Boycott

Black college basketball coaches, their anger ignited by the decision of NCAA delegates not to restore a scholarship, likely will boycott games, and players and some white coaches are expected to join them. Rudy Washington, head of the Black Coaches Association and coach at Drake, said yesterday he expects his group to boycott games, possibly for the rest of the season. The boycott could begin as early as Saturday, Martin Luther King's birthday. "In all likelihood, there will be a boycott, but I am reluctant to give you a time and date," Washington said.

Radio stations WDAS-AM and WDAS-FM are calling for a boycott of all Japanese products to protest comments made last week by a Japanese Cabinet minister who compared black Americans to prostitutes. "It just seems stupid to continue to support institutions that don't support us," said E. Steven Collins, information director for the stations. The black-owned stations were expected to announce the boycott at a community meeting today at the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum at 7th and Arch streets.

The executive director of the Black Coaches Association, upset over the NCAA's decision to cut scholarships, said yesterday he expects his group to boycott men's college basketball games. The boycott, which would include coaches and players, could begin as early as Saturday, which is Martin Luther King's birthday. An official date had not been set last night. "In all likelihood there will be a boycott, but I am reluctant to give you a time and date," said Rudy Washington, head of the 3,000-member BCA and basketball coach at Drake.

Forty years ago today, African American citizens of Montgomery, Ala., launched one of the great movements of the 20th century. Four days after Rosa Parks, a seamstress riding the bus home from work, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to white riders, the black community pulled off a stunning boycott of the bus system. That night a crowd at least 5,000 strong packed the Holt Street Baptist Church, as well as the streets for acres around. Loudspeakers carried the proceedings to the immense, excited crowd.

It's surprising that Jesse Jackson has become so easily satisfied. Months ago, Jackson was outraged that major-league baseball had so few blacks in top management positions. And he warned that if things didn't improve soon, there would be a boycott of baseball games on July 4, traditionally one of the biggest attendance days of the season. Now, with July 4 almost here, Jackson says he isn't going to hold a boycott after all. "There will not be a boycott on July 4," he said, "because the process is well under way. " Say, what?

Carl Bryant is stuck in the middle. An African American, he runs two Texaco stations in Philadelphia. He estimates that sales - both from the pumps and the enclosed sales area - have dropped 30 percent since Nov. 4, when a 1994 tape recording of Texaco Inc. executives allegedly using racial slurs became public. Today, he said he would learn whether community leaders planned to boycott his gas station at Broad and Diamond Streets. "It's affecting everybody. Right is right, and wrong is wrong.

TO COLUMNIST Elmer Smith: Regarding the Kobe Bryant rape case and apology, you hit the nail on the head. He apologized for raping a young woman by blaming her for not understanding his intentions? I was caught breathless by this. He could have spared us all this debacle, but instead dragged his wife, the victim, the press and the public along for a ride. Mr. Bryant is draped in the same tainted cloth as Mike Tyson, William Kennedy Smith and other high-profile people who think they are above the law. I will make sure I never buy anything associated with his name again.

Only about half of the 700 pupils at the Morton McMichael Elementary School attended this morning, the second day of a boycott by parents who are angry that the school's acting principal, Nilsa Gonzalez, was not appointed to the job permanently. Yesterday, only about 36 pupils attended the school, at 36th and Fairmount Avenue, said School District spokesman William C. Thompson. This morning was the first on the job for the new principal, Russell Sgro, who had been in charge of the special education program for schools in South Philadelphia.

MARYANNE McGovern won't watch "24," one of the her favorite TV shows, because Janeane Garofalo made a comment she disagrees with, that tea-baggers were confused, angry, racist individuals incapable of understanding a commonsense speech and noting their focus on the president's cultural identity rather than his policies. Surely the answer to our problems as Americans (though we often differ) is not to protest watching one of the best dramas on TV simply because someone has an opposing view.

  IN THE 19 YEARS since the Brady Background Checks were instituted - despite Columbine, Virginia Tech, Fort Hood, Tucson, Aurora, the Sikh temple and now Newtown - not one law has been passed at the federal level to reduce gun violence. In fact, just the opposite has occurred. Unfortunately, there is now the growing and looming reality that this sorry trend will continue. Since Newtown, some states, such as New York, Colorado and Connecticut, have tightened gun laws, but many more have loosened them, such as Arkansas, Montana and Mississippi.

CELEBRITIES cancel talk- show appearances for all types of reasons, but this is a new one: Singer/animal-rights activist Morrissey bailed on " Jimmy Kimmel Live" Tuesday night, because other guests were from the reality-TV show "Duck Dynasty. " Morrissey said he couldn't perform on a show with what he called people who "amount to animal serial killers. " "Duck Dynasty" follows a Louisiana family, the Robertsons, with a business selling duck calls and decoys. * Preparing for her reappearance on TV, is Barbara Walters , who called in to "The View" on Tuesday to report that she's returning to the show Monday.

CAIRO - Egypt's largest opposition bloc said Tuesday that it would boycott the country's forthcoming parliamentary elections, heightening the prospect of future instability after months of political crisis and damaging the credibility of the country's fledgling democracy. The National Salvation Front, a loose coalition of liberal and leftist political parties, said that it would boycott the late April vote because the Islamist government of President Mohamed Morsi did not consult it in passing a new electoral law and disregarded pressure from the group for, among other things, a new cabinet and a redrafting of the country's constitution.

BERLIN - Skeptical Syrian opposition leaders agreed Monday to attend an international conference in Rome after first threatening to boycott the session that was to be the centerpiece of Secretary of State John Kerry's first overseas mission in his new job. Opposition leaders had protested what they see as inaction by other nations in the face of violence from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Kerry not only made a public plea at a joint news conference Monday with British Foreign Secretary William Hague, he also called Moaz Khatib, leader of the Syrian Opposition Council, "to encourage him to come to Rome," a senior U.S. official said.

AVON, N.J. - This Jersey Shore town, facing the threat of a boycott over its plan to use rain forest wood to rebuild a boardwalk destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, isn't backing down. Avon, in Monmouth County, says it will stick with its plan to use ipe wood. At a meeting Monday night, several environmental groups asked the Borough Commission to reconsider but were rebuffed. "There is a consensus to move ahead," Commissioner Frank Gorman said after hearing nearly two hours of objections from residents and out-of-town environmentalists.

CAIRO - Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei called Saturday for a boycott of parliamentary elections, drawing immediate criticism from some within his movement who said it was a hasty decision. The dispute showed the fragility of a fairly new opposition front forged after the deeply fragmented movement found little success at the polls since leading the 2011 uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak. Opposition infighting would only help ensure the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood remains Egypt's dominant political force after the next vote.

HARRISBURG - Fallout from the Newtown, Conn., shootings has caused promoters to cancel a major annual outdoors show here. Faced with a boycott by gun enthusiasts and fierce criticism from the National Rifle Association, a British exhibition company is postponing indefinitely its show 10 days after announcing a ban on assault-weapons sales at the event. In a statement released Thursday, Reed Exhibitions said it had halted plans for the Eastern Sports and Outdoors Show, scheduled for Feb. 2 to 10, because of controversy surrounding its decision not to let vendors sell a class of weapons the company called modern sporting rifles (MSRs)

CAIRO - Most Egyptian judges rejected any role Tuesday in overseeing the country's constitutional referendum, a move likely to cast further doubt on the legitimacy of the disputed charter. The nation's worst crisis since Hosni Mubarak's ouster nearly two years ago also forced the government to put off a deal with the International Monetary Fund for a $4.8 billion loan, shattering any hope for recovery of the country's economy anytime soon. On one side of the divide is President Mohammed Morsi, his Muslim Brotherhood, and their ultraconservative Islamist allies, against an opposition camp of liberals, leftists, and Christians who contend the draft charter restricts freedoms and gives Islamists vast influence over the running of the country.

Long-simmering disputes over reform efforts and the role of an internal watchdog at the Delaware River Port Authority boiled over this week at a DRPA committee meeting. One Pennsylvania board member, Rob Teplitz, called DRPA chief executive John Matheussen the biggest obstacle to reform, and New Jersey board members balked at establishing operating standards for the agency's new inspector general. The role and salary of the inspector general, Thomas Raftery 3d, have been debated almost since the former FBI agent was hired in January to root out fraud, waste, and abuse.

Upset by a proposed $35,000 raise for a recently hired executive, five South Jersey board members of the bistate Delaware River Port Authority boycotted Wednesday's monthly board meeting, forcing its cancellation and delaying the replacement of Gov. Corbett as chairman. The board members stayed away in protest of a raise proposed for the agency's inspector general, Thomas Raftery III. The DRPA finance committee on Monday recommended that Raftery get an increase to $165,000 from his current $130,000 to reflect an expansion of his duties.