NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Jesse Jackson: LeBron’s ‘slam dunk for justice is needed’

CHICAGO

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Monday he’s deeply insulted by a Fox News host’s “attack” on Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James and thanked the basketball All-Star for standing up for what he believes in.

Political commentator Laura Ingraham criticized the three-time NBA champion for his recent comments about social issues, suggesting he should “shut up and dribble.” James has vowed he won’t do that, saying he’ll continue to “talk about what’s really important.”

Jackson said it’s important for James, Golden State Warriors teammates Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry and other NBA players to keep speaking out against injustice and the behavior of President Donald Trump.

“No one told David to just play his harp and not stand up for his people,” Jackson said by telephone from Chicago on Monday. “No one told Samson just lift weights and not challenge the Philistines. They told Jackie Robinson, ‘Just play baseball.’ He told them, ‘I’m a man with dignity first.’ They told Dr. King, ‘Go be confined to the pulpit.’ He said, ‘I must speak peace to a troubled world.’ In that tradition, King James, LeBron, his slam dunk for justice is needed. We thank him.”

Former president ‘deathly afraid’ as wife underwent surgery

PLAINS, Ga.

Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday he was “deathly afraid” as his 90-year-old wife underwent surgery over the weekend.

Rosalynn Carter was recovering at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after surgeons removed scar tissue from a portion of her small intestine early Sunday. Meanwhile, her husband of 71 years kept his scheduled appearance Monday at a Presidents Day event at the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in his hometown of Plains.

Jimmy Carter addressed concerns about his wife’s health and surgery in remarks to several hundred people attending the holiday event. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Carter said his wife had suffered problems for years that appear to have been caused by scar tissue from an operation she had long ago.

“Saturday night they operated and found the scar tissue from the old operation about 50 years ago had strangled almost 2 feet of her small intestine,” Carter told the crowd.

Associated Press