14 The Hampton Roads Messenger


Volume 11 Number 6


Governor urges Republicans to Hampton Coliseum to drop their defense of gerrymandered districts


March 2017 Hampton Spring Jam returns


HAMPTON, VA


In the wake of yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling on Virginia’s House of Delegates redistricting plan, Governor Terry McAuliffe sent the following letter recently to House Speaker Bill Howell and Majority Leader Kirk Cox urging the Republican leaders to drop their legal defense of Virginia’s gerrymandered district lines and work with him to pass a nonpartisan redistricting plan. The full text of the letter is below.


Dear Speaker Howell and Leader Cox:


As you are no doubt aware, yesterday the United States Supreme Court struck down a lower court’s decision that upheld the Republican-drawn House of Delegates district map, and it ordered the lower court to review the case again using the correct legal standard.


Yesterday’s 7-1 ruling is the second consecutive adverse decision the


Supreme Court has reached with respect to Republican-drawn legislative maps in Virginia. Last summer the Court ruled that our congressional district lines were an unconstitutional racial gerrymander that needed to be redrawn. Yesterday the Court clearly set the House of Delegates map, which was drawn using the same unconstitutional standard, on the same path.


This ruling sets the stage for protracted litigation at taxpayer-expense and further delay that will cast a shadow over our upcoming legislative elections -- unless we find a more productive path forward. So today, I write to ask you and the House Republican Caucus to drop your defense of Virginia’s gerrymandered map and work with me on the nonpartisan redistricting plan our Commonwealth deserves.


To accomplish this, I ask that you agree to settle this litigation in a


way that empowers the General Assembly to redraw the eleven House of Delegates districts that have been sent back to the District Court. Once that settlement is finalized, I am prepared to call a special session in order to pass new lines that have been prepared by an independent, nonpartisan panel. If we act quickly, we can finalize a new map before the 2017 legislative elections and prevent Virginians from voting yet again in unconstitutional gerrymandered districts.


For too long, the redistricting process has been defined by partisanship,


racial politics, and costly litigation. Today we have the opportunity to reverse that history and put our Commonwealth on the right side of one of the most important issues of our time. I hope you will consider this request and join me in a nonpartisan process to strengthen democracy in Virginia.


Sincerely, Terence R. McAuliffe Cc: The Honorable David Toscano


-- Hampton


Spring Jam returns to the Hampton Coliseum on Saturday, March 18 at 8:00pm. The lineup for this year includes: Guy feat. Teddy Riley, Dru Hill, Monica, Jagged Edge and Michel'le. Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.com.


Guy was the first group to sport the new jack swing sound, essentially


traditional soul vocals


melded to hip-hop beats, with credit for the genre’s invention going to founder, multi-instrumentalist, and super-producer Teddy Riley. Their self-titled debut album was an instant smash, producing the R&B hits “I Like,” “Groove Me,” “Spend the Night,” and “Teddy's Jam.”


Dru Hill released their self-titled


debut album in 1996, produced by Keith Sweat, Stanley Brown, and Tim “Dawg” Patterson. The single “Tell Me” -- culled from the soundtrack to the film Eddie -- became a Top Five R&B hit and later went gold. Enter the Dru followed in 1998, peaking at number two on the Billboard album chart. The group went on to release Dru World Order in 2002 and Indrupendence Day in 2010. Most popular Billboard Top 100 songs include “How Deep Is Your Love,” “We’re Not Making Love No More,” “Never Make A Promise,” and “In My Bed”.


Monica will inarguably be


remembered in music as one of the most iconic soul singers of a generation. At thirteen she became the youngest artist ever to score two back-to-back Billboard #1 chart-topping hit records with “Don’t Take it Personal” (Just one of Dem Days) and “Before You Walk Out of My Life.” By the end of 1995, she had taken the world by storm with her unstoppable debut album, Miss Thang. Her next album, the 1998 record-breaker The Boy Is Mine, featured two more Billboard


Lift every voice FROM PAGE 3


“There’s a lot going on in the world that needs the voices and creativity of the younger generation,” she said.


During her years at Bryn Mawr


College, she participated in marches and exercised her voice. In 1964, she along with other classmates launched a women’s movement on her campus. By the time she graduated, her campus had a completely different environment for women, and stereotypes for women were broken. She believes it’s time for younger people to step up and use their


#1 hits –“Angel of Mine” and “The First Night”. Over the next ten years Monica would release four more Billboard chart-topping albums After the Storm, The Makings of Me, Still Standing, and New Life. In all, she has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide, garnering


Grammy,


Billboard, American Music and Soul Train awards, and she holds the record as the first artist to top the U.S. Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart with No.1 songs over the span of three consecutive decades (1990s, 2000s and 2010s).


Jagged Edge released their first


album, A Jagged Era, which went gold and spawned the Top 20 R&B, Top 40 pop hit “Gotta Be” in 1998. Their next single, “He Can’t Love U,” appeared in the fall of 1998 and reached the Top Five of the R&B chart and the Top 20 of the pop chart, going gold in the process. It prefaced the group’s second album, J.E. Heartbreak, which topped the R&B chart and hit the Top 10 of the pop chart, selling over two million copies and spawning the number one R&B hits “Let’s Get Married” and “Promise”.


Michel'le was known for having a


squeaky, high-pitched speaking voice and an aggressive, full-bodied style of singing. In 1989, she released her self-titled album which featured debut single “No More Lies,” a smash hit on R&B stations and a big pop hit, reaching the Top 10 on Billboard’s pop singles chart. Other hit singles from the album include


“Nicety,” “Keep


Watchin’” and “Something In My Heart”.


Hampton Spring Jam comes


to Hampton Coliseum on Saturday, March 18 at 8:00pm. Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.com, by phone at 1-800-745-3000, and Hampton Coliseum Box Office. Ticket prices range from $45.50 to $125.00 plus applicable fees.


voices the way her generation did when they were young.


Dr. Cantarella has been working on the interactive Student Handbook and Facilitators Guide for the PBS documentary, “All the Difference.” The film tells the story of two young men from Chicago as they leave high school and transition to college. It follows them on their path through college and shows all the challenges they experience. The guide allows students, and those who work with them, to learn from the young men’s tough experiences featured in the film.


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