TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – A candidate for Leon County Judge is under fire as sources tell Eyewitness News, she has a felony {www:arrest} on her record.
Nina Ashenafi Richardson, a native of Ethiopia, was the top vote getter in the primary and she calls the allegations nothing but an effort to smear her good name.
Nina Ashenafi Richardson was greeting voters Thursday as they waited in line to cast ballots at the Leon County Courthouse.
Her attorney, Ron Meyer, says she has no arrest record, but sources tell Eyewitness News that Ashenafi-Richardson was arrested for theft while in law school.
The County Justice Information system shows Ashenafi Richardson has a so-called spin number which indicates an arrest, but there is no other information listed.
The rest, sources say, has been sealed.
State Attorney Willie Meggs says he doesn’t know the particulars of this case, and couldn’t talk about them if he did.
“I know there is a spin number. I know there is no {www:information} behind that spin number which is an indication that there had been an arrest and a disposition of some sort that was later sealed,” Meggs said.
The head of the Tallahassee Bar, Jim Banks, says he has no {www:knowledge} of this case, but says lots of people have records sealed and the law allows them to deny ever being arrested.
Folks who have had their records sealed do not have to reveal them unless they are applying for certain jobs, like those in law enforcement, day care or education, he said.
“They’re sealed for a good reason. These are people who may have made a mistake when they were young and foolish. It’s a relatively minor offense and you seal it,” Banks said.
Ashenafi Richardson’s opponent in the county judge’s race, Sean Desmond, who came in second in the primary, says he and others in the legal community have known about the arrest for some time, but he’s refused to bring it up in the campaign.
“So people talk to me about all the time and say, what’s the deal with that and I say, um, I’m running a positive campaign based on my {www:experience} and qualifications,” Desmond said.
Ashenafi Richardson, a former President of the Tallahassee Bar who is well known for her pro-bono work, refused to comment on camera Thursday, calling the arrest allegations a smear tactic.
The Kenya family of US Democratic presidential {www:candidate} Barack Obama has halted all media engagements until after the US presidential election on November 4 .
The move has been taken to give Obama’s paternal grandmother, Mama Sarah Onyango Obama a break, according to a family member Mr Said Obama.
In the recent past, a battery of local and international journalists have been visiting the {www:home} on a daily basis to seek interviews from the 85-year old granny.
But Mr Said Obama said the family would open up to the media on November 5, a day after the elections.
And on Wednesday, Siaya District police chief Mr Johnston Ipara said security officers would restrict entry to the home to ensure the family privacy is guaranteed
“People who {www:visit} the family’s home in K’Ogelo will be restrained from conducting interviews to the family members,” he said
Mr Ipara added the move was taken to ensure that people, especially the media, do not pre-empt the outcome of the US elections by using comments from the family members.
“We do not want Mama Sarah Obama to be disturbed at the {www:moment} she needs time to monitor the elections as they unfold,” said Ipara.
He said all visitors to the home would be thoroughly screened by the police before being allowed in.
Obamamania
Meanwhile, Obamamania continued to grip Kisumu town and its environs as hawkers cashed in on the craze to sell branded T-shirts, caps and badges.
Dancehalls have also recorded a high number of songs recorded in vernacular languages in praise of the US presidential candidate whose father was Kenyan.
Derartu Tulu and Elfenesh Alemu of Ethiopia are among them.
By Brett Larner
On Oct. 28 the Tokyo International Women’s Marathon announced the elite field for the event’s 30th and final running, to take place Nov. 16. Top domestic runners Yoko Shibui, Yuri Kano, Yoshimi Ozaki and others will face off for slots on the 2009 Berlin World Track and Field Championships marathon team while competing against foreign competition including 2008 Osaka International Women’s Marathon winner Mara Yamauchi of the U.K., 2007 Tokyo IWM runner-up Salina Kosgei of Kenya, and 2008 London Marathon runner-up Russian Svetlana Zakharova. Aging Ethiopians Derartu Tulu and Elfenesh Alemu are also on the entry list along with newcomers Tetyana Filonyuk of Ukraine and Kenyan Magdaline Chemjor.
Former marathon national record holder Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) had a career-worst run at last year’s Tokyo but afterwards went on to experience a rebirth on the track, running the kind of performances not seen since her glory days over five years ago and ultimately making the Beijing Olympics 10000 m. If her rejeuvenation this year extends to the marathon she will be one of the favorites.
Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC) has also had a very strong year, clocking track and road PBs, winning June’s Sapporo International Half Marathon, finishing 3rd in July’s New York City Half Marathon, and winning October’s Rock and Roll Half Marathon in San Jose. Kano is still relatively inexperienced at the marathon but seems poised for a breakthrough performance.
Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei), the younger sister of Kano’s teammate Akemi Ozaki, ran a noteworthy debut marathon at the Nagoya International Women’s Marathon in March, clocking 2:26:19 to take a close 2nd behind fellow debutante Yurika Nakamura’s winning 2:25:51. Ozaki was graceful and strong, and like Kano may be ready for bigger things.
2008 Tokyo International Women’s Marathon Elite Field
Svetlana Zakharova (Russia) – PB: 2:21:31 (Chicago `02) – SB: 2:24:39 (London ’08)
Mara Yamauchi (U.K.) – PB: 2:25:10 (Osaka ’08) – SB: 2:25:10 (Osaka ’08) and 2:27:29 (Beijing Olympics)
Tuskegee, Alabama – Tuskegee University’s Nursing Program in the College of Veterinary Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health was recently awarded a $1,279,302, three-year grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The grant was awarded for the Nursing Workforce Diversity Project. This initiative addresses Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act; Section 821, which focuses on Nursing Workforce Diversity.
“The grant will enable Tuskegee’s School of Nursing and Allied Health to strengthen its recruitment, retention, pre-entry, faculty development, cultural competence and financial support. Historically, racial and ethnic minorities have always been under-represented in the health professions in America,” said Dr. Cordelia Nnedu, associate professor and assistant director of the Department of Nursing. “If nursing is to meet the {www:health} care needs of our changing society, it must {www:increase} its efforts to prepare nurses who are sensitive to and knowledgeable about the population they serve.”
Through support from the grant, the School will conduct “Nursing as a Career” presentations each semester at Tuskegee and two other Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
“The faculty and staff in the School of Nursing and Allied Health are to be commended for working together to make the Nursing Workforce Diversity project a success. Without the team approach the over $1.2 million grant award would not have been made possible,” said Dr. Tsegaye Habtemariam, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health. “This grant moves the program a step closer in identifying students for the nursing program and eventually graduating {www:competent} nurses.”
PARIS (Reuters) – Ethiopian Airlines is setting a new target of sales of “at least” $1.5 billion by 2015 after coming close to its achieving its 2010 aim of $1 billion sales this year, chief executive Girma Wake told Reuters on Thursday.
The airline is expanding even as its counterparts in more developed regions {www:struggle} to cope with the aftermath of a recent spike in oil prices, and the effects of a slowdown on business and leisure travel.
The state-owned carrier, which operates 27 aircraft on routes within Africa and to European, Asian, Middle Eastern and North American destinations, plans to expand its fleet to 45 aircraft by 2015.
Wake said the airline is considering ordering more Boeing Co. 787 aircraft, or A350 XWB aircraft made by EADS unit Airbus to supplement existing outstanding orders.
“We’re discussing that with Airbus”, he said.
It already has 10 Boeing Co . 787 aircraft on order, the first of which is now due to be delivered in December 2009, after supply chain problems delayed the programme by at least 16 months.
Wake, speaking on the sidelines of an aviation conference in Paris, said the airline wants to serve 75 destinations by 2015. It currently serves 53 destinations and plans to have 60 by 2010.
The global financial {www:crisis} may have a temporary negative effect on business, as tourists think twice before booking holidays, Wake said.
However, he added that “trade-led traffic and movement within Africa will continue – Africa is a vast continent.”
The airline, which transported 2.5 million passengers in 2007/08 and thereby almost achieved its 2010 target of 3 million, now hopes to carry 5 million passengers in 2015, Wake said.
Ethiopian Airlines posted full-year sales of 9.2 billion birr ($941 million) for 2007/08.
(Reporting by Helen Massy-Beresford; Editing by Hans Peters)
Kenyan teams continued with their winning streak in the second day of the Africa Zone Five basketball championships in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
National men’s champions KCB Lions narrowly trounced Ethiopia’s Marine 71-69 after a 34-27 lead at half time.
KCB beat hosts Etho- Investment 89-60 in their opening match on Tuesday.
KPA who are the reigning women’s national champions also recorded their second {www:win} in the tournament after a 57-55 win over APR of Rwanda.
KPA were leading by 40-28 points at the breather.
KPA will take on Etho-Investments of Ethiopia in their third match Thursday while the other Kenyan representatives USIU will {www:play} Uganda’s KCC in the women’s fixtures.
KCB Lions will face APR of Rwanda in the men’s matches.
