Section A_3.26pdf
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  1. Section A_3.26.pdf
    By DAVID L. SNELLING Roughly 353 Broward County PublicSchools employees lost their jobs thisweek as the school district tries toslash money through a reorganizationplan. The move is part of a broader pushto cut a total of 3,000 employees by2027 to balance a declining budgetdue to a sharp drop in student enroll-ment. Broward County Schools Superin-tendent Dr. Howard Hepburn had todeliver the bad news by notifying the353 employees their positions wereplaced on the chopping block. The positions eliminated include 11elementary school counselors, 17 ex-ceptional service education coun-selors, 16 social workers, 21 clericalsupport assistants and 40 districtmanagement positions, according toa document provided by the schooldistrict. The positions and personnel elimi-nated were employed at severalschools the district is planning to shutdown by the 2026-2027 school year.PLEASE TURN TO JOBS/2A4A OPINION | 5A HEALTH | 6A WEEK IN REVIEW | 7A BUSINESS | 8A CLASSIFIEDS, OBITUARIES SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES ©2026 • VOL 36 ISSUE 1 • A BEATTY MEDIA, LLC PUBLICATIONOBITUARIES/6AIN THIS ISSUESERVING MIAMI-DADE, BROWARD AND PALM BEACH COUNTIES APRIL 23 - 29, 2026 | $1.00sfltimes.com“Elevating the Dialogue”OPINION/4AByDAVID L. SNELLING The U.S. House of Representativesvoted to extend Temporary ProtectionStatus (TPS) for roughly 350,000 Haitiansnationwide, striking a blow to PresidentTrump's bid to terminate their protec-tion status. The House approved a measure, 224-2-4, with some Republicans joining De-mocrats to extend TPS for Haitian forthree years. The House vote was forced by a bipar-tisan petition signed by lawmakers de-spite the objections of GOP leadership. The extension of TPS to Haiti will go tothe Senate, where passage is uncertain. The Trump administration has beentrying to strip Haitians of their TPSthrough an executive order despitepleas from Democrats that they face im-minent danger if they return to thegang-torn Caribbean nation. A federal court temporarily blockedTrump from immediately terminatingTPS in February and the Presidentasked the U.S. Supreme Court to inter-vene. The highest court in the nation is set tohear arguments this month or in May.The House is now calling on the U.S.Senate to approve the measure to allowHaitians to continue to work and live inthe U.S., though it is expected to be anuphill battle. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who was en-dorsed by President Donald Trump,supported the extension measure as theadministration has sought to terminatethe protected status. “The situation in Haiti is deteriorating,not improving, and the families here inour communities like Spring Valley andbeyond deserve certainty, not chaos,”Lawler said. TPS was granted to Haitians that al-lowed them to flee Haiti which has beendeclared a state of emergency by theState Department due to the gang vio-lence spiraling out of control. Some Haitians under TPS came to theU.S. in the wake of the 2010 devastatingearthquake that took the lives of an es-timated 300,000 people and causedover $8 billion in damage. To date, thenation has not recovered.SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCALBROWARDPHOTO COURTESY OF BROWARDSCHOOLS.COMBroward schools eliminate 353 jobs dueto sharp student enrollment declineSTOCK PHOTOSFormer Hawaii Gov. GeorgeAriyoshi, dies at 100WEEK IN REVIEW/6AWhat to know about theSouthern Poverty Law CenterTax procrastinators, this ishow to seek an extensionHAITI: The devastation experienced by this island nation is massive, touching and defining all elements of life. The U.S .House takes cognizance of the inherentunreasonable decision to eliminate TPS now.NATIONNATIONDeadly domestic violence cases demand more prevention resources for Black communitiesBy SAFIYAH RIDDLE, COREY WILLIAMSAssociated Press Two deadly domestic violence cases, onein Louisiana and the other in Virginia tar-geting Black mothers, have sparked a na-tional conversation about domesticviolence prevention resources and mentalhealth care available to Black communities. Many advocates in the aftermath of theheadline-grabbing shootings have said thetragedies pointedly highlight troublingtrends in which Black women are morelikely to experience domestic violence —and they see the killings as an opportunityto confront how disparities in access to careand resources make some women andchildren more vulnerable to violence in thehome. On Sunday morning, a man police iden-tified as Shamar Elkins fatally shot seven ofhis children and another child in Shreve-port, Louisiana. A relative has said Elkinswas in the midst of separating from his wife,who was wounded in the attack. And last Thursday, police found the bod-ies of former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfaxand his estranged wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax,in their suburban Washington, D.C., home.Justin Fairfax shot his estranged wife andthen himself, and their two children in thehome at the time were unhurt, police said. PLEASE TURN TO DOMESTIC/2AThe gunman who killed 8 of his children and shot 2 women from blank rangein Shreveport, LouisianaPHOTO COURTESY OF FACEBOOKU.S. House extends Haitians TPS, measure now goes to SenateBroward County Schools Superintendent Dr. Howard Hepburn.
  2. Section A_3.26.pdf
    2A | APRIL 23 - 29, 2026 | SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES | SFLTIMES.COM By MIKE SCHNEIDERAssociated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida's at-torney general on Tuesday opened arare criminal investigation into Ope-nAI's ChatGPT over whether the arti-ficial intelligence app offered adviceto a gunman who killed two peopleand wounded six others last year atFlorida State University. Attorney General James Uthmeiersaid that prosecutors had done an ini-tial review of chat logs between Chat-GPT and the gunman, Phoenix Ikner,to determine if the AI app aided, abet-ted or advised the commission of acrime. Prosecutors believe the chatbot ad-vised Ikner on what type of gun andammunition to use, whether a gunwould be useful at short range, andwhat time of day and at which locationwould allow for the most potential vic-tims, Uthmeier said. “My prosecutors have looked at this,and they've told me if it was a personat the other end of that screen, wewould be charging them with murder,”Uthmeier said at a news conference inTampa. “Now, of course, ChatGPT isnot a person, but that does not absolveour office and my prosecution teamfrom our duty to investigate whetherthere is criminal culpability here.” Florida's Office of Statewide Prosecu-tion has subpoenaed OpenAI forrecords of its policies and training ma-terials regarding threats to harm oth-ers, and for its policies on reporting“possible past, present, or futurecrime,” according to the attorney gen-eral's office. OpenAI spokeswoman Kate Waterscalled the FSU shooting a tragedy butsaid the company had no responsibil-ity. The company proactively sharedinformation with law enforcement andcontinues to cooperate with investiga-tors, she said Tuesday. “In this case, ChatGPT provided fac-tual responses to questions with infor-mation that could be found broadlyacross public sources on the internet,and it did not encourage or promote il-legal or harmful activity,” Waters saidin an email. Uthmeier conceded that his officewas venturing into “uncharted terri-tory” by launching a criminal probeinto whether a chatbot contributed tothe commission of a crime. His officealso has initiated a civil probe, he said. Several civil lawsuits have soughtdamages from AI and tech companiesover the influence of chatbots and so-cial media on loved ones' mentalhealth. Last month, a jury in Los Ange-les found both Meta and YouTube li-able for harms to children using theirservices. In New Mexico, a jury deter-mined that Meta knowingly harmedchildren’s mental health and con-cealed what it knew about child sexualexploitation on its platforms. Also last month, a man sued Googlefor the wrongful death by suicide of hisson and product liability claims, thelatest in a growing number of legalchallenges against AI developers thathave drawn attention to the mentalhealth dangers of chatbot companion-ship. Ikner faces two counts of first-degreemurder and several counts of at-tempted first-degree murder in theshooting that terrorized the campus inFlorida’s capital city. Ikner is the stepson of a local sheriff’sdeputy, and investigators say he usedhis stepmother’s former serviceweapon to carry out the shooting.Prosecutors in the case intend to seekthe death penalty. Uthmeier, a Republican, was namedto the position by Florida Gov. Ron De-Santis, after the GOP governor ap-pointed then-Attorney General AshleyMoody to the U.S. Senate seat vacatedby Marco Rubio when he became thesecretary of state in President DonaldTrump's second administration. Uthmeier is running in November tobe elected to the position on his own. DeSantis has called a special sessionfor the end of the month to consider an“Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights," aswell as redraw congressional districts.Florida’s attorney generallaunches criminal probe intoChatGPT over FSU shootingCONTINUED FROM 1A Hepburn said some vacant positionswill not be filled, bringing the total num-ber of first round cuts to 856 positions. None of the district’s highest-paidchief executives are included in thecuts, a proposed organization chartshows. Hepburn said it was difficult informingthe district employees their positionswere cut from the budget, especiallyduring an economic downturn. But the school district is being forcedto cut costs to balance its budget due tomassive student exodus. “We are grateful for their service andthe lasting impact they have made onour students and schools,” Hepburnsaid in a statement. “These decisionsare driven by sustained declining en-rollment and the resulting loss of fund-ing. The proposed organizational chartreflects the need to responsibly alignresources while protecting classroomsand continuing to serve our studentsand community for years to come.” Barring a miraculous turnaround, Hep-burn said more job cuts are forthcom-ing, as the district needs to cut a total of3,000 positions over the next threeyears. According to its website, the schooldistrict currently employs 28,000 full-time and part-time employees. The school district saw a sharp drop inthe student population, 9,498 at the be-ginning of the 2025-2026 school year. Hepburn said the school district is ex-pected to lose at least 8,345 students forthe 2026-2027 school year and lose stateeducation funds estimated at $80 mil-lion. Over the past 10 years, BrowardCounty Public Schools lost roughly55,000 students to charter and privateschools and Homeschooling. Florida enacted the state's SchoolsChoice program which allows parentsto select from better academic perform-ing schools like public charter, magnet,private, and homeschooling, supportedby scholarships and educational sav-ings accounts. In addition, since President DonaldTrump launched his massive immigra-tion deportation operation in 2025, par-ents have kept their kids home orenrolled them into Homeschooling toavoid being detained.JobsCONTINUED FROM 1A Like Elkins, Fairfax was in the processof separating from his wife and had faceda judge's upcoming deadline to movefrom the house. While it's not clear what prompted theShreveport killings or the apparent mur-der-suicide in Annandale, Virginia, ex-perts say that the harrowing details of thekillings echo familiar patterns that playout in homes across the country — andunderscore the need for solutions thataddress the root causes of the disparateviolence.A ‘silent epidemic’ Sunday wasn’t the first time that Elkins’family had suffered from gender-basedgun violence: Shaneiqua Elkins was shotand her sister, Keosha Pugh, was injuredwhile escaping, according to authoritiesand family. Elkins and Pugh lost theirmother to gun violence when they wereunder age 10, according to their uncle Li-onel Pugh. Another woman who author-ities have not identified also was shot. “It’s sad. It just breaks you down," Pughsaid. Shreveport Councilman GraysonBoucher said at a news conference Mon-day that the Louisiana killings were em-blematic of “a true epidemic of domesticviolence" across the small southern cityof roughly 180,000 people. Those trends go well beyond Shreve-port as experts have pointed out howboth race and gender make Blackwomen in particular more vulnerable todomestic violence. More than 4 in 10 Black women experi-ence physical violence from an intimatepartner during their lifetimes — a muchhigher rate than women who are white,Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander — ac-cording to a 2014 study by the Centersfor Disease Control.Pamela Tate is the executive director ofBlack Women Revolt, which runs pro-grams to prevent abuse and offers sur-vivors' resources. She said a logicalskepticism about police and governmentchild services agencies based on a his-tory of institutionalized racism makesBlack women reluctant to seek help —and especially vulnerable to domesticviolence. Additionally, Black women are twotimes more likely to be murdered bymen than their white counterparts, ac-cording to a 2025 study published by theViolence Policy Center, based on fed-eral government data from 2023. Thosemen are more often than not familiar totheir victims, according to the study,which found that more than 9 in 10 Blackfemale victims knew their killers, withthe majority of those killings being car-ried out with guns. Ultimately, Tate said, “domestic vio-lence doesn't see color," and is primarilydriven by the prevalent belief amongmen — across racial demographics —that women are subjects or property. “Domestic violence is about exertingpower over someone that you profess tolove and controlling their behavior,” Tatesaid.Lack of resources for Black men There has been intense speculationabout the role that mental health crisesmight have played in both shootings. A relative of Elkins' wife told The Asso-ciated Press that Elkins had voluntarilychecked into a Department of VeteransAffairs hospital in January for about aweek and a half for mental health help. In Virginia, Justin Fairfax was a risingstar in the Democratic Party until twowomen accused him of sexual assault,casting doubt on his trustworthiness as apolitical leader. The former lieutenantgovernor's “mental and emotionalhealth” suffered before he killed his wifeand himself, according to court docu-ments, which say he drank heavily andwithdrew from his family after the allega-tions were made public in 2019. Dr. Christine Crawford, an adult andchild psychiatrist, hasn’t examined thekillings in Shreveport or Annandale, butsaid financial troubles, marital issues andproblems at work — in addition to under-lying mental health vulnerabilities — canlead someone to “crack." “It makes some think about the amountof pain, distress and hopelessness theyfound themselves in at that time,” saidCrawford, who practices at the WebsterClinic in Boston and is interim chief med-ical officer at the National Alliance onMental Illness. She noted many Black people findthemselves priced out of programs andcare for mental health for such reasons asprivate care costs and a lack of insur-ance.That level of desperation can make somepeople feel “completely out of options onhow to deal with the pain he was in at thatmoment," Crawford said.DomesticBy MICHELLE GUMEDEAssociated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The Frenchambassador to South Africa said Tues-day that the country should be allowedto attend the Group of 20 summit thisyear in the United States despite U.S.President Donald Trump’s move to barthe it from the meeting. Trump said last year he would not in-vite South Africa — a full G20 member— to the summit that the U.S. will host inFlorida in December, following diplo-matic tensions between the two. SouthAfrican officials have said they havealso been locked out of G20 meetingsthat traditionally happen throughout theyear ahead of a summit. The Trump administration has criti-cized South Africa’s Black-led govern-ment as being anti-white andanti-American, while the Republicanpresident has made baseless claims thatthere is a widespread campaign of vio-lence against the country’s white minor-ity farmers. The move by Trump has been criti-cized by other G20 members, who sayno country should have the authority tobar another. The bloc of developed anddeveloping nations operates on a con-sensus basis. “France being also a founding mem-ber of the G20, we consider of coursethat South Africa is a full-fledged mem-ber of the G20 and should be part of allof its meetings,” French AmbassadorDavid Martinon told reporters in Johan-nesburg. The tensions between Washingtonand Johannesburg marred SouthAfrica's hosting of the G20 summit —the first in Africa — last year when theU.S. boycotted. There was a spat at theend of the summit when the U.S. sent of-ficials from its embassy to take part in ahandover ceremony to the next hostcountry. South Africa refused that, say-ing it was an insult that South AfricanPresident Cyril Ramaphosa should handover to what it called junior diplomaticofficials. The South African government has re-ferred to the U.S. decision to bar it fromthis year's G20 as a “punitive move”based on “ completely false” informa-tion. Martinon said there have been discus-sions among diplomatic officials fromG20 countries over South Africa's bar-ring and its potential absence from thesummit at Trump's Miami-area Doralgolf club. South Africa is the onlyAfrican nation in the G20. France also has denied it bowed toU.S. pressure to rescind an invitation toSouth Africa to attend the Group ofSeven summit it hosts in June. Ramaphosa's spokesperson said lastmonth that a personal invitation ex-tended by French President EmmanuelMacron to Ramaphosa last year was re-tracted and the reason given by Frenchofficials was pressure from the Trumpadministration, which didn't want SouthAfrica at the G7 summit. Ramaphosa later backtracked on hisspokesperson's comments and said hewas not aware of any pressure from theU.S., a move largely seen as an attemptto defuse tensions.French ambassador calls for South Africa to be at G20 after Trump bars countryBy EDGAR H. CLEMENTEAssociated Press TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — Hun-dreds of migrants, most of them fromHaiti, left the southern Mexican city ofTapachula on foot Tuesday seekingbetter living conditions elsewhere inMexico. Migrant caravans like the one thatleft Tapachula used to aim for the U.S.border. But many of the migrantsleaving Tapachula on Tuesday saidthey had lost hope of making it to theU.S. due to the restrictions that theTrump administration has placed onasylum seekers. Instead, the migrants said theywanted to settle down in large Mexi-can cities, where they may be able tofind work and file asylum claims.Some of the migrants said that theyhad been unable to get responses forasylum claims in Tapachula, despitespending months in the small citynear Mexico's border withGuatemala. “The United States is no longer anoption for us” said Jerry Gabriel, a 29-year-old Haitian migrant. “We onlywant to make it to Mexico City, Mon-terrey, Tijuana or another placewhere we might be able to live.” In March another group of severalhundred migrants left from Tapachulaon foot. But the caravan was dissolvedafter 12 days on the march, after themigrants made a deal with Mexicanimmigration officers. During the administration of Presi-dent Claudia Sheinbaum, who cameinto office in October 2024, there havebeen 18 migrant caravans leavingfrom Tapachula. None of them hasmade it past the southern Mexicanstate of Oaxaca. Haitians account for a quarter of asy-lum petitions filed in Mexico. Accord-ing to Mexico’s national agency forrefugees, 127,000 Haitians filed asy-lum petitions in Mexico between 2020and 2024.Migrant caravan leaves southern Mexicancity but head away from the US borderSTOCK PHOTOSTOCK PHOTO
  3. Section A_3.26.pdf
    SFLTIMES.COM | SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES | APRIL 23 - 29, 2026 | 3A
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    “.... it's been a long time comingbut I know a change is gonnacome....” So, here we are. The President ofThe United States of America hasstarted a war, though still unde-clared by Congress, affecting muchof the world economy, has picked afight with the Pope, wears Hal-loween costumes, while the Secre-tary of War is playing with themilitary like they’re toy soldiers,possibly under the influence of al-cohol/substances, and publicly mis-quoting bible verses! Can it get worse? Yes, if these in-competent embarrassments con-tinue to hold the highest offices inthe government. Folks are saying how disastrousthings have become- the economy,interpersonal relationships, politicaldivisions, a world at war, etc. Wehave seen empires rise and fall overrecorded history, and if there is anytest to human resiliency, our contin-ued existence underscores our en-during ability to survive as aspecies. We will, we must, movepast these turbulent times andemerge in better shape as a societyand hopefully, wiser.But you ask, when will this hap-pen? Evolution takes time. Yet, thehuman species has existed fornearly 300,000 years. Our bodies and minds are not al-ways in sync. Our reptilian brainstem defaults to instinctive opera-tion: when threatened, we fight orflee. Our struggle to merely survivethe environment is an ongoing chal-lenge, no matter how rich we are,our access to drinking water, food,and the very air we breathe hasbeen diminished, and a variety ofexternal threats to our safety andwell-being are broadcast every dayand night. But there are solutions on the hori-zon. Currently technology, and par-ticularly the use of AI, offer us awonderful opportunity for improv-ing daily menial tasks, and whichoffer means for overall advance-ment of human beings. We just circulated around themoon. A phenomenal accomplish-ment, opening unlimited potentialfor exploration of space for colo-nization and/or exploitation of re-sources in outer space. It is just amatter of keeping the human imagi-nation ignited and open to collabo-rating with AI innovations.I am excited about the future as longas we are not annihilated by someerrant nuclear accident before wecan begin to enjoy the advancingmodernization of our world and ourspecies. Nonetheless, warfare con-tinues to be a time-honored primi-tive response to human conflict. Weshould have evolved beyond suchbarbaric measures by now. Onewould think. Then there is the matter of vio-lence perpetrated against half of thepopulation; namely, battery andmurder of women. A recent spate of murders hasheadlined the news. It is alarming,yet it is a daily phenomenon commothroughout the world: domestic vio-lence, where the overwhelming ma-jority of victims are females, andfemicide is found in all cultures, inevery socio-economic group, everyracial and ethnic group, and is notan exception, but sadly, the norm.The statistics are alarming. Blackand Brown women are shown as themajority victims. Patriarchy, religious beliefs, cul-tural “norms’, community standards(or lack thereof), poverty, disenfran-chisement of females, and any num-ber of factors contribute to thesehideous and primitive responses ofviolences against women; usuallyby men. Why? There are so many explana-tions. So many attempts to correctthe problem (education, counseling,medication, legal remedies, etc.) Is anything working? So far, notmany. We should all put ourselveson pause. Pause to ponder the remarkablefeats of human achievement, e.g.,poetry/literature, art, music, dance,et al. Pause to behold the beauty ofearth- photographed from the moonin full color. Pause to reflect on thepossibility of destroying the humanspecies in a nuclear holocaust.Pause the politics of superiority anddomination. Pause from treating the‘other’ as an enemy. Pause to realize that gender vio-lence threatens half of the popula-tion! I welcome the future. But we needa fundamental "do over”. A humanspecies reset is possible. DNA se-quencing is already taking place toimprove our species; new systemsare being proposed which will dic-tate how we will live in the future;political structures are being re-designed, women are being differ-ently valued, etc. A change is gonna come. Howmuch longer? It had better be soon. Toniwg1@gmail.com4A | APRIL 23 - 29, 2026 | SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES | SFLTIMES.COM || |OpinionADVERTISINGinfo@SFLTimes.comSUBSCRIPTIONSRBeatty@SFLTimes.comCORRECTIONSPlease notify us of anyerrors that were published byemailing Robert G. Beatty, Esq.,BACK ISSUESSouth Florida Times backissues are $1.00 per copy. To request a back copyDELIVERIESFor any delivery issues, please contact Robert Beattyat 954.356.9360REPRINT PERMISSIONSouth Florida Times content isprotected under the federal Copyright Act.No reproduction without writtenpermission. For permission, contact the executive editor.SOUTH FLORIDA TIMESis published every Thursdayby Beatty Media, LLC. VP OF ADVERTISING& BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTMichele BeattyMBeatty@SFLTimes.comPUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITORRobert G. Beatty, Esq.RBeatty@SFLTimes.comANTONIA WILLIAMS-GARYContact Us 954.356.9360 • 2701 W Oakland Park Blvd, Suite 410-17 • Oakland Park, FL 33311 • www.SFLTimes.comGENERAL COUNSELVictoria M. Beatty, Esq.VBeatty@SFLTimes.comINVESTIGATIONS REPORTERElgin JonesEJones@SFLTimes.comEDITORC.B. HanifCBHanif@SFLTimes.comThe absurdities inlife define our needto evolveBy REBECCA BOONEAssociated Press The Southern Poverty Law Centerwas indicted Tuesday on federal fraudcharges alleging it improperly paid in-formants to infiltrate extremist groupswithout disclosing the payments todonors, acting Attorney General ToddBlanche said. The center's CEO Bryan Fair said thepayments went to confidential inform-ants in order to monitor threats of vio-lence from the extremist groups — andthat the information the center re-ceived was frequently shared with theFBI and other law enforcement agen-cies. The information gathered by theinformants helped save lives, Fair saidTuesday.“We are outraged by the false alle-gations levied against SPLC,” Fairsaid. The Justice Department alleged thatthe civil rights group defraudeddonors by using their money to fundthe same extremism that it claimed tobe fighting. The indictment says pay-ments of at least $3 million went to in-formants affiliated with the Ku KluxKlan, the Aryan Nations, the NationalSocialist Party of America and othergroups between 2014 and 2023. The charges, filed in Alabama wherethe center is based, include wire fraud,bank fraud and conspiracy to commitmoney laundering. Here are some things to know aboutthe Southern Poverty Law Center's his-tory and controversies:The center was created 55 years agoto support civil rights Alabama lawyer Morris Deesfounded the organization in 1971, start-ing a civil rights-focused law practicefor people who were poor or disen-franchised. At the time, federal lawsand U.S. Supreme Court rulings de-signed to end Jim Crow-era segrega-tion were still fairly new, andwidespread resistance to desegrega-tion persisted in the South. People who faced continued discrim-ination often struggled to find attor-neys who were willing to representthem in court; lawyers were reluctantto bring the first lawsuits to test thecivil rights laws. Dees and another attorney, Joe Levin,took on some of those cases, repre-senting their clients for free. Some ofthose earliest cases resulted in the de-segregation of recreational facilities,the integration of the Alabama statetrooper force and other reforms, ac-cording to the center's website. Southern Poverty Law Center ex-pands to label and track hate groups By the 1980s, the civil rights groupwas monitoring white supremacist or-ganizations in the U.S. The effort, ini-tially called “Klanwatch” and focusedon the Ku Klux Klan, was later renamedthe “Intelligence Project,” and ex-panded to include other extremistgroups. Many of the groups did not appreci-ate being called out, monitored andsometimes sued by the center. Mem-bers of the KKK tried to burn down thecenter's Montgomery offices on July28, 1983, in retaliation for lawsuits filedagainst Klan groups. The fire damaged the building, officeequipment, the center's law libraryand files. More than a year later, threeKKK members were arrested in con-nection with the blaze, and all threeplead guilty and were sentenced toprison. The center previously used paid in-formants to infiltrate extremist groupsand gather information on their activi-ties, often sharing it with local and fed-eral law enforcement, Fair said. Theywere used to monitor threats of vio-lence, he said, adding that the pro-gram was kept quiet to protect thesafety of informants.The center has a big purse The nonprofit organization gets mostof its funding from donor contributions,and those contributions have addedup. Its endowment had just under $732million in hand as of last October, ac-cording to the center.Conservatives criticize SPLC andFBI cuts ties The center's “Intelligence Project”has grown over the years, and the or-ganization has faced criticism for someof the groups it has added to thetracker. Conservatives have saidadding some groups unfairly malignsthem because of their viewpoints. Theconservative religious organizationFocus on the Family was added in partbecause of its anti LGBTQ+ rhetoric,for instance. That criticism escalated after theSeptember 2025 assassination of con-servative activist Charlie Kirk at a col-lege campus in Utah. That broughtrenewed attention to the center's in-clusion of Kirk's group, Turning PointUSA. The center included a section onTurning Point in a report titled “TheYear in Hate and Extremism 2024” thatdescribed the group as “A Case Studyof the Hard Right in 2024.” A month after Kirk's death, FBI Direc-tor Kash Patel announced that the bu-reau would sever its relationship withthe center, asserting that the organi-zation had been turned into a “parti-san smear machine” and criticizing itfor its use of a “hate map.” That move marked a dramatic re-thinking of longstanding FBI partner-ships with prominent civil rightsgroups.Indictment alleges the center‘fraudulently obtained’ donatedmoney The indictment says the center tolddonors the money would be used tohelp dismantle violent extremistgroups, but did not disclose that someof the funds would actually be used topay members of those groups. Somelegal experts say it's an unusual legalapproach. “That's a new way of going after acharity — I'm somewhat surprised,"said Phil Hackney, a law professor atthe University of Pittsburgh. Typically,when a nonprofit group is chargedwith fraud, it's because someone isaccused of pilfering donated funds toline their own pockets, Hackney said.But in this case, the government is tar-geting the method and intent in whicha nonprofit used its money, he said. The government is looking at the in-formant payments “as an intent to fur-ther hate — and I doubt SouthernPoverty Law Center had that intent,”Hackney said. The law has never required non-profit groups to hand donors a line-item receipt for every sensitiveoperation, said Todd Spodek, a fed-eral criminal defense attorney withSpodek Law Group P.C. in Manhattan. “From a defense perspective, thisisn’t a fraud case. It is a political attackon standard investigative tradecraft,”said Spodek. “We are talking abouthigh stakes intelligence work wherediscretion isn’t a form of deception, itis a matter of survival.” In order to win a conviction, thegovernment will have to prove thecenter engaged in a deliberatescheme to lie, Spodek said. “They simply cannot. Silence of tac-tical details is not a crime, and youdon’t get to call it fraud just becausethe government dislikes the methodsused to get results,” he said. He latercontinued, “The prosecution is tryingto turn operational discretion into afelony, which is a massive overreach.”Other organizations also have re-lied on undercover workers Other nonprofit groups also havesent people undercover or used con-fidential informants to get information.For instance, the nonprofit conserva-tive group Project Veritas, founded in2010, is best known for conductinghidden camera stings that have em-barrassed news outlets, labor organi-zations and Democratic politicians. The anti-abortion organization Cen-ter for Medical Progress was behindsecretly recorded videos of PlannedParenthood executives in California.The videos were then edited in a wayto falsely suggest that the executiveswere selling fetal remains. The videostriggered several investigations, andPlanned Parenthood was cleared ofany wrongdoing but two of the ac-tivists with Center for MedicalProgress were ultimately convicted ofillegally recording someone withoutconsent.The center says the informantshelped monitor threats of violence Fair says the organization beganworking with informants to monitorthreats of violence during a time of in-creased risk, and the program waskept quiet to protect informants'safety. “When we began working with in-formants, we were living in theshadow of the height of the CivilRights Movement, which had seenbombings at churches, state-spon-sored violence against demonstrators,and the murders of activists that wentunanswered by the justice system,”Fair said. “There is no question thatwhat we learned from informantssaved lives.”What to know about the SouthernPoverty Law CenterPHOTO COURTESY OF SPLCENTER.ORG/Southern Poverty Law CenterOpinionTHE CENTER'S“INTELLIGENCEPROJECT” HASGROWN OVER THEYEARS, AND THEORGANIZATION HASFACED CRITICISM FORSOME OF THE GROUPSIT HAS ADDED TO THETRACKER.
  5. Section A_3.26.pdf
    SFLTIMES.COM | SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES | APRIL 23 - 29, 2026 | 5A HealthBy JEFFREY COLLINS, SETH BORENSTEINAssociated Press RICHBURG, S.C. (AP) — It took lessthan three minutes for wind-whippedflames to go from licking the side ofthe house to shattering a window andworking under the eaves to burneverything inside. Weeks later, an-other house in the exact same spot wasburning — again in the name of sci-ence. That home went up in flames slowerbecause it was fortified with better ma-terials. Add moving vegetation,mulch, wood fences and hot tubs withtheir highly flammable insultation sev-eral feet away and experts said youcan protect houses from the increasingdanger of wildfires on a warmingplanet. The research is being done by work-ers at a remote site in South Carolina.They have set fire to 13 houses be-cause scientists need to burn to learn. Inside the carefully crafted homewere sensors and a few cameras thesite's manager said will “give their lifefor science.” Outside are nearly $1 mil-lion of other cameras and instrumentsin a fireproof building nearby and scat-tered around. The Insurance Institute for Business& Home Safety is a nonprofit createdby insurers to make houses and otherbuildings more resilient. The institute's100-acre (40-hectare) site in Richburg,South Carolina, started to study hurri-canes and heavy wind and rain. As wildfire danger increased in re-cent years, they sometimes turn thesix-story tall wall of 105 fans stackedon top of each other to blow out of thewind tunnel's massive doors andspread fire. “We crash test houses,” said RoyWright, the president of the institute. Wildfires are worsening, costingmore damage. From 2016 to 2025, wildfires in theUnited States on average burned anarea the size of Massachusetts eachyear, slightly more than 11,000 squaremiles (28,500 square kilometers).That’s 2.6 times the average burn areaof the 1980s, according to the NationalInteragency Fire Center. Canada’sland burned on average for the last 10years is 2.8 times more than during the1980s, according to the Canadian In-teragency Forest Fire Centre. In the United States, wildfires havecaused an average of $17.7 billion ayear in damage since 2020, accordingto statistics kept by the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administra-tion and the nonprofit Climate Central. Climate change is intensifying andextending fire seasons across the U.S.and a growing population putsdensely packed neighborhoods intofire-threatened areas. In the past threeyears, massive and devastating wild-fires hit California, Maui in Hawaii andthe North and South Carolina moun-tains. Drought across much of the UnitedStates — especially in the West andSoutheast — is at record severe levelsfor this time of year. Add to that recordheat and unheard of levels of lowmoisture in the West for the first threemonths of 2026 and it looks like thisupcoming fire season will be extraor-dinarily bad, unless late spring orearly summer rain somehow bails outthe country, said UCLA climate andfire scientist Park Williams.Test fires lead to building changesThe institute's research has alreadyled to some conclusions that strength-ened California's fire code. Newhomes must have ignition-resistantwalls, tempered or double paned win-dows and mesh over vents to preventfire embers from getting inside. As important is taking care of the out-side. Creating a 5-foot (1.5-meter)buffer where any material that burnseasy like pine straw, a hot tub, awooden fence or overhangingbranches is an important line of de-fense. The fire testing makes that clear. Re-searchers at the test site set fire towooden blocks that look like Jengatowers within the buffer zone. The sim-ulated winds, which in a recent testpurposefully fluctuated between 30and 55 mph (50 to 90 kph), continuallypushed the flames toward the home. Once the windows and walls arebreached, all the combustible thingsinside like couches, furniture, clothesand plastics quickly erupt and beginsending large showers of dangerousburning embers lofted by heavy wind,setting new fires a block or two away. But fire standards can only help somuch. “Under really severe fire condi-tions, especially those involving veryhigh winds, they probably are of morelimited value,” Syracuse University fireresearcher Jacob Bendix said. Home fire prevention becomes a business Fire prevention tools and techniquesare becoming a big business. After the 2018 Woolsey fire near hishome in Ventura County, California,Nicholai Allen watched firefighters usefire retardants and wondered if home-owners could do the same. He becamea wildland firefighter and learned thatpreventing embers from getting intohomes’ attics and garages are the key. Allen now makes and sells Safe Soss(pronounced like sauce), which in-clude carbon filters or guards for atticsand vents, fiberglass heat-resistantember-stopping tape and a spray fireretardant that can work from a gardenhose, all of which recently becameavailable at a major hardware chain.Allen compares it to how people upnorth get ready for winter. “It’s kind of like if you live in thesnow, you have a snow shovel, youhave scrapers, and you know thatyou have to take certain preventativesteps in order to live in an environ-ment that, hey, sometimes snows,”Allen said.Scientists burn homes to determinehow to best protect them in wildfiresSTOCK PHOTOFrom 2016 to 2025, wildfires in the United States on average burned an area thesize of Massachusetts each year.!"#$!%$&'"()*+","-)%!"#!$%$!&"'$&'(!)'*&+'+&&*'$,+-'(!)'.+$(/'0&"$+%0$'*&+'-)012'-%!"$,"%"0,'&1,+%$!&"2'*&+3'!"#$%&'()#*( +,+-.-++(/(0(123%4'%"%567"8%'(96:&"#(;<=:>%==?@6:>#"(A%B7:"=9A%"##C:>DE744A%D:#>=(!"#$%&'()#*( +,+-.-++(/(;(123%4'%"%567"8%'(96:&"#(;<=:>%==?@6:>#"(A%B7:"=9A%"##C:>DE744A%D:#>=(!"#$%&'()#*( +,+-.-++(/(F(123%4'%"%567"8%'(96:&"#(;<=:>%==?@6:>#"(A%B7:"=9A%"##C:>DE744A%D:#>=(!"#$%&'()#*( +,+-.-++(/(G(123%4'%"%567"8%'(96:&"#(;<=:>%==?@6:>#"(A%B7:"=9A%"##C:>DE744A%D:#>=(!"#$%&'()#*( +,+-.-++(/(H(123%4'%"%567"8%'(92I744;<=:>%==?@6:>#"(A%B7:"=9A%"##C:>DE744A%D:#>=(!"#$%&'()#*( +,+-.-++(/(J(123%4'%"%567"8%'(92I744;<=:>%==?@6:>#"(A%B7:"=9A%"##C:>DE744A%D:#>=(!"#$%&'()#*( +,+-.-++(/(K(123%4'%"%567"8%'(92I744;<=:>%==?@6:>#"(A%B7:"=9A%"##C:>DE744A%D:#>=(!"#$%&'()#*( +,+-.-++(/(L123%4'%"%567"8%'(92I744;<=:>%==?@6:>#"(A%B7:"=9A%"##C:>DE744A%D:#>=!"#$%&'()#*( +,+-.-++(/(M(1NB%>67"8%'?@67$#"(A%B7:"=9A%"##C:>DE744A%D:#>=(!"#$%&'()#*( +,+-.-++(/(O(1NB%>67"8%'?@67$#"(A%B7:"=9A%"##C:>DE744A%D:#>=(!"#$%&'()#*( +,+-.-++(/(P(1NB%>67"8%'?@67$#"(A%B7:"=9A%"##C:>DE744A%D:#>=(!"#$%&'()#*( +,+-.-++(/(Q(1NB%>67"8%'?@67$#"(A%B7:"=9A%"##C:>DE744A%D:#>=The School Board of Miami-Dade County, Florida (Board), intends to award four (4) Micro Business Roof Term Bid Contracts ("RTB"), four (4) Small Business Roof Term Bid Contracts, and four (4) Open Market Roof Term Contract for continuing (term) contract(s). The maximum initial value for Project Nos. 03072700-A, 03072700-B, 03072700-C, and 03072700-D is $200,000 with two (2) possible extensions of $200,000 each within each term. The terms of the contract will be for Twelve (12) Months and may include two (2) renewal options for one (1) additional year each. The maximum initial value for Project Nos. 03072700-E, 03072700-F, 03072700-G, and 03072700-H is $500,000 with two (2) possible extensions of $500,000 each within each term. The terms of the contract will be for Twelve (12) Months and may include two (2) renewal options for one (1) additional year each. The maximum initial value for Project Nos. 03072700-I, 03072700-J, 03072700-K, and 03072700-L is $4,000,000 with two (2) possible extensions of $1,500,000 each within each term. The terms of the contract will be for Twelve (12) Months and may include two (2) renewal options for one (1) additional year each. The Board reserves the right to limit the number of concurrent continuing contracts held by a single firm. The Board also reserves the right to utilize alternate delivery methods. Only prime firms certified by Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) as a Micro Business Enterprise may participate in Roof Term Bid Contracts Project Nos. 03072700-A, 03072700-B, 03072700-C, and 03072700-D. Only prime firms certified by Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) as a Small Business Enterprise may participate in Roof Term Bid Contracts Project Nos. 03072700-E, 03072700-F, 03072700-G, and 03072700-H.The Board adheres to a policy of non-discrimination in educational programs/activities and employment and strives affirmatively to provide equal opportunity for all. Refer to Board Policy 6320.02 for Small/Micro Business Enterprise Program & M/WBE Certification. MANDATORY PRE-BID CONFERENCE: Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12th, 2026, 10:00 am, local time Sign-in Period: 10:00 am to 10:20 am, local time A mandatory pre-bid conference Tuesday, May th, at 10:00 a.m. local time, at Office of Facilities Operations & Maintenance, Training Room, 12525 N.W. 28th Avenue, Miami, FL 33167. There will be a check-in period until 10:20a.m. and attendance will be recorded. Note that persons entering the meeting after 10:20 a.m. will not be considered as attending the meeting and will be considered non-responsive for bidding. The purpose of the pre-bid conference is to discuss the RTB concept and documents, answer questions and discuss RTB from the contractor’s perspective Proposals submitted by firms not represented at the Mandatory Pre-Bid Conference will not be considered. QUESTIONS: Written questions regarding this solicitation will be accepted until 12:00 pm, local time, Monday May 18th, 2026. Questions may be submitted to Caridad Hidalgo- Gato at caridad@kvharchitects.com and a copy to the Clerk of the School Board at CeliaRubio@dadeschools.net. Pertinent Questions and Answers (Q&As) will be posted under legal advertisement in the “INFO” icon at http://bondsforschools.dadeschools.net/ current_solicitations.asp BIDS DUE: Bid Responses must be received no later than 1:00 pm, local time, Tuesday, May 26th, 2026, to the attention of: MIAMI-DADE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS The School Board of Miami-Dade County, Florida Bid responses must be delivered to the following location on the same day as the bid due date: The School Board of Miami-Dade County, Florida1450 NE Second Avenue, Lobby in the NE Fifteenth (15th) Street Entrance Miami, Florida 33132. REQUIREMENTS: This is an abbreviated ad; the complete legal advertisement with Mandatory Pre-Proposal Conference information, insurance requirements, Contractor’s Pre-Qualification requirements and detailed instructions for this solicitation, including the selection procedures, are available at the above address or at: http://bondsforschools.dadeschools.net/current_solicitations.asp. In accordance with Board policies, a Cone of Silence, Registered Lobbyist requirements and Protest Procedures are hereby activated. Failure to comply with requirements of this legal advertisement and/or Board policies shall be grounds for disqualification. These, and all related Board policies, can be accessed and downloaded at: http://www.neola.com/miamidade-fl/ M-DCPS strongly encourages the participation of certified M/WBE firms either as prime proposers, jointventures or as part of a consulting/supporting team. The Board adheres to a policy of non-discrimination ineducational programs/activities and employment and strives affirmatively to provide equal opportunity for all.Protest - Purchase Approval and Competitive Bidding Process Requirements, Board Policy 6320 Failure to file a protest within the time prescribed and in the manner specified in Board policy or in accordance with F.S.Section 120.57(3) shall constitute a waiver of proceedings under F.S. Chapter 120. The Board’s notice of intended action shall be posted the Friday preceding the Board’s Fiscal Accountability & Government Relations Committee meeting immediately prior to the Board meeting at which the contract will be awarded or approved. The notice of intended action can be found on the Procurement Management Services’ website at: http://procurement.dadeschools.net/bidsol/asp/bid_portal.htm, under the NOTICES section located on the top left hand side of the page. Pre-qualified bidders may obtain one or more sets of the contract documents from Go Green Document Solutions, Inc. virtual plan room at gogreenplanroom.com on or after April 20th, 2026, contact no. (786) 360-2041. Bidders will be able to vie the documents at no cost; however, there is a $25 fee to download the file. THE SCHOOL BOARD OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA By: Jose L. Dotres Superintendent of Schools Ways to make meetings work betterfor autistic employees By CATHY BUSSEWITZAssociated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Before Megan Pi-latzke was diagnosed with autism, shewondered why she always felt drainedwhen she got home from work. All day long, she'd labored to under-stand when to speak up or stay silent inmeetings. She replayed conversations inher head, worrying she'd misunder-stood or said the wrong thing. Noisy en-vironments distressed her. She watchedher peers receive promotions when shedidn't. “I would come home burnt-out, anx-ious," Pilatzke said of her days workingas an insurance claim specialist. "Thatjust kept going, week after week, dayafter day.” Her communication difficulties, sensi-tivity to noise and other problems atwork began to make sense followingher diagnosis, she said. Pilatzke, 36, now spends her daysteaching employers how to make work-places more accommodating for peopleon the autism spectrum. She works as aninclusion specialist at SpecialisterneCanada, a nonprofit that helps organiza-tions to better support employee neuro-diversity. She also reframed the way she thinksabout traits often associated with autism,viewing her ability to focus intenselyand provide honest, direct feedback asstrengths Below are some ways to make meet-ings and other work rituals more acces-sible for autistic people, according toseveral adults with autism and neurodi-versity experts. It begins with understanding Autism spectrum disorder is a devel-opmental disorder that affects about 1 in45 adults in the U.S., according to AutismSpeaks, a nonprofit organization thatsupports autistic people and their fami-lies by funding research, providing re-sources and doing advocacy work. It presents in a variety of ways but cancreate challenges with social skills,speech and nonverbal communication.Some common characteristics includerepetitive behaviors and sensitivity tonoise. “Start by learning about different com-munication styles and being open-minded,” Subodh Garg, who appearedin the first season of the Netflix realityTV show “Love on the Spectrum,” said.“Inclusion begins with giving people achance and making space for diverseways of thinking and working. Employ-ers can start with small intentionalsteps.” Garg works part-time at a SouthernCalifornia deli, where he handles in-voices and restocks pastries. He also isstudying to earn a bachelors degree andis a “champion of change” advocate atAutism Speaks. Employers may have preconceivedideas about what autism means, when“the reality is, it is a massive spectrum,”said Rita Ramakrishnan, who is autisticand founded a consulting company thatprovides leadership coaching for neuro-divergent executives. “There’s a com-munity of people with much highersupport needs, and then there are folkswho are twice exceptional or otherwiseextraordinarily high functioning. Theirsupport needs are not as high, and theirproduction capabilities are different. Butthey’re all valid autistic experiences.” Organizations should consult autisticemployees when crafting policies thatare designed to make workplaces moreinclusive, Ramakrishnan said. “No one’s expecting you to be an ex-pert in this, but we are expecting a levelof curiosity, not judgment, and we wouldlove the ability to have a conversationaround our needs,” she said. “It doesn’tmean you have to accommodate all ofthem or redesign for all of them, but atleast listening is the first step.”Making meetings more accessible Face-to-face communication can bedifficult for some people with autism, sohaving the ability to participate in meet-ings online or through writing can behelpful, experts said.
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    6A | APRIL 23 - 29, 2026 | SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES | SFLTIMES.COM OpinionBy SAM McNEIL. VIRGINIA MAYOAssociated Press LUXEMBOURG (AP) — Buoyed bythe election of a new leader in Hun-gary, Europe's top diplomats are meet-ing in Luxembourg to forge plans ofaction on multiple crises from the on-going war in Ukraine, Russian hybridattacks, and economic instability asthe war in Iran drives up energyprices worldwide. But it is the European Union's policytoward Israel — and how to pressureIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Ne-tanyahu as security deteriorates in thePalestinian territories of Gaza and theoccupied West Bank, as well as inLebanon — that is dividing EU mem-bers, stymieing strong action, andfrustrating many in the 27-nation bloc.Israel disagreement hobbles EU action The EU’s foreign policy chief, KajaKallas, said there was no clear politicalagreement in Luxembourg to ramp uppressure on Israel. “We didn’t see that today, but thesediscussions will continue,” she said. One of the loudest voices within theEU blocking sharper pressure on Is-rael is shortly leaving office — Hun-gary’s outgoing Prime Minister ViktorOrbán routinely obstructed EU actionon issues ranging from support forUkraine in its war against Russia’s in-vasion to sanctions on Israelis accusedof violent extremism. Kallas said that Orbán’s defeat bypro-European opposition leader PéterMagyar in Hungary’s recent electioncould accelerate action. “A lot of issues ... have beenblocked” by Hungary, she said. “Weare reopening the discussions andhope that we get a positive result.” The EU has an Association Agree-ment, signed in 2000, that regulatestrade and cooperation with Israel.Spain, Slovenia and Ireland have pro-posed completely suspending it, amove that doesn't have the requiredunanimous support among EU nations. However, a partial suspension tar-geting just the trade aspects couldhave enough political support, saidSpanish Foreign Minister José Albares. “The European Union has to saytoday very clearly to Israel that achange is needed,” he said. The EU has found indications Israelhad violated the agreement with thebloc in its military campaign in Gaza. “The attacks on the values that un-derpin that agreement are now too se-rious to ignore,” said Belgian ForeignMinister Maxime Prevot, adding thatBelgium would support at least a par-tial suspension of the deal. Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEnteesaid the expansion of Israeli settle-ments in the West Bank, Israel's recentadoption of the death penalty for somePalestinians, and ongoing fighting inLebanon should push EU nations toramp up pressure on Israel. “We need to act. We need to makesure that our fundamental values areprotected,” McEntee said. Swedish Foreign Minister MariaMalmer Stenergard said France andSweden have brought forward a planto curtail trade with Israeli settlementsin the West Bank. Amnesty International condemnedEU's lack of action to pressure Israelover its actions. Erika Guevara-Rosas,a director for the human rights organ-ization, said “each delay only furtherentrenches impunity and paves theway for further grave human rights vi-olations” by Israel. EU diplomats call for extendingceasefires in Lebanon and Iran Lebanon’s Prime Minister NawafSalam spoke at the meeting in Luxem-bourg about the fragile ceasefire be-tween Lebanon and Israel, difficultiesin disarming the Hezbollah militantgroup, and the need for EU assistancefor the war-torn nation. “Lebanon today needs its Europeanpartners more than ever,” Salamposted on X on Tuesday. While now mainly headquartered inBrussels, EU institutions are alsospread out in northern Europe like theEuropean Court of Justice in Luxem-bourg, the European Central Bank inFrankfurt, Germany and the EuropeanParliament in Strasbourg, France. Law-makers, diplomats and officials regu-larly move between the cities formeetings. The Luxembourg meeting comes aday after 60 nations sent representa-tives to a Palestinian peace conferencein Brussels with Palestinian Prime Min-ister Mohamed Mustafa and Bulgariandiplomat Nikolay Mladenov, whoheads the Board of Peace set up byU.S. President Donald Trump. The EU diplomats gathered in Lux-embourg called for diplomacy on Iranas a ceasefire struck between Tehranand Washington that began April 8was to expire Wednesday. Kallas, the foreign policy chief,warned that if the fighting resumes, "itwill come at a very large cost for all.” She also announced that EU foreignministers agreed Tuesday on newsanctions on Iranian officials responsi-ble for obstructing freedom of naviga-tion in the Persian Gulf. “Freedom of navigation is non-ne-gotiable. Daily U-turns where theStrait of Hormuz is open or closed, arereckless. Transit through the straitmust remain free of charge,” Kallassaid. She did not elaborate on the sanc-tions or name the targeted officials. Germany’s foreign minister calledon Iran to send negotiators to Islam-abad to meet with U.S. negotiators. “Iran should now take this out-stretched hand in the interest of itsown people,” Johann Wadephul said. The war in Iran has throttled globaloil and gas markets and rattled the EUas a major importer of energy. Also Tuesday, EU transportationministers discussed in a video confer-ence how to protect consumers athome and at the pump after the headof the International Energy Agencywarned that Europe has “ maybe sixweeks ” supply left of jet fuel. Since the latest war in the MiddleEast started, fighting has killed at least3,375 people in Iran and more than2,290 in Lebanon. Additionally, 23people have died in Israel and morethan a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fif-teen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and13 U.S. service members throughoutthe region have been killed.Mideast crises divide Europe as it grappleswith rising fuel costs and policy toward IsraelSTOCK PHOTOWeek In ReviewBy CORA LEWIS and ADRIANA MORGA Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — It's officially TaxDay in the U.S. And if you’ve waited tillthe last minute to file your 2025 return,don’t panic. You still have time to get itdone. If you're worried that you still mightnot be able to finish your taxes in time,you also can file for an extension, whichwill give you until Oct. 15 to file. Here's what you need to know aboutWednesday's deadline — and a fewtips to keep in mind.What do I need to file my tax return?Generally, every tax-filer needs the fol-lowing at hand— your Social Security number— W-2 forms, if you're employed— 1099-G forms, if you're unemployed— 1099 forms, if you're self-employed— Savings and investment records— A sense of any eligible deductions,such as education expenses, medicalbills or charitable donations.— A sense of relevant tax credits, suchas the child tax credit or a retirementsavings contributions credit.To find a more detailed documentlist, visit the IRS website. Tax professionals recommend gather-ing all your documents in one place be-fore you start your tax return — as wellas having documents from the yearprior, if your financial situation haschanged drastically. Experts also sug-gest creating an identity protection PINnumber with the IRS to guard againstidentity theft. Once you create a num-ber, the IRS will require it to file your taxreturn.How do I file for an extension? If you run out of time to file your tax re-turn, you can file for an extension totake more time by using your preferredtax software, with the IRS Free File tool,or via mail. However, it’s important to rememberthat the extension is only to file your taxreturn, not to pay owed taxes. If youowe taxes, you should pay an estimatedamount before the deadline to avoidpaying penalties and interest. If you ex-pect to receive a refund, you’ll still re-ceive your money when you file yourtaxes. The deadline to file for an extension isWednesday, which will give you untilOct. 15 to file. The IRS notes some taxpayers — in-cluding members of the military andpeople who live and work outside of theU.S. — get an automatic, two-month ex-tension to file until June 15. But again,most payments are still due April 15.How can I avoid mistakes filing my taxes? Many people fear getting in troublewith the IRS if they make a mistake. Toavoid common errors:— Double check your name on your So-cial Security card. You'll want to make sure the name onyour tax return matches what's on yourSocial Security card. Some people mayhave taken a new last name after mar-riage, for example, but if that hasn'tbeen updated with the Social SecurityAdministration yet, the IRS notes you'llneed to use your former name to avoiddelays. And if you get a W-2 from an em-ployer with a name that no longermatches your Social Security card, theIRS says you should contact your em-ployer to fix it.— Search for tax statements if you'veopted out of paper mail. While many important tax documentsare still sent out on physical paper, peo-ple increasingly are opting out of snailmail these days. If you're not seeing it inyour mailbox, check your online ac-counts.“If you didn’t get anything in the maildoesn’t mean that there isn’t an informa-tion document out there that you needto be aware of and report accordingly,”Tom O’Saben, director of tax contentand government relations at the Na-tional Association of Tax Professionals,previously told The Associated Press.— Report all of your income. If you had more than one job in 2025,you need the W-2 forms for each.What resources are available? For those who made $89,000 or lesslast year, IRS Free File offers freeguided tax preparation that does themath for you. And if you have questionswhile working on your tax forms, theIRS also offers an interactive tax assis-tant tool. Beyond TurboTax and H&R Block, tax-payers can also hire licensed profes-sionals, such as certified publicaccountants. The IRS offers a directoryof tax preparers across the UnitedStates. The IRS also funds two types of pro-grams that offer free tax help: VolunteerIncome Tax Assistance (VITA) and theTax Counseling for the Elderly program(TCE). People who earn $69,000 or lessa year, those who have a disability, andthose who speak limited English allqualify for the VITA program. Thosewho are 60 or older qualify for the TCEprogram. The IRS has a site for locatingorganizations that host VITA and TCEclinics. If you have a tax problem, there arealso clinics around the country that canhelp you resolve these issues. Gener-ally, these tax clinics also offer servicesin other languages such as Spanish,Chinese and Vietnamese.Tax procrastinators, this is how to seek an extension at the IRS deadlineSTOCK PHOTO The war in Iran has throttled global oil and gas markets and rattled the EU as a major importer of energy.
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    OpinionAssociated Press Artificial intelligence company An-thropic has agreed to commit morethan $100 billion to Amazon's AWScloud platform over the next 10 yearsto train and run its Claude chatbot. Amazon will invest $5 billion imme-diately as part of the new agreementannounced this week by the compa-nies, and up to another $20 billion inthe future. Amazon previously in-vested $8 billion in Anthropic. The partnership will allow Anthropicto secure up to 5 gigawatts of Ama-zon’s Trainium chips to train andpower their artificial intelligencemodels. “Our custom AI silicon offers highperformance at significantly lowercost for customers, which is why it’s insuch hot demand,” said Amazon CEOAndy Jassy. Amazon said AWS customers will beable to access the full Anthropic-na-tive Claude console from within theAWS cloud platform. Earlier this year, privately-held An-thropic said its valuation grew to $380billion, positioning itself alongside ri-vals OpenAI and Elon Musk’s rocketmaker SpaceX, which recentlymerged with his AI startup xAI, makerof the chatbot Grok. Renaissance Capital, which re-searches the potential for initial publicofferings, counts Anthropic as thirdamong the most valuable privatefirms, behind SpaceX and ChatGPTmaker OpenAI, valued at $500 billion. Anthropic and Amazon have part-nered since 2023 to accelerate gener-ative AI adoption for customers tobuild, deploy, and scale AI applica-tions. Amazon says 100,000 customersrun Anthropic Claude models onAWS. In February, the Trump administra-tion ordered all U.S. agencies to stopusing Anthropic’s artificial intelli-gence technology and imposed othermajor penalties for refusing to allowthe U.S. military unrestricted use of itsAI technology. In an unusually public clash betweenthe government and the company,President Donald Trump, Defense Sec-retary Pete Hegseth and other officialstook to social media to chastise An-thropic, accusing it of endangering na-tional security.Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused toback down over concerns the com-pany’s products could be used in waysthat would violate its safeguards. An-thropic said it would challenge what itcalled an unprecedented and legallyunsound action “never before publiclyapplied to an American company.” Earlier this month, a federal appealscourt refused to block the Pentagonfrom blacklisting artificial intelligencelaboratory Anthropic in a decision thatdiffered from the conclusions reachedin another judge’s ruling on the sameissues. Anthropic is not yet profitable but saidin February that it's on track for sales of$14 billion over the next year. Anthropic was founded by ex-Ope-nAI employees in 2021 and released itsfirst version of Claude in 2023, follow-ing OpenAI's ChatGPT debut in late2022.AI startup Anthropic commits $100 billion to Amazon’s AWS PHOTO COURTESY OF WWW.ANTHROPIC.COMBusiness SFLTIMES.COM | SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES |APRIL 23 - 29, 2026 5 | 7A Artificial intelligence company Anthropic “OUR CUSTOM AISILICON OFFERS HIGHPERFORMANCE ATSIGNIFICANTLYLOWER COST FORCUSTOMERS, WHICHIS WHY IT’S IN SUCHHOT DEMAND,” SAIDAMAZON CEO ANDYJASSY.STOCK PHOTOBy MAE ANDERSON, CATHY BUSSEWITZ, WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILLIPSAP Business Writers NEW YORK (AP) — A looming jet fuelshortage in Europe and Asia could com-pound the Iran war's impact on worldtravel within weeks if a fragile agree-ment to reopen the Strait of Hormuz col-lapses, making higher airfares and flightcancellations even more likely as thesummer travel season approaches. Crude oil prices plunged Friday afterIran's foreign minister said tankers andother commercial vessels could againpass unimpeded through the narrowwaterway off the country's coast thatserves as a conduit for about one-fifth ofthe world's oil and natural gas. President Donald Trump cheered theannouncement but then said the U.S.would continue its blockade of Iranianships entering or leaving the strait untilWashington and Tehran reached a dealto end the war, which started Feb. 28when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. The oil market is expected to takemonths to recover from shipment dis-ruptions, and fuel prices typically takelonger to fall than prices for crude. In asign of the conflict's ongoing repercus-sions for airlines and their passengers,Air Canada said Friday it was cancelingservice to New York’s John F. KennedyInternational Airport between June andOctober due to surging jet fuel costs. Jet fuel — a refined kerosene-based oilproduct — is airlines' biggest cost, mak-ing up about 30% of overall expenses,according to the International AirTransport Association. And jet fuelprices have roughly doubled since thewar began. Shortages could start next. In an exclusive Thursday interviewwith The Associated Press, Interna-tional Energy Agency Director FatihBirol said Europe had “maybe sixweeks” of remaining jet fuel supplies. In general, some European countrieshold several months’ worth of jet fuelinventory at a time, according to anIEA report released this week Airlineofficials have largely reacted with cau-tion, acknowledging potential fuel is-sues but working to reassurecustomers. Still, some carriers have al-ready passed costs on to consumersby increasing fees for baggage andother add-ons, embedding costs intoticket prices, or raising fuel sur-charges. Here's a look at how jet fuel supplieswork and how consumers might seeeffects.Which regions could feel pain? Asia-Pacific countries are the most re-liant on oil and jet fuel from the MiddleEast, followed by Europe, Rousseausaid. Most of Europe’s jet fuel is produced byEuropean refiners, but about 20-25% ofits supply is missing because of the war,Rousseau said. To fill some gaps, the U.S. increased itsexports of jet fuel to Europe consider-ably, sending about 150,000 barrels perday in April, or about six times the nor-mal level, Rousseau said. Availability of jet fuel is less of an issuein the U.S., a major oil producer, headded. "It’s just going to cost more here,whereas in different parts of the worldyou could actually get to a point wherethere’s just no fuel,” Rousseau said.How much is the world supply of jet fuel lagging? The world is losing 10 million to 15 mil-lion barrels of oil a day due to the closureof the Strait of Hormuz, said PavelMolchanov, senior investment strategistat investment firm Raymond James & As-sociates. Even though the IEA has released 400million barrels of oil from members'emergency reserves, that won't help inthe short term, Molchanov added. “It could take until the end of the yearto get all of those barrels onto the mar-ket,” he said.How will my travel be affected? Christopher Anderson, a professor ofoperations, technology and informationmanagement at Cornell University, saidtravelers should prepare for more thanjust higher airfares. “This is no longer just a fuel-price story.For airlines, it is now a network-planningstory,” he said. “Higher fuel costs matter,but so do longer routings, reducedscheduling flexibility and greater uncer-tainty about what demand will look likeeven a few weeks out.” Travelers might see “a market withlater booking patterns, more schedulevolatility and fewer low-fare options ifthis disruption lasts into the core summerseason,” he said.What are airlines doing? Dutch airline KLM and U.K. budget car-rier easyJet told AP they weren't experi-encing current fuel shortages and didn'tcomment further on the IEA’s warning. Still, KLM said Thursday that it wouldcut 160 flights next month — about 1% ofits total European routes. The airlinecited “rising kerosene costs” and said anumber of flights were “no longer finan-cially viable to operate.”Jet fuel supplies are lagging. What doesthat mean for airlines and travelers?New York sues Coinbase and Gemini,seeking to halt unlicensed predictions By MICHAEL R. SISAKAssociated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York is suingCoinbase and Gemini, two of thenewest players in the prediction marketindustry, arguing that the companies'unregulated and unlicensed platformsare illegal gambling operations. Attorney General Letitia James' law-suit, filed Tuesday in state court in Man-hattan, seeks to bar the companies'platforms from operating in the stateunless and until they obtain licensesfrom the state Gaming Commission. “Gambling by another name is stillgambling, and it is not exempt fromregulation under our state laws andConstitution,” James said in a statement.“Gemini and Coinbase’s so-called pre-diction markets are just illegal gam-bling operations, exposing youngpeople to addictive platforms that lackthe necessary guardrails.” Messages seeking comment were leftfor Coinbase and Gemini. Both compa-nies began as cryptocurrency tradingplatforms before branching into theprediction space, which has been dom-inated by Kalshi and Polymarket. Gemini, founded by brothersCameron and Tyler Winklevoss,launched Gemini Predictions in De-cember. Coinbase started its predictionmarkets service in January. “Crypto was just the beginning,”Gemini’s website said Tuesday, next toa prediction box offering bets on suchthings as the winner of that day'sChelsea-Brighton Premier League soc-cer match, when Kevin Warsh will beconfirmed as the chairman of the Fed-eral Reserve, and what the price of oilwill be Friday. New York's lawsuit alleges that theCoinbase and Gemini are seeking “toavoid the legal and financial conse-quences" of the state's close regulationof gambling “by offering what is quin-tessentially wagering under the guiseof offering ‘event contracts’ on a ‘pre-diction market.’” By operating without licenses, thelawsuit says, Coinbase's and Gemini'sprediction market businesses aren'tpaying the same taxes as licensed casi-nos and mobile sportsbooks, which aretaxed by the state at a rate of approxi-mately 51% of gross revenues. In addi-tion, the lawsuit says, Coinbase andGemini allow users as young as 18,while state law prohibits wagering byanyone under 21. Kalshi sued the state Gaming Com-mission in October after the commis-sion sought to bar the company'sprediction market business from oper-ating in the state. In the case, which isongoing, Kalshi argues that, as a feder-ally designated derivatives exchange,it is subject to the exclusive jurisdictionof the federal regulator, the CommodityFutures Trading Commission. Coinbase made the same argument inDecember when it sued Connecticut,Michigan and Illinois to block thosestates from attempting to regulate itsprediction business. Earlier this month,the Commodity Futures Trading Com-mission sued Arizona, Connecticut, andIllinois to block them from policing pre-diction markets. Last week, a federal judge halted Ari-zona’s regulatory efforts — which haveincluded criminal charges againstKalshi — finding that the federal com-mission had demonstrated a reason-able chance of success in showing thatthe act preempts Arizona law. In February, James issued what her of-fice described as a consumer alertwarning, saying that prediction marketsoperating without the supervision of thestate Gaming Commission were puttingNew Yorkers “at significant financialrisk.” Some users who say they've lostmoney on the sites have filed lawsuitsagainst them. James herself has been the subject ofprediction market wagering. Last year, as the Trump administrationwas scrutinizing the Democrat's real es-tate transactions, Polymarket saw$18,700 in trades on the question: “WillLetitia James be charged with a crimeby December 31?” James was indicted in October, but ajudge dismissed the case a month later,concluding that the prosecutor whobrought the charges at President Don-ald Trump’s urging was illegally ap-pointed by the Justice Department.James had denied wrongdoing. Meanwhile, Kalshi has seen $12,660 intrades on the outcome of this year'selection for New York attorney general.As of Tuesday, 93% of users were pre-dicting James to win a third term.STOCK PHOTO
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    8A | APRIL 23 - 29, 2026 | SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES | SFLTIMES.COM ObituariesBy JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHERAssociated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Former HawaiiGov. George R. Ariyoshi — the nation'sfirst Asian American governor — hasdied at age 100. Ariyoshi, a Democrat who led thestate from 1973 to 1986, died peace-fully while surrounded by family onSunday night, according to a statementMonday from current Gov. Josh Green. “Governor Ariyoshi devoted his lifeto Hawai‘i with humility, discipline andan unwavering sense of responsibilityto the people he served,” Green said.“He led our state during a pivotal mo-ment with quiet strength and integrity,and his legacy as a trailblazer andpublic servant will endure for genera-tions." Ariyoshi was a three-term governorwho first rose to the position in Octo-ber 1973. Three years earlier, he hadbeen elected lieutenant governor, andhe then became acting governor whenGov. John Burns fell ill with cancer. Ariyoshi won the office outright in1974 and was reelected in 1978 and1982. Hawaii governors are now sub-ject to a two-term limit. His political ca-reer coincided with the DemocraticParty's rise to power in Hawaii. Democrats wrested control of theLegislature from Republicans in 1954,the year Ariyoshi won the first of twoterms in the Territorial House of Rep-resentatives. He won a territorial Sen-ate seat in 1958, becoming a statesenator the following year whenHawaii became a state. Ariyoshi won three more state Senateraces — in 1964, 1966 and 1968 — be-fore becoming lieutenant governor. Ariyoshi was born March 12, 1926,in a two-room tenement near HonoluluHarbor to parents who immigrated toHawaii from Japan. He grew up in thehardscrabble neighborhood of Kalihi,near downtown Honolulu. His father, Ryozo, a sumo wrestlerfrom Fukuoka Prefecture, became astevedore and owner of a dry cleaningshop in Hawaii. His mother, Mitsue,came from Kumamoto, Japan. In his 1997 autobiography, “With Ob-ligation to All,” Ariyoshi wrote aboutgrowing up with a lisp. “The fact that we had no money didnot seem to be a barrier, but I had abarrier of a different kind," he wrote,describing how he wanted to grow upto become a lawyer if he could learn tospeak properly. Following graduation from McKinleyHigh School in 1944, Ariyoshi servedas an interpreter with the U.S. Army'sMilitary Intelligence Service in Japanat the end of World War II. After the war, Ariyoshi attended theUniversity of Hawaii before transfer-ring to Michigan State University,where he received a bachelor's de-gree in history and political science in1949. Ariyoshi earned a law degreefrom the University of Michigan LawSchool in 1952. Going to school on the U.S. mainland,Ariyoshi didn’t feel a sense of beingtreated differently. “On the contrary, Ienjoyed the fact that Hawaii had a rep-utation even then for people of differ-ent backgrounds coming together andliving harmoniously,” he wrote in hisbook. He began practicing law in Hawaiithe year after he graduated from lawschool. Ariyoshi withdrew from privatepractice and resigned various corpo-rate directorships after he was electedlieutenant governor. He said his decision to seek the posi-tion was influenced by a desire tobreak the barrier for minorities. “The new state of Hawaii had pro-duced United States representativesand senators of Caucasian, Chineseand Japanese ancestry, reflecting ourdiversity,” he wrote. “But only Cau-casians had been governor.” Ariyoshi’s time as governor wasmarked by Hawaii becoming a touristdestination and a booming population.“I was convinced that neither our infra-structure nor our environment wouldsupport this rate of growth,” he wrote. In 1975, Ariyoshi and his wife, JeanHayashi Ariyoshi, attended their firstNational Governor’s Conference inWashington, D.C., where they were in-vited by President Gerald Ford to ablack-tie dinner at the White House. Jean Ariyoshi wrote in her book, “Wash-ington Place: A First Lady’s Story,” that asthe couple jitterbugged on the dance floor,she stood on tip-toe and whispered in hisear: “Look at the little girl from Wahiawadancing at the White House.” He replied: “And she’s dancing with thekid from Kalihi.” John Waihe‘e, who became Ariyoshi’slieutenant governor in 1982, went on to beelected the first governor of Native Hawai-ian ancestry in 1986 with Ariyoshi’s sup-port. In addition to his wife Jean, Ariyoshi issurvived by daughter Lynn and sons Donnand Ryozo.Former Hawaii Gov. George Ariyoshi,the 1st US governor of Asian Americandescent, dies at 100PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIAFormer Hawaii Gov. George AriyoshiSFLTIMES.COMEMPLOYMENTObituariesClassifiedsADVERTISEYOUR EMPLOYMENT LISTING HERE.Pope Leo XIVPHOTO COURTESY OF FACEBOOKBy NICOLE WINFIELDAssociated Press MUXIMA, Angola (AP) — Pope LeoXIV on Sunday recalled the “sorrowand great suffering” Angolans enduredfor centuries, as the American popeprayed at a Catholic shrine located atthe site of an important hub of theAfrican slave trade during Portugal'scolonial rule. Leo traveled to the Sanctuary of MamaMuxima, nestled in the Angolan sa-vanas of baobab trees at the edge of theKwanza River. It became a major pil-grimage destination after believers re-ported an appearance by the VirginMary around 1833. But the Church of Our Lady of Muximawas originally built by Portuguese col-onizers at the end of the 16th century aspart of a fortress complex and it becamea hub in the slave trade. It was whereenslaved Africans were gathered to bebaptized by Portuguese priests beforebeing forced to walk to the port of Lu-anda, over 110 kilometers (70 miles) tothe north, to be put on ships to theAmericas. Leo, whose own ancestors include en-slaved people and slave owners,prayed the Rosary at the sanctuary, asimple whitewashed church with bluetrim and a statue of the Madonna inside.Speaking in Portuguese, he recalled itwas here “where, for centuries, manymen and women have prayed in timesof joy and also in moments of sorrowand great suffering in the history of thiscountry.” He didn’t refer specifically to slavery.After viewing plans to build a basilicaat the site, Leo urged the estimated30,000 people gathered outside to alsobuild “a better, more welcoming world,where there are no more wars, no injus-tices, no poverty, no dishonesty." Muxima’s history is emblematic of theCatholic Church’s role in the slavetrade, the forced baptisms of enslavedpeople and what some scholars say isthe Holy See’s continued refusal to fullyacknowledge it and atone for it. “For Black Catholics, Pope Leo’s visitto the Muxima shrine is an importantmoment of healing,” said Anthea Butler,senior fellow at the Koch Center, OxfordUniversity. She noted that many Black Catholicsare Catholic because of slavery and the“Code Noir,” which she said requiredslaves purchased by Catholic owners tobe baptized in the church. “Others were already Catholic whenthey were trafficked from Angola toslave-holding colonies,” said Butler, aBlack Catholic scholar whose maternalfamily hails from Louisiana, where thepope’s ancestors also had their roots.The role of papal bulls in the slave trade Angola’s Portuguese colonizers wereemboldened by 15th-century direc-tives from the Vatican that authorizedthem to enslave non-Christians. In 1452, for example, Pope Nicholas Vissued the papal bull Dum Diversas,which gave the Portuguese king and hissuccessors the right “to invade, con-quer, fight and subjugate” and take allpossessions — including land — of“Saracens, and pagans, and other infi-dels, and enemies of the name ofChrist” anywhere, said the Rev.Christopher J. Kellerman, a Jesuit priestand author of “All Oppression ShallCease: A History of Slavery, Abolition-ism, and the Catholic Church.” The bull also gave the Portuguesepermission “to reduce their persons toperpetual slavery.” That bull and another issued threeyears later, Romanus Pontifex, formedthe basis of the Doctrine of Discovery,the theory that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of land in Africa and theAmericas. The Vatican in 2023 formally repudi-ated the Doctrine of Discovery, but itnever formally rescinded, abrogated orrejected the bulls themselves. The Vat-ican insists that a later bull, SublimisDeus in 1537, reaffirmed that Indige-nous peoples shouldn’t be deprived oftheir liberty or the possession of theirproperty, and were not to be enslaved.Ultimately, more than 5 million peopleleft from Angola on the trans-Atlanticslave route, more than any other coun-try and nearly half of the roughly 12.5million African slaves sent across theocean. Kellerman recalled that most of thesedirect victims were sold into slavery byother Africans and were not capturedby Europeans. “That being said, at the time of thebuilding of Muxima, the Portuguesewere doing both — buying enslavedpeople and colonizing/slave raiding.So they were fully using their papal per-missions during this time,” Kellermansaid in emailed comments to The Asso-ciated Press. He said the first pope to condemnslavery itself was Pope Leo XIII, the cur-rent pope’s namesake, in two encycli-cals in 1888 and 1890, after mostcountries had already abolished slav-ery. But Kellerman said that pope andothers since have continued to perpet-uate the “false narrative” that the HolySee always opposed slavery, when thehistorical record says otherwise. While Leo's visit to Muxima was tocommemorate its role as a shrine,Kellerman said he hoped Leo had alsolearned about its role in the slave trade. “The popes repeatedly authorizedPortugal’s colonization efforts in Africaand Portuguese participation in theslave trade, but the Vatican has neverfully admitted this,” he said. “It wouldbe so powerful if at some point PopeLeo were to apologize for the popes’role in the trade.” During a 1985 visit to Cameroon, St.John Paul II asked forgiveness ofAfricans for the slave trade on behalf ofChristians who participated in it, but notfor the popes' own role in it. In a 1992visit to Goree Island, Senegal, thelargest slave-trading center in WestAfrica, he denounced the injustice ofslavery and called it a “tragedy of a civ-ilization that called itself Christian.”Leo’s own personal history a point of reflection According to genealogical researchpublished by Henry Louis Gates Jr., 17of Leo's American ancestors wereBlack, listed in census records as mu-latto, Black, Creole or a free person ofcolor. His family tree includes slave-holders and enslaved people, Gateswrote in the New York Times. Gates, a Harvard University professorwho hosts the PBS documentary series“Finding Your Roots,” presented his re-search to Leo during a July 5 audienceat the Vatican. According to a report oftheir meeting in The Harvard Gazette,“The pope asked about ancestors, bothBlack and white, who were enslavers.”Pope prays at Catholic shrine in Angolathat was a center of African slave tradePlace your DEATH NOTICES HERE