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Nation in brief

NAACP requests meeting with Bush

By wire services
Published February 20, 2005

NEW YORK - Denouncing President Bush's plan for Social Security reform as one that would disproportionately hurt blacks, NAACP leaders asked to meet with the president to discuss the issue, the group's chairman announced Saturday.

Julian Bond, speaking at a news conference during the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's annual meeting in New York, also said he expects to name the organization's new president by July.

"I want someone with the fundraising ability of Bill Gates, with the oratorical ability of Martin Luther King and the managerial ability of someone who's managed big, big things successfully and done well," said Bond, who has repeatedly declined to identify potential candidates.

A search committee has interviewed more than 200 candidates to replace Kweisi Mfume, who was NAACP president for nine years and resigned in December.

Last week, NAACP leaders asked to meet with the president, submitting a letter to the White House that detailed their concerns over education and unemployment, but focused largely on Bush's plan to privatize Social Security.

"This proposal is extremely dangerous to us," said Hilary O. Shelton, the NAACP's Washington bureau chief.

Among married couples, twice as many blacks as whites rely on Social Security for their entire retirement income, and blacks in their 50s are twice as likely to become disabled as whites, he said.

But Bush says blacks would stand to benefit from his privatization plan because, on average, they die earlier than whites and would not have to wait until retirement to receive benefits.

That argument has rankled many black leaders who denounced the president for trying to capitalize on the life-expectancy problem - one they say is rooted in health disparities and urban violence - rather than solve it.

DEFIANCE, Ohio - A man pleaded guilty to charges he filled out phony voter registration cards in the names of Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy, Michael Jordan and George Foreman.

Chad Staton, 22, faces up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine on each of 10 counts of false registration at his sentencing April 13. He pleaded guilty Thursday.

Election officials spotted the phony forms and notified the Defiance County sheriff, who arrested Staton in December. Officials said Staton had fraudulently filled out more than 100 forms.

A woman told authorities she paid Staton cocaine to sign up voters for the November election. Rather than getting legitimate voters, Staton filled out the phony forms, authorities said.

"RUTHLESS CARE GIVER' ARREST: - A longtime fugitive has been arrested with the help of tips following the airing of America's Most Wanted. Elizabeth Raughton, 62, had been sought since 1992 by authorities in Auburn Hills, Mich., who said she drained the $10,000 bank account of a 79-year-old woman she was caring for, drugged the woman and left her tied up in a straitjacket on Christmas Eve. Raughton was arrested Thursday in Mystic, Iowa.

[Last modified February 20, 2005, 00:54:14]