted during an altercation that took place after Ellis and Price got dropped off on East Cemetery Street.

After the stabbing, Price, bleeding through his shirt, made to a home on the 500 block of South Park Avenue where a female stranger called 911 for him.

A short time later Ellis was spotted by Salisbury Police not far from the scene of the stabbing. When the officers attempted to arrest him, Ellis initially resisted before being tasered.  Ellis promptly gave up and was handcuffed.

Ellis was charged with assault with a deadly weapon/inflicting serious injury (felony), resist/delay/obstruct a public officer (misdemeanor), profane or indecent language (misdemeanor), and disorderly conduct (misdemeanor). Ellis also faced an outstanding warrant for habitual felon (felony). Ellis faces his first court hearing on Monday August 17th.

Under a $100,000 secured bond, Ellis is being held in the Rowan County Detention Center.

Romus Desmond Ellis’s Extensive Criminal Record:

http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/opi/viewoffender.do?method=view&offenderID=0593052&searchLastName=ellis&searchFirstName=romus&searchMiddleName=d&listurl=pagelistoffendersearchresults&listpage=1

Romus Desmond Ellis (below):

Wilbert Antonio Price (below):

RFP Staff

♦ Video: Rowan County Commissioners Meeting at 6 P.M. Monday August 17th:

http://rowancountync.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=545

Steve Mensing, Editor

♦ A gauntlet exists for Downtown Salisbury Businesses, especially retail, which they face daily in their battle to survive and climb out of the red. There are powerful reasons why so many vacancies appear there especially on Main Street with its numbing blight and graffiti gang tags. Here is the enormous stacked deck against businesses remaining open for any length of time:

• The highest Downtown property taxes in the State of North Carolina. That Municipal tax is a killer for any business especially if they have to struggle with little pedestrian or auto traffic down there.

http://rowanfreepress.com/2014/06/02/downtown-salisbury-has-the-highest-property-tax-in-north-carolina-no-wonder-so-many-downtown-busnesses-fail/

• A lack of important draws to the area. Without attractions like boutique sized chain stores (Kept out by the shop local monopoly, ludicrous taxes, Salisbury’s reputation for pilferage) or attractions like Discovery Place or a Trader Joes, people are not attracted to bric-a-brac and junktique stores. They can find them anywhere and far less pricier because they lack Downtown Salisbury’s killer overhead.

• A lack of basic business savvy and a well-thought out business plan. Raw business rookies, following their dream of owning a business in an area where its the “survival of the fittest”, is a recipe for failure. Get a heavy dose of mentoring from experienced business persons, avail yourself of the SBA, and develop a well-structured business plan.

• No real pedestrian or vehicular traffic down Main Street–nobody goes there except to eat or drink. Most peak hours finds the downtown area looking ghostly and much of it uninviting due to the excess of blight and vacancies. No traffic spells no business.

• Little parking available due to a scarcity of parking lots. Many parking slots taken up by shop owners.

• Anti-business historic codes. In a town with little tangible history (Save for older buildings lacking any real history taking place in them) Salisbury’s historic preservation groups exert excessive control over building and signage codes, crimping what businesses can do and making it more expensive to set up shop.

• Sheer unattractiveness of major parts of the downtown area such as the blighted and vacancy filled South Main Badlands.

• The coming “traffic calming” on East Innes that will hinder business access with useless medians and slow already congested traffic to a crawl. Bicycle lanes are supposed to be part of the plan to gum up traffic and ultimately drive people away from all parts of our downtown and Salisbury itself. If they want to protect human life on East Innes, near the Wilco-Hess Station, then start doing interventions with the jaywalker-junkies who stumble into traffic. Before you know it our noble city council they’ll make East Innes into an artery for the “Carolina Thread trail”.

• While it makes good sense for the merchants to lock up their stores and flee immediately home when darkness approaches due to the area’s high crime, the early 5 p.m. downtown closing harms businesses by limiting the amount hours they stay open.When people get off work they have no place to shop in the Main Street area.

• Gangs and panhandlers, roaming through downtown Salisbury, make it less inviting and scare off potential customers. No one wants to face a street stick-up or beat down. Or have to listen an insistent pleas for alms.

http://rowanfreepress.com/2015/08/16/how-to-resurrect-dead-in-the-water-downtown-salisbury-n-c-into-a-high-power-magnet-for-tourism-retail-and-dining/

RFP Staff

♦ All hell broke loose Sunday night in the 400 block of West Thomas Street in Salisbury as a pitch gun battle disrupted the normally quiet neighborhood.  A firefight lit up both sides of the West Thomas with muzzle flashes and the quick bursts of automatic gunfire.  Neighbors hunkered down in the limited safety of their houses.  The sharp reports of bap-bap-bap soon subsided.

Within minutes Salisbury Police patrol cars descended on the neighborhood.  Detectives on the scene immediately recognized the house at 422 West Thomas–they’d been summoned to it many times in the past.  It was the former digs of the late Miquel Angel Urrutia, 24, gunned down in his Chrysler on a lonely road back in March.

No one was reported shot Sunday night. However, some 14 empty shell casings were found on the ground near a driveway across the street.

Here is the March 17th article about the unsolved murder of Angel Miquel Urrutia:

“This morning the RFP received a number of calls and emails concerning a homicide investigation taking place in the vicinity of the intersection of Hawkinstown Road and Old Mocksville Road in Salisbury. The scene was alive with police vehicles and investigators questioning people in the area.

The homicide victim was identified as Miquel Angel Urrutia,24, of West Thomas Street. Witnesses are saying a person got out of Urrutia’s Chrysler and drove off in another vehicle.

Called to the scene at approximately 6:30 a.m., the police originally thought it to be a car crash prior to deciding it was a homicide of yet to be determined causes. The black Chrysler sedan was found in a ditch by the side of the road. This afternoon it was confirmed by investigators Urrutia was shot.

Yellow CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS tapes are stretched across the roadway and the black sedan was pulled out of the ditch by a flatbed tow truck. The area is a curve in the road where no homes or buildings are present. A desolate no man’s land.”

Urrutia’s Criminal Record:

http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/opi/viewoffender.do?method=view&offenderID=1036573&searchLastName=urrutia&searchFirstName=miguel&searchMiddleName

The Late Miquel Angel Urrutia:

RFP Staff

RFP Staff

♦ Billy Dean Goodman, 51, living in Salisbury’s “Rowan Helping Ministries” homeless shelter and the biological father of missing Salisbury teen Erica Parsons, was arrested Monday evening for second degree trespassing at Novant Health Rowan Medical Center at 612 Mocksville Avenue.  Goodman was caught on hospital grounds just after 11 p.m. by Salisbury Police after hospital staff reported the intruder to security.

Charged with second degree trespass (misdemeanor), Goodman was placed under a $1000 secure bond and locked up in the Rowan County Detention Center.

Goodman’s biological daughter Erica Parsons has been missing for nearly 2 years and has become the focus of international media attention since her disappearance. Erica’s adoptive parents Casey and Sandy Parsons are in Federal prison for 10 and 8 years respectively for illegally obtaining federal adoption assistance money after Erica vanished.

A $50,000 dollar reward is being offered for information about Erica Parson’s disappearance and whereabouts. If you know about Erica Parson’s disappearance or whereabouts, please call the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office at 704-216-8700.

Billy Dean Goodman’s extensive record:

http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/opi/viewoffender.do?method=view&offenderID=0149641&searchLastName=goodman&searchFirstName=billy&searchMiddleName=d&listurl=pagelistoffendersearchresults&listpage=1

Steve Mensing, Editor/RFP Staff

♦ Kenneth Lydell Muhammad El, a community advocate for the disenfranchised and charter schools, warned on Change.org that the Salisbury Housing Authority is engaging in unfair housing practices threatening to displace Black families through gentrification.

Gentrification is not an unfamiliar practice in Salisbury, N.C. as anyone who drives around and observes systematic alterations in city’s neighborhoods where the “have nots” are extracted and economically segregated from the “haves” through the covert use of gentrification and “shrinking” (reducing key city services to an area as witnessed in the West End).

Kenneth Lydell Muhammad El wrote on Change.org: “The Salisbury Housing Authority is engaged in unfair housing practices which threatens to displace Black families as part of a gentrification process. Under the guise of HUD’s RAD initiatives, the Housing authority has partnered with unnamed private parties in a scheme to ensure that a majority of Black families in the Civic Public Housing site will be displaced. Tenants of the Civic site demands that HUD’s Regional and National offices launch an investigation to prevent further erosion of tenants’ rights under the Fair Housing Act.

It appears that there will be a great deal of displacement based on credit ratings. There should be an investigation into this since it seems in gross violation of the HUD rules about how long your rights continue with public housing. As HUD revamps their housing developments and begins the process of privatizing it in parts, where does that push the current residents off to? They can take their vouchers to other HUD housing. Yes, but as more and more are quasi-privatized, where will there be to go? Oh yes, to all the abandoned houses in the county.”

The Change.org Petition:

https://www.change.org/p/hud-regional-office-salisbury-housing-authority-involved-in-unfair-practices-to-displace-black-tenants?recruiter=836296&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=fb_send_dialog

Early voices speaking out against the Salisbury Housing Authority on the Change.org petition:

William Peoples: “Salisbury Housing Authority told lies from the beginning about how displaced people would be given priority to move back in.”

Whitney Peckman: “It appears that there will be a great deal of displacement based on credit ratings. There should be an investigation into this since it seems in gross violation of the HUD rules about how long your rights continue with public housing. As HUD revamps their housing developments and begins the process of privatizing it in parts, where does that push the current residents off to? They can take their vouchers to other HUD housing. Yes, but as more and more are quasi-privatized, where will there be to go? Oh yes, to all the abandoned houses in the county.”

Tanika Leonard: “I’m signing because my 65 year old disabled mother was moved out of Civic Park apartments and promised to be placed in Brenner Crossing apartments. In August was called to fill out an application. It was only 36 families that the moved out. Why they can’t place them back in the apartments that they were promised. I’m standing for my mother Patricia Leonard.”

The new Civic Park Apartments in Salisbury’s West End

The newly redeveloped Civic Park Apartments are projected to be completed in 2016 at a site along Standish Street and Brenner Avenue in Salisbury’s West End. The project is set to be constructed in two phases–the first 80 units complex sometime this summer and a second 90 unit complex in 2016. The Salisbury Housing Authority partnered with Laurel Street Residential based in Charlotte. The site is owned by the Salisbury Housing Authority.

The coming Civic Park Apartments will provide mixed-income apartments containing from one to four bedrooms and townhouses with two to three bedrooms. In the works are a family oriented community building, playgrounds, and walking areas.

RFP Articles on Gentrification and Planned Shrinkage

http://rowanfreepress.com/2014/11/18/planned-shrinkage-a-covert-way-cities-cleanse-undesirable-neighborhoods-and-speed-gentrification/

http://rowanfreepress.com/2012/11/22/gentrify-this-the-dark-side-of-gentrification/

An Article on HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (R.A.D.):

http://www.enterprisecommunity.com/servlet/servlet.FileDownload?file=00Pa000000JUpKpEAL

RFP Staff

♦ In Salisbury’s heightening crescendo of summer long violence, Phillip Matthew Cline, 34, of 410 Carpenter Circle, allegedly launched an all-out savage attack on his estranged wife in the Jaycees-Optimist ballpark parking lot on South MLK Jr. Avenue.

At Approximately 6:45 p.m. Tuesday a prearranged meeting between Cline and his estranged wife started off peacefully enough.  And then suddenly a discordant note was struck about the wife cheating.  An ugly note.  As if seized by a white light fury, Cline drove his fist into the woman’s face and sent her careening senseless toward her vehicle.

Once inside the safety of the car, the woman watched in dazed fear as her estranged husband leaped onto the hood of car and smashed her windshield, cracking it.  After a short discussion where Cline toned down briefly, the woman unlocked the car door and let Cline inside.  Huge mistake.  Cline allegedly grabbed her hard by the throat and attempted to strangle her.  The woman, able to extricate herself briefly, fled the vehicle only to be grabbed by her hair and hammered repeatedly by Cline’s fist.

Mercifully a witness saw the one-sided melee in the parking lot and called 911.  The Salisbury Police arrived within minutes and spotted Cline hightailing it through the woods near Celebration Drive.  The officers soon caught up with the winded Cline and handcuffed him.

Cline was previously sought as an absconder which padded Tuesday’s charges with 2 charges of failure to appear in court and larceny (misdemeanor).

Cline was charged with assault by strangulation (felony), larceny (misdemeanor), assault on a female (misdemeanor), injury to personal property (misdemeanor), and probation violation (misdemeanor).

Under a $13,500 secured bond, Cline is in the Rowan County Detention Center and had a preliminary hearing today.

Phillip Matthew Cline’s Previous Record:

http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/opi/viewoffender.do?method=view&offenderID=1196798&searchLastName=Cline&searchFirstName=phillip&searchMiddleName=m&listurl=pagelistoffendersearchresults&listpage=1

RFP Staff

♦ The Rowan County 11 and 12 year-old Girl’s Softball Team winning the 2015 Little League World Series–LLWS tournament in Portland Oregon was quite a significant achievement.

Thousands of fans all across Rowan were glued to their TV sets watching those games on ESPN as the Rowan County team, representing North Carolina and the Southeast, advanced and finally won 4 to 2 Wednesday evening against Warwick, Rhode Island.

This coming Saturday August 22nd at 10 a.m. the Rowan County team will participate in a parade through Downtown Salisbury. We look forward to seeing all of their many fans coming out Saturday to show support.

RFP Staff

♦ Have you been scammed by a non-profit? Here the RFP has collected the top websites and articles available to get the skinny on any non-profit out there.

The woods are bursting with unregistered non-profits (state and federal), bogus non-profit organizations that fork over miniscule amounts of their haul and pay their profit making directors and CEOs enormous gobs of money.  Some non-profits purposely grab just enough money so they go under the radar of Charity Navigator the accepted watchdog of non-profits.

Where to go to check on a non-profit? Charity Navigator – http://www.charitynavigator.org/

Warning signs of financial fraud in non-profits – http://www.charitynavigator.org/

Beware of non-profit fraud – http://www.cbwealthadvisory.com/nonprofits.php

CNN investigative report on non-profit fraud – http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/worst-charities/

Non-profit Times – Red Flags – http://www.thenonprofittimes.com/news-articles/red-flags-beware-the-fraud-triangle/

Billions in Theft from Charities NY Times – http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/us/29fraud.html?scp=1&sq=strom+light&st=nyt&_r=0

How non-profits can make you a profit – http://smallbusiness.chron.com/make-money-nonprofit-organization-935.html

Make money with a non-profit – http://articles.bplans.com/earning-income-as-a-nonprofit-corporation/

Overpaid CEOs of Low Performing Non-profits – http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=topten.detail&listid=8#.VdVzLflVgSU

Charity Navigator’s Watch List (naughtiness watch, that is) – http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.watchlist

The Ripoff Report – http://www.ripoffreport.com/c/26/community/nonprofit-organizations

Non-profit Myths (they are well-run money-making machines! not a myth!) – http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2011/10/24/10-myths-about-nonprofit-work

Well, at least some non-profits are good! – http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.results&overallrtg=4

Rowan County Sheriff’s Office

♦ Rowan County, N.C. Sheriff’s Office MOST WANTED LIST:

http://ossip2c.rowancountync.gov/p2c/mostwanted.aspx

Rowan County Sheriff’s Office

♦ Rowan County, N.C.’s unsolved murders with all the known facts and photographs going back several decades. The Sheriff’s Office “Cold Case” files:

http://www.rowancountync.gov/GOVERNMENT/Departments/SheriffsOffice/ColdCases.aspx

Rowan County N.C. Sheriff’s Office UNSOLVED MURDERS

RFP Staff/Yui Mok, photographer/Javier Moniciguerro

♦ Photo Safari through Dismaland: Artist Banksy’s popular Dystopian theme park in the U.K. .  It is easy to imagine a similar dystopian theme park in Salisbury, N.C.’s South Main Badlands.  329 S. Main and the crestfallen Empire Hotel would be natural centerpieces.

Enjoy a photo safari through Dismaland:

RFP Staff

♦ Ted Alexander Gardner, 49, of 1115 Arden Drive in Salisbury, drowned in a swimming tragedy Thursday evening in High Rock Lake off of River Country Road.  It was reported that Gardner was swimming approximately 50 yards from the shore when he called out in distress.  Gardner went under and was lost from sight.  Family members immediately called 911.

Miller’s Ferry Fire Department already on the scene was shortly joined by a deputy from the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office before midnight Thursday.  Soon other emergency responders including several area fire departments joined in the search for Gardner.

All through the early morning hours emergency responders searched High Rock Lake concentrating along the shore line near River County Road.  After an intensive search Gardner’s body was recovered at 7 a.m.

**This article will be updated as more information arrives**

Rep. Carl Ford (District 76)

♦Twenty-Eighth Week of the 2015 Long Session

With the budget set to expire on August 31, on Tuesday the Governor announced that he, the House, and the Senate agreed to a spending level for the 2015-16 budget, $21.74 billion. This ceiling is roughly $300 million more than the Senate’s initial proposal and $400 million less than the House’s proposal. It’s a spending increase of 3.1 percent from 2014-15. While this doesn’t mean that we’ve reached a compromise budget, it means that the details can now be negotiated and puts us one step closer to a final compromise. The House and Senate could adjourn the 2015 session at the end of August, though there are rumors we might continue our session pass the budget negotiations in order to address Medicaid reform.

Bill updates

“Unemployment Insurance Law Changes” – Senate Bill 15

Beginning in 2013, when Republicans took control of the House, Senate, and Governor’s office, we set out to bring much needed reforms to North Carolina’s Unemployment Insurance system, widely considered one of the worst in the country. After years of massive tax burdens on North Carolina employers, we are reaching the conclusion of North Carolina’s recovery from the 2008 recession and years of Democrat mismanagement. Senate Bill 15 continues our reforms and oversight and triggers the close of a 20% surcharge to employer’s unemployment insurance tax.

The surcharge was set to expire when the trust fund exceeded $1 billion in reserves, which, thanks to diligent monitoring of benefit payments and restoring fiscal sanity to our system, we’re expected to accomplish after only 3 years. Remember, we were $2 billion in debt to the federal government after the 2008 recession depleted the trust funds’ meager reserves. SB 15 will continue the surcharge trigger, keeping $240 million in employer’s bank accounts, but will check our reserves on a quarterly basis, rather than annual basis.

Rowan Little League Softball World Champs

I am so pleased to congratulate our Little League softball team who brought home the world championship after defeating Rhode Island 4-2 on Wednesday. I’m sure I join the rest of Rowan County in celebrating the girls’ lifetime achievement. We couldn’t be more proud!

Thank you for taking the time to read about the work I was able to accomplish this week for Cabarrus and Rowan. Expect to hear big news as the 152nd resumes its legislative session and budget process.

God Bless,

Carl

Legislative Office: (919) 733-5881

District Office: (704) 305-3541

carl.ford@ncleg.net

RFP Staff

♦  Listed here are the more recent Salisbury, N.C. unsolved murders.  While there were numerous murders in Salisbury since 2010, the number of unsolved murder cases currently stands at 10. Here are Salisbury’s cold cases:

• Jonathan Pierre Dillard, 30, murdered on August 8th, 2015. Dillard was gunned down in a driveway between two houses at 828 Park Avenue at 4:15 a.m.

• Steven Omario Rosario, 18, killed on May 18th, 2015.  Rosario, a member of the Bloods, was shot to death at a South Fulton Street apartment where his uncle was living.  Rosario recently returned to Salisbury from Florida looking forward to enroll in North Rowan High School.

• Miquel Angel Urruttia, 24, murdered on March 7th, 2015. Urrittia, dead from a gunshot, was found in his black Chrysler in a ditch near the intersection of Old Mocksville Road and Hawkinstown Road in Salisbury.  A witness was reputed to have seen someone emerge from Urrittia’s car and climb into another vehicle.

• Antonio Montreal Chambers, 25, killed on October 23rd, 2014.  Chambers was shot to death in a bedroom at apartment 43 at the Colonial Village complex at 231 West D Avenue.

• Aaron Phillip Vaughn, 37, murdered October 11th, 2014. Vaughn was gunned down in his living room at 710 Victory Street.

• Marquis Antonio Feamster, 23, was shot to death July 8th, 2014.  Feamster was found dead in a yard at 319 E. Fisher Street.

• Shanta Maurice Lomax, 36, murdered on June 23rd, 2014.  Lomax expired from multiple gunshot wounds behind the East Lafayette Street Apartment Complex.

• Richard Neri, 30, was murdered on December 7th, 2013.  Neri was shot multiple times in his vehicle at Old Wilkesboro Road and Brenner Avenue.  Its believed someone pulled up beside Neri and shot him.

• William “Billy” Henderson, 68, stabbed to death on March 19th, 2013.  Henderson was stabbed multiple times in his West Bank Street home.

• Terry Dwayne Lark, 32, was murdered May 23rd, 2010. Lark was shot during a break-in on South Clay Street and died later at Novant Health Regional Medical Center.

If you have any information about these murders, please call the Salisbury Police at 704-638-5333 or contact Rowan-Salisbury Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5245.

Ada M. Fisher, Salisbury, N.C.

♦ “Straight Outta Compton” is an astonishing bit of social commentary that can’t be ignored. The misogynist behavior of the black males engaged in “gangsta rap” is as offensive as it is crude, uncouth behavior of Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and the NWA movement. Nonetheless, this is a movie well worth seeing for we can’t change what we aren’t willing to understand.

The price we pay in not focusing attention to some of what is said in this movie is a rapid escalation in self-directed violence, increasing promiscuity of our youth resulting in STD’s like AIDS and a burgeoning underclass. The crotch grabbing posture showing much a—without skills to advance society in a way which provides for women and children at risk is allowing a looming civil war to fester among our underclass sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.

The tracks laid down by Dr. Dre and his group were as fine as any of the classics. Though not featured, Tupac’s “I ain’t mad at ya” rhythm ranks with Bach and Beethoven. The poetry of their self-righteous anger is palpable through the screen and touches all ethnic youth who wanna be thugs. These aren’t our millennials but “our untouchables” seeing their desertion and inability to find the American Dream in the midst of violence directed at black males. They scare the hell out of many on both sides of the aisle.

The feeling that black lives don’t matter was loud and clear in Ice Cubes rhythmic raps but who in exerting constitutional rights to freedom of assembly as well as free speech is foul mouthed, unrepentant in his abusive treatment of women and putrid in lifestyles forsaking a sense of morality leaving themselves open to attacks which don’t have to be. The anti-Semitism directed at control of the entertainment media by Jews spills over into today where many still blame us for making money off of us while not doing a lot to lift all boats with the rising tide.

The “Gangsta Disciples” in Chicago ranked with the Bloods and Crips. The Star of David tattooed on his triceps, skipping school and other antisocial behavior signaled that the street life of gangs had captured my son’s imagination and war was declared on my turf which I was determined to win. The flirtation with antisocial behavior is more than many in single or two parent family homes can cope with, teachers can grasp, urban planners and politicians deal with and those young people so involved understand.

What I saw on the screen was a bunch of N—— With Attitudes and no place to go. Little of the massive amounts of money made improved communities or the lives of others as has LeBron James done with his 1000 scholarships for Cleveland’s Youth or Magic Johnson’s economic development in California.

Before they took it to the streets, Charles Drew figured out the basis for blood transfusions, Percy Julian discovered steroids from the soybean plant, James Shepard founded North Carolina Central University in Durham and so many others gave of themselves to advance the cause of humanity. These were truly NWA’s who in using their aptitude understood if we don’t prepare ourselves to be doctors, scientist, engineers, and nontechnical people, our future is limited.

Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Dr. Ada M. Fisher a former medical director of a fortune 500 corporation, licensed teacher for secondary education in mathematics and science, previously elected school board member, and a NC Republican National Committeewoman Contact her at P. O. Box 777; Salisbury, NC 28145; DrFisher@DrAdaMFisher.COM Her book “Common Sense Conservative Prescriptions” can be found at Amazon.com.

RFP Staff/Marketwatch.com/SecretService.gov

♦ With the flood of counterfeit money at high tide in both Rowan County and Salisbury over the past year, both shoppers and the folks manning cash registers need to be able to recognize counterfeit bills.  Within the last 10 days the popular “Top China” restaurant out in Salisbury’s Tinseltown area and Salisbury’s largest retailer Walmart got nicked by counterfeit money.

Here are two expert articles from Marketwatch.com and the U.S. Secret Service on detecting counterfeit bills:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/8-ways-to-spot-counterfeit-money-2013-05-22

http://www.secretservice.gov/money_detect.shtml