MLK’s children battle over his possessions
ATLANTA – A generation after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, his children are fighting among themselves again, this time over two of their father’s most cherished possessions: his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize medal and the Bible he carried.
The civil rights leader’s daughter Bernice King has both items, and her brothers, Dexter King and Martin Luther King III, asked a judge last week to order her to turn them over. She said her brothers want to sell them.
In a blistering statement this week, Bernice said their father “Must be turning in his grave” over the idea. She said that while she loves her brothers dearly, she was “appalled and utterly ashamed” of the plan, and added: “It reveals a desperation beyond comprehension.”
Then on Thursday, at a news conference from the pulpit of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church where her father and grandfather preached, she portrayed herself as the true protector of King’s legacy.
U.S. suspects Russia of leaking conversation
WASHINGTON – Two senior American diplomats, thinking their conversation about the Ukraine was secure and private, were caught disparaging the European Union in a phone call that was apparently bugged, and U.S. officials say they strongly suspect Russia of leaking the conversation.
The suspicions were aired Thursday after audio of the call was posted to the Internet and amid continuing criticism of the United States in Europe and elsewhere over NSA spying on foreign leaders. They also came as the Russia-hosted Winter Olympics opened under tight security to prevent possible terrorist attacks and highlighted distrust between Washington and Moscow that has thrived despite the Obama administration’s attempt to “reset” relations with the Kremlin.
The White House and State Department stopped just short of directly accusing Russia of surreptitiously recording the call between the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt.
Man pays students’ delinquent lunch bills
HOUSTON – A volunteer at a Houston-area elementary-school who noticed some students were getting a smaller lunch of cold cheese sandwiches is digging into his own pocket to cover $465 in delinquent meal accounts so all the kids can get the same full lunch tray.
“These are elementary school kids,” Kenny Thompson, a tutor and mentor at Valley Oaks Elementary in Houston’s Spring Branch School District, told Houston television station KPRC. “They don’t need to be worried about finances. They need to be worried about what grade they got in spelling.”
Thompson, a volunteer for 10 years, said he asked about the lunch differences at his school after hearing about some Utah students who last week had meals taken from them because of nonpayment. Salt Lake City school officials have apologized for removing the lunches and embarrassing the students, and say they are revising procedures to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Thompson told the TV station that he asked about the smaller meals at his school and learned more than 60 children were on reduced lunches because parents couldn’t afford the 40-cent daily fee.
Associated Press
