Page 20 - Florida Sentinel 6-6-17

National
Checkmate: Baltimore 7th Grader Is National Chess Champion
Cahree Myrick won with a perfect 7-0 score. He practices at the barbershop where his mom takes him.
Another Noose Found In D.C.; This Time At Construction Site
The 5th noose was found hanging on a construction site recently. Two others were found at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
WASHINGTON, D. C. —- Well, another noose turned up in Washington, D. C., this time, police say, at a house under construction in the southeast part of the city. This will make at least the fifth time that this hateful symbol of vio- lence has appeared around the nation’s capital recently.
According to CNN, officers went to the construction site on Thursday morning and “discovered a rope, tied in a noose, displayed by the front door,” according to a police re- port.
The report noted that the property manager said that the noose was not there at the end of the work day the day before.
The house in question is not occupied and no arrests have been made.
This latest incident follows reports of two nooses found at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, one of which was found just last Wednesday in the history gallery of the mu- seum, and one found by a se- curity officer on a tree on the museum grounds on May 26.
American University in Washington D.C. was also sub- ject to an attack after bananas were found hanging from nooses around campus in early May, in what campus po- lice called a “racially motivated hate crime.”
The bananas were found around the university’s cam- pus the same day that Taylor Dumpson, a Black woman, started her tenure as the first Black female president of the university’s student govern- ment body.
HS Grad Victoria Jordan Has Never Missed A Day Of School
Victoria Jordan was honored at her high school graduation for perfect attendance.
BALTIMORE, MD —- Balti- more has a new hero - Cahree Myrick. He's 12 years old and the first national youth chess champion that that city has ever had. Two weeks ago in Nashville, he won a perfect score, 7-0. He took his division at the U.S. Chess Federation SuperNationals.
Myrick has been honored by his city in various ways. Balti- more Mayor Catherine Pugh honored Myrick and his teammates at City Hall.
Sundiata Osagie, the owner of Reflection Eternal Barbershop where Myrick often practices, and a skilled chess player in his own right, tips his hat to the 7th grade chess phenom. "This is the chess champion of the country right here," Osagie often brags to his customers, referring to Myrick.
Beginning chess in the first
grade, Myrick has had formal chess training, and is also part of The Baltimore Kids Chess League. His mother, Yuana Spears, brings him to the bar- bershop on a routine basis to grasp a rawness of the craft. "It's a different style," said Myrick. "When I play people in standard tourna- ments, I know what to expect. Here, they play more freestyle.”
After his win, Myrick was also a guest of the Baltimore Orioles team, where he beat 3 of the team’s star players. As a crowd gathered in the club- house dining room – manager Buck Showalter watched -- Myrick maintained the cool demeanor that has helped him in chess and school.
The seventh-grader has a straight-A average at Roland Park Elementary/Middle School.
JACKSONVILLE, FL —- Vic- toria Jordan not only ac- cepted her high school diploma from the Paxon School for Ad- vanced Studies in Jacksonville, recently, but she did so with a perfect attendance, meaning since kindergarten 17-year-old Jordan has never missed a day of school.
According to Action News Jax, Jordan and two other classmates received the honor.
Jordan’s parents were in the audience cheering for their studious daughter as she walked across the stage, and spoke with the local outlet
about their daughter’s atten- dance.
“If you sign up for the job, you needed to be there. So, we felt the same way about school,” Jordan’s mother said.
The recent high school grad plans to study software engi- neering at Emory-Riddle Aero- nautical University in Daytona Beach. While Jordan’s atten- dance is A1 she did admit there were times when she was late.
“I had to press snooze on my alarm clock three times and that kind of made me late to school, but I managed to make it,” she said.
Powerball Winning Family Set Up Foundation To Help Community
Mrs. Pearlie Mae Smith (center) and 2 of her 7 children after winning last year.
NYPD Assoc. Set Up GoFundMe Account For Cop That Killed Mentally Ill Woman
Sgt. Hugh Barry was in court for the fatal shooting of Deborah Danner last October.
Trenton, N.J.—- The Smith family is going above and be- yond showing extreme selfless- ness by choosing to put some of their $429.6 million jackpot winnings into their own grant- making fund to help make their community better.
As NJ.com reports, about a year ago, the Smith family scored big and won the massive jackpot. However, the family of eight, which includes Pearlie Mae Smith and her seven adult children, didn’t blow it all on expensive houses, cars and vacations. Nor did they write big checks to the long-lost friends and relatives who tend to pop into your life when things like this happen.
Instead each family member gave a portion of their winnings to start the Smith Family Foundation, a grant-making
fund they hope can improve their community and else- where in the years to come.
According to the report, the families chose the cash option, lowering their prize to a still sizable $284 million, which was then split eight ways. They did treat themselves, but from the beginning made it clear that they wanted to find a way to give back and do more with their newfound wealth.
The family says that it is their faith in God that helps to guide their decisions, just like it was “divine intervention” that led them to pick the winning num- bers.
The foundation is about in- vesting in other organizations and programs that will bring about long-term change in the community in areas like educa- tion, neighborhood develop- ment and youth and families.
The Sergeants Benevolent Association has deemed it ap- propriate to start a GoFundMe account for a New York City police sergeant who has been charged with murder in the death of an elderly, mentally ill woman from New York’s Bronx borough.
Sgt. Hugh Barry shot and killed Deborah Danner after officers responded to a call about an “emotionally dis- turbed person” on Oct. 18 of last year. Both New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O’Neill criticized the shooting, saying that Barry failed to fol- low the proper protocol when dealing with “emotionally dis- turbed” people.
Barry was suspended with- out pay from the Police Depart- ment after he was charged in 66-year-old Danner’s death.
He is facing charges of second- degree murder, first- and sec- ond-degree manslaughter, and criminally negligent homicide.
The fundraiser raised more than $32,000 of its $100,000 goal in seven hours with 503 contributors.
The union notes that Barry has been suspended without pay as he faces these “politi- cally-motivated charges,” and that while the association will work to “vigorously defend” Barry in court, the GoFundMe funds will be to assist him with his ordinary living expenses.
It’s not the first campaign set up in Barry’s name, the New York Post notes, with a police officer on New York’s Staten Is- land borough having another campaign that raised more than $29,000 in one day. That campaign calls the charges a “travesty.”
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