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Ken Ward, TV reporter, was set to drive Wednesday from Charlotte, N. C. to Tampa Bay, Fla. to start his new job at an ABC affiliate.

Instead, the 44-year-old was found dead early Wednesday morning at his home before the journey even started, leaving colleagues and viewers wondering what happened to the promising reporter.

His former news station, WSOC-TV, issued a brief statement Wednesday at 11:10 a.m. local time.

“We have lost a former member of our family here at Channel 9,” the message read in part.

The Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, which Ward was a member, said in a statement that the TV reporter died around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, but didn’t give other details.

An autopsy at the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office will be performed to determine the cause of death, according to reports.

However, published reports suggested the Ward died of natural causes.

“This should have been a great day for him, and it’s sad that this has happened,” co-worker Ken Lemon, told Qcitymetro, a newspaper that covers the African American community in Charlotte.

“Ken was a very nice co-worker,” Lemon added. “He was very active in doing community events… He had a very pleasant demeanor. He was the kind of guy that anytime you saw him at work, he had a smile and a handshake – from the first day he came here until the last time I talked to him. And to know that we’re not going to see his smile or get to shake his hand again is very heart-breaking.”

Ward not only had the new job to look forward, but on Saturday, he and wife Letitia Ward celebrated their one-year anniversary.

Friends and family took to social media to express their condolences.

“R.I.P. Cousin nothing but good childhood thoughts of U!! Prayers of love and support Auntie, Sterlin, Donald and Leltia,” wrote Cheryl Ward, who currently lives in Harlem, N.Y.

A student at Jarvis Christian College claims fraternity members damaged his kidneys and opened wounds on his butt by beating him with heavy wooden paddles, then welcomed him to the fraternity’s “‘Century Club’ … reserved for those who could withstand at least 100 blows during this initiation process.”

Xavier Foster sued Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and four of its members – Sadallie “CJ” Cole, Waymon Humphrey, Bruce Nance and Omar McElroy – in Federal Court. Foster says when he enrolled in the Christian college in Hawkins, Texas in August 2009, friends and coaches encouraged him to pledge membership with Kappa Alpha Psi.

He says at the on-campus “intake meeting,” fraternity members and school representatives went over the pledge process and told him “the sole requirements for membership in Kappa Alpha Psi were a minimum grade point average, approval by current members and successful completion of a written examination on the history, rituals and traditions of the fraternity.” At that meeting, Foster says, frat members and school officials said they did not tolerate “physical or psychological hazing of pledges.” Foster says he fulfilled all requirements to join the fraternity by paying membership fees, and passing its written exam on April 24, 2010.

But his new brothers had other plans for him, Foster says, and on April 30, 2010 a frat member told him to report to CJ Cole’s apartment in Hawkins for further initiation into the national fraternity and its local chapter. ”There, defendants CJ Cole, Keith Humphrey and Bruce ‘BJ’ Nance physically and psychologically assaulted Foster,” the complaint states. “These defendants stood at attention and peppered him with questions regarding the history, traditions and rituals of the fraternity, punctuating each incorrect answer with blows from heavy wooden paddles and rods. ”CJ Cole, Keith Humphrey and Bruce ‘BJ’ Nance further represented to Foster that membership in the fraternity’s ‘Century Club’ was reserved for those who could withstand at least 100 blows during this initiation process.”

Later that evening, Foster says, the defendants ordered him to report to a second apartment in Hawkins for more initiation.
There Cole, Humphrey and Nance were joined by the frat’s “dean of pledges” Omar McElroy, and they all set to “striking Foster about his legs and buttocks with paddles, rods and boards for approximately two more hours,” according to the complaint. ”Finally, after more than five hours of non-stop beatings, verbal and psychological abuse,” the four frat members welcomed him into Kappa Alpha Psi, and “pronounced him a member of exclusive the ‘Century Club.’”

The complaint continues: “Within days of the beatings, Foster began to succumb to his injuries. His legs and buttocks were predictably inflamed and swollen. More unexpectedly, he began to suffer nausea, cramping in his hands and feet and loss of appetite. He began to vomit and could not eat. ”On May 3, 2010, Foster’s family doctor diagnosed Foster with acute renal failure and admitted him to the hospital where doctors confirmed the admitting diagnosis through a kidney biopsy and began an immediate course of dialysis. In the meantime, the wounds on Foster’s buttocks had grown so severe that they ruptured and required complete debridement and ongoing treatment of a wound care specialist.”

He was released from the hospital 8 days later, but needed “continued medication and monitoring of his kidney function and a wound vacuum for the still-healing wounds on his buttocks.”

“Since his release, Foster has undergone surgery to place skin grafts over the wounds on his buttocks.

“The damage to Foster’s kidneys was so severe that he now suffers from a permanent loss of 10 percent of his renal function. As a result, doctors have placed him on three separate medications to control his blood pressure to prevent further damage to his kidneys. ”Foster continues to be under the care of physicians because of the injuries inflicted on him. He is at increased risk of future kidney damage. He has pain with sitting for long periods of time. His legs and buttocks are scarred and disfigured.”

He seeks damages and punitive damages for negligence, gross negligence, assault and battery, and pain and suffering.

President Barack Obama has a new, moneyed supporter in this new year — a super PAC dedicated to mobilizing black voters in key swing states.

Calling itself 1911 United, the super PAC is aiming to raise $1.5 million during the election cycle and train its efforts on Colorado, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, committee treasurer Sinclair Skinner told POLITICO.

“He needs a boost,” Skinner said of Obama. “And we want to use all the means possible to support him, including a super PAC. Black political participation is still evolving, and what we hope to do is get as many voters active in the process as early as possible.”

The committee is backed by two large, historically black fraternities, Kappa Alpha Psi and Omega Psi Phi, both of which celebrated their centennials last year.

The 1911 United super PAC will likely work to “organize and deploy” black voters — particularly potential first-time voters — in support of Obama, said Skinner, a long-time Washington, D.C.-based political organizer who’s a mechanical engineer by trade. He notes that the group intends to make significant use of phone banking and social media to achieve this goal.

Broadcast media messages are a possibility, but “we’re really going to focus on working with the people directly,” he said.

Super PACs, formally known as independent expenditure-only committees, may raise and spend unlimited sums of money in support of, or in opposition to political candidates, so long as they don’t directly coordinate with campaigns.

These committees have become major forces in the 2012 presidential election, with numerous super PACs spending millions of dollars to promote and attack Republican presidential candidates in early caucus and primary states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. Many of them are run by the presidential candidates’ former staffers, and thanks to loopholes in election law, they’ve largely avoided disclosing their funders ahead of early primary and caucus contests.

This is the first presidential election in which super PACs have existed. They sprung into existence following a pair of 2010 federal court decisions, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission, which prompted their legality.

To date, Priorities USA Action, run by a pair of Obama’s former White House aides, is the largest super PAC to back the president during his re-election bid. Almost all of its more than $306,000 in expenditures so far this election cycle have gone toward attacking Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

In the wake of a college drum major’s death in Florida, a lawmaker from the state plans to introduce anti-hazing legislation when Congress returns in mid-January.

The bill would strip financial aid from anyone sanctioned by a university for hazing or witnessing hazing and failing to report it – including the victim, said Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson.

“Hazing is demeaning, dangerous and, sadly, deadly,” Wilson, a former school principal, told the Los Angeles Times, adding that the death of Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion warrants a federal response.

Florida has toughened the penalties against hazing, but Wilson said in an interview that, under her proposal, if anyone witnesses hazing – “including the victim, they will tell because they don’t want to lose their federal aid.”

Florida officials have ruled Champion’s death in November a homicide. The incident has drawn national attention and generated soul-searching on college campuses throughout the country.

Wilson, who has yet to draft the legislation, said she also wants the U.S. attorney general to set up a commission to examine ways to stamp out hazing.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in 2005 signed legislation making hazing that results in serious injury or death a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, even if the victim consents. The bill, the Chad Meredith Act, was named after a University of Miami freshman who drowned in a campus lake while trying to join a fraternity in 2001.

Wilson said that, notwithstanding the new law, “we have had a plethora of hazing incidents,” but prosecutions have been difficult because “you can’t find any victims to talk.”

“We’ve got to take a tougher stance,” added Wilson, who said that she became known as the “haze buster” while serving as South Atlantic regional director for the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. “It’s time to stop it.”

Congress has been considering legislation aimed at bullying, including requiring states to report bulling incidents and expanding programs for teachers, administrators and counselors on strategies to prevent bullying and harassment.

In November 2010, I watched “HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” and saw a piece on the hazing antics at several historically black colleges and fraternities. I took to Twitter to share my thoughts on the issue.

Much of the report focused on Southern University, and man, did the floodgates open as a number of students from the university angrily tweeted me back, cussing, yelling and screaming, with some defending hazing, while others were angry at the national attention focused on their university.

For hours we went round and round, and were joined in the discussion by members of several black fraternities, including my own Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. A number of these individuals actually supported hazing, or “pledging hard” and not becoming a “paper” member who “skated” into the fraternity.

Despite the anger and vitriol, I refused to back down, making it clear that getting beaten for being in a band or fraternity was absolutely dumb.

Here was a young man who went off to college, planning to earn a college degree while leading one of the nation’s most colorful and exciting bands, only to be returned home to his parents in Georgia in a coffin.

While hazing immediately was suspected, we could only speculate about the cause of the 26-year-old’s death. That is, until Friday, when the medical examiner released details of his autopsy, concluding that Champion “collapsed and died within an hour of a hazing incident during which he suffered multiple blunt trauma blows to his body.”

News of the death has rocked the Florida A&M campus, angering its students and alumni, triggering multiple state investigations and leading Gov. Rick Scott to call for the suspension of school President James Ammons. That prompted FAMU students to march to the governor’s mansion on Friday and camp out on his lawn, demanding he rescind the resignation call.

Champion’s death isn’t the first time we have seen individuals in a band or fraternity die. It is incredible that some folks have given their lives — literally — for just being a part of a student group.

State laws have been passed, organizations have been kicked off campuses and national fraternal and sorority groups have paid millions in settlements because of hazing, but we continue to see these stories.

“Why?” is a consistent question that is asked, and at the end of the day, it boils down to power and a desire to demand others kowtow to someone else’s demands in order for them to be accepted.

A decision not to follow through means you can be ostracized, ignored and marginalized. That’s the last thing any young person wants to experience when in an organization.

Every one of these organizations is overseen by adult leaders or advisers. But in truth, fellow students run the show. Normally in a band, a drum major sits at the top of the food chain, but Champion clearly had to bend to the band’s culture to be fully accepted as a member of FAMU’s “Marching 100.”

So what you have is a bunch of students between the ages of 18 and 22 calling the shots and making it clear who is accepted and who isn’t, who gets in and who doesn’t. You aim to please them and no one else. Oftentimes they are leading based on how they were led, and it has been indoctrinated into them that this is the way of life, take it or leave it.

These are powerful forces that can only be changed by peers. Hazing will only be brought to a close when members of organizations make it clear the vile hazing traditions will not go forward. No one today can be hazed if the student leaders make it clear that it’s unacceptable. Yet because of the natural turnover in student organizations, that mindset has to be created and passed on for it to succeed.

When I was about to pledge Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. in spring 1989, I met with my four other pledge brothers and made it clear: I’m not getting hit, I will never use alcohol and I will not agree to be hazed.

Even though my older brother pledged the same fraternity at Texas A&M two years earlier without any nonsense, I was making it clear that such shenanigans were idiotic. All five of us agreed and in the four weeks, two days, 16 hours, 38 minutes and 39 seconds I was on line (yea, having to recite such specifics was a part of our process), the behavior that we often heard was associated with pledging didn’t exist.

Yet because of that, we weren’t always as accepted by other fraternity members at other campuses. Our chapter was called soft; we were criticized as not “pledging the right way” and had to constantly defend our manhood.

Me, I didn’t give a damn. I would look others in the eye and say, “In the history of our chapter, only one brother has failed to graduate, and we do nothing with him. Are you guys on the six- or seven-year plan, and can you match our graduate rate?”

From my perspective, we were supposed to be in college to graduate, not to pledge. And if my fraternity was founded as a study group at Cornell University on December 4, 1906, why would we eschew academics?

Even though we pledged the right way at Texas A&M, that peer pressure was still unbearable for some. That summer at our national convention in San Antonio, hazing was on the agenda, and I made it clear I was going to speak. Some other brothers in my chapter pulled my coattails and said, “Don’t tell the brothers you didn’t take any wood (that’s being paddled).”

I yelled, “If we pledged brothers the right way, why in the hell are we afraid to say it?”

Since those days, I’ve never wavered from my anti-hazing position. It is deplorable and shameful to think that someone would beat another person for them to prove something. Prove what? They can take a punch? No. I prefer to challenge his mind, his intellect.

Our goal as fraternity men is to take young men and mold and shape them to be better men. It is not our aim to take young men and train them to be collegiate mercenaries, hellbent on inflicting as much pain as they got onto the first person they have control over.

Is there tremendous value in fraternities, sororities, bands and student organizations? Absolutely. The leadership opportunities are tremendous, and the lifelong relationships are vital.

But what has to be preached and preached and preached to every student, whether they are white, black, Asian, Latino, male or female, is that if they love that frat, sorority, drill team or band, they shouldn’t do anything to jeopardize it for the next person.

Do we need tougher hazing laws? Yes. Do we need universities to take punitive action, including kicking students out who break the rules? Yes. Do we need national organizations to ban chapters for years for egregious behavior? Absolutely. Should fellow student leaders turn in others who break the rules and haze? Of course. There must be a zero tolerance attitude from every state official, administrator, student leader and organization member. To hell with tradition, rituals and “the way we do things.” All that must end. Now.

But we also must raise a generation of young people who have enough confidence in themselves to say, “I will not take a beating just to be accepted by you. I’d rather not have your affection or support if it means putting my life on the line.”

And if that means other students calling you out or teasing you, fine. I’d rather you talk about me like a dog today than be hazed and have my friends search to figure out what to say at my funeral.

It is time to remit dues for fiscal year (FY) 2012!  NPHC, Inc. operates on a fiscal calendar of January 1 to December 31. Annual dues are to be remitted by January 31 of a given fiscal year.

Undergraduate councils are responsible for dues in the amount of $150, Graduate councils with 1-9 Chapters in the amount of $250,  Graduate Councils with 10-19 Chapters in the amount of $300, Graduate Councils with 20-29 Chapters in the amount of  $350.00, and  Graduate Councils  with 30+ Chapters in the amount of $450.

Members remitting dues after February 15 must include a $25 late fee with annual dues. (1) If a council has not been financial in the previous fiscal year that council is responsible for remitting dues for the previous and current year, as well as a $50 reactivation fee (Ex. Undergrad councils = $350.00; Graduate Councils with 1-9 Chapters = $550.00; Graduate Councils with 10-19 Chapters = $650.00;Graduate Councils with 20-29 Chapters = $750.00;Graduate Councils  with 30+ Chapters = $850.00); and (2) if a council has not been financially active within a five year time period, that council must be re-chartered.

Again, you are advised not to wait until the last minute to remit your dues.  Should you have questions or concerns as to your council’s financial status and/or account balance, please contact NPHC National Treasurer at  treasurer@nphchq.org.

Attached is the link to the remittance form http://www.nphchq.org/docs/2012Remittanceonline.doc

Also use this link if you would like to remit payment online  http://nphccouncildues.eventbrite.com

While most students had already gone home for the holiday, some stayed behind to celebrate, but their party quickly turned tragic.

The NIU community woke to a shock early Wednesday morning, after receiving a text reporting that a student was shot while at an off campus party.

“This was an isolated incident that occurred as a result of an argument,” said DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen.

Feithen says 19-year-old Chaz Thrailkill of Markham, IL was arguing with 22-year-old Steven R Agee II, at 809 Edgebrook Drive in DeKalb.  When Thrailkill pulled out a gun and shot Agee multiple times in the chest.

“During that exchange is when the victim was shot,” said Feithen

No one else at the party was hurt, Thrailkill was arrested several hours later near the DeKalb campus.

“Talking to witnesses, we were able to identify the suspect,” said Feithen.

Friends of Agee say they were over come with emotion when they heard he had been shot, and don’t understand why anyone would want to hurt him.

“I didn’t believe that Steven was involved in it, until I showed up with the ambulance and actually saw him,” said Agee’s fraternity brother Paris Harbour.

“A leader, very academically sound, just a great guy to be around,” said Agee’s fraternity brother Turan Crockett.

Agee was the president of Kappa Alpha Psi, and his fraternity brothers say he will be greatly missed.

“We stick close together and everything, we know everything about each other, like I said, we’re loosing a big part,” said Harbour.

NIU says it is doing everything it can to protect students, but can’t control what happens off campus.

“We are very much concerned about safety, we got very strong engaged involved police force,” said Vice President of NIU Relations Kathy Buettner.

Thrailkill is not a NIU student and is in jail on a 3-million dollars bond.  He’s charged with first degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, and aggravated discharge of a firearm.

The National Pan-Hellenic Council of Marquette University Presents The 2012 Brew City Stomp Down Step Show Sponsored By City Year Milwaukee

On Saturday, February 4, 2012, the National Pan-Hellenic Council of Marquette University once again brings you Wisconsin’s largest step show- and this time it’s BETTER THAN EVER. Featuring the organizations of the Divine Nine: Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Delta Sigma Theta, Phi Beta Sigma, Zeta Phi Beta, Sigma Gamma Rho, and Iota Phi Theta.

With a special guest host, music by Marquette’s very own DJ Poizon Ivy, and the most talented, most LIVE step crews from across the Midwest all on the Riverside Theater stage, the 2012 Brew City Stomp Down Step Show is sure to be one show you don’t want to miss.

Tickets will be available beginning Friday, December 9, 2011 at noon. General admission tickets are $20 (+ taxes and applicable fees). Tickets can be purchased online at www.pabsttheater.org/show/2012BrewCityStompDown, in person at either the Riverside Theater box office (116 West Wisconsin Avenue) or Pabst Theater Box Office (144 E. Wells Street) Monday through Friday from noon until 6:30pm, or through the box office by calling 414-286-3663.

Like in previous years, this event is guaranteed to sellout- plan to get your tickets early! For the latest updates on the show be sure to follow us on twitter: @brewcitystomp.

Please direct any questions or concerns to brewcitystompdown@gmail.com.

Services for Willie H. Clark will be at 2 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, at the Craddock Memorial Chapel with Oliver Gaines officiating. Interment will be at Clearview Cemetery.

Willie better known as “Clark” was born in Ardmore on June 25, 1945 to Dorothy Clark and the late Willie H. Clark, Sr. He attended Ardmore Douglas High School and later graduated from Langston University. In pursuit of furthering his career, Willie moved to Washington, D.C. in 1971 and became a professor at the University of D.C., where he met and fell in love with his wife Marie of 37 years.

Willie’s business mind, personality and passion for assisting people gained him the #1 top position as an insurance agent. Although Willie was at the top of his game in insurance, he was best known as the “tax man”! While doing years of taxes, many would say that he was known for getting you that “American Dream.”

Willie served in the U.S. Air Force Reserves – 3345 Tech/Unit 3369. He was also a member and brother of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated. Willie was “cool” and enjoyed life to the fullest. He was a people person, high-spirited and liked to have fun. He loved his cars, jewelry, hats, and his three-piece suits. He also liked traveling, but most of all he loved his family.

Willie had a close relationship with his brother Norman and sister-in-law Alice. He had a special love and bond with his mother Dorothy. He was loved and highly regarded by all. He was also a man of wisdom to his friends and family.

Willie was a spirit-filled man and was studying to become a Jehovah’s Witness. Willie leaves to cherish his memory: his loving mother, Dorothy; wife Marie; his children Angela (Nelous), Antonio, Lovie, Dwayne and Sherry; brother Norman (Alice); 12 grandchildren; 4 great-grandchildren, and a host of nieces, nephews, and cousins and other relatives and friends. The family visitation will be Tuesday evening from 6-7 p.m. at the funeral home.

Online condolences may be made at www.craddockfuneralhome.com.