AIKEN, S.C. -
A bank teller in Clearwater had a million reasons not to open an account for an Augusta, Ga., man Monday, authorities said. Alexander D. Smith, 31, was charged with disorderly conduct and two counts of forgery after he walked into the bank and tried to open an account by depositing a fake $1 million bill, said Aiken County Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Michael Frank.
The employee refused to open the account and called police while the man started to curse at bank workers, Frank said.
The second forgery charge came after investigators learned Smith bought several cartons of cigarettes from a nearby grocery store with a stolen check, Frank said.
The federal government has never printed a million-dollar bill, Frank said.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Shocked Leno staffers fired as strike drags on
By Paul Bond
Fri Nov 30, 8:47 PM PST
A couple of days after the Writers Guild of America strike began November 5, the star of "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" told some 80 of his idled staffers that they need not worry about their finances.
Leno was so adamant about paychecks being safe, many didn't bother looking for new jobs even though NBC was forecasting layoffs.
So it came as quite a shock Friday when the entire staff was told that they were not only out of a job but also that they weren't guaranteed of being rehired once "The Tonight Show" returns.
"Some people were crying. Some people were screaming," said one employee speaking on condition of anonymity.
NBC declined comment on the firings beyond a brief statement that it had "regretfully informed the people who work on 'The Tonight Show With Jay Leno' and 'Late Night With Conan O'Brien' that their services are not needed at this time due to our inability to continue production of the shows."
According to several staffers, tensions at "Tonight Show" have been mounting for weeks, and matters weren't helped by news that other late-night hosts have been preserving the jobs of their nonwriting staffs or paying those who had been laid off. O'Brien confirmed Thursday, for example, that he would pay the salaries of at least 50 nonwriting "Late Night" staffers out of his own pocket on a week-to-week basis.
Some "Tonight Show" insiders are angry at Leno, because of an upbeat conference call he held shortly after the WGA strike began.
"He was on speaker phone," a staffer said. "There were 80 of us. He told us not to panic. He said to trust him. He said: 'I can't get into details, but nobody will miss a car payment or lose their house. We're family. Trust me. I'm going to take care of this.' But that was the time we should have been looking for new jobs."
More recently, a letter NBC sent to now-laid-off staffers said, "If your services are needed, we will contact you."
"That's standard boilerplate," said Joe Medeiros, a striking writer who has worked with Leno for 18 years. "It's corporate butt-covering."
According to insiders, the early confidence that Leno expressed stemmed from several options in the works, including the hiring of guest hosts. Leno himself guest-hosted for "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson" during the 1988 writers strike, according to the WGA. This time around, comedian Wanda Sykes was a top pick, but she turned down the offer. Using rock stars on a rotating basis also was considered, insiders said.
Another option was having Leno do a show without a monologue or writers, relying heavily on musical acts and stand-up comedians.
None of the options, though, came to fruition, and "The Tonight Show" has continued airing reruns.
Beyond Leno's misplaced optimism about the financial well-being of his staff, he further damaged himself -- in the eyes of some workers -- with his public behavior. While he privately expressed concern for the jobs of all staff members, to the media he seemed preoccupied with supporting striking writers, including handing out doughnuts to picketers and mugging for press photos.
"He even joked that because of the writers strike, he had more time to work on his car collection," a staffer said. "That didn't sit well with us."
Medeiros said that Leno made his doughnut appearance on Day One of the strike at his request. "I asked him to come out and he did. We thought it sent a message to end the strike."
Asked if writers would object to Leno working without them during the strike in order to save jobs, Medeiros said: "I can't answer that. The story to me is that the corporations are doing this in order to pit groups against each other and break the strike."
The fact that some of Leno's writers are paid $500,000 or more annually also didn't sit well with suddenly out-of-work production staffers who make a fraction of that amount. Writers also are getting residuals on "Tonight Show" reruns that air during the strike.
The final indignation was a Christmas bonus that many thought lacking. Staffers with a couple of years on the job were given $200. Some higher-paid employees were awarded three days of salary or a bit more, about the same bonuses they got last year.
The Leno representative defended the bonuses as well, pointing out that they amounted to $500,000 in aggregate out of Leno's pocket. He also noted that Leno handed out $2 million five years ago to staffers in celebration of his 10th year as host.
"Jay is a very generous man," added Medeiros. "I don't know what people expected. How much more should he give over a situation that he didn't cause?"
But, said one staffer: "When the most powerful man in TV tells you to relax, then you relax. That's why we expected the bonuses to cover us through the strike. He could've at least covered us through Christmas. That would have been nice."
Fri Nov 30, 8:47 PM PST
A couple of days after the Writers Guild of America strike began November 5, the star of "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" told some 80 of his idled staffers that they need not worry about their finances.
Leno was so adamant about paychecks being safe, many didn't bother looking for new jobs even though NBC was forecasting layoffs.
So it came as quite a shock Friday when the entire staff was told that they were not only out of a job but also that they weren't guaranteed of being rehired once "The Tonight Show" returns.
"Some people were crying. Some people were screaming," said one employee speaking on condition of anonymity.
NBC declined comment on the firings beyond a brief statement that it had "regretfully informed the people who work on 'The Tonight Show With Jay Leno' and 'Late Night With Conan O'Brien' that their services are not needed at this time due to our inability to continue production of the shows."
According to several staffers, tensions at "Tonight Show" have been mounting for weeks, and matters weren't helped by news that other late-night hosts have been preserving the jobs of their nonwriting staffs or paying those who had been laid off. O'Brien confirmed Thursday, for example, that he would pay the salaries of at least 50 nonwriting "Late Night" staffers out of his own pocket on a week-to-week basis.
Some "Tonight Show" insiders are angry at Leno, because of an upbeat conference call he held shortly after the WGA strike began.
"He was on speaker phone," a staffer said. "There were 80 of us. He told us not to panic. He said to trust him. He said: 'I can't get into details, but nobody will miss a car payment or lose their house. We're family. Trust me. I'm going to take care of this.' But that was the time we should have been looking for new jobs."
More recently, a letter NBC sent to now-laid-off staffers said, "If your services are needed, we will contact you."
"That's standard boilerplate," said Joe Medeiros, a striking writer who has worked with Leno for 18 years. "It's corporate butt-covering."
According to insiders, the early confidence that Leno expressed stemmed from several options in the works, including the hiring of guest hosts. Leno himself guest-hosted for "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson" during the 1988 writers strike, according to the WGA. This time around, comedian Wanda Sykes was a top pick, but she turned down the offer. Using rock stars on a rotating basis also was considered, insiders said.
Another option was having Leno do a show without a monologue or writers, relying heavily on musical acts and stand-up comedians.
None of the options, though, came to fruition, and "The Tonight Show" has continued airing reruns.
Beyond Leno's misplaced optimism about the financial well-being of his staff, he further damaged himself -- in the eyes of some workers -- with his public behavior. While he privately expressed concern for the jobs of all staff members, to the media he seemed preoccupied with supporting striking writers, including handing out doughnuts to picketers and mugging for press photos.
"He even joked that because of the writers strike, he had more time to work on his car collection," a staffer said. "That didn't sit well with us."
Medeiros said that Leno made his doughnut appearance on Day One of the strike at his request. "I asked him to come out and he did. We thought it sent a message to end the strike."
Asked if writers would object to Leno working without them during the strike in order to save jobs, Medeiros said: "I can't answer that. The story to me is that the corporations are doing this in order to pit groups against each other and break the strike."
The fact that some of Leno's writers are paid $500,000 or more annually also didn't sit well with suddenly out-of-work production staffers who make a fraction of that amount. Writers also are getting residuals on "Tonight Show" reruns that air during the strike.
The final indignation was a Christmas bonus that many thought lacking. Staffers with a couple of years on the job were given $200. Some higher-paid employees were awarded three days of salary or a bit more, about the same bonuses they got last year.
The Leno representative defended the bonuses as well, pointing out that they amounted to $500,000 in aggregate out of Leno's pocket. He also noted that Leno handed out $2 million five years ago to staffers in celebration of his 10th year as host.
"Jay is a very generous man," added Medeiros. "I don't know what people expected. How much more should he give over a situation that he didn't cause?"
But, said one staffer: "When the most powerful man in TV tells you to relax, then you relax. That's why we expected the bonuses to cover us through the strike. He could've at least covered us through Christmas. That would have been nice."
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Bush pushes for telecom immunity
By JENNIFER LOVEN,
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Wednesday that he will not sign a new eavesdropping bill if it does not grant retroactive immunity to U.S. telecommunications companies that helped conduct electronic surveillance without court orders.
A proposed bill unveiled by Democrats on Tuesday does not include such a provision. Bush, appearing on the South Lawn as that measure was taken up in two House committees, said the measure is unacceptable for that and other reasons.
"Today the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees are considering a proposed bill that instead of making the Protect America Act permanent would take us backward," the president said.
Bush wants legislation that extends and strengthens a temporary bill passed in August. Democrats want a bill that rolls back some of the new powers it granted the government to eavesdrop without warrants on suspected foreign terrorists.
Under pressure to close what Bush officials called a dangerous gap in intelligence collection, Congress hastily passed a the temporary bill before leaving Washington for a summer break. Democratic leaders in Congress set the law to expire in six months so that it could be fine-tuned, and civil liberties groups are saying the changes they've already legislated gave too much new latitude to the administration and provided too little protection against government spying on Americans without oversight.
The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act governs when the government must obtain eavesdropping warrants from a secret intelligence court.
This year's update to the law allows the government to eavesdrop without a court order on communications conducted by a person reasonably believed to be outside the U.S., even when the communications flow through the U.S. communications network — or if an American is on one end of the conversation — so long as that person is not the intended focus or target of the surveillance. The Bush administration said this was necessary because technological advances in communications had put U.S. officials at a disadvantage.
The original law generally prohibited surveillance inside the U.S., unless a court first approved it.
Seeking to increase the pressure on the Democratic-controlled Congress, Bush said the update has already been effective, with intelligence professionals able "to gather critical information that would have been missed without this authority."
"Keeping this authority is critical to keeping America safe," he said.
The temporary law requires court review, but only four months after the fact and only involving the administration's general process of collecting the intelligence, not individual cases. Until then, the director of national intelligence and the attorney general would oversee and approve the process of targeting foreign terrorists.
Setting a collision course with the administration, the Democratic bill would provide greater jurisdiction to the secret FISA court.
If the government wants to eavesdrop on a foreign target or group of targets located outside the United States, and there is a possibility they will be communicating with Americans, the government can get an "umbrella" or "blanket" court order for up to one year. In an emergency, the government could begin surveillance without a blanket order as long as it applies for court approval within seven days, under the Democratic bill.
A top Democratic leader opened the door on Tuesday to allowing an immunity provision. But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the Bush administration must first detail what the companies did. About 40 pending lawsuits name telecommunications companies for alleged violations of wiretapping laws.
Bush detailed criteria that the bill must meet before he would sign it, including the immunity provision and the broad requirement that it "ensure that protections intended for the American people are not extended to terrorists overseas who are plotting to harm us."
"Congress must make a choice," he said. "Will they keep the intelligence gap closed by making this law permanent. Or will they limit our ability to collect this intelligence and keep us safe, staying a step ahead of the terrorists who want to attack us."
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Wednesday that he will not sign a new eavesdropping bill if it does not grant retroactive immunity to U.S. telecommunications companies that helped conduct electronic surveillance without court orders.
A proposed bill unveiled by Democrats on Tuesday does not include such a provision. Bush, appearing on the South Lawn as that measure was taken up in two House committees, said the measure is unacceptable for that and other reasons.
"Today the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees are considering a proposed bill that instead of making the Protect America Act permanent would take us backward," the president said.
Bush wants legislation that extends and strengthens a temporary bill passed in August. Democrats want a bill that rolls back some of the new powers it granted the government to eavesdrop without warrants on suspected foreign terrorists.
Under pressure to close what Bush officials called a dangerous gap in intelligence collection, Congress hastily passed a the temporary bill before leaving Washington for a summer break. Democratic leaders in Congress set the law to expire in six months so that it could be fine-tuned, and civil liberties groups are saying the changes they've already legislated gave too much new latitude to the administration and provided too little protection against government spying on Americans without oversight.
The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act governs when the government must obtain eavesdropping warrants from a secret intelligence court.
This year's update to the law allows the government to eavesdrop without a court order on communications conducted by a person reasonably believed to be outside the U.S., even when the communications flow through the U.S. communications network — or if an American is on one end of the conversation — so long as that person is not the intended focus or target of the surveillance. The Bush administration said this was necessary because technological advances in communications had put U.S. officials at a disadvantage.
The original law generally prohibited surveillance inside the U.S., unless a court first approved it.
Seeking to increase the pressure on the Democratic-controlled Congress, Bush said the update has already been effective, with intelligence professionals able "to gather critical information that would have been missed without this authority."
"Keeping this authority is critical to keeping America safe," he said.
The temporary law requires court review, but only four months after the fact and only involving the administration's general process of collecting the intelligence, not individual cases. Until then, the director of national intelligence and the attorney general would oversee and approve the process of targeting foreign terrorists.
Setting a collision course with the administration, the Democratic bill would provide greater jurisdiction to the secret FISA court.
If the government wants to eavesdrop on a foreign target or group of targets located outside the United States, and there is a possibility they will be communicating with Americans, the government can get an "umbrella" or "blanket" court order for up to one year. In an emergency, the government could begin surveillance without a blanket order as long as it applies for court approval within seven days, under the Democratic bill.
A top Democratic leader opened the door on Tuesday to allowing an immunity provision. But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the Bush administration must first detail what the companies did. About 40 pending lawsuits name telecommunications companies for alleged violations of wiretapping laws.
Bush detailed criteria that the bill must meet before he would sign it, including the immunity provision and the broad requirement that it "ensure that protections intended for the American people are not extended to terrorists overseas who are plotting to harm us."
"Congress must make a choice," he said. "Will they keep the intelligence gap closed by making this law permanent. Or will they limit our ability to collect this intelligence and keep us safe, staying a step ahead of the terrorists who want to attack us."
Monday, October 8, 2007
Sudan army attacks Darfur partners in peace: rebels
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese government troops and allied militia on Monday attacked a town belonging to the only Darfur rebel faction to sign a 2006 peace deal, the faction said.
"Government planes have attacked Muhajiriya, which belongs to us, and government forces and Janjaweed militia are fighting our forces," said Khalid Abakar, a senior representative from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).
Abakar is from the SLA faction led by Minni Arcua Minnawi, the only one of three rebel negotiating factions to sign a May 2006 peace deal with Khartoum. The movement then became part of the government and control Muhajiriya town in South Darfur.
"We consider this a very serious development," the head of Minnawi's office, Mohamed Bashir, told Reuters.
"Half of Muhajiriya is burnt down," he said adding, Minnawi would return to Khartoum from Darfur following the attack.
Rival rebel factions who did not sign the May 2006 deal also confirmed the attack on Muhajiriya, adding government troops were also amassing near Tine town, on the Chadian border, preparing to attack rebel-controlled areas in North Darfur.
Bashir said the assault was a continuation of the Sudanese army offensive in the former rebel town of Haskanita in southeast Darfur, which had been burnt to the ground and emptied of civilians.
On Monday a leading Darfur rebel said 105 people were killed in Haskanita, which the army occupied last week following a vicious attack, initially blamed on rebels, on African Union peacekeepers there.
Suleiman Jamous, a respected humanitarian coordinator for the Sudan Liberation Army, said the government and allied militia razed Haskanita over several days.
"Around 105 people killed is the last figure we have," Jamous told Reuters. "There are many others in the bush who may die of thirst -- they need water," he added.
Jamous, who across the border from Darfur in Abeche, Chad, said all the residents of villages surrounding Haskanita had fled too after seeing the town razed.
"EXAGGERATION"
The United Nations, which inspected the town for two hours on Saturday, confirmed it had been burnt to the ground but could not say by whom or whether there were any casualties.
U.N. officials said only the mosque and school were left standing and most of Haskanita's 7,000 population had fled.
Sudan's army said a fire, the cause of which was unclear, started in the market and spread to the rest of the town, and said the United Nations had exaggerated the damage.
"There was a fire but it was brought under control," an army spokesman said. "The United Nations have made this into something bigger than it is."
Growing tensions, which have been growing in the run-up to AU-U.N.-mediated peace talks in Libya scheduled for Oct 27, exploded on September 29 when armed men in 30 vehicles descended upon an AU peacekeepers' base near Haskanita, destroying the base and killing 10 peacekeepers.
Haskanita had been a rebel-controlled town and AU officials had privately suspected breakaway rebel factions were behind the attack, the worst since the AU mission deployed in 2004. The AU said it was still investigating.
The AU asked the government to secure the area while they withdrew, leaving no international observers in the region beset by clashes between the army and rebels.
The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) breakaway commander Bahar Idriss Abu Garda, said government militiamen had since looted the AU base and Haskanita, and were selling stolen goods in nearby town markets.
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese government troops and allied militia on Monday attacked a town belonging to the only Darfur rebel faction to sign a 2006 peace deal, the faction said.
"Government planes have attacked Muhajiriya, which belongs to us, and government forces and Janjaweed militia are fighting our forces," said Khalid Abakar, a senior representative from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).
Abakar is from the SLA faction led by Minni Arcua Minnawi, the only one of three rebel negotiating factions to sign a May 2006 peace deal with Khartoum. The movement then became part of the government and control Muhajiriya town in South Darfur.
"We consider this a very serious development," the head of Minnawi's office, Mohamed Bashir, told Reuters.
"Half of Muhajiriya is burnt down," he said adding, Minnawi would return to Khartoum from Darfur following the attack.
Rival rebel factions who did not sign the May 2006 deal also confirmed the attack on Muhajiriya, adding government troops were also amassing near Tine town, on the Chadian border, preparing to attack rebel-controlled areas in North Darfur.
Bashir said the assault was a continuation of the Sudanese army offensive in the former rebel town of Haskanita in southeast Darfur, which had been burnt to the ground and emptied of civilians.
On Monday a leading Darfur rebel said 105 people were killed in Haskanita, which the army occupied last week following a vicious attack, initially blamed on rebels, on African Union peacekeepers there.
Suleiman Jamous, a respected humanitarian coordinator for the Sudan Liberation Army, said the government and allied militia razed Haskanita over several days.
"Around 105 people killed is the last figure we have," Jamous told Reuters. "There are many others in the bush who may die of thirst -- they need water," he added.
Jamous, who across the border from Darfur in Abeche, Chad, said all the residents of villages surrounding Haskanita had fled too after seeing the town razed.
"EXAGGERATION"
The United Nations, which inspected the town for two hours on Saturday, confirmed it had been burnt to the ground but could not say by whom or whether there were any casualties.
U.N. officials said only the mosque and school were left standing and most of Haskanita's 7,000 population had fled.
Sudan's army said a fire, the cause of which was unclear, started in the market and spread to the rest of the town, and said the United Nations had exaggerated the damage.
"There was a fire but it was brought under control," an army spokesman said. "The United Nations have made this into something bigger than it is."
Growing tensions, which have been growing in the run-up to AU-U.N.-mediated peace talks in Libya scheduled for Oct 27, exploded on September 29 when armed men in 30 vehicles descended upon an AU peacekeepers' base near Haskanita, destroying the base and killing 10 peacekeepers.
Haskanita had been a rebel-controlled town and AU officials had privately suspected breakaway rebel factions were behind the attack, the worst since the AU mission deployed in 2004. The AU said it was still investigating.
The AU asked the government to secure the area while they withdrew, leaving no international observers in the region beset by clashes between the army and rebels.
The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) breakaway commander Bahar Idriss Abu Garda, said government militiamen had since looted the AU base and Haskanita, and were selling stolen goods in nearby town markets.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Intruders at Paris' Orsay damage a Monet
By CECILE ALMENDROS, Associated Press Writer
PARIS - Intruders entered the Orsay Museum early Sunday and punched a hole in a renowned work by Impressionist painter Claude Monet, the French culture minister said. She described the damage as an attack on "our memory, our patrimony."
A surveillance camera caught a group entering the museum, which houses a major collection of Impressionist art on the Left Bank of the French capital along the Seine River.
An alarm sounded and the group left, but not before damaging an invaluable painting, "Le Pont d'Argenteuil," an aide to Culture Minister Christine Albanel said by telephone.
No arrests were immediately made.
Albanel told France-Info radio that the painting could be restored, but she deplored the attack on "our memory, our patrimony."
"This splendid Monet painting punched right in the middle," the minister said with emotion.
According to the aide, a 4-inch tear was made in the Monet. The official, not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, asked not to be named.
Monet led the 19th century Impressionist movement, experimenting notably with light and color in works now deemed priceless.
"Le Pont d'Argenteuil" shows a view of the Seine at a rural bend, featuring a bridge and boats.
Albanel told France-Info that she would seek improved security in museums and stronger sanctions against those who desecrate art.
The break-in occurred during Paris' annual all-night festival which brings thousands of people into the streets for concerts and exhibits.
PARIS - Intruders entered the Orsay Museum early Sunday and punched a hole in a renowned work by Impressionist painter Claude Monet, the French culture minister said. She described the damage as an attack on "our memory, our patrimony."
A surveillance camera caught a group entering the museum, which houses a major collection of Impressionist art on the Left Bank of the French capital along the Seine River.
An alarm sounded and the group left, but not before damaging an invaluable painting, "Le Pont d'Argenteuil," an aide to Culture Minister Christine Albanel said by telephone.
No arrests were immediately made.
Albanel told France-Info radio that the painting could be restored, but she deplored the attack on "our memory, our patrimony."
"This splendid Monet painting punched right in the middle," the minister said with emotion.
According to the aide, a 4-inch tear was made in the Monet. The official, not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, asked not to be named.
Monet led the 19th century Impressionist movement, experimenting notably with light and color in works now deemed priceless.
"Le Pont d'Argenteuil" shows a view of the Seine at a rural bend, featuring a bridge and boats.
Albanel told France-Info that she would seek improved security in museums and stronger sanctions against those who desecrate art.
The break-in occurred during Paris' annual all-night festival which brings thousands of people into the streets for concerts and exhibits.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Jena mayor calls song inflammatory
Jena mayor calls song inflammatory 10/06/2007 6:19 AM, APA video in which rapper-actor Mos Def asked students around the country to walk out Oct. 1 to support the "Jena Six" escaped comment by this town's mayor. But when John Mellencamp sang, "Jena, take your nooses down," he took issue.
"The town of Jena has for months been mischaracterized in the media and portrayed as the epicenter of hatred, racism and a place where justice is denied," Jena Mayor Murphy R. McMillin wrote in a statement on town letterhead faxed on Friday to The Associated Press.
He said he had previously stayed quiet, hoping that the town's courtesy to people who have visited over the past year would speak for itself. "However, the Mellencamp video is so inflammatory, so defamatory, that a line has been crossed and enough is enough."
Mellencamp could not comment immediately because he was on a plane from California to Indiana and had not heard about McMillin's comments, publicist Bob Merlis said late Friday.
A brief note from Mellencamp posted Thursday on his Web site says he is telling a story, not reporting. "The song is not written as an indictment of the people of Jena but, rather, as a condemnation of racism," it says.
Nooses hung briefly from a big oak tree outside Jena High School a year ago, after a black freshman asked whether black students could sit under it. A white student was beaten unconscious three months later, in December.
Six black students, four of them 17 years old and legally adults, were arrested. Five were initially charged with attempted murder, although that charge has been reduced to aggravated second-degree battery as four of the older youths have been arraigned. The only youth tried so far was convicted, but that conviction was overturned on appeal and the case was sent to juvenile court.
Mellencamp's song opens, "An all-white jury hides the executioner's face; See how we are, me and you?" As he sings, images of Jena, the high school and the tree are followed by video from the 1960s, including civil rights marchers, police beatings, and President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King speaking. Still images include one of a protest sign reading, "God demands segregation," a stylized drawing of people in Ku Klux Klan robes and an older image of a black man in shackles, begging.
"I do not want to diminish the impression that the hanging of the nooses has had on good people," McMillin wrote. "I do recognized that what happened is insulting and hurtful."
But, he said, "To put the incident in Jena in the same league as those who were murdered in the 1960s cheapens their sacrifice and insults their memory."
At McMillin's request, the Jena Town Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to create an interracial committee to study racial relations and suggest solutions to any problems.
John Mellencamp "Jena (take your nooses down)"
"The town of Jena has for months been mischaracterized in the media and portrayed as the epicenter of hatred, racism and a place where justice is denied," Jena Mayor Murphy R. McMillin wrote in a statement on town letterhead faxed on Friday to The Associated Press.
He said he had previously stayed quiet, hoping that the town's courtesy to people who have visited over the past year would speak for itself. "However, the Mellencamp video is so inflammatory, so defamatory, that a line has been crossed and enough is enough."
Mellencamp could not comment immediately because he was on a plane from California to Indiana and had not heard about McMillin's comments, publicist Bob Merlis said late Friday.
A brief note from Mellencamp posted Thursday on his Web site says he is telling a story, not reporting. "The song is not written as an indictment of the people of Jena but, rather, as a condemnation of racism," it says.
Nooses hung briefly from a big oak tree outside Jena High School a year ago, after a black freshman asked whether black students could sit under it. A white student was beaten unconscious three months later, in December.
Six black students, four of them 17 years old and legally adults, were arrested. Five were initially charged with attempted murder, although that charge has been reduced to aggravated second-degree battery as four of the older youths have been arraigned. The only youth tried so far was convicted, but that conviction was overturned on appeal and the case was sent to juvenile court.
Mellencamp's song opens, "An all-white jury hides the executioner's face; See how we are, me and you?" As he sings, images of Jena, the high school and the tree are followed by video from the 1960s, including civil rights marchers, police beatings, and President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King speaking. Still images include one of a protest sign reading, "God demands segregation," a stylized drawing of people in Ku Klux Klan robes and an older image of a black man in shackles, begging.
"I do not want to diminish the impression that the hanging of the nooses has had on good people," McMillin wrote. "I do recognized that what happened is insulting and hurtful."
But, he said, "To put the incident in Jena in the same league as those who were murdered in the 1960s cheapens their sacrifice and insults their memory."
At McMillin's request, the Jena Town Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to create an interracial committee to study racial relations and suggest solutions to any problems.
John Mellencamp "Jena (take your nooses down)"
THE GOLDEN STATE MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY AFRICAN-AMERICAN ART COLLECTION Auction results
+After+Attempting+to+Escape,+Frederick+Douglass+was+Put+in+Jail..jpg)
CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) After Attempting to Escape,
Frederick Douglass was Put in Jail.
Sold for $9,000
+General+Moses+(Harriet+Tubman)..jpg)
CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) General Moses (Harriet Tubman).
Sold for $300,000
+The+Brother..jpg)
CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) The Brother.
Sold for $120,000
+Negro+es+Bello+I+(Black+is+Beautiful)..jpg)
ELIZABETH CATLETT (1915 - ) Negro es Bello I (Black is Beautiful).
Sold for $3,600
+Man+Wearing+Sunglasses..jpg)
RICHARD WYATT, JR. (1955 - ) Man Wearing Sunglasses.
Sold for $6,500
NONI OLABISI Brother and American Flag.
Sold for $2,600
+Love+is+Love+-+The+Family..jpg)
VARNETTE P. HONEYWOOD (1950 - ) Love is Love - The Family.
Sold for $2,400
For the rest of the results you can go to Swann Auction Galleries
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